NetGravity and Excite’s MatchLogic entered a cooperative alliance and
technology exchange “to promote continued industry growth and facilitate
interactions between buyers and sellers of online advertising.”
Both companies agreed to support a counting methodology that is based on MatchLogic’s TrueCount technology. This approach offers comparable metrics for both advertisers and publishers, using
a thorough counting methodology.
NetGravity will license and implement TrueCount technology for its ad management solutions, offering a methodology that accounts for caching.
MatchLogic and NetGravity also agreed on a common format for media-independent
advertising tags for third party ad serving, referred to as the “Universal Ad
Tag.” This will enable consistent delivery and measurement of all types of
rich media ads, and ease the cooperation between third-party ad serving and site products.
They also said they will work together to develop and promote a standard for
representing and sharing anonymous consumer profiles for precision targeted
advertising. The format will include a base set of profile fields known as a
“common profile,” and will include an API and format to extend and add a wide
variety of audience information, known as “common profile extensions.” This
common profile will enable multiple data providers to easily share and
aggregate information.
“NetGravity and MatchLogic combined customers represent a significant portion
of the online advertising dollars spent and managed by publishers today” said John Danner, CEO and chairman of San Mateo, CA-based NetGravity. “Our
cooperative partnership will improve interaction between buyers and sellers,
and aid the growth of our industry. The two organizations share common goals, and
will continue to work with organizations such as the IAB and FAST, and
actively support their standards as well.”
“This is a win-win-win situation for MatchLogic, NetGravity and the industry
overall,” said Pete Estler, CEO of Westminster, CO-based MatchLogic. “The
three initiatives. . . will allow all marketers to utilize the medium more
efficiently and in turn generate a higher ROI.”