SAP Announces New DSP / DMP : Exchange Media

SAP announced Exchange Media, adding another DSP / DMP to an already crowded ad-tech ecosystem.

Advertisers are increasingly demanding transparency in their advertising, from where and how ad dollars are spent to the true impact and ROI of those advertising dollars.  Adtech providers can either give advertisers what they want or watch as advertisers bring those solutions “in house”.

This also further underscores the importance, and value, of first party data.  The companies who control access to advertiser first party data hold the keys to the kingdom.

Time will tell whether Exchange Media will be perceived by clients as an important value add, or just another platform solution in an already fractured marketplace.  Flexibility will be key, as marketers have been wary of “walled garden” approaches that lock their data into specific systems.

Source:  AdExchanger

Google Announces New Changes at I/O

Google I/O recently wrapped up, and here’s a great recap of “what’s new at Google”.

Some of my personal favorites include:

Google Home: Google’s competitor to Amazon’s Echo.  Consumers will find value in the ability to add voice commands to their home “Internet of Things”,Google will find value if Google Home leads directly to increased consumer purchases.

Duo & Allo: Google’s response to Facebook’s WhatzApp and Messenger, Duo is a video chat app with advanced “sneak peak” features, and Allo is a pure play text messenger app (important for regions constricted by low bandwidth issues).  Much like Gmail displays ads based upon the context of the message in your email, these apps will offer options for goods and services based upon the text of your message.

Daydream VR: Google has entered the VR space.  This vertical is getting very crowded, very quickly … and its success will largely depend on content creators ability to build these hardware solutions into their games, programs, etc.   Stay Tuned!

Instant Apps: Google is making moves to seamlessly connect the mobile web with apps.  To date, they’ve been separate experiences.  Google’s Instant Apps will enable users to download critical portions of apps in realtime, as they interact on the mobile web.   This will require developers to change how they build apps, but the changes will be retroactive through numerous previous versions of Android.

Sources:  The Next Web ; AdExchanger