Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
[x+1] Gets More Cash
[x + 1] (read CEO John Nardone’s AdExchanger.com Q&A here) has received $2 million in additional funding according to PaidContent.org’s Tameka Kee. SEC filing here.
kirshenbaum bond + partners Hires New CEO
Fresh on the heels of news that MDC Partners’ CEO Miles Nadal was looking to transition a couple of its high profile agencies into their next, respective phases, it was announced that kirshenbaum bond + partners has hired Lori Senecal to be its next CEO. (Read the release.) The agency will be rebranded “kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners.” Senecal was President of McCann Erickson’s New York office prior to accepting the kbp position. (source: @ddoft)
FTC Hires Noted Privacy Expert And Blogger
The FTC has reached out into the blogosphere to grab Christopher Soghoian, an outspoken privacy advocate. Kim Zetter from Wired’s ThreatLevel has the full story. Soghoian made the announcement on his blog, “slight paranoia.” He said that, over the next year, he’ll be splitting his time between working at a division within the FTC (formally known as the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection in the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the US Federal Trade Commission) and finishing his PHD dissertation on privacy and technology.
Ad Network Gets Double Verify-ed
Traffic Marketplace announced that it will use third-party conversion and placement verification service, DoubleVerify, to boost its core media delivery offering. (Read the release.) Jim Waltz, President of Traffic Marketplace, says in the release that the new partnership will boost the “compliance” toolset currently offered to advertisers and agencies.
Microsoft Getting In The News
Yahoo! isn’t the only one with big newspaper deals popularized by its Yahoo! Newspaper Consortium. Actually, Google has them, too. So does AOL. But Microsoft joined the fray yesterday as Advance Internet (who controls – through CondeNast – the online publication of brands such as Wired, The New Yorker and more) agreed to use and re-sell Microsoft Advertising services according to Seeking Alpha‘s Ken Doctor who succinctly summarizes the deal here. Doctor notes that this is “a way in” to the big dollars of the local advertising market for Microsoft.
Right Media Talks Exchange In The UK
FarneyMedia.com talks to Right Media’s Director of International Marketing Roger Williams about their offering as the Yahoo! exchange continues to try to make its case in the competitive European market.
Comscore On CPG
The Comscore research machine continues to pound out the case studies and press releases. Yesterday’s release was online advertising was “on a par” with television advertising for CPG brands in its effectiveness at driving retail sales. From the release, “Over the course of twelve weeks, online ad campaigns with an average reach of 40 percent of their target segment successfully grew retail sales of the advertised brands by an average of 9 percent. This compares to an average lift of 8 percent for TV advertising.”
Rocket Fuel Formally Launches
It has been around for a few months in stealth mode, including speaking engagements at OMMA events, but now Rocket Fuel, run by former Yahoo!’s, has come out of the closet offering a new flavor in ad networks. (Read the release.) Rocket Fuel’s George John tells Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch that the new ad network differentiates itself by being “a ‘hybrid ad network’ because it combines all sorts of targeting data (social, behavioral, contextual, geographical, search) to figure out what works best at any particular moment.”
Car Intenders And Video Behavior
YuMe and AutoTrader.com announced a deal that will leverage the capabilities of behavioral targeting. (Read the release.) AutoTrader.com will enable YuMe by leveraging its data on car buying intenders across YuMe’s “premium” video ad network.
FreeWheel On The Raise
Doug Knopper (AdExchanger.com Q&A) of FreeWheel shares what its like to raise money for a startup during a recession in this month’s issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. In spite of the difficult climate, FreeWheel was able to raise $12 million in Series C financing to advance its digital video ad serving and targeting technology.
AOL In NYC’s East Village
David Carr of The New York Times covers the startup environment within AOL with headquarters located on the edge of New York City’s East Village as its content teams are continuing to grow and refine itself in the face of a global economic downturn. Besides learning that AOL-ers like pizza, we also learn that the content crew is growing, in part, through key hires as other companies have suffered. Advertisers are impressed enough that GroupM’s Rob Norman added a quote in the article saying, “you now have leadership in place [at AOL] who has a clear understanding of the economics and strategies for creating great content.” Read more.
Specific Media Has 10th Birthday
In a release, CEO Tim Vanderhook reminisces on the 10th anniversary of the founding of his successful ad network, Specific Media, and says that the Irvine, California-based company will continue to try and differentiate itself through its technological capabilities saying, “Specific Media will continue to invest heavily as we maintain the ability to deliver the best audience insights, and ultimately the best results, in the industry.”
New Ads In Video
AdAge’s Michael Learmonth looks at new video ad technology that car manufacturer, Infiniti, is trying out on sites like Yahoo! and certain Conde Nast properties in “A Display Ad That’s Not A Banner Ad.” Cooliris is providing the technology behind this innovation. You can download the browser plugin on their site. In testing the plugin and unrelated to the AdAge story… I tried it out on a favorite topic. I searched for “ad exchanges” while querying Google images database and received results in a navigable format which included a ClickZ ad exchange article graphic, familiar figures from Right Media and DoubleClick Exchange marketing material and MediaMath’s Joe Zawadzki in a NY Times article. See below. Without the plugin, the thrill isn’t quite the same.
