Search +1 - Is Search Retargeting Next?; Medialets Launches Private Marketplace; Xbox Ads

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Retargeting Search With +1

On the Official Google blog, Google Fellow Amit Singhal discusses his favorite fruit (Chikoo) and what Google appears to position as the biggest change in search since its inception – the addition of Google+ and +1 data feeds in informing your searches. Singhal writes, “We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships.” Read the blog post. Oh, the drama! Facebook killer? Twitter killer? Killer? First, here’s where Google’s B2C ad campaign is so important. Goog needs people hitting those +1 buttons and creating their Google + profiles to help fuel this data storm and targeting potential – both the targeting of search results today – and search ads. For example, the self-populating feature of the search results box can influence what a user searches for, and therefore, what related ads they see. It’s not quite search retargeting, but it’s getting close! How much longer until an advertiser can target users according to +1 buttons they’ve clicked, or search terms they’ve input on the Adsense network or DoubleClick Ad Exchange? This could have the effect of the real-time stream targeting available on Twitter. And, that explains the hoopla as competitors and others cry foul according to the NY Times Bits blog. Read more. In a tweet, Alex Macgillivray, Twitter’s chief lawyer said “it’s a bad day for the Internet.” And, Federated Media’s John Batelle says on his blog, “Ick. Remember when Google used to be a neutral player that crawled the Whole Dern Web? So sad to see that era pass. It’s not Google’s fault, entirely, but it’s sad nonetheless.” Battelle sees a “corrosion” of the web and wants Facebook/Twitter data to inform the results, too. Read it.

Look At You, Private Exchange/Marketplace

Medialets is the latest entrant into private exchange/marketplace wars as the company announced a mobile version. Among the features of any private exchange/marketplace is the ability for a publisher to pick and choose who they let buy their display inventory before it gets funneled to an ad network or auctioned to an ad exchange – good riddance, Channel Conflict. Evidently, Medialets has publisher traction as, according to the release, “Top brands have already run successful campaigns through the new Marketplace platform and at launch, there are more than 40 of the world’s top publishers participating.” Read more.

Tag Management FTW

Tealium has taken a relatively modest amount of cash – $1.1 million – to continue its growth as an “enterprise tag management” provider. The company has no less than five WebSideStory employees. So, why raise so little? Let’s postulate: a) Don’t need that much. Profitability is around the corner. b) Bridging to being acquired. c) The next round is the big one d) Company wants to leverage those new investor relationships. Read the release. And, visit tealium.com.

Global ATD

Outside of North America, IPG Mediabrands continues to grow its audience-buying-focused, agency trading desk initiative. Known as the Mediabrands Audience Platform (MAP) G14 and comprising the “14 most strategic markets outside of North America,” Arun Kumar will now lead and report directly to MAP’s Global CEO Brendan Moorcroft according to Asiamediajournal.com. Read more.

Reinventing Advertising

Senior Director of Sales & Marketing Shawn McMichael says in a Microsoft Advertising blog post, “And if [2011] goes down in history as the year Xbox reinvented entertainment, perhaps 2012 will be the year Xbox reinvents advertising.” Whoa now – sales guy alert. But, he’s right about the growing gaming and entertainment juggernaut that is Xbox. McMichael offers some audience stats and says, “Our success in not just about eyeballs. It’s also about engaging experiences. Advertisers get all the creative and visual impact of HD TV with the interactivity and accountability of the Web.” Read about “engagement” – a favorite term of brand advertisers everywhere. “TV” is coming online through gaming consoles, too.

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Facebook Speaks Ads

From inside the Facebook borg, a PR spokesperson tells ClickZ’s Christopher Heine that “news feeds ads” are being rolled out on Facebook. But there’s a name change so don’t be confused: “(…) the units are not called Sponsored Stories – as some anticipated” instead “they are labeled ‘Featured’ to distinguish them from earned media messaging that users sometimes see.” See an example. How many 10s, if not hundreds, of millions of display ad impressions this will be responsible for? The display impression king: Facebook. Still, rather than blasting the user, Facebook ad technology will/should optimize the impression levels on ads according to user interaction and yield. Every page on Facebook is a landing page to be optimized.

Video Ad Rights

Extreme Reach, which looks to compete with DG (owner of MediaMind, Eyewonder, Unicast) on HDTV ad delivery, announced the acquisition of a company called Spotlight Business Affairs. According to the press release, the company claims, “The acquisition will result in the industry’s first video advertising platform that automatically ensures every commercial asset delivered for use on TV or served on a website has been authorized for that specific usage before the ad can be delivered or served.” Today, rights verification is something more focused on the digital TV/HDTV world rather than video ads online. Read more. Lines continue to blur.

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