DIAL: Digital Innovations Awesome List (April 2018)

At Centro, we know that keeping up with the trade pubs and latest trends can be tough and time consuming. To make that easier, we’ve compiled all the articles, reports, and other bits of awesomeness you may have missed, but should definitely read. Enjoy our latest list below!

Europe’s New Privacy Law Will Change the Web, and More (10 min read)

Less than 60 days until the new European internet law General Data Protection Regulation – or GDPR as most refer it – goes into effect, and it has already spurred changes in how data is collected and handled. GDPR attempts to standardize data rights across all 28 European Union countries, ensuring that users know, understand, and consent to the data collected about them.

HQ’s Ready Player One and Nike Ad Deals Show Just how Lucrative Mobile Audiences Can Be (2 min read)

Averaging over a million players per game, HQ Trivia continues to hit new milestones with sizeable sponsorship deals, the most recent being the movie release of Ready Player One. In an age of hyper-targeting, there’s still high value in large, attentive audiences.

While Advertising Slept: 6 Reasons the Ad Industry Got Sucker Punched By Digital (6 min read)

As digital advertising has matured, most of the promises made early on have come to fruition, but at what cost? This offers some good perspective on what’s taken place over the last several years, with a nod of hope towards improved digital advertising and how TV will benefit as well.

eMarketer Study of Digital Ad Prices Finds Rising CPMs (1 min read)

Looking at data across platforms, eMarketer found that prices for programmatic ads are going up. Prices are seeing an increase across channels such as desktop, mobile web, mobile app, and video. This increase is attributed to a growing importance on both audience and data in the programmatic space.

End of an Era: Media Buyers are Ditching the Much-Hated RFP (3 min read)

With more buyers moving into the programmatic space, agencies are using RFPs less and less. Claiming it to be old school process where vendors do not receive feedback from agencies, more partners and agencies are pushing back on them. There’s a growing desire for a more efficient process – particularly with the more custom and complex offerings available.

Ads.txt Adoption Continues Its Steady Growth (2 min read)

There’s been a notable rise in the adoption of ads.txt by publishers in recent months – with upwards of 51% of sites that sell their ads programmatically having implemented the verification file. For those out of the loop, ads.txt is a way programmatic platforms can check whether a vendor’s claim to inventory is legitimate or not, offering a greater level of transparency of who is allowed to sell their inventory. Read related Centro articles from last year here and here.

Blockchain Expert Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty (18 min read)

Are you confused by blockchain? Blockchain technology is a new-ish network that decentralizes trade and allows for more peer-to peer transactions. Still a little confusing? Political scientist and blockchain researcher Bettina Warburg breaks down blockchain technology in this video to five different people; a child, a teen, a college student, a grad student, and an expert.

How the Internet Is Changing Life for the World’s Poorest People (5 min read)

Knowing that over two billion people in the world are not online can be tough to fathom in our non-stop connected lives. This article explores how many of these people are getting connected, though somewhat indirectly, while still benefiting from new services that offer micro-loans, crop insurance, and even more efficient energy sources.

April's DIAL is also available as a PDF.