Buddy Media Targets Facebook Ad API; Google To Launch Ad Exchange Direct Deals; Aol Adds Pictela Self-Serve

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Buddy Media Buys

Buddy Media continues to dine at the table of social ad software as it puts its $54 million VC investment to use. Yesterday, the company announced the acquisition of UK-based Brighter Option. According to the release, Buddy Media claims that “Unlike many Facebook Ads API partners that primarily offer managed solutions administered and maintained by the provider, Brighter Option’s social ad management software is offered as a self-serve tool for advertising agencies, game developers, brands, retailers and other advertisers – empowering them to manage their own Facebook advertising.” Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Read the release.

Direct Deals Exchange

Google says its rolling out its direct deals marketplace in a non-beta way according to Google’s DoubleClick Publisher blog and an announcement by Google vp Karim Temsamani at yesterday’s session of the IAB Annual Leadership meeting in Miami, Florida. Google’s Scott Spencer spoke about direct deals on AdExchanger last September here. At the IAB meeting, Google vp Karim Temsamani “announced that in April [Google] will launch the Ad Exchange Direct Deals Marketplace–an interface that enables publishers and buyers to solicit direct deal offers, negotiate, and execute them without sending an email or picking up the phone.” Google is eyeballing the guaranteed and non-guaranteed marketplaces. The company said this is a result of the first of many “synergies” from its AdMeld acquisition. Read more about synergy.

Automation Nation

AOL says that its Pictela enterprise platform will be going “self-serve” – in part – as agencies look to spread “big ads!” across the “premium” inventory opportunitis. Aol had one of its proposed Rising Star “premium format” ad units tucked into the IAB’s collection of new display ad units. The company hopes that enabling agencies with the do-it-yourself approach will increase the adoption of Aol’s Project Devil on the buy side and scale Project Devil ads across a growing network of publishers. In an interview about the news on The Makegood, Pictela chief Greg Rogers defines the premium opp: “A Premium Format is an ad unit that follows a particular style guide in displaying deep layers of brand content. The IAB Portrait is one such example. It has a clean lay-out, is optimized for engagement, and looks beautiful every single time. The Pictela platform is a content management system that is built to produce Premium Format ads across multiple IAB sizes.” Read more.

Adding TV To The Stack

Though the focus maybe online video, the new, TV-sounding “Project Primetime” platform points at the Adobe’s long-term goals for IPTV and addressability. Announced yesterday, the next iteration of the Auditude platform, which was acquired last year, in combination with Adobe streaming tech will begin a roll-out over 2012 and likely target online video as connected TV opportunities become more robust. “Primetime creates a single, end-to-end workflow that interconnects Adobe streaming technologies, content protection, analytics and optimization.” Add another, more robust quiver to Adobe’s Digital Marketing Suite – clients will be the proof, of course. Read the release end-to-end. “Primetime Highlights” – a web clip editor was also announced. It would make sense that Adobe Premiere video editing software could steadily make its way into Auditude, too.

Online Retail Spend

Internet Retailer’s Thad Reuter covers new U.S. eCommerce research from Forrester. The news looks strong over the next 5 years, “Online shoppers in the United States will spend $327 billion in 2016, up 45% from $226 billion this year and 62% from $202 billion in 2011 according to a projection released today (…). In 2016, e-retail will account for 9% of total retail sales, up from 7% in both 2012 and 2011. (…) That represents a compound annual growth rate of 10.1% over the five-year forecast period.” Read more. A few billion here and there for retargeting will continue to fuel audience-based buying.

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Display Barriers

On Marketing Land, Yahoo! exec Antony Chen reviews a few of the barriers standing in the way of data-driven, display advertising. He offers three impediments including something he identifies as “right brand, left brain problem”: “We’ve given creative agencies an incredible tool to drive the strategic direction of a campaign with little to no instruction on how that tool can be used. Most of us (myself included) in the position to educate and inform have done a pretty poor job of putting forth resources.” Read it.

Dentsu Buying MDC Partners?

Deutsche Bank Wall Street analysts say in a note to investors that an acquisition of MDC Partners by Dentsu is a real possibility. Business Insider quotes the DB note: “An acquisition would enhance Dentsu’s US growth profile and accelerate its digital strategy, and would serve as a platform for international expansion. Over 50% of MDCA revenues are digital or technology services at present. MDCA would also boost Dentsu’s creative capabilities – which Dentsu management has indicated is a key aspect of its growth strategy.” Read more.

Social Ads Are Content

In a feature piece on Ad Age, Buzzfeed’s Jonah Peretti (AdExchanger Q&A) and Jon Steinbeg talk about their company and the future of social advertising. Ad Age’s Jason Del Ray distills the company’s business model: “The company’s pitch to brands is straightforward: We’ll work with you to create content, and help it go viral by tracking which items are shared most among certain social circles and then pushing the content getting the most ‘viral lift’ into more prominent positions on Buzzfeed.com.” Read more.

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