AT&T snaps up AppNexus in billion-dollar ad tech bid

US telecoms firm AT&T has bought ad tech giant AppNexus in a deal expected to be worth in excess of $1bn (£753m).

While the value of the transaction hasn’t been disclosed by the two companies, Wall Street Journal expected a possible deal could reach $1.6bn (£1.2bn). The announcement follows just a week after AT&T’s $85bn (£64bn) acquisition of Time Warner.

As reported by Marketing Tech last week, AT&T has been eyeing AppNexus’...

25 June 2018 | Advertising Technology

AT&T eyes programmatic giant AppNexus for $1.6bn

US telco AT&T is reportedly in talks to snap up ad tech firm AppNexus for a possible $1.6bn (£1.2bn), according to Wall Street Journal, in a move that would equip it with firepower enough to take on the likes of Facebook and Google in the advertising space.

The news emerges just a week after AT&T’s $85bn (£64bn) acquisition of Time Warner, while a bid for the New York programmatic specialist would likely be backed by the complete buyout of Otter Media, a...

21 June 2018 | Advertising Technology

Oath brings virtual reality ads to the programmatic marketplace

Verizon’s media powerhouse Oath, the umbrella for companies including AOL and Yahoo!, has brought VR (virtual reality) to programmatic ad buying.

While not quite transporting audiences to virtual new worlds, and perhaps better described as ‘extended reality’ (XR), Oath’s new ad experiences allow brands to layer on rich and immersive content to product ads, adding an extra layer of detail and dimension. 

Companies already experimenting with the...

20 June 2018 | Advertising Technology

IBM and MediaOcean’s blockchain pilot to combat ‘ad-tech tax’ for major brands

IBM’s digital agency network IBM iX has coupled up with ad-world software provider MediaOcean to pilot a blockchain network, in efforts to clear up the murky media supply chain and hack away at “ad tech tax”.

The network, which is set to trial with media deals for top-flite brands including Unilever, Kimberly-Clark Corp, Pfizer, Kellogg and IBM Watson, is aimed at improving transparency, combating fraud and getting deals done quicker.

Ultimately, though, and...

20 June 2018 | Advertising Technology

Buzzfeed sheds further 20 staff in continued move towards programmatic

Buzzfeed is reportedly laying off a further 20 of its staff in part of a reorganisation of its business, as it looks to recover from a loss-making 2017.

The announcement follows the publisher severing 100 employees last year - or 6% of its workforce - when it reported a £3.3m loss, owed in large part to its move away from native advertising.

The company will in turn be hiring a further 45 employees to its business team equipped with the necessary skills and “diverse...

8 June 2018 | Advertising Technology

Breaking the mould: Viewability and creativity in the digital economy

If you visited HotWired.com on October 27 1994, your eye would have probably been caught by an unusual flashing banner emblazoned across the top of your screen. Standing at 60 pixels tall and 468 pixels wide, the internet’s first advertisement was garish, tacky and the nemesis of exasperated dial-up connections worldwide - but it was a massive success.

The advert itself was a part of AT&T’s You Will campaign, which was accompanied by a TV ad in which a narrator...

5 June 2018 | Advertising Technology

Brand safety doesn’t mean restricting your reach – it increases the return on your spend

'Brand safety' is one of those unrelenting industry phrases that seems to be spouted ad nauseam, with brands and agencies alike contributing their two cents in every possible publication. The irony of that statement is not lost on me doing it again!

We all claim to care about brand safety, but many brands have yet to address their own accountability. We jump blindly into programmatic black holes and user generated content minefields, running across lengthy site lists with...

3 May 2018 | Advertising

Are humans the flaw in the AI machine?

With many predicting that 2018 will be a watershed year for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), we might expect that marketers will find their jobs becoming easier over the next 12 months. However, our plans to let technology take the strain could be at risk if we lose faith in these new techniques without first giving them enough time or attention.

There are plenty of people in advertising who question the impact that AI will have on the industry as a whole and...

17 April 2018 | Advertising

Are programmatic budgets being held back by poor measurement?

The majority of advertisers think that being able to more effectively measure the success of campaigns would allow them to justify additional investment in programmatic.

Infectious Media surveyed 214 decision-making marketers who are engaged in programmatic and have budgets of over $100,000. The respondents had programmatic remits in EMEA, APAC or North America, and 90% agreed that better measurement would make justifying increased investment easier.

66% reported that...

27 March 2018 | Programmatic

Why bringing programmatic in-house isn’t a quick fix solution

Programmatic has caused a seismic shift in the digital advertising industry and it is predicted up to 90% of digital display advertising will be traded programmatically in the UK by 2019.

This is no surprise given the benefits programmatic advertising can bring in scale and efficiency, yet the technology also comes with potential complications; issues with transparency, brand safety, viewability and fraud have been discussed at length across the industry.

These concerns...

27 March 2018 | Programmatic