33Across Blog | Programmatic News & Trends

What was the buzz around the office last week? Facebook is offering more transparency and ad control, Apple is reducing their cookie window, and what it will take for programmatic tv to win.  

1. Facebook offers more control, more transparency  

Facebook is increasing transparency and giving advertisers more control over where ads show up. The platform recently announced that they will tighten guidelines on the type of content that can be monetized. With that, publishers must prove themselves credible and sites featuring misinformation or fake news will be blocked from monetizing. AdExchanger explains the changes in greater detail and how Facebook’s lack of transparency in the past pushed big advertisers away.

Bratwurst, beer, and even tattoos being done onsite. Throughout the amazing experiences offered to attendees at DMEXCO 2017, ad tech and its ever growing landscape remained the constant. Hot topics including viewability, transparency, and GDPR were the focus of the thousands of publishers, advertisers, and ad tech companies in attendance.  Although I had a great time in Cologne connecting with partners; customer experiences were the key focus of DMEXCO. Here are my takeaways:

What was the buzz around the office last week? Verizon's Oath business unit offers rewards, AppNexus and Index Exchange are at the top, and publishers find balance between user experience and ad units. 

1. Data and Rewards: Oath's big strategy  

Verizon will soon feed its consumer’s web-browsing data, app use, and location data to its recently created business unit Oath. Customer’s who opt into sharing their data will earn credits for concert tickets, movie premiers phone upgrades, and more. MediaPost explains how Verizon added 600,000 new subscribers and generated nearly $90 billion in revenue the past quarter.

What was the buzz around the office last week? Mobile header bidding experiences 3-digit growth, Facebook offers new ad services, and Google explores subscription options with publishers. 

1. Mobile header bidding is on the rise  

Header bidding is seeing growth within mobile channels. According to a report published by PubMatic, mobile header bidding has grown 285% year-on-year Q2. The largest spike was seen among news publishers. The Drum breaks down the report including how the industry-wide focus on transparency and the use of PMPs is being credited for the rise.

What was the buzz around the office last week? A legal win for advertisers and third-party cookie tracking, solving multi-attribution woes, and how publishers are winning during back-to-school. 

1. A legal win for advertisers who use cookies  

Advertisers have a new legal win, a US District Judge recently ruled that the responsibility to keep browsing history private falls on the user. This is great for advertisers who use third-party cookies to serve their ads. While this ruling may be a loss for privacy advocates, it is a total win for companies like Facebook, AdExchanger explains more.

What was the buzz around the office last week? Moat's evolution story, advertisers and the auditing process, and a hybrid model for brands and agencies. 

1. Moat's interesting rise in ad tech  

Known today for its measurement tools, Moat has come a long way. Back in 2011, the company created an ad search engine which made it easy for people to find ads for certain companies. Fast forward, the Moat then took calculated steps to “approve” brands to use their product. Add in ad tech buzzwords like “viewability,” it’s quite easy to see how the brand has grown into something much more. Digiday breaks down Moat’s meteoric rise in ad tech.

What was the buzz around the office last week? New viewability for cross-media measurement, more self-service in ad tech, and considerations for blockchain technology and ads.txt. 

1. Stricter viewability standards to come  

The MRC is in the process of reviewing it’s viewability standard of 50% of pixels for at least one second. With some major players requiring 100% of pixels to be in view, this could very well be a new  benchmark metric for others to follow. All of this comes as the MRC plans to address cross-media measurement, MediaPost explains more.

What was the buzz around the office last week? An ad tech company gets bought out, publishers accounting for 3rd party viewability measurement, and how to combat against disruptors. 

1. RocketFuel gets acquired by Sizemek  

Last week it was announced that Sizmek is acquiring RocketFuel. With a valuation once at $2 billion and $66 per share, RocketFuel’s stock has recently dropped to just below $3 per share. Planning to combine their technologies, they will serve over 20,000 advertisers and 3,600 ad agencies. The Wall Street Journal explains how the newly formed company is looking to compete with both Google and Facebook.

What was the buzz around the office last week? Investments in blockchain technology, tips for advertisers to increase transparency, and publishers using data to better their relationships with brands. 

1. Google invests in blockchain technology for publishers  

Publishers are standing up for themselves in brand new ways. In an effort to increase transparency in digital ad trading publishers are investing more in blockchain technology. Digiday explains how publishers have received funding from Google and are looking to reduce fraud within the ad tech ecosystem. 

What was the buzz around the office last week? Google Attribution, net neutrality predictions, and Apple helping publishers monetize

1. How pubs can really win with Google Attribution  

With its new attribution tool, Google plans to measure credit card transactions post-ad impression. While this breakthrough will new great for buyers, this could also be a game-changer for publishers as well. With that, AdExchanger explains how publishers need to become good “two-way players.” Aligning content with advertiser interest and developing yield-optimizing insights are just a few of the ways publishers will be able to benefit from Google Attribution.