ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space. And in this week’s edition: Publicis leverages Adobe's marketing cloud; ATS London insights; Videology's European survey and Microsoft in talks for buy Swedish gaming firm.

Publicis & Adobe Ink Global Deal

France-base Publicis Groupe used this week's Dmexco conference in Germany to unveil a landmark deal with Adobe to unveil the Publicis Groupe Always-On Platform, an Adobe-powered marketing stack that improve marketing attribution, and automation, plus improve data sharing capabilities across the entire group.

The deal will see Publicis agencies, including Starcom MediaVest Group, VivaKi and ZenithOptimedia, standardise on the Adobe Marketing Cloud to create content, access marketing intelligence, and build audience segments, deliver campaigns, plus track and measure marketing performance.

The initiative will focus on three key areas including increasing how the holding group’s agencies can attribute value to media placements, moving away from the ‘last-click’ attribution model – which is currently the predominant model in digital marketing.

In addition, the new platform will also encompass an “always-on data management platform” (DMP) that will let agencies customer profiles, segmentations and vertical insights.

This will entail Publicis' Vivaki developing a data co-op where clients, and ultimately publishers, can opt in and contribute data in exchange for even richer customer insights.

This can then be used to enhance brands’ cross-device targeting according to the pair, as Publicis’ various entities have come to cross channel campaign management agreements for search and social buy side optimisation using Adobe’s Media Optimiser.

ATS London 2014: 'Transparency needed', And the upcoming 'Data Wars' 

This week's ATS London saw two of the biggest names in the industry – Brian O'Kelley, AppNexus, CEO, and Dr Boris Mouzykantskii, IPONWEB, CEO – address attendees plus speakers from the marketing cloud world thrash out how they will impact the world of ad tech.

O'Kelley kicked off the day's proceedings speaking with Ciaran O'Kane, ExchangeWire, CEO sharing his thoughts on some of the difficulties experienced by publicly-listed ad tech firms.

He told attendees that he believed that many investors – Wall Street in particular – did not understand the functions of ad tech firms, and the valuation of ad tech firms that publicly list are suffering as a result.

O'Kelley added that more transparency was required from the industry. He added: “As we see a lot of fraud squeezed out, we’re going to see a lot more money go to publishers and content providers, that’s a good thing… that was the foundation that AppNexus was built on.”

Meanwhile, Mouzykantskii used his keynote address to share his thoughts on data leakage and how premium publishers will have to improve efforts to prevent this.

He said: "Publishers are under serious pressure… They understand the value of data. [I think] publishers like Yahoo are going to implement a system that will stop data from leaking, while other big players like Twitter will try to wall their data inside.

“The most successful way would be to try and create a situation where this data cannot be used in a legal way."

Meanwhile, Adobe, Oracle, and SalesForce took to the stage to offer their insights on how their increasing presence in the world of ad tech is likely to shape its future.

Panelist Zuzanna Gierlinska, Oracle, director, strategic agencies & account, marketing cloud, echoed this opinion adding that 40 % of live RFPs are from advertisers looking to bring their ad buying business in-house.

But as evidenced by the above story on Adobe and Publicis Groupe's global deal, this does not spell the death-knell for advertising world's major holding groups.

Fellow ATS London speaker Scott Brinker, ChiefMartech.com, CTO, helped frame the dynamic when he said: "Core customer data is needed to have a coordinated customer campaign, and the brand has to own this…

"As brands start to consolidate into omnichanel campaigns, you have to have the data all in the one place, and the brand has to own this.”

He further added: "Agency technologists will no longer be the most technical people in the room… Agencies can be replaced more easily that marketing tech infrastructure.”

Videology's European survey fingers hurdles for ad tech

Videology used this week's Dmexco conference to publish details of a pan-European study that revealed both an appetite to divest TV advertising budgets across screens, but also identified some hurdles.

The survey results show that video advertising decision makers in Europe see the continuing shift of video viewing across devices as a positive opportunity for the entire ecosystem.

However, challenges surrounding measurement, differences between digital and traditional media teams (still), and technology platforms have to be addressed.

The study revealed that 70% of respondents believe that it’s ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to be able to buy audiences in a holistic way, across all screens including TV and video platforms.

However, all stakeholders said that video advertising measurement remains a challenge, the survey also revealed division among the parties on the most effective standards to use.

The survey was conducted by Forrester Consulting and quizzed over 500 advertisers, agencies and media companies across the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.     

A full version of the study can be downloaded here.

The Weather Channel launches UK exchange 

The Weather Channel, this week revealed it is currently in the process of pitching its ‘weather-driven DSP’ WeatherFX to UK advertisers as it bids to pivot from simply being a media company to a "data science firm."

The exchange, named WeatherFX Off-Property, lets brands buy inventory across several premium exchanges (including DoubleClick, Rubicon Project, OpenX and Millennial Media, among others) from a single buying point.

Its proprietary bidder – which uses AppNexus technology – lets advertisers send “weather-triggered messaging” to relevant publishers sites on an automated basis.

The new service has several triggers including when the weather is forecast to contain: ‘Rain’; Very high cloud coverage’; and ‘Allergy weather’, etc.

Ross Webster, The Weather Channel, managing director, UK, told ExchangeWire: “Last month [when the UK was going through unseasonably wet weather] the John Lewis Partnership saw a run on items like remote vegetables and whiskey [items that usually sell in higher volumes in Autumn and Winter].”

He added: "We’re now as much of a data science company as we are a data science company. We can use the data to supply such firms with this information, and then use our media platform to spread awareness.”

Reports: Microsoft in $2bn talks with Swedish gaming firm

The FT this week reported that Microsoft is in talks to buy Swedish gaming firm Mojang for a reputed $2bn, citing sources close to the discussions.

Mojang – the company behind the retro game Minecraft – has a community of over 50m gamers, and the potential acquisition gives an insight into the direction Satya Nadella, Microsoft, CEO, after taking over in February this year (i.e. placing a great emphasis on its Xbox division).