A summary of the most exciting recent news in advertising technology in the U.S., U.S.-Hispanic and Latin American markets. If you’re trying to keep up, consider this your one-stop shop.
U.S./HISPANIC MARKET
SO HOW DID 2015 GO? Bot Data released data on advertising impressions from 1,300 campaigns over 61 days in 2015, and found some interesting stuff. Supposedly, advertisers had a higher amount of bot percentages in 2015 than they did in 2014. Media with higher CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) was more vulnerable to bots. Programmatic ad buys displayed higher levels of fraud, and campaigns designed for particular demographics typically resulted in more bots.
AND WHAT ABOUT AD-TECH ACQUISITIONS? Another research firm, Results International, found that ad-tech acquisitions were high between Q3 and A4 in 2015, representing almost a third of all mergers and acquisitions in ad and marketing tech during Q4. Marketing automation M&A (involving mostly private equity firms and network agencies) is set to increase in 2016, as advertising platforms surged in Q4 after a poor performance earlier in the year.
NOW, BACK TO 2016…Audio industry tech provider Triton 
Digital and Audio.Ad, a digital audio ad network that caters to the LatAm and U.S. Hispanic markets, announced a partnership to launch programmatic buying and selling of Audio.Ad’s digital audio inventory through Triton’s audio ad exchange, a2x.
Ad tech platform operator So Operative, which facilitates the management of online ad space for publishers, is launching a “partner premium” so that companies on Operative can share inventory in an “ad-tech tax-free environment,” says CEO Lorne Browne. According to Browne, supply-side specialists will be happy to share inventory with another Operative customer instead of giving it to a programmatic company.
SNAPCHAT LOOKING TO AUTOMATIZE ADS, MAKE SOME ENTREPRENEURS VERY RICH: Snapchat will be looking for ways to build ad technology to automatize its ads, and to do so, may be willing to make a tech acquisition. Rumor has it its looking at Beeswax which helps advertisers bid for targeted ads, and Metamarkets, which focuses on programmatic buying.
WHATSAPP WON’T PERMIT ADS, WILL BE FREE-OF-CHARGE: WhatsApp has announced that it will not allow third-party ads and will not be charging subscription fees. Instead, the cmopany will be testing ways to allow users to “communicate” with businesses and organizations that they want to interact with.
TWITTER TO THE RESCUE: Twitter wants to help its advertisers improve the promotion of their ad campaigns, so it’s compiling the positive tweets published by users that relate to a particular service or product. It’s called a “Gallery of Brand Enthusiasts,” and it will allow brands to tweet the recommendations that they find most useful.
THE ONION, SET TO HELP UNIVISION REACH MILLENNIALS? We didn’t see it coming either, but Univision announced that it purchased a 40% stake in The Onion. Other than helping Univision reach millennials, the move should give Univision a new way to experiment with its digital advertising through different channels.
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LATAM MARKET
BRAZIL, CRACKING DOWN: Brazilian congressman Esperidião Amin is proposing an investigation into cybercrime and web automation that will involve a crackdown on companies that place ads on sites with illegal content in an attempt to “punish funding” of illegal online activity. Good luck with that, Esperidião, you’re going to need it.
CHILE: DISCONNECTING? The Subsecretary of Telecommunications in Chile is claiming that mobile connections have dropped since 2014. But don’t worry, people aren’t actually disconnecting – this probably just means that people with multiple devices are cutting back, or that the arrival of 4G has caused 3G usage to decrease, so those with campaigns in Chile shouldn’t take their advertising money out of mobile just yet.
BRAZIL GOES SMART: eMarketer reports that more than 90% of mobile internet users under 35 have a smartphone. The information in the report came from research compiled from Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), Millward Brown, Netquest, Adsmovil, Mirum, ROIx and Zenvia. This should push advertisers that haven’t shifted their focus to mobile onto the bandwagon.
BRAZIL (YES, BRAZIL) IS GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL: Heinz ketchup is introducing the “Meet the Ketchups” campaign during the Superbowl, and has turned to Brazilian agency David to create it. David is an offshoot of Ogilvy&Mather with its original offices in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, David recently opened a Miami office to improve coordination with Heinz. It’s important to note that one of Kraft Heinz’s owners is 3G Capital, a Brazilian global investment firm.
LEO BURNETT ARGENTINA WINS BIG AT “ONE SHOW” AWARDS: Leo Burnett Argentina was the only Latin American agency to be recognized by the Automobile Advertising of the Year awards on January 11 in Detroit. Their “Safety Truck” campaign, which was also recognized in Cannes, was awarded the prize for Corporate Social Responsibility. Congratulations!
