Apparently taking ad-tech functions in-house isn't all its cracked up to be. An Ad Age report finds that in-house trading desks turn suppliers into buyers and partners into rivals. The post finds that as more marketers embrace automated media buying, more are building their own systems to do it with varying involvement from their media agencies. While bringing the function in-house might seem to simplify things, "the reality is anything but simple as the industry evolves into a complex web of partners, competitors and frenemies." The report maintains that "no programmatic trading operation is fully in-house, given that agencies …

AdExchanger's Sarah Sluis rewinds to explore why AppNexus ditched Twixt -- a workflow automation tool with automated-guaranteed functions -- in December. The two-year-old product was a hard sell to agencies. “The level of investment that would have been required to drive penetration, particularly on the buy side, would have been extravagantly expensive,” Andy Atherton, head of the team that developed Twixt, told AdExchanger. AppNexus tried to deploy the product via a freemium approach, Atherton said, thinking that media planners would start using the free enterprise software and then eventually upgrade to the paid version -- which didn't happen.

Salesforce just acquired “deep learning” startup MetaMind. “Deep learning is a type of artificial intelligence that many large technology companies -- like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter -- have invested in by way of acquisitions or in-house research,” Venture Beat notes. “The technique generally involves training artificial neural networks on large sets of data and then having them make inferences about new data.”  

Programmatic ads are great for political campaigns, writes AOL Advertising's C. Sean McCullough in this Adweek post: "Incredibly precise targeting means savvy campaigners can eliminate huge inefficiencies and help reduce bloated campaign budgets." But the next piece of the puzzle in moving voters requires a human touch, he notes: "Good creative is the flourish, the triumphant cadenza that catalyzes an emotional response in viewers and makes them connect with the candidate....Technology has not removed the artistry from the business, but in fact has afforded the advertiser with more time, tools and resources to craft the perfect creative message."

"The way we see it, the ad blocking conversation is a win for the industry," writes Criteo's Eric Eichmann in a Forbes post explaining how the big brouhaha over blocking "is pushing the collective online ad space to push ahead—to improve online ad quality and content to meet current consumer expectations." Among the benefits he sees coming: the end of "intrusive digital advertising" like pop-up ads and "spray and pray" messages.

"An outsider to the ad industry could be forgiven for thinking that 'programmatic buying' is the Madison Avenue equivalent of using electronic trading to trade subprime mortgage securities." That's how TubeMogul's Brett Wilson begins this AdExchanger  post, in which he pooh-poohs the idea of "associating software with quality of media," and "blaming programmatic for something like bad viewability rates." In fact, he writes, "The benefits of consolidating all ad budgets through software are clear," including "improved campaign performance from automated optimization and unified reporting."

NBCUniversal said beginning this week, it will run custom ad products from Vox Media on its digital properties. Plus, both companies will sell ads on each others' sites. NBCU took a $200 million investment in Vox last August. A report in the Wall Street Journal says the new effort called "Concert" will run ads on about 20 sites, ranging from NBC.com to SyFy.com to TheVerge.com, which collectively reach over 150 million people a month, according to comScore data. An advertiser looking to target food lovers might consider an ad buy that includes TV spots on NBC’s “Today,” commercials during …

Ad Age reports that programmatic digital media buying has delivered positive ROI and efficiencies for Procter & Gamble but measurement and market obstacles are inhibiting expansion, according to an agency executive who has worked with the giant marketer. Speaking last week on a panel at the American Advertising Federation's D2 Digital Dialogue conference in Cincinnati, Scott Franzer, who identified himself as associate director with Omnicom Media Group, said P&G is seeing "three to five times greater ROI through programmatic buying than we are through traditional environments."  Franzer used to work on P&G 's programmatic efforts at Starcom Mediavest Group, which …

AdExchanger reports on New York Media's search for partners that will enable it to sharpen its use of data, insights and analytics. The owner of the NYMag.com, Vulture, The Cut and Grub Street sites, New York Media had been using content recommendation engine Outbrain to deepen engagement with readers but it decided to experiment with options to generate more revenue, insights and audience data. It chose to work with Taboola for the next two years to figure out how to best match its readers with different content experiences, according to Camilla Cho, executive director of business development and strategy at …

AdAge reports on the rise of programmatic media planners via an interview with Accuen CEO Megan Pagliuca. Accuen, Omnicom Media Group's trading desk, is ramping up for advertisers' projected increase in spending on programmatic media by revamping its organization, its vendor strategy and even its thinking around planning. To prepare, Accuen is taking in talent from Omnicom media agencies OMD and PHD, building up the central digital group and training traditional buyers to use its programmatic platforms. "Our long-term goal at Accuen is to make OMD and PHD stronger, and eventually our team will replace the manual planners and buyers …