Tongal's Crowd Ads; Facebook's Attribution Play

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

Crowd Ad

VentureBeat profiles new, crowdsourced video ad company Tongal and its new $15 million funding round. Read it. The company, which has been around since 2008, enables brands to tell a crowd of video producers about their “‘creative needs’ or the kind of advertising they want to do. Tongal then shares that with its community members, who compete to produce the best ad concept. The winning community member gets a cash prize, while the brand gets a potentially high-quality video produced in a short time and at lower cost than a typical ad agency would be able to do.” Agency disruptor.

Where’s Paparo?

All Things D’s Peter Kafka broke the news yesterday regarding product reviews company Bazaarvoice’s latest hire – former AppNexus product executive Ari Paparo yesterday. According to a release, “Paparo will report to Stephen Collins, CEO, President and CFO, and will be responsible for driving the growth and development of Bazaarvoice’s data, media, and advertising products.” Read it. Paparo’s new title is SVP of Media Products and, specifically, will help guide product strategy which is underpinned by Bazaarvoice’s 2012 acquisition of Longboard Media (AdExchanger Q&A from November). Bazaarvoice is currently in the crosshairs of U.S. Department of Justice anti-trust investigation.

Facebook Attribution Play

kbs+p’s Darren Herman reviews the potential benefits of FBX to Facebook as it relates to attribution on his personal blog. He writes, “There are consistently six ads in the right rail, all of which consistently update (and theoretically, drop cookies). Using Ghostery, I see that DoubleClick has a tag on my Facebook newsfeed as I write this. Is Facebook the new AOL Instant Messenger or Pop Under where it persistently is refreshing cookies all day long and taking credit for conversions?” Read more.

And… Convertro’s Attribution Play

In other attribution news, Convertro has taken $5 million to ramp up its business. It’s a truly global sales push with hires planned in New York City, Asia, Latin America, and EMEA. Says a press release: “With Convertro’s non-cookie-based tracking, marketers can track and analyze all customer-initiated marketing interactions and touchpoints to fully optimize their marketing mix.” The company was rated highly by Forrester for “strong data management” and “ reliable account services.”

APAC Men

Demand-side platform MediaMath is redoubling its efforts in APAC and siccing founders Erich Wasserman and Greg Williams on the region. Campaign Asia-Pacific writes, “With [Wasserman’s and Willams’] promotion, the agency hopes to build on partnerships it established with Kinected in Australia in early 2012 and with Maxifier in Japan mid-last year. Plans include the launch of an Asia-Pacific office, but when and in which market has yet to be announced.
According to Wasserman, markets Mediamath is interested in expanding into include India, China, Indonesia and Korea.” Read more.

Publishers As Agencies

Univision is the latest media company to add agency-like units within its corporate structure as publishers look to corral budget, provide custom integrations and cut out the middleman. The New York Times’ Tanzina Vega writes, “The new unit, Univision Agency, will create promotional content for all Univision properties, including broadcast, radio and digital, and provide research and creative services for internal and external clients.” Read it. Conde Nast and Hearst are among media companies who’ve made similar maneuvers in the recent past.

But Wait. There’s More!