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The Exchange Lab works with brands and agencies to plan and execute the most effective, strategic digital advertising campaigns. We provide a brand safe environment that adheres to all of the industry codes of conduct, offering campaign transparency and viewability metrics. But that’s not all. Every campaign is unique so we tailor our solutions to your marketing objectives. Build Brand Awareness: Focusing on audience first, we connect brands with their consumers in the right place, at the right time, across devices. Acquire New Customers: Prospecting allows you to identify those most likely to be potential customers, connect with them and then multiply this at scale. Re-Engage Audiences: We do this by continuing to build the relationship through content that clearly communicates your message. The customers that have shown an interest in your brand are more likely to engage, whether your campaign metrics are awareness or conversion based. Drive Performance: We adjust campaigns using real-time insights to inform budget weightings and spend allocations to ensure the best campaign performance possible. You don’t need to worry about how much you are putting against video, display or mobile specifically - we do that for you. The Programmatic Marketing Experts Devices: It’s all about priorities. Apparently our phones are more important to us than our wallets. It only takes the average person 54 minutes to report a stolen phone, but over 23 hours to report a stolen wallet. This is another reminder that the modern consumer is ‘always on.’ They shift seamlessly between devices to consume content whether it’s mobile, tablet, desktop or connected TV, so as a brand, you need to be able to reach them across devices. Channels: Content is king but context is emperor. We understand how important it is to deliver the right content through the right channel. Our team works tirelessly to provide you with one point of access to the entire ecosystem. --- For more, visit http://bit.ly/1YxBW8x (link is external)

New York – February 26, 2015 – Major brands are now using location data for purposes beyond targeting consumers at a particular moment in time. Marketers are leveraging location data to build much more comprehensive audience segments, which can be used to target consumers in a wide array of mobile campaign scenarios. This according to a new white paper produced by the Mobile Marketing Association (link is external) (MMA) on behalf of the MMA NA Location Committee Audience Working Group. Titled, “Using Location for Audience Targeting”, the paper reveals how user location and place data is evolving from a tool used primarily for “in the moment” targeting, to an essential component in the creation of accurate audience segments. While location data has already proven to be an invaluable resource in reaching customers at a particular place and time, marketers are quickly realizing its value in creating comprehensive audience segments for other mobile targeting purposes, particularly when paired with app, household, purchase and publisher data. “Given its unparalleled ability to tell marketers where consumers have been, where they are, and where they’re likely to return, location data has become an essential mobile marketing tool,” said Sheryl Daija, Chief Strategy Officer at the MMA. “Incorporating location data into the development of audience segments enables marketers to build a much more accurate and timely picture of the consumers they’re targeting, ultimately resulting in significantly better campaign ROI.” Traditionally, audiences have been derived from observed mobile usage, search and browsing history, or household data. While this static data can be helpful for reaching consumers at home, location-based data enables brands to reach potential customers at any time, as they move from place to place. Location data is also helpful in building more dynamic audiences because it takes into account the powerful context of where a user has been, something online and household data lacks. The paper explores how brands like Goodwill®, Pinkberry and Quiznos have successfully used location data to enhance audience segments and achieve impressive results using various campaign tactics. •Goodwill: Achieved a 43 percent increase in store visitation using audience targeting based on a combination of demographics and past visitation behaviors. •Pinkberry: Achieved a 100 percent lift in location-audience targeting tactics using audience targeting based on past visitation to health food stores, gyms and targeted fast food chains. •Quiznos: Achieved a 6 percent lift in sales using a custom campaign audience comprised of mobile users who frequented Quiznos and key competitors. “Location has evolved from a tool to target people where they are, to a platform of real-time insights about peoples’ true intent and actions. The power of location for targeting in the moment has been proven. Now, we can show how location has evolved beyond ‘marketing in the moment’, to enable marketers to create specific audience segments based on actual behaviors,” explained Monica Ho, SVP of Marketing at xAd Inc., MMA NA Board Member and Location Committee co-chair. To download the full white paper, “Using Location for Audience Targeting”, please click here (link is external).

See how mobile helped make the Black Friday–Cyber Monday weekend a success. Learn how Atlas’ people-based measurement provides a clearer understanding of online shopping over the holidays. --- Infographic available for download at http://bit.ly/1OcdvCv (link is external)

You are what you buy—Shopping data is a window into consumers’ lives. Their browsing patterns and purchases reveal their tastes, lifestyle, and aspirations. We track over 1 billion retail shopping points each month. This data is the foundation of our audience activation platform which enables brands to quickly connect with receptive audiences. Our unique combination of experience, data, and technology drives results. With over 15 years of retail experience, advanced data science and technology platforms, we translate our knowledge into effective marketing programs for our partners. Our proprietary retail data is the foundation of our campaigns. You’ll reach unique audiences since we don’t syndicate data to exchanges or outside media platforms. To ensure you effectively and efficiently reach your target audience we’ve developed an integrated platform that incorporates: A Demand Side Platform for media activation Contextual sites for relevancy & impact Proprietary retail data to power it all --- For more information, visit http://bit.ly/1ZcfazJ (link is external)

A data race is taking place in the media and advertising industry. New technology and the ability to gather and analyse large volumes of data are changing the ways in which advertisers reach consumers. Consumers were once split into demographic groups, which were targeted via mass media. Today we are bought and sold one by one on global ad exchanges. This results in marketing which is highly targeted and which presupposes that the marketers have a thorough understanding of our habits, interests, tastes and network of contacts, in order to have the greatest impact. Google and Facebook dominate the market in automated ad trading because they have such an enormous amount of information about us. In Norway and Europe big media companies are currently building their own platforms for programmatic technology in an attempt to take on the global giants. The company who has the most data and the best technology is the winner of the data race. Every time we visit a website we don't engage with just one company, but many companies at the same time. As well as the publisher who owns the site, ad exchanges, demand side and supply side platforms, ad networks, data brokers and data management platforms are present using various tracking tools. Our report reveals that on average 43 different companies have a presence on Norwegian online newspapers and record what we do. Between 100 and 200 cookies were stored on our web browser when visiting the front page of six Norwegian newspapers. As a user, you may first notice the result of the cookies placed on your browser when the same ad starts following you around the Internet. The information that is gathered is used to build up comprehensive profiles about us. The more detailed the profiles are, the greater their market value. If we lose control of our own personal information, we also lose the ability to define who we are ourselves. No sector in the world knows more about us than the advertising industry. At the same time, we have very little insight into how these companies use the information they have about us. Privacy must not only give the individual protection against constant surveillance by the authorities, but also protect us against private companies monitoring everything we do. The individual is very small compared to a large corporation. Privacy legislation must redress some of this imbalance of power. Because the advertising industry is so lacking in transparency, however, individuals have limited opportunities to exercise their fundamental right to privacy in their dealings with it. The information asymmetry that characterises the market is a form of market failure. When consumers have no knowledge about what is going on, they cannot demand services that offer better privacy. The uneven distribution of information results in a competitive situation, which encourages the market players to use methods increasingly invasive of privacy. When we surf the Internet we want quick and easy access to the services we are searching for. We will almost automatically accept everything we are asked to accept. Making the processing of personal data subject to consent does not, then, have the intended effect. When we let individuals decide for themselves, the individual must stand alone against big and powerful players who are in reality able to dictate what the individual must consent to. The Norwegian Data Protection Authority will work to increase transparency and openness in the advertising market, ensure genuine freedom of choice for users and give the user more control over his or her own personal information. The most important recommendations and measures we propose in the report are as follows:  Publishers (such as newspapers) must take responsibility for the third-party players they allow access to their pages.  Companies engaged in the collection of personal data for profiling and marketing purposes must base the processing of the data on an active consent from the users  Publishers must give all users access to their services, including those who do not consent to their information being collected.  The privacy policies must be improved. They must be short and easy to follow, but must also include clear information about what data is collected, how it is processed and whether other players have access to the information.  Publishers, media agencies and advertisers must join forces to produce guidelines that may contribute to greater openness and transparency about the nature of targeted advertising. --- Full report available at http://bit.ly/1Z89sz1 (link is external)

MerkleONE is Individual We apply our proprietary person-based identity-management technology to your customer data, combined with Merkle’s industry-leading third-party data. By assigning a unique identifier to each individual, you’re able to support integrated marketing decisions throughout the customer journey — across platforms and devices, even offline to online. The patterns that emerge inform a connected experience supported by the effective delivery of relevant content in the right context. MerkleONE is Integrated Our solutions enable individual-level platform decisions that are informed by data, introducing person-based insights into cookie-based ecosystems. We connect orchestration, insights, activation, and measurement toolsets, drawing on best-of-breed technologies from Google, Adobe, Facebook, Oracle, and more. Plus, MerkleONE’s service layer incorporates unique data-driven processes and artifacts that connect decisions along the marketing process. MerkleONE is Insightful Gleaned from our unique and extensive set of data sources, Merkle’s DataSource consumer database (link is external) offers hundreds of attributes that can be appended to your own customer data, allowing us to extract actionable people-based insights that drive addressable campaigns. Through robust segmentation and targeting, MerkleONE builds and executes dynamic campaigns that maximize ROI. Digital attribution, reporting, and analytics allow us to refine those key insights even further. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1jqTyA9 (link is external)

Engaging consumers in the era of programmatic creative relies on data and automated technology. In this piece, Jamie Evans-Parker, CEO and founder of wayve, (pictured below) suggests how marketers can create the perfect mixture. Nearly a decade has passed since programmatic emerged onto the digital advertising scene, revolutionising targeting capability and efficiency by automating ad trading. Although initial uptake was slow, marketers are now readily embracing the technology – its portion of ad spend will exceed £2bn next year in the UK alone. Programmatic itself is showing signs of maturity, allowing marketers to reach increasingly specific audiences in real-time; while enabling publishers to maximise their digital assets and win bids from brands through indirect sales. But it’s crucial for marketers to ensure that the heavy focus on campaign scale does not come at the expense of creativity. Brands are beginning to realise that, while delivering a highly targeted campaign at an auction price is great, powerful and relevant creative is crucial to achieve the desired impact. A new era of digital advertising is dawning, where programmatic and creative combine to create far-reaching and captivating campaigns. So, how can marketers marry accurate data insight, automated technologies, and creativity to engage consumers? Joining forces to improve targeting As demand for a seamless, tailored and cross-screen online experience has increased; disparate tech forces have combined their strengths. The collision of martech and ad tech has brought together in-depth audience insight and sophisticated campaign execution, enabling marketers to achieve a new level of audience segmentation and precise targeting. Creative messages can be tailored to suit niche audiences, while lookalike audiences can be targeted using data collected from previous consumer interactions. Making creative content personal Programmatic creative solves the ultimate problem of modern advertising: how to reach the right audience and ensure ad content is engaging for individuals. Using technology such as dynamic creative — a tool that automatically selects and combines creative assets according to real-time context — ads can be adapted and optimised to sequential, geographic, and demographic factors, as well as CRM data. The result is highly relevant creative that drives personal interactions and therefore, campaign performance. A strong example of dynamic creative in action is Pantene’s ‘Haircast’ campaign, which saw the brand team up The Weather Channel in Australia to deliver hair care solutions that instantly aligned with the current climate via geo-targeting as consumers checked the forecast on their mobile devices. Understanding audience needs in real-time The union of marketing data and automated ad tech has also created a 360-degree view of consumers. With a detailed understanding of consumer activity, marketers can pinpoint their position in the sales funnel — determining whether consumers are researching, considering buying or if they have already purchased. This information enables marketers to ensure that creative messaging matches consumer needs at each and every stage of their journey. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1Q53Jbr (link is external)

VTech Kids would like to invite you to become a part of our Affiliate Program. Our site is growing at an exciting pace. and we hope you'll be a part of it! Sign up today to become a Vtechkids.com affiliate and begin earning commission on every qualified sale! Vtechkids.com is a member of Commission Junction. To become an affiliate you will need to join Commission Junction as well. http://www.cj.com (link is external) Program Highlights: - 7% Commission rate - 30 Day referral cookie - $66 Average order value - Aggressive promotional offers bundles and shipping discounts - Weekly affiliate newsletter About VTech VTech, the creator of the Electronic Learning Products (ELP) category and the award-winning InnoTab, MobiGo and V.Reader handheld toys, is a world leader of age-appropriate learning products. Since 1980, VTech has been developing high-quality, innovative educational products that enrich children's development through fun and smart play. VTechKids.com is VTech's direct-to-consumer shopping site that offers the widest selection of VTech learning toys at competitive prices. We offer engaging content & tools such as the Parent Resource Center, Club VTech and the Advisory Council that help parents make the most of their child's educational development. --- For more information visit, http://bit.ly/1Noy6D4 (link is external)

NEW YORK – June 16, 2015 – The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM (link is external)) announced today that RealityMine, a leading provider of mobile market research technologies and consumer analytics, has been chosen to undertake the Children and Teens’ Measurement project. The project’s aim is to make possible a thorough and comprehensive view of cross-platform, digital and mobile measurement of content and ads among children and teens aged two to 17. The initiative, which includes TiVo Research TV viewership data, will be the first to use a router meter for a whole home view of Internet content consumption combined with state of the art passive metering, audio fingerprinting content recognition, and advanced behavioral analytics. “With the ability to comprehensively analyze the total media consumption and behavior of kids and teens, our industry will be able to gain unique insights, derived from quantifiable data, into how all digital devices are being used by the next generation of media users ,” said Jane Clarke, CEO and managing director, Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement.” For the first time we’ll be able to have a look inside the new dynamics of cross-media usage of the entire family within a household, describe the total consumption behaviors of individuals and obtain a view on total viewership across platforms of individual programs.” CIMM’s Kids & Teens Measurement Committee issued an RFP for a vendor to provide the solution for improving cross-platform measurement for kids and teens. CIMM received many responses, with RealityMine in partnership with TiVo Research meeting all the device and demographic measurement criteria as well as being able to do so with privacy and COPPA-compliant methods. “The digital landscape is becoming ever more complex to measure as consumers adopt a wider range of screens, and an entire generation emerges as fully-connected content consumers,” said Rolfe Swinton, Chief Research Officer of RealityMine. “The kids and teen segment has so far been unreliably measured and we are excited to be a part of building this framework to understand their digital behaviors and media consumption.” “This innovative approach to understanding and capturing how content and media is being consumed today will give our industry much needed insight into behaviors across all screens and platforms,” said Colleen Fahey Rush, EVP, Chief Research Officer, Viacom. “We’re thrilled that CIMM is initiating this important project.” “At Turner Broadcasting, we have long stressed the importance of capturing a more complete, accurate picture of how kids and teens are consuming content across our linear, digital and mobile platforms, and this new project will go a long way in finally achieving that goal,” said Jeff Grant, senior vice president of research for Turner Broadcasting’s Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, and truTV. “The ability to measure total consumption of content while protecting consumers’ privacy will be a game-changer for the media industry, and we’re proud to play an active role in this process.” Marc Normand, vice president of research at Disney Media Sales & Marketing, said “Partnering with CIMM not only enables us to be proactive with kids measurement, but also enables us to go beyond what Nielsen and comScore can currently offer. Since kids are the future of our business, it’s really important that we account for their cross-platform behavior. We look forward to seeing results as early as this year.” --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1Bg6hxA (link is external)

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 23, 2015 – Rocket Fuel (NASDAQ: FUEL), a leading programmatic marketing platform provider that uses artificial intelligence (AI) at Big Data scale to optimize marketing ROI for global agencies and enterprise marketers, today announced it has strategically expanded its politics and advocacy group to support the growing demand for its programmatic solutions in the political space. The team will include 15-20 professionals who will be charged with designing, selling and supporting programmatic solutions for political and advocacy partners in their efforts to create awareness and influence opinion leaders, association members, registered voters, and engaged citizens, in the 2016 election and beyond. According to a Borrell Associates estimate, online political spending in the U.S. will reach nearly $1 billion in 2016. Knowing when voters are most receptive to persuasion messaging has been shown to allow political advertisers to better target swing voters. In a recently released study (link is external), Rocket Fuel found that 36% of voters in five key swing states voted after viewing an online ad. The findings reinforce an increasingly ‘digital first’ political campaign focus and highlight how digital ads play a prominent role in the outcomes of elections. Rocket Fuel’s politics and advocacy group works with digital political consultancies, on both the right and the left, to drive market-leading performance using Moment Scoring™, its real-time calculation of every moment of influence that optimizes programmatic decisions and learns how to improve them over the life of campaigns. Moment Scoring™ uses Rocket Fuel’s massive Big Data architecture and voter data partner partnerships to access detailed, anonymous information about an individual — at a precise moment in time when they are most likely to respond to an ad. Rocket Fuel’s politics and advocacy team is led by recently appointed National Director of Politics and Advocacy J.C. Medici, who has more than 10 years of experience working with top political clients and Fortune 100 brands. Reporting to him will be Director of Strategic Accounts Amanda Whiteman, who has deep online advertising and politics and advocacy experience having worked for Microsoft, AOL U.S. presidential campaigns. “The positive impact programmatic technologies have had on the success of political and advocacy campaigns is staggering, and our nation’s most influential political think tanks are now turning to Rocket Fuel as their trusted technology partner as they determine their campaign tech strategies,” said Rocket Fuel President Richard Frankel. “We are building out our team in D.C. to support these efforts during the 2016 election and into the future.” --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1MAfzX4 (link is external)

Xaxis, the world’s largest programmatic media and technology platform, announced today the launch of Xaxis Politics, the industry’s first targeted political advertising solution for reaching U.S. voters across all digital channels without utilizing personally identifiable information. Developed with Haystaq DNA, Xaxis Politics is the first programmatic product that enables advertisers to leverage offline voter data to inform their digital campaigns. This means that political advertisers can reach their most relevant voters across display, mobile, online video, digital radio, connected TV and social media. Xaxis Politics incorporates the Haystaq National Voter Database – the nation’s largest and most accurate source of voter data, representing 166 million voters – into Xaxis’s proprietary Turbine data management platform (DMP), enabling advertisers to engage voters across a multitude of hot button issues, political affiliations and other demographic information. This offering utilizes Haystaq DNA data to understand which audiences are most interested in which issues, while also leveraging Turbine’s real-time audience data to more effectively direct advertisers’ messaging. Campaigns can be locally focused or nationally scaled across Xaxis’s industry leading portfolio of premium digital inventory. “Voter data is the lifeblood of political advertising, with a lengthy pedigree as the engine of successful direct voter marketing,” said Brian Gleason, the newly named global CEO of Xaxis. “By bringing this data into the digital space, we’re opening up an entirely new level of sophistication for political marketers competing to have their voices heard in a crowded and fragmented market.” With Xaxis Politics, advertisers can segment audiences by hundreds of hot button issues as well as by party affiliation, demographic information and likelihood of turnout. Advertisers can also easily run real-time campaigns tied to specific real-world events, such as running a digital ad campaign synced to a statement that a candidate says during a televised political debate. In addition, Xaxis Politics provides campaigns with unprecedented capability in reaching younger voters on their mobile devices, empowering them to connect with an audience that is notoriously difficult to reach by traditional means such as TV ads. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1RIvC6x (link is external)

Act on data from any channel in any channel. The typical brand uses 30+ different solutions to engage their customers. The IBM Universal Behavior Exchange is an open exchange that makes it easy to share customer data between certified solutions, bypassing the custom IT work typically required to launch a personalized campaign and speeding time to market from weeks to just one day. Best of all, this new feature is available in the IBM Marketing Cloud and other IBM Commerce products at no additional charge. With the UBX console, you can: Take control Gain agility and go from personalized marketing aspirations to execution in just one day—without opening a project with IT. You control the flow of customer data including audiences, events, and profiles between certified applications in just three clicks. Act in the moment Automate personalization in the moment by triggering campaigns based on the actions you deem most meaningful. Free yourself from daily data extractions and uploads. Automatically respond to customer behavior in any marketing solution to create a meaningful experience in the moment. Enrich your results Execute better performing campaigns with more precise targeting and more relevant engagement. Harness the power to personalize at scale. Increase response rates. Improve ROI across paid, owned, and earned channels, and ultimately build brand loyalty. --- IBM Universal Behavior Exchange Overview Video available at http://ibm.co/1LBzTEW (link is external)

Programmatic has emerged from the outer echelons of the ad-tech world and taken its place on advertising’s main stage. The industry is now on board with what the experts have known all along – that programmatic’s real-time audience insights are the best foundation for effective campaigning. The shift from niche to normal is largely attributable to the technology’s ability to respond to what today’s marketers want and what brands need: to target campaigns on audience, not just content. But programmatic’s acceptance into the mainstream has also been helped along by the decision of technology’s most influential players to step into the arena. This month’s news that Facebook is rolling out a Demand-Side Platform (DSP) in early 2016 to perform programmatic buys using their ‘people-based’ advertising approach confirms the value of audience data-driven targeting in digital advertising. Although the details of Facebook’s DSP product (the fourth element in its ad platform business) have yet to be publicly announced, the strength of the company’s first-party audience data and cross-device insights will hold considerable appeal for marketers looking to send more messages to consumers in more places online. The move is a clear sign that programmatic has matured and that targeting audiences is advertising’s new currency. This is not only evident online, but increasingly in traditional offline channels too, such as television. In a landscape that is evolving so quickly, how will Facebook’s DSP compete? Will its first party data – undoubtedly strong, but nonetheless limited – be compelling enough for advertisers who can’t afford to miss a trick when it comes to campaigning to evermore sophisticated audiences? First-party data alone won’t be enough to reach the right people in the right place at the right time. Audience-based campaign targeting must tick all of these boxes; compromising on any area will be detrimental to success. Marketers will need to mix Facebook’s data with high-quality third-party audience data from independent providers to tailor particular messages in specific contexts to consumers – about whom they will have a complete picture. Understanding – really understanding – who consumers are and what they think of brands allows marketers to design communications strategies with a human element. This is critical in an era where consumers call the shots. Treating consumers as real people, not compilations of data, is as important as discovering real insights about them. And these insights live within a wide range of data types that go beyond the first-party nature of Facebook’s user profiles. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1QeiacX (link is external)

It is no secret the consumption of media has changed. Consumers are now interacting with brands not only in-store and online but through a multitude of devices. The opportunity for brands to connect with consumers with relevant messages, in real-time has never been more prevalent, but brands are still challenged with effectively reaching on-the-go consumers. As marketers try to effectively reach consumers across channels where do the best opportunities lie? Facebook® is undoubtedly one platform that represents a huge opportunity to reach on-the-go consumers. According to Facebook’s most recent earnings report (link is external) 526 million of its monthly active users access Facebook solely on their mobile devices – this represents about 38% of Facebook’s 1.39 billion monthly active users. Have you considered how you can better target people who are highly engaged on Facebook? Even more astounding is the ability to reach the remaining 62% (864m) regardless of the device they are using. Facebook’s capabilities for cross-device targeting at the individual level are unparalleled – they are one of the few places where a person’s entire experience is in an authenticated environment, regardless of platform. The power of Facebook targeting lies within its unparalleled reach and engagement, the ability to reach real people and its large set of Facebook interests and demographics data. To further help marketers, Facebook is restructuring its partner program – Facebook Marketing Partners – in an effort to make it easier for marketers to find partners based on their specific needs. Epsilon, which first began working with Facebook nearly two years ago, is a badged Facebook Marketing Partner with Audience Onboarding and Audience Data Providers specialties. These specialties help marketers better target their customers with robust data sets. What are the benefits of this partnership? Let’s look at a couple of use cases: Custom Audiences You are a subscription service provider looking to find new customers via Facebook but don’t know where to start. Why don’t you start with your own data? Custom Audiences allow you to leverage your existing CRM data and match it on Facebook in order to better target your campaign to the right people. Working with Epsilon you can upload this data – at no cost and in a privacy safe manner—and use it to target specific offers to the right people. For example, you can use your data to exclude existing customers from your campaign. Instead, target the campaign to the right users via Facebook’s News Feed where people are actively participating, engaging and discovering new information. Partner Categories For marketers looking to more deeply fine-tune their campaigns you can overlay Epsilon data to further segment your audience and reach your ideal customer. For example, you’re a nutrition company looking to find the best customers for your new weight-loss shake. Using Epsilon’s lifestyle and interests Partner Categories you are able to target people on Facebook who are interested in nutrition, diet, and fitness, and are also on smart phone. Because Epsilon’s lifestyle and interests information is self-reported and reinforced with actual transaction data, it’s extremely accurate in providing valuable information into segmenting your target audience. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1HUgehQ (link is external)

1. Why has the FTC waited so long to review this serious threat to our privacy? The Federal Trade Commission’s November 16, 2015, workshop (link is external) on cross-device tracking is a examination of a very disturbing practice that emerged several years ago. The online industry’s business model of identifying specific individuals and following them on whatever device they may use (PCs, mobile, etc.), so their behaviors can be analyzed for more effective micro-targeting, is well-known. For example, companies such as Drawbridge, which “track how [an] individual user traverses the web on his or her smartphone, tablet, laptop and PC,” and analyze “billions” of pieces of data on us, has been around since 2010.[1] Cross-device targeter Tapad has been operating since 2011.[2] During the last few years there has been a veritable explosion of cross-device tracking of individuals—illustrating how our privacy has been lost regardless of what device we may use.[3] The FTC should be monitoring much more closely industry developments to expand their data-driven profiling and targeting techniques. The serious erosion of our privacy is reported daily by leading trade publications and is not a secret.[4] The commission—and other agencies responsible for consumer privacy, such as the FCC and CFPB—need to become much more proactive if they are to actually protect the public. 2. Why isn’t the FTC bringing complaints against both Google and Facebook under their respective “consent decrees” for their own cross-device surveillance of consumers? Both Facebook and Google—as the two dominant online marketing companies—have significantly expanded their own collection, analysis, and use of data from individuals for cross-device tracking. Both companies are under 20-year legal agreements with the FTC that is supposed to ensure that their practices protect our privacy.[5] But the commission has been silent regarding a major violation of our privacy, given the range of Facebook and Google cross-device practices. For example, Facebook’s acquisition of Atlas and its incorporation of new ways to engage in cross-device tracking have not been challenged by the agency.[6] Nor has the FTC pursued Google’s cross-device tracking as a consent decree matter.[7] The commission’s consent decrees are only as good as their enforcement. The FTC’s inaction regarding Facebook’s and Google’s expansion of cross-device data harvesting undermines its claims that its decrees actually protect our privacy. 3. How has the FTC’s and Department of Justice’s (DoJ) failure to stop “Big Data” mergers furthered the expansion of cross-device gathering of our information? As one of two U.S. antitrust and competition regulators, the FTC plays a key role reviewing mergers and acquisitions. Yet the agency has approved Big Data-related mergers that have further weakened consumer privacy and expanded the ability of marketers to track our behaviors across devices. While the FTC’s consumer protection and competition bureaus are separate, the commission has a responsibility to protect the public. Even with mergers reviewed by the DoJ, the FTC should speak out against deals that erode privacy and place consumers at further disadvantage through the use of Big Data. For example, Oracle was allowed to acquire both BlueKai and Datalogix—significantly expanding its sources of data used to profile Americans and to engage in cross-platform targeting. Alliance Data Systems was permitted to acquire Conversant, which bolstered its cross-device applications. The FTC should acknowledge that it is helping weaken the privacy of the American public by allowing data-driven mergers to be approved without effective consumer safeguards.[8] 4. Isn’t cross-device tracking and targeting just a part of an ever-growing commercial Big Data surveillance complex that continually gathers and uses all our information? Anyone who follows the online industry recognizes that our privacy is being continually undermined. Every major company has become its own “data broker,” harvesting all the data they directly gather on a person (when you come to their site, for example). They now merge that data with the abundance of so-called third-party information available for sale or use today. A key goal is to engage in what they call “identity management, ”which means using information on us to help influence our actions, purchases, and behaviors. Cross-device tracking is made possible through the unlimited ability companies now have to use our online and offline information without any serious consideration of our privacy.[9] 5. What is the role that Big Data companies and technologies—such as Data Management Platforms (DMPs)—play in cross-device tracking of individuals? The most powerful U.S. companies are using sophisticated data engines and analytics to gather data on individuals. The growing use of technologies such as DMPs, along with the real-time data targeting now embraced by the industry (known as “programmatic”) is at the core of cross-device practices.[10] While the FTC is aware of these practices, it has not taken any actions to protect consumers.[11] 6. Isn’t the gathering of information from our use of mobile phones, including for cross-device targeting, a major privacy violation? The answer is yes. The mobile phone is the digital spy in our pockets that we take and use nearly everywhere. Gaining access and insights from our mobile phones serves as a veritable digital gold mine for brands and advertisers. Marketers continually research how we use mobile devices, in order to help their clients identify our actual or intended location, as well other data about us (such as income, race, ethnicity, and gender). Companies such as Facebook, Google, and many others have developed ingenious ways to encourage consumers to use “apps” that, once they are downloaded, report on our actions. Google, for example, explains they can help marketers understand how to take advantage of what they call a person’s “micro-moments”--when through the use of our mobile phone we reveal we are searching for a product, store, activity or location.[12] Cross-device tracking and targeting is fueled by the unchecked data gathering from our mobile devices.[13] 7. Will the FTC address how cross-device tracking is helping marketers and brands reach us when we are in retail, grocery stores, and other “real-world” locations? As we use our phone or tablet to search for information, download coupons, or scan for price information, these signals allow marketers to learn about our location and quickly connect data they have about us. So-called “hyper-location” tracking enables companies to identify what neighborhoods we live and work in, for example. As stores deploy so-called “beacons,” Wi-Fi-networks, “geo-fences,” and other ways to connect to people in and around stores, the data they gather from our use of multiple devices becomes more complex and valuable to them.[14] Online and offline distinctions are quickly fading, as cross-device tracking merges with sophisticated data targeting services. 8. Can the FTC protect consumers from cross-device tracking when we watch video online? There is an explosion of video consumption, as more people use their mobile devices to watch online video content. Internet-delivered video to TV’s (so-called “over-the-top”) is another key way we see such programming. Incorporating our video viewing as part of the cross-device tracking apparatus is the latest way our media behaviors are being closely observed, whether we watch on small or large-screen devices.[15] 9. Will the FTC investigate how consumers are tracked and analyzed by cross-device “measurement” services? Measurement is built in to today’s tracking and targeting online system. Marketers wish to know whether we see an ad or promotional message and how we responded. Since we use multiple devices, measurement techniques now reflect an analysis of what we do on all our devices. With advances in measurement having a direct impact on our privacy, as well as with the transactions we make, the commission should investigate the impact of cross-platform “attribution” techniques now broadly deployed.[16] 10. Will the FTC call on the online industry to “cease and desist” from cross-device tracking until privacy safeguards can be proposed and implemented? The online ad lobby has—for decades—worked to keep the FTC relatively powerless to protect privacy. It has opposed calls to provide the agency with “rulemaking” authority so it could develop safeguards that would protect the public.[17] The lack of FTC authority to effectively address privacy threats is a key reason why U.S. data-driven marketers are able to expand their commercial surveillance activities. Despite its lack of power to require companies to engage in a moratorium on cross-device tracking, the FTC should use its moral authority. The commission should declare that the use of cookie syncing, probabilistic or deterministic attribution, unique identifiers, and other methods of stealthily following us from device to device should not be permitted. Leading data companies such as Google and Facebook, digital marketing trade groups such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Mobile Marketing Association, data brokers such as Axciom, Oracle, and Merkle, and cross-platform companies such as Tapad and Drawbridge should all be asked to support the commission’s call to stop the tracking of individuals across devices. During the period established for the data-gathering moratorium, the FTC should propose safeguards. The commission’s policies should empower individuals to decide whether and how they can be tracked and analyzed on any device. It’s time for action by the FTC. It knows that Americans confront the loss of their privacy—and it should speak out against the eavesdropping practices that enable online companies to gather data on us—whether we use a PC, mobile phone, or even TV. [1] http://adage.com/article/digital/drawbridge-raises-14-million-vc-investm... (link is external) [2] http://adexchanger.com/press-release/tapad-announces/;http://techcrunch.... (link is external) [3] http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/a-senator-raises-privacy-questions-about-cross-device-tracking/?_r=0 (link is external); http://blogs.teradata.com/teradata-applications/connecting-the-dots-at-t... (link is external) http://adexchanger.com/ad-exchange-news/data-management-platforms-are-ev... (link is external) [4] https://econsultancy.com/blog/62754-cross-device-measurement-in-google-analytics-will-turn-mobile-marketing-on-its-head/ (link is external); https://www.admonsters.com/blog/fight-fragmentation-grasping-cross-device-audience-behavior (link is external); “Mobile creativity: Track mobile performance. AdMap. September 2015. Warc.com. Personal copy. [5] https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2011/11/facebook-settles-ftc-charges-it-deceived-consumers-failing-keep (link is external); https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/102-3136/google-inc-ma... (link is external) [6] http://atlassolutions.com/why-atlas/cross-everything/ (link is external); http://atlassolutions.com/2015/09/02/in-app-conversion-measurement/ (link is external); http://atlassolutions.com/2015/09/17/cross-everything-dilemma/ (link is external); http://atlassolutions.com/2015/05/11/the-4cs/ (link is external); https://www.facebook.com/business/news/cross-device-measurement (link is external); http://digiday.com/platforms/omnicom-adds-atlas-tags-doubleclick-served-... (link is external) [7] http://doubleclickadvertisers.blogspot.com/2015/06/cross-device-conversion-metrics-come-to.html (link is external); http://adexchanger.com/online-advertising/google-adds-cross-device-metrics-to-doubleclick-partially-answers-facebooks-people-power/ (link is external); https://support.google.com/ds/answer/6139741?hl=en (link is external); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFodrj2Drxg (link is external); http://adwords.blogspot.com/2013/10/estimated-total-conversions.html (link is external); http://adage.com/article/digital/google-tests-desktop-mobile-retargeting... (link is external) [8] https://www.oracle.com/marketingcloud/products/data-management-platform/id-graph.html (link is external); https://www.oracle.com/marketingcloud/products/cross-channel/mobile-marketing.html (link is external); http://adexchanger.com/data-exchanges/oracle-links-cross-platform-ids-touts-data-neutrality/ (link is external); http://www.bluekai.com/mobiledmp/ (link is external); http://www.tapad.com/press-release/tapads-cross-device-data-now-integrated-into-oracle-data-cloud/ (link is external); http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/04/drawbridge-cross-device/ (link is external); http://www.conversantmedia.com/digital-marketing-product-overview (link is external); https://www.quantcast.com/audience-grid/ (link is external) [9] http://adexchanger.com/mobile/google-allows-targeted-ads-based-on-first-party-data/ (link is external); http://liquid.pch.com/press/case-for-first-party-data-in-a-third-party-world/ (link is external); http://www.krux.com/blog/data-management/cross-device-identity-management-the-path-to-one-to-one-marketing/ (link is external); http://www.merkleinc.com/what-we-do/marketing-technology/merkle-data-management-cloud/connected-recognition#.Vkjj7craNyo (link is external); http://www.drawbrid.ge/technology (link is external); [10] https://www.neustar.biz/marketing-solutions (link is external); https://www.neustar.biz/blog/cross-device-dmp-as-the-unifying-layer-in-the-adtech-stack (link is external); http://www.lotame.com/resource/the-cross-device-question/ (link is external); http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/adobe-audiencemanager-takes-cross-device-targeting-new-level/ (link is external); http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/237039/cross-device-marketing-no-longer-hypothetical-use.html (link is external); https://radiumone.com/products/advertiser/programmatic/ (link is external); http://www.digilant.com/digilant-announces-partnership-with-crosswise-to... (link is external) [11] http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/242295/ftc-consumer-protec... (link is external) [12] http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2015/exelate-expands-its-mobile-user-dataset-by-billions-of-monthly-interactions-with-pushspring.html (link is external); https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/topics/mobile.html (link is external); https://developers.facebook.com/docs/app-ads/measuring/installs-and-in-app-conversions (link is external); http://doubleclickadvertisers.blogspot.com/2015/11/active-view-updates-improved-cross.html (link is external); https://www.fiksu.com/about/news-releases/precision-audience-targeting-w... (link is external) ; https://www.kochava.com/aol-partners-kochava-expand-programmatic-targeting-attribution-mobile-apps/ (link is external); http://adexchanger.com/mobile/kochava-attempts-to-crack-the-cross-device-attribution-code/ (link is external); https://www.fiksu.com/technology/audience-targeting (link is external); http://www.pushspring.com/news.html?post=124 (link is external) [13] http://streetfightmag.com/2015/06/02/why-cross-device-matching-will-transform-the-mobile-advertising-industry/ (link is external); http://www.marinsoftware.com/resources/whitepapers/the-cross-device-targeting-playbook-for-display-advertisers (link is external); http://www.marinsoftware.com/resources/whitepapers/the-cross-device-targ... (link is external) [14] http://www.criteo.com/resources/cross-device-advertising-how-to-navigate-the-next-big-opportunity-in-mobile-marketing/ (link is external); http://developer.android.com/training/location/geofencing.html (link is external); http://www.aislelabs.com/blog/2014/04/29/aislelabs-launches-the-first-marketing-automation-platform-for-physical-retail-locations/ (link is external); http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jon-buss/cross-device-use_b_6969120.html (link is external) [15] http://www.experian.com/marketing-services/cross-device-video-analysis.html (link is external); https://www.doubleclickbygoogle.com/articles/?category=video&product=all&type=whitepaper (link is external); http://www.videologygroup.com/industry-insights/P40/programmatic-tv-driving-multi-screen-conversation/#.VkjyoMraNyo (link is external); https://www.tubemogul.com/cross-channel-advertising/ (link is external) [16] http://adexchanger.com/digital-tv/comscore-dives-deeper-into-cross-platform-video-measurement/ (link is external); http://cimm-us.org/cimms-annual-summit-examines-cross-platform-media-mea... (link is external) https://www.comscore.com/Products/Advertising-Analytics/validated-Campai... (link is external) [17] https://www.democraticmedia.org/content/how-industry-lobbyists-help-kill...

Language strengthening the Federal Trade Commission has been removed from a newly-merged financial regulatory reform bill (link is external). The FTC provisions in the federal legislation were opposed by numerous advertising and business groups, among them the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Direct Marketing Association, Association of National Advertisers, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The DMA and ANA released statements praising removal of the FTC enforcement provision and suggesting their lobbying efforts helped bring about the change. The legislation was sponsored by Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, both Democrats. "DMA led the charge in the fight to keep these FTC expansion provisions out of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act...as the final text of the bill was negotiated by a formal Conference Committee," the organization said in a June 25 statement. The DMA went on to stress that it "will remain vigilant until the bill has been signed by the President." During the conference period, Democratic Congressmen Henry Waxman and Bobby Rush were "very forthcoming that their number one priority was going to be to reinsert the [FTC] provision," according to Chris Merida, director of congressional and public affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. House and Senate conferees who negotiated the merged bill worked from the Senate's version, which did not include the FTC language. The House version did. Merida said the push to include the provision prompted PR campaigns on both sides of fight. Mike Zaneis, the IAB's VP of public policy, said this was the "number one legislative priority" for the trade group. Despite the fact that online privacy legislation has made more headlines, Zaneis described the inclusion of the FTC provision in the financial regulatory reform bill as the "one legislative vehicle that was moving and had at least a likelihood of passing." If the FTC is given the broader authority, it could "just move unilaterally," making the threat of overreaching privacy legislation moot. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1NQ1Z49 (link is external)

Los Angeles & Washington, D.C – July 22, 2015 — Rubicon Project (NYSE: RUBI) a global technology company leading the automation of advertising, announced today the opening of an office in Washington, D.C. Theresa Mueller, previously of Rocket Fuel and a recognized leader in political and advocacy digital advertising, will spearhead the growth of the new office. Digital advertising will be a major source of political ad spend in the 2016 elections, as campaigns increasingly realize the value of big data and analytics to precisely target voters and activists. According to Reuters estimates (link is external), U.S. digital political advertising could quadruple to nearly $1 billion in the 2016 election. And 85 percent of political agencies plan to use programmatic ads for their political media-buying efforts in 2015, according to a STRATA political survey last year (link is external). Recently named by Quantcast as having the largest worldwide reach of any advertising platform with an audience of more than 650 million globally, Rubicon Project’s platform has been helping candidates and campaigns reach and engage key voters for years. In opening a D.C. office, Rubicon Project brings unmatched scale and transparency to the rapidly growing campaign frontier in ad tech. Rubicon Project’s relationships with the most respected publishers and application developers will ensure that campaign ads are delivered transparently in the most premium environments. “2016 represents a watershed moment for digital advertising as campaigns and advocacy groups seek new and targeted ways to engage, persuade and ultimately turn out voters in the most competitive electoral landscape in recent history,” said Dallas Lawrence, Senior Vice President and Head of Communications for Rubicon Project, who will also serve as the company’s senior political advisor supporting campaign strategy and advocacy outreach. “Rubicon Project’s leading technology offers a key competitive advantage for campaigns seeking innovative and scalable targeting capabilities, proven big data insights and the largest audience reach of any independent advertising platform in the market today to support recruiting, fundraising, messaging and GOTV efforts throughout the primary and general election season.” Rubicon Project’s first strategic move was to hire Theresa Mueller to head political sales in the DC market. Previously, Mueller was a key member of the advertising technology company Rocket Fuel’s D.C. operations. Between the sales side and buyer side, at APCO Worldwide and Ogilvy Washington, Mueller has worked with hundreds of political and advocacy clients to craft their digital advertising strategy, including work with national political candidates, ballot initiatives, pharmaceutical, financial, healthcare, and consumer goods companies as well as a commercial airliner and a major oil company. “Rubicon Project’s growth into Washington’s political and advocacy arena is a significant development for buyers looking to benefit from both the latest digital advertising technology as well as a massive ability to reach and engage voters via the most premium media in the country,” said Erik A. Requidan, Vice President of Sales and Programmatic Strategy for Intermarkets, Inc. “The announcement that Theresa Mueller – a recognized leader in the political and advocacy digital advertising – will be leading Rubicon Project’s political and advocacy efforts is a significant win for the company. I have had the opportunity to work with Theresa over the past several years on both the buyer and seller side of the business and I have no doubt that combining her leadership with Rubicon Project’s capability to help campaigns reach, engage and persuade voters on any device at any time in any location will be a real game changer for 2016 and beyond.” ---- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1SIMxqt (link is external)

The Collective brings top Publishers and savvy Advertisers together for the most efficient audience targeting in the mobile industry. Kochava, in collaboration with Appia, AdXcel, Altrooz and Liquid, is excited to announce the largest and first-ever collection of cross-publisher mobile audiences. How it Works Advertisers create segments via the Audience API by querying the billions of devices within the Collective and its robust data model. These segments are then matched to the best Collective media sources. Identify Your Audience Identify an audience that matches your existing users within the Collective. Build a lookalike segment that matches the attributes of your existing audience. Target Your Audience Tailor your ideal audience down to the most specific detail. Review the optimal publisher distribution based on Collective data and customize, if desired. Export your target segment across the selection of publishers with the click of a button. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1WM3vEJ (link is external)

SEATTLE (September 28, 2015) PushSpring, the first and largest independent app-based mobile audience platform, today announced the launched of a beta version of the PushSpring Audience Console™ that allows selected mobile app owners, marketers and agencies to quickly build custom audiences to reach mobile app(s) users at significant scale. PushSpring’s Audience Console provides advertisers and app publishers with mobile app audience data for more than 100 million unique device IDs in the US, and leverages billions of mobile app data signals and industry standard audience segments to develop PushSpring Personas. Within the PushSpring Audience Console, advertisers and app publishers can select from 150 pre-built audience segments, app genres or custom segments to compare and build audiences across four categories of consumer dimensions: Life Stage, Interest & Activity, Intent and Demographic. Marketers can also use PushSpring’s Audience Console and its custom segment creation tool to identify unique characteristics of their own app audiences and augment that first party data with PushSpring Personas to create more highly targeted segments, based on validated attributes. “PushSpring’s Audience Console enables our partners to independently and easily create custom target audiences based on our own Personas, app presence or ownership, demographics, and device data such as type, platform, carrier, and location. PushSpring customers can then export IDFA and AAID custom audiences for nearly immediate use in their campaigns across available partner platforms such as Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager, The Trade Desk, and Centro DSP,” says Karl Stillner, PushSpring’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder. “We will collect feedback during the Beta phase to refine the Audience Console to effective audience targeting and ease-of-use.” o enhance the accuracy of Personas, PushSpring distills billions of validated, mobile device-level data signals such as device make/model, operating system, apps on device, language setting, and location data. These can be matched to census and other third party data to deduce income, age, gender, and many other consumer attributes. PushSpring’s primary signals for Personas are app ownership and changes in app ownership. For example, real estate buyers and mortgage shoppers are typically categorized when a device ID shows the presence or recent installation of real estate buying and mortgage calculator apps. PushSpring’s underlying source data is unique because it includes signals from apps that do not serve ads. For example, PushSpring is able to provide validated signals that identify whether a device has the presence of ad-free apps like Fidelity Investments or United Airlines, etc. App genre segments and real-time custom segment creation are also included in PushSpring’s data offerings. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1Pf1SQY (link is external)

In a deal being announced today with one of the world’s largest aggregators of mobile user identities and behaviors, Nielsen’s eXelate unit will dramatically expand its footprint of data identifying mobile users. The deal is significant because eXelate is already one of the dominant data management platforms (DMP) and exchanges enabling brands and publishers to identify and target consumers with digital ads online -- and increasingly in mobile. It is also significant because it enables Nielsen’s eXelate to dramatically increase its coverage of the mobile user universe at a time when the power of identifying and targeting mobile users appears to be shifting to so-called “walled gardens” -- especially Google and Facebook -- that are able to leverage their user log-ins and extend their reach to the universe of mobile apps and users that integrate with it. The agreement with Seattle-based PushSpring will enable both companies to make more of a market out of PushSpring’s data, which processes “billions of monthly mobile app and device-level signals.” Company executives said they didn’t know exactly how much the deal would boost eXelate’s coverage of the mobile user universe, or even how big the universe actually is -- after factoring for the complex nature of cookie and device inflation, redundancy and deflation factors. But they offered to come up with an estimate and provide it to MediaPost in the near future. --- Full article available at http://goo.gl/mlF2kT (link is external)