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Hello there, guys and gals. It’s Friday once more and a spooky one at that. Welcome to the Halloween edition of Five on Friday! The Centrons have been anticipating the weekend for all of the tricks and treats that lay ahead, so slip into your costume and get ready for this ghoulish edition of Five on Friday!

Since we had such an eventful Halloween week, why not head over to our Facebook page to catch a glimpse of the fun! From all of us Centro, have a very happy and healthy weekend and be safe in all of your spooky, weekend adventures!

Integrates with eXelate and other Major DMPs to Use Data for Targeting Ad Campaigns;

Augments Single Platform for Real-Time Advertising on All Digital Channels -- Desktop, Mobile, and Video

NEW YORK, NY – October 30, 2014 – SiteScout (www.sitescout.com), a self-serve platform for programmatic ad buying, has announced the availability of Facebook Exchange (FBX) inventory within its real-time bidding (RTB) software. Through an integration with AppNexus (www.appnexus.com) to access FBX, SiteScout empowers any type of marketer to bid on Facebook ad impressions with no restrictions tied to campaign spend minimums. Additionally, SiteScout integrated with eXelate (www.exelate.com), one of the leading independent data platforms, to enable users to target specific audience segments on all channels. Particularly, SiteScout customers can leverage eXelate's B2Bx data, which empowers B2B marketers to reach their distinct audience targets at scale. In the SiteScout platform, marketers can use their own first-party audience data for retargeting. They can also use third-party data from SiteScout partners to conduct demographic targeting, behavioral targeting and/or purchase-intent targeting on Facebook. These are effective tactics for direct marketers to find targeted users when they log in Facebook. SiteScout offers one of the most robust and unrestricted self-serve RTB platforms for every major digital channel.

Buying on FBX typically requires partnering with demand-side platforms that can ask for thousands in ad spend per campaign. This can be a major hurdle for small and medium-sized marketers that want to try RTB in Facebook but don’t run large-scale buys on the site. Marketers can overcome these challenges through SiteScout’s platform that gives access to all major media platforms, data options for targeted campaigns, and real-time reporting for advanced analysis and optimization.

“SiteScout users expect us to continue innovating without sacrificing our platform’s easy, efficient and logical interface. RTB on Facebook is a major tactic marketers want, and we’ve designed a comprehensive way for them to accomplish this within the workflow of other media buying activities,” said Matt Sauls, vice president of operations, SiteScout. “SiteScout is dedicated to driving the confluence of RTB in all channels in a seamless and accessible manner.”

“We're excited to bring super accurate targeting to small- and medium-sized marketers through SiteScout's self-service platform,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of eXelate. “This allows them to leverage eXelate's data for the accuracy and scale to which the rest of the industry has grown accustomed for their marketing initiatives.”

SiteScout (www.sitescout.com) is a self-serve ad platform for programmatic media buying on desktop display, mobile and video. It offers transparent, real-time reporting and control, combined with relentlessly helpful customer service that delivers unparalleled performance for brands, marketers and agencies. With no contracts or commitments, a low minimum deposit, and the ability to sign up within minutes, SiteScout makes real-time bidding (RTB) technology easily accessible to advertisers of all types and sizes.

SiteScout is wholly-owned by Centro (centro.net). It is part of Centro’s unified, enterprise-class software platform that streamlines and scales ad buys across all channels, accessing both guaranteed and biddable inventory, to achieve any campaign objective. Centro has successfully planned and executed more than 100,000 national and local campaigns across all digital display platforms and ad format types. Headquartered in Chicago with 33 offices in North America, Centro’s success and commitment to culture has led to many accolades, including #1 on Crain’s Best Places to Work in Chicago in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, and #8 on Fortune’s Best Medium-Size Workplace in 2014.

At Centro, we believe that digital media investment should deliver powerful consumer insights. That’s why every campaign we design puts control and transparency into the hands of the client. Our teams translate campaign performance into insights and education which is passed along to the client throughout the campaign lifecycle. This data also informs real time optimizations and future planning.

Buying on our custom network model means freedom of choice. We operate without contracts; offering clients unrestricted access to 100% of all digital inventory. Centro handpicks media to customize each plan, ensuring unique business goals are met. Any creative type, inventory channel, and geographic region are all up for grabs. Then, as insights are revealed, optimizations are made. Our teams monitor and adjust campaigns in real-time, continuously assessing performance to ensure clients get the most media out of their dollar.

Targeting Brand Personas: Have a specific audience you want to reach? Our custom network purchase model combines any number of site-direct, high impact and programmatic media buys to target any brand persona on any channel at any time. Make a splash with a high impact placement, align with appropriate content, and learn from online behavior – all to stay in front and top-of-mind.

Viewability: Have direct control over the viewability and impact of your media plan. With each line item carefully selected for your specific campaign needs, enjoy the freedom and flexibility to control when and where your ads are seen.

Build Quality Reach: Centro has working relationships with over 15,000 publishers. Try one. Try Twenty. Do something new. Scale it up or down – but rest easy always knowing that you can start, stop, change or revise your campaign at any time.

Interested in learning more and getting the most from your media? Contact a Centro sales representative and experience the control of the custom network model.

Is there more to you than the newspaper you read and your favorite online store? Of course there is, and smart advertisers are taking note. In response, they’re moving away from campaigns that target on pre-defined categories like the arts section of a newspaper or a sports magazine. Today, with the help of audience buying technology, we can identify and target individuals across interests, enabling us to reach a health enthusiast even as she scans cupcake recipes on her mobile device.

This more accurate method of targeting can be done in real-time across the web and across devices – and it’s faster, more efficient, and more accurate than ever before.

Centro’s audience buying team is equipped with platform technology that leverages layers of data to target individuals from every angle of the web. Twenty-four major ad exchanges and supply side platforms (SSP) give you access to over 30 billion impressions daily. Our own private exchange feeds curated premium inventory into our programmatic platform. The result is a comprehensive pool of quality impressions ready to be expertly distilled and bid on in real time so you can reach even the most dynamic audiences.

Data layers also refine targeting and paint a more detailed picture of consumers. To deliver hyper-accurate insights on campaign performance, Centro teams integrate first, second and third-party data into buys..

Beyond data, additional targeting capabilities offer the ability to dial into individual behaviors of audiences as they navigate the web.

Campaign transparency and control come when you leverage the highest quality inventory available to your brand. Allowed list and block list capabilities, and contextual page scan technology ensure that your messages are aligning with safe and relevant content. Our teams of digital experts follow your campaign as it unfolds in real time while optimizing delivery based on efficiency, safety, and performance. Business insights are passed back to you and your clients to inform further media buys, then wrapped campaigns are itemized and delivered on a single Centro invoice.

Interested in exploring the benefits of Audience Buying for your brand’s campaigns? Contact a Centro sales representative, and experience the power of programmatic.

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Masters of Marketing conference is one of my favorite events of the year. Not just because it’s a great place for Centro to be, but because the ANA assembles top marketers to present their most compelling and inspiring work.

Session after session, it was all about the “why”. For me, the most memorable presentations emphasized the power of purpose to drive brand growth. These companies were connecting with their customers and capturing market share based on ideals rooted in corporate culture and that reverberated through their creative campaigns. Here are a few of my favorite moments:

It’s no coincidence that the presentations with the most impact were the ones that told the most meaningful stories about their brand’s journey. Bottom line, good stories get passed on - both at ANA and across every social circle and channel out there.

Today, more than ever before, technology makes those connections happen at-scale.

Successful brands will embrace an ambitious purpose. They will cultivate brand ambassadors with deeply authentic stories that are shared across the entire digital ecosystem.

To reach and engage these advocates, brands will have to develop personas that dive far deeper into the intricate layers of desires and motivations. In fact, top marketers and visionaries at ANA talked in great detail about gaining a deeper understanding of our audiences and applying that knowledge in a more meaningful way. Most agree we’re just scratching the surface when it comes to audience insight and targeting sophistication.

Personally, I find inspiration in the idea of being more connected. It’s value-based. It’s human. And in terms of building a brand, it’s strategically on point. By the end of my time at ANA, it was abundantly clear that the practice of putting meaningful connections at the center of everything we do is a smart plan no matter what we’re trying to build — whether that’s a company, a family, a career or a brand.

Cookies make all this possible. As visitors land on a publisher’s page, a piece of code adds cookies to their browsers. They’re then included in audiences lists that can be retargeted with campaigns designed specifically for their audience. The power of RTB makes retargeting campaigns particularly powerful; these campaigns are highly targeted, heavily engaging, offer greater reach and all with lower overall campaign costs.

Other reasons to engage in retargeting include allowing to build an asset by capturing audience data, enhanced campaign performance and the ability to up-sell, cross-sell or onboard converted visitors.

How are Publishers Getting Programmatic Wrong?

Many publishers are still getting programmatic wrong. These days, their involvement in the space is more or less mandatory — contingent on advertiser demand — but there are some important things they need to get right if they are going to make a successful go of this technology.

Programmatic is about much more than “two-dollar CPMs.” Publishers need to smarten up so they can educate their clients about what programmatic can do for them. It falls to the publishers given that the prevailing advertiser perception is programmatic is only for buying inexpensive impressions. People are important too. Publishers also need to understand that programmatic won’t cannibalize direct sales.

More premium ad units are needed in programmatic exchanges. Publishers shouldn’t be concerned about overusing high-impact ads. Finally, they need to better use their data and figure out how to make it make sense for their advertising partners.

Private Marketplaces, Programmatic Direct Not Just Fads

Spoiler alert: private marketplaces and programmatic direct aren’t going to go away anytime soon. The tea leaves are predicting that they’re here to stay. Recent projections from eMarketer indicated that programmatic ad spend will account for 63% of all display ad spend by 2016. The estimate also pointed the finger at private marketplaces and programmatic direct as the trading methods that’ll really take off in the coming years.

According to eMarketer’s projections, private marketplaces will shoot up from being 10% of all RTB spend in 2014 to 30% by 2016. The projections are much more staggering when it comes to programmatic direct channels, which eMarketer predicts will go from accounting for 8% of all programmatic ad spend in 2014 to 42% in 2016.

Together, the two, which now account for 10% of overall programmatic spend, will account for almost 60% in 2016, predicted the research firm.

Read More from MediaPost…

One of Centro’s strongest client relationships was born out of mutual necessity. Several years ago, one of our agency clients was a small creative shop looking to expand their offering to become a full-service marketing communications agency. An internal audit determined that the existing team best served as traditional media buyers, as none of the internal resources had the skills, expertise, or bandwidth to tackle the rapidly growing digital media task. This left a significant gap in their offering, and they immediately sought to find a solution.

At the same time, Centro was looking to break into new regional business and expand our agency clientele. Some of the client’s board members who had worked with Centro in the past had suggested leveraging our digital expertise, accessibility, and service as a way of expanding their offering. We were introduced, and a perfect partnership was formed.

Centro streamlined the agency’s buying process by handling all digital media strategy, planning, execution, optimization, and reconciliation; functioning as an extension of the agency’s team. Centro subject matter experts leverage best-in-class research tools to provide insights and education throughout the entire campaign lifecycle. As the agency client worked primarily with regional brands, local activation was a crucial part of their digital offering. Centro customized each plan for specific metropolitan areas, including guaranteed, programmatic, and biddable inventory across all channels and creative.

The partnership between Centro and the creative focused shop turned full-service agency continues today. As more brands and advertisers adopt various forms of digital, the agency continues to rely on Centro as the white-labeled digital team- providing a necessary backbone to the business. Through our partnership, the agency has seen healthy growth and return on their investment in a digital team:

At Centro, we offer a modern approach to digital media. With over 13 years and 100,000 campaigns to our name, we leverage advanced technology, proven tactics, and industry expertise to build campaigns around the channels and platforms that drive the greatest results for our client’s specific business needs. Data is paired with intuition for a comprehensive approach to the media buy. People and technology are at the heart of Centro, and are the essential parts in every #CentroInAction story.

Hello, friends! It's Friday and time for the latest Five on Friday! The Centrons felt like jet setters this week, heading to events all over the country and the UK. So before you start raking up all those falling leaves, take a load off and read the Five on Friday for this week!

From all of us at Centro, be happy, be kind, and have a wonderful and healthy weekend.

Welcome to part two of the Centro on the Run series! We are sure that by now you are all in the groove of this series and are keeping a very good pace. We wanted to give you the inside scoop on our runners, how their recent races went, and how they are preparing for upcoming races. We did a short interview with each runner to see on how things were going.

Now’s the time to maintain your stride, keep breathing, and snag a water cup from an adoring fan as we continue with our next leg of the race: Centro on the Run, Part 2.

Carrie: Not quite as well as I was expecting. I felt amazing after my 20-mile run, and was expecting to finish the 26.2 in about 5 hours and 15 minutes, but I hurt my leg exactly 2 weeks before the race. I did a little physical therapy the week before and was able to run, which was great, but around mile 4, my leg started bothering me again. I made it to mile 18/19 before I had to walk and then my leg just was not having it. I kept trying to run before I finally had to accept the fact that I was walking to the finish line. So, I walked and walked and walked some more and about an hour after my goal time, I finished.

Erin: I rocked it until mile 18 but I hit the wall hard and came tumbling down. I finished under 4 hours but I was 11 minutes off my Boston Qualifying time.

Did you have a special moment during your race that inspired you to keep running?

Amanda: I saw two guys running with prosthetic legs, a blind runner, and a cancer survivor. They gave me motivation to keep going. We also started behind 3 guys from NYC carrying the “Flag of Honor” with the names of everyone who lost their lives on 9/11.

Carrie: So many! Seeing my family at various points was amazing- I think I got teary every time. When I had to start walking, I saw my best friend, who came in to run it with me. I’d been ahead of her the whole race and would see her family just before she would, but at mile 20, they saw her first and she let them know I was injured and so they stayed put for me. When I saw them, I started crying and without hesitation, her sister jumped in and started walking with me. We walked for about two miles together, sometimes in silence, other times we were having laughs. She held my hand, caught me when I almost fell and reassured me that walking was perfectly fine. We saw my family in Chinatown and I started crying again. My sister thought I was going to have to drop out and was prepared to carry me on her back to the finish line, but when she heard I was just going to walk to the end, she was incredibly happy. Seeing my family and knowing that I had a lot of supporters who I couldn’t let down helped me keep going. At Mile 26, I said hello to my family again and then I heard “Carrie!” and I turned around to see a gal I’d gone to grade school with! She also sustained an injury and was running slow, trying to finish strong, so I gave my leg another chance and it held out for me the last .2 miles! I literally got to throw my hands in the air and run across the finish line, which was a great feeling! I’m not sure that I would’ve been able to run those last .2 without her.

Hank: Just hearing the crowd cheer and seeing everyone covered in mud kept the race very fun and light hearted for me. It was pretty east to keep going hard since everyone around me was having such a great time.

Carrie: Pretty good! I’m itching to get running again, but my leg still has other ideas.

Amanda: I’m retiring from long races (at least for a couple years). Plan on doing some fun obstacle course races next year.

Carrie: YES! I want to do another marathon and finish in my goal time. Maybe not next year as I want to wear sandals again in the summer (4 bruised toes kind of makes me a little self-conscious), but I definitely want to do another.

Erin: I’m debating as to whether I should leverage the 5 months of training I have under my belt and run Philly in a few weeks to try and qualify. I have until Sunday to figure it out.

Hank: I am looking into some longer races in 2015, but nothing is certain yet!

The Second round of questions are for the runners who have upcoming races and we thought it would be a great idea to see how their preparations were coming along.

Michael Thill: Turkey Trot in Long Beach on Thanksgiving Day, November 27^th

Michael L: Unfortunately, I’m shut down at the moment with an ankle injury. So unfortunately, Rehab is the new training.

Michael M: I am currently in the stage of “thinking about training”…which comes just before “oh shoot, I should have started training two weeks ago”. But otherwise I am running 2-3 times per week, which is okay. Most of my runs are in the 2-4 mile range so I need to begin working in a long run at least every other week.

Michael T: The race is a 10K so I’m keeping my running steady and am using this preparation to run another half marathon in San Luis Obispo next year. I finished the race in 54 minutes last year so my goal is to come in under that and then congratulate myself by gorging in a Thanksgiving feast!

Michael L: I’m doing everything I can in order to be healthy and ready to go for this. So I guess you can say I am excited!

Michael M: Pretty stoked! Last year it rained during this race, which was not ideal (especially for SoCal). I am really looking forward to the potential of better weather which will make the race much more enjoyable.

Michael T: Very! My mom flies in from Dallas every year to run the race with me, and the course is right along the Pacific Ocean where you run next to downtown Long Beach and the RMS Queen Mary.

Michael L: My initial goal was to finish under two hours; my new goal is to actually run the race.

Michael M: My main goal is to beat my time from last year. I am finding that this goal becomes increasingly more difficult as the years pass.

Everyone always says how amazing it is that I run marathon, but the truth is, anyone can run a marathon. Really. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, it’s long. Yes, it takes dedication. But what doesn’t? It’s like life – take it one step at time – and don’t quit!

Thanks for joining us for part two. We are half way there! Be sure to stay tuned for part three.

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