Why brands are embracing the influencer-investor

Get you someone who looks at your brand the way 50 Cent looked at Vitamin Water. Social media has enabled the rise of the influencer—online stars with sway over the opinions of thousands or millions of fans. But while influencers have been a great way to reach audiences craving more authenticity from messengers, customers are […]

Hollywood’s Holographic Billboards Are Now a Reality

I see this being used for far more than just ads. Imagine if you are building a home and as you go from one vendor to another deciding on lighting, plumbing fixtures, furniture etc., you could bring up a hologram of your home and immediately see how those decisions will integrate into the 3D model? […]

Why Google Killed 1.7 Billion Ads Last Year – And Kicked 200 Publishers Off Its Network

It might seem strange for a web company that makes virtually all its money from advertising to be blocking more and more ads from its site, but that’s exactly what Google Inc. is doing. Last year, the search giant killed some 1.7 billion ads that violated its advertising policies, the company said today, more than […]

Renewing Medium’s focus

We’ve decided to make some major changes at Medium. I’ll start with the hard part: As of today, we are reducing our team by about one third — eliminating 50 jobs, mostly in sales, support, and other business functions. We are also changing our business model to more directly drive the mission we set out on originally. […]

Uru finds the best places to introduce ads in online videos

New York City-based startup Uru is working on a new way for video publishers to make money. Imagine watching a normal-looking online video — except that on some of the surfaces (say, on the cabinet behind the stars of a cooking video), you’ll see logos or other art promoting a sponsor. Okay, that might actually […]

Facebook’s Stumbles Expose Flaws in Its Plan to Rule Advertising

Last week, Facebook said it found flaws in the metrics it reported to advertisers—the measurements by which those advertisers judge the success of their ad campaigns on the platform. The company said it overstated the reach of Facebook Pages and Instant Articles, as well as its count of referrals to apps from ads. This admission […]

LinkedIn opens Sponsored InMail to all as yet more ad products come to messaging platforms

It’s gloves off for social media companies that have patiently built audiences for their platforms and weaned them on steady diets of ad-free content: they’re all now starting to double down on ways of monetizing them. Now it’s the turn of LinkedIn, the social network for professionals that’s currently getting acquired by Microsoft for $26.2 […]