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Cheil Worldwide buys stake in Iris Worldwide

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Cheil Worldwide has reached a deal to buy an unspecified stake in Iris Worldwide, a London-based international agency network with clients including Samsung, Shell, Adidas, Barclaycard and Domino’s. While Iris joins Cheil in a strategic partnership, both will continue to operate as separate entities for the time being.

Although both companies have declined to reveal terms of the deal, Cheil has made a significant initial investment, with the potential to acquire the business in its entirety within the next five years. Iris’ partnership with US media company Merideth – which has held a 15-25 percent stake since 2011 – will now come to a close as a result of this new acquisition.

“Our goal was to find the right partner who could match our determination and drive,” says Daiki Lim, President and Chief Executive, Cheil Worldwide. “We’ve watched with awe how Iris has built its global business and we are delighted to have this opportunity to work with their brand.”

Ian Millner, Iris’ joint Chief Executive adds, “We’re about to enter the most exciting chapter for Iris. The partnership won’t change who we are or what we do as a creative innovation network – but will extend our global reach and capabilities, and enable our clients and people to benefit from the huge opportunity presented by a true ‘East meets West’ and ‘West meets East’ network.”

Cheil Worldwide currently employs 5,000 staff in 48 offices and eight affiliate offices. Iris Worldwide has more than 1,000 employees across 17 offices worldwide.

Google tests ad-free subscriptions

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Google has launched a new service, which allows users the option to pay to prevent advertisements appearing on sites. Known as the Google Contributor, it enables users to subscribe as little as one (US) dollar per month to avoid ads popping up whilst browsing online.

Users can choose to subscribe between $1 and $3 each month to remove all Google-served ads on participating websites, though any third-party advertising on select sites will remain. The ads are then replaced with a small message, which thanks the user for being a contributor, and the space is filled instead with a pixelated pattern. On mobile devices, there is an option to have them removed entirely.

The Google Contributor service is beginning with 10 publishing partners, including Imgur, WikiHow, Mashable and Science Daily.

Apple brings programmatic to iAd

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Apple is partnering with a number of ad tech companies to bring programmatic buying to iAd, Apple’s mobile ad network. Allowing advertisers to automate ad buys and reporting across 250,000 iOS apps, Apple’s new partners include MediaMath, The Trade Desk, GET IT Mobile, Accordant Media, AdRoll and Adelphic. Apple has released an updated API for its automated buying platform iAd Workbench to power programmatic, ensuring that partners can use their own systems for managing campaigns and bids, including viewing and retrieving analytic data.

“We’re thrilled to have been chosen by Apple to help bring automation to iAd’s direct order business and to provide access to premium mobile buyers from around the world,” says Gregory R. Raifman, President, Rubicon Project. “We look forward to providing buyers with access to iAd’s unprecedented audience targeting capabilities and our full-stack direct order automation solution.”

Adam Berke, President and CMO of AdRoll adds, “AdRoll has a long history of being first to market with new inventory sources and innovative functionality. We’re excited to bring the power, precision and scale of programmatic buying to a high quality, in-demand inventory source. AdRoll is committed to bringing developers and advertisers of all sizes cross-device solutions for a world gone mobile.”

As of 2013, iAd accounted for 2.7% of the US mobile ad market ad market, while Apple’s share of the country’s smartphone market sat at 40%.

Yahoo integrates access to Flurry’s video inventory

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Yahoo is integrating Flurry’s in-app video inventory into its ad platforms. Having acquired the mobile analytics and advertising company in July, the integration will allow advertisers to buy mobile video inventory on Flurry’s app network – which can be purchased at 15, 30 or 60 second interstitial ads – through Yahoo Ad Manager Plus. This encompasses display, stream ads, mobile, search video and display ad inventory.

With Flurry video ad supply now available alongside Yahoo and third-party marketplaces on Yahoo Ad Manager Plus, the Yahoo platform has become the largest provider of video ad inventory in the industry, according to an official blog post. Yahoo continues to focus on video in its strategy to reviving its ad business.

Al Jazeera to build global media cloud

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Al Jazeera Media Network has secured a deal with telecommunications provider Ooredoo to build a global media cloud which will connect its international bureaus. Signed at Al Jazeera’s Doha headquarters, the cloud will allow the network to connect with its main hubs in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, Asia and Africa, as well as linking with its 70 bureaus around the world. The media cloud will enable Al Jazeera to share videos, reports and breaking news with its editorial teams instantly, aiding preparation for broadcast on the network’s news channels.

“One of Al Jazeera Media Network’s objectives is to become a world class network operation,”  says Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, Chairperson, Al Jazeera. “This global media cloud project and initiative will help the network achieve this goal by bringing the journalists and editorial workforce on a common communication platform. This partnership with Ooredoo will leverage the news capabilities of the channel and enhance user experience.”

Ooredoo Chairperson, Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani adds, “Al Jazeera is a globally-recognised brand, and Ooredoo is proud to be building infrastructure that will enable the company to take its coverage to the next level. In winning this competitive bid against some of the world’s largest technology companies, we are showing that Ooredoo is a world-class provider of cutting-edge business solutions.”

New Facebook platform to rival LinkedIn

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Facebook is rumoured to be working on the development of a new product called Facebook at Work, which will allow users to keep their personal and work profiles separate. While the layout is expected to be very similar to the traditional Facebook interface – including a newsfeed and groups – Facebook at Work will be entirely separate from personal accounts, with no information from a user’s social profile appearing on an individual’s professional page and vice versa.

Facebook’s new platform will include collaborative tools for work, allowing users to chat with colleagues, connect with professional contacts and collaborate over documents. With this in mind, the new enterprise-focused product is set to compete directly with professional social networks LinkedIn and Google Drive.

In order for the venture to be successful, Facebook will need to win the trust of corporate IT chiefs, guaranteeing that professional information will not fall into the hands of rival businesses. It is understood that some development of Facebook at Work is taking place in London.

Facebook to reduce promotional content

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Facebook has released plans to reduce the number of promotional posts appearing in newsfeeds. As of January 2015, Facebook users will see less promotional content including posts which ask users to purchase a product or app, posts that encourage people to enter promotions or sweepstakes, and posts which reuse exact content from ads.

This change comes after the social network’s ongoing survey asked the public how they felt about the content in their newsfeed. It was found that people would prefer to see a greater number of stories from friends and pages that they care about and far less promotional content.

Facebook’s blog post stated, “Beginning in January 2015, people will see less of this type of content in their newsfeed. As we’ve said before, newsfeed is already a competitive place – as more people and Pages are posting content, competition to appear in newsfeed has increased. All of this means that Pages that post promotional creative should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.”

Yahoo to acquire video advertising platform

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Yahoo is to buy programmatic video platform, BrightRoll, in a deal worth $640 million. According to an official blog post, the acquisition will accelerate Yahoo’s strategy to focus on search, communications and digital content through growth in mobile, social, native and specifically video advertising. With the acquisition to close in the first quarter of 2015, BrightRoll will strengthen Yahoo’s video advertising platform to make it the largest in the US, and is expected to clear $100 million in net revenue this year alone.

“Here at Yahoo, video is one of the largest growth opportunities, and BrightRoll is a terrific, strategic and financially compelling fit for our video advertising business,” says Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo. “As with every acquisition we have been extremely thoughtful about our approach to the video advertising space. The acquisition will accelerate the growth of both companies – we can help BrightRoll scale to even more advertisers globally and they can bring their tremendous platform offering to Yahoo’s advertisers. The combination builds positive momentum for Yahoo’s broader display advertising business in 2015.”

Tod Sacerdoti, CEO and Founder of BrightRoll adds, “We believe that the next step for programmatic video advertising as an industry is to extend and standardise globally, make cross-device buying simple and measurable, and complement and integrate with TV. We are excited to join Yahoo to materially advance efforts in each of these areas. We’re still in the early innings as an industry, and together, BrightRoll and Yahoo are committed to the vision of helping grow the entire video advertising ecosystem.”

Twitter launches Small Business Planner app

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Twitter has announced the launch of its Small Business Planner mobile app to help small and medium-sized businesses with their Twitter marketing activities. Coinciding the release with the run up to the holiday season, the free app will offer tactical guidance for businesses in North America, the UK and Ireland, and is available across iOS and Android devices.

In a blog post, the Small Business Content Team for Twitter highlighted the offerings of the app, which include:

  • A daily calendar themed around four main topics – Tweet suggestions, Twitter Ads strategies, information on Twitter tools and exclusive events
  • The ability to add relevant topics to your own agenda which syncs with your personal device calendar, allowing you to keep track of Twitter alongside all other marketing activities
  • Access to additional resources such as research, success stories, blog articles and ebooks directly within the app

Microsoft fires global ad sales team

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Tech giant Microsoft has laid off its global advertising sales team. The layoffs within the the Microsoft Advertising division are the result of the 18,000 proposed job cuts announced this summer, and are expected to affect staff members across the US, UK and other global offices, charged with selling advertising space across Microsoft’s MSN, Bing, Xbox, Outlook, Skype and Windows 8 properties. The executive team of Microsoft’s advertising division remains in place.

In the attempt to streamline the business towards profitability, the division is restructuring around more senior members of staff, focused on selling advertising solutions across its entire portfolio – stated above – rather than having large and separate sales teams for the different properties. In keeping with this restructure, former Advertising Senior Director of Strategy for global accounts and agencies, Bruno Fiorentini Jr., has been promoted to the Head of Microsoft Advertising’s global accounts and agencies team. Additionally, Microsoft Advertising has promoted Stephen Kim to lead the Microsoft Advertising worldwide marketing organisation. Previously General Manager of Microsoft Advertising’s global creative solutions team, Stephen will be responsible for driving worldwide trade marketing and consumer audience marketing for Microsoft Advertising.

The closure of Microsoft Advertising has been under speculation for some time, as the company had only a 2.45 percent share of the global display advertising market last year. The market is currently dominated by Google, which had a 31.92 percent share, with Facebook claiming 5.82 percent.