Mobile World Congress

BARCELONA — When it comes to mobile, marketers and publishers alike are firmly focused on driving app downloads. But what happens after a download is achieved? The sad truth is, many consumers’ app use tails off. So Auke Boersma, the APAC MD of WPP’s performance marketing unit, Light Reaction, wants to help clients re-enage. “We have […]

BARCELONA — Advertising no longer has to drive interest to an eventual sale – today, it can help complete the sale immediately, even on mobile, says an ad-tech chief focused on improving mobile performance marketing. “The evolution of mobile is a direct response,” says Karl Elken, the boss of Americas for Light Reaction, a WPP unit […]

BARCELONA —  With its acquisition by Verizon last year, coupled with the rapid consumer adoption, mobile – and mobile video in particular, has become “foundational” to the business of AOL, explains Allie Kline, CMO in this interview with Beet.TV While mobile is the focus, the industry is still “chasing the consumer” who has adopted mobile […]

BARCELONA — Mobile ads are booming. Now they’re ready to burst up the funnel, too. Mobile was set to account for the majority of digital ad spending in 2015. So far, most of that has been spent on so-called “performance” ads, where advertisers pay for a guaranteed, usually click-based digital outcome. But, as the medium matures, […]

BARCELONA — Mobile is a different device – and that’s going to require very different advertising strategies, one of Google’s international ad execs says. “We’re trying to help people move away last-click attribution,” Google EMEA performance solutions MD Ian Carrington tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “A lot of people are using last-click attribution models. That means they’re […]

BARCELONA — Much of the unconnected world is coming on to the internet, skipping landline broadband. But advertisers should beware serving up the same old experience, because one man’s internet is different from another’s. Asked to name a big trend at the recent Mobile World Congrress event, mobile ad server and measurement software maker MediaLets CEO Richy Glassberg said: “We’re […]

BARCELONA — Mobile ads are going to have to change if they are to recapture interest from consumers whom they are putting off with too-pushy experiences, says a leading advertising executive. Facebook EMEA publisher ad technology head Yoav Arnstein says the industry has got it wrong. “With the shift to mobile, there is growing concern […]

BARCELONA — The latest data-driven ad-tech operation under the WPP stable is Light Reaction, launched by WPP’s programmatic division Xaxis a year ago to put a performance spin on mobile-first ad sales. That company just named the former PubMatic exec Bob Walczak as its CEO, and Walczak says mobile could be the key that unlocks the door to […]

BARCELONA — With data suggesting a large percentage of online ad views are being called by fake users (malicious lines of code written by nefarious publishers racking up fraudulent clicks), advertisers have become worried. Now the boss of the world’s biggest ad agency holding group is repeating his call for online platforms to do more for […]

BARCELONA — The move to native mobile advertising formats will give a much greater say to one of the most important participants in the mobile app ecosystem, according to mobile ad network InMobi. App developers, until now, didn’t have a say,” says the firm’s head of publisher-side products Krishnendu Majumdar. “If they have to monetize, they’re […]

BARCELONA — The so-called “native advertising” opportunity, which sees straight-up display ads replaced by sponsorships that look like content, may be young – but mobile ad network InMobi is moving aggressively in its direction. “We’re going to break up the banners,” InMobi global strategic partnerships VP Pankaj Bengani tells Beet.TV. “Instead of showing banners to users, […]

BARCELONA — How often is too often for developers to update their mobile apps? “We know companies doing updates at least on a weekly basis just to keep you live,” says Bruce Beckloff, corporate development head at Marmalade, a London agency whose technology helps developers deploy across multiple platform standards. “Everybody sees a little bit […]

BARCELONA — Some may say the ad business is like a soap opera these days – but InMobi thinks it should come in “episodes”. “We came up with an episodic learning platform which uses a methodology to work with consumers campaign-to-campaign,” says mobile ad network InMobi‘s head of products, brand and commerce Preetham Venkatesh. “If […]

BARCELONA — The developer behind some of the biggest mobile social games is offering to help others monetize their apps. “We are taking on third-publishing – that will change our model,” says James Peng, head of user acquisition and monetization at Redwood City, California Dragon Story and Bubble Mania developer Storm8. “We’re helping to launch games […]

BARCELONA — Audio-identifying mobile app Shazam is trying to create a business selling data to advertisers by encouraging users to tag content other than music. “We’re now able to target advertising based on Shazam activity,” CEO Rich Riley tells Beet.TV. “We can do that on Shazam and off Shazam. We can follow a device ID on […]

BARCELONA — Freemium has become the super-dominant app store monetization method, with some 94% of App Store revenue coming from free downloads supporting in-app purchases, according to Distimo’s 2013 Year-End Review. But that doesn’t mean app developers can guarantee success just be deploying in-app goods, says former Guardian News & Media strategy head James Cooper. […]

BARCELONA — If you want to understand apps, you need to understand app users. That’s according to one mobile advertising technologist. “The core of the search era was the keyword, the core of the social era is the stuff you share on social networks,” says InMobi‘s product director Abhishek Bapna. “In the app ecosystem, neither of them are […]

BARCELONA – AOL is making a big international push around its marquee content brands.  The Huffington Post will  be published in 14 countries by year end, says Graham Moysey, Head of International for AOL, in this interview with Beet.TV The Huffington Post just launched in Korea, its 11th international edition. He says that half of […]

BARCELONA — AOL will soon launch a native advertising unit aimed specifically at mobile publishers, AOL Networks global media director Chad Gallagher told Beet.TV at Mobile World Congress. “We’re going to have a major announcement here in a few weeks about our native solution which we think will be really interesting,” Gallagher said. “If you look […]

BARCELONA — Mobile advertising has come a long way – but it could go a lot further if it truly used mobility as a core planning component. That’s one one mobile exec thinks. “Advertisers don’t have access to cookies. They do have access to location data,” says Tyler Bell, product VP at Factual. “We have a location […]