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The Ligatus acquisition might have snuck under your radar but this is notable consolidation in Europe. For American readers they are the TripleLift or ShareThrough of Europe (headcount of 180 vs 230) but they’d already been acquired by Bertelsmann the publishing/broadcasting group. This is much more common in Europe.
The deal was for stock. So why would an already exited player onsell and for stock? Likely CPMs guarantees on deals were under pressure from ITP and fearing a more competitive environment they thought can’t beat them why not join them.
For buyers? Once the pipes get connected, should mean more efficiency in buying across the continent. It also means US equivalents are in the same boat.
Notable stories this week
- What happened to Red Bull? One of the early pioneers in content.
- [Long read] Instagram influencers pushing pharmaceuticals.
- LiveRamp to offer its identity graph for free to DSPs.
- Amazon’s physical sample box in the wild. Marketing enters a new paradigm, retargeted boxes…
- Will Vice be profitable this year? No but they’re moving closer to it.
- An interview with Vivek Shah, the CEO at J2 Global (they bought Mashable).
- [Twitter thread of the week] Brands making fake movie trailers vs Cambria (countertop brand) who made a small movie and aired the trailer during the Oscars.
- How a high-flying media executive with a $1m annual paycheck and big plans to revamp the LA times found himself out of a job after 5 months.
- Walmart’s pursuit of ad dollars.
- Facebook launches a first party cookie for ads.
Deals/M&A
- Outbrain announces their biggest acquisition ever – in a stock based deal they acquired Ligatus from Bertelsmann.
- Ceros raises $14m for its interactive content platform.
Campaign of the week
- Nike Dream Craizer, and all the sub videos.
- BT on Wired, How 5G will fuel future business.
- Deloitte on The Atlantic, The Strategy Paradox. As a business owner, I appreciate how simple, informative and to the point this piece is.
- Submit your own and view the best campaigns of 2019.
Datapoints of note
- Ads seen in a premium context are viewed for 17% longer and with 29% higher levels of engagement than ads on social sites such as Facebook and YouTube.
- The fill rate on remnant Apple News inventory was less than 20%.
Events
- ContentTECH Summit – 4/8-4/10, San Diego, CA.
- C3 – 5/6-5/8, New York, New York.
Thanks, do I have any readers from Europe with a Lidl nearby? Their own brand whisky Queen Margot won Whiskey of the year, I would love a bottle if you could secure me one. I’ll reimburse!
-Ben
Measurement and intelligence for content-first brands.
Nudge is a content marketing analytics platform that drives performance for leading brand advertisers and premium publishers.
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