IAS Makes Third Acquisition in 12 Months: A French Context Ad Company!
Context, a French contextual advertising business, has been acquired by Integral Ad Science (IAS). Following the acquisitions of programmatic payments auditing business Amino Payments in January 2021 and CTV ad server Publica during the summer, this is IAS’s third acquisition in the last 12 months.
Context is a Paris-based digital content classification organization. Context’s artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technology classifies images and videos across a variety of digital channels, including social media platforms and Connected Television (CTV).
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IAS and Context: A Golden Integration
IAS’s existing, market-leading media classification and contextual targeting abilities will be enhanced by the acquisition. IAS’ marketing partners will be able to discover brand-appropriate content beyond typical frameworks and contextually target with precision thanks to the integration of Context’s technology.
In addition, the transaction strengthens IAS’s dedication to innovation by adding engineering, data science, and data analyst teams in France and Poland.
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Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of IAS said-
“Marketers require sophisticated contextual targeting and avoidance solutions that offer precision and flexibility, especially as the industry moves to a cookie-less world. The acquisition of Context builds on our existing capabilities and accelerates our product roadmap, particularly in video classification for social media and CTV applications. It also furthers our vision of offering tailored solutions to our customers.”
IAS’s Context Control suite of suitability and contextual targeting technologies will use Context’s technologies. Jack Habra, CEO of Context, said –
“We are delighted to join with IAS to advance their market leading contextual targeting and classification capabilities. Our technology is designed to deliver critical insights to help marketers optimize their campaigns, and we look forward to realizing Context’s full potential as part of IAS.”
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Best Buy Expands Advertising Business
Owing to the growing demand and eventual spending on technology and consumer electronics, Best Buy’s revenue has seen a substantial soar in the last year. Best Buy Ads is a new iteration of the company’s in-house media business that provides additional services and a greater reach for businesses wishing to interact with customers.
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, said –
“Best Buy’s relevance, customer relationship, and first-party data have grown along with customers’ technology needs and our ability to meet those needs. These are all great examples of value we can provide to our vendor partners that many other retailers cannot.”
During the pandemic, the rise in eCommerce equipped Best Buy with a wealth of data on buyer preferences and behavior.
Best Buy can run advertising on other publisher sites in addition to its own media holdings, such as its app, website, or a row of television screens in a physical store. Brands who want to work with the store for advertising purposes don’t have to sell their products or services via them.
Best Buy’s chief marketing officer, Frank Crowson, noted that the business’s expertise of shoppers who are drawn to technology helps the company generate audiences of consumers who are interested in things like movies, gaming, and cooking.
NBC Universal and RTL Join Forces for an International Inventory Agreement
NBCUniversal (NBCU) and RTL Group, two media and entertainment businesses, have formed an international agreement to provide access to their TV and digital ad inventory.
The partnership will run via RTL AdConnect, RTL Group’s international sales agency, which aims to reach over 165 million potential customers across Europe each day by providing advertisers with access to video inventory. Over 150 TV networks, including ITV, RTL, Videoland, and 6Play, as well as 300 digital platforms and 40 radio stations, are included in the arrangement, which spans 12 nations.
The agreement will strive to provide advertisers and agencies in the United States, Europe, and Asia with access to RTL’s Total Video European portfolio, while NBCU will represent RTL’s Total Video European portfolio to its Chinese and U.S. clients. RTL AdConnect’s European media partners include France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
KC Sullivan, President and Managing Director of NBCUniversal, said –
“We want NBCUniversal to be the number one choice for marketers globally. RTL strengthens our advertising offering in Continental Europe as we strive to deepen our presence across the region.”
NBCU Media’s EVP, Max Raven, and VP of international partnerships, Mark Rogers, will oversee the relationship, reporting to KC Sullivan, president of global advertising and partnerships. As marketers strive for worldwide expansion, it will also try to improve NBCU’s One Platform while expanding its advertising brand’s presence in important areas outside of the United States.
The effort will also strive to strengthen RTL AdConnect’s European offering while also expanding its inventory outside of Europe to assist advertisers looking to expand their brands in the United States and China.
Sky Media To Launch Addressable ‘Smart Sponsorships’
Sky Media is bringing a new epoch of ‘smart sponsorships’ by introducing the addressable TV technology that underpins its AdSmart solution, which only plays ads when specific audiences are viewing, to sponsored content.
The satellite broadcaster claims its addressable powered broadcast sponsorships would allow businesses to build targeted and relevant idents for specific audiences using either their own customer data or Sky’s third-party information.
The technology will allow companies to select precise target locales down to the postcode level to interact with consumers in a more substantial manner, opening up the possibility of fine-tuned geographical campaigns.
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Sky, for example, highlights the potential for a car company to promote certain models based on the household’s status or demographics, as well as the ability to change the landscape and even the accent used in voiceovers based on geography.
Dev Sangani, advertising capability and strategy director at Sky Media, said:
“AdSmart pioneered the use of TV addressability and that same technology will help do the same for sponsorships. With rich data, exciting creative possibilities, and trusted and engaging content, this latest innovation in our exciting roadmap will help brands create even more effective partnerships with our shows and channels.”
Sky Media expects that the technology will do for sponsorships what AdSmart has done for advertising, with businesses reporting a 48 percent decrease in tune-out, a 35 percent boost in engagement, and a 10% rise in spontaneous recall after using addressable technology.
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Nazara Acquires 55% Shares in Global Adtech Firm, Datawrkz!
Nazara Technologies, a leading gaming company in India, has agreed to acquire a 55 percent share in Datawrkz, a programmatic advertising and monetization firm, for up to Rs 124 crore, putting the valuation of the company at Rs 225 crore (about $30 million) based on its CY22 EBITDA performance.
Nazara Technologies is a well-known mobile game developer and sports media platform, with offers spanning interactive gaming, eSports, and gamified early learning environments in growing and developed global markets such as Africa and North America.
Datawrkz is a worldwide advertising technology startup focusing on driving user and revenue development for customers through highly optimized digital advertising, launched in 2013 by Senthil Govindan, an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus.
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Nazara and Datawrkz: What does this acquisition mean?
Nazara Technologies’ in-house capabilities for optimizing client acquisition expenses as well as increasing ad monetization yields will be enhanced by Datawrkz’s tech solutions. Many of the firms in the ‘Friends of Nazara’ network are anticipated to benefit from this ad-revenue monetization.
Furthermore, there is a growing organic link between gaming firms and ad tech companies throughout the world, since the two may add value to one other’s businesses.
Datawrkz hopes to position itself as a major participant in the gaming industry with this deal, which will cover both demand and supply-side solutions for the gaming ecosystem in the United States and India.
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Nielsen Launches TV Streaming Measurements in Alpha
Nielsen has begun alpha testing of its TV measuring system, which includes both streaming and linear tv. Nielsen ONE will track the reach, scale, and frequency of ad campaigns throughout platforms using deduplicated audiences. It claims to be the first firm to do this.
Nielsen’s ID resolution technology, which was deployed last year, serves as the backbone for deduplication in Nielsen ONE Alpha. The solution’s complete implementation, named Nielsen ONE, was revealed last year and is set to begin in December of this year.
Nielsen ONE Alpha is serving as version one of Nielsen ONE, rather than testing out new features and capabilities one by one.
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Karthik Rao, chief operating officer at Nielsen said-
“This is not a test. This is not a pilot. This is the real thing. And we’re going to unveil what this will look like with clients that are part of the program.”
The first version of Nielsen ONE will be available to ten collaborating partners, including Disney and ad agency MAGNA, who cover the buy-and-sell spectrum of industry participants.
Rao added-
“This is just the first version. We will continue to build major enhancements and feature upgrades for the sell side, the agency side and the demand side”.
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Nielsen is launching the complete version with a few select partners in order to collect meaningful feedback from consumers early in the process. Over the following year, feedback and participation will shape subsequent editions of the program in 2022, leading up to Nielsen ONE’s ultimate industry-wide release in Q4 of next year.
In the next months, future versions of Nielsen ONE will focus on more precise content value and outcome measures, such as ROI. Nielsen plans to use audience identification technology to improve its linear TV ratings as well.
Nielsen is optimistic that it will fulfil its ultimate product delivery date of December 2022.
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AT&T Agrees to Microsoft Acquisition of Ad Marketplace Xandr
Microsoft has agreed to acquire AT&T’s worldwide programmatic advertising platform, Xandr. The arrangement expands on a decade of collaboration between Xandr and Microsoft, including its predecessor firms, to provide global digital media solutions for marketers.
Microsoft and Xandr can redefine the digital ad industry as the internet deals cookie apocalyptic world. Mikhail Parakhin, President of Web Experiences at Microsoft said-
“With Xandr’s talent and technology, Microsoft can accelerate the delivery of its digital advertising and retail media solutions, shaping tomorrow’s digital ad marketplace into one that respects consumer privacy preferences, understands publishers’ relationships with consumers and helps advertisers meet their goals”.
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Microsoft and Xandr: A Golden Acquisition?
This acquisition brings an end to AppNexus, the once-dominant programmatic company, which was renamed Xandr but never found a place within AT&T.
By merging Microsoft’s audience intelligence, technology, and global advertising client base with Xandr’s scalable, data-driven platform, Xandr’s technology will assist expedite the delivery of digital advertising and retail media solutions for the open web.
Microsoft also has a lot of ad tech and media features where AppNexus may help. Examples include the Bing Search engine, Edge Browser, and the Windows Apps store; and according to inside sources, these are already a part of the AppNexus account.
Xandr’s EVP and GM Mike Welch commented-
“Microsoft’s shared vision of empowering a free and open web and championing an open industry alternative via a global advertising marketplace makes it a great fit for Xandr.”
Welch also added that the company is looking forward to employing its unique technology to assist Microsoft to advance its “digital advertising and retail media capabilities.”
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Comscore Acquires Social Media Provider Shareablee, Calls it a Natural Fit!
Comscore, the TV, and digital measurement firm announced recently its acquisition of Shareablee, an intelligence platform targeting a social media-oriented audience. The deal has been closed for $45 million.
Comscore CEO Bill Livek said-
“The reason we did the deal is that the customers in our digital business told us they want Comscore to do a lot more in social and that they view Shareablee as the Comscore of social.”
Livek also shed light on the fact that two of Comscore’s former employees are Shareablee’s top leaders, namely Tania Yuki (CEO) and Gregory Dale (Chief Operating Officer). This is perhaps why Livek calls this arrangement a “natural fit.”
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Comscore’s senior leadership team will include Yuki, Dale, and CTO Jonathan Lieberman. According to Livek, the objective is to draw into their knowledge and leverage Shareablee data to strengthen Comscore’s digital media measuring tools. Furthermore, following the merger, Comscore intends to keep Shareablee’s entire workforce.
According to Livek, one of the main reasons for the Shareablee acquisition is to enable Comscore to provide its digital customers with a more comprehensive view of their campaigns’ overall reach through a single measurement platform.
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According to him, the transaction cements Comscore’s position as a provider of cross-platform audience measurements, which is critical in the company’s continued attempts to compete with Nielsen. It’s a good moment to take market share right now. Today’s media ecosystem, where advertising is viewed in real-time and measurement is based on user-level impressions, challenges Nielsen’s conventional panel-driven methodology.
Livek commented –
“What customers want is a one-stop shop, [and] they want great measurement across all platforms. This is another brick in the never-ending building of us showing our customers that we’re committed to their content.”
For now, Shareablee will continue to function as a distinct company for the time being. In the new year, Comscore will outline its plans to integrate the firm.
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OpenX Fined $2M for Violating Children’s Data Privacy Law!
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) announced a $2 million settlement with OpenX, a programmatic advertising platform, for allegedly gathering personal information from children under the age of 13 without parental consent.
The Department of Justice accused the California-based corporation of acquiring geolocation data from consumers who expressly asked not to be followed through the opt-out option, according to the complaint filed on behalf of the FTC.
According to the lawsuit, OpenX, which runs a real-time bidding platform for providing ad space on websites and mobile applications, violated the FTC’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA).
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Before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under the age of 13, websites, apps, and other online services that are child-directed or intentionally gather personal information from children must warn parents and obtain their consent.
Hundreds of child-directed applications were inspected by the FTC, and it was discovered that these apps engaged in the OpenX ad exchange, which gathered personal information from children under the age of 13, in violation of the COPPA Rule. The FTC claims that OpenX collected personal data and then passed it on to third parties who used it to serve advertising to these app users.
While OpenX said via a blog post that “to put it plainly, it was a mistake”, FTC commented on the issue –
“OpenX has received millions, if not billions, of ad requests directly or indirectly from child-directed Apps, and transmitted millions, if not billions, of bid requests containing personal information of children to OpenX’s demand-side partners. These requests included location information and persistent identifiers used for online behavioral advertising.”
This agreement demonstrates how US regulators are actively scanning and monitoring digital ad marketplaces, data collecting, and privacy issues on the internet.
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IAB Tech Lab Announces Delay In Assuming Administrator Role for Unified ID 2.0
Despite expressing interest in acting as an administrator for Unified ID 2.0 earlier this year, the IAB Tech Lab has yet to commit to the open-source project to replace third-party cookies with email-based IDs.
A vote on the subject was delayed for additional consideration at a Tech Lab board meeting recently.
What are the bottlenecks here?
Well, to begin with, one difficulty is that the Tech Lab does not feel comfortable taking on the position of admin as stated in The Trade Desk’s technical standards for Unified ID 2.0.
The administrator’s major responsibility is to regulate access to the UID2 network of stakeholders and to maintain a consolidated database. This entails giving UID2 operators encryption keys, issuing compliant members decryption keys, authorizing UID2 opt-out requests to operators and DSPs, and assessing participants for compliance.
Bad actors who abuse the ID must also be turned off by the administrator.
The IAB Tech Lab board is concerned about the last section, which involves yanking the plug if a partner violates UID2’s code of conduct. A spokesperson informed –
“Tech Lab assuming the administrator role for Unified ID 2.0 is being actively explored, but no decision has been made. We will provide an update when we have something to share with the industry.”
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