Datalogix And Facebook Partner; eXelate Adds $12 Million

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Social Ads Meet POS

It’s another ‘holy grail’ moment for digital ads — this one involving a pairing between Facebook and loyalty card tracker Datalogix that could help marketers follow the cookie crumbs from offline sales back to online ad views. The Financial Times hits the privacy panic button with its headline (“Facebook Raises Fears…”) but the piece — syndicated by CNN — isn’t all that inflammatory. Emily Steel writes, “Datalogix compiles a report for Facebook and its advertisers to measure which creative approaches and demographic targeting persuade people to buy specific products offline.” Read it. CNET reports privacy advocates want the FTC to step in. More coverage: Mediaweek, Marketing Land, Mediapost.

GOOG Research

In a note to investors, Citi analyst Mark Mahaney raised his stock price target for Google stock to $850 (yesterday, at market close, it reached an all-time high of $749). Among the positives he sees for Google in the next 12 months are Product Listings Ads (PLAs), essentially search ads with rich product information. “We are already seeing early evidence of a) retailer adoption – e.g. 60%+ of ChannelAdvisor clients plan to participate – and b) superior performance – 2X-3X conversion rates vs. text Search ads. PLA could materially impact Q4 results.”

eXelate Takes $12M

Analytics are still commanding venture capitalists’ attention, so it should be no surprise that the continued competition in the space has connected data provider eXelate with the money men again. The company has raised $12 million, bringing its total VC haul to $32 million since opening its doors in 2007, AdAge’s Jason Del Rey reports. The money could be used to purchase other analytics companies, CEO Mark Zagorski tells the magazine. Read it.

Specific Media Cleans House

After touting itself as an entertainment network when it bought Myspace, ad network Specific Media is getting back to its ad tech roots. The company has released Householding, which it bills as an all-in-one media-planning solution that allows advertisers to reach all digitally connected devices within a multi-screen household. Read the release.

Mediaocean Gets A Rave

Matt Straz, CEO of Namely, got a preview of back-office ad buying software provider Mediaocean’s new digital pre-buy application, SmartRFP, and he’s found himself “both surprised and impressed” by he first major new product release of the merged Donovan and MediaBank. Writing in Mediapost, Straz praises the offering, with some caveats. “It would also be great for agencies to get more transparency into publisher pricing across account teams. Finally, a contact list of the sales reps at each publisher would also be a welcome development and eliminate the need for “Does anyone have rep contact info at publisher X?” email blasts that go out across agencies.” Read more.

Please Pass The Risk

Venture capital dude Jerry Neumann returns to his Reaction Wheel blog to recap some of the recent chatter on entrepreneurship and offer his own thoughts. He writes, “Here’s a question to ask yourself: if you think you can double revenue next year, what’s holding you back from increasing revenue by 10x? If the answer is that there’s no market yet, then keep grinding away at it. If the answer is not enough people or hardware for scaling, then start spending the money on hiring them, today.” Risk more.

Reading This On Your Phone?

We wouldn’t be surprised if you were, since ad tech firm Kontera says that mobile web traffic has risen 430 percent in the past year, PandoDaily’s Erin Griffith reports. “The company uncovered a few fun usage trends in its most recent study. For example, did you know that more Moms use iOS? And that Android users top iPhone users in consumption of content related to autos, sports, B2B tech, and telecom?” Griffith writes. Read the rest.

Facebook’s Favorite Brands

With comScore data in hand, Business Insider offers a ranking of Facebook’s top advertisers, and finds P&G, AT&T, AmEx, and Fab.com near the top of the list. #1? That would be Zynga. “Zynga is on course to spend more than $200 million on sales and marketing this year, according to its SEC disclosures.A huge part of that is ‘player acquisition costs’ — ads on Facebook, basically,” writes BI’s Jim Edwards. Read it.

But Wait. There’s More!