by Hood Whitson -

AT&T Buying AppNexus?

According to Cheddar, AT&T is rumored to be buying AppNexus.

Given the recent merger between AT&T and Time Warner they have a tremendous amount of supply that they need to monetize. The thought is that with the increasing digitization of TV through OTT and Internet delivery, with a digital ad partner, they can re-invent the TV ad sales marketplace. With Google and Facebook dominating the digital ad sales market, they need their own turf. Why build when you can buy?

Take a look at some of the most relevant coverage:

by Hood Whitson -

Amazon has a Big Advertising Business

CNBC reported earlier this spring that Amazon’s ad tech business is now generating more than $2B every quarter. This is a huge business. Uber, as an example, is reported to have done $2.6B in revenue 1Q 2018. AND Amazon is reporting a 139% growth rate.

This is big for the industry. They could quickly become a top player, maybe even giving Facebook and Google a run for their money.

But this isn’t the most interesting thing, as Claude Denton at AdExchanger pointed out in his recent article, Your Ad Tech Tax Is Amazon’s Opportunity. Basically, Amazon is competing mostly in Header Bidding, and serving a huge amount of their own ads. The differentiation is that they have built their own platforms. They are getting direct access to the supply and aren’t paying the 15% exchange fee, or the 15% DSP fee. They have cut out the middleman. Or As Claude put it,

“Imagine being able to bid 30% higher than competitors but still keep your margins.”

Amazon is still very choosy with their partners. They only work with big top tier publishers. But if they open their floodgates, this is could be revolutionary for the industry.

by Hood Whitson -

43% of EU Audience Data After GDPR is Unsuable

Senior media buyers for hundreds of the world’s biggest brands are predicting 43 per cent of EU consumer audience data will be unusable after the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 25th May 2018.

Ad Tech Daily has reported that a full 43% of EU customer data is unusable.  We have this seen this source, as well as others, report a likely drop in programmatic spend in the EU. We wonder how this will effect the US market. Some of our key questions are:

  • Should we see a bump in programmatic spend in the US?
  • Will brands reallocate those dollars?
  • Will the US follow suit with similar privacy laws?
  • Is this temporary until media buyers get more saavy with the spirit of the law?
  • How will year end spend be affected?

Only time will tell, but it certainly will be interesting.