MarketShare Partners And ComScore Hold Hands; The Ecosystem In Review; AdKnowledge Raises $200 Million

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Partnering Over Optimization

Attempting to take another step in solving the attribution gap, MarketShare Partners and comScore announced a new partnership. From the release: “MarketShare will integrate comScore’s proprietary search, display, mobile and video data into their marketing analytics, resulting in more precise recommendations for clients’ marketing allocations.” Read more.

Acronym Ad Spend

In “A Second Helping of Online Media’s Alphabet Soup,” ClickZ’s Hollis Thomases continues her review of the land of acronyms, data and media – and even AdExchanger.com goes on the record to say there will be 3x the spend in data-driven digital media in comparison to last year. DataXu CEO Mike Baker adds that in 2011 “real DSPs clearly differentiate and break away from the pack to attract 30 percent or more of all online buys.”Get busy!

The Ecosystem In Review

Gridley & Co. has updated its “Ad Exchanges, Targeting and Optimization” deck for those interested in the data-driven ad space. Among the observations, the Gridley & Co. team looks at outcomes for publisher-side optimizers saying, “Likely interested buyers: technology-centric agencies, diversified media, internet titans,
and technology companies.” Download the prez. (PDF)

AdKnowledge Raises Fort Knox

Online advertising company AdKnowledge announced that it has raised – wait for it – $200 MILLION! That’s lottery money. The investment is a combination of debt and equity that will be used for acquisitions according to the company. AdKnowledge even revealed 2010 company momentum in the press release: “Having roughly doubled its revenue over the past 12 months through a series of strategic acquisitions and organic growth, Adknowledge closed 2010 as the largest privately-owned internet advertising network in the U.S. with over 330 employees, and $300 million in revenue.” Who they gonna buy? Read the release. And, more on TechCrunch.

Targeting The Radio

On Tuesday, digital radio ad network TargetSpot announced that it has joined the funding hit parade with $8 million led by investment from Union Square Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, CBS Radio and Milestone Venture Partners. TargetSpot CEO Eyal Goldwerer tells VentureBeat that “there are roughly 70 million people listening to online radio services.” Read more.

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DOJ Outs Ad Tech Open-Source Supporters; Jeff Green Dings The TTD TV Rumors

Creative Self-Service

Tumri says it’s adding a self-service offering called Tumri Ensemble to its creative optimization toolkit. The company said in a release, “Tumri Ensemble offers feature-rich display ad optimization, personalization and analytics applications (…) The self-serve platform has been in beta since September 2010 and is already in use with key clients and strategic partners including agencies and ad networks.” Read more.

The Anonymous Cookie

TRAFFIQ’s Chris O’Hara pens a think piece on AdWeek about data and how the anonymous cookie works according to data provider. He writes, “My cookie, when bounced off various data providers, also reveals that I’m male (Axciom), have a competitive income (IXI), three children in my family (V12), a propensity for buying online (Targusinfo) and am in mid-management of a small business (Bizo).” Read more.

E-Commerce Likes Display

Retargeting firm Criteo says business is on-fyuh as it looks back on the busy, 2010 fourth quarter shopping season and full year. Among the nuggets shared by Criteo in a release, “Tripled (3x) client base, to more than 1000 top e-commerce clients.” Read more.

Approved For Facebook

Facebook announced a list of additional approved ad partners which includes Applifier, AdJug, CPX Interactive, MATOMY, SVnetwork, TrialPay and WildTangent. Read more on Inside Facebook. And, see the whole list here.

After-CEO

Former Aggregate Knowledge CEO Paul Martino has started a venture capital firm with partners Duncan Davidson and Richard Melmon. TechCrunch’s Sara Lacy explains the rationale for the new vc firm: “Few firms want to fill that follow-on seed round role. That’s why Martino, Davidson and Melmon call themselves ‘Bullpen’ Capital– in a Valley where everyone is trying to be a starter or a closer, these guys see a big opportunity in pitching relief.” See the video interview on TechCrunch.

Mobile Search Targeting

The new mobile keyword tool is now available through Google AdWords. It’s an extension of the current keyword tool and provides insights on the popular keyword phrases being input into the mobile search box -and by device. From the Google Inside AdWords blog, Google’s Lisa Shieh offers details, “Under ‘Advanced options,’ you can now search for keywords for devices with mobile WAP browsers, mobile devices with full Internet browsers (think iPhone and Android phones), or all mobile devices (sum of devices with WAP browsers and devices with Internet browsers).” Is mobile search retargeting with display far away? Read more.

Retargeting And The Dentist

A cosmetic dentist in New York City is tired of getting billed for what he says are irrelevant clicks and has filed suit against Google. The problem he sees is that Google is retargeting users with his ad when users, who have put in a keyword phrase the cosmetic dentist is targeting, return to Google search and put in any keyword phrase and are still in the same session. Read more. Just wait until they add that feature pared with display retargeting through the DoubleClick Ad Exchange! Zowee. The unstoppable Google battleship plows on – with a cosmetic dentist lawsuit in tow.

Display Blindness

Using Online Publishers Association data, MediaMind’s Ariel Geifman goes off on display ad banner blindness in a piece on iMedia Connection. He concludes, “Advertisers tend to focus on the interactivity of online ads, and typically narrow their measurements to Dwell, clicks and conversions. The evidence here shows that online display advertising has more to offer than just interactivity and direct response—sight may be as important as touch.” Read more.

Ad Networks Forever!

On Quora, in a yet-another-debate about the future of ad networks, former RMX-er Mike Walrath looks at his Magic-8 ball and sees a bright future for ad nets: “…as ad exchanges and other trends have added liquidity and a degree of commoditization to the ad market, the complexity of the market, the number of players, derivative products (like data, quality etc.) has expanded even faster – making it more chaotic than ever. Networks thrive on chaos. They’re going to be here for a long time.” Read the whole thread.

Targeting Broadcast Budget

Tremor Media announced that it has hired Melinda McLaughlin as its Chief Marketing Officer as the company appears to be positioning itself for broadcast budget and not just online video budget. According to the release, “McLaughlin spent more than a decade at A&E Television Networks, (…) she last served as SVP of Corporate Marketing, where she was responsible for leading the AETN in-house agency, portfolio ad sales marketing and defining the new global company positioning…” Read more.

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