Issue 19: Can You Be A Little More Punk Rock?  June 29th 2016

AppNexus, The Trade Desk Getting Ready To File For IPOs?

It's come to this: The hopes of an industry are pinned on two SEC filings ... "When I bring a potential deal to a partner meeting and it's related to ad tech, you can feel the strong negative sentiment. If there were two successful IPOs, it would be really helpful for the finance activity in the overall ad tech sector."

It's going to be interesting to see how these IPOs play out (if this is actually the case). The industry has taken a beating over ad fraud, data tracking, and other less than stellar practices. AppNexus has done a fantastic job of cleaning up fraud on its network. It'll be interesting to see if they release further information on how the cleanup has effected their business leading up to an IPO.

French Ad-Tech Pioneer Criteo Bucks Industry’s Gloomy Trend

Criteo, which specializes in re-targeting—showing ads around the web to a user who has visited an online retailer’s website—tries to hammer home that not all ad-tech companies are in the same boat.

Facebook plays favorites with publishers

Some publishers grumble that while The New York Times gets consulted by Facebook, they can’t get a call returned. This raises suspicion that the big ones get favored by the network’s algorithm.

It's a fine line to walk, but not all content is created equally. Facebook's been taking heat lately over some of its decisions (more on that below), but this one's going to take some time to perfect. Google went the "open and fair" route with all web publishers early on and it resulted in a sea of third-rate content littering search results. There's no way teams at Facebook let that happen again on their platform.

In Flip-Flop, Facebook Denies Suggesting Friends Based On Location

Facebook reportedly examined location data to determine which of its users were physically near each other -- no matter the circumstances -- and then suggested they become friends.

Why Your Content Marketing Plan Should Be More CBGB And Less Carnegie Hall.

Get out there and provide smart, contrarian viewpoints. Try to build the CBGB of content marketing, not Carnegie Hall.

More of a marketing focused post, but a lot of the points in this article should apply to native advertising strategies as well. We can all use a little more Punk Rock in our daily lives.

Ad tech evolution continues with Avid Media's new DSP for content

However, Todd Sawicki, CEO of New York City-based Zemanta, pointed out that his company — as well as StackAdapt, Keywee, and several others — also offer buying platforms for the distribution of content that falls inside or outside of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s native ad spec.

^^^ Like BuySellAds. Just saying... :)

IHeartMedia Launches Programmatic Private Market For Digital Radio

The private marketplace will allow select programmatic buyers to access iHeartMedia’s radio inventory across its properties on iHeartRadio.

Snapchat And The Prisoner's Dilemma Of Programmatic

Instead, Snapchat has made the decision to follow the lead of Facebook and other “walled gardens” by creating its own standards.

These "social" companies are absolutely killing it in the advertising departments. They've managed to not only redefine the entire media industry, they've also managed to provide relevant and contextual ad experiences to audiences. If there was every a shred of doubt in your mind that the ad industry is in peril, taking a quick look at Facebook, Medium, Snapchat, and even Twitter's ad-based monetization strategy. It reveals ads are here to stay and that marketers are more than willing to pay premiums for valuable audiences.