Digital marketing technology firm IgnitionOne has acquired AdJug, a display advertising exchange for unsold premium inventory.
The two companies will integrate their technologies to provide marketers with a sophisticated solution that simplifies the buying, targeting and measurement of online advertising.
Display advertising is growing rapidly, fuelled in part by the transparent buying environment offered by advertising exchanges such as AdJug.
According to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau UK’s PwC Ad spend report, in 2010 online advertising reached a record £4 billon, or 25% of total ad expenditure in the UK.
Display advertising accounted for the biggest gain, growing by more than a quarter (27.5%) to a new high of £945.1 million, and representing 23% of total online spend.
The IAB UK also reports that more than half of media agencies in the UK (54.2%) expect to increase the amount of display advertising bought through ad exchanges.
IgnitionOne’s Digital Marketing Suite (DMS) is a centralised set of tools and services that boost performance and measure online advertising across search engines, websites and Facebook.
The DMS will incorporate AdJug’s Dynamic Creative Technology, which customizes advertising creative in real-time, based on people’s interests and web behaviour.
Furthermore, the AdJug Exchange will give IgnitionOne customers complete control over their display ad placements and traffic volume. The Exchange currently serves three billion plus ad impressions per month to more than 67 million unique users, across more than 2,000 publishers and 4,000 sites worldwide.
This deal will enable IgnitionOne, which currently generates more than £12 billion in online sales for marketer and agency clients such as General Motors, Fiat, LBi and Golley Slater, to increase its global reach and offer an unrivalled suite of online marketing solutions.
Will Margiloff, CEO of IgnitionOne, said: “The online ad market is overcrowded with complicated and overlapping technologies. With this deal, IgnitionOne is simplifying digital marketing for agencies and brands. We are growing rapidly to meet advertisers’ demands and, with AdJug on board, we can further realise our ambition for the Digital Marketing Suite to be the leading advertising technology platform.”
Michael Stephanblome, co-founder and CEO of AdJug, said: “Our Dynamic Creative Technology (DCT), combined with IgnitionOne’s audience scoring technology, will give AdJug’s customers better response, greater reach and efficiencies through the industry’s most advanced online advertising platform.”
For IgnitionOne, which formed through the merger of SearchIgnite and Netmining Europe earlier this year, the acquisition increases its global footprint to nine offices in Asia, Europe, the Indian sub continent and the USA, employing more than 200 people. AdJug’s Exchange will give IgnitionOne customers greater access to advertising inventory in new markets, and enable agencies and brands to create international campaigns from one dashboard.
AdJug Co-Founders Michael Stephanblome and Satish Jayakumar will join IgnitionOne’s executive team, strengthening the company’s leadership in Europe. Stephanblome was previously managing director for Gumtree.com and ran marketing for eBay in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Before AdJug, Jayakumar was the Director of European Strategy for MIVA.
Tomorrow Focus, a leading internet group in Europe, will retain a 20% share in AdJug and advise the company as it expands across Europe.
www.IgnitionOne.com/uk
