Unfortunatley there continues to be a real dearth of European-focused events covering the area of automated ad trading and media optimisation. With the intention of fostering informed debate on the evolution of the display market and indeed online advertising as a whole, ExchangeWire is today announcing details of the Ad Trading Summit 2010. It will be the first dedicated European event of its kind, and will look to attract decision makers form agencies, advertisers, ad traders, ad nets, ad exchanges, ad-tech vendors and publishers across Europe. The best minds in the industry will be brought together to discuss and debate the changing face of the European display advertising market, the increasing influence of automated trading platforms and the explosion of the data economy.

Confirmed speakers for the day include: Mike Nolet, AppNexus CTO and Cofounder; Curt Hecht, President, VivaKi Nerve Centre; Martin Kelly, Cofounder and Managing Partner, Infectious Media; and Konrad Feldman, Co-founder and CEO, Quantcast. Additional details on the speaker line-up and agenda will be announced in the coming weeks. ExchangeWire will also bring you the thoughts and opinions of the event’s speakers in the run up to the actual event on September 23. Tickets are now on sale – but please note that the numbers are limited. Further event information can be found on the Ad Trading Summit 2010 site.

Can you explain the nugg.ad offering in the UK market?

AD: nugg.ad is a Predictive Behavioural Targeting solutions provider firmly focused on behalf of publishers and ad-networks. Advertisers and agencies have challenges obtaining consumer insights on their target audiences. Combining onsite behavioural data with surveys providing sociodemographic and product interest data, predictive targeting goes one step further by identifying hard to reach audiences. This is particular of interest for publishers who are looking for winning budgets which traditionally go to television, such as high profile branding campaigns. Predictive Behavioural Targeting also successfully reaches other campaign objectives like clickrates and conversions even for brands and products for which usually there are no online channels available.

Can you provide an overview of how the nugg.ad targeting platform works?

AD: Firstly, with one tag implemented on our client’s site we collect click behaviour data which is stored in a cookie. Second, thru the ad-server a survey is set up on the same site. The survey data provides us with insights into sociodemographic data such as gender, age, and 48 individual product interests on a cross-section of users. The nugg.ad algorithm combines both data sets in real time to predict profiles on site and network users anonymously. Profiles are delivered to the publisher’s adserver to target display advertising, content, and product offerings relevant to the user. Based on this solution, nugg.ad clients can develop innovative targeting products to different campaign objectives from branding to performance.

Has it been successful in boosting performance – and are there any real-life examples you can provide?

AD: Yes, it has been very successful! For example, a recent branding campaign for L’Oreal which ran over multiple leading German premium publishers led to an increase in brand awareness by up to 50% and buying intention by up to 17.1%! Another recent example is a campaign with a leading German insurance company Hamburg Mannheimer. The campaign objective was an accurate targeting of the advertising creatives to audiences aged between 20-49 years, a household size of more than three people, and a high interest in financial products. Compared to a run of site campaign with identical conditions without targeting, nugg.ad increased target group reach by 47% and could also boost the click rate by 111% from 1.73% to 3.66%!

Do you work exclusively with advertisers – or can you work with publishers?

AD: We are publisher and adnetworks focused but yes, we have features and functions which advertisers and their agencies can utilize.

How does your service compare to other UK-based behavioural targeting companies? How does nugg.ad differentiate itself from other BT services?

AD: Compared to other UK targeting companies, our sociodemographic predictions are a unique solution only available at nugg.ad. Also, our business model is highly service orientated. Each client has direct access to an account manager and a consultant. This ensures that the clients are making the most of the tool, generates new models / ideas and formulates a very close working relationship. As a company we are constantly looking to develop and add new targeting features to our portfolio which will help our clients in their business and put the service that we provide to our clients at the forefront of what we do.

How are you addressing fears around user privacy? What do you think the industry must do to protect user privacy?

AD: Our CEO Stephan Noller is the chairman of the policy committee at IAB Europe in Brussels where he focuses primarily on data protection and privacy. Hence user privacy is something that we hold very close to our heart. We have been the first targeting company to have earned the ULD seal, the only official German privacy seal existing. In 2009, we also earned the European Privacy Seal (EuroPriSe) representing the most stringent level of data protection in Europe. In order to calm fears, nugg.ad also stands for a maximum level of transparency.

What kind of trends is nugg.ad seeing in the European display market at the minute?

AD: First of all, we are seeing a clear shift of advertisers and agencies buying audiences from our publishers to target campaigns. Advertisers and agencies are beginning to see the benefits of addressing their audiences and publishers are understanding the benefits profiling their data in order to win these campaigns. We also noticed, that many advertisers are starting to look beyond performance driven online marketing and now act towards premium segments such as measuring and influencing brand awareness and brand performance.

The graph below illustrates the growth in the German exchange marketplace over the past two. Note that all numbers listed are in millions of euros.

If this did happen, and I was a CMO, I would be asking myself why I need an agency to manage my buys. I could hire a couple of account managers and let Google do the heavy lifting. And probably get better results with a lower cost because of the unbelievable search data I can use through its DSP. And what about re-targeting? Yep the big G can do that too. Brilliant – a one-stop shop for all my media buying needs. Where do I sign up? Alarm bells should be ringing with C-level agency execs at the minute.

Darren Hermann, Chief Digital Media Officer at Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, knows a few things about automated trading and where the future of the display lies. He helped found Varrick Media, a specialist exchange-trading unit within kbs+p some years ago. He wrote an interesting post this week on the very subject of big agencies ceding too much control to players like Google and Microsoft. Darren’s argument focuses on the ad server, the hub of all display media buying for agencies. He argues that as media buyers and sellers both Google and Microsoft are a little conflicted (given their dominance on both the buy and sell side) and might not always have the best interests of the agencies:

I’m skeptical of Google and MSFT, specifically with the hundreds of billions of impressions they serve collectively. It would make sense that every campaign served thru them would make them smarter. Hey Toyota, did you know that your campaign for the Toyota Camry just made Honda’s campaign for the Accord much smarter?

There is the above issue and now an important one. MSFT and GOOG can see every advertisers campaign that uses their system including cpms, impressions, conversions, etc. Being that MSFT and GOOG sell media too, they have a huge advantage if they were to use that data in the way they pitch us and price us.

So what to do? Well, that’s something for highly-paid agency strategists to figure out. Agencies could go agnostic I suppose, and use a buy-side only ad server. This would address some of the issues Hermann talked about in his blog post. Agencies could also consider building out their ad server technology. WPP already own an ad server through its purchase of 24/7 Media so it’s no stretch of the imagination to imagine that other holding agencies couldn’t follow a similar route by buying in the technology. They could build in some DSP capabilities. That’s why I reckon a MediaMath or another hybrid service/tech buying platform will be bought by a holding comapny. The one thing that agencies need to be aware of is that their position in the display (or even digital media) buying chain is quickly being eroded by the growing influence of some ad-tech players – and ultimately the evolution of the display space.

Can you give you an overview of the Httpool proposition?

KA: Httpool is an online advertising provider focusing on emerging markets, especially the Central and Eastern European region. We provide clients with localisation services together with all segments of online advertising in the region – including premium inventory network, performance network, contextual and behavioural network, and search engine marketing. Httpool has 10 years of experience and expertise across the region serving major agencies, global and local clients with digital strategies and planning.

How does the Httpool offering benefit UK advertisers and agencies?

KA: Httpool provides UK advertises and clients a one point access to all of CEE markets. With offices in the majority of these markets we have direct access to local inventory, publishers and specifics that differentiates our offering from other sales houses in the UK. Direct relationships with local content providers in the CEE markets enables us to provide a streamlined process and a quality service to agencies so that they can execute efficient online campaigns in this region.

What markets does Httpool currently cover in Eastern Europe?

KA: Httpool has direct access to all CEE markets and offices, including Austria, Czech republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Bosnia. We are currently expanding to the rest of the region with plans to open offices in Poland, Hungry, Turkey and the Baltics within the next 3-6 months. Httpool also services Asia via their Honk Kong and Indian offices.

How evolved is the display market in Eastern Europe? Are exchanges and automated platforms gathering much traction there?

KA: The display market is quite evolved, and in some markets represents even more than search in terms of budgets. Advertisers use many advanced rich media formats combining it with more content integration. On the other hand exchange platforms are getting lots of traction. Httpool offers a self serving platform in many of our markets, which enables local publishers to get several high eCPM products with one single tag. Advertises on the other hand can manage their own campaigns. However, there is a huge opportunity for growth for these platforms because the average ad spend around 3-4% is still low, but knowledge still has to improve.

How influential are ad networks in the Eastern European display markets? Do ad nets play an important role in aggregating inventory for local and international agencies?

KA: The importance of ad networks varies across the different Central and Eastern European countries but mostly they play a critical role in the CEE display market. The main reason is that ad networks are able to provide advertisers with various solutions, helping them to achieve their campaign objectives and get better reach in a fairly disparate marketplace.

What’s your view on real-time bidding? Has Httpool any plans to use RTB to trade ad inventory?

KA: At the moment real time bidding in the region is not the best solution. It works best where supply and demand of inventory are in balance. In CEE there is excess of supply which pushes CPM prices down using RTB. This causes some limitation in growth of markets. At the moment we are not planning to use it across our platform. Automatisation of buying and selling inventory will definitely grow as the number of buyers increases, and expertise of marketer becomes more widespread.

What current trends are you seeing in the Eastern European display market?

KA: The main trends are reflected in focusing increasingly on targeting solutions such as contextual and predictive behavioural and larger ad formats on top premium properties.

Let’s suppose this deal does happen, how will the rest of the industry react? ExchangeWire shall now make some ridiculous (but fun!) predictions about possible repercussions:

- Microsoft will buy Appnexus: with its own exchange platform in the works, Microsoft will likely buy in DSP capabilities to counter Google’s move
- One of the big holding companies will buy MediaMath, X+1, DataXu, Triggit or Turn: the holding agencies will feel very uncomfortable with Google being in the DSP space, and will want their own platform.
- A possible surprise buyer will pick up a DSP: we could see Adobe, Ebay or – wait for it – Facebook buying a DSP. Think of all the data Facebook could leverage in a media buy. Its targeting could only be matched by Google.

You’ve recently went through a rebranding and a repositioning of the Infectious offering. Can you explain the Infectious Media proposition in more detail?

MK: Yes, it’s simple, we make display advertising work for our clients. Clearly there’s a lot more to our business in terms of how we do that but that is our proposition and how we sell our services. We operate exclusively in the ad exchange space and offer these services to both advertisers direct and to agencies. We’ve purpose built both a team and trading platform, Impression Desk, to service this opportunity in the UK and Europe.

The rebrand and new website was about reflecting this focus.

How in your view has the exchange market evolved in the UK since the launch of Infectious Media?

MK: There wasn’t really one when we started so it’s come a long way! Right Media was the only place we could trade and was in itself the preserve of a few very smart networks, it’s incredible really that a whole new ecosystem has developed in the space of two year, the pace of change is staggering. The component areas of the value chain seem to be settling down a little now and both publishers and buyers are starting to do deals with and build infrastructure around DSP’s and SSP’s in order to service the opportunity. It’s not yet clear how the traditional intermediary, ad networks, will respond to these changes.

Do you think there is still not enough quality inventory available through automated channels?

MK: I think there is quality inventory available at scale but an issue that buyers will find in this environment is that it’s hard to find and the ways of doing this differ by platform. All supply sources take a different approach to defining quality as do all the DSP’s so it’s a minefield with no standardisation. We have chosen to tackle this issue head on and have invested a lot of time and effort in to devising our own manual vetting procedure for inventory sources. We are about to introduce our own transparent classification system for inventory that we vet ourselves so watch this space.

Has the arrival of the SSPs, the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and now the Orange Ad market improved the buying opportunities offered through automated channels?

MK: There is momentum growing on the supply side and these intermediaries are driving things forward. Ultimately this makes sense for everyone involved, with lower transaction costs associated to this channel and CPM’s increasing substantially in the last 6 months alone. Part of the education process for publishers is that the CPM’s that they receive for their inventory are higher than those they receive from a network as the buyer has much more opportunity to recognise value in the platform environment than they do in a bulk network buy. We, on average, currently pay double the average CPM in the Doubleclick Exchange quite simply because we can see the value that our activity is driving for the advertiser and bid accordingly

Do you think this volume on the sell-side will attract a lot more display spend into the exchange eco-system?

MK: I don’t think anyone on the demand side is under any illusion that this is the way that the market is going and needs persuading any more. The barrier is more around attaining the skills and technology to operate effectively and the speed with which this will happen.

Data plays a huge role in the automated buy. Do you think the absence of UK-specific data sets from the data exchanges and other platforms is hindering the development of the exchange eco-system?

MK: The data market has been slow to develop in the UK but there are now some companies entering the UK such as Quantcast and we welcome that development. I would also say that from an Infectious Media perspective this has meant we have had to focus our product development around data analysis and decisioning in the absence of ‘off the shelf’ target audiences.

We speak to many of the top UK publishers and they are keen to find ways to monetise their data so it will just be a matter of time before this market develops further and there is room for some big winners in the UK and European data market.

Is Infectious currently buying inventory through RTB? Would you say the buying process is different than a typical auction buy on the Rightmedia and Adx exchanges?

MK: Yes we are currently buying via RTB in the UK and across Europe. The buying process is no different in many respects, this is just the buying of display media after all. The difference is the amount and richness of data points that can be passed through to the buyers on each impression but I don’t yet think this is being fully exploited by the supply side especially. The more information a publisher passes about an impression, the more of a chance that we will see value in that impression and bid higher accordingly. What has been a real game changer for Infectious is impression level reporting which is a huge volume of data that we take in to our data warehouse to analyse but has meant we can scrutinise performance to a new level of granularity and optimise accordingly.

Infectious is an exchange trading specialist – far removed from a traditional media buying agency. What kind of skills does Infectious, which puts technology and data at the heart of its business, look for in new hires?

MK: There is some cross over with media buying agencies in what we do but we’re a very different type of company. Exchange trading is our only service and we offer this to both advertisers and agencies and because of this we have built a very specialist team and infrastructure. Our last three hires have been a statistician, a business information systems architect and an agency account manager. So some cross over with an agency in terms of personnel but in the main something completely different. Coming from large media agency backgrounds it’s been a breath of fresh air for Andy (co-founder) and myself to be able to build the team from scratch with new skills and a company structure that is fit for purpose. To date we have not employed anyone from a pure media buying background.

Now that the DSPs have finally arrived and RTB inventory has come onto the market, how do you see the space developing in the coming months?

MK: The pace of change is rapid at the moment and will not be slowing down any time soon. The coming months will see the completion of the infrastructure for the UK platform trading revolution, new UK data centres opening, trading desk offerings appearing, SSP’s hitting scale and we hope a more open debate around data and privacy that needs to happen if we are to successfully self regulate as an industry.

Oh, and loads more hype, as ever.

There’s much confusion about what Vivaki does? Is it buying platform? Is it a crack exchange trading unit? Can you explain the Vivaki proposition in more detail?

MB: Vivaki is the strategic entity created by Publicis Groupe to leverage the combined scale of its media and digital operations, which represent nearly $60 billion dollars in global ad spend and influence. VivaKi aggregates the marketplace influence of five autonomous brands, including: two global media agencies, Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia; two leading digital marketing agencies, Digitas and Razorfish; and a premiere futures practice, Denuo.

On behalf of its agency brands and their clients, VivaKi faces the market to help identify and build technology, message distribution, audience aggregation and content solutions for the future. VivaKi also includes a “Talent & Transformation Practice”, which leverages the scale of the VivaKi brands to develop and deliver tools and approaches designed to attract, develop, train, motivate and reward the world’s best people.

Sitting at the core of VivaKi is the VivaKi Nerve Center, which serves as a think tank, R&D centre and testing ground to activate new pathways for clients to connect with consumers in an increasingly digital world.

The key objective of the VivaKi Nerve Center is to help deliver better solutions for our clients as the marketing landscape continues to evolve and accelerate at a fast pace, collaboration within the VivaKi family, and across the Groupe, is essential.

To succeed in our mission, the Nerve Center will focus on some key areas to empower our VivaKi agency teams and clients:

Global Platforms & Products: Developing global platforms and proprietary products that help our agencies differentiate and compete in the marketplace. Products will be supported by an advanced underlying technology and data infrastructure that delivers speed and scale.
Industry-Leading Partnerships: Creating strategic global partnerships that provide tangible value for our clients and partners, while differentiating against the competition.

Innovation & Thought Leadership: Investing in innovation and next generation emerging opportunities, like The Pool, which will validate our leadership position in the marketplace.

Our ad exchange solution is called Audience on Demand and is therefore a key strand in the global platforms and products category above and indeed innovation. It’s one of the most exciting areas to touch all agency groups in recent years and needs to have a defined and aggressive focus put upon it. Vivaki Nerve Center has worked very collaboratively with the brands in delivering the Audience on Demand platform to their clients. We are live with Audience on Demand and really excited by the performance of the solution.

Can you elaborate a little more on your role within Vivaki?

MB: My role in is Managing Director of The Vivaki Nerve Center in the EMEA. I report into the Global President of the VNC, Curt Hecht. The VNC has made significant progress in the US and my role is to work closely with the brand management and digital teams to establish how the VNC can help them in delivering the future-facing digital solutions that our clients are asking for everyday. Ad exchange trading through Audience on Demand is a significant area of work for me.

What’s your perspective on automated trading and audience buying through exchanges and other demand sources?

MB: I have been blown away by it. I may be biased and perhaps my background lends itself to making this exciting to me but when you see the potential of automated buying you can’t help but be impressed. It’s worth saying that automated buying is a little misleading. It requires clever optimisation strategies and insights that the agencies need to lead through talented people. I would not want people to think that you a press a button and it’s all done. Anyone who thought search bidding would be automated would testify that is not the case – it is search bidding times ten so definitely not just automated.

The trading platform allows you to target exactly the individuals you want at the price you want. You are buying one impression at a time which makes a CPM approach look outdated although it is not the death of the CPM buy just yet, not least because media auditors would not know what to judge us on! I believe it will ask questions of every agency trading model to some extent or another. It will also challenge auditors to stop judging agencies on an arbitrary discount off a pool metrics, and force everyone to consider more performance related contracts. I think for now it lends itself more easily towards the performance models but down the line I can see far more being traded through this method.

Do you think that large European holding companies like Publicis are now seeing ad exchanges as an efficient channel to buy ad inventory?

MB: I think the large network groups get a hard time for not changing enough and being slow to react. In some ways that may be true but agencies today are very different to those of 15 years ago. They have completely transformed: agencies realise change is inherent in what they must deliver year in year out.

Ad exchanges are just another media / trading / targeting opportunity that have come along, and agencies will embrace it and make the most out of it on behalf of their clients. My experience so far is that all the groups see the benefits of it but that will vary by group as some are more advanced than others. You will see who believes in it the most by how quickly they grow their ad exchange spend because once you start to see the results, clients and agencies alike will want to move their budgets into new the model.

Do you think that trading on ad exchanges makes it easier to leverage agency and client data to deliver better campaign performance?

MB: Trading on ad exchanges will allow data to become more important but actually it’s not the exchanges where the benefit lies but with the use of DSPs like Audience on Demand. It is this technology that allows us to best use data to enhance the performance of campaigns and target only those users that are most likely to deliver a beneficial response for our clients.

The combination of our clients being able to retarget their visitors but on a much larger scale with the introduction of third party data means we can turbo-charge our schedules to deliver at the right cost and at the right level of volume. Those third party vendors need to move quickly over here. We already have demand and they are a little slow to get going. I was pleased to see Phil moving from Yahoo to Quantcast, perhaps a sign of things to come.

Does Publicis have an exchange strategy for Europe, and if so will this be headed up by Vivaki? Are there plans to devote more resource to developing this area of the business?

MB: This is not a UK or US only market place. It will become important across all major markets so of course we will grow our business in those countries. Many of our major European markets are already testing different models and gaining from the insights. Vivaki Nerve Center will take the route that drives the consistency and ability to learn as a group and not at a country/agency level. We are in the very formative stages of this area so it’s important we all learn from each other.

Resources will evolve over time. Some people will re-skill into this area, some will be recruited. But we have time yet to get into that. Rest assured though that the number of people working in this area will grow substantially!

What do you think are the key difficulties in moving an agency toward automated media buying? Is it the lack of technology and data skills that exist within the agencies? Or is it a lack of technology?

MB: It’s not a technology issue. We have the technology and it works. I am sure all of our competitors have their technology too. Some will work better than others perhaps, but generally I don’t see that as an issue. Technology should not be the differentiator for agencies, it’s the people behind it and what it delivers that counts. Clients do not want pitches where we all get our technology out and wave it about; they want to see insights and results.

In Vivaki there are pools of people who understand this new area and those that know less about it but is that not always the way? Over time we will train people and recruit people so that we have the right level of understanding and evangelism in the business. Look how agencies changed around search. We had the same discussions back then and we now have these amazing skill sets around search in the agencies, so I don’t really see too many issues. If you think the opportunity is a good one, you can make things happen.

Do you think the arrival of DSPs into the European market will help agencies bridge this technology and skills gap?

MB: DSPs will allow agencies to build campaigns across multiple ad exchanges, create data pools, and control frequency etc across the whole playing field rather than at a site or network level. They will also provide us with the largest search area when we are trying to find the elusive consumers who have visited our client sites previously. DSPs are enablers so of course it’s a great innovation in the marketplace globally.

I would say that I believe a true DSP is one that’s only interest is in providing technology to do all the above. It should not to try to resell inventory or have morphed from an ad network. There are many blaggers out there and it’s important that people choose carefully in who they work with as you may discover that the systems they provide are not as future-facing as you thought. The market place is very grey around the edges!

What’s your view on real-time bidding? Is it a game changer for the display market? Or are there still fundamental problems that need to be worked through (such as the computational costs) before we see the benefits?

MB: It works. Our campaigns are delivering great results on the RTB strands of the campaigns. I think RTB will be affected by many different elements not least volume of competition, which will only increase. But this is where the clever use of data helps you in RTB: only you know what is deemed a valuable cookie. Hence you will be bidding on it, not the rest of the world. This is different to search where everyone knows that if you bid on home insurance you will sell insurance. This is a huge benefit for ad trading – the agency knows who is valuable not the publisher telling us what is valuable.

Overall I believe that RTB will be a game changer. Suddenly impressions are valuable again in the volume game. Interestingly though, they are valuable from a data perspective and not so much from a context /channel perspective. The rules have changed. What’s premium now?

How do you see the European exchange space developing over the next twelve months?

MB: I think you will see many of the major players in the US getting people on the ground here to push into big European markets. The ecosystem is developing rapidly in Europe, and it will not be any different than the US. There are already companies up and running in Europe, providing ad serving and other services, and they will try to steal a march in these markets. The DSP pure players will soon be driving a more objective approach across Europe. I also think we will see the likes of Google really ramping up in the markets here, which in itself will drive liquidity.

A very quick breakdown of how it might work:

- Quantcast profiles the brand’s or the agency’s desired audience.
- Quantcast then searches for “lookalikes” – these “loookalike” segments are built using its own proprietary modelling technology and of course data from publisher partners. It then allows advertiser’s to target ads against the “lookalike” segments.

Do note that the UK is a different market from the US given the delicate privacy laws and the make-up of the market, and Qunatcast’s strategy here for Europe might differ entirely from the US. The exchange space does look forward to learning more about the possibilities of “lookalike” data.

Here is the press release in full on the expansion into the UK:

Quantcast announced today the appointment of Philip Macauley to UK Managing Director, where he will be responsible for leading the company’s operations and expansion into the UK market.

Mr Macauley joins Quantcast after ten years at Yahoo!, where he most recently held the post of Director of Business Development and Commercial Relations. He brings Quantcast and its clients his broad expertise in media planning, display advertising and go-to-market strategy within the digital domain. Mr Macauley joined Yahoo! as Head of Planning and Strategy for the UK and Pan-European market. In his tenure with the company, he has held various senior roles including driving media agency relationships as Agency Sales Director and leading the company’s publisher efforts as Head of Publisher Partnerships. Prior to Yahoo!, Mr Macauley was with WPP’s MindShare.

With this expansion, Quantcast brings to the European advertising and media marketplace a simplified and vastly improved way for advertisers to understand and reach their audiences online and for publishers to deliver real-time audiences that satisfy each advertiser’s unique audience requirements.

– Quantcast Measurement is the world’s favourite audience
measurement solution enabling publishers to better represent their
unique audiences and providing web site owners with accurate, directly
measured traffic, demographic, lifestyle, business and geographic
audience data. Best of all, Quantcast Measurement is completely free.

– Quantcast Audience gives advertisers the ability to
understand the distinctive characteristics of their best customers and
deploy these proprietary models to connect with millions, or tens of
millions, who look just like them across the web. Quantcast calls these
“lookalikes,” and by working with a wide range of leading publishers,
only Quantcast makes lookalikes truly portable, enabling advertisers to
take their audience model to any quality content and media partner of
their choice.

Quantcast’s services are used extensively by the advertising industry including most of the world’s major media agencies, hundreds of major marketers and millions of websites worldwide, including such leaders as MTV Networks, Bloomberg, The Economist, Reuters, IAC, BBC, Time Inc., NBC Universal, Discovery Communications, TypePad, WordPress, Dailymotion, Demand Media and LinkedIn.

“Since the launch of our global audience service in March, we’ve seen strong worldwide growth, particularly in Europe,” said Konrad Feldman, co-founder and CEO Quantcast. “Phil has exceptional knowledge of the UK marketplace, the needs of buyers and sellers, and a deep understanding of the emergence of real-time media solutions and the value these technologies deliver to publishers, marketers and consumers. We’re delighted to have him spearheading our UK expansion and excited for the opportunity it presents.”

About Quantcast

Quantcast measures and organizes the world’s audiences in real-time so advertisers can buy, sell and connect with the people who matter most to them. Ranked Fast Company’s # 3 Most Innovative Company on the Web for 2010, the company is used by the world’s leading media agencies, hundreds of major marketers and millions of global websites including thousands of the world’s best known destinations. Quantcast connects the planning, buying, and media fulfilment processes, delivering the marketplace’s most consistent and accountable audiences. Launched in 2006, Quantcast is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by Founders Fund, Polaris Venture Partners, Revolution Ventures and Cisco Systems. Come Get Quantified(TM) at http://www.quantcast.com.