Going (Creatively) Digital
Yelp Will Say Goodbye To Display Ads By Year’s End
By the end of 2015, online review site Yelp will have phased out display advertising, according to Advertising Age. In its place will be an increased emphasis on selling native and local ad products. Founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman told Ad Age that “disruptive” display advertising is at odds with the company’s focus on the best consumer experience, particularly in apps. Display advertising accounted for just 6% of Yelp’s revenue in the second quarter, compared to 81% from local advertising.
Publishing Upstarts: Forget Programmatic, We Can Sell Our Own Ads
The Wall Street Journal reports that some upstart digital publishers like Vox Media, Refinery29, Mic and Woven Digital are rejecting selling their advertising inventory via programmatic channels, preferring instead the old-fashioned direct selling route. Reasons range from low-ball pricing via ad exchanges to the perception that working with certain adtech vendors causes pages to load slowly in browsers. BuzzFeed is cited as a model some newer digital publishers are trying to follow with its reliance on native ads that blend in with content and do without display ads altogether.
Can Amazon Become America’s Biggest Clothing Retailer?
It may sound farfetched, but analysts at Cowen and Company believe that Jeff Bezos’ baby is on track to overtake Macy’s by the year 2017, according to a story by Quartz. It’s worth visiting the Quartz story just to see visual of the flat-line revenue experience forecast for not only Macy’s but Nordstrom, TJ Maxx and Walmart looking out to 2020. Meanwhile, Amazon’s projected wearables growth just keeps climbing. The company’s revenues from electronics and non-apparel merchandise are seen continuing to be eclipsed from those generated by clothing. Amazon offers 90,000 listings just for Nike products alone.
Pandora’s Box Of Ad Offerings Now Contains Sponsored Listening For All
Following a test with select brands, Pandora has rolled out to all marketers its free streaming music for users who agree to engage with video or rich media, ADWEEK reports. Land Rover recently used rich media to sponsor 60 minutes of free music to show 360-degree views of its vehicles navigating sandy terrain. Sponsored Listening is only available on mobile devices, which Pandora says is how 80% of its 80 million users access their music. New advertisers for Sponsored Listening include Corona Extra, Gatorade and Yeungling.
C-Suite Moves
Geoff Nesnow to Valuesetters as Chief Marketing Officer, from Hult International Business School, where he had been Faculty Coach and Mentor.
Kevin Alansky to CircleBack as Chief Marketing Officer, from SocialRadar, where he had been Chief Marketing Officer.
Greg Smith to Sammons Financial Group as VP, Chief Marketing Officer, from various sales and marketing roles in the insurance industry.
Bob Frady to Maropost as Chief Marketing Officer, from Zeeto Media, where he was VP of email marketing.
Yvonne Daugherty to Carenet Healthcare Services as SVP, Marketing, from Medsolutions, where she had been VP, Marketing.
Laurie Hobbs to Marcus Hotels & Resorts as VP, marketing, from Blue Harbor Resort, Spa & Conference Center, where she was Director of Marketing.
Mitchel Harad to SocietyOne as Chief Marketing Officer, from Lending Club, where he was VP, Marketing.
