Video distribution platform Virool and Rubicon Project have launched a new vertical video unit for advertisers and publishers, according to a report on Yahoo Finance. Vrool's new outstream unit called Vertical Reveal dynamically embeds vertical video messages into related editorial content on the mobile Web. Rubicon Project will serve as Virool's initial launch partner to offer programmatic buying and selling, as well as direct order automation, of the Vertical Reveal ad units.

A report on ExchangeWire notes that while publishers in Southeast Asia recognize that ad tech is increasingly necessary, most are still failing to fully embrace programmatic as one of the most important ad-tech components. Marcus Tan, Asia-Pacific Japan managing director at SpotX, explains why publishers can no longer afford to look away and must start participating in the region’s development of programmatic. Tan writes: "Companies that aggregate publishers’ inventory have created a simplified process of ad buying by offering a one-stop shop for advertisers to buy across dozens, or even hundreds, of websites. This is a valuable service for some …

Writing for AdExchanger, Augustine Fou, digital strategist and independent ad fraud researcher, argues that while most industry stakeholders know what ad fraud is by now -- and some have deployed fraud and bot detection services to measure it -- they don't always know how fraudulent actions negatively impact analytics and measurement. Fou says bots "create ad fraud by visiting websites, clicking on ads and passing fake data to cover their tracks. Faithfully recorded by analytics platforms, this fraudulent activity can artificially skew data up or down, making the measurements unreliable." Furthermore, he maintains that while many in the industry measure ad …

Ad Age presents useful facts in its Agency Report 2016. Here are three for starters:. 1. U.S. agency revenue increased 6.5% to a record $46.8 billion in 2015, according to Ad Age Datacenter's analysis of more than 1,000 agencies, networks and companies. 2. Digital captured 41.3% of 2015 U.S. agency revenue, including digital work at all agency types, from ad and media to PR and pure digital plays, up from 39.7% in 2014. 3. All major agency disciplines grew last year, with revenue gains that ranged from 3.8% for customer relationship management and direct marketing to 8.7% for …

The Drum reports that ad blocker consideration is on the rise, according to a survey by Unruly and Mindshare, as 90% said they’d consider downloading technology to block ads if they were seeing too many, or if the ads became “too creepy”. The two businesses have responded to the threat, announcing ‘The APAC Future Video Manifesto’, a guide that aims to help brands learn how to improve the state of their advertising in order to prevent the increase in use of ad blockers in the region.

Ad Age reports on Wired's experiment with whitelisting. In early February, Condé Nast's Wired planted a stake in the ground against ad-blocking technology, which was being used on more than 20% of visits to the magazine's website. It gave ad-blocking Wired readers two options: whitelist Wired.com, allowing ads to be served as intended, or pay $1 per week for an ad-free version of the site. Wired Head of Product and Business Development Mark McClusky said he was pleased with the early returns. "The uptake in whitelisting has exceeded our expectation, the subscriptions have gone better than we projected, the abandon …

Writing in AdExchanger, Natrian Maxwell, ‎director of demand services at OpenX, says that header bidding has been very popular with publishers. He says that prior to the introduction of header bidding, "it was practically impossible for buyers to get 100% visibility into a publisher’s inventory. Premium inventory was reserved for direct-sold and private marketplace deals, leaving less inventory available to be sold in the open auction. Header bidding has changed that. Buyers now have visibility into the entirety of a publisher’s inventory, and the ability to bid on and win guaranteed placements." What he doesn't say is how Google's recent …