Adap.tv Gets $20 Million For Video Ads; Washingon Too Focused On Privacy?; Yahoo! In Acquisition Mode

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

Adap.tv Takes In $20 Million

TechCrunch reports that Adap.tv has raised another round of financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners to the tune of $20 million after raising $4.5 million in October 2010. That’s $43 million total. It appears the company is full steam ahead with plans to drive its recently-announced, video advertising platform that Cadreon signed up for among others. Read more.

Washington Too Focused On Privacy?

ex-Wall Street Journal publisher L. Gordon Crovitz, who along with Steve Brill just sold Journalism Online, makes his case for why the privacy debate is being blown out of proportion given Americans propensity to use Facebook, among other web destinations. He writes in an op-ed in the WSJ: “If most Americans are happy to have Facebook accounts, knowingly trading personal information for other benefits, why is Washington so focused on new privacy laws?” Read more. He concludes his piece, “The benefits of technology have changed people’s expectations about privacy and information. Alas, the pace of change of technology is apparently too much for regulators, who still think their job is to regulate.”

Audience For Video Content

From a content perspective, video is hugely popular on the web, but getting an audience to show up regularly for episodic shows has proven difficult for branded shows. The WSJ’s Jessica Vascellaro looks at a few solutions popping up on the web but also quotes a skeptic, Curt Marvis of movie producer Lions Gate Entertainment Corp tells Vascellaro that “the lack of reliable promotional channels and brand dollars for online videos is among the reasons [Lions Gate] hasn’t invested heavily in it.” Read more.

SMBs Like Display A Little

eMarketer has created new graphics from research by American Express and SEMPO which shows that small- and medium-sized businesses like display a little. They like social a lot. According to the March 2011 research, among online marketing tactics surveyed, 18% of SMBs currently to use display in 2011, and additional 12% of those surveyed plan to use display in 2011. Social is the winner with 44% currently using it and 29% more planning to add it in 2011. See more.

Greedy Marketers

On ClickZ, Tim Ash doesn’t quite align marketers with Gordon Gekko, but he thinks there’s still an element of greed in some marketers’ mindsets. He writes, “Eager to convert website visitors into customers, they often use pushy tactics online that would never be tolerated in a brick-and-mortar environment. Does your website require a registration before someone can make a purchase?” Ash argues for a better way. Read it.

Yahoo! Acquisition Mode

The WSJ Digits blog’s Amir Efrati reports from the Menlo Park Technology summit and says that Yahoo! corp dev dude Steven Mitzenmacher (LinkedIn) is on the record that Yahoo! is on the acquisition war path. No word on what those companies of interest might look like though. Read more. Mitzenmacher also said that the YouTube $1.6 billion price tag paid by Google in 2006 was “still crazy.” Fun stuff!

Blender Ads

Can your campaign say this? “Consumers have a more favorable view of advertisers that blend into the content experience, rather than force an unrelated interaction.” Are you blending? Tessa Wegert of ClickZ looks at the power of the sponsorship model and examples of good “blender” tactics. Read it.

Demand Media Feeling No Pain

AdWeek’s Mike Shields says that Demand Media is not any worse for the wear since Google made it’s last search algorithm update to curb the effects of web content farms on search results. In fact, Demand Media is doing even better. Shields writes, “Demand’s signature property, eHow, saw its traffic climb, from around 22.6 million unique weekly users (in late Feb. prior to the algo update) to 24.1 million during the week ending Mar 13.” Read more.

Ad Reppin’

Altitude Digital Partners, an online ad rep firm, says that it has more than doubled its impressions served per month to 5 billion in March. According to a release, the firm’s publishers include LAtimes.com, Blogtalkradio.com, Filmannex.com, Modmyi.com and, my favorite, PeopleofWalmart.com. Jeremy Ostermiller (LinkedIn) and David Harwood (LinkedIn) lead the company and share experience at Examiner.com. Read more.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=147437&nid=125120
Cheezburger Has Meme

The Business Insider’s William Wei says that the Cheezburger Network (makers of “I Can Has Cheezburger“) has acquired “Know Your Meme” from a single-digit, million-dollar price. Know Your Meme is “the self-proclaimed ‘Internet Meme Database’ [and] was spun-off from popular web series’ Rocketboom [which it] has since surpassed in popularity.” Read more on TBI. And, read the “Know Your Meme” founder’s acceptance speech.

Evidon Signs More

Evidon kept up the drumbeat of new signatories for its Privacy compliance platform by adding demand-side platform, MediaMath, yesterday. According to the release, “The agreement brings Evidon’s Assurance Platform – Evidon InForm – to MediaMath’s TerminalOne to simplify and speed compliance with OBA principles.” Read more.

NYC Startups Being Seeded

NYC entrepreneur? Right this way…. Akamai, AOL Ventures, Comcast, ESPN, Gilt City, Google, Hearst Corporation, Kantar Video, MTV Networks, News Corporation, The New York Times Company, OgilvyEntertainment, Time Warner Investments and Vivendi – all of these companies plus a few VC firms – are looking to offer lucky entrepreneurs 12-weeks of paid labor at an NYC startup camp where they can develop their ideas. It’s known as “NYC SeedStart Media 2011.” If the ideas are good enough after the 12 weeks, the list of companies will invest. Yeeha! Read more.

Managing RTB In Europe

In an opinion piece on iMedia Connection UK, Mexad’s Sacha Berlik looks at European appetite for real-time bidding and the platform acronyms. He concludes, “We look at new technologies emerging on a monthly basis with most players coming to Europe from the US market. It is naive to believe that a technology can represent successful bid management across multiple markets, exchanges, SSPs, data markets and complete different publisher markets.” Read more.

But Wait. There’s More!