Corporate VC And Agencies; Native Reviews

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Corporate VC And Agencies

On his Reaction Wheel blog, Neu Venture Capital investor Jerry Neumann explores the efficacy of corporate VC arms. He was once a member of agency holding company Omnicom’s corp VC team in the 90s. Neumann opines on a deal gone by: “Razorfish took Omnicom’s money (a long time ago) not because they thought Omnicom would bring them clients but because they knew that being backed by the world’s largest marketing services firm would enhance their own brand. No venture capital firm would have had this effect with Razorfish’s clients. Every company is different and needs different things to succeed. Pick your investors wisely, always, but if a strategic investor is going to bring you more success than a VC, and all else being equal, take their money.” Read more.

Native Reviews

CNET is testing it’s own flavor of native advertising with an ad unit for Samsung, which paid to promote a positive review on a smartphone. The unit is called CNET Replay, and it’s clearly labeled as sponsored content. The idea of promoting positive reviews could present ethical issues, however, if editorial content is skewed to sound more positive in hopes of it becoming sponsored content, says Digiday’s Brian Morrissey. Read more.

King Of The Androids

More Samsung stuff! Samsung users look more like iPhone users than the general Android-using population. So says Flurry in a study posted to its blog. The company analyzed the difference between Samsung and the general Android ecosystem and the difference between smartphones and tablets. It appears Samsung users fit into categories that are most lucrative to advertisers, including business travelers and moms. Furthermore, they are more avid app users, spending 64% more time in apps than other Android users. Read more.

Ratings Acquisition

TV ratings company Rentrak has acquired analytics comapny iTVX, according to a press release. “Combining Rentrak’s TV ratings from more than 25 million TVs and every movie screen in the world with iTVX analytics, we provide advertisers, broadcasters and content creators with the most precise measurement for any of their branded entertainment initiatives,” said iTVX’s CEO Frank Zazza. Read more.

P&G’s Big Spend

Procter & Gamble spends 35% of its marketing budget on digital, according to Chairman-CEO A.G. Lafley, Ad Age is reporting. That may seem a little exaggerated, but if all costs are factored in, including search, social, online video, mobile and agency costs, website development and content creation, it’s probably about right. Still, the numbers show that P&G is pretty far ahead in digital compared to its counterparts. Read more.

Sifting Publisher Data

In effort to bolster subscription sales, Condé Nast will begin offering print and digital subscription services through Amazon. “We want to expand the volume of people that Condé Nast has relationships with and the engagement we have with them,” Bob Sauerberg, president of Condé Nast, said in an interview with AdWeek. “So we’re transitioning our company from selling print to selling access to our products on a variety of platforms.” Read more. That’s some juicy publisher data for Amazon to sift.

Intelligence Fund

Intelligence is getting funded. Business intelligence (BI) and analytics startup Birst raised $38 million dollars in a venture round led by Sequoia Capital, according to a press release. “The demand for BI continues to grow and the shift to the cloud has become unstoppable,” said Brad Peters, CEO and co-founder of Birst. “We already have the industry-leading product. This investment furthers our ability to strengthen our solution and will allow us to offer it around the world.” Read the release. And, more from GigaOm. BI and the ad biz are getting closer.

You’re Hired!