My client Tenthwave is profiled in Adweek magazine

Portrait: Tenthwave

Using Facebook's Open Graph, Tenthwave helped give bullies their due By Lucia Moses

 

 Specs
Who (l.-r.) Steve Caputo, managing partner; Drew Rayman, managing partner; Mike Mazar, partner; Eric Schwamberger, partner; Brian Hack, partner. Absent: Rob Kaplan, partner.

What Full-service Digital agency

Where New York office Created out of the merger of Strobe Promotions, RedStapler and Zezza Network, Tenthwave is something of a half-pint of the agency world. So when Facebook decided to develop an anti-bullying app, it seems fitting that they came to Tenthwave. The shop used Facebook’s Open Graph to find people who were most likely to participate, resulting in 1 million signing a Stop Bullying Pledge. Tenthwave went on to do more corporate responsibility work for Facebook, but it was the anti-bullying app managing partner Drew Rayman was most proud of. “I hate bullying,” he said. “I loved the opportunity to punch bullies back and give them a black eye.”

Launch AARP's new digital Hot Deals ad program in DigiDay, Mediapost and Adweek

 

AARP’s Digital Shift

Josh Sternberg 07.01.2012

The AARP is a juggernaut. Nearly 40 percent of all Americans over the age of 50 (nearly 35 million) belong to AARP. At a time when magazines of all stripes are struggling with declining circulation, the Audit Bureau of Circulation has AARP Magazine as the highest-circulated publication with a little more than 22 million readers.

The group is now betting it can muscle further into the digital world – aarp.org received 5.3 million unique visitors in May 2012, up from 4.5 million in May 2011 — with a coupon site called Hot Deals that’s geared to the 79 million Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1965) whose sunset years are on the horizon.

There are currently 13 brands participating in Hot Deals — including Dell, Radio Shack, MLB, GNC, British Airways, The Hartford — which offer AARP members discounts like $5 off a Radio Shack purchase of more than $90 or free shipping on a pair of Dockers. AARP takes a cut of the deals redeemed.

“Most people don’t realize the No. 1 reason people join (AARP) is for discounts,” said Peter Zeuschner, AARP’s senior manager of advertising sales for the northeast region. “We didn’t have a discount platform, so we launched this to allow one place for our members to find different offers.”

The timing might be right. Advertisers are often obsessed with chasing youth, with the idea that their brand preferences aren’t yet set in stone. But older Americans are far more likely to use coupons; according to GfK MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer, compared to those age 18-49, 50+ consumers are 20 percent more likely to use coupons, and 21 percent are more likely to be heavy coupon users. Additionally, Baby Boomers have become extremely Web savvy. According to an April 2012 Pew study, 53 percent of American adults age 65 and older use the Internet or email. According to the AARP, about half of its members are working (full or part time), while the rest spend their days in retirement. And the age breakdowns: 33 percent are under 60, 46 percent between 60 and 74, and 21 percent are over 75.

You might think of the AARP as, excuse the pun, old school. In fact, it has a digital business that many publishers would envy.

Zeuschner claims that over the past four years, aarp.org has experience 30-50 percent growth in revenue. He also said that the site gets “anywhere from $45 CPMs on the homepage and our premium channels are north of $25.” Hot Deals works on guaranteed impressions, making the buy more affordable.

“This is part of an opportunity to allow advertisers to bring these offers to members in a cost-effective way,” Zeuschner said. “Most advertisers have a hard time justifying $45 CPMs.”

According to Zeuschner, average time spent on aarp.org is 29 minutes, indicating that there’s some type of justification for the high CPMs. But with Hot Deals, this is a program that’s an easier point of entry for brands.

“We’re serving two needs: the member need for discounts and the advertiser need to have one place to offer discounts on a performance-based platform,” Zeuschner said. “The one thing [the site] lacked — in terms for members and advertisers – is one area where all sorts of different advertiser discounts can live.”

 

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Brands, Publishers Target 50-Something Crowd

by Laurie Sullivan, Jul 6, 2012, 6:49 PM

The 50+ generation goes online -- and brands and publishers have finally gotten the message. Some, like AARP and Perion, are trying to reach this demographic with deals and gadgets.

AARP launched a Web page on its site specific to Hot Deals, offering brands like Dell, The Hartford, Major League Baseball, and Radio Shack a direct connection to the 50+ crowd. The deals aim to reach AARP's nearly 35 million members -- a majority comprising baby boomers, which Nielsen estimates control $230 billion in sales.

About 74% of all ARRP members sign up looking for discounts, according to Peter Zeuschner, AARP Northeast media sales manager. "The main site generates about 5 million monthly unique visitors," he said. "They spend about 29 minutes on the site."

Zeuschner said the content related to social security issues, technology and health services targeted to the 50+ generation keep visitors on the site. There are more than 20,000 recipes on the site. Many feed between two and four people, rather than three to six.

Founded in 1958, AARP supports nearly 35 million members. Nearly one-third of the members are under age 60, about 46% are between 60 and 74, and 21% are 75 and older.

The key to understanding this demographic resides in recognizing that those who are 50-plus do not fear the Internet or technology, but some need a little convincing and an easy way to access it.

Although 88% of the Americans age 45+ consider themselves slow to adopt technology, research by Perion Network suggests that 85% adopt a new technology when it fits their lifestyle, and 89% will use new technology if it’s better than what they use today.

Perion focuses on software and technology tailored for what Adam Goodvach, director of consumer insight, characterizes as "45+ Second Wave Adopters (SWAs)." He found that this demographic based the decision to adopt or buy specific technology on the practical impact it will have on their lives.

Smartphones may not be the answer for aging adults because of the screen size, but the quick penetration of tablets among Americans age 45 or older offers important clues to the future of mobile services for this demographic. Since this group is willing to embrace technology if presented with a com

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AARP Makes Its Site Safe For Advertisers

Launches new strategy to get ageist marketers in the door By Lucia Moses

  

Older Americans want you to know they’re worth marketers’  time, but apparently everyone hasn't gotten the memo. AARP knows that well, so it’s created a new deals section to entice them to advertise on its site without—God forbid!—being seen by younger consumers.

“Marketers tend to not want to market to 50-plus for some reason,” said Peter Zeuschner, AARP’s Northeast media sales manager. “It gives them the fear of aging their brand.”

A bunch of blue-chip advertisers, including—shhh—Dell, British Airways and Radio Shack—are using the section, called Hot Deals, to test discounts of various kinds. One advertiser, Steve Denton, president of GSI Media, said Hot Deals offered a good way to test ads for the AARP audience using a performance-based model. “You have a large audience of 50-plus that’s online, has tablets, income and time,” he said. Even so, Denton wasn't all that eager to say which of GSI's advertisers are trying out the section via GSI. (For the record, they include GNC and CJ Banks.)

 

Zeuschner said he hoped that the results of Hot Deals would speak for themselves—AARP members have money to spend and are deal-happy—and in so doing, help change attitudes about marketing to older people.

“There’s still a long way to go,” he said. “It’s not like people are banging on the door saying, ‘We need to run more advertising pages in AARP.’”

Execute BrandIndex's ownership of BP's consumer perception story

Experts: BP Will Get Past Crisis

How the company's oil spill is testing the limits of branding

May 10, 2010 [EXCERPT]

Just as BP promotes itself as “Beyond Petroleum,” the company’s ever-widening oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is now beyond branding -- and well into the realm of tragedy. All the same, BP has become a kind of marketing test case, and industry experts are watching the company closely to find out where the limits of brand reimaging lie.

The spill, which could potentially eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez’s in terms of its ecological impact, is at the moment providing an ironic commentary to BP’s green-tinged advertising. The question is: When the present catastrophe is finally over, will BP still be able to claim it’s beyond petroleum, or will the accident mark the end of such positioning in the category and put other would-be green advertisers on notice?

Critics and branding gurus say something that drastic is unlikely, but they’re split on the amount of damage BP is likely to incur. One school of thought is that by declaring itself a thought leader on eco issues, BP raised the stakes with environmentalists and consumers and thus had no further to fall. But some argue that BP’s advertising built up enough brand equity and goodwill to ensure it will win back the public’s trust -- assuming it handles the crisis well. (Reps from BP could not be reached for comment on this story.)

But Ted Marzilli, svp and global managing director for YouGov’s BrandIndex, which polls 5,000 consumers daily about their brand preferences, doesn’t believe BP will suffer at the pump. “I’m not sure somebody drives past a BP station to fill up at Exxon or Shell because they’re angry,” Marzilli said. BrandIndex’s data shows that consumers’ general impression of BP is still positive, even though they’re hearing more bad news about the company.

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Dealbook Column

June 14, 2010

One Crowd Still Loyal to Goldman Sachs

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN [EXCERPT]

Lots of people are talking about what is happening at Goldman Sachs. This is a column about what is not happening at Goldman.

Despite all the bad headlines — the accusations of fraud, the talk of a big settlement, the risk, however remote, of criminal charges — there’s an inconvenient truth that’s been largely ignored: Most of Goldman’s big customers are not bolting.

To the contrary, nearly all of the

m are standing by Goldman, despite come-hither looks from Goldman’s rivals.

What gives? To many people, Goldman has become America’s most reviled engine of capitalism. Even now, as thousands of barrels of oil gush into the Gulf of Mexico every day, people think less of Goldman than they do of BP, according to the BrandIndex daily survey of consumer perceptions conducted by YouGov.

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BP: Now more evil than Goldman Sachs

Jun 23, 2010 16:55 EDT

banking | branding

There will be rejoicing in the corridors of Goldman Sachs tonight: BP has finally overtaken it in the most-loathed company stakes! Yes, Goldman is still plumbing depths rarely seen in the modern era. But BP, even after putting aside $20 billion and grovelling to the president, continues to implode: it’s now hit a level of -47.6 in the latest BrandIndex poll. That’s not far from Toyota’s low point, which was -52.7 at the end of March, but it’s going to be a much harder fight back for BP than it was for Toyota.

It’s amusing to remember that earlier this year BrandZ put out a piece of glossy research saying that the BP brand was the 34th most valuable brand in the world, worth $17.283 billion. (Love the specificity there.) Is it possible for a brand to have negative value? If so, BP has probably achieved that distinction at this point.

Meanwhile, for those of you keeping count, BrandZ put the value of the Toyota brand at $21.769 billion, post-recall, while the Goldman Sachs brand was worth $9.283 billion, up a whopping 25% from 2009. How quickly these things can change.

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BP drilling new depths of unpopularity

Another landmark for BP.

By Jonathan Russell, City Diary Editor
Published: 6:30PM BST 24 Jun 2010

Not how many days the oil leak has been going on – we’re still some way off the century – or how many barrels of oil have been spilt – the estimates are so vague, at anything from 325,000 to 3.2m, it’s hard to pin that one down. No, it’s the race between BP and Goldman Sachs to the bottom of the popularity pile. According to the YouGov’s BrandIndex, BP now has a score of -42.1. Of course I have no idea what that means except that it’s low – and for the first time it’s less than Goldman’s score of -40.3. In fact, it’s so bad that just about the only company that has done worse was Toyota (-52.7) back in the dark days of its car recalls in March. Tsk, that’s just 10 points away from where BP is now and there’s a lot of oil left in that well. It shouldn’t take the company long

Break Google's Round "D" investment in INVIDI Technologies

Google Ups Its TV Bet, Invests in Invidi

by Peter Kafka
Posted on May 5, 2010 at 4:00 AM PT

Google, which is still trying to figure out how to crack the TV business, has invested in a tech firm trying to do the same thing.

The search giant is leading a $23 million series D round in Invidi Technologies, a New York City company that works on “addressable” TV ads. Addressable ads are supposed to target specific viewers, using data from set-top boxes, in the same way that Internet ads sniff out specific Web surfers.

You can see why Google (GOOG) would be interested in this stuff, particularly as it tries to integrate its Android platform with TVs. Shishir Mehrotra, who runs product management for all of Google’s video businesses, will join Invidi’s board.

Addressable ads are a holy grail for the TV business, but they may still be several years away. Invidi, founded in 2000, has completed two market trials to date.

People familiar with the transaction tell me Google has invested between $10 million and $15 million in company in this round, which brings Invidi’s total capital raised above the $85 million mark. Other investors include WPP’s GroupM, Motorola (MOT), Menlo Ventures, InterWest Partners and EnerTech Capital.

Business Insider, which first reported the investment, says the transaction is connected to Google’s ad pact with the Dish satellite network. But I’m told Dish doesn’t factor into the deal.

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Google Invests In Invidi, Addressable TV Play

Posted May 5th, 2010 at 8:14 am by Joe Mandese

GroupM backed addressable TV developer Invidi Technologies Corporation says it just secured over $23 million in a financing led by Google, with GroupM (a unit of holding company WPP), Motorola Ventures, and leading venture capital firms Menlo Ventures, InterWest, and EnerTech as participants.

Google leads the round, which includes a second investment made by GroupM, the world’s largest media investment company, and Motorola, a leading set top box manufacturer. Other participants include repeat investors from INVIDI’s prior rounds of financing: Menlo Ventures, InterWest Partners, EnerTech Capital, Westbury Equity Partners, BDC Capital, and others.

As part of Google’s commitment to this new relationship, Shishir Mehrotra, Director of Product Management for Google TV Ads and YouTube Ads, has joined INVIDI’s board of directors. In addition to its investment in INVIDI, the two companies have agreed to work together on projects of mutual interest that will bring value to INVIDI’s customers.

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Google Leads $23 Million Round In TV Ad Startup Invidi

by Leena Rao on May 5, 2010

TV ad startup Invidi has secured over $23 million in series D funding led by Google, with GroupM, Motorola Ventures, Menlo Ventures, InterWest, and EnerTech Capital, Westbury Equity Partners, BDC Capital participating in the round. The Business Insider broke the news yesterday evening.

Invidi provides software applications that track targeted advertising and offers a digital set-top box application that delivers targeted advertising and marketing messages to individual viewers. The technology also facilitates the sales of digital products, digital tiers, and digital services, such as VOD, PVR, and pay-per-view events; Internet, voice, and wireless services; and triple play offers.

In conjunction withe the funding, Shishir Mehrotra, Director of Product Management for Google TV Ads and YouTube Ads, has joined Invidi’s board of directors. In addition to its investment in Invidi, Google has committed to working with the startup on a number of products relating to TV advertising. Of course, it is expected that Invidi’s technology could be integrated with Google’s development of an Android-based software for TVs.

Founded in 2000, Invidi currently has distribution agreements with Dish Network and DirecTV. Invidi’s technology was recently tested in Comcast’s Baltimore, MD, system with Starcom MediaVest, and the trial showed addressable ads to be 65% more efficient and 32% more effective.

Google just shared updates on its venture arm, Google Ventures, and announced additional investments in mobile payments startup Corduro.

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Invidi Technologies Gets $23 Million Fourth Round From Google, GroupM

TV ad targeter Invidi Technologies has netted a huge

$23 million fourth round led by Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and WPP media unit GroupM. When WPP first invested in Invidi almost three years ago, its backing of the Princeton, NJ-based ad delivery system was considered a way to blunt Google’s moves into TV ad targeting. Now, the partnership can be seen as a way for Google to speed up its efforts in that area, which have been fairly slow-going.

As part of Google’s involvement, Shishir Mehrotra, Director of Product Management for Google TV Ads and YouTube Ads, has joined Invidi’s board. In addition to its investment in Invidi, the two companies have “agreed to work together on projects of mutual interest that will bring value to Invidi’s customers,” though no specifics were provided.

In addition to WPP, Motorola (NYSE: MOT), which participated in the last funding, also returned. Other backers in this latest round included Menlo Ventures, InterWest, EnerTech, Westbury Equity Partners, BDC Capital, and others.

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Google Invests in Invidi

The firm develops addressable TV technology

May 5, 2010

- Steve McClellan

Google is the lead investor in a new $23 million round of financing for addressable technology firm Invidi, the companies confirmed today.

It's the first time the search engine giant has invested in Invidi, which specializes in systems that enable TV ad sellers to distribute ads to select groups of viewers, down to the individual household level. Google began selling TV ads several years ago and has indicated in recent months that it remains committed to that business, both through Google TV Ads and subsidiary YouTube.

The companies already share a common connection: Dish Network. Google TV Ads has an ongoing arrangement to sell Dish inventory, while Dish is participating in a trial of Invidi's ad delivery system.

Other investors in the financing round include WPP's GroupM, set-top box maker Motorola and venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, InterWest and EnerTech. It's the second investment made by GroupM in Invidi.

"Google and GroupM share our vision that addressability will transform television advertising by increasing effectiveness and eliminating wasted reach," said Invidi CEO David Downey. "They want to play an active role in shaping this revolution."

As a result of the investment, Shishir Mehrotra, director of product management for Google TV Ads and YouTube Ads, has joined Invidi's board of directors.

In addition, the two companies said they would work together on "unspecified projects of mutual interest." The companies declined to identify the projects at this time.

"Invidi Technologies is actively advancing the growth of addressable technologies, which brings more relevance to TV viewership and advertising," Mehrotra said. "We're happy to join Invidi's investors, and we're looking forward to seeing continued progress in this space."

GroupM CEO Irwin Gotlieb, who also sits on the Invidi board, said about the new funding: "GroupM strongly believes that addressable technology and advanced advertising functionality are critical to the future of television and other media." As an industry leader in the buying and planning of TV ad time, he said, "we have a responsibility to our clients to act as a catalyst on all developments in this arena, and our continued investment in Invidi reflects this objective."

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MULTICHANNEL NEWS: "Google Takes Stake in Targeted-Ad Firm Invidi"
CLICKZ: "Google Takes Another Step Into TV Ads With Startup Investment"
NEWTEEVEE: "Google Boosts TV Ads With Invidi Investment"
VATOR.TV: "Invidi Lands $23 Million From Google"
SOFTPEDIA: "Google Invests In TV Ad Startup Invidi"
ELECTRONISTA: "Google hints at TV set-tops, funds Invidi"
WEB PRO NEWS: "Google Leads Invidi Technologies Funding Round"

Break INVIDI Technologies addressable ad trial results in Adweek, Advertising Age, B&C

Car Ads That Are Served Just to Car Buyers? It's in the Works

As More Digital Media Run Video, Addressable TV Is Nearer Than Ever to Being a Reality. But There Are Still Hurdles

By Brian Steinberg

Published: February 15, 2010

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Marketers have long dreamed of a day when they can stop blasting ads out to the world at large, and instead send TV commercials for Pampers, Chevrolet and Barbie dolls only to those people in the market for diapers, a new car or a child's toy.

Though so-called addressable advertising has been proclaimed for years as their holy grail, advertisers have continued to face a host of technology issues and resistance against moving away from older ways of doing business. Now, however, as more digital media are able to run video, there's a lot more impetus for the TV industry to push the process. By providing a method to beam ads to smaller groups of consumers who are more likely to be interested in the product or service being promoted, TV networks and cable operators hope to bring back dollars to the medium that have begun drifting away from it.

"Pieces are starting to fall into place," said Tracey Scheppach, senior VP-innovations director at Starcom MediaVest's SMGX unit.

Results of some recent tests are promising, despite the hurdles. And there are many: Companies are wary of making consumers feel they are giving up private data about themselves; current technology uses data from set-top boxes and demographic information to make sure the right ads get to the proper households. Creating a uniform process that would allow these ads to be distributed nationally remains a work in process, owing to the fact that the cable, satellite and telecommunications concerns whose content-distribution pipes make the technology function often have very individual ways of making things work. And there's still no set way for advertisers to purchase this new format from TV networks.

"If the long-term goal is reinventing broadcast advertising, then that can't be done instantaneously," said Michael Kubin, exec VP, Invidi Technologies, one of the companies that offers technology for creating addressable advertising. He compared the timeline of making addressable advertising market-ready to being in the early days of the U.S. space program. Indeed, Comcast, one of the concerns conducting tests of the technology, doesn't see it becoming available in widespread fashion for another two to three years.

The future
Comcast Spotlight, the ad-sales unit owned by Comcast Corp., and Starcom MediaVest Group, the media-buying unit of France's Publicis Groupe, have completed a second test of technology that delivers different ads to different households, and they say the ads in both cases have proved to be about one-third more effective in keeping audiences from tuning them out. They also believe the time is drawing nigh for discussions about creating a business model around the new ad format.

"We definitely believe that a hyper-targeted approach is going to be a big part of the future of television," said Michael Bologna, director-emerging communications at Group M, the media-buying operation whose parent, WPP, has stakes in technology concerns that are helping to develop addressable technology. "There are many different definitions in the industry of what addressable is and how it should work, and there are a bunch of trial initiatives that are going on, and there are some other initiatives that will become available within the current year." WPP has a stake in Invidi Technologies Corp., which assisted Comcast and Starcom MediaVest.

The Comcast test, performed in Baltimore, sent different ads -- all during th

e same commercial break on specific cable networks -- to different groups of households, all based on demographic data and a particular advertiser's desired audience. About 60,000 households were reached, and Walgreen's and Walmart, two SMG clients, took part in the trial.

The parties determined that viewers who see ads directed to a specific group of households were less likely to change channels. Homes that received these addressable ads tuned away 32% less than homes that saw a normal group of commercials. The parties also say that sending ads only to relevant groups of consumers is 65% more efficient in terms of eliminating undesirable audience than sending ads en masse, citing their analysis of costs for purchasing both addressable and non-addressable ad inventory.

The Baltimore test follows one Comcast and SMG conducted that began in Huntsville, Ala. In that trial, homes receiving addressable advertising tuned away 38% less of the time available than homes that received non-addressable advertising. Comcast and SMG say the test also demonstrated that sending ads only to relevant groups was 56% mo

re efficient than sending regular ads out to the whole population, based on the costs per spot for addressable and non-addressable ads.

Lessons learned
The trials have helped their backers learn a great deal of information about making the ads palatable to consumers. In order to get viewers to respond, said Andrew Ward, VP-president of strategic initiatives, Comcast Spotlight, "You need to have a well-defined segment of audience and you need a creative unit that matches up to that well-defined segment." With consumers concerned about privacy -- after all, set-top box data and location-based demographic information play a role in this technology -- Comcast notified all consumers in the trial area in advance and offered multiple ways to opt out, including mailing a form in a self-addressed, stamped envelope; calling a dedicated, toll-free hotline; or completing an online form.

When it comes to consumer privacy, "we need to proceed cautiously," Mr. Ward said, adding that approximately 6% of subscribers in Baltimore notified of the trial asked to opt out of it.

And while addressable ads can be used by say, Ford, to reach a person when they are in the market for a car, it's not actually being done yet. "The technology is designed to be able to overlay any database, proprietary or public, onto a market and target accordingly, much in the same way as it's done by direct-mail advertisers," said Mr. Kubin. "So if a database lists households whose auto leases will expire in the next six months, automotive advertisers can target those. But remember, and this is very important, that this capability is not currently being deployed anywhere."

Nor is another widely discussed capability of addressable ads yet being employed: the ability to target spots to individual household members. "The technology is designed to 'infer' or 'guess' who is interacting with an individual set-top box. These inferences can then be used to send the appropriate TV spots to each set-top box," said Mr. Kubin. "So if a male is watching football in the living room and a female is watching the same game in the bedroom, and the inference engine does its job properly, the male will see a truck ad while the woman will see one for perfume."

Addressable ads are becoming all the more important to advertisers as web and mobile technologies become easier to for marketers to track from initial push to an actual purchase. "We do need to get smarter about how we use TV, because, at least for me, it is still the majority of my media spend," said Jeanne Hanahan, senior media director at Mattel. "There's an awful lot of room for us to get better at how we spend that money. Addressable is very attractive to me. If I can specifically get to households with moms with children, that's a huge win."

Costs and savings

Advertisers are starting to come up with ways to solve some of the issues raised by this new technology. Ms. Hanahan believes addressable ads may require marketers to pay a premium, but thinks there could still be a cost savings as advertisers spend less overall, knowing their commercials are reaching more likely purchasers of their goods. She also sees a need for increased production; advertisers will likely have to create a range of spots for the different audiences they will be pitching.

Look for addressable-advertising proponents to work with bigger swaths of consumers and larger content distributors in the days ahead, as well as talk to TV networks about what sort of business will form around this new format. "Once we cover that base, I think you'll see a more rapid deployment," said Comcast's Mr. Ward.

Another factor at play: Comcast's coming purchase of a majority stake in NBC Universal. Owning both a means of distributing the addressable ads as well as the networks that would run them could "accelerate rapidly" the ability to deploy them, Mr. Ward said. But the deal faces months of regulatory approval. Until the deal's completion, he added, the focus will likely be on making certain the technology's functions and getting consumers to accept it.

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Baltimore Addressable Ad Trial Shows Efficiency,

Improved Relevance

Second Starcom, Comcast Spotlight test with INVIDI's Advatar technology shows 32% less tune-away

By David Tanklefsky -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/17/2010 10:42:04 AM

Analysis of the second Starcom MediaVest and Comcast Spotlight addressable advertising trial in Baltimore shows that addressability by household improves ad relevance and tune-in, according to the companies.

Information from anonymous set-top box data from the 60,000 households found that, overall, homes receiving addressable advertising tuned away 32% less of the time than homes receiving non-addressable advertising. Based on per-spot costs of both addressable and non-addressable ads, the trial showed a 65% greater efficiency from sending ads only to relevant groupings the advertiser wanted to reach. The trial delivered ads through INVIDI's Advatar addressable technology.

"Our partnership with Comcast Spotlight over the past three years has proven to be invaluable as we seek to shape and advance the future of TV advertising to be more accountable and measurable," said Tracey Scheppach, senior VP and innovations director at SMGX, a unit of Starcom MediaVest. "The more experience we gain with addressable advertising, the more excited we are regarding its potential to transform TV."

In addition to the Baltimore trial, completed in 2009, Comcast Spotlight and Starcom held a technical trial of 8,000 households in Huntsville, Ala., from 2006-2008. The two trials delivered thousands of ads across participating cable networks. Comcast worked with Experian Marketing Service and Kantar Media (formerly TNS Media Research) in connection with the trial. Major marketers participating included Walgreen's and Walmart.

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SMG, Comcast Test New Ad Technology

Feb 18, 2010

-By Steve McClellan, Adweek

Publicis Group’s Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) and Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, disclosed some key findings from their most recent market trial of addressable advertising technology, completed in Baltimore in 2009.

The trial used technology from Invidi to deliver different ads within the same commercial breaks on selected cable networks to different household groupings, based on segmentation data provided by data-management firm Experian.

The addressable TV ads reduced ad skipping by almost a third (32 percent) compared to homes that didn’t receive the targeted spots during the trial, the trial participants said.

Five advertisers participated in the trial, two of whom were identified: Walmart and Walgreen’s.

While viewers zapped fewer ads, advertisers gained 65 percent efficiency from the addressable spot buys compared to the traditional spot purchases, per those conducting the test. According to Michael Kubin, evp, Invidi, “It was 65 percent more efficient to buy an addressable spot to reach the advertiser's true audience, even factoring into the calculation a premium for the seller.” And that efficiency, he said, “on a national basis creates billions of dollars in the TV marketplace per year.”

Commenting on the results, Rex Conklin, senior director of media at Walmart, said the company “remains committed to challenging the marketplace to improve our ability to deliver the right message at the right time and place to our shoppers. Our addressability work with the Comcast and SMG trials today will result in more effective and efficient advertising tomorrow."

Comcast Spotlight and Starcom executives also said they were pleased with the results.

The Baltimore trial was the second test of household addressability conducted by Comcast Spotlight and SMG. A technical trial involving approximately 8,000 households was conducted in Huntsville, Ala., from 2006-08, with addressable technology from OpenTV. The Baltimore test, which included 60,000 households, ran from January 2009 to June 2009.

“In our view,” said Kubin, “this is a ‘proof of technology’ stage, meaning that it takes our software out of the lab and into the real marketplace with sixty thousand households. So now we know that works.” Next steps, he said, include pitching the technology to additional distributors such as satellite and telecommunications providers, as well as “continuing to add features that make broadcast advertising more targeted, more precise and more effective.”

Co-write, edit and place quadrantONE CEO Andy Ellenthal's op-ed in Adweek/Mediaweek/Brandweek

Local Target Practice

Sept 27, 2009

-By Andy Ellenthal

If you’ve ever bought or sold cable advertising, you know that local cable is more expensive—albeit much more targeted—than national cable. In a previous life, working with television media marketers, I routinely fielded the question: “Can I buy run of network nationally but target my creative locally?” And my answer was always the same: “Not yet.”

Fortunately, buyers don’t have to put up with that response anymore—thanks to online display advertising. With it, you can buy what you wish: a market, an audience, a context, etc. Generally, we can tell where a user is coming from via their IP, their registration data, their preferences or the site’s geographic footprint.

This has left me wondering, with all this data just waiting to be used, why aren’t more marketers buying nationally and targeting locally? Can anyone argue that a relevant message would be any less effective?

According to an Oct. 2008 study by Sterling Market Intelligence, zeroing in on local customers is more appealing than ever. The firm’s research shows that nearly half of the national advertisers surveyed were pursuing online local advertising, and more than 40 percent were dedicating at least a quarter of their online marketing budget to local targeting.

Geotargeting online is a simple way for advertisers to take advantage of the efficiency that comes with a large footprint buy, while increasing the creative power of being able to reach an audience directly with your message. The campaigns that work best are ones that promote geographic-appropriate products: lawn chairs in Phoenix, say, or snow blowers in Boston.

For those who fear that local targeting means fragmenting the message, remember that an ad can maintain overall brand consistency even as it promotes specific, relevant merchandise. Some of the more inspired creative ideas I’ve seen involve the use of automated tools to serve up perfectly targeted messaging. For example, a geographically relevant campaign serves one message to an urban user and another to a suburban one.
The latter may prefer a lawn mower where the former needs a storage unit. Different needs, tailored messaging, same brand.

Car advertisers are adept at creating ads that keep a real-time count of a local seller’s inventory, which works as a beautiful psychological come-on. Then there’s what I like to call “barometer ads”—retail ads that link up weather systems to sell umbrellas on rainy days, sunscreen on bright days, bathing suits on hot days and chicken soup when the temperature drops.

Some of these tactics are so obvious, you wonder why you never thought of them before. Take, for instance, strategic mapping to a user’s location; think a cruise company buying nationally, but driving traffic to the closest ports of call. How sharp is it when an area insurance agent uses mapping to send users to the nearest event or location to increase foot traffic?

It’s been my experience that direct-response advertisers have been the best early adopters of the Web’s targeting capabilities. The true experts have been the dating sites. They have managed to take the local-targeting technique to the next level by buying wide yet keeping the message granular. One no longer needs to worry that a “local single” will turn out to live in New Jersey when your ad clearly specifies “singles with the 212 area code.” (Talk about geographically desirable!)

While the possibilities are infinite, there is always an opportunity cost. However, new automation tools and technologies can help streamline the creative process. I am continuously impressed at the level of relevancy and engagement that ad units are able to provide when they combine a strong database and breakthrough creative with the right media.

The result is greater efficiency for advertisers to produce more relevant messages—a win for consumers and brands alike.

Andy Ellenthal is CEO of quadrantOne, which offers exclusive ad inventory of premium local news and information sites on a national scale.

I break BrandIndex's research on AT&T losing consumer favor in Adweek, Mediapost, ZDNet, AppleInsider, MacDailyNews

AT&T consumer perception drops during summer '09

Despite rumors that Apple may be looking into extending its contract with AT&T, consumer perception for the carrier has dropped lower than it has all year.

In a comparison of Verizon Wireless and AT&T consumer perception among adults 18 and older, goodwill toward AT&T has dropped precipitously compared to rival Verizon, according to daily YouGov BrandIndex data.

Urban iPhone overload and data outages during the summer season may be to blame.

BrandIndex measures “consumer perception” by averaging scores in response to questions about the quality, value, satisfaction, recommendation, reputation and impression of a brand.

AT&T has always lagged behind Verizon Wireless, but the gap began widening noticeably in mid-June, according to the data. Between June 16 and Sept. 10, AT&T’s Index score dropped from 18.3 to 14.6, “a substantial drop for this kind of score,” a BrandIndex spokesman said.

Verizon’s score dropped less than two points’ worth in the same time period.

Drops in quality (”Is it high quality or low quality?”) and recommend (”Would you recommend the brand to a friend?”) scores contributed to the overall drop, according to the spokesman.

YouGov’s BrandIndex interviews 5,000 people each weekday from a representative U.S. population sample. Respondents are drawn from an online panel of more than 1 million individuals. Margin of error is +/- 2 percent.

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AT&T IPhone Data Woes Depress Perception

For AT&T, the benefit of success that comes as the exclusive carrier of the iPhone may very well also be a burden.

Amid press reports that AT&T's network is having trouble keeping up with its customers' data usage (directly related to the iPhone adoption), company perception among adults has dropped steadily over the summer, according to YouGovPolimetrix's BrandIndex, which measures daily consumer perception of brands.

"There's been a significant amount of high-profile press in the past couple of weeks about AT&T's data problems," Ted Marzilli, CEO of YouGovPolimetrix, tells Marketing Daily. "There's no question it implies that there are some serious concerns for AT&T and Apple as they consider [extending the exclusivity of] the iPhone."

According to the company, AT&T's "Index" score (which is the average of its Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Recommendation, Reputation and Impression scores) has been dropping since mid-June. On June 16, the company's Index score was 18.3. By Sept. 10, it had dropped to 14.6. (By comparison, Verizon Wireless' score on Sept. 10 was 21.2, about the same as it was at the beginning of the year.) The company's biggest score drops were on the Quality and Recommend scales, suggesting that stories addressing data outages were having an effect on company perception.

"I think there's still only a small number of people who've given up the iPhone and AT&T," Marzilli says. "I think there's a larger number of people who want to buy an iPhone, but are hesitating because of these problems with AT&T's data coverage."

In the meantime, some damage control may be in order for AT&T [such as] putting together a plan to tell the public how they're going to address the problem and a timeline for putting it into place, Marzilli says. "AT&T has to work very, very hard to make sure those [iPhone] subscribers are profitable and happy, particularly before the exclusivity agreement runs out. Because once they leave, it's going to be very hard to get them back."

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Study shows steady decline in AT&T brand perception

Since the launch of the iPhone 3GS, public perception of AT&T has progressively decreased, while opinions about competitor Verizon Wireless remained relatively unchanged, a new study shows.

In a daily survey of 5,000 people 18 and older, YouGov's BrandIndex tracks companies based on factors of quality, value, satisfaction, recommendation, reputation and impression. When combining those categories, AT&T's index score of 18.3 on June 16 had eroded to a 14.6 on Thursday -- a change company senior vice president Ted Marzilli told AppleInsider is "statistically significant."

He said the survey could indicate that some people may pause before they buy an iPhone because they don't want to be locked into an AT&T contract. Though he believes the contract between AT&T and Apple has likely been beneficial to both parties for the last two years, the timing of AT&T's public perception decline suggests the

issue can be traced to the launch of the iPhone 3GS -- or, more specifically, the network's inability to meet the bandwidth needs of users with the device.

"It may be hindering iPhone adoption at this point," Marzilli said, "and I think Apple is going to take a hard look at what they will do next."

AT&T has always been perceived as an inferior brand to Verizon Wireless in the index rankings. However, it was in mid-June that the gap between the two companies began to widen. Though AT&T's 14.6 score in overall feedback remains relatively positive, it still lags behind well behind Verizon in consumer perception. In the last three months, AT&T's biggest hits came in the quality and recommendation rankings.

"AT&T can come out with its initiatves and its announcements, but the problem is people on the Web are starting to blog about their problems with the AT&T network," Marzilli said. "It's a bit of a snowball effect."

While the study found AT&T's score to consistently drop over the last three months, Verizon has stayed much the same as it was in January. Its Sept. 10 score was 21.2. Scores can range from 100 to -100. A score of zero would mean equal positive and negative feedback.

The BrandIndex rankings sample a representative portion of the U.S. population. The company said it conducts more than 1.2 million interviews

per year from an online panel of more than one million individuals. The company said its survey's margin of error is +/- 2 percent.

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Report: iPhone Adoption Uncovers AT&T's Flaws

NEW YORK While it was certainly a coup for AT&T to get the exclusive rights to the Apple iPhone, the agreement hasn't been entirely positive for the wireless giant. Consumers who flocked to AT&T to use the device were disappointed with the quality of the service, according to new findings from YouGov's BrandIndex.

AT&T's perception among adults over the age of 18 has steadily eroded throughout the summer, while Verizon Wireless has retained its standing, per an online poll of 5,000 consumers.

Consumers were asked to rate quality, value, satisfaction, recommendation, reputation and impression to generate an overall index score. Thanks to drops in the quality ("Is it high quality or low quality?") and recommendation ("Would you recommend the brand to a friend?") rankings, AT&T's index score fell to 14.6 as of Sept. 10. That was down from 18.3 on June 16 and is considered a substantial drop for this type of index, per YouGov.

"For AT&T, it's beginning to look like a case of 'be careful what you wish for' with its overloaded network and dropped calls," said YouGov svp Ted Marzilli. "While there are no other options for iPhone users, BlackBerry's new ultra-competitive products and two-for-one deals at Verizon Wireless may make both Apple and AT&T vulnerable to 'iPhone flown.'"

Verizon Wireless' index score on Sept. 10 was 21.2, which is consistent with its rankings throughout the year.

AT&T rep Jenny Bridges said the survey is off base. "We continue to have low churn rates, which can be attributed to the fact that our customers are pleased with the services we're providing them," she said. "We care about the experience customers have with AT&T. That's why we continue to invest billions of dollars a year in making network improvements, including the continued launch of our 3G wireless services in markets across the U.S. and the launch of HSPA 7.2 in six major markets by the end of this year."

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AT&T brand perception steadily declines as Apple iPhone taxes network capabilities

"Since the launch of the iPhone 3GS, public perception of AT&T has progressively decreased, while opinions about competitor Verizon Wireless remained relatively unchanged, a new study shows," Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.

MacDailyNews Take: For the umpteenth time: Take those 10+ million U.S. iPhones off AT&T and plop them on Verizon and watch AT&T satisfaction soar (especially in metro areas) and Verizon come to a grinding halt. No carrier, including Verizon's, is ready for 10+ million devices that are actually used for serious data consumption. Verizon's network accommodates inferior devices that only sip data in comparison to iPhone due to their unusable web browsers (if they even have them) and generally indecipherable user interfaces which, only benefits the carrier as they get to sell phones on features that most people will never use. The iPhone's ease-of-use (snap a photo or even shoot a video and send it over AT&T's network to wherever; robust, real Web Browsing; data-consuming apps which include streaming video over 3G, etc.) combined with the vast, rapidly-growing number of iPhones would cripple any carrier. If AT&T can't get a handle on it, Apple would do well to reconsider their exclusive U.S. arrangement and spread the wealth - and the data consumption - to other carriers, as soon as (technically and legally) possible.

Hughes continues, "In a daily survey of 5,000 people 18 and older, YouGov's BrandIndex tracks companies based on factors of quality, value, satisfaction, recommendation, reputation and impression. When combining those categories, AT&T's index score of 18.3 on June 16 had eroded to a 14.6 on Thursday... [YouGov's senior vice president Ted Marzilli] "suggests the issue can be traced to the launch of the iPhone 3GS -- or, more specifically, the network's inability to meet the bandwidth needs of users with the device."

"While the study found AT&T's score to consistently drop over the last three months, Verizon has stayed much the same as it was in January," Hughes reports. "Its Sept. 10 score was 21.2. Scores can range from 100 to -100. A score of zero would mean equal positive and negative feedback."

More info in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: No wireless network was ready for Apple's revolution which brought 10+ million of devices that actually use copious amounts of data coming online within a few short years. Of course, AT&T is struggling with it. Any network would. Especially in the U.S. where the land mass is huge and the terrain varied. Suffice to say, it's much easier to properly cover Belgium*, for just one example (hold the emails, we love Belgium, send beer instead!), than the entire United States of America. AT&T is somewhat unfairly paying the price in perception when any wireless carriers' network would show similar strains. As usual, Apple is pushing forward, disrupting the status quo. It's not pretty, for AT&T especially, but Apple has caused a paradigm shift in mobile computing and more rapid mobile network improvements will come from it.

All that said, the market will take care of this by either forcing overwhelmed AT&T to keep the pedal to the metal and press even harder if they want to keep U.S. iPhone exclusivity or, if AT&T's can't or won't rapidly improve their network capacity/coverage, causing Apple to pursue a non-exclusive U.S. carrier strategy lest iPhone sales and brand perception begin to suffer.

* Belgium is about about the size of the state of Maryland.

I break quadrantONE's pact with Politico in Mediapost, Mediaweek/Adweek and PaidContent.org

Politico Joins Quadrant One

QuadrantOne -- the online ad sales network launched last year by Gannett Co., Hearst Corp., The New York Times Co., and Tribune Co. -- has added Politico as its first national affiliate.

QuadrantOne is owned by its four founding companies, but has actively sought affiliate partners to create a larger pool of online ad inventory for national advertisers.

QuadrantOne reaches well over 20 major markets and over a dozen smaller ones, with a network of newspaper and broadcast sites.

Politico.com is expected to add 6.3 million unique monthly visitors to quadrantONE's existing base of some 47 million.

"Politico augments our story to marketers, showing that we do have a legitimate national offering," said QuadrantOne CEO Andy Ellenthal. "And, on their own, it might not necessarily be in Politico's wheelhouse to get more consumer focused advertisers that we work with."

To simplify the buying process for large brand advertisers, QuadrantOne recently created a centralized pool of standardized ad units from newspapers nationwide, which can then be sold off in blocks.

QuadrantOne recently reached a similar partnership with The Associated Press. Ellenthal predicted the company will announce two or three more such deals before the end of the year.

The partnership comes amid solid growth in usership of online news resources. According to Nielsen Online, in January the number of monthly unique visitors to newspaper Web sites increased 7.9 million to 74.8 million, a jump of 11.9% over the same month in 2008.

Per the same measurements, 44% of all Web users visited newspaper Web sites in January, an increase of 7.3% over January 2008. The number of page views generated increased 15.4% to 3.7 billion.

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quadrantONE Strikes Affiliate Pact with Politico

quadrantONE, the fledgling online-advertising-focused joint venture between Hearst Corporation, The New York Times Company, Gannett Co. Inc., and the Tribune Co., has signed on Politico as its latest affiliate partner.

Going forward, the year-old company will begin packaging Politico.com’s six million-plus unique users with its 340 or so local news sites to national advertisers, selling display and video ads on the site. With the addition of Politico’s audience, quadrantONE’s network now reaches 45 million unique monthly users in total, according to CEO Andy Ellenthal—more than double the reach of a year ago when the company first entered the market.

quadrantONE was originally founded in February of last year as a means to create clout for local newspaper and information sites that typically don’t have the resources or relationships to target national ad dollars.

The concept was to package premium ad placements for national brands across multiple sites at once, rather than selling remnant ad inventory as many networks do. “The reason why we exist is to create efficiency in reaching out to national advertisers,” said Ellenthal. “Buyers don’t want to deal with hundreds of sites, and most local sites don’t have the scales or resources to target them.”

According to Ellenthal, for Politico—which also manages its own ad network—the affiliation with quadrantONE is aimed at helping the site expand beyond its core political-junkie-targeting ad base. “Politico has strength in certain categories like advocacy groups, which we don’t touch,” he said. “This is about bring advertisers that might not have considered Politico on its own. Like national autos for example. We’re already there. For these consumer advertisers that like news, Politico now becomes a natural fit.”

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Interview: Andy Ellenthal, CEO Of quadrantONE, On The Alliance’s Move Beyond Newspapers

The national online ad sales alliance quadrantONE, long an ad network for newspapers, is slowly branching out. Recently, it signed up D.C.-focused news site Politico as its latest member. The deal just covers not just the Politico site itself, but its entire 60-member ad network, which includes The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Denver Post, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer as well as Reuters. While Politico technically operates a small newspaper—it’s free with a circ of about 25,000 in the Capitol Hill area and comes out three days a week when Congress is in session—the addition of the site to its client roster is seen as a way of quadrantONE broadening its reach beyond traditional dailies.

I talked with Andy Ellenthal, the former DoubleClick exec who became quadrantONE’s CEO nearly a year ago, about the move beyond newspaper websites, why some people still confuse quadrantONE with the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium, and how the latter half of this year is looking for the ad-sales alliance. The Q&A begins after the jump

paidContent: Yahoo’s alliance is more about driving a two-way flow of local and national online content and ad sales. quadrantONE has always tried to position itself as strictly national in terms of ad sales. Does the introduction of Politico and its newspaper sites heighten or soften that position?

Ellenthal: The reason we exist is to pull the content together in a way that’s appealing for national advertisers. We’re competing on the national level against Yahoo News and CNN. That’s where Politico adds an extra layer of content and greater attractiveness for users and national advertisers. We do kind of get bucketed into this local ad sales playing field—and we will do spot buys if an insurance company, for example, wants the 25 top markets. But we want to be competitive across the entire national platform. Everything else is extra.

PC: The company opened its doors in February 2008 and you came on in July. Even though you don’t have much to compare it to, how have been affected by the pullback in ad spending?

AE: If I had a five-year track record, things might look differently. The reality is, we’ve had this platform turned on for a year and our salesforce has been around in a full capacity only since Q3. So every month is actually an improvement. Even the auto advertisers, which includes General Motors and Ford, continue to be one of our largest categories, along with retail, travel, insurance and casual dining. Packaged goods in an area that we expect to grow, despite the lingering recession. We want to be in a position where we have a good blend of advertisers and where we’re not overly dependent on one or even a small handful of categories.

In August and September, financial services was looking like that was going to be a particularly important area for us. But with the collapse of the financial markets last year, that quickly turned south. If we had been betting solely on that, that could have been a problem. But we never went that route. Still, we do want to be ready for when the financial sector comes back.

PC: The companies that helped create quadrantONE—Tribune Company, Gannett (NYSE: GCI), Hearst Newspapers and NYTCo (NYSE: NYT)— have spent the past year making deep spending cuts. Have the challenges affecting those companies begun to impact quadrantONE?

AE: I can’t talk about the company’s financials, but being small—we employ fewer than 30 staffers—certainly helps. As far as our backers are concerned, right now, it’s about demonstrating traction in the marketplace and bringing new advertisers to our affiliates. We are self-sufficient in so many ways and we’re not dependent on someone else’s services to operate our business. That said, we have no plans to hire additional staff until at least 2010. We had been doing a fair bit of hiring up to this point. But it’s not just the economy; I never liked to hire after June anyway. It’s hard to take in employees as you get into Q3 and Q4, as things get busier and it’s harder to make sure people get absorbed into the company in the best way. And we’re pretty set right now as it is.

quadrantONE's national deal with AP Mobile on Mediapost, Adweek and paidcontent

QuadrantOne Lands Ad Deal With The AP



QuadrantOne -- the online ad sales network launched last year by Gannett Co., Hearst Corp., The New York Times Co., and Tribune Co. -- today is expected to announce a partnership with The Associated Press to handle ad sales across the new service's digital platforms, including its mobile news portal, APNews.com, and various AP News apps.

QuadrantOne is owned by its four founding companies, but has actively sought affiliate partners to create a larger pool of online ad inventory for national advertisers. "QuadrantOne's understanding of the newspaper market makes them a logical partner," said Jeffrey Litvack, general manager of mobile and emerging products at AP.

AP News launched in May 2008 as the first product released by AP's Digital Cooperative, an initiative aimed at finding new digital outlets for news and information produced by AP members. Monthly traffic for AP Mobile has since exceeded 38 million page views.

QuadrantOne reaches well over 20 major markets and over a dozen smaller ones, with a network of newspaper and broadcast sites representing over 70 million unique monthly visitors. Now, QuadrantOne CEO Andy Ellenthal is setting his sights on the nascent world of mobile content. "AP Mobile is just the beginning of our expansion," Ellenthal said.

To simplify the buying process for large brand advertisers, QuadrantOne recently created a centralized pool of standardized ad units from newspapers nationwide, which can then be sold off in blocks.

The partnership comes amid solid growth in usership of online news resources. According to Nielsen Online, in January the number of monthly unique visitors to newspaper Web sites increased 7.9 million to 74.8 million, a jump of 11.9% over the same month in 2008.

Per the same measurements, 44% of all Web users visited newspaper Web sites in January, an increase of 7.3% over January 2008. The number of page views generated increased 15.4% to 3.7 billion.

quadrantOne Adds AP's Mobile Brands

The online ad consortium was formed last year by traditional media giants

NEW YORK quadrantOne, the online advertising consortium formed last year by the traditional media giants Tribune Company, Gannett, Hearst and the New York Times Co., has added the Associated Press’ mobile brands to its network.

The startup joint venture, which aggregates and sells ad inventory from 340 local news sites to advertisers, will now handle all national ad sales aggregates for the AP’s mobile brands, which include apnews.com and various mobile apps.

The AP claims its year-old mobile properties now generate as many as 38 million page views per month in total.

quadrantOne was formed in February 2008 to help local publishers establish clout in the online ad marketplace by creating scale that can attract big-name advertisers. The company sells inventory for the Web sites of publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle and Boston Globe.

Newspaper Alliance quadrantONE To Handle AP Online Ad Sales

In keeping with its plans to capture more online ad revenue for its content, AP is joining QuadrantONE, the national ad-sales newspaper alliance started by the New York Times Company ( NYSE: NYT), Gannett ( NYSE: GCI), Tribune and Hearst, Mediapost reported.

The deal with quadrantONE comes as AP and its newspaper members face perilous challenges from the downward pressure on ad spending. It is also part of a markedly more aggressive campaign by the AP to try to benefit from online and mobile distribution.

­Mobile expansion: The year-old quadrantOne will manage the AP’s ad sales across all of the wire service’s digital platforms, including its mobile news portal, APNews.com, and various AP News apps. The newspaper alliance is in 20 major markets and roughly a dozen smaller ones. It claims to reach over 70 million monthly uniques through its newspaper and broadcast network. Andy Ellenthal, quadrantOne’s CEO, told Mediapost that sales across mobile apps will be a particular focus, saying that the AP Mobile represents the start of its expansion in that area.

­Yahoo Newspaper partnership, eventually: While quadrantONE is often thought of as a rival to the Yahoo ( NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium, the two operate on different levels. Yahoo’s members try to bridge local and national online ad sales, while quadrantONE has been primarily focused on national. Up to now, AP had relied on a variety of ad networks to sell its national inventory. The decision to sign up with quadrantONE reflects the wire service’s concentration national ad selling, but it doesn’t plan to limit itself in any way. As the wire service gets those national goals firmed up, it will ultimately begin fashioning a more local focus with its newspaper members, AP’s Jane Seagrave told me. Seagrave, the AP’s SVP for Global Product Development, added that one of the reasons the company signed on with quadrantONE was its stepped-up mobile plans. “We work with a number of ad networks, such as JumpTap, Ad Infuse and Quattro Wireless,” she said. “We saw quadrantONE’s offerings as a good complement to what we consider to be a multidimensional approach to improving our ad sales.”