Month: August 2018

Television isn’t dying, but it is changing. Commercials today are not standalone ads: They’re integrated parts of multichannel strategies. Intuit, for example, masterfully used video in a recent campaign on multiple platforms to increase its brand awareness. The centerpiece–an animated story about a robot–aired during the Super Bowl, on social media platforms and on the…

Conde Nast announced it would explore the sale of three of its titles: Brides, Golf Digest and, and perhaps most surprising, W. The new strategy comes after the company recorded $120 million in
losses in 2017, following a significant drop in revenue from its print publications and advertising.

Blockchain advertising technology has been surfing a hype cycle that’s brought blockchain and cryptocurrencies to mainstream attention. But are blockchain companies ready for the spotlight? And what work needs to be done before marketers or publishers can begin buying and selling media on blockchain-based platforms? “It reminds me of early days of programmatic when different… Continue reading »

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“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by David Smith, senior director of business development and partnerships at Neustar. Shortly before the General Data Protection Regulation went into effect in May, Google announced plans to sunset a service… Continue reading »

The post With The Right Standards In Place, Data Clean Rooms Could Be The Best New Thing For Marketers appeared first on AdExchanger.

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community.  Today’s column is written by Joshua Koran, managing director, DMP, at Sizmek. With the passage of California’s new Consumer Privacy Act, there is increasing attention to how data is collected, processed and sold online. Unfortunately, as with the General… Continue reading »

The post Will Large Corporations Use New Privacy Laws To Undermine Free Speech? appeared first on AdExchanger.

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem… AdExchanger: Origins AdExchanger: Crisis In Ad City (Part I) AdExchanger: Crisis In Ad City (Part II) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part I) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part II) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part III) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (The Conclusion) AdExchanger: Angels And Startups AdExchanger: Rumble In Arbitrage Plaza… Continue reading »

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Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Hey, Big Spender Amazon may be raking in billions from its ad business, but it’s also spending a ton on programmatic advertising. The ecommerce giant was the biggest programmatic spender during the first quarter of this year, according to a report from MediaRadar. Amazon… Continue reading »

The post Amazon Is Top Programmatic Spender; Google’s Got Influencer Game appeared first on AdExchanger.

PBS Digital Studios in January launched its first original series, “Two Cents,” exclusively on Facebook Watch. By July 30, the show has averaged more than 341,000 views per episode across 23 episodes. But as PBS Digital Studios is not part of Facebook’s video monetization program, the show hasn’t made any money. So like many other media companies, the TV network’s digital arm is turning to YouTube.

For the second season of the personal finance program for teens and twentysomethings, PBS plans to simultaneously release new episodes on YouTube. In addition to putting the show on YouTube, PBS Digital Studios is planning a new music education show this fall that will start out as a YouTube channel.

The post PBS Digital Studios turns to YouTube while waiting for Facebook revenue appeared first on Digiday.

Ten years ago, Kevin Jonas toured the world with two of his brothers, singing and playing guitar. These days, Jonas, 30, is married and the father of two. He’s also available on your smartphone at 4 p.m. every weekday for trivia.

Jonas is the host of a new mobile trivia game called Pop Culture Live, where viewers can win cash prizes. The game, available on iOS for now, launched on July 9 and is one of the latest trivia apps inspired by the rise of HQ trivia. Jonas serves as the talent and helps select the questions along with a team of 12 at Brooklyn-based startup Treehouse Interactive.

“Our real goal is to make this a similar feel to what’s trending right now in pop culture and bring you something entertaining and fun. The truth is, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’re just here having fun,” Jonas said.

Jonas has a history with leading content initiatives around social media. In 2013, he and Steven Forkosh launched The BLU Market, an influencer marketing company. In 2014, Jonas created a food search app called Yood. In 2015, he hosted a segment for AOL’s online morning show “Rise” called “This Week In Snapchat.”

Lately, he’s been focused on mobile games and multiplayer experiences — with good reason. Fortnite from Epic Games recently announced it’s expecting to make more than $1 billion from in-app purchases. The games market is predicted to make about $138 billion in 2018, according to market research firm Newzoo.

“We realized [multiplayer games] was cool, but there was something missing out of it: the immediate action. It’s the Wild West in this app gameplay,” Jonas said.

HQ trivia, The Q, Gravy, FleetWit and QuizBiz are all trying to get smartphone owners to spend about 15 minutes playing trivia. Of course, each has its own twist. Pop Culture Live, unsurprisingly, focuses on pop culture. Typically, players who answer all 12 questions correctly split a prize of $100, but they’re encouraged to keep playing to earn “gems,” which can be traded in for extra lives or used to eliminate answers. The game is played horizontally, which makes it different from HQ’s vertical format.

While HQ trivia has grown its revenue through sponsored games, Pop Culture Live is supported with programmatic ads. Ads are visible throughout the entire game on the lower left side of a smartphone screen when it’s held horizontally.

Jeff Maxon, CEO of Treehouse Interactive, said the plan is to introduce more advertising. The game’s first advertiser — beyond the programmatic experience — is Fox Sports, which will run video ads during the game. The pitch emphasizes brand safety given the controlled environment of the game and the host.

“We’re introducing a safe brand, a family-friendly opportunity with Kevin at the microphone leading the way. He’s a very comfortable figure with the 18-to-34, even 45-year-old demographic. [He’s] a known person, somebody who they grew up with,” Maxon said.

Are you ready for your next obsession? pic.twitter.com/y9Zqe2KD2T

— Pop Culture Live (@popculturelive) June 12, 2018

Introducing advertising from the start was also a way to set user expectations. Jonas said he’s focused on getting players to keep coming back, which is why prizes are modest for now. On Aug. 1, about 660 people played with five winners taking home $20 each. Kyle Hudson, chief operating officer of Treehouse Interactive, said the app has more than 3,000 players and more than 25 percent of the installed user base is active in any given game. The app will host its first $1,000 game on August 6.

“The larger the show gets, the bigger the payouts, because the revenue is there to do it. It’s kind of codependent. We’re also taking our time. We don’t want to burn down the gates right away and say, ‘Oh we just gave someone a million dollars. How are we going to pay that?’” Jonas said.

Had a special guest help me out with a question on @popculturelive today! pic.twitter.com/Ayob5Ej8XZ

— kevin jonas (@kevinjonas) July 25, 2018

Games are only about 15 minutes, but the time that goes into each one is significant. Jonas said he runs through the list of questions in the morning and helps work on the script for about two hours. Then, he’ll work on promotion, whether it’s video teasers for Twitter or other posts on social media, for two hours before the game starts. After each episode, they review what worked.

“It’s not like, O.K., one and done. We know when people are responding to a question, [saying] ‘This is ridiculous,’ or people are talking about it, we’re doing our job,” Jonas said.

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