The Public Ad Network; Programmatic Demographics

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The Public Ad Network

A source tells TechCrunch’s John Constine that former Blue Lithium chief and current RadiumOne CEO Gurbaksh Chahal is readying his company for an IPO. It is rumored that RadiumOne has about $100 million in annual revenue — if true, this is likely total media spend through the company’s ad platform. Constine comments, “It’s becoming clearer that TV ad dollars will shift to digital and that businesses can earn money on mobile ads, so RadiumOne seems to think it’s ready for the spotlight.” Read more.

Programmatic Demographics

Programmatic buying can help advertisers reach Hispanic markets, claims Starcom exec Marla Skiko, who was part of a panel discussion covered by Portada. Skiko mentioned that programmatic is changing the agency discussion around TV. “We want to buy Hispanic audiences in an efficient way. Programmatic trading helps us to do that.” Read more.

Foot Data

JiWire announced its new Location Conversion Index, which matches a served ad with an in-store visit. The company claims that it is “real” foot traffic because it takes into account things like seasonality and creates a lookalike audience that hasn’t been served an ad as a control group. Read the release. JiWire told MediaPost that a fashion retailer saw a 32% lift in store visits, measured against an identical audience. Read the story.

Engineer Shortage

Elias Torres, who co-founded landing-page optimizer Performable (which was acquired by HubSpot in 2011), says he spends “80 to 90 percent of his time on recruiting efforts” in his work at HubSpot. Torres tells Boston Business Journal, “Ultimately, HubSpot contacts 400 to 500 engineers a month, and hires two or three of them. In May, the company tripled its talent referral bonus – from $10,000 to $30,000 – as a way to get even more aggressive on recruiting engineers and designers.” Read it.

Marketer Buys Tech

Staples acquired Runa to improve personalized online shopping, though the terms weren’t disclosed. The company will become part of Staples Lab, which has offices in in Seattle and Cambridge already. “With Runa, we’re adding technology to better serve our customers with personalized items, offers and delivery estimates, all in real time,” said Ronald Sargent, chief executive officer and chairman for Staples. Read the release.

Tech Raises Venture

SAP’s venture capital arm is raising money like mad, $1 billion over the last year, in an effort to align itself with enterprise technology. “We’re kind of a good pipeline into the things that are to come,” said Nino Marakovic, CEO of SAP Ventures. “We want to show customers SAP is forward-thinking.” Marakovic told PCWorld that it is expecting a total of 13 exits for its portfolio companies this year. Read more.

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