Lynne d Johnson

After years of playing guessing games about the competitive strengths and weaknesses of their direct-sold advertising, publishers now have a way to compare their individual performance against others in the industry, says Ad-Juster’s CMO Dan Lawton.
Since Ad-Juster works with the majority of the top 100 publishers, analyzing more than 1.2 trillion ad impressions and 2.3 billion clicks each month, we’re talking about a lot of data here.
We spoke with Lawton to learn more about his company’s Fl...

It’s a harrowing time.
First, we were hit with the COVID pandemic, and in recent weeks, protests and discussions about racial inequities in America have taken the main stage.
Businesses are questioning their operating practices (or sometimes being called out for them and canceled) and uncovering how unconscious biases might play a role in everything they do—from recruitment to product development to marketing. The world of digital media and advertising has long been fraught with its own set o...

“Trust is the catalyst of any recovery,” shared Christine Maguire, VP Of Global Ad Revenue, TripAdvisor at AdMonsters recent PubForum Virtual during her keynote August 26, 2020.
As COVID-19 spread across the globe, the travel industry was virtually shuttered. TripAdvisor, the world’s largest trip-planning platform, quickly learned that surviving, and possibly even thriving in the days ahead, required keen adaptability. By tapping into consumers’ feelings, the platform uncovered a wealth of cr...

Publishers shouldn’t have to trade-off providing users a quality experience with maximizing yield. But often that’s exactly the way it is—especially in the world of header bidding.
Given the amount of time it takes for multiple auctions to take place at once, producing the highest bid from demand sources ultimately leads to increased latency. A recent report from MonetizeMore shows exactly how publishers who set aggressive timeouts—around 500-600ms—to improve page loads end up missing out on ...

In the midst of a pandemic, it’s not like ad operations can just come to a complete halt—even if ad spend continues its downward spiral. Publishers still have to be prepared for the future, because one day—somewhere in the not-so-far-away future—business will once again ramp up.
For now, cost-cutting strategies have focused on hiring freezes, furloughs, and layoffs, leaving the remaining team members pulled tautly—some already stretched thin by the side effects of their new work from home sta...

There were quite a few recurring themes that emerged from last week’s Advertising Week New York 2019 (henceforth referred to as #AWNewYork) that struck me as being of great interest to folks in the ad operations and ad tech communities. So after gobbling up all of the information and digesting it slowly, I came away with a number of highlights—five—no, um, six—to be exact.
What I heard mostly was: “We need to work on a solution to identity,” “We need more data scientists to help us structure ...

In all the excitement around connected TV, we’ve forgotten that we’re not even close to tapping the monetization potential of mobile content. In this wide-ranging fireside chat with AdMonsters Chairman Rob Beeler, mobile expert Elgin Kim, Partner, Lab1492, explores the biggest operational and date challenges in apps and mobile web currently while tapping into the most exciting mobile opportunities.
“We’re at a point now where we’re going to have to focus on that one-to-one relationship,” said...

So, You Wanna Be an Ally
In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, the digital media and advertising industry is bearing witness to America’s civil unrest—in response to systemic racism—by asking itself some very hard questions about diversity and inclusion efforts within its own ranks.
There was a flurry of response from brands in support of the protests and #BlackLivesMatter, but most with cookie-cutter templatized messaging that came off like one massive PR flex. Critics handed out gold st...

African-Americans and Latinx account for 13% and 18% of the US population, respectively. Asian-Americans account for 5.6%. And women account for half the population, while 4.5% of US adults identify as LGBT. But as the world has become more diverse, advertising isn’t quite reflecting that change.
Here are some curious statistics: While African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinx populations make up nearly 37% of the US population, these groups often feel the least represented in advertisin...

What do brands like Harry’s, Casper and Allbirds all have in common? They’re all building a one-to-one connection with their customers in real-time that drives the basis of their business and their success.
That was the theme of Mike Sands’, CEO & Co-Founder of Signal, talk, “Identity: The Future Of Real-Time Engagement In The Age Of Going Direct” at AdExchnager’s Industry Preview He said identity is a strategic layer and that DTC brands have one leg up on legacy brands in the fragmented mark...

Journalism has been struggling to find its way in the digital news era. Over the past 25 years, weekday print circulations have been nearly cut in half, and advertising revenue has decreased even more, according to recent research from the Pew Research Center. In an age when readers want fast and free content, print and online publishers are scrambling for new ways to find money.
Blockchain, which is being used for everything from energy trading to fraud protection, may also hold interesting ...

Cookie blocking, privacy regulations and more have turned publisher’s reliance on third-party data to target audiences into a nightmare. But there’s definitely a life beyond cookies —you just have to be creative.
One path forward is better leveraging your first-party data and focusing on contextual targeting.
Another route is to buddy up with an identity resolution partner to scale your audience by matching your identifiers with their identity graph.
But Complex Networks has another solution....

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk making blockchain out to be a panacea for all of advertising’s woes — from issues with ad fraud to brand safety to viewability to better customer targeting to revolutionizing the supply chain. Unfortunately, much of that talk has been a lot more hype than reality.
At least that’s what I thought up until recently. After attending Advertising Week NY and Programmatic I/O, I learned about some real-world experiments gaining significant traction — yet also being...

Let’s start with the good news. First, mobile traffic is booming (and mobile ad spend is following right behind it). The not so good news? Mobile traffic is outpacing desktop traffic, which means an overall drop in desktop revenue for publishers. But it’s not all doom and gloom for those not ready for the change as we shift to a mobile-first world.
Shifting to a Mobile-first World
Chartbeat reports that since January 2017, there’s been a significant increase in mobile traffic by 34%, while de...

Summer STEM camps can be a fun way to spark a child’s imagination — and get them excited about improving their science, tech, engineering and math skills. Whether building 3D models, exploring LEGO and Minecraft projects, creating movies, or flying a drone for the first time, STEM camps teach kids problem-solving, critical thinking, spatial awareness and decision-making skills that they’ll need to succeed in future work and life.

Extracurricular STEM programs like camps and afterschool clubs ...