Canadian Media Cos. Try Private Exchange; Simulmedia's TV Ad Network Fills Bank

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Great White Private Exchange

Canadian media companies CBC/Radio-Canada, Rogers Media and Shaw Media announced that they’ll partner on a private exchange for their non-guaranteed, display ad inventory. Known as CPAX – or Canadian Premium Audience Exchange for long – the new exchange will be powered by AppNexus and is scheduled to launch May 16. According to the release, CPAX will provide potential access to 15 million Canadians across more than 100 websites in both English and French. In response to an AdExchanger question about how the non-guaranteed will be handled once it has gone through the private exchange, an AppNexus spokesperson offered by email, “A tiered auction is the plan for now. Preferred buyers will be in the first tier, with preferential access. The impressions, if unsold, will be then available to a larger group of buyers.” The private exchange offers “first look” -as well as a “first taste” of programmatic buying to big brand publishers. Read the release.

Funding The TV Ad Network

Former Tacoda and Real Media ad tech warrior Dave Morgan has reached out to existing investors for another round of funding for his targeted TV startup, Simulmedia. The soon-to-be-closed, $6 million inside round brings Simulmedia’s grand, funding total to (drum roll) $27.25 million. Read more. From here, the funding flowing through ad technology right now is as fast and furious as ever. Interesting to see Morgan and Simulmedia formally take the wraps of his company’s positioning as it’s no longer just about optimizing TV tune-in via set-top box data. From the boilerplate of the funding release: “Simulmedia, Inc. is a NYC -based television ad targeting company and operates the Simulmedia Audience Network, the world’s first data-driven audience network for television.” Integrated marketing for the convergently-inclined draws closer.

Selling Display For Email

VentureBeat covers new email advertising inventory percolating in isocket’s self-serve, reserved media marketplace. Email marketing SaaS company MailChimp is a key partner here as isocket CEO John Ramey tells VentureBeat: “The email functionality will be available through all email marketing platforms, but those that use MailChimp will have a more simplified experience. That’s something that attracted lots of publishers to start using isocket in the first place.” Read it. How long until this sort of inventory is bought programmatically, at scale, and includes other channels like the PC-based display and mobile Web? I’ll guess 18-24 months.

Social Foot Traffic

Data is driving media on Facebook. ClickZ’s Christopher Heine says that gift card distribution system Wrapp (which manages cards for Sephora, Gap, H&M, and others notes Heine) is letting retailers sync demographic and geographic data to make offers – and at varying price points. Heine notes the online/offline impact, “Wrapp’s social commerce application is designed to help merchants increase foot traffic. The gift cards marketing system can also be employed for e-commerce.” Read more.

Integrating The Ads

Digiday’s Josh Sternberg profiles Complex Media Network which hails from a print publication background but has since morphed into an online ad network of sorts along the lines of Glam Media and Alloy Digital. It’s a combination of ads and content. “Across the Complex Media Network, CPMs run between $13 and $17 on standard display depending on the category. It can go up from there if there’s custom content, like video. CEO Antoniello says it has high CPMs because of its unique content. He explained that the company vets all of its publisher partners upon recruitment, so no linking strategies.” Read more. In that marketers increasingly want branded content/entertainment, clever online content owners may be able to make a lucrative match with brand dollars. Site rep firms rejoice! Talented sales forces matter.

No Joy In Newsville

A.H. Belo reported its Q1 2012 revenue yesterday as the newspaper company (publisher of the Dallas Morning News among others) continues to take a hit and its print publication business evaporates. But, that’s not all. It’s digital revenue is apparently hurting, too. From the release, “Digital revenue decreased 11 percent to $7.8 million. Excluding the impact of a discontinuation of a revenue allocation to digital and the Super Bowl, digital revenue was flat in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the prior year period.” Read the release. Local newspapers remain under siege. With so many access points for comprehensive news on the Web, the local newspaper’s site finds it difficult to compete – especially with Craigslist grabbing its local listings business.

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