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Timed to coincide with the start of the Memorial Day Weekend, AT&T, in partnership with Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, this week launches the latest PSA in its "It Can Wait" don't text and drive public education campaign, which originally debuted in December 2010. VIEW THE SPOT

Strengthens team by bringing outstanding track record and deep expertise as a successful CFO of dynamic technology businesses  PRAGUE – Socialbakers, the global provider of analytics platforms that allows brands to measure, compare, and contrast the success of their social media campaigns, today announces the appointment of James Bodha as Chief Financial Officer. Bodha joins Socialbakers from Myriad Group AG, a leading provider of global social messaging services listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. He will report to Jan Rezab, Socialbakers’ CEO, assuming responsibility for all financial, commercial and legal operations. Bodha brings to Socialbakers over twelve years of experience in senior financial leadership roles within global, growth technology businesses held in public, venture capital and private equity ownership. During his time at Myriad Group, he oversaw the consolidation of three substantial businesses to create a market leader in social messaging, including the acquisition of Synchronica Plc., an AIM/ TSX dual listed mobile social platform provider. Prior to joining Myriad Group, he was Chief Financial Officer at Aircom International, a mobile network software provider and Magic4, a mobile phone messaging software provider. “James brings to Socialbakers an outstanding track record and deep expertise as a serially successful CFO of dynamic technology businesses,” said Rezab. “In particular, his knowledge of establishing and growing profitable and sustainable global, multi-site operations will be invaluable in helping Socialbakers accelerate its growth worldwide.” “Socialbakers is a truly international company with a market leading social media analytics platform and an outstanding client base of the world’s biggest brands,” adds Bodha. “I am excited to be joining such an ambitious, highly talented team and look forward to helping the company scale operations to achieve its aggressive growth strategy.” About Socialbakers: Socialbakers.com is a user-friendly social media analytics platform, providing the only global solution that allows brands to measure, compare, and contrast the success of their social media campaigns with competitive intelligence. Since 2009 Socialbakers has continuously developed innovative tools for companies to measure and maximize the effectiveness of their social marketing campaigns across all major social networks. With more than 160 employees located in 10 offices worldwide, Socialbakers is one of the world’s fastest growing social media and digital analytics company. Related articles: Rob Schatzel Named Head of Sales in North America for Socialbakers Global Social Media Analytics and Measurement Platform – With Over... Demand Media Appoints Mandalay Entertainment Chair Peter Guber and Omniture Co-Founder Josh James to Board of Directors Visionary Studio Executive and Serial Technology Entrepreneur Appointed as Independent... DoubleVerify Announces Appointment of New CFO New York – DoubleVerify, the worldwide leader in online media...

In a new BBDO New York-created PSA for the It Can Wait campaign, we meet Xzavier, a boy who, while in a crosswalk, was hit by a driver who was texting. His mother explains what happened to her son and wonders whether the text, "Im on my way," sent by the girl who struck her son was really that important. The It Can Wait campaign is a partnership between AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile which aims to educate the public on the dangers (and illegality) of texting while driving. Don't do it this weekend. Or ever for that matter.

A 1960s classic ad starring Tony Hancock for eggs, Carling's humorous take on male bonding and a recent ad for Thinkbox itself are 3 great TV ads that Elizabeth Fagan, executive marketing director for Boots, admires but had nothing to do with. Her choices are the latest in our series in association with Thinkbox.

Shabazz Palaces front-man Ishmael Butler was gracious enough to pose for this 60 Second Portrait back when he was on set for the cjLIVE episode with Ian Ruhter. Ishmael was one of the subjects of our massive tintype portraits along with Chris Ballew. Enjoy!

ADOTAS – Are our readers incredibly influential, or are they just incredibly well-informed? Last Friday, based on a May 9 report from Bloomberg, we  conducted a poll asking which video company’s IPO would draw the strongest response: Tremor Video, Yu.Me or Adap.tv. A staggering 93 percent of respondents chose Tremor. A week later, All Things D is reporting that Tremor has officially filed for its IPO and should begin actively wooing investors next month. We can’t say whether Tremor’s showing in our poll was the final catalyst, but we can’t help but like the way the whole scenario played out. Read More ... Subscribe to the free Adotas.com Newsletter

'Vikings', the popular cable series in the US, launches exclusively on Lovefilm Instant in the UK today, the first time a major TV series has aired on the service ahead of broadcasting channels.

ADOTAS — The idea of lead exchanges has hardly been new. The idea has been around for a while, yet most many companies who tried to set up a lead exchange have failed. This has made many people skeptical and suspicious of the idea of a lead marketplace. However,  looking at the online lead generation industry, it’s easy to see that the industry is plagued by inefficiencies and could be reduced with the help of a well-functioning lead exchange marketplace. Why? Many publishers, buyers and lead generation companies are constantly looking for new ways to do the same things: Connecting buyers, setting up ping trees, building out campaigns and forms. This has resulted in a lot of overlap in labor- and time-intensive processes. Few players find their competitive advantage because everybody is too busy doing the same thing. Moreover, labor-intensive technical processes make it harder for many publishers to expand into new verticals, precisely because every vertical has different metrics and technical requirements. So, how can a lead marketplace improve the situation? An online lead exchange is a marketplace which connects buyers and sellers, with the exchange system taking care of the administration and technical integration. This kind of aggregated business model is much more efficient because it guarantees exchange users to tap into a vast amount of buyers and publishers, as well as providing access to leads in multiple verticals. By using a lead exchange, many lead gen players could save themselves the time and hassle of learning and implementing the metrics of a new vertical, connecting buyers with their different technical requirements, building out ping trees, etc. In short, lead exchange can make the online lead gen industry much more efficient and innovative because marketers will be able to focus on what they’re good at: marketing. 1. Added Value through Lead Exchange: The way to make lead exchange platforms work is to offer added value. If a platform can take care of all the technical integrations for buyers and publishers and at the same time offer comprehensive tools that guarantee lead quality and transparency, lead exchanges can work more efficiently than direct contact. Many lead exchanges now include scoring systems to give buyers insight into the quality of leads and their sources. Moreover, lead exchanges that integrate internal and external verification methods can filter out fraudulent or sub-standard leads. If lead exchanges can pass on information on lead origins and deliver leads with quality seals, essentially lifting the burden of buyers and publishers to implement quality measures themselves, they represent a much more effective alternative. 2. Stable Prices based on supply and demand. A well-functioning lead exchange will avoid fluctuating prices by setting bottom and ceiling prices, ensuring that prices only vary within a reasonable price frame. Moreover, lead exchanges that include tools to verify and qualify leads, are able to make price predictions and maximize lead values by developing internal tools and algorithms that eliminate the risk of low-bidding buyers obtaining the largest share of leads. Moreover, if a lead exchange is based on a volume model, there should be a healthy balance between supply and demand. 3. Integration of technical complexities: The technical complexities of a lead exchange are quite demanding and require an advanced web development team. Connecting buyers, setting up campaigns, building out ping trees and APIs, etc., is a labor- and time-intensive process that is a very time-consuming process that hinders many affiliates from expanding in new verticals. A well-functioning lead exchange that has its own development team will be able to develop technical structures that can handle leads in milliseconds. This means that leads can be pinged to buyers as soon as they are generated and guarantee immediate delivery. 4. Every lead is unique: Many people say that lead exchanges

Hispanics are avid smartphone shoppers; ad agency execs are bullish on Web video ads; summer travelers are turning to mobile to plan and book trips; and more In the world of advertising, if you turn away for a second, you might miss the next big thing. To help you keep you up with the news [...]

ADOTAS — In the next five years the ticket market will likely look nothing like the scenarios you’ve grown up with, which, depending on your age, either involved waiting on line outside for ticket offices to open, or hitting “refresh” until tickets went on sale online.   As often happens, a startup will be vying to disrupt the market, but this time the startup doing the disrupting won’t be run by 20-something Silicon Alley wunderkinds, or even Silicon Valley vets.  In this next market turn, the startups will be professional sports teams looking to recapture the billions of dollars in market value that has slipped through their hands over the past 20 years. In this fight, teams are embracing data: big, small and everything in between, and in ways that were unimaginable 10 years ago. In your dad’s ticket market, Ticketing Vice Presidents relied on radio, print, TV, and their gut instincts to price tickets and attract buyers.  Today, the smartest of those VPs think like traders, and organizations understand the power of a pixel.  There is a shared belief that convergence of these two skill sets inside of team front offices may have as big an impact on the market as StubHub did 20 years ago.  And if those VPs are right, the ticket market of the future may in fact look a lot more like the ticket market of the past, one in which teams, and the old-fashioned box office, were the only games in town. But first some history: The Internet had a profound impact on the ticket market unlike many other industries.  Previously an inefficient and local market, online sales pushed ticketing into the light and brought margin-trimming efficiency, virtually (pun intended) overnight. In what was already a cut-throat market, those that didn’t understand how to use the Web disappeared, and new, tech-savvy players emerged. The main driver of this new-found efficiency was a company originally called LiquidSeats and now known as StubHub. The liquidity and access that it introduced caught many sellers, including sports teams, flatfooted. In 2003, as the secondary ticket market continued to grow, eBay — the original ticket marketplace — purchased StubHub for $300 million. Since then, the company has grown to more than $1 billion in annual sales.  Along the way, team operators have done a lot of hand-wringing, but have done very little to fight back.  This season is different, though, with a handful of professional sports teams launching their own ticket exchanges to compete with StubHub directly.  The Yankees were the first to take the leap and create their own ticket exchange, and the Los Angeles Angels quickly followed suit. It’s inevitable that other teams will follow a similar path in the months and years ahead. Captive exchanges, however, are just the latest effort by teams to take back the ticket market.  In the last five years, more than half of Major League Baseball teams have started to use dynamic pricing to adjust prices in real-time, and almost all are using data-driven marketing techniques like re-targeting.  In 2013, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has become as important an acronym to marketing organizations as ERA is to  managers and pitching coaches. The multiple data touch points — both inside and outside the stadium — available to teams represent a market-disrupting opportunity to rethink the ticket purchase as just the first of many products and services that the team can offer their fans once they’ve signaled an intent to attend a game. These offerings range from the standards like concession deals, to higher tech options like stored value tickets, and even experiential reward programs.  All of these give fans access to experiences and deals that they’re likely to remember the next time they’re in-market for tickets. When they are, chances are that teams will know, and they’ll have a deal waiting. Subscribe