Smaaz’s Blog

Pepperjam Selects DoubleClick as Exclusive Ad Management Solution

DoubleClick Inc. today announced that Pepperjam, an Inc. 500 company and industry leading full service Internet marketing agency, has selected DoubleClick’s integrated DART® platform to meet the digital marketing needs of Pepperjam and its clients. Pepperjam is a rapidly growing agency that specializes in search-engine marketing, affiliate marketing management and online media buying and planning. The agency serves clients in the fashion, entertainment, education, retail and consumer packaged goods industries, such as The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, 1-800-PetMeds, and Sesame Street.DoubleClick’s integrated DART platform enables Pepperjam to serve display and rich media ads and conduct effective search marketing campaigns while also providing deep analysis and reporting across all digital channels to ensure Pepperjam has a holistic view of campaign results. Through the use of DoubleClick’s DART platform, including DART for Advertisers (DFA), DART Search and DoubleClick Rich Media, Pepperjam collaborates with its clients to seamlessly integrate digital advertising into overall marketing efforts. The integrated solution gives Pepperjam clients the ability to manage all their digital marketing with greater efficiency and flexibility.

“We made the switch to DoubleClick because they offer a fully-integrated ad management platform to seamlessly manage all digital marketing channels,” said Kristopher B. Jones, president and CEO of Pepperjam. “It became a burden to manage multiple products for each marketing channel. DoubleClick instead provides cutting-edge technology and in-depth analysis enabling us to focus on serving our clients.”

“Pepperjam is growing tremendously, adding new clients each week and we are thrilled that they have decided to streamline their ad management with DoubleClick,” said Jason Bigler, vice president of product management at DoubleClick. “The combination of DFA, Search and Rich Media gives Pepperjam a single platform to create world-class advertising campaigns that produce great results and allow Pepperjam to achieve operational excellence.”

DFA provides Pepperjam with a hosted, enterprise-class advertising management and serving solution to help their clients reach their online goals efficiently and effectively. DFA offers sophisticated targeting capabilities, ad serving technology, robust reporting and rich media capabilities. As a highly advanced ad management platform on the market today, DFA allows marketers to centrally manage creative assets, traffic more compelling ads, track results beyond impressions and clicks to understand conversion, improve ROI and branding and automatically optimize creative to improve results.

Pepperjam’s powerful search-engine marketing management solution will rely on the Web-based DART Search, a solution for all aspects of creating and managing search advertising. It is integrated with DFA, so Pepperjam clients get a clear view of results across both display and search advertising, enabling them to boost efficiency, effectiveness and ROI. The Web-based DART Search system is integrated with leading engines so Pepperjam clients have insight into what’s happening from first bid to final report, across multiple search engines. Additionally, DART Search is synchronized with DFA, so Pepperjam clients can gain a clear view of their results.

With DoubleClick Rich Media, Pepperjam can easily collaborate with their agency partners, publishers and advertisers to produce campaigns that garner great results. DoubleClick Rich Media integrates the best of interactive design, ad serving and reporting into a sophisticated integrated rich media offering.

DoubleClick’s world-class service model provides unparalleled support for Pepperjam by giving them direct access to technical account managers and specialists to help ensure campaigns are up and running seamlessly.

Add comment June 9th, 2007

Salesforce and Google Form Strategic Global Alliance

Salesforce.com and Google have formed a strategic global alliance to mutually use their product, packaging, and promotional resources to enable companies of all sizes to realize unprecedented levels of success. As part of the alliance, salesforce.com will be the first on-demand company to resell the Google AdWords platform, acting as an official distribution channel for the Google AdWords product. The alliance is across 43 countries and encompasses distribution, technology and co-marketing efforts.

Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords provides an integrated and effective solution that gives companies of all sizes all the tools they need to acquire new customers and grow their business. By encapsulating every element of the customer lifecycle - advertising, creating leads, closing business and retaining customers - in one solution, Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords enables any company to jump start their business by creating an online marketing and sales presence.

Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords enables users to:

• Advertise Online – With Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords, companies can immediately connect to Google AdWords, and create an ad that is displayed with the relevant search results on Google.com or across the Google AdSenseâ„¢ content network of partner websites. Users can create an ad in as quickly as five minutes and with as little as $5.
• Attract Prospects – When people search the Web for the products and services that your company sells, your ad appears with the relevant search results. When they click on your ad, visitors are taken to your website.
• Capture Leads – Once you have potential customers on your website, you can entice visitors to fill out a name capture form on your site with an offer for a Webinar or white paper. The information collected on the form flows directly into Salesforce as a new lead.
• Acquire Customers – As soon as a lead is added into Salesforce, it is distributed to the sales team. Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords enables businesses to effectively manage and share leads, track opportunities through the sales cycle and close deals faster. Sales teams can manage all customer interactions in Salesforce and turn qualified leads into new customers.
• Analyze Growth – Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords features dashboards that gives companies a bird’s eye view into lead generation, sales metrics, and company growth. Dashboards and reports are quick and easy to access with real-time information and allow companies to make decisions quickly and alter advertising strategies appropriately.
• Mash-up Other Business Applications – Through the power of Salesforce.com’s AppExchange directory, customers have the opportunity to mash-up any of 600 business applications including technologies for mapping and productivity.

In addition to these features, Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords also includes a custom designed user experience starting with an exclusive login page. Joint customers can go to the Google site at http://www.google.com/adwords/salesforce to login to their AdWords account and can access Salesforce directly at http://www.salesforce.com/google.

Another common thread that brought salesforce.com and Google together in their global alliance is their commitment to corporate philanthropy. In July of 2000, salesforce.com launched the Salesforce.com Foundation, which operates under the company’s innovative 1/1/1 Model — a commitment to deliver 1% Time, 1% Equity and 1% Product to nonprofit organizations and, most recently, to be “one” with the earth.

Since its launch, the Salesforce.com Foundation has donated their product to more than 2,000 nonprofits. Similarly, Google has also given free online advertising to selected nonprofits through its Google Grants program, supporting more than 2,500 nonprofit organizations in 16 countries to date. The Salesforce.com Foundation and Google are now teaming up to donate the new Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords to each other’s nonprofit grantees. These selected nonprofits will be able to gain access to the same integrated sales and marketing success that is available to the private sector at no cost. Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords will also be made available to additional nonprofits within the next quarter.

Add comment June 5th, 2007

Microsoft to Acquire Ad Company for $6 billion

Microsoft today announced it will acquire aQuantive, Inc., for $66.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $6 billion. This deal expands upon the Company’s previously outlined vision to provide the advertising industry with a world class, Internet-wide advertising platform, as well as a set of tools and services that help its constituents generate the highest possible return on their advertising investments.

The aQuantive acquisition enables Microsoft to strengthen relationships with advertisers, agencies and publishers by enhancing the Company’s world-class advertising platforms and services beyond its current capabilities to serve MSN. The acquisition also provides Microsoft increased depth in building and supporting next generation advertising solutions and environments such as cross media planning, video-on-demand and IPTV. Combining aQuantive’s technologies and services with Microsoft’s portfolio will provide value for the industry’s key constituencies as follows:

• Advertisers and ad agencies will benefit from a world-class media planning, buying and campaign management solution to drive maximum ROI and optimize their reach to audiences across the increasingly fragmented, interactive media landscape.
• Media owners/publishers will gain access to best-in-class inventory optimization and monetization solutions across a full suite of rich media, video and targeting capabilities.
• The broader advertising ecosystem will benefit from the leading interactive advertising agency, Avenue A | Razorfish, continuing to serve its impressive client roster, while also embedding the voice of the marketer into Microsoft’s next generation advertising solutions and services. 

Founded in 1997, aQuantive, Inc.  is the parent company of one of the industry’s most successful families of digital marketing service and technology companies, encompassing the three primary brands Atlas, DRIVEpm and Avenue A | Razorfish.

The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of Microsoft’s fiscal year 2008. The acquisition is not expected to have a significant impact on the financial guidance previously issued by the Company.

aQuantive, which has approximately 2600 employees, will continue to operate from its Seattle headquarters as part of Microsoft’s Online Services Business. The combination of Microsoft and aQuantive takes the Company’s advertising platform to the next level in its ability to serve Microsoft’s first party audience assets like MSN, Windows Live, Xbox Live, and Office Live, as well as for third party publishers and applications such as Facebook and Activision game titles.

Add comment May 18th, 2007

AOL Acquires Mobile Advertising Provider

AOL announced today that it has acquired Third Screen Media, a leading mobile advertising network and mobile ad-serving and management platform provider. Third Screen Media will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL’s Advertising.com division.

Third Screen Media connects advertisers, publishers and mobile phone carriers on a common platform, allowing ads to be managed and delivered via WAP, downloadable applications, SMS, MMS and mobile video. Dozens of leading brand advertisers, more than a hundred mobile Web publishers, and major wireless carriers participate in the Third Screen Media network.

The acquisition comes as the mobile advertising industry is growing exponentially. In the U.S., mobile advertising is expected to grow from $421 million in 2006 to $4.7 billion by 2011, while globally the market is expected to increase to $11.3 billion by the same year, according to eMarketer. Third Screen Media will continue to be headquartered in Boston. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Add comment May 16th, 2007

Google to Acquire DoubleClick For For $3.1 Billion

Google announced today a definitive agreement to acquire DoubleClick Inc., a global leader in digital marketing technology and services, for $3.1 billion in cash from San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman along with JMI Equity and management. The acquisition will combine DoubleClick’s expertise in ad management technology for media buyers and sellers with Google’s leading advertising platform and publisher monetization services.

The combination of Google and DoubleClick will offer superior tools for targeting, serving and analyzing online ads of all types, significantly benefiting customers and consumers:

• For users, the combined company will deliver an improved experience on the web, by increasing the relevancy and the quality of the ads they see.
• For online publishers, the combination provides access to new advertisers, which creates a powerful opportunity to monetize their inventory more efficiently.
• For agencies and advertisers, Google and DoubleClick will provide an easy and efficient way to manage both search and display ads in one place. They will be able to optimize their ad spending across different online media using a common set of metrics.

“It has been our vision to make Internet advertising better - less intrusive, more effective, and more useful. Together with DoubleClick, Google will make the Internet more efficient for end users, advertisers, and publishers,” said Sergey Brin, Google’s Co-Founder and President, Technology.

“DoubleClick’s technology is widely adopted by leading advertisers, publishers and agencies, and the combination of the two companies will accelerate the adoption of Google’s innovative advances in display advertising,” said Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google.

“This transaction will strengthen our advertising network by expanding our access to publisher inventory and enabling us to serve the needs of a broader set of advertisers and ad agencies,” said Tim Armstrong, Google’s President, Advertising and Commerce, North America.

“Google is the absolute perfect partner for us,” said David Rosenblatt, Chief Executive Officer of DoubleClick. “Combining DoubleClick’s cutting edge digital solutions for both media buyers and sellers with Google’s scale and innovative resources will bring tremendous value to both our employees and clients.”

“When we acquired DoubleClick in July 2005, we saw an opportunity to partner with a great management team to further enhance the company’s capabilities and growth trajectory,” said Philip Hammarskjold, Managing Director of Hellman & Friedman. “This transaction affirms the successful transformation of DoubleClick, positions the firm for the future, and greatly benefits our investors.”

Both companies have approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close by the end of the year.

1 comment April 14th, 2007

Yahoo! “Panama” available to new advertisers

The new Yahoo! Sponsored Search platform called “Panama” is now available to all U.S. new sign ups. Existing customers either request an early upgrade or wait till early next year, for the automated system upgrade.

Add comment December 13th, 2006

Amazon started pay-per-click program

Seems A9.com and Amazon are currently in the beta for a pay-per-click program called Clickriver, where you can buy links to your site, on the Amazon product pages.

“Clickriver Ads is an advertising program — currently in beta — that allows businesses to place sponsored links on Amazon.com®, next to search results and on product detail pages. Clickriver Ads presents a unique opportunity to advertise services and products that complement the selection on Amazon.com, an online marketplace with tens of millions of active customer accounts.

We welcome service providers of all types to apply to join the beta — in travel, finance and investment, training and education, entertainment, insurance, healthcare and physical fitness, IT assistance and consulting, photo printing and more. In addition, we welcome retailers who want to advertise products that complement those sold on Amazon.com.”

For more information, on the beta you should visit Clickriver.com.

2 comments November 2nd, 2006