On Monday, Undertone announced that it had acquired Jambo Media, a supplier “of online video advertising distribution and technology with more than 17 million unique viewers per month [according to Comscore for Sept. 2010].” Read more.
CEO Mike Cassidy discussed the acquisition and his company’s move deeper into the digital video ad space.
Why is Jambo Media a good fit? And, how will the team be integrated into Undertone?
The acquisition of Jambo is a great fit because while Undertone has been offering video for a number of years, the acquisition of Jambo Media gives us access to new inventory, products and technology. It creates a synergy of technology and resources to better serve the market as the one-stop-shop for quality display, high-impact and video advertising.
All Jambo employees are being integrated into the Undertone team and we expect that they will play immediate roles in bringing existing and new products to market.
How will you drive business through the online video ad channel? Will you leverage the existing Undertone display ad client list, for example?
Essentially, our current customers will now be able to get more of what they need through Undertone. Every targeting methodology we apply to display will be applied to video. We anticipate product integration to be complete in Q1 ‘11, at which time Undertone can execute campaigns across formats from a single ad-serving platform. We also plan to continue serving existing Jambo customers.
Are more acquisitions possible by Undertone?
We’re always looking for ways to improve our offerings for partners and customers and will seek to build, acquire or partner with best-in-class product and technology providers to meet their needs.
For ad networks to survive in the future, do you think they need to serve all digital marketing channels such as video, mobile, display, etc.?
Absolutely. With the proliferation of DSPs and other platforms offering new ways for companies to buy and serve inventory, it’s the networks that can offer the most robust combination of products, insights and technology that will differentiate. Video is a critical component of this, as there is a definite need to bridge the gap between traditional TV and digital advertising. That’s why we’ve made our goal to help marketers ‘span the screens,’ by putting video to work for brands on televisions, personal computers and mobile devices.
By John Ebbert
