Advertisers can now transact on new industry currency with confidence

TripleLift, the ad tech platform elevating digital advertising across every screen, today announced that it has partnered with Adelaide, the leader in attention-based media quality measurement, to offer the first way to buy high-attention premium CTV deals that include guaranteed AU (Attention Unit) scores, certified by Adelaide.

Attention metrics have risen in importance as consumers increasingly turn a blind eye to advertising and make it harder for advertisers to drive performance. TripleLift has a large concentration of high attention programmatic placements because much of its inventory is made up of a combination of innovative formats and quality, directly sourced inventory that drives attention. In fact, Adelaide's research proves this. Using advanced attention measurement technology, they tracked hundreds of millions of TripleLift CTV impressions across multiple campaigns and found that TripleLift inventory performed 8% higher than Adelaide's CTV benchmarks on average.

Now, TripleLift is partnering with Adelaide to become the first SSP to offer guaranteed deal packages based on AU score. Adelaide's AU scoring process uses a machine learning model to consider hundreds of media quality signals and their weighted contribution to outcomes, generating a 0–100 omnichannel score reflective of a publisher's probability of attention and impact. Adelaide's CTV AU model also factors eye-tracking data from TVision, as well as ACR data from other providers. With over 100,000 domains measured, Adelaide continues to expand its robust and normative dataset to establish accurate industry benchmarks.

"Adelaide's AU is becoming widely embraced across the ecosystem," said Marc Guldimann, CEO & Co-founder, Adelaide. "When we developed AU, our aim was to create an attention metric for media buyers to secure impactful inventory and for high-quality publishers to confidently guarantee quality. By leveraging our data in a unique way, TripleLift is furthering this vision and taking AU to the next level."

"We've leveraged attention scores to optimize and target on behalf of our clients for a few quarters, leading to strong results from brands such as the NBA and agencies like Mediahub," said Charlotte Schaefer, Product Targeting Lead at TripleLift. "Offering these placements is easy for us to do based on our high composition of quality placements. We're guaranteeing these deals so our clients can buy with confidence."

Through TripleLift Guaranteed AU deals, brands can now precisely target desired attention thresholds across campaigns, leading to increased control and quality assurance. Initially focusing on CTV, TripleLift plans to extend these guarantees to additional formats in the near future.

"Attention has been an excellent indicator to drive real-world outcomes for our brands," said Ed McElvain, EVP and Director of P3 at Mediahub. "Solutions, like what TripleLift and Adelaide have built, give our agency the ability to more efficiently reach users with high-attention media, at scale."

"Our journey with attention metrics started a few years ago as a first-to-market leader in the space, recognizing the need for real-time metrics linked to our brand and tune-in KPIs," said Larisa Johnson, VP, Global Head of Paid & Institutional Media at the NBA. "AU transformed our approach across all channels, helping us invest in high-quality media and redirect investments from underperforming areas mid-flight."

TripleLift's attention-based buying guarantee is available across quality inventory providers on the TripleLift platform. Buyers can start leveraging AU guarantees in their targeting by contacting their TripleLift sales representative.

Layering Scope3 data across Magnite’s vast video, display and mobile inventory will help advertisers better understand and reduce their carbon footprint

Magnite, the world’s largest independent sell-side advertising company, today announced a global partnership with Scope3 to make carbon emissions data available across Magnite’s extensive omnichannel inventory. As a result, advertisers will be able to assess their carbon emissions and align their sustainability goals with their campaign performance.

“Our partnership with Scope3 is one of the many ways Magnite is incorporating sustainability into our workstreams to help our clients get more insight into their carbon emissions, with the goal of creating a more environmentally-friendly future,” said Sean Buckley, Chief Revenue Officer at Magnite. “Digital advertising is inherently an energy-intensive business given the high level of data processing required. We recognize and seek to minimize our environmental impact as the largest independent SSP and want to help our clients do the same. We are working closely with publishers, marketers and our peers to constantly innovate to create more energy efficient practices while also improving advertising outcomes.”

“The emissions data that Scope3 provides is most effective when it can be harnessed at scale, and an SSP of Magnite’s magnitude and reputation is well positioned to have significant influence on our collective impact,” said Brenda Tuohig, Chief Commercial Officer at Scope3. “Our partnership represents yet another key building block in our mission to achieve a decarbonized ad ecosystem where sustainable media and positive marketer outcomes go hand in hand, and we’re glad to have support from Magnite in fulfilling this bold mission.”

As part of the partnership, Magnite will offer Green Media Products (GMPs) powered by Scope3 data. GMPs enable advertisers and media buyers to easily identify supply paths that inherently block climate risk (high carbon) inventory. Scope3 built and uses the industry’s most granular and comprehensive emissions data model designed to accurately measure the carbon emissions from digital advertising.

“Sustainability is a priority for IPG Mediabrands, and we strive to ensure our clients are investing their media budgets in the most efficient and green paths to premium supply,” said Martin Bryan, Global Chief Sustainability Officer at IPG Mediabrands. “We have long worked with Magnite on SPO to reduce unnecessary duplication and waste. We welcome the addition of Scope3 data across Magnite’s inventory as it provides another layer of transparency and accountability

Industry-leading Data Security Platform adds Salesforce Shield integration to enhance its world-class Salesforce security solution

Varonis Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRNS), a leader in data security, today announced during Dreamforce 2023 that the company is strengthening its Salesforce security product by integrating with the CRM giant’s built-in security offering, Salesforce Shield. Varonis can now pull in critical activity captured by Salesforce Shield and correlate it with Varonis' unique metadata to create powerful new threat detection and investigation capabilities.

Salesforce houses critical information such as customer records, support cases, price books, and revenue data for more than 150,000 companies worldwide. The combination of Varonis and Salesforce Shield helps organizations keep that data safe from insider threats and cyberattacks.

Varonis helps businesses understand their Salesforce data security posture in real time, ensure only the right people have access to crown-jewel data, automatically remediate misconfigurations, and detect suspicious activity. Together, Varonis and Salesforce Shield offer the most comprehensive Salesforce security on the market today.

“It’s up to SaaS vendors to secure their code and infrastructure, but it’s up to customers to manage and protect their own data,” said Jim Reavis, CEO and co-founder, Cloud Security Alliance. “Securing cloud data has never been more important and Salesforce hosts one of the most critical cloud data sets in the world.”

Varonis for Salesforce customers also benefit from Proactive Incident Response, an expert team of cybersecurity professionals who watch and investigate alerts on customers’ behalf. Varonis for Salesforce deploys in minutes — request your demo and read more about Varonis' integration with Salesforce Shield.

FAST Channels Including World Poker Tour, OTT Studio, Best Ever Channels and Motorvision Can Now Easily View and Manage Varied Reporting from Platforms and Ad Partners to Understand How Their Streaming Content is Performing

Whip Media, the leading enterprise software platform and data provider to the world’s largest entertainment organizations, announced today the general availability of Whip Media FASTrack™, its new solution that gives FAST channels a single place to see their viewership and reporting data across all their channels and platforms at a title level. FASTrack will be available to demo at the IBC Show in Amsterdam, September 15-18, 2023 at Booth 5.F85.

This new solution is designed to help FAST channels and small/mid tier distributors struggling with disparate data coming from multiple sources (including platforms, tech providers, and ad servers), and in various formats, often provided with no title-level viewership or revenue reporting from partners.

FASTrack solves this problem, giving FAST channels a centralized source to manage viewership and revenue at a title level wherever their channels are distributed. This enables them to better program channels, understand which platforms are working and pay their content providers. Whip Media, the industry leader in content performance tracking, has a proven record of solving these issues for the largest global media and entertainment companies for more than a decade. 

FASTrack supports all streaming video business models including FAST, AVOD, SVOD, TVOD, streaming apps, and more, making visible to companies the entirety of their distribution revenue in one convenient place. Finally, FASTrack tracks content provider contracts and generates royalty statements automatically. 

“FAST channels require data to be able to make the decisions they need to effectively operate,” said Mike Sid, Chief Strategy Officer of Whip Media. "FASTrack reduces the complexity of getting that intelligence, allowing FAST channels to spend their time doing what they do best, develop and distribute compelling content.” 

“Whip Media has taken on the challenge of marrying disparate data sources from FAST and AVOD into actionable insights,” said Marc Dion, World Poker Tour’s Director of Distribution and Ad Sales. “World Poker Tour (WPT) appreciates Whip Media’s collaborative approach to develop FASTrack, making sure to capture details and KPIs that are most meaningful to our business.” 

Key features of Whip Media FASTrack include:

• Automated retrieval, ingestion and normalization of performance data from FAST/AVOD, SVOD, streaming apps, TVOD/EST and more
• Revenue and viewership allocation down to the title level
• Access to real-time actionable data via a fully customizable report builder and analytics dashboard, and contract management tools for acquired content
• Automated generation of partner payment statements available in Q4

FASTrack solves the key reporting problems that FAST channels and distributors are facing  today, allowing them to meet their growing needs for tomorrow as they continue to scale.

The new platform debuts with leading FAST channels including:

• World Poker Tour (WPT), the premiere name in internationally televised poker and entertainment with brand presence in land-based tournaments, television, online and mobile.
• Motorvision.TV, the lifestyle and entertainment channel dedicated to live motorsports, car documentaries and the latest car trends. 
• OTT Studio, owner and operator of one of the fastest-growing networks of AVOD streaming services and FAST channels.
• Best Ever Channels, the innovative and multifaceted company that both creates FAST channels and develops original programming.

Generative AI (GenAI) has captured the imagination of business leaders and IT decisions makers around the world, but organizations need guidance as they begin their adoption journey. To help organizations understand how to leverage GenAI technology for business success, two new International Data Corporation (IDC) reports outline the foundational activities associated with GenAI investment, provide guidance on prioritizing use cases, and identify the key stakeholders required to build and implement successful initiatives. The reports also feature a new framework – the Generative AI Path to Impact – that explains key activities and elements along the path to business impact.

Before any of the core technologies of GenAI are explored, IDC believes that the following set of key activities needs to be put in place:

• Establish a Responsible AI Policy: This must include defined principles around fairness, transparency, protections, and accountability relating to the data used to train models, as well as how the results are used. A responsible AI policy should also provide transparency on the roles and responsibilities of developers, users, and other stakeholders, while addressing legal and compliance issues.
• Build an AI Strategy and Road Map: A set of defined, measurable, and prioritized GenAI use cases is required to align the organization on the key areas that will deliver the maximum business impact in the short, medium, and long term.
• Design an Intelligence Architecture: Managing the life cycle and governance of data, models, and business context for every use case is critical. The architecture should also include protocols for data privacy, security, and intellectual property protection.
• Reskill and Train Staff: New competencies will be required to build and use GenAI models, such as ‘prompt engineers’ to write and test prompts for GenAI systems. Every organization must create a new skills map for core AI technologies and business capabilities to deploy GenAI at scale across the organization. Organizations should also build personalized training program for key roles.

Once the key activities are in place, organizations must develop a clear understanding of the core GenAI technologies, as well as their foundation models and capabilities. At the center of any GenAI system is a generative foundation model, including the well-known large language models (LLMs). The game changer in the AI market is the ability for these models to be trained on extraordinarily large amounts of semi-structured and unstructured content and generate new content based on simple prompt requests.

The next step in defining the path to GenAI impact is prioritizing an identified set of use cases. IDC defines a use case as a business-funded initiative enabled by technology that delivers a measurable outcome. There are three broad types of generative AI use cases that need to be assessed:

• Industry: These involve more custom work and, in some cases, may require organizations to build their own generative AI models. Examples include generative drug discovery in life sciences and generative material design for manufacturing. Specialized use cases tend to be built around specific models and model providers, with custom integration architectures designed for individual clients.
• Business Function: These use cases typically involve integrating a model (or multiple models) with corporate data for use by specific departments or business functions, such as Marketing, Sales, and Procurement. Many organizations are already testing these types of use cases but are concerned about intellectual property leakage and data governance.
• Productivity: These use cases are aligned with work tasks, such as summarizing reports, creating job descriptions, or generating Java code. GenAI functionality for productivity improvement is being infused into existing applications, such as Microsoft 360 Copilot or Duet AI for Google. For many of these use cases, business value can be delivered through the content and data that the underlying foundation models have been pretrained on.

Ultimately, GenAI will be widely adopted only if the data, models, and applications that use them are trusted by end users and customers. To achieve this, organizations need to establish a well-orchestrated trust and oversight program to ensure that GenAI technologies can be deployed in a sustainable manner. Organizations and AI vendors must understand the benefits and limitations associated with GenAI use and be prepared to remediate issues while complying with regional data privacy regulations.

Finally, IDC recommends adopting a "three horizons" framework to help organizations transform their business models using GenAI. Horizon 1 focuses on near-term, incremental innovation, followed by disruptive innovation in the medium-term Horizon 2 and long-term business model transformation in Horizon 3. The framework drives alignment across all business domains and helps prioritize key initiatives.

"As the industry moves forward with this fundamental transition to AI embedded into every business and technology function in the enterprise, IDC believes that every CEO will need to have an AI strategy — and generative AI is the trigger," said Phil Carter, group vice president, Thought Leadership research at IDC. "It is best to get started quickly. We are hopeful that this framework will help every organization develop their own path to impact."

The report, Generative AI: The Path to Impact (Doc #EUR151153223), introduces a framework that framework helps organizations work through the key activities that need to be established, illustrates the core technologies required, and proposes how organizations should think about new use cases to deliver organization impact.

The report, IDC PlanScape: Developing Your Path to Impact with Generative AII (Doc #US51157323), provides business and technology leaders with a background on where GenAI technologies are in their evolution and the set of characteristics needed to develop an AI strategy to transform their business into an AI everywhere future.

The #1 Consumer Finance Property Revamps Content with Four New Series; Appoints Josh Lipton as Newest Anchor

Today, Yahoo announced a revamp of Yahoo Finance video programming, reaffirming its commitment to producing best-in-class financial content for everyday investors, across digital and over-the-top (OTT) TV platforms. The revamp includes an upcoming slate of four new series and shows, a brand-new studio opening later this year, and comprehensive improvements across production overall.

“Five years ago, Yahoo Finance pioneered day-long streaming market coverage, building an engaged audience of millions and furthering our mission to empower everyday investors with the best financial insights,” said Tapan Bhat, President & General Manager of Yahoo Finance. “Now we’re building upon that with new journalistic talent and fresh content that meets a wide audience of investors wherever they prefer to consume content, from OTT channels to web browsers to the Yahoo Finance app.”

New Editorial Talent: Josh Lipton Joins as Co-Anchor for Closing Bell
As part of this revamp, Yahoo Finance has appointed Josh Lipton as co-anchor of Yahoo Finance’s fast-paced Closing Bell alongside veteran financial journalist Julie Hyman. Lipton, a senior financial journalist with over 20 years of reporting experience, will start his hosting duties on September 18. Previously, he served as a Technology Correspondent for over eight years at CNBC and held editorial roles at Bloomberg and Forbes. He most recently held a position in corporate communications at Apple before making his return to reporting.

“My goal as a reporter has always been to offer viewers the best market analysis and industry insight,” said Lipton. “Joining Yahoo Finance at the outset of a major reinvestment in its content programming will provide me with a platform to help people become better informed and properly equipped with the financial knowledge required to thrive in today’s turbulent economy.”

Elevating Production: State-of-the-Art Studio Set
Opening later this year, Yahoo Finance is building an innovative production studio designed for live streaming, virtual and 3D production, podcasts, and more. The facility will house two studios, a podcast room, interview spaces, and more. While the studio is under construction, Yahoo Finance will partner with the NYSE and NASDAQ to broadcast from their respective studios. Beginning September 18, Yahoo Finance will be the first partner to stream live programming from NASDAQ’s new studio.

Diverse Insights: Introducing an Array of New Series
Yahoo Finance has also unveiled four new video series and shows for its programming lineup, the first of which premiered earlier this week.

• NEXT – Premiered September 8, NEXT features stories focused on the future, going beyond the now to unveil what’s next in tech, EV, health, AI, climate and more.
• Lead This Way – Premiering September 14, Lead This Way will feature interviews and frank conversations with business leaders facing unprecedented challenges, focusing on what it takes to lead in today’s business climate.
• Goodbye or Good Buy – Featuring exciting conversations in a quickfire roundtable format, Goodbye or Good Buy will host expert guests to debate the merits of trending tickers for the day.
• Asking for a Trend – Featuring next generation guests and contributors, Asking for a Trend will dive into the latest influential trends that are most relevant and impactful to investors that day.

Yahoo Finance video content has been made available to over 100 million monthly global visitors*. Relied upon by millions of investors, its content continues to expand to new digital TV platforms, available to stream in tens of millions of households, as well as to users across desktop and mobile devices. In addition to continuing a targeted focus on programs for people with interests such as AI, electric vehicles, building wealth, and real estate, live coverage will expand to a wider net of global events and conferences, from Cannes Lions to the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai.

Exostellar's Vision for AI-Driven Supercomputing Optimization Receives Boost with Additional Investments and New Leadership

Exostellar, the innovative cloud resource optimization and management platform, is excited to announce the closing of its oversubscribed $15 million Series A financing, led by Celesta and Cambium Capital, with participation from Candou Ventures and AI Capital Partners (Alpha Intelligence Capital's U.S.-based fund). Backed by this investment, Exostellar is poised to propel its pioneering technology into the AI-GPU domain. The strategy involves amplifying its X-Compute platform and extending its CPU live migration IP to encompass GPU compatibility. This innovative Cloud Native GPU live migration initiative will propel Exostellar to the forefront, well-equipped to cater to the escalating requirement for GPU-centric AI workloads.

With the close of this oversubscribed round, Exostellar is also announcing that Tony Shakib is assuming the role of President and CEO. This strategic transition comes at a pivotal moment as Exostellar positions itself for exponential growth and impact. Hakim Weatherspoon, in turn, will assume the role of Chief Scientist, focusing on driving innovation and technological advancement within the company.

"Exostellar is committed to redefining how cloud resources are optimized and managed, and this additional investment fuels our efforts to provide enterprises with game-changing solutions that drive efficiency, scalability, and cost savings," said Tony Shakib.

"It's truly gratifying to witness Exostellar's journey from its early days," said Lip-Bu Tan, the lead investor in Exostellar's seed round. "The oversubscription of the Series A funding is a testament to the team's dedication and the disruptive potential of their platform. Exostellar has the power to transform how cloud resources are optimized, and I'm excited to see its impact on the industry."

Nhi Lê, Principal at AI Capital Partners, expressed excitement about the investment, stating, "We're excited to invest in Exostellar and its development of AI-enabled cloud GPU resource optimization solutions. Exostellar's momentum in stateful CPU live migration and cloud cost reduction has ushered in industry-changing breakthrough for cloud-based high memory compute. With the upcoming GPU capabilities, Exostellar is uniquely positioned to address the global compute bottleneck for high performance computing and AI applications."

PR Newswire, the industry leader in press release distribution, announces the launch of SocialBoost, a new social media tool designed to revolutionize social sharing of press releases. This innovative offering, powered by SoSha, allows organizations to craft social media posts for end users to easily share on their social media channels – boosting organic social engagement ten- to one hundredfold.

This social sharing tool is a vast improvement from traditional social sharing buttons and reposting functionalities as it provides a way to share multiple pre-written post suggestions and images tailored for major social platforms such as X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and WhatsApp. More than half (60%) of consumers express a desire for brands to offer direction on the type of content they should create and share.¹ With PR Newswire's SocialBoost product, marketing and PR professionals can easily craft social content for consumers, increasing the likelihood of social shares.

 "Our north star at SoSha is to develop technology that helps organizations harness the power of organic social engagement as an effective alternative to paid digital ads. SoSha's partnership with PR Newswire to launch SocialBoost delivers a powerful solution, carefully designed to meet the specific needs of public relations professionals," said Tudor Mihailescu, Co-Founder and CEO at SoSha.

Along with increased social shares, clients will now gain access to enhanced social sharing data such as unique visitors, total clicks, total clicks and shares by social platform.

"PR Newswire is committed to continuously delivering market-leading solutions to our clients," said Nicole Guillot, Cision COO and President of PR Newswire (PRN). "The addition of SocialBoost will enable our clients to readily amplify their story by empowering their audience to easily share their message through social media. PRN is the only provider that helps our clients amplify their brand stories on earned, owned, paid and now social channels. This solution ensures our customers' stories are present everywhere to their stakeholders and influencers via all available channels to maximize their media opportunities. You will only get this level of visibility working with PRN, and we fully report on measurable and actionable results."

The Benefits of SocialBoost

According to Stackla, user-generated content (UGC) influences 79% of purchasing decisions. With SocialBoost for press releases, brands can now take control of their narrative on social media and easily garner user-generated content. One Fortune 50 customer reported increased social sharing on their press releases by 1900% and press release visits by 30% when using SocialBoost. With SocialBoost, brands can:

• Boost Visibility and Engagement: Expand brand visibility, reach new audiences on social media, and drive traffic back to press releases. The SocialBoost widget ensures maximum exposure, appearing on 90% of downstream sites.
• Effortless Sharing Experience: Provide a user-friendly sharing experience by enabling direct sharing from press releases with pre-written post suggestions for each platform. Audiences no longer have to craft their own content or share personal credentials with a third-party platform.
• Amplify Organic Sharing: With the sharing experience made effortless, organic sharing increases with the potential to gain 100 times higher social engagement.
• Control the Narrative: Ensure consistent and reliable sharing of their message across social media platforms by offering easy-to-share, pre-written social post suggestions. This better enables brands to take charge of their organization's story and reputation.