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ChoiceStream Finds Travel, Automotive and Pro Ice Hockey Segments Take the Top Three Spots in June’s Audience Cost Calendar

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:00:32 +0000

BOSTON – ChoiceStream, the top choice for brand advertisers interested in advanced target optimization and programmatic buying, today announced the next installment of its Audience Cost Calendar — a monthly aggregation of impressions traded on digital ad exchanges.

“In the last month, there has been much more diversification in the top 20 performing segments,” said Bill Guild, vice president, product management and marketing at ChoiceStream. “Travel continues to be a popular segment as more consumers have vacations on their minds with the nice weather and kids out of school. However, there are new segments debuting on the top 20 list this month, including Sports: Pro Ice Hockey, Careers: Marketing and Education: Graduate Degree.”

Careers and Education

There were some new Career segments that rose in ranking and cost index. Among the top performers were Human Resources (ranked 5th in May), Marketing (ranked 8th) and Accounting & Finance, which also increased its position in the top 20 segments. Curiously, the Education: Graduate Degree segment also rose in popularity and ranking, jumping 190 slots since April. The pursuit of an advanced degree shows those interested in investing in their education is on the rise, in tandem with the launch of summer degree and certification classes offered by various universities across the country.

Holidays and Events

With the summer officially kicking off with the Memorial Day holiday, the National Holiday segment rose in rank by four spots. This should not be any surprise with July 4th as the next big holiday approaching in the coming weeks. Complimentary to summer holidays, Food and Wine events saw a 20 percent rise in this month’s index. Additionally, the sporting segment, specifically for Pro Ice Hockey, jumped 55 slots to number four this month, thanks to the impending Stanley Cup Finals in June.

The Audience Cost Calendar was created to help media buyers and marketers understand trends in the cost of various online audiences. The full infographic and the most active categories for the month of May can be found here.

About ChoiceStream, Inc.

ChoiceStream’s unique understanding of consumer choices provides individually targeted and personalized advertising solutions that are proven to increase revenue and customer engagement for today’s leading brands. For more than ten years, brands have relied on ChoiceStream to create a more engaging, personally relevant experience for their consumers. By transforming audience choices into intelligence, ChoiceStream is able to help today’s biggest brands target their most qualified prospects with the right advertisements.

For more information, visit www.choicestream.com. Interact on our blog at http://www.choicestream.com/newsfeed/blog/ and follow us on Twitter @ChoiceStream.

Second Wave of Martini Media’s Affluent Shopping Index™ Powered by comScore Reveals that Q1 Shopping Activity Across the Wealthiest Segments Comparably Strong

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:00:27 +0000

In a Post-Election, Post-Holiday Season, the Affluent Continue to Shop and Spend Online While Others Slow Down

San Francisco, CA and New York, NY – Martini Media, a global media and advertising company, shared key findings from its most recent Affluent Online Shopper Index™ research study powered by comScore. The index measured the behavior and engagement levels of the online affluent audience, and found shopping activity across the wealthiest segments remains comparably strong. The study is a continuation of an ongoing research series in which Martini Media has partnered with comScore to keep steady track of affluent shopping behaviors. The company’s baseline study conducted last holiday season confirmed assumptions that affluent shoppers outspend other segments of consumers during an important time for all retailers.

In examining the overall shopping patterns of all online shoppers during Q1 2013 versus Q4 2012, the study specifically revealed that affluent consumers are both still shopping and further outpacing the shopping activity of non-affluent shoppers, whose activity diminished after the holiday season. In fact, affluent consumers were 47 percent more likely than those earning under $100k to make an online purchase in Q1 2013, and on average, they spent 41 percent more on purchases. The gap between affluent and non-affluent spending grew in 2013 compared to the December holiday period, when affluent consumers were 31 percent more likely to buy and spent only 15 percent more than their non-affluent counterparts.

On luxury retail sites specifically, the gap grows even wider. Three out of four affluent consumers were more likely to make a purchase on a luxury site, and spent an average of $184 per purchase – more than half of those earning under $100k. These gaps were much smaller during the holidays, when affluent users were 47 percent more likely to buy on a luxury site and spent only 25 percent more. Additionally in Q1 2013, affluent consumers were seven percent more likely to visit luxury retail sites and made 16 percent more visits per visitor than those earning under $100k.

“The affluent audience can consistently be found online for both work and play,” said Skip Brand, CEO of Martini Media. “This study demonstrates how steady the digital affluent footprint is throughout the year, whereas other segments’ spending wanes after the holiday period. Brand success is dependent on focusing digital ad dollars toward the affluent audience and effectively reaching and engaging them online.”

The Martini Media Affluent Online Shopper Index™ powered by comScore measured behaviors and engagement levels of the online affluent audience (HHI $100K+) by indexing (1) affluent users (across the Internet) against non-affluent online users (HHI < $100K) to provide a precise picture of how this coveted segment shops, spends and searches online during Q1 2013. It leverages comScore’s passively measured online panel of one million U.S. Internet users to detail online shopping, search and site visitation data for the affluent audience.

“While the holiday season spurs gains in e-commerce spending across income segments, affluent consumers also exhibit strong online spending patterns throughout the year,” said Kent Parmington, Manager, comScore. “This study highlights the overall significance of affluents to the e-commerce sector, and helps demonstrate why it’s important for brands – and particularly luxury brands – to connect with them effectively.”

The study also found that affluent spending indexed especially high in the apparel, accessories and jewelry, general services, and event and movie tickets categories, which is consistent with the previous holiday data. In Q1, the affluent spent on average:
• $171 on event and movie tickets
• $163 on apparel, accessories and jewelry
• $155 on electronics and computing
• $122 on home and living
• $113 on general services

The infographic can be viewed here.

About comScore Inc.:
comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, delivering insights on web, mobile and TV consumer behavior that enable clients to maximize the value of their digital investments. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

About Martini Media:
Martini Media is the digital media and content platform for engaging the audience with the most money and influence online. With more than 1,000 publishers organized across multiple lifestyle and business verticals, Martini Media has helped the world’s leading brands reach over 125 million consumers across the globe that invest in their passions at work and play. Martini Media’s full-service marketing capabilities encompass display, video, mobile, social, and audience targeting to effectively engage the most valuable audience online at scale. Since 2008, Martini Media has been the premier media destination where influence meets affluence. Headquartered in San Francisco, Martini Media has offices in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and London. Visit www.martinimediainc.com to learn more.

(1) Indices are calculated using the comparative audience’s metric as a baseline to understand the propensity of the $100K segment to buy or spend within a certain category. Indices above 120 indicate a notable propensity and those under 80 indicate the audience under-indexed relative to the other income segment in terms of penetration and/or dollars spent per buyer.

Media6Degrees Expands Award-Winning Team to Support Accelerating Growth

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:00:46 +0000

NEW YORK, NY – Media6Degrees (m6d), the advertising technology pioneer that revolutionizes marketing with its ProspectRank™ platform, has expanded its award-winning team with a series of key hires. Rich Godwin joins the team as director of sales for the west region, based in San Francisco. Mary O’Reilly becomes the company’s first vice president of human resources. The m6d staff is approaching 100 employees.

Prior to m6d, O’Reilly was vice president of human resources at EPIX in New York, where she redesigned employee benefit plans and organizational strategy. O’Reilly had previously worked as director of human resources at CBS in Los Angeles for five years.

Godwin brings a wealth of experience in sales and marketing from his 12 years at Yahoo! and Google. At Google, he managed teams focused on tech and packaged goods, and he brings that vertical expertise and a strong marketing acumen to m6d’s senior management.

Additionally, Melinda Han and Gilad Barash have joined m6d’s award-winning data science team. Han has a Ph.D. in applied physics from Columbia and Barash spent 11 years as a research scientist at HP, and both have published widely on data mining and statistical machine learning.

“The key to our growth has been our focus on technology, and attracting smart people, who can communicate what we do to the world,” said m6d CEO Tom Phillips. “Rich and Mary, along with Melinda and Gilad, bring terrific knowledge and experience, as well as creative thinking and distinctive points of view that will be invaluable as we grow our business.”

About Media6Degrees:

m6d’s industry-best marketing technology platform revolutionizes the way brands think about their audiences and powerfully enhances their ability to find new customers. By capturing a unique brand signal from existing customers, and scoring prospects based on their digital journeys through millions of websites in real time, m6d’s ProspectRank™ delivers relevant audiences to marketers. The team that invented Social Targeting™ has developed a platform that is a marketer’s dream for audience-based buying, leaving in its wake the limitations of traditional marketing. m6d boasts the industry’s most decorated data science team and most experienced media technology management, who together have developed, refined and relentlessly improved its innovative technology over five years in market with over 400 top-tier brands and Fortune 100 companies. Recognized as one of Forbes’ Top 100 Most Promising Companies in America and Crain’s Best Places to Work in New York, m6d has offices throughout the U.S. and in the UK. More info at www.m6d.com, or follow @m6d_inc.

DoubleVerify Powers Viewability Solution for Brand.net Advertiser Campaigns Maximizing Impressions

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:00:30 +0000

Brand.net and DoubleVerify Collaborate to Advance Industry 3MS Initiative

New York and San Francisco, Calif. – DoubleVerify and Brand.net, a Valassis (NYSE:VCI) Digital Company, have announced an exciting alliance in addressing viewable impression measurement. DoubleVerify, the worldwide leader in online media transparency, accountability and performance, and Brand.net, a leading provider of digital media solutions, have teamed up to bring a more efficient and effective targeting solution for online brands. The incorporation of DoubleVerify’s ad viewability product ViewAssure into Brand.net’s decisioning algorithm makes their targeting platform even more intelligent and drives increased performance for advertisers.

“We have integrated with DoubleVerify ViewAssure for every impression we serve enabling smarter buying and delivery decisions that use viewability to increase performance across our campaigns,” says John Farrar, President and General Manager, Brand.net. “The focus on ad viewability fits well into the Brand.net commitment of making sure every impression we serve reaches the target audience in a high quality environment. Our focus and digital platform are built to drive consumers into stores through efficiency, reach and engagement; this integration ensures we are doing this in the most accountable means possible.”

The DoubleVerify and Brand.net collaboration builds on the recent Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) 3MS “Making Measurement Make Sense” initiative which endorsed viewability as the future for digital campaign measurement. IAB’s 3MS is the leading organization as the display advertising industry moves to a universal viewable impressions standard coupled with audience measurements. Together, DoubleVerify and Brand.net are focused on demonstrating how DoubleVerify solutions for media sellers can be used to build a better industry for all and drive display advertising forward.

“Each online impression has one and only one opportunity to impact a consumer. DoubleVerify provides insights into the multiple dimensions of impression quality including viewability,” says Mark Pearlstein, SVP sales and marketing at DoubleVerify. “The integration of DoubleVerify’s ViewAssure solution into Brand.net ad server decision logic brings viewability data to a new level by enabling optimization at the user level, in near real-time, maximizing ROI for advertisers spend online. Today’s announcement strengthens Brand.net’s robust supply chain management capability as the market shifts to use viewability as a core KPI for online media campaigns.”

According to IAB guidelines, an ad must be at least 50% viewable on the screen for at least one second to be considered “viewed.” ViewAssure goes above and beyond these standards by measuring Brand Exposure Duration (BXD) in multiple increments of five seconds, allowing in-depth analysis of the entire impression life-cycle. ViewAssure is accredited by the Media Ratings Council (MRC).

About DoubleVerify

DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com) is the world leader in online media transparency, accountability and effectiveness insights. MRC-accredited, it is the top choice of brand marketers, agencies, advertising networks, demand side platforms, exchanges and digital publishers looking to ensure quality advertising environments, campaign transparency and performance. DoubleVerify validates over 60 billion advertising impressions per month for hundreds of Fortune 500 brands, advertising networks and media platforms. DoubleVerify was conferred the World Economic Forum 2012 Technology Pioneer Award for being one of the most innovative stakeholders in the technology space. Headquartered in New York City, DoubleVerify’s investors include JMI Equity, Institutional Venture Partners, Blumberg Capital, First Round Capital and Genacast Ventures.

About Brand.net

Brand.net, a Valassis Digital Company, uses the most precise targeting technology – delivering probability over possibility and action over exposure. Brand.net is Re-Imagining Reach™ for its global clients integrating offline and online data to provide the best targeted reach in the digital industry. With Brand.net advertisers are empowered to reach their target audiences at scale, across quality, high-impact display, video and mobile environments. Brand.net consistently achieves the campaign objectives that matter most to brand advertisers, proving success through online engagement, awareness and offline purchase.

About Valassis

Valassis (NYSE: VCI) is a leader in intelligent media delivery, providing over 15,000 advertisers proven and innovative media solutions to influence consumers wherever they plan, shop, buy and share. By integrating online and offline data combined with powerful insights, Valassis precisely targets its clients’ most valuable shoppers, offering unparalleled reach and scale. Valassis subsidiaries include Brand.net, a Valassis Digital Company, and NCH Marketing Services, Inc. Valassis consumer brands include RedPlum^® and save.com. Its signature Have You Seen Me?^® program delivers hope to missing children and their families. To learn more, visit Valassis.com.

Ad-Juster Update: Site-Level Data Breakout Feature Available for DFP Premium

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 08:09:50 +0000

Ad-Juster recently added the capability to break out data by ad unit (aka site and zone) in DFP Premium.

If a digital publisher delivers creatives across multiple sites and need prorated 3rd party impression and click counts broken out at those levels for your customers, both internal and external, then this may be a feature you would be interested in talking to Ad-Juster about.

The upside to breaking this data down by site is that it will allow the system to generate reports that will show delivery counts down to the individual site and zone (or any implementation specific breakout) which is particularly important for networks and inventory resellers that have to turn around campaign revenues back out to partner sites.

Reports at the site/zone level will have 3rd party delivery data pro-rated and distributed across all the site / zones to reduce the manual labor required to make these calculations.

For more information please contact Ad-Juster at sales@ad-juster.com.

Full story at: http://www.ad-juster.com/news/?p=376

Local Yokel Media Raises $2.15 Million in First Institutional Round

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:00:47 +0000

Using Unique Cartographic Technology, Local Yokel Media Brings Media Buying Efficiency and Scale to Hyperlocal Service Areas

Stamford, Conn - Local Yokel Media (LYM), the Internet’s first hyperlocal digital ad platform specializing in monetizing hyperlocal ad impressions, today announced that it has closed its first institutional round of funding. Participating in the $2.15 million round are lead investor Connecticut Innovations, the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development and Gold Ridge Asset Management.

LYM’s unique value proposition lies in its ability to deliver very granular, local ad campaigns at scale, while offering professionally created ads (for advertisers who need it) that deliver optimal results. These campaigns have proven to be extremely efficient and can be executed at a small fraction of the cost of more traditional offline local marketing efforts such as direct mail.

With its unique ad-serving platform specifically designed for this hyperlocal market targeting and cartographic (mapping) technology, LYM aggregates hyperlocal websites (websites whose content addresses a specific community), local blogs and websites of community newspapers, organizes them by ZIP code and makes them easy and efficient to target. Local Yokel Media’s internal campaign data show this level of “geo-contextual” ad targeting (targeting down to the community level in contextually relevant content) drives ad receptivity and overall performance. This now can be done from one platform.

In the past year, Local Yokel Media has grown its publisher base by 800 percent. This includes such publishers as Hersam Acorn Newspapers serving Fairfield County, Connecticut and DNA Info, a local news site covering the neighborhoods of New York City and Chicago. Ad revenue also grew by 250 percent, by working with clients such as Meineke Muffler, LL Bean, and 7-Eleven. The company recently moved its offices to the Stamford Innovation Center.

“We set out to prove that we could deliver better hyperlocal advertising and already we have seen ad performance that is orders of magnitude more efficient than other forms of digital local ad targeting,” says digital media industry veteran Dick O’Hare, who founded Local Yokel Media in July 2011 and serves as its CEO. ”The funding that we have secured will be used to further build our hyperlocal ad targeting platform, and for business development and sales and marketing efforts.”

“Genuine local targeting and ad creative can produce dramatic response-rate improvements for marketers,” says Greg Sterling, of Sterling Market Intelligence and Opus Research. “There are billions of dollars in the local market; this is a giant opportunity that has been waiting for a scalable platform and approach.”

“Dick and Local Yokel Media are at the right place at the right time, and we are pleased to be part of the company’s future,” says David Audibert, managing director of investments at Connecticut Innovations. “A recent report by BIA/Kelsey projects the online/interactive/digital segment of the U.S. local media market to grow from $21.2 billion in 2011 to $38.1 billion in 2016. By 2016, more than one in every four local ad dollars will be spent on digital media. We expect Local Yokel Media to be part of that mix.”

Connecticut Innovations (CI) (www.ctinnovations.com) is a quasi-public corporation providing equity, debt and bond financing and other forms of financial assistance to companies in all stages of the business life cycle, from startup to later stage. CI offers its portfolio companies strategic guidance and collaborations with partners in business, finance, education, government and nonprofit sectors. CI’s initiatives are designed to grow the state’s economic and technology base, and to stimulate business investments and job creation.

The Department of Economic and Community Development (http://www.ct.gov/ecd/site/default.asp) is the state’s lead agency responsible for strengthening Connecticut’s competitive position in the new high-tech, knowledge-based global economy. The agency takes a comprehensive approach to economic development that incorporates housing and community development, as well as culture and tourism.

Gold Ridge Asset Management (http://www.goldridgeasset.com) is a private equity and investment firm focused on investments in micro cap companies with positive cash flow, valuations typically less than $10 million, and primarily located on the East Coast. It provides funding for acquisitions, growth capital and ownership changes. They partner with managers and owners who have significant resources committed to their businesses.

Local Yokel Media (http://www.localyokelmedia.com), the Internet’s first hyperlocal digital ad platform specializing in monetizing hyperlocal ad impressions, has raised angel funding from seasoned industry veterans such as Dave Morgan, founder and CEO of Simulmedia, TACODA and Real Media, Joe Apprendi, CEO and founder of Collective Media and Joe Zawadzki, CEO and founder of Media Math.

Yesmail Interactive Partners with TruEffect to Introduce First-Party Retargeting Capabilities into the Yesmail Marketing Platform

Otilia Otlacan — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:00:58 +0000

Email Data Now Powers Targeted Display Advertising

PORTLAND, OR – Yesmail Interactive, an Infogroup company which powers intelligent customer interactions, announced its partnership with TruEffect, the leader in first-party ad targeting and measurement. TruEffect’s data-driven technology enables marketers to target their customers more effectively, improve ad performance, and increase conversion rates.

The partnership between Yesmail and TruEffect will enable marketers to utilize data from their email program to optimize the performance and reach of their display ads by targeting only those prospects who have engaged with their brand’s messages. This allows marketers to develop behavior-based, multichannel campaigns and more accurately measure the effectiveness of these ads by leveraging what they know about their customers to target the right ad to the right person and improve overall performance.

“The integration of TruEffect’s technology into the Yesmail Marketing Platform further strengthens our multichannel capabilities,” said Michael Fisher, President of Yesmail Interactive. “The cross-pollination of email engagement data, such as opens and clicks, and web data gives marketers an unmatched opportunity to reach consumers who have already demonstrated interest in their brand or products. This capability not only provides impeccable targeting and message relevancy for marketers’ display ads, but also delivers a seamless brand experience.”

Key benefits of this new partnership include:

Multichannel Consistency – leverage existing customer segments created for email in the display channel to create message consistency & CRM integration.
Customer Reach Extension – interface with those customers you may not reach via traditional email through new channels.
Measurement – track marketing efforts across all digital touches for a unified view of marketing and performance impact.
Performance – improve delivery performance while also improving the cost of performance.
List Efficiency – extend email lists and serve new customers.

“The amount of micro-segmentation taking place in the email industry is extremely valuable and it seems only natural to extend this success to additional marketing channels,” said Finn Faldi, president and CEO of TruEffect. “The combination of Yesmail’s email marketing platform with our First-Party media advertising will enable Yesmail clients to capitalize on this data to further leverage their email segments for serving new customers and delivering higher engagement.”

About TruEffect
TruEffect uses a First-Party customer data approach that enables advertisers to improve targeting the right ad to the right person, more accurately measure advertising effectiveness and improve performance while managing costs all to increase return on ad spend for their customers. TruEffect achieves this return on ad spend performance by providing a software as a service advertising technology suite that is individually configured to the requirements of advertisers and agencies to deliver, measure, manage and target their internet media activities. For more information, join us on Twitter @truEffect_tweet, Facebook TruEffect or www.truEffect.com.

About Yesmail Interactive
We power intelligent customer interactions. We give you the insights to recognize and understand your customer to deliver contextually relevant digital communications- while respecting their preferences and privacy. We help marketers evolve their customer relationships through intelligent interactions via technology, insights and services in a near real time multi-channel environment. We help you compete in the age of the customer. For more information, visit www.yesmail.com.

About Infogroup

Infogroup’s 1,900 employees enable clients – from local businesses to the Fortune 100 – to increase sales and customer loyalty by leveraging our proprietary Data Axle™ of contextually relevant real-time information on more than 235 million individuals and 24 million businesses to deliver the complete spectrum of value added data and innovative targeted marketing solutions. For more information, visit: www.infogroup.com .

Ace Metrix Selected as 2013 Red Herring Top 100 North America Tech Startup

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:00:08 +0000

Honored as One of the Most Promising Private Technology Ventures

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Ace Metrix®, the new standard in television and video analytics, has been awarded a place on the Red Herring 100 North America list, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from the North American business region.

“Our Company is based on the premise of applying innovative technology to deliver a unique cloud-based analytics solution with the depth and speed that advertisers crave. The award acknowledges our past achievements, evidences our future potential and reflects the commitment of the Ace Metrix team.”

Culled from a field of more than 3,000 candidate technology companies, Ace Metrix joins the ranks of such prominent past Red Herring 100 North America winners as Google, Yahoo!, Skype, Salesforce.com and YouTube.

“We are honored to have been selected by Red Herring from such a talented pool of technology start-ups,” said Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO. “Our Company is based on the premise of applying innovative technology to deliver a unique cloud-based analytics solution with the depth and speed that advertisers crave. The award acknowledges our past achievements, evidences our future potential and reflects the commitment of the Ace Metrix team.”

“In 2013, selecting the Top 100 achievers was by no means a small feat,” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. “In fact, we had the toughest time in years because so many entrepreneurs have crossed significant milestones so early. But after much thought, rigorous contemplation and discussion, we narrowed our finalists down from hundreds of candidates from across North America to the Top 100 Winners. We believe Ace Metrix embodies the vision, drive and innovation that define a successful entrepreneurial venture. Ace Metrix should be proud of its accomplishment, as the competition was very strong.”

Red Herring Top 100 North America enlists outstanding entrepreneurs and promising companies. It selects one hundred Award winners, among the 3000 tech startups financed each year in the US and Canada. Since 1996, Red Herring keeps tabs on the up and comers. Red Herring editors were among the first to recognize that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube, Marin Software, Palo Alto Networks, and eBay would change the way we live and work.

Red Herring’s editorial staff evaluated the companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation and intellectual property, management quality, business model, customer footprint, and market penetration. This assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the track record and standing of startups relative to their sector peers, allowing Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list a valuable instrument of discovery and advocacy for the most promising new business models in North America.

Peter Daboll, Ace Metrix CEO, presented the Company’s winning strategy at the Red Herring North America Forum in Monterey, Calif., on May 23, 2013.

About Ace Metrix

Ace Metrix® is the new standard in television and video analytics, dedicated to delivering better, faster, and more cost-effective solutions for evaluating video advertising within competitive context. Through the Ace Metrix LIVE™ platform, companies can now access timely, actionable data wherever, whenever they need to, enabling real-time advertising campaign optimization. Combining leading edge technology and patent pending methodology, Ace Metrix is revolutionizing the way marketers measure themselves and their competitive landscape. The Company is privately held and is backed by leading venture capital firms and industry leaders including Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Palomar Ventures, Leapfrog Ventures, and WPP.

Follow Ace Metrix on Twitter for sustained insight: @Ace_Metrix.

Xaxis Brings Programmatic Buying to Digital-Out-of-Home with Debut of Xaxis Places

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:00:42 +0000

Real Time Platform Allows Advertisers to Link Digital-Out-of-Home Campaigns with Online and Mobile Efforts, Delivering Coordinated Messaging to the Same Audiences

NEW YORK - Xaxis, the world’s largest audience buying company, announced the launch of Xaxis Places, a new programmatic platform that allows advertisers to buy digital-out-of-home (DOOH) ad inventory across more than 100,000 screens via real-time-bidding. Integrated within the Xaxis Data Management Platform (DMP), Xaxis Places is the first programmatic product to allow brands to buy DOOH inventory in full coordination with their overall digital media programs.

“Xaxis Places is the first solution to pair the flexibility and segmentation of programmatic audience buying with the high visibility and real world reach of digital-out-of-home”

Xaxis Places provides brands with the entirely new ability to link the messaging that consumers experience on their computers, smartphones and tablets with the messaging these same consumers see when they are on the go – via DOOH screens in locations such as taxis, hotels and malls. To do this, Xaxis partnered with WPP’s Spafax Networks who created a proprietary, extensible database of audience segments indexed to specific geolocations and connected it to the Xaxis audiences a brand is reaching via its display, online video, social and mobile campaigns. Through Xaxis Places, advertisers can plan, execute and measure their DOOH campaigns, at scale, with more precision than previously possible.

“Xaxis Places is the first solution to pair the flexibility and segmentation of programmatic audience buying with the high visibility and real world reach of digital-out-of-home,” said Xaxis chief operating officer, Mark Grether. “Xaxis Places allows brands to greatly refine who they’re actually reaching with their digital-out-of-home buys, minimizing waste and improving overall campaign impact.”

More than 1.4 billion monthly, digital-out-of-home impressions will be addressable through Xaxis Places at launch via screens in various locations including taxis, shopping malls, doctor’s offices, stadiums, gas stations, office buildings and hotels among others. Xaxis Places is fully trackable via advertisers’ third party ad servers and all screens are Nielsen/Arbitron measured.

Xaxis Places represents the latest media channel to be incorporated into the Xaxis DMP and follows the recent introduction of Xaxis Radio, the first programmatic buying product for the digital radio market. Both additions augment the company’s mission of leveraging data and technology to help brands reach audiences wherever they happen to be and through all phases of the marketing cycle – from direct response to brand building, awareness campaigns.

About Xaxis

Xaxis is the world’s largest audience buying company. Through its proprietary platform, Xaxis offers advertisers a single, comprehensive resource from which to reach and engage with global audiences across the universe of digital media. Xaxis does this for its GroupM agency partners, Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, and Mindshare. Xaxis, a GroupM company that is part of WPP, has a presence in 20 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.xaxis.com.

OpenX Selected by Gartner for Cool Vendors in Media, 2013 Report

Otilia Otlacan — Mon, 27 May 2013 14:00:32 +0000

Recognition Cites OpenX’s Innovative Technology Solutions for Digital Media Companies as Key Rationale for Selection

LOS ANGELES - OpenX Technologies, Inc. (OpenX), a global leader in digital and mobile advertising technology, announced that it has been selected for inclusion in the Cool Vendors in Media, 2013 research report published by Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) (Gartner), the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner publishes approximately 75 reports annually covering key technology areas; the Cool Vendors in Media, 2013report specifically highlights vendors in media that provide both financial power to content owners and value and appeal to consumers. OpenX was selected as an innovative vendor based on its digital monetization platform that enables digital media companies to maximize revenue across multiple screens. In particular, the report cites Revenue Intelligence, OpenX’s new and unique combination of ad monetization and content optimization, as a key factor in the selection and as an innovation that clearly distinguishes the Company from others in the space.

“We are delighted to receive this very prestigious recognition from Gartner”

Gartner analysts Andrew Frank, Allen Weiner and Mike McGuire note in the report’s introductory Key Findings section that, “[a]s the market for creating digital content matures, publishers… are searching for new revenue streams that can provide balance to existing advertising and subscription models. Advertisers have been attracted to real-time platforms and programmatic bidding methods because they offer granular control over precision targeting and pricing.” Through its global Real-Time Bidding platform that includes a digital ad exchange, yield optimization, and ad serving technology, OpenX was among the earliest proponents of programmatic trading and is now one of its leading providers.

In further detailing the rationale for OpenX’s inclusion beyond its programmatic trading expertise and the launch of Revenue Intelligence, Gartner recognized the Company’s key investors and global expansion. Over the past twelve months OpenX has achieved a number of major milestones on both of those fronts. In February 2013, OpenX closed its Series E funding round led by Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, which was joined as a new investor by Dentsu Inc. digital subsidiary, cyber communications, inc. During 2012, OpenX acquired two companies with pioneering technology, Supply Side Platform LiftDNA and content valuation platform JumpTime. OpenX also moved aggressively into the mobile space by entering into partnership with Samsung Electronics to create Samsung AdHub Market, the first mobile private exchange formed by one of the world’s leading digital device manufacturers.

Among highlights from the report:

“For publishers to survive and thrive…, they’ll need breakthroughs in their ability to optimize the value of content investments. That’s where OpenX’s patented value calculation algorithm comes in. By bridging the gap between content and advertising, publishers can assess and optimize their revenue picture – and their reader experience – at a unique level of precision.”¹
“OpenX launches these new capabilities [Revenue Intelligence] from a position of strength, having leveraged its early success through strategic acquisitions, investor support and global expansion in partnerships with regional providers. Its revenue growth and broad base of customers position it to be an innovative force in the evolution of digital publishing monetization.”²

“We are delighted to receive this very prestigious recognition from Gartner,” said Tim Cadogan, chief executive officer, OpenX. “We’re particularly pleased that Gartner appreciates the breadth and depth with which we’re innovating and bringing to market groundbreaking products such as Revenue Intelligence. We plan to continue to accelerate our rate of innovation, all in pursuit of our goal of unleashing the full economic potential of digital media companies across all screens.”

For Gartner clients who would like to access the full Cool Vendors in Media, 2013 report, please visit: http://www.gartner.com/document/2465215 (Gartner access required)

¹ Gartner, Cool Vendors in Media, 2013, p. 4
² Ibid.

About OpenX

OpenX is a global leader in digital and mobile advertising technology focused on unleashing the full economic potential of digital media companies. OpenX solutions provide a unique Software as a Service platform by combining ad serving, an ad exchange, a Supply Side Platform and content valuation.

OpenX Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of OpenX Software Ltd., is based in Los Angeles and is backed by leading investors including Accel Partners, Index Ventures, SAP Ventures and Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.

For more information, please visit: www.openx.com

OpenX is a trademark of OpenX Limited.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. We deliver the technology-related insight necessary for our clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, we are the valuable partner to clients in 12,400 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, we work with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 5,300 associates, including 1,280 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries.

For more information, email info@gartner.com or visit gartner.com.

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