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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!

The Meeker Report Is Not the Only Game in Town for Marketers
Now that you've had chance to dig through and collect your thoughts from Mary Meeker's annual Internet Trends report, make sure you spend some time reviewing the LUMA Partners State of Digital Media report, which is more concentrated on the world of digital marketing.

The Winners and Losers of the Rise of TV's 'Skinny Bundle'
Traditional TV subscriptions fell by 2.4% year-over-year, the largest percentage ever (or 99 million households if you're keeping score). So who wins and who loses in the current TV media landscape where new viewing packages are being offered? You might be surprised.

Amazon to Charge $2.8 Million for NFL Ad Packages
With Amazon winning the rights to all 10 Thursday Night Football games for $50 million, it appears they're hoping to charge nearly $100,000 per second to market to the estimated 50 million Amazon Prime users who will be receiving exclusive live streams to the games.

Snapchat is Becoming the Social Network it Never Wanted to Be
While it has pegged itself as a “camera company," recent updates hint at Snapchat's transformation better enabling smaller advertisers and brands to gain visibility of Snapchat's 166 million daily users.

What to Know About Visual Search
Could you point out the differences between Pinterest Lens and Google Lens? With 3 out of every 4 internet users regularly searching visual content before making a purchase, it's important to brush up on why visual search is impacting how and where we buy.

Amazon's Alexa Has Gained 14,000 Skills in the Last Year
15,000 skills and counting, and Daily Jeopardy is still my favorite.

The State of Mobile Advertising
Fast stats on the state of mobile advertising from Digiday reiterate the rise social video and the need for measurement on both device and advertising platforms.

A Sociology of the Smartphone
Smartphones have altered the texture of everyday life, digesting many longstanding spaces and rituals, and transforming others beyond recognition.

Long Before iPhones, This 19th-Century Gadget Made Everyone a Mobile Addict
Fresh from celebrating the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, can you guess what “mobile device" people were so mesmerized by that they were walking into traffic and walls during the 1800s?

July's DIAL is also available as a PDF. Download here!

Next up in our ad tech analogies series: The Online Shopping Cart Analogy, which explains how programmatic direct buying works.

First things first: What's programmatic direct? It's a reserved (guaranteed) buy with fixed rates negotiated directly with the publisher and executed in programmatic environments using Deal IDs.

It becomes a little bit easier to understand if you think about the way you shop online. You go to a retailer's website, browse their inventory, and select what you want – sorting through different variations of items, like color, size, quantity, etc. You drop the items in your shopping cart, submit your payment information, and you're done. You didn't have to work with a sales person or a support person or anyone else to facilitate your purchase. And you know what you're getting is guaranteed to be shipped to you at exactly the specifications you set – otherwise you wouldn't have been able to buy it.

In this way, online shopping works very much like programmatic direct – which is essentially making direct ad inventory purchases from publishers without facilitating them manually, by syncing directly into their ad server.

Next week we'll dive into The Rue La La Analogy, which explains how private marketplaces and private exchanges are not the same thing.

Learn more about the programmatic advertising opportunity with Centro, here.

This year, 219 million Americans will be celebrating our 214 years of independence. And, while they're busy partying, they will spend about $7.1 billion on celebrations, travel, and BBQs -- a firecracker of an opportunity for retailers.

Download our infographic to read some Fourth of July fun facts and check out where Americans will be spending this Independence Day.

Next up in our ad tech analogies series: The Coupon Code Analogy, which explains how Deal IDs facilitate private marketplaces.

Before we dive into this analogy, let's quickly overview what private marketplaces (PMPs) are. Private marketplaces are customized marketplaces where publishers make their inventory available to select buyers. Usually a negotiation takes place between the buyer and seller to create and agree on a deal.

So, what are Deal IDs and how could they possibly relate to store coupons?

Think about how coupon codes are used. Every retailer offers and issues coupons at different times and for different reasons. A coupon code from a retailer can be unique to each individual (like a savings coupon for your birthday) or they can be universal and work for anyone who's got the coupon (like 20% off all store merchandise for anyone who comes into the store). They can be for specific items, or a general discount on all inventory. They can be valid for short, specific windows of time or valid for long, extended periods of use.

It's not unlike how Deal IDs are used to facilitate access to private marketplaces for buyers and sellers. Deal IDs act as a key to the private marketplace. While private marketplace transactions are still subject to an auction, the competition is limited to advertisers with the Deal ID. In simpler terms: You can't get 20% off all store merchandise if you never got the coupon or savings offer.

Next week we'll dive into The Online Shopping Cart Analogy, which explains how programmatic direct buying works.

Interested in other Centro resources that will help you dominate the digital media space? Reach out to [email protected].

 

Next up in our ad tech analogies series: The Black Shoes Analogy, which explains the benefit of buying from a DSP in real-time.

Put yourself in these shoes (pun intended): You're looking to buy a pair of black dress shoes online and need to find the best value.

You could go to every single online retailer one at a time to see what they offer, compare prices, and then weigh your options.

Or, you could go to eBay, search for what you want, see all the options that are available to you and what they cost, and determine what you're willing to bid for each item. If you're the highest bidder? You've got a new pair of shoes. If not, you're still searching for shoes, but you can at least control whether you should bid higher or lower based on supply and demand.

This is similar to how bidding on ad inventory works – except that for ad inventory, the time in which the auction occurs is instantaneous and in real-time.

Next week we'll dive into The Coupon Code Analogy, which explains how Deal IDs facilitate private marketplaces.

Interested in other Centro resources that will help you dominate the digital media space? Reach out to [email protected].

"Marketers can now target audiences based on page-level demographic data, predicted viewability and brand protection parameters on ad-tech provider Centro's demand-side platform (DSP) -- enhancements made possible by Centro's long-term deals with comScore and DoubleVerify."

Read more in MediaPost.

Centro Provides Marketers with Easy-to-Use Programmatic Advertising Software with Robust Viewability, Demographic and Brand Safety Audience Targeting Options

 

Chicago – June 14, 2017 – Centro (centro.net), a provider of enterprise-class software for digital advertising, today announced the addition of more targeting capabilities within its platform, powered by longstanding partners comScore (www.comscore.com) and DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com). In Centro DSP, named a top DSP by software ratings site G2 Crowd, marketers have new options to easily find audiences based on page-level demographics, predicted viewability, or brand protection parameters. Centro is the cross-channel digital advertising solution of choice for marketers of any size that want robust features in an easy-to-use and accessible platform. For a demo, visit: centro.net/products/dsp-programmatic-advertising.

 

Programmatic advertising is becoming a marketing requisite for a wide variety of organizations, and this requires adoption and learning of powerful tools for reaching and engaging audiences in real-time across the web. However, premium-grade technology for programmatic advertising are normally only available to a limited set of large marketers that can commit hundreds of thousands in ad spend per month. For marketers that want to use demand-side platforms that are competitive with the technology used by their larger peers, Centro offers a solution with sophisticated capabilities and diverse partner integrations, yet is simple to use and adapt.

 

“When using Centro’s technology, customers are assured that we continue to evaluate and add the most useful and relevant digital marketing tools for their business,” said Katie Risch, SVP of software client solutions at Centro. “We’ve continued to hone and develop Centro DSP to access innovative partners and rich data without compromising on the user experience.”

 

Here are additional details on new targeting features on Centro DSP:

 

New comScore targeting capabilities add to its existing pre-bid segments already available in Centro DSP, such as brand safety, invalid traffic, keyword targeting or avoidance, contextual categories, and content language.

 

One of the industry’s most accessible programmatic ad platforms, Centro DSP provides advertisers with capabilities to engage consumers on every media channel, ad format and device type. It provides media professionals of all skill levels with a flexible interface and intuitive design, and is supported by a dedicated customer success team. Centro DSP is also available as an integrated tool in Centro Platform, a software solution for agencies that unifies digital media planning, buying and optimization across publisher-direct and programmatic advertising.

 

About Centro

Centro (centro.net) is a provider of enterprise-class software for digital advertising organizations. Its technology platform centralizes, organizes and automates all digital media campaigns across all channels, accessing both guaranteed and biddable inventory, to achieve any objective. Our holistic approach gives marketers a single system of record to fulfill their research, planning, buying, optimization, reporting and reconciliation needs. Headquartered in Chicago with 32 offices in North America, Centro has received numerous accolades for its commitment to employees and workplace culture.

 

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Contact:

Anthony Loredo

[email protected]

646-462-4888

Next up in our ad tech analogies series: The Concert Ticket Analogy, which explains the difference between preferred deals, private marketplaces, and the open marketplace.

For the purposes of this analogy, let's pretend I have tickets to a Rolling Stones concert and, it turns out, I'm not able to go and I need to figure out a way to sell my tickets.

The first person I ask before anyone else is my friend at work, and I ask if she wants to buy the tickets from me at their fixed rate value. I'm giving her the privilege of a first look or first right to refuse to buy, and I'm offering the tickets for the amount I paid. If she wants to buy them? Great, we're done, and we just negotiated a preferred deal. If she doesn't? I need to reach out to other people and find another way to monetize these tickets.

So, I send an email to the company's all-employee distribution list – which functions like a private marketplace, because it's a private environment of select people (or, in programmatic terms, select buyers and sellers). I ask who wants to buy the tickets. First-come, first-serve, and I'll give them to the highest bidder. If someone offers to buy them? Great, sold. If not, then I try again to monetize through another avenue.

I could post the tickets on sites like StubHub, Craigslist, or eBay – which are open to all buyers. This is like an open marketplace, because it allows a larger pool of users to access it and it's more likely to be sold this way.

Next week we'll dive into The Black Shoe Analogy, which explains the benefit of buying from a DSP in real-time.

Interested in other Centro resources that will help you dominate the digital media space? Reach out to [email protected].

"Many DSPs now offer to shoulder the burden of setting up private marketplace deals for their clients. Recently Centro, which services smaller agencies and brands, joined that group and can tap into 1,000 private marketplace deals it set up with 150 publishers."

Read more in AdExchanger.