ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest developments in the ad tech space in the last week, and in this week’s edition: The countdown to ATS Paris; Mobile accounts for 23% of all digital spend; Vivendi nears Dailymotion purchase; and Facebook and WPP ink global data deal.

Key Issues facing the French programmatic sector to be debated at ATS Paris

ATS Paris is under two weeks away, taking place on 22 April, and the agenda was confirmed earlier this week, with ExchangeWire cherry-picking some of the standout panels in a post earlier this week; namely because they each signify the unique challenges posed by the French market.

They include: whether it is better to build, borrow or buy programmatic trading technology; plus how France is the leading European market for programmatic video; as well as how Audience Square and La Place Media are the standard bearers for the publisher consortia on the continent. These decisions affect both the buy- and sell-side alike; with the rise of ad tech asking advertisers, agencies, publishers and third-party ad tech players to fundamentally change the way they do business on a regular basis.

France has been a notable outpost in the international programmatic media-buying market, as publishers there pioneered the co-op model, with Audience Square and La Place Media acting as standard bearers for the industry, a dynamic ExchangeWire post explored at length just last week, but the questions now stands: what’s next for the the publisher ecosystem?

This will be debated at length during separate panel sessions at the event, however Fabien Magalon, La Place Media, managing director, said the following to ExchangeWire, on the matter: “Future evolutions being discussed involve multiple options. Common to all is the willingness to take advantage of the unique assets around scale that a premium publisher alliance provides to its partners.”

France is also notable as one of the most diverse and competitive programmatic video markets, especially when compared to the (normally more advanced UK programmatic market). The UK market is, however, hampered by the presence of the (non-commercial) BBC. This theory will also be debated at length during the event.

Click here for a full list of the day's proceedings.

IAB finds advertisers priorities mobile & social

The IAB’s UK arm this week published its annual ad spend study, revealing that mobile accounts for almost a quarter (23%) of all digital spend, and up to 56% of all spend on paid-for social media.

The survey, conducted by PwC, examined advertiser budgets in the second half of the year, and found that mobile helped propel social media ad spend to increase 65% year-on-year during the period, with total UK digital ad spend amounting to £7.2bn, according to the study. This total ad spend figure represents an increase of almost £1bn (£936m), compared to a year beforehand.

Search marketing is still the biggest paid-for digital ad format, climbing 8.7% to hit £3.77bn during the period, with online display advertising accounting for 26.4% of total digital ad spend to hit £2.27bn during the period.

Meanwhile, investment in content and native advertising spend hit £509m, as spend on video ad units surged 46% to hit £442m during the period, while mobile video alone grew 142% to hit £154m.

Tim Elkington, IAB, chief strategy officer, UK, said: “Display advertising’s record share shows marketers are increasingly seeing online as a viable ‘brand awareness’ ad medium – as with traditional media – not just one for generating an immediate ‘direct response’. The internet has been characterised as the latter since the start due to its unrivalled measurability, but this shows online advertising has come of age.”

Facebook & WPP ink global data deal

WPP's Data Alliance and WPP this week announced a multi-year deal that will let advertisers activate the holding group's proprietary data sets at scale within the social network, meaning media planners and buyers will be better able to target users across screens.

For the first time, marketers can activate WPP’s proprietary data assets within Facebook. Data assets from GroupM, Kantar and Wunderman’s KBM Group will be connected and activated on Facebook, in a way that respects consumer privacy, according to the pair.

WPP’s marketers, planners and buyers will have access to unique combinations of WPP and Facebook data assets, enhanced insights, and new audience building solutions.

This will help WPP clients effectively create campaigns across all Facebook ad formats, including video, photo, and link ads on both mobile and desktop.

WPP companies will also work with Facebook to pilot new data-driven solutions to better measure effectiveness with online and offline sales impact in multiple countries, enhance mix modeling and deepen Facebook Insights.

Vivendi & Orange near Dailymotion deal

Reports emanating from the French trade media claim that France-based digital entertainment company Vivendi is in talks with pan-regional mobile operator group to buy an 80% stake in video streaming site Dailymotion for a reputed to be in excess of €217m.

Although Orange has yet to comment publicly on the reports, Vivendi, which owns French TV channel Canal Plus, confirmed it is interested in purchasing the video-sharing site.

Vincent Bolloré, Vivendi. board chairman, is quoted as saying: "This is a first step in our ambition to create a large international group of media and content."

Earlier attempts to buy the France-based video-sharing site from foreign companies had been thwarted by the French government, which owns a minority stake in Orange, according to reports.