Digital Media Summit Ends With Mozilla And IAB On-Stage Debate

This was entertaining:

The transcript follows (MP3 here):

TERENCE KAWAJA: (To Rothenberg) Isn’t this better to have conversations that you just mentioned rather than open letters?

RANDALL ROTHENBERG: Actually, we’ve reached out to Mozilla a lot, and only when Harvey reached out to me – that was a couple of month ago – after a fair amount of back and forth. And I know our Washington teams have been in connection with you (Mozilla).

HARVEY ANDERSON: Actually, I tried to call you. You passed me off. That’s actually what happened.

RANDALL ROTHENBERG: That’s true. I passed you off.

TERENCE KAWAJA: To a summer intern… (crowd laughs)

RANDALL ROTHENBERG: I talked to Mitchell [Baker] though…

HARVEY ANDERSON: That was two years ago…

via Digital Media Summit Ends With Mozilla And IAB On-Stage Debate.

Yahoo Tumblr Ad Targeting

When we published a leaked copy of Tumblr’s ad sales pitch deck on the day Yahoo acquired the social blogging site, you may have noticed some odd language on the last page: The part that says “non-targeted.”

It is fairly dismal,” said one ad buyer. “I’ve never ever heard any of our customers ask about Tumblr ads, maybe a handful ask us about Tumblr analytics,” with the exception of one standout client that the source declined to name.

Another source told us, “They don’t know much about people [their members] and targeting is very, very limited. They only recently enabled targeting for U.S. only!”

One huge issue for Yahoo is that currently there is very little inside Tumblr to target. Users can get an account with an email address and by filling in their age. They don’t have to provide any other identity information. Tumblr is thus filled with people using names that don’t even identify them as male or female. It’s the opposite of Facebook, which has dozens of “real identity” fields that gather targeting information from users.

Tumblr, in fact, has the same targeting problem that Twitter has: It literally doesn’t know who its members are.

via Yahoo Tumblr Ad Targeting – Business Insider.

Web tracking on top 100 sites up 17% since May – average site dropped 54 cookies

Web tracking on top 100 sites up 17% since May – average site dropped 54 cookies – says Berkeley prof @hoofnagle. bit.ly/MoBTGe—
Julia Angwin (@JuliaAngwin) November 08, 2012

Twitter / JuliaAngwin: Web tracking on top 100 sites ….

FTC’s Brill To Ad Networks: Justify Data Collection

More on data and privacy:

“On numerous occasions, the FTC and other stakeholders have asked the advertising networks for specific market research and product improvement uses that require retention of linkable consumer data,” she said. “The advertising networks are the only ones who can make the case for such use; without input from them it will be hard to see how such uses can be justified when a consumer has opted out of tracking.”

via MediaPost Publications FTC’s Brill To Ad Networks: Justify Data Collection 09/21/2012.

Facebook raises fears with ad tracking

Facebook is working with a controversial data company called Datalogix that can track whether people who see ads on the social networking site end up buying those products in stores.

via Facebook raises fears with ad tracking – CNN.com.

Quick thoughts here:

- This is not a new thing.  Doubleclick tried this in 2000 and ultimately had to cancel their plans (DoubleClick postpones data-merging plan)

- There are companies that are already doing this.  They are just not doing it at Facebook scale.  There’s a huge difference operationally when you’re doing this stuff in the margins vs. doing it as one of the top online properties

- Big question to be answer is whether times have changed so much that users won’t push back on these plans this time around.  We shall see.

Facebook Lets Businesses Plug In CRM Email Addresses To Target Customers With Hyper-Relevant Ads | TechCrunch

Said this before, this will be game changing in some industries.

No one got just how powerful it was that Facebook recently said it would allow ad targeting to lists of email addresses. Today at the Dreamforce conference it became clear, as Facebook ad chief David Fischer formally launched “Custom Audience” ads and how they tie into CRM. I’m convinced they’re going to be hugely profitable for advertisers and Facebook.

via Facebook Lets Businesses Plug In CRM Email Addresses To Target Customers With Hyper-Relevant Ads | TechCrunch.

Facebook Tests A Mobile Ad Network – Business Insider

Still at the rumor stage but still it’s not entirely clear how this jibes with the blocking of third party cookies on most mobile devices.  EDIT: Read the source TC post and that was more clearly written.

Facebook Tests A Mobile Ad Network – Business Insider.

Mth Sense Uses App Usage History To Target Mobile Ads

From a privacy pov, this is great but not sure it’s great user experience because depending on the client side for this stuff typically leads to sluggishness and increased power draw:

All of the data and profiles are stored “client-side” — “None of the user data leaves the device,” says president and co-founder Mohan Balachandran, so he’s hoping that Mth Sense can use the data to target ads without raising concerns that the company is tracking users inappropriately or creating a security risk.

via Y Combinator-Backed Mth Sense Aims To Improve Mobile Ad Targeting Based On Your App History | TechCrunch.

Media6Degrees

Overview on Media6Degrees:

Unlike behavioral targeting firms, though, she isn’t looking to group people based on their interests. Rather, she observes massive numbers of people on their online journeys because she has found that those who do similar things are often implicitly linked to a shared interest.

M6D then bids on available ad inventory using a real-time auction system, seeking to target the right customer at the right time–the ones in that top 1% of 100 million whose online journeys best match those of past customers. Depending on the strength of the brand signal, a person who Perlich identifies as someone whose web habits indicate they would be more likely to act on an ad is at least four times more likely to take action than a random set of people who see that same ad.

But don’t just take her word for it: M6D now works with some 300 brands, including Allstate, Amex, British Airways, Disney, Hertz, Hyundai, and Orbitz, and claims that more than 80% increase their spend with the company quarter over quarter.

via Media6Degrees Knows What You Want To Buy Even Before You Do | Fast Company.

What Does A Post-UDID World Look Like For iPhone And iPad Developers? | TechCrunch

A good overview of the state of UDID by Kim-Mai Cutler:

What Does A Post-UDID World Look Like For iPhone And iPad Developers? | TechCrunch.