Videology’s Acquisition Of LucidMedia Is About Closing The Loop Between Buyers And Sellers
By David Kaplan
October 3, 2012

Video ad platform Videology’s purchase of demand side player LucidMedia is part of a continuing strategy to break down the walls between serving buyers and sellers across all devices and platforms. Even though this is its second recent deal, following the acquisition of Collider in August, the company says that it’s not about to embark on an acquisition spree and there is no other M&A activity in the works. Read Article

One Year Later, How Are DSPs Adapting?
Adotas Feature by Ajay Sravanapudi
June 17, 2011

Many moons ago, when the demand-side platform (DSP) was new and Invite Media was independent, I made some public predictions about display advertising. In the past year, LucidMedia has been executing diligently and dealing with the many twists and turns of our business. I thought it would be fun to revisit those predictions and rate them with 20/20 hindsight. view

eXelate Rolls Out "Premier Media Partnership" Product
January 18, 2011 by Mike Shields

AdWeek -- Online data purveyor eXelate wants to make it easier for the average media buyer to purchase ad inventory and data concurrently.

The company, which typically sells demographic and behavioral data to demand-side platforms and ad networks, has rolled out a new product called Premier Media Partnership aimed at digital agencies—rather than the slew of specialty trading desks that have popped up at agency holding companies in recent years. view

5 DSP Myths Exposed
October 26, 2010 by Ajay Sravanapudi

iMedia Connection -- The online advertising and media communities are scrambling to grasp the perceived paradigm shift from ad network to demand-side platform (DSP). People are still trying to figure out how all the moving parts are going to fit back together while agencies and advertisers alike roll out large trading desks and private buy-side networks. In the meantime, some broader concerns about internet privacy are lingering in the background. In July, I talked about several common myths around networks and platforms, and, in recent weeks, a number of new developments have surfaced. Let's take a fresh look at some emerging myths, and fact-check them with what we are seeing on the front lines of a rapidly changing landscape. view

ValueClick Gets Contextual Through LucidMedia
August 19, 2010 by Gavin Dunaway

ADOTAS – After an encouraging trial period, ValueClick, which runs affiliate network Conjunction Junction as well as numerous other online marketing services, has integrated LucidMedia's ClickSense contextual technology, enabling the use of advanced contextual targeting across ValueClick's advertising platforms.

“In today’s results-focused online advertising environment, it is important that we provide our advertisers with access to powerful and precise targeting tools and technologies,” said ValueClick CTO Peter Wolfert. “We believe LucidMedia’s contextual technology will help our advertiser clients achieve their specific audience and targeting goals, while helping our publisher partners improve their monetization.” view

ValueClick Integrates LucidMedia's Contextual Technology into its Online Advertising Platform
August 19, 2010

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq:VCLK), one of the world's largest integrated online marketing companies, today announced that it has partnered with LucidMedia (www.lucidmedia.com) to enable enhanced contextualization services within ValueClick’s online advertising platforms.

The agreement follows a period during which ValueClick integrated, deployed, and tested LucidMedia’s patented ClickSense contextual targeting technology. Through the testing period, ValueClick and LucidMedia concluded that adding LucidMedia’s contextualization technologies to ValueClick’s massive network of display advertising sites would benefit both companies.view

LucidMedia Gets Pre-emptive With Brand Safety
July 27, 2010 by Gavin Dunaway

Adotas -- So what do you say when you find realize you served a brand's ad on a website dedicated to hate speech or explicit sexual acts? How about hate speech spoken during explicit sexual acts?

“Sorry about that — won’t happen again!” I’m sure that goes over great.

Nah, being preventive is the only solution in a space with unsavory content crawling from every corner — hence why ad-blocking is all the rage these days.

The latest player to introduce preemptive brand safety capabilities is DSP LucidMedia, which uses its patented ClickSense contextual advertising technology developed over the last 10 years to pre-screen ad inventory and label potentially offensive impressions in advance. view

LucidMedia DSP offers preemptive brand safety
July 27, 2010 by Kristina Knight

BizReport -- "...We believe the value to be unlocked is significant, partifularly as traditional offline brands become more comfortable with the genuine accountability that preemptive brand safety can provide," said Ajay Sravanapudi, CEO and Founder of LucidMedia. "Preemptive protection for brand advertisers is hard to do, but we believe it's absolutely critical for advertisers and agencies to have this capability, especially for traditional big brands to more fully trust and embrace online advertising while increasing efficiency."

The platform pre-screens online inventory, detecting potentially inappropriate content through thousands of categories. Marketers set their own criteria for what is or is not objectionable, depending on the brand's promise to consumers, giving brands more control over what can and cannot be accepted into the system. view

Demand-side platform myth busters
July 8, 2010 by Ajay Sravanapudi

iMedia Connection -- In just a few short months, the term demand-side platform (DSP) has become ubiquitous in the online advertising industry. It has become synonymous with all things real-time bid, exchange-sourced, display advertising -- in many cases replacing the mainstay term "network" as the model of choice for advertisers. All kinds of media brokers are now scrambling to offer a DSP solution, relegating words like "network" and "optimizer" to the dustbin of display terminology.

But as more platforms wade into the opportunity waters, it seems like an equal amount of fog is being injected into industry discussions. So I thought it would be an opportune time to lift some of that fog and expose several of the bigger DSP myths being perpetuated today. view

LucidMedia Partners With AlmondNet, BlueKai, and eXelate
Gavin O'Malley,
Wednesday, June 23, 2010

MediaPost -- In an effort to provide advertisers with broader audience targeting abilities, ad technology firm LucidMedia on Wednesday announced partnerships with behavioral targeting company AlmondNet; auction-based data exchange BlueKai; and data company eXelate.

Per the deal, LucidMedia will bolster its contextual targeting technology with data and components from all three providers. Additions include AlmondNet's keyword and segment-based data; in-market data from BlueKai; and eXelate's pool of targeting data. view

 

Online Advertising Startup LucidMedia Raises $4.5 Million
by Robin Wauters
Jun 3, 2010

LucidMedia, provider of an online advertising demand-side platform (DSP) with integrated real-time bidding, this morning announced that is has secured $4.5 million in funding, led by MMV Financial (MMV). The news comes merely a day after word got out that Google reportedly acquired rival Invite Media in a "$70 million range" deal (still unconfirmed at this point), which would significantly narrow down the exit possibilities for LucidMedia.

Either way, LucidMedia plans to use the funds to expand its recently launched self-service DSP platform, which enables agencies and advertisers manage their online advertising campaigns. The DSP leverages LucidMedia's contextual targeting technologies, which the company says are patent-protected, to provide more than 14,000 categories. This funding follows a December 2008 investment from investors like Lake Street Capital and Redleaf Group. LucidMedia has now raised $13.3 million in total, according to CrunchBase data. The company was originally founded in 1999. view

 

LucidMedia Jumps on the Self-Service Train
by Gavin Dunaway
May 18, 2010

ADOTAS--On the heels of the launch of its DSP platform back in February, LucidMedia has made the leap from managed service to self-service DSP in response to client demands to "twist the knobs themselves," said founder and CEO Ajay Sravanapudi.

Agencies and networks alike have been clamoring for self-service features to both protect data and claw back margin, he added. Clients that want to bring proprietary data into the system yearn for greater efficiency and control over a campaign, "as opposed to just handing off an IO to a network." view

 

LucidMedia CEO Sravanapudi On Launch Of Self-Service For Agencies And Advertisers
AdExchanger.com

Ajay Sravanapudi, CEO and Founder of LucidMedia, discussed the different facets of the announcement.

Why do you think agencies want self-service? Aren't they overwhelmed as it is and need full or at least "fuller" service?

Yes, agency media planners and media buyers are universally stretched to the limit and are in dire need of tools to make them more efficient, more productive, more profitable, with reduced complexity. We are seeing that agencies tend to be at different stages in the process of becoming a buy-side network. While the majority are very advanced, some still need full control and others are just beginning so they need a fully managed service solution. Our new self-service solution is really targeted at the large, advanced organizations although any group can work with it from the outset. Our self-service offering includes hands-on training and additional managed service to make the transition as smooth as possible no matter where they are in the process. Our ad operations team works directly with the agency to show their team how the self-service platform works and which lever effects what outcome. All of our initial traction has been around the managed service approach and now, with self-service launched, we are positioned to service any agency at any stage in the transition. view

LucidMedia Partners With Click Forensics To Improve Traffic, Audience Verification
Gavin O'Malley,
Tuesday, April 20, 2010

MediaPost -- Reston, Va.-based ad technology firm LucidMedia on Tuesday announced a partnership with Click Forensics, a provider of traffic quality and audience verification services. The idea is to improve traffic quality across real-time bid markets for any interactive ad agency using LucidMedia's demand-side platform. Under the partnership, LucidMedia will incorporate Click Forensics' audience and ad verification technology into its platform to give agencies easier access to click-fraud detection in real-time. view

 

Choosing the Right DSP
by Ajay Sravanapudi
Feb 15, 2010

ADOTAS--2010 is already shaping up to be the year of real-time bidding (RTB) technologies and demand-side platforms (DSP). The availability of real-time bid access into the major ad exchanges is converging with an industry-wide preference for agency-administered ad-buying and ad-trafficking platforms.

The traditional ad network model achieved many things but has yet to deliver on the promise of truly cost-effective scale. The rules of engagement changed when downward-spiraling CPM prices forced publishers grudgingly onto the emerging exchanges to improve their yield and backfill diminishing ad revenues. The networks had to follow their publishers and a new aggregated sourcing model emerged. view

 

Future of the Ad Network?
Data-Driven Thinking Column

Don't miss "Data-Driven Thinking", a column on AdExchanger.com written by members of the media community and containing fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. LucidMedia CEO and Founder Ajay Sravanapudi recently discussed what it means to be a demand-side platform (DSP).

Demand Side Platforms (DSP) are hot! I can tell by the huge agency interest, and even more eager venture capitalists anxious to get in on the latest craze. Traditional ad networks and newfangled technology platforms are declaring themselves to be DSPs. Others who did much of the evangelical spadework for DSPs appear to be stung by the sudden rush. There is now an attempt to define a "true DSP". At this stage, a "true DSP" as defined by a list of features serves little purpose and is as much a disservice to the industry, as it is disconnected from reality. In fact, many of the current DSP competitors--those with the most significant solutions already in-market--are successfully violating that definition of a "true DSP" to the benefit of their agencies partners. view

RED HERRING 100
2009 Winners Announced!

To be selected as a Red Herring 100 winner or finalist is a mark of distinction and high honor. Only 200 companies are chosen as finalists out of a pool of thousands. Of those finalists we selected 100 companies as winners. To decide on these companies the Red Herring editorial team diligently surveys entrepreneurship around the globe. Technology industry executives, investors, and observers regard the Red Herring 100 lists as invaluable instruments to discover and advocate the promising startups that will lead the next wave of disruption and innovation.

Past award winners include Google, Yahoo!, Skype, Netscape, Salesforce.com, and YouTube. view

LucidMedia Launches Verified Inventory
by Edward Barrera
Feb 19, 2009

ADOTAS -- LucidMedia has announced the launch of a new contextualization offering that combines the company's natural language processing technology with a base of more than 14,000 content categories. view

LucidMedia Named OnMedia 100 Technology Innovator for 2009
AlwaysOn
Jan 22, 2009

AlwaysOn announced today that LucidMedia has been selected to the 2009 OnMedia 100 list as a Technology Innovator.  The OnMedia 100 Award is given to private, emerging technology companies in the advertising, publishing, marketing, branding and public relations spaces.  LucidMedia was selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team based on our demonstration of growth, market opportunity, quality of innovation and customer traction. view

Spanish-Language Contextual Advertising Platform Launched
Portada Magazine Q&A
Sep 25, 2008

Lucid Media, an online contextual advertising platform and meta-network, announced the release of a Spanish-language version of its ClickSense® contextual advertising platform, enabling online advertisers and publishers to target the Spanish-speaking Internet demographic through more than 14,000 categories and provide highly-targeted display advertising opportunities for publishers and advertisers alike. Is this an online ad-network, a technology, or both? view

LucidMedia Adds Targeting Capabilities To Right Media
MediaPost Article by Tameka Kee
Aug 5, 2008

Yahoo has added contextual targeting to the array of display ad products available via the Right Media Exchange. Reston, Va.-based LucidMedia is the advertising technology company powering the new targeting capability, which runs on a proprietary engine called ClickSense. ClickSense analyzes the content of the whole page as opposed to a specific keyword--a move toward offering more precise contextual matches with fewer false-positives and negatives. view

Yahoo's Right Media and LucidMedia team up on contextual advertising
Posted by Dawn Kawamoto
Aug 5, 2008

Yahoo has struck an agreement with LucidMedia, in a move to enhance contextual display advertising on its Right Media Exchange, the companies announced Tuesday. The arrangement comes as Yahoo, Google and its other competitors, which rely heavily on advertising revenues, face a challenging environment as the economy softens and advertisers pull back. With the agreement, Yahoo is seeking to grab market share from industry leader Google and Microsoft. view

Safe Harbor from the Behavioral Blues
Adotas Exclusive by Christopher Weiss
July 29, 2008

Online privacy issues around behavioral targeting (BT) for display advertising are causing chagrin among advertisers, leading some to look elsewhere. Yet with the uncertain economy and crowded theater for customer mindshare, they need more than ever to reach their audiences, engage them effectively, and drive additional return on ad spend. So what to do? view

Open-Sourcing Online Ad Targeting
The Tech Beat by Rob Hof
April 10, 2008

Essentially, OTX busts targeting algorithms out of single ad networks, allowing them to shine (or fail if they're not so great, for that matter). They basically plug in (targeting) technology providers and let them fight it out in a Darwinian environment, explains Ajay Sravanapudi, CEO of initial OTX partner Lucid Media, a contextual ad network and technology provider. view

AdBrite's New System Gives Small Firms Access to Online Ad Space
April 10, 2008

Web advertising firm AdBrite plans to announce that it is creating a system that gives small companies that have developed ad-targeting technologies access to online ad space. In recent years, a number of ad-targeting firms have popped up, but one barrier to growth for them has been the difficulty getting access to ad inventory or advertisers.view

AdBrite Launches Open Targeting Exchange (OTX), Creating Competitive Marketplace for Ad Targeting Technologies
April 10, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, April 10 /PRNewswire/ -- AdBrite, The Internet's Ad Marketplace, today announced the launch of Open Targeting Exchange (OTX), an open and competitive marketplace for ad targeting technologies. AdBrite's OTX system delivers superior yield and advertiser effectiveness by leveraging multiple targeting methods and algorithms, and allowing them to compete for the right to match advertisements to publisher web pages.view

Ad: tech San Francisco Coverage
April 26, 2006

Entrieva announced today that it has expanded its ClickSense^™ platform for contextual targeting for display ads to cover additional consumer channels. Entrieva's ClickSense^™ contextual targeting solution enables either search-based text ads or graphic display ads to be served on web pages that are highly relevant to either the page content or the search query typed by the user. view

Entrieva Upgrades its ClickSense^™ Contextual Targeting Platform
April 25, 2006

Entrieva Upgrades its ClickSense^™ Contextual Targeting Platform to Now Cover Over 25 Consumer Channels; Technology Platform Enables AOL to Creatively Grow Its Advertising Revenue. Gerry Campbell, Senior Vice President AOL, stated, "We have been using Entrieva's ClickSense^™ technology as part of our Search platform to deliver search based "Web Offers". Entrieva's contextual targeting technology has enabled us to monetize our traffic in more creative ways, and we are extremely pleased with the results. Entrieva announced today that it has expanded its ClickSense^™ platform for contextual targeting for display ads to cover additional consumer channels. It now covers over 25 areas including.. view

Entrieva Upgrades ClickSense^™
April 24, 2006

Gerry Campbell, Senior Vice President AOL, said in a press statement, "We have been using Entrieva's ClickSense^™ technology as part of our Search platform to deliver search based "Web Offers". Entrieva's contextual targeting technology has enabled us to monetize our traffic in more creative ways, and we are extremely pleased with the results. ClickSense^™, a tool intended for media buyers/planners, is a contextual targeting solution enabling either search-based text ads or graphic display ads to be served on web pages that are highly relevant to either the page content or the search query typed by the user. view

Entrieva Upgrades Its ClickSense^™ Contextual Targeting Platform to Now Cover Over 25 Consumer Channels
April 24, 2006

Thomas C. Lewis, President & CEO of Entrieva, said, "Our relationship with AOL has grown over the past year to a point where the two organizations are beginning to see very strong results. We are excited to be part of AOL's new advertising strategy and pleased to have another satisfied customer in Entrieva's growing ClickSense^™ customer base." Entrieva's ClickSense^™ is a hosted service for contextually targeting ads -- text or banners -- or dynamic content, from any text stream -- search queries, web pages, RSS feeds, emails, etc. view

Entrieva Shops adMarketplace
March 27, 2006

"Expanding the quantity and quality of our ad targeting is a key element to the advertising services we provide", said Conducive CEO Jim Waltz. The Conducive Corporation's contextual and behavioral adMarketplace advertising network has started using Entrieva's ClickSense^™ technology to target their ads. view

HealthCentral Network Uses ClickSense^™
March 7, 2006

Health care information network HealthCentral will use advertising technology company Entrieva's ClickSense^™; contextual advertising technology to manage their advertising spaces. The introduction of Entrieva's ClickSense^™; will let HealthCentral target sponsor ads according to page content automatically. view

Entrieva's ClickSense^™ Platform to Enhance Contextual Targeting
March 7, 2006

Contextual targeting enables the HealthCentral Network Customers to deliver highly-relevant campaigns to generate maximum results. Coupled with The HealthCentral Network's platform, ClickSense^™; closes the gap between content and advertising and delivers a campaign of greater value for publishers and advertisers, increasing ECPM and ROI yield. view