Rob Litterst says, “For decades, every media kit has been touting the same basic demographics: number of readers, gender, ages, HHI, geographies, education, job title, industry, buying intent, authority (ability to buy), budget, etc. In the ‘70s, the kits began to include psychographics — beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and values. Both psychographics and demographics are important for building a portrait of your audience. But often that information is no longer enough to distinguish your media property from a competitor’s. Advertisers have more choices than ever before. Especially given... [...]

James Temple says, “Wikimedia’s new executive director said the nonprofit is betting heavily on mobile as it strives to reach new audiences in developing regions and stay on top of shifting trends throughout the world. “The majority of our investments are now going into product and engineering, and within that the majority is starting to go into mobility,” said Lila Tretikov at Code/Mobile, in one of her first public appearances since taking the role in May. The shift is important for the organization behind Wikipedia, the fifth-most popular destination online, because citizens... [...]

Katie Richards says, “YouTube videos are under attack. Ads shown on the video platform are the latest victims of malicious advertising, or malvertising, which redirect users to harmful sites. News of the attack will be of concern to legitimate advertisers, as users affected may be less likely to click on their ads in the future. Joseph C. Chen, a fraud researcher for Trend Micro explains in a blog post that an aggressive “Sweet Orange exploit” attack is being carried out online and YouTube is the latest platform where users are getting hit”. YouTube’s Biggest Videos... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Today, the IAB announced first half ad revenues for the U.S. market of $23.1 billion. This represents modest 15 percent growth over the first half of 2013. Second quarter revenues were $11.7 billion, up from $10.3 billion the previous year. The numbers suggest full-year digital advertising spending of around $49 billion. Roughly 71 percent of revenue is concentrated at the top, within online ad sellers/networks. Mobile and social advertising showed much more significant growth than digital advertising overall”. Mobile & Social Ads Power First-Half US Digital... [...]

Liz Gannes says, “Google missed expectations for the September quarter despite a slowdown in the decline of online ad rates. The search giant reported adjusted profit of $6.35 per share. The Street was looking for $6.54. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company had $16.52 billion in sales for $13.17 billion in net income. It basically looks like Google spent a lot of money this quarter — categories like operating expenses, data center and hardware costs and stock-based compensation were all up. The company now has 55,030 employees, up nearly 3,000 since three months ago”. Google Misses... [...]

Lara O’Reilly says, “Online ad fraud costs advertisers more than $7 million every month, as they pay for digital ads that were never actually seen by humans. Much of this online ad fraud is created by botnets: armies of PCs infected with malware that generates thousands of fake clicks on ads. The botnet controllers tend to be unethical web publishers that want to ramp up the prices of advertising on their sites by inflating the amount of clicks on their sites. Ad fraud has a number of drastic consequences. For users, it can significantly slow down their machine. For advertisers, it... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “It’s a common refrain that consumers are moving faster and changing habits more quickly than marketers can keep pace with. We’ve seen it happening in mobile and a new study underscores how businsses are missing out on key connections throughout the so-called “customer journey”. With devices at our fingertips, we want and seek out information in the moment. When companies aren’t there to meet us, well, we quickly move on to the companies that will. In this study, a survey of 600 digitally savvy consumers and marketers commissioned by Kitewheel, a real-time marketing... [...]

Lara O’Reilly says, “Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and five other big names in digital media in the UK are rallying together next week as they bid to steal share of advertising dollars from TV broadcasters – by replicating the same tactic TV broadcasters use to sign huge “upfront” deals with advertisers. They’re hoping to shift tens of millions in spending their way. Next week the UK will host its first “Digital Upfronts”, a week-long event where digital media owners will tout their wares to advertisers and agencies in the hope... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “To make ads copy easier to read, Google is rejiggering how AdSense text ads display on mobile devices. In the new look, shown above, the headline (in blue) and description are bigger than in former iterations. That’s a good thing for users, no doubt. The next step Google’s taken here in the name of a “more interactive experience” is a bit odd. Now a swipe or click on the dot will show the advertiser’s . . . display URL. It seems unlikely users are going to feel a sense of gratification or satisfaction at that reveal for the effort it took to swipe. Presumably... [...]

Martin Beck says, “What does Google+ have that Facebook doesn’t? Starting today, Google’s social network is giving pages and profiles the ability to create and post polls. That’s a feature that Facebook took away from users in 2012 and Pages last year. The Facebook “Ask Question” polling feature is still available on Facebook Groups and some major media partners have access as well, but it’s not generally available to Pages to the dismay of many small business owners. There’s a long tail of complaints about it on this post in the Facebook help community. When it eliminated... [...]