Addressing Loyalty; Google's Groupon Killer

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

Addressing Loyalty

Facebook’s Custom Audiences product is being adopted by Epsilon and Acxiom in addition to the previously announced Datalogix says Ad Age’s Cotton Delo. Read more. How it works: consumers become addressable via ads on Facebook by matching a Facebook login email to email addresses in an Acxiom client’s loyalty marketing program, for example. OMD’s Colin Sutton says, “Our CPG clients can begin to micro-target specific sets of consumers based on their in-store activity and buying behaviors and customize the messaging.” The bigger theme is those CPG clients who are involved – and it’s creating a nice “hook” for agencies looking to sell-up. Many Ecommerce marketers have already adopted Custom Audiences. Programmatic marketing is just starting to take off. Privacy concerns remain a trip wire.

Google’s Groupon Killer?

Groupon-like daily deals program is on the way from Google and dubbed Offer Extensions. It pairs ads in search result pages with special discounts and is expected by the end of February says VentureBeat. Larry Kim of search marketing firm WordStream claims it’s “a way better deal than Groupon, who requires 50-90 percent discounted pricing, then takes 50 percent of that for themselves. Also, advertisers can track this. Local businesses can connect the dots between online marketing and in-store purchases … not possible before!” Read more.

Gambling Gold Mine

Online gambling is on its way to getting approved in New Jersey and Nevada in the U.S. Read more on the NY Times Bits blog. Those are extremely valuable users – gamblers – and will revive in the U.S. a money-making cottage industry around advertising to gambling audience. Exchanges and inventory sold on a per impression basis were made for this.

More Money, Please

It seems data management platform/”media intelligence platform” Aggregate Knowledge wanted more funding after all. In a November interview with AdExchanger, CEO David Jakubowski said funding wasn’t necessary for its current product line but… maybe that would change. Indeed it has as the company scooped up $11.4 million in a fifth round round of financing (Crunchbase). SEC link. A bit more in Silicon Valley Business Journal. The new funds likely helped with the company’s acqui-hire of Quantivo earlier this month.

Licensing The Exchange

Ad network Altitude Digital says it’s now offering a private exchange to allow video advertisers a chance to cherry pick an audience they want at, most likely, a higher price. Read the release. Adap.tv will “power” the private exchange with its technology.

Pleasure Card

Digiday’s Jack Marshall looks into the rate card across a number of well-known publishers and finds big numbers. But, one anonymous ad buyer tells Marshall, “Rate cards are a bit of a sham in digital. No one pays the going rate for anything, and sellers try to make every agency believe they have the lowest rate, and that they’re the smartest, most strategic and a pleasure to work with.” Read about it.

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