ExchangeWire.com » Behavioral Targeting

Announcing Details Of The Ad Trading Summit 2010, September 23

ExchangeWire — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:51:14 +0000

Google’s partnership with Omnicom to build out the agency’s trading desk with the view of putting hundreds of millions of display dollars through automated channels (Google’s mostly) could well be a transformational moment for the display market. I could be accused of a certain degree of hyperbole here, but you have to look at the size of this deal and take note of the other significant relationships Google has already established with the biggest media buying agencies. It is slowly bringing the dsplay market under its control. You also need to recognise the significance of how details of the story were released: instead of giving the “scoop” to a trade press journo, it was given to Emily Steel at the WSJ. Google is serious about display, and bringing order to a ridiculously chaotic and opaque market. And it wants Wall Street to know this. Google maybe chasing profit, but in doing so it is pushing innovation in this space. This might be unpalatable for some in our industry who fear change, and would rather keep this innovation at bay. But change is upon us and we, as an industry, must act now.

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.

AudienceScience Acquisition Of Wunderloop Strengthens Its Position In The European Data Market

ExchangeWire — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:35:40 +0000

There was a certain amount of surprise and incredulity in the European ad industry when Wunderloop announced its bankruptcy at the end of April. Wunderloop, unlike a lot of ad tech companies, had demonstrable technology. It had also a decent share of the European data market, particularly in France and Germany – and was one of the leading data companies in the European display space. So why did it go bankrupt?

The company said it had no choice due to a lack of interest in a new funding round. It seems difficult to believe given the amount of VC money around at the minute. A lot of investors, it would seem, have passed up a good investment opportunity given the significant growth of the audience-buying market. Maybe some were spooked by Wunderloop’s misadventure in the UK which turned sour last year, forcing a retreat by the company. This of course is all pointless retrospective analysis now that Wunderloop has been acquired by AudienceScience.

What are the implications of this acquisition for the European data market? AudienceScience practically owns the UK data market. Its tags are everywhere and it works with all top-tier premium publishers – everyone from the FT to the BBC. Best-in-class data segmentation tech has won it a lot of market share. But it hasn’t featured as much in other European markets – due mainly to its focus on the UK. The acquisition of Wunderloop gives it instant access to other lucrative European display markets. Germany is obviously the big prize. The move towards audience buying is gathering momentum there, and pro-active agencies are looking for more innovative solutions to deliver more ROI to clients. AudienceScience will be able to leverage existing Wunderloop relationships, to build bigger market share – and introduce new products to the European market such as its Gateway platform.

AudienceScience could well be the largest data specialist in the European display market – that’s if you don’t count Google or Yahoo as pure data players. The acquisition has given AS a foothold in some interesting markets and access to technology that is used so differently across Europe. For instance, German agencies and publishers prefer Wunderloop for straight-up audience segmentation and audience buying. In France, the technology is used by ad nets to enhance their own targeting capabilities. The platform has also being white laballed by many big European media companies for internal use. Won’t this all-encompassing approach by Wunderloop make life a little more complicated for AudeinceSceinece? Maybe a little tightening on marketing message and product offering might be required. But wholesale changes will not be necessary. AudienceScience resource and investment will be able to strengthen and build on these existing partnerships.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of this deal is what happens to the AdAudience partnership. AdAudience is the joint venture audience exchange run by several of Germany’s big publishers. Will the current agreement be affected by this new development? Not likely. The current arrangement will survive. AudienceSceince operate similar publisher partnerships in other markets so we’re not likely to see AdAudience seeking a new tech partner anytime soon.

This was a good strategic acquisition by AudienceScience, giving it some decent tech and access to new markets. Given that Wunderloop was bankrupt, this acquisition was the only logical course of action. The newly strengthened AudienceScience is arguably the biggest player in the European data market – and looks set for more growth. How long will it be before the big G comes knocking on its door? I’d say six months at the most.

Ajay Daved: We Are Seeing More Advertisers And Agencies Buying Audiences From Our Publishers To Target Campaigns

ExchangeWire — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:14:13 +0000

nugg.ad, a leading European player in behavioural targetting, recently moved into the UK market. ExchangeWire spoke to Ajay Daved, nugg.ad UK & Ireland Sales Director, last week about the company’s targetting technology, its committment to user privacy and the trends in the display marketplace.

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.

AudienceScience Buys Wunderloop For Reported Eight Figure Sum

ExchangeWire — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:12:04 +0000

AudienceScience has agreed to buy Wunderloop for a reported eight figure sum. Wunderloop declared bankruptcy at the end of April due a to lack of funding. It is believed that Wunderloop has been actively seeking a buyer since going bankrupt kin April – and has had lots of interest. Reports suggest that there were a number of US and European companies were in the hunt for Wunderloop, attracted by their proprietery behavioural technology. This is an excellent acquisition by AudienceScience as it will now give it a strong presence in the German and French markets. It will be interesting to see what happens to the AdAudience joint venture now that Wunderloop’s technology is owned by AS.

UPDATE: The deal is now offcicial and has been confirmed by both AudienceScience and Wunderloop. Here’s the official press release:

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — AudienceScience ( www.audiencescience.co.uk), an online advertising technology company driving digital marketing success, announced today plans to acquire Hamburg, Germany based wunderloop ( www.wunderloop.com).

As Europe’s leading provider of integrated targeting Services wunderloop offers the possibility to precisely reach target groups on the Internet and was the first company in Germany to qualify for the European Union-backed ‘EuroPriSe’ seal for exemplary privacy protection.

The acquisition, subject to third party approval, comes following the recent purchase of Consorte Media ( www.consortemedia.com), a leading US-based digital marketing company helping advertisers to connect with Hispanic consumers online.

“AudienceScience is on a steady path of global expansion, having established clear leadership in the industry with regards to superior technology, quality data and unmatched expertise.” said Jeff Hirsch, CEO, AudienceScience. “We are excited about the prospect of enhancing The Audience Gateway platform and strengthening our European presence with wunderloop’s exceptional team and technology.”

wunderloop CEO Torsten Ahlers said, “AudienceScience is the ideal partner for wunderloop. At one stroke, we now have the opportunity to export wunderloop’s successful technology to the US and other markets while also enhancing our range here in Europe with AudienceScience’s great products.”

Wunderloop currently has offices in France, Germany, and The Netherlands. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

About AudienceScience:

AudienceScience technology provides a gateway enabling universal access to online audiences. This integrated audience platform, The Audience Gateway, drives digital marketing success. Accessing 200 billion data insights into 386 million people worldwide, AudienceScience empowers marketers with the intelligence and control to execute effective global campaigns. Since 2003, AudienceScience has delivered over 50,000 targeted campaigns for clients including Financial Times, Haymarket Consumer Media, New York Times Digital, News Corp and News International and Virgin Media. For more information, please visit www.AudienceScience.co.uk.

Nic Peters On Why The Cookie Matters; Fetchback Fetches $40 Million Dollars

ExchangeWire — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:30:39 +0000

Nic Peters, Managing Director at Improve Digital, penned a piece yesterday for Imedia on why the cookie still matters. The post tackles the upcoming (and hated!) cookie directive, and the effect it will have on the digital media industry in Europe. Peters finds it hard to believe that the much maligned cookie is seen as such a threat to user privacy when more intrusive forms of offline data collection get a free pass by European regulators. She points to the example of loyalty cards, which collects, harvests and consumers’ personal data. These activities rarely attracts the furore that anonymous pixeling does because loyalty cards offset data collection with discounted products. Is it a communication issue? Is the online advertising sector not showing legislators the value of the cookie? Peters argues that the industry needs to do a number of things to give the cookie the “threat-free reputation enjoyed by offline data-collection methods”: first, improve the communication and understanding of how the cookie benefits the consumer; second, the industry needs to be more transparent about how it collects and uses data; and finally, use the cookie data to deliver better user experience. Nic briefly touched on the mess Phorm caused with its questionable data collection methods. But can we all applaud Phorm for doing a fine job of muddying the waters with legislators, privacy advocates and consumers. [Imedia]

And so it begins. The great M&A frenzy of 2010. It was announced yesterday that GSI Commerce acquired retargeting specialist Fetchback for a reported $40 million dollars. GSI Commerce powers the platform for many large online retailers, and looks likely integrate Fetchback’s retargeting capabilities into its offering. Fetchback’s technology is very much based around the cookie, although like most retargeting companies it has its own “special sauce” (usually the following: drop cookie on user at source; buy as much inventory on exchanges and other platforms to find user and serve retargeted ad) This is a good earn out for all those involved given that the company only raised about $1 million dollars. It does suggest that the M&A activity is about to kick off. Who is next in the great M&A show? [Techcrunch]

Should The European Online Avdertising Industry Be Introducing Labeling On All BT-Powered Ads?

ExchangeWire — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:32:32 +0000

There’s a piece today in MarketingWeek about the OFT’s report. The report points out that the online advertising industry could be doing more to “address consumer concerns over behavioural targeting”. The OFT (Office of Fair Trading) has warned that unless more stringent self-regulation is introduced, it will bring in external regulation to tackle the perceived problems. This tells me two things: firstly, the privacy advocates are lobbying the OFT very hard; and two that behavioural targeting has still got a very bad name. One way around this is to introduce labelling for all BT-powered ads, giving users the opportunity to opt-out. I suggested the introduction of a similar initiative to that currently running in the US – but it should be Europe-wide so that EU legislators can also see that the industry is acting responsibility on the issue of user privacy. Interesting to see that BT-related ads only accounts for about £90 million of a total £3.3 billion spend of online ad spend.

Yieldivision On The EU Cookie Directive; AppNexus Hires Wall Street Tech Veteran

ExchangeWire — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:54:49 +0000

The cookie directive is an ill-conceived piece of legislation. The EU seems hell bent on destroying its nascent digital media industry, as the new law requires an opt-in for every cookie dropped on a user. If my business depended on behavioural targeting for survival I’d be looking for a “cookie-friendly” country to operate in. Why are the trade bodies not lobbying the legislators hard on this? At least suggest some kind of stringent self-regulation to appease legislators. In an effort to highlight all of the above, Yieldivision has done an interesting blog post on the subject of the “cookie directive”. It looks at the consequence for the European online advertising industry – and gives some good examples on how anonymous pixeling can benefit users as well as the digital economy. The post also goes into how innovation will suffer, and the effect the law will have on user experience. Imagine how annoying it would be for a user to receive 50 odd requests to have cookie dropped on their machine while surfing the web. Do you know what they’ll do? They’ll head off to sites that don’t irritate with incessant pop-ups – which will probably benefit US-based web properties. And what if sites outside the EU don’t comply with the law? Will they be blocked? If not, I can see a mass exodus of European digital media companies to cities outside the EU’s jurisdiction, like Geneva and Oslo. The blog post is an excellent overview on the current EU legislation and its possible repercussions. [Yieldivision]

I don’t normally blog about hires, as I feel it’s an irrelevance better left to the gossiping trade mags. But a hire in the industry did catch my eye this week. Venky Vemparala, a seasoned Wall Street tech veteran, has joined AppNexus to head up its engineering team. Vemparala has worked as a technology architect at a number of large investment banks including Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets and Lehman Brothers/Barclays. This tells me that AppNexus is looking to seriously address the scalability issues, as pointed out by Mike Nolet on his excellent blog, associated with real time ad trading. Bringing in a financial tech guy who has tons of experience working with real-time infrastructure is a good move by AppNexus – and further illustrates how this space has evolved in such a short space of time. One word: fascinating. [PRNewsWire]

Quantcast Brings Its “Lookalike” Data To The UK; Hires Phil MaCauley To Head Up Operation

ExchangeWire — Wed, 19 May 2010 11:58:57 +0000

Qunatcast announced yesterday that they are moving into the European. They have hired Philip MacCauley, the former Director of Business Development and Commercial Relations at Yahoo!, to head up the operation. The feeling here in the market is that Quantcast’s arrival is a positive move. There is still a lack of good data in the market for automated buys, and Quantcast’s European lookalike data should give agencies and advertisers better targeting capabilities. No offence to any of the blogs or trade sites reporting on this story, but Quantcast are not exclusively an analytics company. VCs did not hand over fifty-odd million dollars for an analytics solution for publishers. If you were to definition (and that is generally a dangerous game in this industry), I’d say Quantcast is more of a data and audience profiling platform. So how does Quantcast collect and segment data and what is “lookalike”?

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.

Criteo Raises $7 Million Dollars For US Expansion

ExchangeWire — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:38:33 +0000

Criteo has raised another $7 million dollars for further expansion into the US. Criteo has had a lot of commercial success in the European BT market over the past two years and is now looking to put more investment and resource behind its US operation. The retargeting specialist recently moved its headquarters from Paris to Palo Alto, as it looks to crack the lucrative US ad market. Crtieo helps leading ecommerce clients to retarget users with relevant ads. Like most European BT vendors Criteo offers clients a “black box” solution for retargeting, but has been very successful in delivering strong campaign performance for its big retail clients.

Criteo, the global leader in scalable performance retargeting, today announced a $7 million Series C round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), bringing Criteo’s total funding to $24 million. Bessemer, one of the world’s most successful and well-respected venture capital firms, joins as an important partner to Criteo’s investment syndicate. This strategic investment comes after the relocation of Criteo’s corporate headquarters from Paris, France to Palo Alto, Calif., in response to rapid growth and strong demand for its breakthrough retargeting solution. Criteo is the first company to offer display ad retargeting using a performance-based pure CPC model. In hundreds of case studies, this model has proven to drive post-click conversion rates at levels significantly higher than paid search, offering e-commerce clients a low-risk, high-return solution to retarget ready-to-buy prospects at scale across the Web.

The investment highlights the growing demand amongst e-commerce retailers that are frustrated with spending vast amounts of money to acquire traffic only to have visitors leave their site without making a purchase. Criteo’s performance-driven, pay-per-click (PPC) ad retargeting solutions delivers the scale and personalization required to cost-effectively win back lost prospects.

Criteo will use the growth capital to continue its U.S. expansion effort, including the build out of new data centers across the country, as well as for additional infrastructure, talent and R&D investments to optimize its service for customers worldwide. Criteo has quickly built on its proven track record in Europe and is currently running personalized ad retargeting campaigns with more than 400 top retailers in seven countries.

“As a global investor, we have been actively monitoring the technology landscape in Europe and following Criteo for a long time. Their breakthrough retargeting technology, ability to execute and world class management team are very impressive,” said Byron Deeter, partner at Bessemer, who also joins Criteo’s board of directors with the announcement. “We believe Criteo is in a unique position to play a major role in reshaping the rapidly evolving online advertising landscape.”

“Adding proven investors that understand our market and can support our hyper growth, gives us a strong competitive advantage as we build momentum in the U.S. market,” said JB Rudelle, CEO and founder of Criteo. “Bessemer has a history of identifying revolutionary companies. Furthermore, from the very start of our discussions, they have been extremely proactive to bring value to our business.”

About Criteo

Criteo is the global leader in scalable performance retargeting. Criteo enables its e-commerce customers to re-engage with visitors to their site via personalized display ads across the Internet. These ads are dynamically generated in real-time with individually selected products. The result is greatly increased customer acquisition and retention. Criteo’s solution is 100 percent turnkey, easy to integrate and delivers phenomenal ROI since clients pay only for valuable prospects that click-through and return their website on a cost-per-click basis. Criteo displays billions of retargeted banners each month across a wide variety of premium websites and currently has more than 400 satisfied clients from the top e-commerce companies around the world. For more information, please visit www.criteo.com.

About Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners is a global investment group with offices in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Mumbai, and Tel Aviv. As the oldest venture capital practice in the United States, BVP has partnered as an active, hands-on investor in Ciena, Ingersoll Rand, Parametric, Skype, Staples, VeriSign, and W.R. Grace, among many others. More than 100 BVP-funded companies have gone public on exchanges in Canada, India, London, and the United States. For more information visit www.bvp.com.

I-level Goes Into Administration; US Lawmakers Unveil Draft Privacy Legislation

ExchangeWire — Thu, 06 May 2010 07:14:35 +0000

» Independent digital media agency has been put into administration. The ten year old agency, which currently employs about one hundred and twenty staff, announced the news yesterday. I-level lost the lucrative COI account this year to GroupM, which accounted for 40% of its business. The company is also carrying a significant amount of debt, around £32 million, on its balance sheet after a private equity buyout in 2008. The cost of servicing that debt is about £3 million per year. Combined with the 15% fall in revenue last year and the loss of an account worth about £40 million in billings, the agency could not be run as a viable commercial operation. The company is now looking for a buyer, but who will buy I=level? One of the frontrunners perhaps would be WPP. Martin Sorrell did tell investors recently that WPP was in the market for digital agencies, and could pony up the cash to buy the agency. But there will be no big earn-outs for the private equity firm who bought I-level. This would be a fire sale. [Brand Republic]

» US legislators unveiled a draft privacy legislation that will require ad networks to get a user’s consent before using their data. The proposal looks to have come up with a sensible proposal to give users access to the data being used by ad networks. There will be no opt-in process. Instead ads powered by behavioural targeting will have clearly identifiable icons. The user will then be able to click through and opt-out of being targeted by the ad network. The EU could do with looking at how US lawmakers are dealing with this issue. The proposed legislation not only helps protect user privacy, but also ensures the online ad industry becomes more accountable with the way it targets users with ads. The EU would be doing the digital media industry here a major commercial disservice if it was to insist on an opt-in for every site dropping a cookie. That wouldn’t just affect sites running pixels from ad nets, it would affect hundreds of thousands of European sites using adsense, analytics software and any other cookie-powered publisher applications. How could any online business survive without these tools? [MediaPost]