Author: rssmasher

An ad-tech company owned by 21st Century Fox has hired a former ABC executive as its new president. TrueX–a company that replaces traditional TV spots with interactive ads to boost engagement–has named Pooja Midha to lead the company. Midha comes from Disney ABC Television Network, where she spent five years as svp of digital ad…

AT&T is launching a new campaign built around a 60-second anthem ad promising “More for Your Thing,” whether that’s binge-watching Game of Thrones or sports, gaming or enjoying VR experiences on the subway. “Everyone has a thing. That binge-watch over the weekend thing, that back from the dead or robot cowboy thing,” begins the voiceover,…

Right about now, millions of Americans (mostly men, all procrastinators) are hastily scanning the web to order flowers or secure a restaurant table, having suddenly realized that Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Spending for the occasion is up this year, according to data from the National Retail Federation, to $19.6 billion–about as much profit as AT&T…

Fearless Girl is here to stay. Nearly a year after she first appeared in downtown Manhattan, right before International Women’s Day 2017, negotiations are under way between the Mayor’s Office and State Street Global Advisors, the financial firm behind the now-iconic statue, regarding the long-term future of both Fearless Girl and her nemesis statue, Charging…

Give Salon points for novelty. On Feb. 12, Salon added an unusual proposition to the message it greets ad-blocking site visitors with: Either whitelist us, or let us use your computer’s spare processing power to mine cryptocurrency instead.

Those who grant Salon consent then have Coinhive, a piece of software that uses JavaScript to commandeer users’ computer processors, launch on their computers or phones. The software then uses that computing power to solve complex math problems, the process required to produce more of a cryptocurrency called Monero.

Though Salon’s move will only apply to a small share of its total audience — around a quarter of its audience has ad blockers turned on — the publisher said it sees cryptocurrency mining as a serious source of revenue in the long term.

“This is not a farce,” Salon Media Group CEO Jordan Hoffner said. “We were intent on being the first media company to make this part of our monetization strategy.”

According to Hoffner, Salon’s development team had been kicking around the idea internally for months before it first became aware of Coinhive. Hoffner, a former Google executive, said he spent two years studying blockchain and cryptocurrency and thinking about how it fits into digital media, a question that many have been turning over in their minds.

Salon was a pioneer in digital publishing, but has shrunk to become a small company. In the last nine months of 2017, it reported just $3.9 million in revenue.

Immediate reaction to Salon’s move has been mixed. Some cryptocurrency watchers saw the idea as intriguing. “If this caught on, it would represent a major disruption to the mining industry,” said Preston Byrne, the founder of blockchain client Monax and a fellow at the Adam Smith Institute. “It would mean you could produce large mining farms simply by producing good content.”

Others saw it as less appealing. Salon will have to hope users don’t confuse its proposition with bad news Coinhive has faced recently, after bad actors worked its script into popular browser plugins, porn sites and digital advertisements, which did not require user consent.

Hey @Salon, this is a terrible idea. Forcing your readers to either run crypto mining code or disable ad blockers is actively harmful. pic.twitter.com/uOAeSzDa8i

— Kenn White (@kennwhite) February 13, 2018

The post Salon to ad-block users: Let us use your computers to mine cryptocurrency (really) appeared first on Digiday.

This Valentine’s Day, how will you show your love for McDonald’s Big Mac? Let’s see … you could eat a Big Mac, of course. Or maybe a Grand Big Mac. Or even a Big Mac Jr. Or you can save yourself all those empty calories by playing a pair of brand-boosting games developed by DDB….

What a difference a big product move and a few months can make. Snapchat late last year revamped its mobile app to include an algorithm that is designed to show users the most popular content from their friends. The move was seen by many marketplace observers as a way to shake off Instagram, which had…

Omnicom announced the appointment of Torrey La Grange to a newly created position of chief talent officer of its Global Clients Leaders (GCL) group, which is made up of executives who oversee the holding company’s top global accounts. La Grange, previously head of account management and global business director at BBH New York, will work…

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Paris-based app retargeting platform Adikteev – think Criteo for apps – snagged $12 million in Series B on Tuesday. The company plans to spend it on research and development and on expanding its 100-person headcount with around 40 new engineer hires over the next month. The round, which brings Adikteev’s total funding to $14.2 million since it… Continue reading »

The post App Retargeter Adikteev Brings Home $12 Million In Series B appeared first on AdExchanger.

Have you ever wanted to chat with someone on Facebook Messenger, but you weren’t already Facebook friends? Our guide will show you how to add a new contact in the Messenger application. Note: These screenshots were captured in the Messenger app on iOS. Step 1: Tap “People” at the bottom of the screen. Step 2:…