Visual Revenue Gets Funds For Pub Tools; The New Google Privacy Policy; Sucking

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

Predicting Content Gets Funds

Dennis Mortensen’s Visual Revenue has received $1.7 million in new funding to continue to grow the business and work on the tech which optimizes the publisher’s front page. Managing yield starts with the content from Visual Revenue’s perspective. According to the release, “[Visual Revenue’s] solution can predict the performance of a piece of content about 15 minutes into the future and provides editors with real-time recommendations on what content to place in which position on a Front Page and for how long.” Read the release. $1.7 million feels like a bridge loan – not a whole heckuva lot. Could there be a “liquidity event” imminent? Or is the publisher market different than the marketers’? Read last year’s AdExchanger Q&A with Visual Revenue.

The Google Policy

Google privacy policies are unifying under a single umbrella policy as Big G is getting closer to the world of an online service provider. As announced on Tuesday, if you want to live in the Google web, you’re going to need to ante-up with some PII that allows the company to target you with some sweet ad love. The Google Pubic Policy blog says there are exceptions. But, Google is leveraging the need which the consumer has for its tools (search, email, Google docs, now G+) against the consumer’s ability to do without. Facebook is the other company with an essential login, of course. Read the policy. And, read more in The Washington Post.

DSPs In India

Demand-side platforms are infiltrating the media business in India says RP Singh in ClickZ Asia. Singh writes, “The India market is clearly getting divided into brand and performance advertisers. Looking at how SEM is being used in India by advertisers, most performance advertisers have in-house teams to optimize SEM campaigns in real time. These advertisers will continue to handle DSP interface too, in house.” Read more.

That Sucking Sound Is Your Service

On his personal blog, Chango CRO Dax Hamman cuts to the chase as he begins his latest post, “What is it with digital marketing? Why are service levels so bad, and why does it seem so wildly accepted? I remember when I was on the agency side and was growing a media team, the flow of sloppy emails, crappy presentations and a whole ton of bullsh*t from vendors and publishers seemed never ending.” Read more. Hamman isn’t done as he provides some retargeting strategy over on Searchengineland.

When DSPs Attack

Mike Shields takes a look at demand-side platforms for video on Digiday. This isn’t your mother’s ad network as Shields writes, “While video ad nets can get away with charging $5 CPMs by layering on lot of low cost, autoplay or in-banner inventory, TubeMogul’s prices are in the $10 to $17 range, the more precise a buyer gets. That’s cheaper than Hulu, but it’s more than some buyers are used to paying for video.” Better targeting costs more. Impressions are presumably more qualified. But is there scale? Read it.

The Creative Barista

On the Upstream Group blog, Doug Weaver pours a cup of sales “Joe” and challenges sellers to avoid the cheap stuff and keep drinking gourmet. Weaver writes, “Last time I looked, the gourmet coffee business was doing pretty well. The commodity market is what it is. But those who create experiences, identify with a higher calling and properly define their roles and channels almost always transcend commoditization.” Sip from the cup of transcendence.

Retargeting Loves Creative

Retargeting firm AdRoll isn’t forgetting creative in its lastest company blog post. Company president Adam Berke gets on his pulpit and exclaims, “Rejoice right-brainers, in 2012 we’ll see creative become the focus of new technology and data application. Advertisers should stop milking algorithms for a measly ROI bump of 0.001%, and start caring about the actual content they’re displaying.” Milk creative says AdRoll.

But Wait. There’s More!