More than ever, advertising today is a game of Who Owns and Uses the Most Data. The social marketing analytics company 33Across this morning is adding a new treasure trove of data to its arsenal with the acquisition of Tynt, an analytics firm for publishers.
The deal proves you don't have to be a behemoth like Google or Facebook to provide advertisers with enough data to be useful to brand marketers and publishers alike. Together, the two companies will reach more than 1.25 billion users, about 75% of Internet users worldwide--more than Google's 1 billion or Facebook's 800 million. That will allow 33Across at the same time to help brands target likely buyers better and help publishers make more from their page views. "It gives us access to the largest interest and social graph on the Internet," says 33Across CEO and cofounder Eric Wheeler, a onetime Ogilvy veteran.
So what does 33Across do, exactly? For an ad tech company, it has a remarkably clear explanation on its Web site that I can't really improve upon, so here you go:
33Across technology helps marketers identify high-potential prospects who are socially connected to existing customers and brand loyalists. For consumers, we offer highly-relevant advertising and a more user-friendly web experience. ...
In order to deliver relevant ads, we have developed technology which tries to predict what consumers might be interested in based on anonymous data collected from various web sites. Specifically, our technology focuses on social interaction data. How does this work? One example is that when two people post a comment on the same photo on a social network site, our technology might assume that these people are part of the same social circle, and therefore may have similar interests. Then, if one of those people clicks on an ad for running shoes (for example), our technology might deliver the same ad to the other person.
In addition, our systems make use of a technology called "cookies" which allows us to store our interest predictions on your web browser so that the next time you go to a web site that we work with, we can deliver a relevant ad.
Wheeler says Tynt, which collects information from people who copy and paste text from Web sites to share with others (to the annoyance of some), allows 33Across to serve publishers as well as advertisers now. That gives 33Across a more complete set of data to help both sides, giving it ammunition against competitors such as Quantcast, Clearspring, and Media6Degrees.
While that could present a conflict, says Forrester analyst Joanna O'Connell, it's hardly unprecedented, since Google and Facebook similarly work both sides of the fence these days. Co-opetition is alive and well in ad tech as well as the rest of the tech industry, it seems. Tynt will continue to operate with its own brand.
The deal is also yet another sign of the trend to consolidation in ad tech companies--though with all the new firms continuing to be formed, the sector is unlikely to settle down anytime soon.
