Marketing Strategy Convergence; Facebook's False Promises

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

Integrating Paid Media

The “social CRM” craze that propelled the acquisitions of Buddy Media and Vitrue is giving way to a new reality, Adaptly President Sean O’Neal writes for Adweek. “Paid, owned and earned are no longer a string of disconnected media tactics, but rather are three legs of the social marketing stool,” he writes. Marketer challenges include integrating technology to activate audiences across social platforms. Get the full story.

Facebook Failing Marketers

The downplay of organic reach is a case of Facebook “failing marketers,” according to Forrester Research analyst Nate Elliott. Brands on Facebook only reach 6% of fans organically and suspect that their followers are falsely generated by “like farms.” As brands begin to voice their discontent, marketers are focusing their social efforts on platforms such as Twitter and, ironically, Instagram. Read more.

Brewer Brand Engages In Digital Platforms

MillerCoors is investing heavily in online and mobile marketing and, with a planned 50% boost in digital video spending for 2014, has signed content deals with AOL Advertising, Comedy Central, Spotify, the Weather Company and more. The goal, according to the brewer’s VP for marketing connections, Jackie Woodard, is for paid, owned and earned media to work together to engage the brand in digital platforms. Ad Age has the story.

Yandex Buys KitLocate

Yandex has acqui-hired an eight-person Israeli startup called KitLocate, which specializes in energy-efficient geolocation technology. For consumers, this means KitLocate’s algorithms reduce the drain on a phone’s battery life by enabling location-based apps to request a mobile device’s geographic coordinates less frequently than standard practices. The number of requests depends on a number of factors, including the user’s behavior (does he or she change locations frequently?) and the app. Yandex will use KitLocate to improve its own services and provide more location-based results, the company said in a blog post. Read more. And read MediaPost.

Percolate Money

Percolate, a company that helps brands build “interest graphs” to help with content marketing efforts, has raised $24 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital. The Wall Street Journal pegs the number of customers at 150, up from the 35 it had when AdExchanger spoke with CEO Noah Brier in 2012. Read that interview.