Brian Lesser’s Challenge At AT&T; Jun Group Acquired

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Time Will Telco

There’s plenty of pressure on Brian Lesser to build advertising into a pillar of AT&T’s business and marry the wireless company’s customer data to the new WarnerMedia content assets. “But probably more than anything, I feel this sense of responsibility to the advertising community,” Lesser tells Jeanine Poggi of Ad Age. One reason for optimism is that AT&T’s “AdCo,” the interim name that’s been used to brand the advertising and analytics group, seems to have stronger buy-in from AT&T brass than previous telco-media-advertising ventures, like Comcast’s NBCUniversal acquisition or Oath by Verizon. “I felt pretty optimistic that, assuming the politics doesn’t stand in his way – you can’t underestimate that – there’s a good chance of him making something happen,” said David Cohen, Magna’s president for North America, following AT&T’s TV upfronts pitch. “It feels like AT&T’s CEO is giving him keys to the kingdom.” More.

Show To Advantage

The sales and marketing software company Advantage Solutions acquired the Jun Group, a three-year-old mobile video advertising startup. Terms weren’t disclosed, though the Jun Group had raised $33 million in venture capital. Jun Group’s tech is embedded in mobile apps, and uses opt-in poll questions to vet for human traffic and create custom audience segments. Advantage plans to apply the tech to MomentAware, a shopper marketing product that enables retailers and CPGs to target shoppers based on real-time geolocation data. Press release.