Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
$12.5 Million For MediaMath
MediaMath announced today (Release here.) that it has rung the register and collected a cool $12.5 million to drive “continued expansion — with a focus on technology research and product development, executive and staff recruitment, tactical acquisitions, and geographic expansion.” Is the UK next?
Of the $12.5 million, $10 million is a venture investment from publicly-traded, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc., “a holding company that builds value in growth-stage life sciences and technology companies.” As part of the deal, a Safeguard Scientific rep will join the board. The other $2.5 million will come in the form of debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank.
TRAFFIQ Gets $10 Million
Fresh off the heels of Scott Portugal’s AdExchanger.com Q&A, TRAFFIQ announced that it has raised $10 million in “Series B round of venture funding. New investors Grotech Ventures and Greenhill SAVP join existing investor Court Square Ventures.” The new investors will add one member each to the TRAFFIQ board. (Read the release.)
Analytics Companies Getting Into Behavioral Game
MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan looks at a new iteration of WebTrends which integrates the simplest, yet an effective way to behaviorally target users: retargeting. (Release here.) Casey Carey, Webtrends VP of products, tells Sullivan that they are working on integrating the WebTrends analytics platform with Dotomi. WebTrends adds that customers will be able to feed offline POS data into their system in order to retarget online.
New Mobile Ad Exchange
Mobclix announced its new ad exchange for mobile ad networks, a la AdECN for ad networks in your computer’s browser. (Release here.) Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch takes a look and says that the exchange “supports 20 mobile ad networks at launch, including Google, Yahoo, Jumptap, and VideoEgg.” Schonfeld notes that AdMob is missing, the largest of the mobile ad networks which is likely due to technological and, perhaps more importantly, competitive reasons: “If you are the biggest mobile ad network, it is not in your interest to make it easy for developers to switch.”
Creative Agency Business on The Move
The New York Times covers recent switches of creative agencies by Expedia and Orbitz which speaks to the fluid nature of the creative agency business as clients look to buy the secret sauce for their campaigns as well as save their own skins in a difficult economy.
Google Adds Video Compression Technology
This morning Google announced that it has acquired On2 Technologies for $106 million. (Release here.) The deal brings On2’s video compression technology to Big G – might be for YouTube-like applications but, on the other hand, it could be for video advertising as superb compression technology is key to delivering video ads efficiently.
A Digital Out-Of-Home Agency Opens
DM News covers the creation of a new digital out-of-home (DOOH) agency by Dylan Jones, a former VP of at Premier Retail Networks, has launched Jones Digital Media, “specializing in digital out of home strategy, creative and production.” Jones tells DM News, “I saw this gap in the market where you really need somebody who understands the retail space as well as the digital out of home space to create the right commercial to engage consumers.”
A recent Veronis Suhler Stevenson study speaks to the addressable, DOOH opportunity saying that “Alternative advertising is forecast to have a 12.3% CAGR from 2008-2013, compared to a 3.3% decline for traditional advertising, and only slightly outpaced by alternative marketing services at 12.6%.This trend is driven by gains in online advertising and digital out-of-home.”
Successful Agencies Need To Know How To Win And Lose
The New York Times covers recent changes by Expedia and Orbitz in their creative agencies as clients look to find the secret sauce for their campaigns while maintaining their executive marketer roles. The ability to win business and scale to meet client needs is critical in the agency model – particularly on the creative side. But, the the ability to lose – or absorb the loss – of business and continue on is equally critical.
Publicis Blowing More Smoke About Razorfish?
Rory Maher from BusinessInsider covers the recent, public lack of interest by Publicis in Razorfish. Does this feel like a smoke screen to you like it does to me?
In Maher’s article, Credit Suisse analyst Ellie Lawford says Publicis management considers Razorfish a “nice to have.” Lawford says: “Management commented that in 2006 when Publicis bought Digitas, “The good fish was Digitas”. They commented that Razorfish has high quality people, and is technically strong (with good tools and measurement systems) and less focused on the creative side than Digitas.”
Tremor Media Founders Leave Posts
Kate Kaye of ClickZ covers the departure of Tremor Media’s Founders Andrew Reis and Jesse Chenard. Reis will stay on the board. It appears that the move is part of a next strategic phase for Tremor Media as the Company transitions from its startup roots.
CPX Goes Pro With Major Sports Brand
Online ad network, CPX Interactive, has partnered with the NBA to monetize online properties in four European countries – Italy, France, Germany and Turkey. (Read the release.) Considering basketball’s popularity in the four countries which have launched NBA careers such as Andrew Bagnani, Tony Parker and Dirk Nowitzki, and with close to 6 million uniques from Europe visiting NBA.com each month according to the release, this would appear to be a significant opportunity for CPX around a great brand.
