Should we be surprised that some of the most valuable inventory in digital advertising is taken up by what many consumers consider the most annoying advertising? Smacking users with pre-roll after pre-roll (many times the same ad) when they watch shorter videos on a site is not only bad for…
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As header bidding has caught on, publishers just can’t get enough of that demand and revenue from header partners. But so far, a lot of pubs have hit a certain ceiling in header regardless. It takes time and effort to integrate header partners in-house. Integrating a wrapper solution can help…
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A few years back at a conference, I sat with clenched fists and jaw as the CRO of one of the rising clickbait sites administered a lecture on how to drive traffic through smart headlines in the “new media world.” The talk was filled with advice such as using phrases…
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Native advertising is such an ingrained part of media, you could call it the business’s “one weird old trick!” And while digital media inherited native from print, native seems particularly well for this particular moment in digital. Plenty of publishers are ready to ditch display in lieu of an all-…
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“Who are these ad blocking folks anyway?” asks the latest survey from the IAB.Come on, we all know the answer to that: they’re a bunch of millennial brats that think they’re entitled to all the content in the world without being a little bit annoyed by brand messaging. They don’t…
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As header bidding becomes increasingly commonplace, the initial thrill of ramped-up revenue has started to drop off a bit. That’s not to imply anyone who’s really seeing positive results via header is going to take those results for granted—in fact, almost as soon as header bidding itself became commonplace, so…
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While it once seemed the domain of the demand side, publishers are increasingly feeling more empowered when it comes to programmatic channels – in their wallets as well as their minds. Recent evolutions in programmatic have improved publisher relationships with demand partners and succeeded in bumping up CPMs and overall…
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In a recent column about the creative slump, I commented: “At Cannes, the talk of the town was virtual reality; yet remember when augmented reality via smartphones was supposed to be the next big thing? It was a neat gimmick, but not one that scales (or keeps consumer interest). How…
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Here’s an experiment I’m dying to try out: At the next industry event (AdMonsters or other), I want to see how quickly the conversation about header bidding turns into potshots aimed at Google. Based on what I’ve seen lately, my guess is that it’s almost as fast as the response…
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The other week when someone asked me by email if I was going to Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, I wrote back, “Do I look like I’m the type to go to Cannes? If I wanted to go to an overcrowded waterfront with a bunch of bloated Europeans, I’d…
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