WPP this week completed the sale of 60% of Kantar to Bain Capital Private Equity. WPP announced the sale of 60% of Kantar in July, this year. The transaction was completed last Thursday. According to WPP, approximately $1.9bn will be used to reduce WPP’s debt, and $1.2bn

Criteo this week announced the launch of Direct Bidder for App, a new product for publishers to monetize inventory in-app, that uses header bidding. According to Criteo, Direct Bidder for App is lightweight, with a flexible integration that helps publishers maximize app revenue. Direct Bidder for App doesn’t have

Automattic this month launched version 8 of Jetpack. The new version includes a new star rating block and a Pinterest block. Jetpack is a WordPress plugin that enables publishers to use features on their blogs. With the Pinterest block, publishers are able to embed Pinterest content like boards, profiles, and

VeriAds this month launched VeriAds, a network that enables radio and television broadcasters, podcasters and social media influencers to generate incremental advertising revenue from advertisers. According to Veritone, the VeriAds has 3 turnkey programs – VeriAds Spot Network, MicroMentions and Influencer Bridge – giving media partners access to a range of placement

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) this month announced that the President, Patrick Dolan, will depart in June 2020. IAB is now searching for a successor to lead strategy, strategy marketing, and revenue. Ann Blinkhorn of the executive recruiting firm Blinkhorn LLC will conduct the search. Patrick Dolan joined IAB in

Merkle this month announced that is adding over 2,500 data scientists with the Ugam acquisition. In July, Dentsu acquired a majority stake in Ugam. According to Merkle, Ugam has intelligence products that include proprietary data, reporting, and activation solutions. Merkle is now delivering 60 million reports and dashboards and

Advertisers using Google’s DSP, DV360, have, since November, a new history tab under Line Items. The history tab contains change descriptions, date ranges, and performance charts. Google says performance charts were added to line item history so advertisers can compare recent changes with the performance metrics. In DV360, the

Partnerize this month announced an integration with ZINE, an influencer marketing network. The integration gives brands an influencer discovery process. Advertisers using Partnerize platform are now able to discover, recruit, and onboard influencers to their partner marketing programs from ZINE’s global network. “As influencer marketing starts to evolve into

Facebook is investing in data portability tools, and this month launched a Photo Transfer Tool. Photo Transfer Tool enables Facebook users to transfer their data into another service, like Google Photos. Photo Transfer Tool is first available to users in Ireland. Facebook expects to roll out the Photo Transfer Tool

Effectv, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, this month launched Mnemonic, a full-service creative agency for its clients, as well as a self-service creative portal through Effectv Ad Planner. Effectv is extending its current services, providing a creative concept to end-of-campaign performance measurement. “Making television advertising as easy-to-use as

Amobee this month announced that is integrating LiveRamp’s IdentityLink. The integration will expand Amobee’s identity solution, and enhance Amobee’s Audience Segment Builder. According to Amobee, advertisers are now able to reach addressable audiences at scale and effectively measure ROI utilizing Amobee’s advertising platform. Amobee says LiveRamp’

The Trade Desk this week joined joined Prebid.org as a leader member. The Trade Desk is the latest demand-side platform (DSP) to become a member. Prebid.org members include Xandr, Verizon Media, Aform, Rubicon, OpenX, among others. Google is the only main player in RTB that is not member

IAB UK last month announced is proposing to ICO, the UK regulator, to limit the content categories in the bid requests. The proposal will be presented to UK’s data regulator by mid-December. This is an answer to ICO’s concerns about the special categories of data, that include health,

Engagio last month integrated Bombora B2B Intent data. Engagio says the new product integration combines first-party engagement data and third-party intent insight to measure active demand for accounts, prioritize which accounts need action by sales, and orchestrate the right plays across human and automated channels. According to Engagio, companies can

Outbrain this month released a new study comparing native vs social. The study found that native ads shown on premium news sites are more likely to be trusted (+44%), clicked on (+21%) and lead to future purchases (+24%) than ads that appear on social media platforms. Lumen conducted the study,

Joyn this month launched a subscription plan for Joyn in Germany. Joyn has 5 million active users. Joyn PLUS+ offers over 60 live TV channels in HD, 6 additional pay-TV channels, an films and series from maxdome. Joyn PLUS+ costs 6,99€ per month. The subscription can be cancelled monthly.

BFM, Malaysia’s only independent business radio station, this month partnered with Triton Digital to monetize the streaming audio and podcast content. BFM will utilize Triton’s Tap Ad Server to dynamically insert highly targeted audio ads into their streams. BFM will also be integrated in Triton’s programmatic audio

Google this month introduced a new limitation on the vignettes. Users will only see this ad format once per hour, and per site. Before, vignettes were only shown to users between page loads within the same site, but Google will start showing vignettes to users who are between page loads

Google Optimize is now automatically displaying a custom page for users that arrive at a website via a Google Ads campaign, Google announced this month. According to Google, the custom page will be visible to the user for 24 hours. To display a custom page, advertisers need to add the

Google this month announced that it will no longer allow political affiliation to be used to target ads to users or to promote advertisers’ products or services in the United States. Google will discontinue political affiliation targeting starting on January 6, 2020. Advertisers not complying with the policies may have

Google last week rolled out a new tab in Analytics called Attribution. Attribution is a free cross-channel, multi-touch attribution solution, and released as a beta feature. In Attribution, advertisers can report conversion totals de-duplicated across digital channels, have a consolidated view of the digital performance, and build an understanding of

Google last week released worldwide YouTube Mastheads on TV Screens. The YouTube Masthead on TV screens is available worldwide and advertisers can buy the placement on a CPM basis. Google says advertisers can now buy the YouTube Masthead across devices (mobile, desktop, and TV screens) or only on TV screens.

Google Ads is now showing performance insights based on the conversions. The insights are available in the bid strategy report and include the performance on device type, location, day of the week, time of day, and keywords. The signals will be viewable for campaigns using Target CPA and Maximize conversions

IAS last week announced the acquisition of ADmantX. Integral Ad Science (IAS) says the acquisition will bring patented technology and related expertise to IAS, and relationships with brands and publishers worldwide. ADmantX technology delivers comprehension of online content, enabling advertisers and publishers to match the ads to relevant content. “ADmantX