Pursway Connect; TV Still Wins

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

Friends Of Friends

Pursway unveiled an audience extension platform on Tuesday, dubbed Pursway Connect. Simply put, the platform helps markets identify and reach “real-life” friends of their known target audience, thereby extending a marketer’s overall pool of targets. Pursway Connect is only available for direct mail and social media targeting, but the company plans to expand to online and mobile channels as well. The more (people) you know. Read on at Adweek.

Poor Mobile Ads

Consumers are most likely to engage with TV ads, according to research by City Numbers. Of the 1,006 consumers studied, 79% said they’d engage with TV ads, 62% cited direct mail and 53% preferred print ads. “More traditional tactics are holding their own in a marketplace that demands increasingly diverse and integrated marketing campaigns, while it’s clear that unsolicited calls to the home or mobile remain as unpopular as ever,” said City Numbers Managing Director Craig Busst. Unsurprisingly, marketing calls were particularly unpopular, at 6%. But mobile advertising ranked dead last, at 5%. Read on via The Drum.

Pinterest Seeking Media Exec

Pinterest is in the market to improve its media relations and strengthen its publisher ties. The scrapbooking site is looking to hire a partner manager of media, a move that “puts Pinterest squarely in the path of Facebook and Twitter, who compete aggressively for media partnerships and attention,” according to Gigaom. One Pinterest spokeswoman explained the pivot thusly: “Media is a growing category and is an interest for many. We want to make sure articles are high quality and discoverable on Pinterest, so we launched article pins, and we’re working with publications to help them be successful.” Read on.

Seismic RTB

Riding the coattails of Sizmek’s Aerify acquisition on Monday, MediaPost’s Tyler Loechner spoke to Mike Caprio, GM of Sizmek’s new RTB team, Sizmek Vantage. The Sizmek Vantage group works to help agencies, brands and trading desks transition to RTB (real-time bidding). Theorizing on what role programmatic will play as ad spend shifts to digital, Carpio said, “I believe there will continue to be private market (i.e., upfront-type) deals, and then RTB open market (scatter) deals. You are starting to see these private marketplaces forming now with FreeWheel and others. But I think the biggest driver will be with dollars earmarked for the scatter TV markets that can be more efficiently targeted within online RTB.” Read it.

Dude, Yo Is Serious

Skeptics of Yo had reason to doubt the value of the one-word messaging app when it first surfaced. The company unveiled its “Yo Index” on Tuesday, in addition to a hashtag function, that lets users curate a selection of sources from which they’d like to receive updates. For example, if a friend posts a photo on Instagram, a user can be “Yo’d.” According to TechCrunch, “The updates sketch out a clear focus on marketing, with Yo looking to become a platform for branded n(y)otifications.” Read more.