Fresh from its recent and relatively successful IPO, MediaMind brought its road show to London this week to give media buyers a teaser of what to expect from the company in the coming months. The half-day event was a mixture of debate and presentation that was loosely related to the MediaMind offering. It tackled some interesting topics - including a panel session on whether brand focused campaigns can achieve the same success as DR on ad exchanges. Following the half-day event the audience got a glimpse of the MediaMind roadmap.

The roadmap set out the company's intention to build a uniform dashboard for the traditional media buyer, simplifying the process of managing ad campaigns across different media channels including Facebook, mobile, automated display platforms and email. There was a DSP piece in there too for automated trading, and a data warehousing solution. There was also a new dynamic creative offering. All this tech will sit behind an idiot proof dashboard. Easy. Hmmm. MediaMind has this week made some of these features available to clients, including an improved planning tool and a trading desk. It looks like MediaMind is trying to position itself as an independent alternative to the omnipresent DFA/Invite axis. With Google becoming increasingly powerful in the display space, agencies and media buyers might look to put more budget through alternative vendors to prevent over-reliance on one provider.

Here's more detail about the MediaMind announcement:

New York, September 07, 2010 – MediaMind Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MDMD), the leading independent provider of integrated digital advertising solutions today announced the launch of MediaMind Version 2.0. The new ad serving and campaign management technology features several industry firsts which enable integration of data across advertizing channels to boost management efficiency and return on investment.

Addressing a fragmented digital landscape, MediaMind Version 2.0 resolves the reliance on multiple platforms using one integrated system instead. For the first time, agencies will have one platform that allows online marketers to build a campaign from start to finish, including media planning, analytics and optimization across all digital channels.

MediaMind has added the following functionality to optimize media planning, buying and targeting:

Smart Planning: Revolutionizes the planning and buying process by creating additional value in all three stages of research, negotiation, and buying. Infusing performance and historical cost data within each stage allows users to plan better media opportunities. Marketers can objectively evaluate, negotiate and create a timely strategy, without any restrictions or limitations.

Smart Versioning: A set of new capabilities simplifies the planning and distribution of dynamic creative messages. Advertisers can create one master ad and define the variables and goals. Fully integrated with the ad serving processes and analytics, Smart Versioning enables advertisers to easily optimize and manage multiple creative executions according to audience profile and preferences.

Smart Trading: Fully integrated into the MediaMind platform, advertisers can flow effortlessly between ad server and exchange-traded buys with one log-in. One unified management system allows advertisers to increase their effective reach and frequency using combined data for premium and non-premium inventory.

“The growing scale and diversity of disparate digital marketing opportunities can overwhelm advertisers and agencies alike” said Gal Trifon, CEO and Co-founder at MediaMind. “The level of integration in MediaMind version 2.0 makes it simple for marketers to communicate insights and make decisions when it counts.”