ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space.

Programmatic pegged at 28% of UK display ad market
Nearly one-in-three pounds spent on display advertising were bought using programmatic technologies in the UK last year according to an IAB survey, published this week, confirming what many has felt, that the UK is the most developed market in Europe when it comes to ad tech.

The survey reveals that 28% of the £1.86bn spent on display advertising in 2013 was traded programmatically, with 37% of display ads on mobile traded using such technologies, and further forecasts this amount will grow to almost 50% in 2014.

The study, based on submissions from 23 companies plus 35 in-depth interviews with industry participants was commissioned by the IAB and conducted by the MTM, also found that direct sales between publishers and advertisers accounted for half (51%) of UK digital display ad sales during the surveyed period (see chart). It also found that just over a fifth (22%) were bought through ad networks.

The survey also predicts that programmatic advertising – defined as display ads that are bought and sold using automated systems and processes such as real-time bidding – will account for almost half (47%) of digital display ads in 2014.

The survey builds on an earlier IAB Europe survey that pegged the pan-European digital ad market at €27bn mark last year, with the UK extending its lead as the most developed market in the region, followed by Germany.

Western players continue to round on Russian opportunity
Xaxis this week announced it was to officially launch its Russian office with Nikolay Bulanov taking the role of Xaxis, managing director, Russia, as the real-time bidding (RTB) market there is forecast to surpass the $37.7m mark in 2014.

The GroupM entity is in the process of expanding beyond its existing European base, post the integration of Xaxis and 24/7 Media earlier this year, and this current move brings its total office count to 33 locations.

Bulanov, who joins from Moscow-based media buying firm Media Set where he served as director of business development, will will report to Caspar Schlickum, Xaxis, CEO, EMEA, who told ExchangeWire: “Russia is quite different to the rest of Europe, so it was important to have someone who knew the local landscape. We’ve yet to enter a market without hiring a local managing director.”

Forecast figures published by local market players indicate the Russian RTB market is set to flourish in 2014, and beyond as Western-based market players seek to forge local alliances, as evidenced by Google pairing with local market search engine giant Yandex earlier this year.

UK mobile operator JV Weve preps for full display push
Weve, a joint venture between the UK’s three largest operators EE, O2 and Vodafone, this week announced the introduction of the EDAA’s (European Digital Advertising Alliance) AdChoices icon on every display ad it serves this week, as it prepares a full roll out of its display ad services.

Weve is preparing to exit the beta phase of its mobile display advertising project, and this week’s announcement of the EDAA icon, also known as the AdChoices’ icon, is being hailed as an ‘industry first’ by the JV.

Web users can click on the triangular image and are then directed to a page informing them of how they have been tracked using behavioural targeting technology, plus also presents them with the choice of opting out of being served such ads.

Use of the privacy icon on ads served using behavioural targeting has been mandatory since 2012, but this has not been the case on mobile, due to restrictions imposed by handset operating system (OS), such as Apple, and its implications for tracking using cookies.

This move comes six months after Weve announced it was to launch its display advertising service which lets advertisers bid on ad placements on third-party websites and apps with the inventory sourced via ad exchanges using Byyd’s Madison DSP.

In the initial aftermath of the launch, ExchangeWire sources questioned the prices being quoted per campaign, as well as the granularity of the targeting data offered by Weve.

One influential mobile media planner told ExchangeWire: “I think even Weve will admit it didn’t get its beta right, when it comes to pricing. They we asking for iAd-like prices.”

But speaking earlier this week, James Chandler, Mindshare, global head of mobile, said: “The pricing from Weve is a lot ‘punch-ier’ now.

“In the initial phase it was pricey, but I’m in a wait-and-see mode. I’m happy to pay four times the industry average price [per campaign] if it works four times as well. But we have to wait.”

The joint venture company, which claims to have an addressable market of over 22 million of the UK’s mobile users, made much of the fact that its service would let advertisers cross reference its own first party data with their own CRM systems, and positioned the service in competition to rival platforms such as agency trading desks.

Criteo hones in on mobile
After listing on the NASDAQ last year, France-based Criteo aims to further buoy its stock price by focusing on the cross-device targeting and tracking component, a key conundrum facing the entire industry, as the desktop increasingly becomes the device of a bygone era.

The retargeting company, whose client roster includes ecommerce giants ASOS and Office as well as payday loans company QuickQuid, this week published its Q1 2014 Mobile Flash report revealed that Android tablets and smartphones accounted for 66% of total e-commerce sales globally, during the surveyed period.

Based on insights gleaned from more than 920 million unique global Internet users, it also revealed that average CTRs on Android devices are nearly two-times that of PCs.

The survey comes as Criteo puts mobile at the core of its priorities, having released a cookie-based “complete mobile advertising solution” that lets advertisers to serve personalised dynamic ads on Safari mobile web browsers.

Speaking recently with ExchangeWire, Jonathan Wolf, Criteo, chief product officer, said the company’s clients were seeing as much as 20-30% of their sales come from mobile devices, and the the company was working on a more comprehensive cross-device targeting service.

“Cross-device is the biggest issue in the industry right now, and we’re looking at how you can identify a user across screen at present, we’ll roll it out when we’re good and ready,” he said.

WyWy closes acquisition
Germany-based cross-screen advertising firm WyWy this week completed the acquisition and integration of Second Screen Networks, a New York-based social TV company that allows TV broadcast ads to sync in real time with mobile devices and websites, as it aims to further its international footprint.

The acquisition earns the company a presence in the USA, and means Wywy will now offer cross-screen advertising and TV analytics services such as LiveSync and SiteSync plus Real-time TV Campaign Tracking, to advertisers and media buyers there.

The acquisition builds on the recent opening of WyWy’s UK office where it is headed up by UK country manager Fiona Smith.