- 53% of Marketers Will Reduce Ad Budgets
An Ad Age article by Max Lakin discussed a survey from the Association of National Advertisers, released today. Fifty-three percent of those polled said they expected a cutback within the next six months; 87% said they’re already weathering the pinch.

The move is the most recent in a series of digital acquisitions and deals from Aegis Group, and will provide Aegis Media with the means to manage, optimise and measure all forms of online advertising, particularly rich media advertising (Bluestreak’s specialty). The plans are to integrate the newly-acquired ad serving technology into Isobar – Aegis’ digital network, which includes Carat Fusion.

There’s no doubt that the data collected through Bluestreak’s ad serving platform will have a further use in developing future product offerings, probably focusing on demographic and behavioral targeting.

Aegis pais $12.5 million for Bluestreak, which some analysts interpret as a very good deal – Bluestreak has extensive expertise in developing rich media solutions, a very sought-after commodity. Google purchased DoubleClick for an impressive $3.1 billion, while Microsoft shed no less than $6 billion for aQuantive. Agencies groups have also entered the ad serving game, the most notable one being WPP Group’s acquisition of 24/7 Real Media for $64 million.
“Ad serving is in the spotlight right now,” Aegis CEO Robert Lerwill said in a statement. “We believe the combination of media and ad serving is the most interesting of all. While we will continue to work with other industry ad servers, owning our own technology in-house will give us a step change in product development across both search and display.”

No word yet as to Aegis entering the video ads world but, giving the current speed of developments, such a move can’t be too far down the road.