aquantive
AKQA is an interactive ad agency driven by ideas to inspire its clients to move forward in the digital era. Some of the services AKQA provides are designing interactive experiences for its clients. It also provides content creation and distribution as well as E-commerce and technology solutions for them. The company was founded in 1995 by Ajaz Ahmed and and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Washington D.C., New York, London, Amsterdam and Shanghai. AKQA employs over 700 employees including graphic designers, software engineers, coders and art directors. Read the full article »
As more and more media moves to a digital format, the role of digital advertising firms will continue to increase. Firms which have hybrid experience, who truly understand brand management and are able to capitalize on online efficiency (buy more ad space for fewer dollars) are going to excel. AKQA will be an interesting firm to watch over the next several years.
SM: Do you think all forms of media are moving to a digital platform? TB: Are all media becoming digital, addressable, and quantifiable? Perhaps, and if so there is the promise there could be more of a rational play, more analytics placed against those decisions. The more information one has about who your target audience is, what messages and what kind of package your message is, in terms of what are they seeing online, what are they seeing broadcast, the more it will be a very powerful marketing exercise to harness all of that information. Read the full article »
After Google acquired dMarc in January last year, it was hoped that its AdWords customers in US would shortly have an option to place audio ads across prominent radio stations.
dMarc is a California based company that facilitates advertisers to directly connect radio stations through its automated advertising platform.
dMarc’s addition to Google’s formidable arsenal of ad distributors over multiple platforms was hailed as another step by the search giant toward “exploring new ways to extend targeted, measurable advertising to other forms of media”, thereby integrating “dMarc technology into the Google AdWords platform, creating a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers.”
One and half year down the line, not much seems to have happened. As of now, Google is hunting for advertisers to opt for audio ads. End March, it announced a credit of $400 to AdWords advertisers for opting for a radio campaign before April 30.
That deadline has now been extended till June 30, which perhaps explains an apparent reluctance on behalf of their AdWords customers to dip toes in untested waters before others do. Read the full article »
Microsoft has finally got its hands on an Ad Network. With its aQuantive acquisition, however, Microsoft has got something else: a portfolio of great interactive ad agencies, including Avenue A/ Razorfish.
An interesting, offbeat, but smart move for Microsoft could be to proactively roll-up a large chunk of the online advertising space, which will force their competitors, Google and Yahoo, to sit up.
Let’s look at the players. Read the full article »
WSJ reports: “Microsoft announced plans to acquire Internet advertising company aQuantive in a deal valued at about $6 billion, or $66.50 a share, a significant premium. Founded in 1997, aQuantive is the parent company of Avenue A/Razorfish, Atlas Media Console and Drive PM.”
Techcrunch analyzes the deal with a transcript from the Microsoft announcement and Q&A.
My last post talked about other recent moves as well, including WPP group’s acquisition of 24/7 and an analysis of TimeWarner’s investment in Adify.
Clearly, the Online Advertising party is in full swing! Read the full article »
