Tech wrapup: Sizmek, LinkedIn, AdAsia, CNN Digital and more

Amnet signs ‘first to market’ deal with LinkedIn for Asia Pacific

Dentsu Aegis Network’s programmatic agency Amnet has inked a programmatic collaboration deal with LinkedIn in the Asia Pacific region. The collaboration is intended to enable the agency to leverage the platform’s professional targeting while using proprietary programmatic data to target quality audiences for clients at greater scale.

In addition Amnet will enjoy first to market access on highly visible display ads in high-traffic LinkedIn pages, attracting and engaging target audience within a premium ad environment.

The deal also enables access to LinkedIn’s professional segments and various exclusive curated segments, which follows closely after the launch of Amnet Spectrum, its premium programmatic inventory marketplace for Asia.

Anna Chan, regional managing director, Amnet Asia:

Programmatic advertising is evolving and growing very rapidly, and we’re seeing more advertisers shifting budgets from open exchanges to private marketplaces. We at Amnet are working very closely with key publishers and media owners to understand the value of their content, data and environment to which the user is being exposed.

AdAsia Holdings launches two new video products

AdAsia Holdings has launched its AdAsia Video Network and AdAsia Video Production offerings, now available through the AdAsia Digital Platform.

The video network features both buy-side and supply-side functionalities for advertisers, agencies and publishers. Video inventory is available on desktop, mobile web, mobile app and cross-screen, through new and traditional video ad formats including out-stream, in-stream, and rich media video ads. Publishers can open their inventory to real-time and direct video ad space purchases, manage ad inventory, and monitor performance with generated reports and SDKs via the publisher log-in portal.

Meanwhile, the company’s video production offering aims to support clients’ video and animation production needs. Clients will have access to drone, 360- degree videography and video animation, in addition to traditional video production formats. Video production requests can be placed through the AdAsia Digital Platform.

Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder, AdAsia Holdings:

True to our goal of becoming the number one advertising company in Asia, we are developing an integrated platform that solves the needs of a modern marketer. The new solutions have added an additional dimension to the AdAsia Digital Platform—video—in addition to our existing desktop and mobile capabilities, AdAsia Ad Network and Private Marketplace.

Big week for Sizmek

Open ad management company Sizmek has been busy this week with multiple announcements. It has agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Vector Capital for US$122 million. 

Under the terms of the agreement, expected to close by the fourth quarter of tis year, Vector will commence a tender offer to purchase any and all of the outstanding shares of Sizmek common stock for US$3.90 per share in cash. Upon completion of the transaction, Sizmek will become a privately held company.

Neil Nguyen, president and CEO of Sizmek:

We believe this transaction provides Sizmek with the resources and flexibility to execute upon our long-term strategy of becoming the leading independent, global ad management platform. We are excited to partner with Vector and believe this transaction benefits our customers, employees, partners and shareholders.

The company has also signed a global partnership with Dailymotion Exchange (DMX), the private video exchange of Dailymotion.

Touted as one of the largest video platforms in the world, it claims with more than 3.5 billion video views per month. By joining DMX’s roster of DSP partners, StrikeAd by Sizmek enables its users to access the premium instream video inventory on Dailymotion Exchange, and target the ads filling that inventory using Sizmek’s geotargeting and Peer39’s brand safety filters.

This announcement coincides with the release of two enhancements for StrikeAd, the company’s mobile-first programmatic media solution for global brands and trading desks, as part of its self-service SaaS offering. Ad buyers can now access hyperlocal and contextual video ad targeting capabilities on StrikeAd’s mobile first demand-side platform (DSP).

The contextual targeting is enabled through the DSP’s recent integration with Peer39, which grants access to its proprietary page-and app-level intelligence to ensure media buyers are delivering brand-safe, strategically impactful placements.

Facebook introduces shop and services sections to Pages

Available to all Pages in Southeast Asia and other high growth and emerging markets, the shop section provides businesses with a new way to prominently display the products they are selling on their Page and allows people to easily discover, browse and make offers to purchase products through messaging from the businesses they care about.

The services section on Pages, now available globally to professional services pages (and to all pages in the coming weeks), allows service businesses such as plumbers and spas to showcase a list of their offerings on their Page. It makes it easier for people to find the information they are looking for and decide whether to work with the business.

The top 10 countries where the Shop section is used on Pages: Thailand, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, India, Argentina and Taiwan.

CNN International goes Native 2.4

Through a new partnership with native advertising platform Sharethrough, CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) is now offering dynamic native and branded content advertising formats in prominent positions across CNN Digital platforms.

The media organisation’s “Native 2.4” programme focuses on several key benefits:

• Dynamic formats: New ad formats on CNN Digital platforms include instant play native video, graphic text over video, infographics, long-form video, articles and galleries to increase engagement across all digital platforms, focused on mobile. All native content is labelled as “Sponsor content” and includes clear disclosures to ensure transparency with the user.
• Smart placement: Placement of native advertising fits in naturally across the international edition of CNN Digital properties including CNN Style, CNNMoney, CNN Sport and CNN Travel, and premium inventory such as the CNN homepage. Clearly labelled native content is now presented in the style of CNN editorial content, with the ability to be placed directly in editorial streams of content and alongside relevant CNN editorial videos and articles.
• Intelligent data insight: Building on CNNIC’s CNN AIM (Audience Insight Measurement) commercial data offering, the new native solutions are powered by data.This enables targeting of specific audience segments, A/B testing of creative executions, real-time optimisation of campaigns and detailed reporting metrics to deliver clients with true marketing insight.
• Creative excellence: CNNIC’s brand content studio, Create, which has produced branded content for international advertisers for ten years, is behind the native content delivered through these solutions. Separate to CNN editorial, Create works with commercial partners to deliver branded content that resonates with audiences across linear, digital and social platforms

Rob Bradley, director of digital revenue and data, CNNIC:

We are bringing together the full suite of new formats, prominent and seamless placement, and the power of data and creative content for clients to truly engage with CNN audiences in a native environment. Clearly labelled to ensure transparency, this solution created with our partners at Sharethrough also ensures that our users are served high quality and engaging native content that’s relevant to them. In an age of overused buzzwords, this solution, which we’re calling Native 2.4, finally adds real substance to the term ‘native advertising’.

Glispa launches social influencer network Voltu

Mobile adtech company Glispa has launched a performance-led social influencer network for mobile acquisition called Voltu. The network intends to connect advertisers with influential content creators worldwide in order to drive app installs, brand awareness and engagement. 

The company calls the offering a natural extension of the Glispa Performance Network, which has been active for the past eight years, which drive mobile app user acquisition. For the last three years, the company has been running bespoke social influencer ad campaigns for clients like Square Enix and Youzu.

It currently claims over 30 thousand social influencers in its network with over 3,500 apps to promote. The network invites influencers to apply and run campaigns via a self-service platform and also taps into significant local channels, including AfreecaTV (Korea), Douyu (China), VK (Russia) and NicoNico (Japan).

Samantha Turner, commercial director and Voltu creator/ambassador:

With Voltu we address inherent mobile ad industry challenges including advertisers’ needs for transparency and fraud protection, ever-diminishing user engagement with banner ads, and the rise of ad blockers. We offer our advertising clients a hyper-native solution, leveraging trusted authorities in their topic areas (e.g. gaming) to drive high-value user acquisition and brand awareness at scale.

Hootsuite now cashflow positive

Global social media platform Hootsuite has just announced that it is now cashflow positive. The announcement comes alongside CEO Ryan Holmes sharing his intentions to grow Hootsuite to become a US$10 billion company.

Gushcloud forms JV with Korea’s FSN

​Singapore-based influencer marketing and media company Gushcloud​ has formed a joint venture with ​Futurestream Networks (FSN), a mobile advertisement company based in South Korea. Both companies are part of ​Yello Digital Marketing (YDM) Group.

Named Cauly GC Pte Ltd, the joint venture will kick-start its operations in Singapore and will make its way into other Southeast Asian markets.