First Round Capital's Fralic Says Team and Market Size Are More Important Than Product

March 1st, 2010

Chris Fralic, First Round CapitalChris Fralic is Managing Partner of First Round Capital, an early-stage investment company.

AdExchanger.com: It seems like First Round is everywhere – ok, maybe not everywhere, but you all are invested in quite a few companies at an early stage. What’s the method to the madness?

CF: Yes we are busy, and we do think we have a method to our model. We typically work with companies at the seed stage where it takes relatively small amounts of capital to get started, and we provide the bulk of our value and time in the first 18-25 months of a company’s formation. We were one of the most active investors in 2009 according to this Wall Street Journal article (http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/01/22/one-of-these-venture-capital-firms-is-not-like-the-other/tab/article/) and now have 8 partners and investment professionals and we’re opening our NYC office in addition to our San Francisco and Philadelphia offices. We also focus on providing tools/platforms and “structural value” that go beyond just the capital we provide and the point person they have from First Round. But we do keep very busy and like to think we work as hard as our entrepreneurs.

What are a few key characteristics of a compelling product for an investment?

I’d say product is important but that the market size/opportunity and the entrepreneur/team are more important – we like to back great entrepreneurs going after big market opportunities. But on the product side, I’d say it’s really important to understand your customer and their problem and how your product solves it – too often that’s not understood or articulated clearly enough.

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Europe Ahead In Mobile And Creative, But Behind In Rich Media, Video And Data Says VP van den Heuvel of Amsterdam-based eBuddy

March 1st, 2010

Rogier van den Heuvel, eBuddyRogier van den Heuvel is VP, Worldwide Sales, of messaging service and Amsterdam-based, eBuddy.

AdExchanger.com: What’s the startup culture like in Europe – even Amsterdam, specifically?  Are there hotspots? (i.e. like Silicon Valley in California) Is creating interest with venture capital firms a challenge?

There is a thriving start up culture in Europe including tech, software, internet and mobile companies.  These include: Layar, Distimo and eBuddy in Amsterdam; Amiando in Munich; TweetDeck and Flirtomatic in London; Vente-privee.com and Jolicloud in Paris; Spotify in Stockholm, and many other examples of European start-up success stories. There is not truly one European hotspot for Internet start-ups, although some might say that Scandinavia was at the forefront of Internet connectivity. They were able to get people online quickly and ad spend there was among the first countries to surpass traditional media such as TV.

London is a media center and hub but it’s also rather expensive to live and work there, so setting up a business somewhere else like Amsterdam, Berlin or Copenhagen can be an equally good or better option for a number of companies. London is typically the starting point for a number of US based companies who want to make the step across the Atlantic into Europe, and certainly a part of this can be attributed to the fact that English is their shared common language.

The economy also continues to grow more and more global. We’ve found that it is equally important for European startups to build strong ties and good business connections with companies and business people in Silicon Valley and the APAC region.

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Twitter Ad Platform Coming Soon; Mediaweek: Agency DSPs And Publishers Bang Heads; The EIR Life

March 1st, 2010

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

TwitterTwitter Ad Platform Lurks

All Things D’s Peter Kafka has unearthed what Twitter’s new ad platform will look like – it will look like Google’s according to Kafka’s sources. In addition to using 140 character or less ads, Kafka writes, “Twitter will work with ad agencies and buyers to seed the program, but plans on moving to a self-serve model like Google’s, down the road.” Read more.
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Agency DSPs And Publishers

Mediaweek’s Mike Shields covers last week’s Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Annual Leadership Meeting and says that “DSPs, such as VivaKi (Publicis) and Cadreon (IPG), were a hot topic” as publishers such as the one represented by Brian Quinn (vp/gm, ad sales for the Wall Street Journal Digital Network) are more interested in receiving phone calls then agency trading desk ad calls. Read more.

MyYearbook Displays Revenue

MyYearbook is making $20 million in revenue annually and continuing to grow according to Mashable’s Adam Ostrow, who covers yet another company that is making its revenues public. Ostrow writes, “Most of that comes from virtual currency within games that the company has built, with titles like Blind Date, Owned and Quiz.” Read more.

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Click Forensics CEO Pellman Discusses Impression Inflation, Competitive Set And New Platform

February 26th, 2010

Click ForensicsClick Forensics announced the “beta version of its display ad verification platform which it says “Protects Against Impression Inflation and Fraud.” Read the release.

AdExchanger.com spoke to Click Forensics CEO Paul Pellman about the news.

AdExchanger.com: Please define what you mean by “impression inflation.” How pervasive is this issue and how do fraudsters pull it off typically?

PP: Impression inflation is not necessarily fraudulent activity, although that can certainly be part of the problem. We define impression inflation as anything that happens in the ad-serving chain that would mislead the advertiser into believing its campaign delivered more impressions to the target audience than it actually did. A simple example would be a botnet impression that’s counted as a human. Another example might be an ad delivered below the fold that’s never seen by an actual human being, but the impression is counted and billed. Impressions delivered in the wrong geo or daypart also shouldn’t count. Then there are the malicious schemes, such as ad stuffing (displaying multiple ads in the same ad unit for a very brief period), and invisible pages (malware opening pop-unders or 0×0 browsers to pull ads). These methods can inappropriately pad impression counts and invoices, reducing overall advertiser campaign effectiveness. The best ad networks and publishers want to assure advertisers that their campaigns are free from these inflated impression counts and their budgets aren’t being wasted.

Do you offer ad serving capabilities, too? Potentially, it would seem Click Forensics could start a media business. Thoughts?

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Video Ad Network Tremor Media Announces Real-Time Tech Upgrade, Partnership With Quantcast

February 26th, 2010

Tremor MediaOnline video advertising network, Tremor Media, announced an upgrade to its Acudeo technology yesterday which will offer advertisers “an enhanced targeting solution that uses real-time audience data to better package inventory across its network.” In addition, the company announced a partnership with online data and audience measurement provider, Quantcast. Read the release.

AdExchanger.com discussed the news and its implications with Jason Glickman, CEO of Tremor Media.

AdExchanger.com: How is Tremor Media making it easier for brand marketers – who are accustomed to TV, reach and GRPs – to buy online video advertising?

JG: In order to have a GRP equivalent for online video, you have to be able to buy and deliver based on audience. For the most part, digital is bought and delivered based on impressions, without any accountability for audience delivery. Our targeting solution allows advertisers to plan, buy, and deliver based on audience delivery (just like they do with TV). Also, because of our first-look targeting capability, we are able to do it at scale – which is another requirement for making online video more like TV.

How does the Quantcast partnership work? Do you share revenue with Quantcast for the audience targeting they provide to your clients?

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How to Buy Australian Audience When It Isn't For Sale

February 26th, 2010

The Global AddressThe Global Address” is a column written by members of the digital media community with an international perspective on the digital space.

John Childs-Eddy is VP of Business Development at Australian direct response ad network, Funbox.

When AdExchanger.com first asked me to discuss the Australian market, my verbatim response was:

“The thing about this market is that it’s consolidated, and dominated by traditional media – it’s the only English speaking market in which the five biggest digital media companies are owned by the biggest traditional media companies – which is an interesting anomaly on the face of things… however it seriously slows the adoption of ad exchanges in Australia… and reduces the discussion about these kinds of things. It’s not exactly an innovative marketplace like the States is in this area.”

To reflect just how deeply the Australian Media market is regarded as an oligopoly, you can check out this Wikipedia article on the definition of oligopolies.

And to paraphrase what is possibly the most important note in the Wikipedia article: “… competitors will generally ignore price increases, with the hope of gaining a larger market share as a result of now having comparatively lower prices. However, even a large price decrease will gain only a few customers because such an action will begin a price war with other firms. The curve is therefore more price-elastic for price increases and less so for price decreases.”

In other words, there is very little incentive to suddenly allow the majority of the media company’s remnant inventory to become liquid in an exchange market place. Indeed the companies have far more to lose than to gain by allowing the devaluation of their inventory through an ad exchange. The companies will correctly point out that they are better off *not* selling their remnant inventory at all, and keeping their eCPM average more than 1000% higher than the avg. in an exchange environment.

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New Publisher Model? Meredith Adding Agency Services; Microsoft And ComScore Partner; How Much Is Data Worth?

February 26th, 2010

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

MeredithPublisher As Agency

The Wall Street Journal’s Emily Steel covers publishing company, Meredith, and its recent transformation as, in part, a marketing agency. According to Steele, recent acquisitions by the venerable publishing company in the digital agency space has attracted business from Kraft Foods, Chrysler and Wells Fargo to name a few. And, Meredith isn’t done acquiring yet. Read more about publisher as agency.

IAB Meeting Redux

Mediaweek’s Mike Shield’s provides an overview of the recent IAB Annual Meeting. Technology appears to be a threat when, in fact, it should be their friend as increasing transparency will bring efficiency. On the other hand, introducing scarcity by selling direct makes sense, too. It’s part of the equation and shouldn’t be seen as a defensive measure against tech. Publishers need to understand technology, networks and exchanges and its benefits rather than run and hide from it. Read Shields’ summary.

Aggregate Knowledge Approved For Credit

In a release, Silicon Valley bank, Bridge Bank, announced that “it has provided term financing and a working capital line of credit to Aggregate Knowledge to support the company’s continued growth.” Aggregate Knowledge said the funds will be used to “expand its Discovery Platform and deliver more value to its clients with new and exciting audience management and dynamic creative capabilities.” Often the purpose of a credit facility is to provide an infusion of cash while precluding the need to give away equity in the company as a venture capital deal will. Read more.

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AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part I)

February 25th, 2010

A (somewhat) weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part I) - Cell 1

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The Cross Channel Influence on Conversions

February 25th, 2010

Displaying Search“Displaying Search” is a column capturing the intersection of display advertising and search marketing.

Today’s column is written by Suman Basetty, Director of Product Management at Efficient Frontier, an online performance marketing company.

Sophisticated online marketers want to know how their display and search ad spend are influencing each other, their conversion rates and, most importantly, understand how to distribute their ad spend across these channels to maximize returns.  In order to answer these questions, marketers need two things:

  1. A centralized tracking system across both search and display.
  2. The ability to apply the right attribution model and optimize across both channels.

Tracking systems like Atlas and DART to some extent tried to solve the first problem.  However, in order to solve the second issue, marketers need the ability to bid their display ads up or down (in conjunction with their search ads) based on how the ads are directly and indirectly affecting the conversions.

With the recent surge of display inventory becoming available in biddable form (at impression level in many cases) optimization across search and display can now happen.

The graph below shows an example of distribution of registrations to an advertiser’s website from multiple channels and illustrating the number of registrations with prior search and display ad interactions.

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Bizo Partners With Ad Network Martini Media, Finds B2B Fit With B2C

February 25th, 2010

BizoB2B ad targeting data company, Bizo, announced a partnership with online ad network Martini Media, which targets high net worth consumers.  Bizo will provide its B2B data segments to the ad network.  Read the release.

Bizo CEO Russell Glass discussed the new Martini Media partnership and its implications with AdExchanger.com.

Martini Media would appear to be a B2C opportunity for Bizo. Are you expanding beyond B2B?

RG: We’ve received a lot of interest from marketers coming to us asking if our executive and c-suite categories could be used as proxies for high net worth. After a few of these tests went well, we saw an opportunity to leverage our data in a new way. I would call it “prosumer” targeting – or reaching a business executive when they’re pursuing interests outside of work. Martini is one of the leaders in this category, so there was a natural fit to be working together.

As you re-sell the same cookies to different clients, are you getting any feedback regarding the rising cost of media as, potentially, different advertisers target the same user? Or is there so much inventory out there, advertisers don’t have to worry about rising costs?

We’re not seeing an increase in media costs based on the inventory – it’s more based on the audience and the limited number of impressions where you can find the audience. As more advertisers look to get in front of the same audience, the value of the impressions those audience members can be found on are going up.

How is business breaking out between ad network sales and direct advertisers? Any trends you can report?

Our business is 60% direct sales and 40% indirect where partners like Martini and others use our data to better target B2B audiences. We expect the indirect component of our business will outpace direct sales as we grow.

By John Ebbert

Netezza Offering Solution For Big Math, Big Data In Digital Advertising

February 25th, 2010

NetezzaNetezza recently announced its Netezza TwinFin(i) Appliance which extends data warehousing capabilities and supports the company’s i-Class data analytics platform. (Read the release about i-Class.) The company’s products are gaining traction with digital advertising tech companies as requisite computational power rockets.

Netezza’s Brad Terrell, VP and general manager of digital media, and
Michele Chambers, director of advanced analytics product management,
looked how Netezza products apply in digital advertising with AdExchanger.com.

AdExchanger.com: What is the application here for digital advertising? For example, would a demand side platform find this system useful – and why?

Netezza: A wide range of analytic applications for digital advertising apply, including but not limited to ad targeting, Web site optimization, ad inventory and pricing, ad sales forecasting, attribution analysis, network usage, click fraud detection and keyword portfolio optimization.

Can you define what is meant by “big data” and “big math”?

Big data is petabytes of data. Big math refers to the complex computational processing that’s required for advanced analytics.

How does pricing work for Netezza’s TwinFin(i) Appliance?

List pricing starts at $125K for a system that analyzes up to 10TB of data and goes up from there.

By John Ebbert

Q1 Looking Good For Yahoo!; Oh The Irony – Xerox Says Google And Yahoo! Copied; Lookery Resurrected, Offering Audience Networks For Pubs

February 25th, 2010

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Yahoo Q1 2010Yahoo! On Q1 2010

Barron’s Eric Savitz provides a bulleted list from the remarks made by Hilary Schneider, EVP of Yahoo! North America, at the Goldman Sachs Technology Conference in San Francisco. According to Savitz, Schneider said that the “rebound in brand advertising the company saw in the fourth quarter has continued into the first quarter” and, curiously, “dollars shifting from offline to online ads are targeting women, not men.” Read more.

Lookery Resurrected: Audience Networks For Pubs

Calling it “Lookery Prequel, Inc.,” Scott Rafer has rolled away the stones of the Lookery sepulchre to introduce a new company from the dust of the former Lookery. Rafer writes on the Lookery blog, “If you are a publisher network, category-leading publisher, brand, or agency, we’ll run through walls to help you become an self-reliant Audience Network.” Is this another step toward the SSP (supply-side platform)? It’s certainly a part of it. Read more.

Location-Based Services Added To Legislative Initiative

On The Hill’s “Hillicon Valley” blog, journalist Tony Romm says that privacy legislation will now include location-based services. What’s more, a hearing appears imminent as Rep. Bobby Rush, who is working along side Rep. Rich Boucher, said, “It is my intent that our next hearing on privacy will be a legislative hearing, where we will discuss the ‘devil in the details’ by commenting on a discussion draft of a comprehensive privacy bill.” Read the article.

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Dapper Panel Brings Together Display Advertising Players In NYC, Yields Smackdown

February 24th, 2010

Dapper EventIn a breezy panel discussion that captured the continuing momentum in the digital media optimization space, Dapper hosted, “Fixing Advertising: The New Data-Driven Display Ecosystem” in New York City on Wednesday night.

(West coast, fear not. Dapper marketer Paul Knegten notes that the company will be bringing together a similar panel in San Francisco next month.)

In addition to moderator Sara Holoubek from SEMPO, panelists included marketer Emily Scott of Kayak;  Vikram Somaya, Director of Client Services at BlueKai; Jon Aizen, COO at Dapper; Brian O’Kelley, CEO at AppNexus; and Joe Zawadzki, CEO of MediaMath.  As it turned out, Zawadzki was not to be denied in this panel containing two of the DSP (demand-side platform) heavyweights.

Responding to a question from AppNexus’ inquisitive CEO O’Kelley, Zawadzki ended up challenging the industry to improve upon the MediaMath DSP formula when he started to explain the differentiating factors among today’s many online display advertising solutions such as ad networks and demand-side platforms:

“I’m going to take the job function of a marketer… all the way to what the CMO hears about… launch a program, compare it to any other form of display, and I’m not going to be too over the top here, but we will beat it, we will beat the alternatives on the plan. And that’s an open challenge actually, I’ll go all the way.”

Sara Holoubek, sensing gasoline had been spilled, threw the match: “Who wants to see a DSP smackdown?” BlueKai’s Somaya piled on and offered free data for the smackdown.  The crowd roared its approval.

Zawadzki, feeling it, added, “Same creative, same offer, go for it, look at it at the end of the four weeks.”

You think I’m making this up? Dapper promises to have the complete audio of the event available shortly on its blog here.

Nothing like good, old-fashioned competition.

By John Ebbert

Yahoo! Currently Running RTB Pilot On Right Media, Clarifies What The Publisher Needs To Know About RTB

February 24th, 2010

Yahoo! on RTBYahoo! says that in AdExchanger.com’s news round-up earlier today, there was a clear misinterpretation of the comment by Yahoo! VP Ramsey McGrory at yesterday’s IAB meeting regarding concerns publishers should have about RTB.

McGrory tells AdExchanger.com that his point “was that the lost bid data that comes when an auction is broadcast to bidders and a bidder doesn’t respond or responds and loses is very valuable data that a seller should fully consider before allowing bidders to have. If a bidder gets all the pings of the unsold for a publisher, over time they can calculate the sell through of a publisher and use that aggregate knowledge against the publisher in negotiations. The counter argument is that it helps the bidders bid more effectively if they know how often they’ll see a user (call it a scarcity factor). Generally, we believe the publishers that are working with third parties providing RTB should be aware of what is happening with lost bid data and then decide whether they want to support. RTB has to protect the primary interest of the publisher. The marketplace without fruits and vegetables is just an empty parking lot.”

AdExchanger.com’s (a.k.a. My) assertion that Yahoo! may have a reason to criticize the benefits of RTB for failing to have an RTB solution was further rebutted by McGrory who said Yahoo! has been piloting RTB (via Right Media) for the last several months with more details to come.

By John Ebbert

With Launch of Adap.tv's Online Video Ad Marketplace, CEO Ashkenazi To Leverage Innovation From Ad Networks And Agencies

February 24th, 2010

adap.tvAmir Ashkenazi is CEO of adap.tv, an online video advertising marketplace.

AdExchanger.com:   Let’s start with a bit of background. Has adap.tv always been a video ad exchange or marketplace? You’ve been around for a while, correct?

AA: Yes. We developed Adap.tv OneSource, ad serving and management platform, that is being used currently by hundreds of publishers. We literally were wiring the ecosystem in a world that lacks standards and innovating very frequently on formats. We realized that the monetization of video is just extremely difficult without the right technology platform, so we decided to develop exactly that. In the process, we also learned that technology, or the wiring, is only half of the problem. The second half is actually in the process of buying and selling.

When you get two or three calls a week from buyers looking for more inventory, and we have almost daily conversations with publishers looking for more revenue, you understand that something does not work.

So we decided to take another step in solving the video monetization problem and develop the ideal marketplace for video buyers and sellers.

Are you concerned about others, such as Google, jumping in the space? Yahoo and Google have significant display ad exchange models, couldn’t they just swoop in and grab your advertisers and publishers?

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Mpire Announces AdXpose API; CRO Winfield Discusses Pricing and Services Layer

February 24th, 2010

AdXposeMpire announced a new API which provides “advanced reporting capabilities” from AdXpose, Mpire’s campaign verification and optimization technology, on such data points as domain verification, location on the page, geographic location of the user, user demographic and page or site context.  Read the release.

Mpire President and CRO Kirby Winfield shared his thoughts with AdExchanger.com about the evolution of the AdXpose product and the API.

AdExchanger.com: What’s the pricing like for the API? And, are you moving away from offering a services layer for the AdXpose product at Mpire?

KW: Pricing will be an incremental CPM fee on top of the base service fee. We will basically offer API access at or near “cost” – it is meant to be a value-add to our ad server, network, and DSP clients. We are in no way moving away from the services layer, however. On the contrary, we are currently hiring technical account managers  to help service our clients and prospects: because we provide so much more than just simple verification reports, it’s crucial that we make it easy for our clients to understand the implications of the data and make human decisions in addition to any algorithmic decisions made leveraging the API.

What about API integration? Is this difficult for groups that may be less technically skilled such as some agencies, for example?

We are finding that most agencies now have the ability and desire to integrate data from multiple sources into their dashboards, reports, and decisioning engines. As Google VP of Product Management Susan Wojcicki said today at the IAB Leadership Meeting, “if you’re using spreadsheets to manage campaigns, you’re leaving dollars on the table.” The holding company agency DSP’s are especially well positioned to integrate the API, and we work with the majority of these entities today.

How is Mpire’s AdXpose media business progressing? And how does this API release affect it or say about the company’s media business?

The media business is largely a sandbox for continued development of our AdXpose Analytics technology. Sitting on a consistent volume of directly purchased impressions (we do not buy from or compete in any way with ad networks – in fact, some buy from us) allows us to test new features in real time without using clients as guinea pigs. That stated, it’s the technology and our technology clients that drive the enterprise value for our business, and that’s the side of the business that gets the lion’s share of our investment. To that end, the API release is simply further confirmation of our commitment to creating the leading brand safety and display ad analytics company online.

By John Ebbert

IAB Meeting Notes; RTB Cookie Matching Revealed; Google Under EU Microscope; Millennial Media Buys Analytics Firm

February 24th, 2010

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

IAB Annual Leadership ManagementIAB ALM Notes: Data Access Through RTB

In the final panel discussion of the three-day, Interactive Advertising Bureau Annual Leadership Summit, Yahoo!’s Ramsey McGrory identified what he said was one of the key challenges currently emerging around data ownership: the advent of real-time bidding (RTB). McGrory suggested that any participating buyer can either bid or “watch” in a real-time bidding auction of a single impression, for example, and can potentially get access to valuable publisher data and all of its attributes. He questioned whether that’s fair to publishers. UPDATED: Yahoo! says I got it wrong. See Yahoo! clarification here. It should be noted that Yahoo! currently does not have an RTB solution. Google does and Microsoft’s appears to be on the way.

IAB ALM Notes: Tolman Geffs Presentation

Jordan, Edmiston’s Tolman Geffs arguably offered the most compelling presentation (best takeaway, too) of the IAB Summit. The prez included an ecosystem map of the world with which AdExchanger.com’s audience is already familiar -but was likely an eyeopener for some in attendance. Download it here (PDF).

IAB ALM Notes: Exchanges & Networks Rules of the Road

The IAB rules committee associated with ad exchanges and networks delivered for comment “Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines.” Read the release. Among the guidelines is the move towards transparency as the guidelines look to improved brand safety. The release notes ask that networks and exchanges “allow for transparency of inventory sources, publisher relationships, content levels and ad placement details.” The full 39-page guideline doc is available for download and includes a nice glossary on the space. Get it (PDF).

IAB ALM Notes: Adify’s Russ Fradin Says Its All Networks Or Not

Russ Fradin, CEO of Adify, told attendees that it’s time to choose. Either go with networks and understand the cost implications (lower CPMs, reduced or non-existent sales staff). Or, take all the pixeling opportunities off of your site and never contract with networks, and sell direct with a sales team.

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Hooked Media Group Looking To Address Publisher Model With Yoo-Mee Says CEO Uppal

February 23rd, 2010

Hooked Media GroupHooked Media Group announced in a release that it has launched Yoo-Me, “a premium gaming technology platform” that it hopes will create a compelling, publisher monetization solution given the influence of social media today.

Prita Uppal, CEO of Hooked Media Group, discussed the announcement with AdExchanger.com.

AdExchanger.com: What is broken with the publishing model which Hooked Media is fixing?

Uppal: Today’s media consumption on publisher sites is extremely fragmented and not entirely social. This trend has led to diminished traffic, engagement rates and sellable ad inventory. Hooked’s Yoo-Mee gaming application helps to reverse this trend by providing publishers access to the benefits associated with social communities. By partnering with Yoo-Mee, publishers are connected to a vast community of players. Publishers visitors, who mostly do not engage with others on the site, can now engage with each other on the site and, more importantly, can invite, compete, challenge and broadcast to and with the rest of the internet community so that people who may not visit the publishers site, now have a reason to come and join in the fun. Through Yoo-Mee, Publisher’s receive incremental revenue streams from both advertising, cash tournaments, and virtual currency, but also growth in traffic and user engagement.

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Sprout Providing Engagement Through Display Ads For Brand Marketers Says CEO Williams

February 23rd, 2010

Sprout Inc.Carnet Williams is CEO and Co-Founder of Sprout, a brand engagement ad platform.

AdExchanger.com: Let’s start with the name – how does “Sprout” mesh with what you’re doing today? And, what problem is Sprout solving and how does this play out with your announcement about Disney?

CW: The display advertising business is still incredibly young. There is so much room for innovation to sprout. We want to make display ads relevant and engaging. We want to enable brands to plant relationships with customers and nurture those relationships with continuous conversations over time.

Today, we announced Sprout Engage Ads. Sprout Engage Ads allow brands to make stronger connections with their audiences by providing a fun, interactive experience, wherever their audiences travel online.

Our first customer to roll out these ads is Disney, who created Engage Ads for Alice in Wonderland. These ads are designed to take display advertising to the next level by bringing personally relevant data right into a standard Flash ad unit. The ads are ’smart’ in that they know when you have engaged with them so you will never see the same content twice. In addition, the ad and the Facebook application is linked so the ads know if you have engaged with the app and vice versa. For example, if you add yourself to the Mad Hatter’s Army in the ad, when you come to the Facebook app you will be recognized as being in the army.

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CPM Advisors Leveraging Mediageeks' Technology For Demand-Side Platform

February 23rd, 2010

CPM Advisors and Media GeeksDemand-side platform CPM Advisors announced that it would be leveraging the technology infrastructure of publisher optimizer, MediageeksRead the release.

AdExchanger.com discussed the announcement with CPM Advisors CEO Rob Leathern and MediaGeeks GM Jacob LeWinter.

AdExchanger.com: It’s interesting that a demand-side tech company is partnering with a publisher-side technology company – and beyond just buying media through aggregators (yield optimizers). What’s the takeaway here?

Rob Leathern: The smart players in this space are the ones that can build valuable core technologies but also work with other providers who can help support those efforts with relevant technologies. It’s all about driving ROI for the advertiser, using cost-effective best-of-breed technologies that can help support that and not reinventing the wheel. Ad- and data-serving for us is about having the quickest, cost-effective, most efficient delivery infrastructure that can support our key assets in advertiser interface, decisioning, campaign data and budget management, and optimization.

Jacob LeWinter: As Mediageeks built out our global infrastructure we realized our services and technology were beneficial to more than just enterprise websites, and mediageeks evolved to be a leading ad infrastructure company. We now work with publishers, media companies, data platforms, DSPs, and even other supply side platforms who want robust scalable ad technology and solutions. We plan to work with the major players in each of these areas.

Mediageeks has been working with publishers but has not been as well-known as some of the other aggregators – why not?

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