Mobile ad targeting start-up PlaceIQ is prepping to enter its next phase – or as Nadya Kohl, the company’s new SVP of business development, says, it’s about to enter adolescence.
This is where Kohl – who started the job on October 20 and who previously drove global strategy and business development for Experian Marketing Services – comes in. Her purview is helping PlaceIQ build out data partnerships.
While Kohl declined to specify which companies PlaceIQ wanted to work with, she said she had “distinct criteria” for choosing new partners. “They have to improve the underlying aspect of our company and serve marketers and our customers in a high-value way,” she said.
One key is vertical focus – which is why PlaceIQ already has data partnerships with Datalogix, which can link ad engagement to offline shopping activity, Rentrak, which is known for its TV and video measurements, and Polk, which supplies automotive data. Kohl also intends to build on these existing relationships.
“PlaceIQ’s value spreads across the marketing value chain, so as I look at 2015, I’ll be looking to keep creating relationships with the standard players in each of the value chain steps,” Kohl said.
PlaceIQ – a competitor to the likes of xAd and Placed – has amassed $27 million through four rounds of funding, according to CrunchBase. Most recently, PlaceIQ got a $15 million injection in February.
The mobile tech company segments audiences by combining data points such as geographic coordinates, publisher ad requests, census information and demographic and social data.
Kohl added that the company also uses geological surveys and satellite imagery to understand the physical world and overlay that with information about consumers’ movements.
As PlaceIQ grows, it will focus on creating a data partnership strategy that will further its efforts toward what Kohl calls the three Ms. The first is the build-out of PlaceIQ’s map, which lets it target more precise geographic regions, depending on client needs. The second is the company’s understanding of consumer movement within that map. And the third is the application of media, because the company buys media and fields its own ad ops and creative teams.
