Monthly Archives: October 2014

Some are already hailing private marketplaces as the “future of programmatic,” while others are lamenting their growing pains. There are “big changes” coming in the world of ad fraud. This viewability stuff needs to get sorted out, because there are some killer metrics waiting.

Here are a few highlights from some of the industry news we came across this week.

• The Private Future Of Programmatic (MediaPost) – Programmatic advertising is continuing to scoop big-time dollars across an ever-growing landscape, and those dollars are expected to nearly double in the next five years. Private exchanges are being called the future of programmatic strategy. This is because that type of buying more directly resembles the the direct buys of old. You know, the ones advertisers are used to and more comfortable with. But, that being said …

• Behind The Velvet Rope: Private Marketplaces Suffer Growing Pains (AdExchanger) – Private marketplaces have yet to live up to their potential as a programmatic access-point to premium inventory, and are being held back by under-developed technology. However, growth (and maturation) is expected as interest is there on both the buy and sell sides. Even so, there are still quite a few hurdles that private marketplaces must clear before they're the go-to solution for anyone.

• It's About to Get Harder to Claim Ignorance on Ad Fraud (AdAge) – IAB's EVP Mike Zaneis admits that it's likely that publishers are neither “knowingly” buying or selling fraudulent traffic, but that the shoulder-shrugging will no longer be tolerated and the “everyone else is doing it” excuse just isn't going to cut it anymore. “Big changes are coming,” he says.

• Navigating brand safety and ad fraud threats in the programmatic landscape (iMedia Connection) – AnyClip Media CTO Alex Liverant writes about how transparency should be the target of the ad tech industry. Viewable impressions and limiting ad fraud need to be the key pieces of the industry's foundation: “Viewable ads, targeted to engaged consumers, should be the basis of this industry and its future.”

• It's Time To Move Beyond Viewability: Better Metrics Await (AdExchanger) – Much of the discussion surrounding the “viewability” topic centers around setting the standard — how many pixels for how many seconds? — but this article takes a look at what new metrics can be used to to measure the old-school goals of reach and relevance. “The real work is to tie new metrics back to these,” says Grapeshot SVP of Product Marketing Chris Stark (no relation to Tony … probably).

Major talking points this week involved the continued uncertainty around the transition to a viewability standard, the absolute certainty around the growth in spending expected across the programmatic landscape, and what publishers are going to have to be ready for to be successful going forward.

• 5 Things IAB's Randall Rothenberg Wants You to Know About Digital Advertising (AdWeek) – Expect to see clearer and easier-to-understand standards around viewability soon, says the IAB. Also, where should ad tech fall in the realm of overall advertising?

• Outside Voices: Online Ad Viewability Not Ready For Prime-Time (Wall Street Journal) – Meanwhile, Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah wants to make sure that the steps to move to viewability aren't taken in haste. Click through to see what Shah sees as standing in the way of the transition to what he calls a “goal which we need to remember is without precedent in the entire media landscape.”

• Programmatic Transactions to Account for $21 Billion in Global Spending This Year (AdAge) – A new forecast from Magna Global shows growth of more than 50 percent in worldwide programmatic spending, seeing the expected total swell to about $21 billion. That growth is expected to continue going forward, with the $50-billion mark being exceeded in as little as four years.

• Programmatic: A Rising Tide (AdExchanger) – Find out what Rare Crowds' CEO Eric Picard sees as the future of programmatic, and what publishers will need to be prepared for going forward.

• How Tribune Publishing is evolving its programmatic approach (Digiday) – New CEO Jack Griffin is pushing to increase the publishing company's dependence on digital revenue, and programmatic selling is a major part of that concept. Programmatic is leading to sales changes and even new business relationships for the publicly-traded newspaper company.