Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Herman Takes On New Role
MDC Partners took another step into digital waters as one of its agencies, Kirschenbaum, Bond, Senecal & Partners (kbs+p), announced a new Chief Digital Media Officer and tapped its own – Varick Media’s president, Darren Herman. According to AdWeek’s Brian Morrissey, a search for a replacement for his Varick role is underway as Herman will assume a more “visionary” position. On his blog, Herman writes, “My belief is that if you are going to create a sustaining communications experience in 2010+, you are going to require a digital backbone.” Read AdWeek. And, read the blog.
Microsoft Reports Fiscal Q2
Microsoft made enough money in their fiscal second quarter 2010 (ending 12/31/09) to buy most of the new ad technology companies covered on AdExchanger.com as the company reported a profit of $6.66 billion, or 74 cents a share. Though sales was driven by the company’s software, highlighted by a successful launch of Windows 7, Microsoft also talked display saying that within the Online Services division “search revenue grew, [but] display revenue was hampered primarily by international rate declines.” Read an earnings summary in the WSJ. And, visit the earnings call transcript on Seeking Alpha. Read the Investor Relations press release here.
Entrepreneurs Exchange Shares
Venture capital firm First Round Capital just had its CEO Summit and announced their “Entrepreneur’s Exchange fund,” which was created by the VC firm for its member companies to share in each other’s success. First Round’s Josh Kopelman writes, “The goal of the fund is to allow our entrepreneurs to get the benefit of some tax efficient diversification without giving up their upside prematurely.” Read more.
Rothenberg: The iPad Threat To Advertising
The IAB’s Randall Rothenberg thinks the new Apple iPad is a threat to advertising as the potential for “semi-privatization” looms. Similar to the online service provider model of the 90s – such as AOL – where users logged into the AOL portal but could not travel beyond it and visit the Internet, Rothenberg thinks that the iPad, Facebook and other proprietary experiences will hamstring content publishers. Read more.
More On iPad Advertising
Paul Palmieri, CEO of mobile ad network Millennial Media, shares his thoughts on the iPad’s potential impact on advertising on SiliconANGLE. Palmieri states, “Publishers and application developers see the potential of extending the smart phone ecosystem of pay and advertising-supported applications and mobile web-based content to a new category of device.” Read thoughts.
Tag Business Gets Rag Business
From its blog, UK-based TagMan announced a client win as “Boden, the international online clothes retailer, has hired independent universal tag management system TagMan for tag management and to help the company understand the full journey its customers take on their way to buying from its websites.” Read more. And, read New Media Age.
Mediasmith Expands Board
Media agency Mediasmith has expanded its board of directors according to a release. Among those named to the board are former Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller, David Carlick, co-founder of DoubleClick and Preston Bealle. Read more.
Monster Coach
Former Flatiron VC partner, Jerry Colonna, has started a CEO coaching business and a blog called the “Monster In Your Head.” He explains the name of the blog in an eloquent post which relives a decision of his childhood, “It became, ultimately, a Monster in my head—a puff of air, a coiled rope, an empty rowboat—that defined me, scared me, and trapped me.” See what he means here. (source: A VC)
Niche Ad Network Eats Another
Martini Media Network – led by Skip Brand whose experience includes stops at Pudding Media, Yahoo!, JiWire, Excite@Home and Cox Communications – has acquired Decision Makers Media (DMM) in a deal that Martini Media claims will enable advertisers to reach reach 40 mm $100,000+ earners in the combined entity. Also of note, Datran’s CEO Patrick Vogt makes a cameo in the release suggesting the company’s Aperture audience measurement platform did some of the due diligence on the deal and confirmed the DMM audience potential. Read the release.
CPA And Las Vegas Cabs
On the MediaTrust blog, Mike Frankel succinctly outlines how CPA offers, or affiliate marketing, is a part of the Las Vegas cab driver ecosystem, which he divined during his recent visit to Affiliate Summit West. “The drivers (affiliates) all work for larger taxi companies (CPA networks) who have long running deals with Vegas gentlemen’s clubs (merchants).” There’s more.
Another Mobile Ad Net Born
In the UK, Orange announced that it will be begin selling mobile audience targeting services through its ad platform and that the sales team from its recent acquisition, Unanimis, will be the sales team leading the charge. Read more on Internet Retailing.
