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Facebook acquires Source3 to get content creators paid
Facebook is on the cusp of a big push to lure independent content creators to share their art through the News Feed. But it needs to prove it can help creators monetize their content without allowing piracy to run rampant. That’s why it’s acquired content rights management startup Source3, including its team and technology. Read More
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The IAB finalizes its new ad standards
The Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group representing online publishers and advertisers, has released new standards around mobile and web advertisers. Not every publisher and advertiser will follow these standards, but the standards are important because they help establish best practices around what is and isn’t acceptable for the industry. If done right, they help maintain… Read More
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PebblePost raises $47M as it uses online data to fuel direct mail marketing
PebblePost, a startup that uses online data to target consumers with printed mail, has raised $47 million in a combination of equity and debt. That includes the $15 million, RRE Ventures-led Series B that the company announced in February. The equity portion of the funding has been expanded to $20 million, with another $27 million coming from a loan facility from Horizon Technology Finance, plus… Read More
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Sizmek will acquire Rocket Fuel for adtech consolidation
After a rocky few years as a public company, Rocket Fuel is going private again. Adtech company Sizmek announced this morning that it’s agreed to acquire Rocket Fuel for $2.60 per share, in a deal that values the company at $145 million. (That number includes the assumption of Rocket Fuel’s debt — the purchase price is $125 million if you look at shares alone.) Rocket Fuel… Read More
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Snapchat’s Foursquare and Factual partnerships double geofilter usage
Borrowed location databases are paying off big time for Snapchat. They allow users to turn any nearby landmark or business into a stylized geofilter that they can overlay on their photos and videos. Before Snapchat partnered with location data providers Foursquare and Factual, only a few popular neighborhoods, cities, and places had their own geofilters. It also recently added a user… Read More
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AdQuick raises $1.1M to bring online tools to outdoor advertising
AdQuick is looking to make billboard advertising easier and more transparent. AdQuick founder Matthew O’Connor said he ran into the billboard ad world repeatedly while working at startups, including Instacart. Each time, he found himself “perplexed at why it’s so hard to find and buy outdoor advertising.” Read More
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Insticator raises $5.2M to help publishers make their stories more interactive
Insticator is announcing that it has raised $5.2 million in Series A funding. The startup allows online publishers to add quizzes, polls and other interactive elements (either created by Insticator or by the publisher themselves) to their stories. They then make money from those widgets by running ads in them, too. Read More
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Elton John invests in Qloo, a startup that analyzes your taste
Qloo, which bills itself as “the cultural artificial intelligence data platform,” has raised $6.5 million in additional funding from AXA Strategic Ventures and Elton John. Yes, that’s the Elton John who co-wrote and performed “Tiny Dancer” and “Candle in the Wind.” He’s actually not the first big name to back the New York startup —… Read More
Latest Crunch Report
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Facebook’s Messenger ads are bad and must be destroyed
When Facebook removed messages from the main app, I swore I would never download Messenger. That’s been a pretty easy promise to keep, especially since they introduced the idea of huge ads that take up half your screen while you try to use the service. Today Facebook redesigned them as part of a larger rollout — but fixed none of the reasons these ads are bad and should be destroyed. Read More
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Facebook Messenger globally tests injecting display ads into inbox
Messaging is the center of mobile, and Facebook wants ads in front of all those eyes. After seeing “promising results from Australia and Thailand,” Facebook Messenger is expanding its display ad beta test that lets businesses buy space between your chat threads. Later this month, a small percentage of users will start seeing ads in the Messenger app’s home tab. Read More
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ShareIQ helps brands track their product images across the web
As more and more product images get shared on platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr, ShareIQ says it can help brands understand what’s going on. Founder and CEO Brian Killen used to work as the head of strategy at marketing company Acxiom, and he recalled being told by a retail marketing executive, “I see my pictures all over Pinterest and websites and all over the globe… Read More
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AdHawk aims to take the complexity out of Facebook and Google advertising
After more than a year in beta testing, AdHawk has opened its doors to all advertisers. AdHawk brings the data from your different campaigns together in a single dashboard. Read More
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Facebook introduces new ad metrics and promises that more are coming
Facebook says it’s introducing a number of new measurements for businesses that buy ads and own Facebook Pages. Read More
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Crunch Report | Tinder Unveils New Gold Subscription
Today’s Stories Tinder’s new subscription, Tinder Gold, lets you see who already likes you Google unveils Advr, an experimental Area 120 project for advertising in VR Equal Rights Center sues Uber for denying equal access to people who use wheelchairs Waymo’s self-driving van hits the desert to see if it can stand the heat The latest in the Binary Capital blowup —… Read More
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Google unveils Advr, an experimental Area 120 project for advertising in VR
Google today is more formally taking the wraps off its internal incubator, Area 120, with the launch of a dedicated website, alongside the launch of one of the program’s more interesting projects to date: a way to advertise within VR. The new experiment, which is simply called Advr, involves a cube-like ad format which allows video ads to run in a 3D/VR environment. Area 120 was launched… Read More
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Crunch Report | Google To Stop Scanning Inboxes
Today’s Stories Google now has all the data it needs, will stop scanning Gmail inboxes for ad personalization Samsung’s Galaxy Note8 will reportedly be the company’s most expensive smartphone yet YouTube TV expands to 10 more U.S. markets, adds more YouTube Red series Tesla said to be in talks to create its own streaming music service Credits Written and Hosted by… Read More
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Google now has all the data it needs, will stop scanning Gmail inboxes for ad personalization
Here’s a surprise announcement from Google: It will stop scanning the inboxes of Gmail’s free users for ad personalization at some point later this year. Google already doesn’t do this for business users who subscribe to its G Suite services, but until now, it routinely scanned the inboxes of its free users to better target ads for them. It then combined that information… Read More
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