Deadspin Didn’t Bring Home the Bacon on Te’o Story
As your Facebook and Twitter feeds might have indicated, one of the biggest news stories this week – providing Lance Armstrong some welcome shade from the media glare – was the deception of/by Manti Te’o and his fake girlfriend.
As AdAge reports, although the investigation posted on Deadspin almost instantly became an online sensation when it broke the news that Lennay Kekua was basically the world’s biggest catfish scheme, Deadspin’s parent company, Gawker Media, didn’t exactly cash in on all the traffic.
Because Gawker Media doesn’t currently work with third-party resellers (they don’t run networks or remnant inventory), it was unable to fill the mass of new ad space generated by the 3.5 million views the story had generated just by Thursday night.
According to the AdAge article, the Gawker Media team is thinking about creating a private ad marketplace to effectively monetize such traffic spikes in the future. If they need a primer, they should check out “Programmatic Preparedness,” a presentation by Michael Smith, President, Chief Digital Office, at Forbes – exclusively at our Publisher Forum in Sonoma.
More Mobile Ad Money
A report released by Gartner projects only more dollar signs for mobile until the year 2016. According to an article on MediaPost, Gartner predicts that mobile ad revenue will grow from $9.8 to $11 billion this year alone and will top $24 billion by 2016.
In the report, Gartner predicts that mobile display will overtake mobile search and notes that the quick rise in mobile use by consumers has outpaced ad demand, resulting in extraneous inventory and lower ad prices.
However, the overall drive in mobile revenue has led to marketers increasing their mobile budgets. According to ClickZ, a new study released by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and MediaVest shows that 85% of marketers plan to increase their mobile budgets in the near future.
Additionally, an astonishing 95% of marketers surveyed already use or plan to use mobile in their future marketing plans.
Ad Tech News Blurbs:
In a new round of funding, Cambridge-based mobile ad startup Celtra raised $4 million, led by SoftBank Capital. The company has seen 300% revenue growth year after year, and it reached profitability in the third quarter of last year. Big congrats!
Across the country, LA-based OpenX raised $22.5 million in Series E funding, led by Samsung Venture Investment Funding. In addition to broadening adoption of its platform, OpenX intends to use the funds to drive the company’s growth, make further acquisitions, and expand internationally.
In the Bay Area, Yume, a provider of digital brand ad software and services, announced that it’s acquired Crowd Science, an audience targeting tech company. This acquisition, which brings in CITRUS, Crowd Science’s audience measurement and targeting platform, will allow Yume to further develop its Audience Amplifier technology, which enhances audience reach and targeting across platforms.
Back in NYC, Legolas Media, the leading provider of programmatic guaranteed inventory, has announced that ad tech entrepreneur Jason Shaevitz will be taking the helm as CEO. Shaevitz is taking over after leading the startup Maxifier, where he worked to drive revenue, developed a team of industry experts, and formed major partnerships.