OMG's Annalect And Kenshoo Partner; Google And The Anti-Trust Revue; Calling The RTB Plumber

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Now Serving The Agency

Omnicom Media Group’s Annalect and media buying platform Kenshoo announced a partnership which it says will bring together Annalect’s strategic acumen and Kenshoo’s engineering capabilities. The companies said in a release that beyond SEM, social and other “emerging” online solutions, “The most recent proof-of-concept being executed by the companies focuses on mobile marketing and enables advertisers to track the impact of online and offline ads on local consumer activity.” Read more.

Mr. Google Goes To Washington

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt will appear in front of a U.S Senate anti-trust panel this week as Congress considers the company’s alleged anti-competitive behavior. Senator Richard Blumenthal tells The New York Times, “Google is a great American success story, but its size, position and power in the marketplace have raised concerns about its business practices, and raised the question of what responsibilities come with that power.” Read more. Search Engine Land breaks down the hearing’s other participants here.

Somebody Call The Plumber

In a think piece on Ad Age, CONTEXTWEB’s Jay Sears says, “For all the talk, many implementations of RTB and the ad technology stack today result in the equivalent of running glorified re-targeting ad networks — user targeting across dark pools of inventory — or other situations that are only marginally better.” Sears thinks there needs to be more transparency and better standards resulting a “smart pipe.” Read more.

Vendor System In Review

On the Hill-Holliday blog, Adam Cahill announces a new program called “Beacon” which is designed to overcome the problem of too many vendors to review and not enough time for the agency. Cahill admits one issue for vendors, “…It is difficult to get noticed. The typical member of the digital media team here at Hill Holliday receives over 200 email inquiries per month from people making a case for budget and takes over 50 meetings per month in person.” Read more.

Cash And Sales

Ad technology company isocket, which currently runs a guaranteed media marketplace among other things, quietly announced a new round of funding for an unspecified sum from “great new investors and all of our existing ones.” CEO John Ramey also said on the company blog that it has hired Ben Trenda, formerly of Rubicon Project, as VP of Sales. Read more.

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Influence, At Half The Cost; Are ChatGPT Ads On Target?

Google AdBeck

On Ad Week, editor Michael Wolff reviews what he sees as failed content efforts on the Web and says that the Internet needs showmen as he argues for a more compelling, specific type of content. He explains, “Technology people aren’t content people. Never have been. And it’s the Internet’s flaw. But then there is Glenn Beck, the ultimate showman—and the looming specter of his new Internet-delivered show. Google should have bought him instead of Zagat.” Google AdBeck? Read more.

Integrating The Acquisition

Buddy Media announced that in under four months it has fully integrated its social commerce recommendation acquisition, Spinback, and renamed it ConversionBuddy. The company describes ConversionBuddy as empowering “brands to build conversations by enabling social publishing, moderation and filtering across multiple social platforms.” Read more.

But Wait. There’s More!