Involved Media Announces Partnership with The Trade Desk

Offering Full Spectrum of Powerful Social Ad Tools, Involved Media Becomes Most Advanced Social Ad Platform

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Involved Media, a leading social advertising platform that provides digital media advertising technology and managed services on the social web, announced today that it has partnered with “The Trade Desk,” a leading Demand Side Platform (DSP). This partnership allows each company to leverage the strengths of each – Involved Media gains a key display partnership and The Trade Desk gains a key social media partner. Together, these developments will allow advertisers to better identify high value prospects and deliver a stronger ROI across social, display, video and mobile ad buys, as well as provide media agencies and brand advertisers with a holistic view of the target consumer and all activity attributions.

“With the increased popularity of DSP’s and integral role they have in developing strategic and impactful advertising campaigns, we are thrilled to partner with Jeff Green and The Trade Desk,” said Neal Weinberg, Partner and Founder of Involved Media. “The powerful combination of our company’s social advertising capabilities and our DSP partnership with The Trade Desk offers clients unique and compelling advertising solutions. The Trade Desk’s insights into the future of display advertising brings a competitive advantage to our customers.”

Read More: Businesswire

Advertisers Follow Audiences into Games
Broadening demographic reach makes entertainment software appealing for branding campaigns.

Roughly $1 billion will be spent this year on ads in games in the United States, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the figure is predicted to increase by a third in the next four years.

The bulk of this money will be targeted toward casual games: simple puzzle or word games that can be played for short stretches of time on a mobile device or in a Web browser. Casual games are attractive to advertisers such as Sprint and Esurance (an auto insurance company) because they are as popular with middle-aged women as they are with the adolescent males who are the stereotypical enthusiasts of Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

“Gaming has shifted from a young male pursuit to much more of a mainstream activity,” says Paul Verna, who follows in-game advertising for eMarketer, a New York–based digital consulting group. “If you are a 45-year-old mother, there’s very likely a game out there that appeals to you, and it will probably have nothing to do with what your son is playing.”

By eMarketer’s estimates, there are now roughly 90 million casual gamers in the United States, more than double the number of gamers who regularly play on consoles. And the number of casual gamers is expected to continue to grow thanks to the increasing popularity of smart phones and tablets.

Read More: Technology Review

Aol Sales Chief Brody Discusses Ad Strategy And The New Aol DSP – AdLearn Open Platform

Ned Brody is Chief Revenue Officer and President of AOL Advertising.

Brody sat down with AdExchanger.com and discussed Aol Advertising strategy and momentum.

AdExchanger.com: Can you update us on the latest regarding Aol’s technology stack strategy?

NB: The first time we sat down, I said that Aol will be focused on providing a technology stack that will allow everyone to play – from the SSP (sell-side platform) all the way through the DSP (demand-side platform) market. We’re actively executing on that strategy today.

And, one of the first things you’ll see from us is something called AdLearn Open Platform. AdLearn Open Platform is a DSP product that takes the UI of a DSP and allows companies that want to participate to both bid into Aol’s inventory as well as all the other inventory sources in the marketplace.

It offers the capabilities of AdLearn from an optimization perspective – AdLearn being our core decisioning engine that drives, frankly, all the benefit and profitability that the ad.com display business gets. So, we’re bringing just a little bit more to the market than you might commonly see in a DSP. It’s really a DSP plus optimization, plus the inventory and opportunity to participate.

Read More: AdExchanger

CITRUS Publisher’s Platform, End-to-End

What could bring under one tent, Scripps Networks, the National Hockey League, Cox Media Group, InvestingChannel and Martini Media?

Crowd Science and their CITRUS audience measurement, segmentation and targeting publisher’s platform, just unveiled at the 2011 IAB MIXX Conference & Expo in New York.

CITRUS aggregates the data in a single closed-loop, first-party solution that leverages a publisher’s own data and converts low-value run-of-site ad inventory into premium-branded segments.

“Publishers are in desperate need of solutions that help them monetize more of their valuable audience,” says Corey Leibow, Crowd Science CEO. “CITRUS gives publishers back ownership of their audience data so they can increase ad sales and grow CPMs. In turn, their advertisers are able to find more of the valued segments they seek and improve campaign performance.”

Current clients include a variety of media players, including Turner Networks, PC World, Viacom, Meredith and Everyday Health. Early Beta results found an uptick in high-value audience segments of 10% to 50% compared with standard ad targeting or third party segmentation solutions, and in some cases, lift as high as 300% to 500%, depending on the segment. 

Publishers can either pay a fee for CITRUS or sign up for the all-you-can-eat option with no fees and all platform access.

Read More: Brand Channel

Datalogix and Polk Launch Newly Enhanced Automotive Online Advertising Segments
Segments re-engineered to align with automotive digital marketing strategies and to capitalize on seasonal opportunities.

WESTMINSTER, Colo., Oct 11, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Datalogix and Polk today announced the launch of a new suite of automotive advertising audience segments to help automotive marketers and their agencies reach the most accurate consumer set.

This new segment strategy is designed to:

– Coordinate with automotive marketers’ digital advertising methods

– Present automotive marketers with breakthrough opportunities to advertise to consumers who are in-market to buy specific vehicle styles or makes

– Support customer retention and conquesting campaigns by allowing auto marketers to reach consumers based on likely current vehicle ownership

View the new Datalogix and Polk Automotive Audience Segments.

Datalogix and Polk have also tackled seasonal opportunities by recently launching 11 new audience segments focused on consumers ready to take advantage of year-end automotive sales events.

The new Datalogix and Polk segments include prime buyers in categories such as alternative fuel, crossover vehicles, midsize cars, pickup trucks, luxury vehicles and more. Seasonal programs like this will continually become available to marketers as opportunities arise.

Read More: MarketWatch

Rocket Fuel Expands Executive Team Amid Record Year of Global Growth

Leading Real-Time Ad Targeting Company Names Peter Bardwick as CFO and Hits $50M Run Rate Milestone

REDWOOD SHORES, CA, Sep 30, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Rocket Fuel Inc., the leading real-time ad targeting company, today announced that it has named media and technology industry veteran Peter Bardwick as CFO. The company also announced that Dinny Devitre, former CFO of Altria and current member of the Board of Directors of Altria, SABMiller, and Western Union, has become a strategic investor in the company. For the first half of 2011, Rocket Fuel tripled six-month revenues, quadrupled gross profit compared to a year earlier, launched a UK operation, and is on a $50M annual run rate based on August revenue.

News Facts:

• Rocket Fuel is announcing these key additions at a time of rapid growth and expansion. The company grew its headcount by 2.5 times in the last six months, adding nearly 40 employees. According to LinkedIn, Rocket Fuel is the fastest-growing digital advertising
  technology company in the U.S. — and the company continues to sign new leading brands and agencies each month.
• Bardwick is an IPO-ready CFO with a proven track record directing the financial strategies of high-growth technology and media companies. He was instrumental in taking CBS Marketwatch public and has supported over $10B in transactions. He joins Rocket Fuel from online brokerage Zecco, where he served as CFO. A former investment banker, he also has a wealth of hands-on operational experience, having served as CEO, CFO, COO and board member of a number of leading Internet, media, and data companies.

Read More: Marketwire

DoubleVerify Report Shows That Media Verification Improves Compliance for Online Advertising Industry

Trust Index Recognizes Best Performing Ad Companies — Ad Networks Are Proving to Be Brand Safe, and Advertisers Are Finding Value in Top Platforms

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire – Sep 30, 2011) – DoubleVerify, the pioneer and worldwide leader in online media verification and compliance, today published its 1H 2011 Trust Index. The report found a significant reduction of non-compliance among the industry’s best-performing ad networks and platforms. The findings illustrate that advertisers and networks are continuing to standardize their brand protection and compliance practices, ensuring their online media spend brings the highest return on investment. The worst-performing online advertising companies continued to demonstrate inconsistency in their ability to comply with advertisers’ preferences. According to the report, the most compliant ad networks from January to June 2011 were (alphabetically): AudienceScience, Casale Media, Dedicated Media, Epic Marketplace, interclick, Microsoft Media Network, Specific Media, Spectrum, a Centro product, Undertone, and Yahoo! Network Plus. Advertising platforms that were most compliant include (alphabetically): DataXu, Invite Media, The MIG’s Zeus Advertising Platform.

As advertisers have increasingly demanded verification to be included with third-party buys from ad networks, exchanges, DSPs and agency trading desks, the Trust Index has provided advertisers with in-depth data about partner compliance and brand safety trends in online advertising. Other key findings from the report showed:

• In the first half of 2011, the non-compliance rates for ad networks were at their lowest ever, since 18 months ago. The best-performing networks had an average non-compliance rate of 0.6 percent, but the bottom tier’s rate was 26 percent (compared to 2 percent and 35 percent respectively in 2H 2010).
• The most compliant ad platforms (DSPs and agency trading desks) maintained an average non-compliance incident rate of 4 percent, and the lower tier platforms decreased their average non-compliance rate to 20 percent — showing that ad exchanges can provide great value when verification is applied.

Read More: Marketwire

Ad Execs: More Than Half Our Display Ads Now Bought Via Nets, DSPs, Exchanges

More than half of all online display advertising is now bought via an ad network, exchange or DSP (demand-side platform), according to findings of an Econsultancy survey of advertisers, agencies, publishers and their reps released Friday by Rubicon Project.

By platform, the study found that ad networks still account for the majority of online display advertising buys, representing 55% of the inventory, according to the respondents, followed by DSPs (32%) and exchanges (30%). Those numbers add up to more than 100, because the purchasing platforms are not mutually exclusive and are frequently used together.

The study found that the role of DSPs is much greater in North America than in Europe. Half of all online display ad buys placed by American companies are now made through a DSP vs. only 27% in Europe.

The study also found that almost half (46%) of online display advertising media plans now include ad networks, up from 32% in 2009.

Read More: MediaPost