Array - Mercury Group

AOL Sales Team to Complete IAB Certification Exam | Adweek

The certification, which was first offered last summer, is aimed at professionals who have been in the business two to five years. Certification is good for two years, with a path for recertification, Theodore said. Some of the topics covered on the exam, according to the IAB’s announcement, include “selling digital media” and “managing digital advertising campaigns.”

For AOL’s part, the company is using the exam to set an example in the industry and surely, to market itself as forward thinking. “We are taking a step at AOL: this is the minimum requirement a seller in the digital space should have,” said Marta Martinez, AOL’s head of sales strategy and operations, adding that the company wants to “raise the marketing services profession, especially when it comes to interactive and digital.”

via AOL Sales Team to Complete IAB Certification Exam | Adweek.

Posted in Advertising, Jobs, Leadership, Media Sales, Online Marketing, Recruiting |

Conde Nast Intros 30 Web Series, Promises to Pay to Promote Them | Special Report: TV Upfront – Advertising Age

The company announced distribution partnerships with Yahoo, AOL, Twitter, Dailymotion and Grab Media.”You can’t just put things up there, especially from a company like Conde Nast that has never been known for video content,” Ms. Ostroff said. “We have to tell the consumer that its there.”

While Conde Nast doesn’t have any inherent advantages on the web, it does have a massive opt-in database of subscribers it can market these new shows to. “You’ve got these brands that are well-known already,” she said. “People know us and know what to expect.”

The end game is for all Conde Nast titles to have video slates that relate, somehow, to their magazine brands. Scott Dadich, editor-in-chief of Wired, said video has been integrated into everything the magazine does. “Angry Nerd,” for example, is a forum for columnist Chris Baker to stir passions over things like Star Trek and Lord of the Rings. “We have a lot of angry nerds around the office, so we won’t suffer for material,” he said.

via Conde Nast Intros 30 Web Series, Promises to Pay to Promote Them | Special Report: TV Upfront – Advertising Age.

Posted in Advertising, Media Integration, Media Sales, Video |

The World According To The OPA: Prez Pam Horan Talks NewFronts And Private Exchanges

AdExchanger: What do you think of the way the NewFront period has evolved? Is it meaningful in terms of becoming a marketplace that actually generates revenue, in the way that the upfront is for television?

PAM HORAN: Making a direct comparison between the NewFront and television upfronts is always going to be difficult simply because the seasonal structure of TV schedules and the nature of their inventory is so different. I think the NewFront has played an important role in highlighting the depth and breadth of digital content that advertisers can partner with. The impact of it is spread out more than television’s upfront because digital is always generating new content and doesn’t have a “fall season” to front-load.

via The World According To The OPA: Prez Pam Horan Talks NewFronts And Private Exchanges.

Posted in Advertising, Leadership, Media Integration, Media Sales, Video |

Collective Eyes Multi-Screen, Programmatic Publisher And IPO

Today, Apprendi pins Collective’s future on multi-screen addressability: “We put the audience right at the center of our technology platform. Any screen that we can address with data in absolute or near real-time, that’s where Collective is playing. Those screens include the desktop environment, the mobile environment with tablets and smartphones, and eventually connected TV.”

via Collective Eyes Multi-Screen, Programmatic Publisher And IPO.

Posted in Advertising, Big Data, Entrepreneurism, Leadership, Media Integration, Media Sales |

Netflix Is a Friend, Content Is Still King: CBS’ Moonves

via Netflix Is a Friend, Content Is Still King: CBS’ Moonves.

Posted in Advertising, Entrepreneurism, Leadership, Media Integration, Video |

Pretty enough for TV? Conde Nast and Wall Street Journal strut for online video dollars — paidContent

Two famous print brands offered up glitz and booze in New York City this week to persuade advertisers to invest in their growing vats of video content. The hoopla was part of Newfronts, a week-long push by media companies of all stripes to recast themselves as mini TV studios — and to grab a piece of television’s massive ad budget.In the case of the Wall Street Journal and Conde Nast, the companies are borrowing the language of the TV industry and inviting advertisers to sponsor “documentaries,” “shows” and “original programming slates.” The actual content, however, is typically a collection of 2-4 minute web clips and the marketing pitch often invites a single brand to slap their name on the entire package.

via Pretty enough for TV? Conde Nast and Wall Street Journal strut for online video dollars — paidContent.

Posted in Advertising, Media Integration, Media Sales, Online Marketing, Video |

Death of Cookies – Business Insider

Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla which makes the Firefox browser now all plan to launch browsers with default settings rigged to reject cookies or to signal that the user does not want to be tracked.

via Death of Cookies – Business Insider.

Posted in Advertising, Big Data, Exchange/DSP, Media Sales, Online Marketing |

MediaPost Publications Meredith Extends Ad Guarantees 04/30/2013

The program measures ROI by combining data from Nielsen Homescan, which tracks consumer product purchases, with Meredith’s national customer database to determine the purchase behaviors of consumers exposed to specific brand advertising in Meredith magazines, as compared with the purchase behaviors of identical shoppers with no exposure.

via MediaPost Publications Meredith Extends Ad Guarantees 04/30/2013.

Posted in Advertising, Brand Marketing, Leadership, Media Integration, Media Sales |

The Cookie Has Five Years Left Says Merkle’s Paul Cimino

How long do you think until the cookie as we know it dies or is significantly less important than it is today?

Five years at the most.

At my former company, my peers were the people who created cookies. We didn’t create them for this. It’s a very weak computing mechanism. It’s flawed, invasive, it’s got privacy issues, it’s going to go.

I think it will take five years to kill it. At that point, it’ll be like birds chirping and flowers blooming because we’ll find some kind of value proposition that allows consumers to trust us and opt into personalization. I term it, tailor don’t target.

via The Cookie Has Five Years Left Says Merkle’s Paul Cimino.

Posted in Advertising, Big Data, Exchange/DSP, Leadership, Media Integration, Online Marketing |

Calm Down: Cookies Aren’t Going Anywhere Fast

The bottom line is that without legislation, cookies aren’t going away anytime soon. Not only is cookie tracking too important to both publishers and advertisers alike, it’s also the only effective and scalable solution available on the market.

via Calm Down: Cookies Aren’t Going Anywhere Fast.