ValueClick buys Greystripe for $70M

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2011/04/25/valueclick-buys-greystripe-for-70m.html?ana=yfcpc

San Francisco-based Greystripe, which operates a brand-focused mobile ad network, had raised $18.1 million in four funding rounds.
ValueClick (NASDAQ: VCLK) said it has retained Greystripe's employees and management team. The business which will be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary.
ValueClick, which is based in Westlake Village, expects Greystripe to contribute $24 million to $26 million to its revenue for the remainder of this year.

Olson Acquires MyThum, Its First Buy Outside of U.S.

Continuing its string of acquisitions, Minneapolis-based Olson has bought MyThum, a Toronto-based mobile-marketing agency. It marks Olson's first footprint outside the U.S. and its third acquisition since June. With the addition of MyThum, now called Olson Mobile, the agency has a combined estimated 2010 revenue of $71 million and counts about 400 people in its employ with offices also in Chicago, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York and San Francisco. Mobile will be an estimated 10%-15% of the agency's overall revenue. MyThum cofounder Michael Carter will serve as the mobile unit's new president in the Toronto office.
http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=148709

Google Searches for Mobile-App Experts

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703554204576112723686094898.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

World-wide, revenue from mobile apps is expected to triple this year to $15.1 billion, including paid downloads and advertising revenue generated by free apps, according to research firm Gartner Inc. Besides the potential of making money directly from such creations, more and better apps can help devices powered by Google's Android operating system continue to gain ground on Apple's iPhones and iPads.

Facebook Zeroes In On Mobile Advertising, Buys Seattle Startup Rel8tion

Considering how big Facebook’s mobile audience is—200 million users and counting, fast—it’s surprising that it’s taken them this long to make a mobile advertising play. But today they’ve started in earnest, with the acquisition of a small Seattle startup focussed on hyperlocal markets called Rel8tion.

Little is known about Rel8tion—at this moment, the company’s website seems to have crashed under the world’s attention following the deal. But a Google cache of the site shows that it gives its users—advertisers—the ability to target campaigns on specific mapped areas based on criteria like Age, Income, Gender, Ethnicity/Race, Education, Marital Status, Employment Status and Career.

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-facebook-zeros-in-on-mobile-advertising-buys-seattle-startup-rel8tion/#

Millennial Media Raises $27.5M to Go Up Against Google, Apple

With nearly $30 million in new funding, it looks like No. 3 mobile advertising network Millennial Media is going to stay solo for now -- even though its major competitors are Google and Apple.

The 4-year-old mobile ad network says it tripled revenue in 2010, which was a banner year for mobile advertising across the board. While a spokeswoman declined to provide specific revenue figures, research firm IDC puts Millennial's gross revenue for 2010 at $60 million. That places Millennial third in U.S. mobile display with 15.4% market share behind Google's 19% and Apple's 18.8%.

The Baltimore-based company today has announced an additional $27.5 million in growth equity funding, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital and Charles River Ventures. That brings funding to date to $65 million.

Under CEO Paul Palmieri, the company plans to build out its 2010 acquisition TapMetrics, an analytics company, and pursue further deals with the new round. While smartphone leaders Google and Apple have bought up mobile ad networks, rumors have circulated that Microsoft, which is lagging in the mobile ads race, has been eying Millennial for acquisition.
The funding is yet another sign that mobile ads will continue to grow at a rapid clip into 2011.

The mobile ad market got a jump start more than a year ago when Google and Apple acquired mobile ads networks Admob and Quattro Wireless, respectively. That momentum is expected to continue into 2011 -- the U.S. mobile advertising market is expected to hit $1 billion for the first time in 2011, according to eMarketer.

Mobile Ad Spending Trends Upward

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3if5f773e59310e059c43c985188622dc1

With Apple and Google in stiff competition for mobile advertising dollars, it's useful to review how much money is at stake.

eMarketer predicts that mobile advertising across all principal formats -- display, search and messaging-based -- will reach $1.56 billion by 2013.

Commensurate with its status as an emerging channel, mobile advertising will achieve a lofty compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.3 percent between 2008 and 2013 -- considerably higher than online ad spending as a whole, but more in line with emerging online formats such as digital video.

Torstar buys Web2Mobile to boost mobile firepower

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/media/article.jsp?content=20101013_150442_1440

Torstar Digital has increased its presence in the growing mobile marketing space with the acquisition of mobile marketing company Web2Mobile. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Candice Faktor, vice-president of strategy and new ventures for Torstar Digital, described mobile as an important growth area for the company, noting that Web2Mobile offers a "nice rounded capability set" that complements its existing assets.

"We're constantly looking at the future of our business and what spaces we want to play in, and we think that mobile is a very important area that we want to continue to build businesses in–especially taking some of our digital businesses and evolving them into mobile," said Faktor.

Toronto-based Web2Mobile develops campaigns and apps for a wide range of mobile devices including the iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry.

The company recently developed a free app for Random House called Conversation Starters that offers up tidbits from the company's non-fiction books for use at dinner parties.

The app also enables users to read an expanded excerpt from the selected book with a simple click, buy the book online, or use their mobile device's GPS capability to locate the nearest retailer.

Web2Mobile will operate independently of Torstar Digital's other business units and will continue to be led by founder Deborah Hall, who was recently named one of New York-based Mobile Marketer's "Women to Watch" for 2010." The company will report into Torstar Digital's Strategy & New Ventures group.

"We believe very much in having independently run businesses so that they're able to achieve their objectives without having to focus on what one of our other business's objectives are," said Faktor. "Where it makes sense we'll work together, but we think independence is really important."

In her new role, Hall will be charged with helping clients develop both mobile marketing strategies and new revenue models for the mobile space. Throughout her career, Hall has worked with clients including Chapters Indigo, Nike, Diageo, Corus Entertainment, The Weather Network and Cogeco.

Torstar Digital has been busy on the acquisition front in the past year, with recent purchases including Montreal-based travel deal aggregator TravelAlerts.ca and the group buying operation WagJag (a competitor to companies like Groupon and WebPiggy).

"We're definitely in growth mode," said Faktor. "This is a very exciting time to be doing this. The pace at which things are happening now is just so fast."

Transcon gets more mobile with Vortex deal

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/media/article.jsp?content=20101103_150736_9256
Transcontinental this week acquired integrated mobile solutions firm Vortex Mobile.
It's the first major move since September, when the company reported a third-quarter profit of $30.6 million and announced its intentions to make targeted acquisitions in digital technology.
"Every day we work with our customers on analyzing, executing and deploying marketing strategies that are built on personalization and new communication platforms," said Christian Trudeau, president of Transcon's Marketing Communications Sector, in a statement. "The acquisition of Vortex Mobile fits in perfectly with this approach. It will enhance our centre of excellence in mobile marketing solutions and confirm our leading position in the interactive marketing solutions offering."

Vortex Mobile was founded in 2004 and bills its service as one that builds marketing and technology solutions to foster consumer relationships across mobile messaging, mobile Internet, mobile advertising and social media channels.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Vortex's 37 employees will join Transcontinental's Marketing Communications Sector, and Brady Murphy, co-founder and CEO of Vortex Mobile, has been named vice-president, sales and mobile solutions.

"Transcontinental's vision was a key factor in our decision," said Murphy. "Its service offering is very attractive and Transcontinental's management understood the importance of including mobile and social media in their marketing solutions and making it a priority. Vortex customers can now make use of Transcontinental's expertise in campaign metrics and data analytics to optimize their marketing campaigns."

The acquisition continues Trancontinental's move to better position itself across multiple platforms through outside acquisitions. In May, the company bought Montreal-based Lipso Systems Inc. , a developer and marketer of technology that facilitates communications and transactions between organizations and mobile users.

Report: Mobile display ads to quadruple in five years

http://www.abiresearch.com/press/1687-US+Spending+on+Mobile+Display+Ads+Will+Nearly+Quadruple+over+the+Next+Five+Years

While mobile advertising is still a relatively small market, over the next five years spending on mobile display ads in the U.S., estimated at slightly less than $313 million today, will almost quadruple to exceed $1.2 billion in 2015, according to forecasts from ABI Research.

ABI’s study, titled “Mobile Ad Spending,” reported that marketer expenditures in mobile display ad campaigns have been increasing 25% to 30% year over year. Fueling the trend have been such recent commitments to the channel as Google’s acquisition of mobile display company AdMob and Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless, according to ABI.

ABI provided market projections for spending on commercial mobile messaging, mobile display advertising, mobile search, mobile in-application advertising and ad-supported mobile video

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100709/FREE/100709929/1078/newsletter011

Meredith announces acquisition of mobile marketing firm

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100714/MEDIABUSINESS/100719897/1078/newsletter011

Des Moines, Iowa-based Meredith Corp. announced Tuesday that it has completed its acquisition of mobile marketing company the Hyperfactory. Meredith, publisher of Family Circle and Successful Farming, said the acquisition adds to Meredith Integrated Marketing, which offers custom marketing programs to advertisers.

The deal is the latest in a long line of acquisitions by Meredith that includes the purchase of interactive marketing services companies O’Grady Meyers and Genex; viral marketing company New Media Strategies; healthcare marketing communications company Big Communications; and database strategy and analytics company Directive Corp.

“Mobile is a critical part of the marketing portfolio, and its importance is growing at an incredibly rapid rate,” Meredith Integrated Marketing President Martin Reidy said in a statement.

Velti Acquires Media Cannon

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Velti-Acquires-Media-Cannon-LSE-VEL-1270355.htm

Velti a leading global provider of mobile marketing and advertising technology, today announced the acquisition of Media Cannon, Inc. ("Media Cannon"), a developer of mobile advertising tools and technology, for an undisclosed sum.
This acquisition provides Velti with a complementary technology platform and proprietary solutions that enable an even richer mobile advertising and mobile Internet user experience, as well as a series of mobile marketing "post click" interactions. The Media Cannon platform also delivers carrier-class infrastructure, API access, transcoding, support and reporting tools for mobile campaign development, delivery and evaluation.

4info to Buy Butter

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=144584

Butter Acquisition to Spread Mobile Marketing Consolidation
Mobile Text-Message Company 4info to Buy App-Ad Firm, Signaling Industry Shift Toward One-Stop Shops

Butter, a mobile-marketing firm that connects brands and apps for content sponsorships.

With this latest deal, 4info is looking beyond its core business of text messaging, the highest-reach mobile media, to expand into branded apps that have become popular on smartphones such as the iPhone. Mr. Elkin points out that as more phones get access to the internet and smartphones continue to gain market share, investing in app advertising makes sense for a text provider.

4info plans to take its newly acquired app expertise to its 300 brand partners, which include USA Today and other Gannett newspapers, the NBA, Yahoo and Evite. Today, 4info sends nearly one-third of all content-based texts in the U.S., said Ms. Shumaker, adding up up to about 100 million texts per month. Butter, on the other hand, is on track to bring in 5% of app content-sponsorship ad revenue, she said.

"The next frontier is the opportunity within this ecosystem to be a single-source platform that's third-party, meaning agnostic for device, carrier and [operating system]," she said.
The details of the deal were not disclosed. Butter's four employees will join 4info's New York office. The deal is expected to close in July.

IDC identifies 10 hot Canadian wireless and mobile companies

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/agency/article.jsp?content=20100603_164815_10744

The 10 companies featured in the report are:
•Adenyo, a mobile marketing and media provider that delivers solutions for mobile marketing campaigns, with offices in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa
•Clip Mobile, an interactive mobile marketing firm located in Toronto, specializing in location-based mobile coupons
•Common Enterprise, a Toronto-based company that develops software and services to sustain the demand for free flow of information
•Jigsee, a provider of enterprise VOD solutions and rich-media transfers for mobile service providers in emerging markets
•MMB Research, an engineering firm specializing in the adoption of Smart Energy technology
•Neuralitic, Montreal-based specialists in helping clients understand subscriber behaviour and improve marketing initiatives
•Polar Mobile, Toronto-based app experts, helping publishers, brands and advertisers deliver, measure and monetize digital media
•Quickplay, a solutions provider for managing the business of mobile video for service providers and media companies
•Seregon, a mobile enterprise solutions company from Ottawa concerned with providing enterprise mobility solutions
•Telepin Software, an Ottawa-based provider of mobile money transaction programs, delivering mobile financial applications
To be considered for evaluation, companies had to be privately held, with revenue under $20 million, and have fewer than 100 employees.

Mary Meeker: Internet Trends

Mary Meeker presentation on Internet Trends

http://gigaom.com/2010/04/12/mary-meeker-mobile-internet-will-soon-overtake-fixed-internet/

On the social networking side, Meeker’s report notes that social network use is bigger than email in terms of both aggregate numbers of users and time spent, and is still growing rapidly. Social networking passed email in terms of time spent in 2007, hitting about 100 billion minutes/month globally — it’s now twice that — and passed email in terms of raw user numbers in July of 2009, with more than 800 million. Given the rate at which Facebook has been growing, that number is probably now closer to a billion. Meeker attributes social networking’s success to the fact that it’s a “unified communications + multimedia creation tool/repository in your pocket.” And Japan’s experience makes how crucial mobile is to that equation: Mixi, one of the country’s largest social networks, has seen its mobile page views grow to 72 percent of the total from just 17 percent three years ago.

Saatchi Bros. Acquire Mobile Shop

M&C Saatchi on Wednesday agreed to acquire mobile marketing firm Inside Mobile. In turn, the independent ad agency is rebranding as M&C Saatchi Mobile. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=124923

Gartner: Mobile to dominate, Internet marketing at risk

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100115/FREE/100119942/1078/newsletter011

Market research company Gartner is projecting that mobile phones will be the dominant Web access device by 2013, outstripping computers in total units in use.

The research company forecast an installed base of 1.82 billion enhanced phones with browsers three years from now, compared with 1.78 billion computers in use, and warned that companies neglecting to optimize their sites for mobile devices may be at a competitive disadvantage.
“Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2010 and Beyond: A New Balance,” also anticipated that the use of the Internet for marketing purposes will likely become regulated in North America and Europe, and possibly elsewhere, by 2015 due to overuse and abuse by marketers.

“It is not a question of whether marketers will abuse the Internet channel and annoy customers, but rather when they will do so enough to ... push legislation that regulates marketing activities on the Internet,” wrote Gartner analyst Kimberly Collins.

Google Acquires AdMob to Bolster Mobile-Display Business

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=140397
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/technology/companies/10google.html?ref=technology
Deal Called a 'Catalyst' That Could Kick off Consolidation in Ad Sector

In a bid to bolster its toehold in mobile-display advertising, Google is acquiring mobile-advertising network AdMob for $750 million in stock, sparking what could be the beginning of a major consolidation in the mobile-display advertising sector.

Google's strategy to buy rather than build was an admission that it needed outside expertise in display advertising, as it seeks to shore up its brand-building capabilities, creating a parallel mobile marketplace to its recently relaunched DoubleClick display-ad exchange.

"Google's display capabilities were quite weak by comparison to AdMob," said mobile analyst Greg Sterling. "This fills in a missing piece in their mobile strategy and accelerates Google to a leadership position in mobile-display advertising to complement search."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/google-to-buy-mobile-ad-network/article1356728/

AdMob was founded by Omar Hamoui in 2006 while he was still a graduate student at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The company is one of a few mobile advertising start-ups that analysts say have outsmarted the giants of Web advertising and established themselves as leaders in the emerging business. Analysts said that the others, which include JumpTap, Millennial Media and Quattro Wireless, are likely to draw the interest of Google rivals like Microsoft and Yahoo.

AdMob has received $47 million in financing from Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and other investors and has about 140 employees.

Meredith Takes Stake In Mobile Marketing Firm

http://directmag.com/mobile/news/meredith-mobile-hyperfactory-0722/
Meredith Corp. has taken a stake in The Hyperfactory, an independent mobile specialist. The value of the stake was not disclosed.
Mobile is becoming a vital ingredient in integrated marketing campaigns, giving consumers access to brands at key decision points in the purchasing cycle for awareness, consideration and calls to action,” said Wendy Riches, EVP, Meredith Publishing Group, in a statement. who oversees Meredith Integrated Marketing. “The Hyperfactory is the ideal partner for us to help us better serve our partners who are recognizing and seeking to capitalize on this trend.”
The investment enhances the services and capabilities of Meredith Integrated Marketing, the business-to-business unit Riches oversees which provides leading corporations and brands with custom print and online communications for their customers. The investment will not have a material effect on Meredith’s financial performance in fiscal 2010, according to a statement.
Hyperfactory, which was founded in 2001, offers creative initiatives through mobile channels.
“Joining forces with The Hyperfactory provides Meredith Integrated Marketing with access to the fast-growing mobile category and complements our recent acquisitions in the digital marketing space,” says Jack Griffin, president of the Meredith Publishing Group, in a statement. “The Hyperfactory’s capabilities fall directly in line with our strategic goals and present significant opportunities for our business-to-business engagements.”
Since 2006, Meredith Integrated Marketing has added interactive marketing services firms O’Grady Meyers and Genex; viral marketing leader New Media Strategies; healthcare marketing communications specialists Big Communications; and database strategy and analytics experts Directive.

Local Mobile Advertising Gains Traction

Local mobile advertising will be the next hot trend, with local mobile search leading the way, according to BIA's The Kelsey Group.
Local mobile ad revenue will grow to $3.1 billion in 2013, up from $160 million last year, while mobile search will reach $2.3 billion, according to the firm's forecasts. Local searches made up 27.8 percent of all searches in 2008, but are expected to hit 35.1 percent in 2013, according to the report, "Going Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity."
"As mobile data consumption rises, we expect local marketing to be a big winner. There is a strong correlation between local search and the mobile use case, which will cause a good portion of the ongoing mobile application boom to focus on local," Michael Boland, the The Kelsey Group's program director for mobile local media (MLM), said in a statement.
The report says that about 15 percent of all Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone applications are local.
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3824006/Local+Mobile+Advertising+Gains+Traction.htm

10 Things You Need To Know About Mobile

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=95567&Nid=51093&p=296990


The Screens of Power are on a Collision Course
1. The much-touted location-based services (LBS) that marketers dream of leveraging for laser-geo-targeted promotions have not found their own way yet. A small percentage of U.S. phones have GPS built in, and while many more will come to market this year, carriers can't figure out how to price and promote them.
2. According to comScore M:Metrics, in June 2008, 20.8 million U.S. customers and 4.5 million Europeans accessed search services on handsets, up 68 percent and 38 percent respectively from a year ago. And, yes, Google owns it, with 63 percent market share in the United States. Time to get mobile SEO in gear.
3. There will always be room for QWERTY and multitap pads, but touchscreens will flood the phone market. More than iPhone envy, the interface streamlines most mobile Web operations and opens up whole new worlds of application and game creativity.
4. A torrent of inexpensive, turnkey SMS messaging vendors will let anyone develop and launch alerts, coupons and messaging campaigns. But is this good for a nascent platform that still requires expertise and marketer self-discipline to maintain good relations with customers? Mobile agencies might take exception to too much automation too fast.
5. With too many mobile ad networks out there, not enough revenue to support them all, and an economic downturn that threatens everyone's second round of funding, look for accelerated consolidation. Growing the size of the network will be critical to providing media buyers with an easier buy of more reach. Many companies will have to merge or die - some will do both.
6. In categories like weather and sports, consumers are starting to access their key data more often on phones than on the Web. Mobile-only access in some segments will begin to challenge the Internet for mind share. Also-rans on the Web and mobile-only start-ups have an opportunity to stage a march on slow-moving legacy media.
7. Nearly 40 million of us access e-mail on phones, according to Nielsen. As smartphone users triage their messages on a regular basis, publishers are starting to report unexpected numbers of hits to their standard Web sites, evidence that mobilistas do click through on e-mail links. Get the message? E-mail marketers may be the next segment to ponder a strategy for mobile click-throughs.
8. Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile operating systems will offer application storefronts. The opportunities for marketers to create their own branded applications and serve ads into apps will explode. But if the iPhone App Store is any indication, consumers may have to drill through a lot of clutter and garbage to find the gems. Discovery remains mobile's Achilles' heel.
9. The mobile retail experience in ticketing (Amtrak and American Airlines), books (Amazon) and entertainment (Fandango) has improved substantially, and many vendors are surprised by the volume they see already. More consumers will be ready to transfer existing Web loyalties and e-commerce accounts to the mobile platform.
10. Still holding: Look to next year's Survival Guide for clearer signals coming from a number of well-hyped mobile models that won't be ready to complete a call until at least 2010. Social networking has massive page counts but still lacks advertisers and a good format for them. Mobile video and TV have cool technology but slow-growing scale. And all of that wonderful targeting data that carriers keep in their back pockets will probably stay there for quite a while.