• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 14, 2010

In an important development for the direct response and performance-based TV buying industry, SpotRunner Thursday announced that CoreMedia Systems has agreed to integrate its Malibu Media Platform into its direct response media management software.

The move is significant, because CoreMedia is a major provider of software and systems enabling ad agencies to manage the workflow and process direct response media buys, which should help Malibu gain some critical mass as a TV buying and management system on Madison Avenue.

Malibu is one of several platforms developed by big media technology firms to make national TV buying a more automated and manageable process. It competes with Google TV Ads and Microsoft's Navic's Admira systems, none of which have gained much momentum among mainstream national TV buying departments, but all of which have gained some favor with direct response buyers because of their efficiency and their ability to quickly post real-time results.

SpotRunner, whose core business enables so-called "long tail" advertisers to create, plan and buy local TV advertising time via a "self-serve" system, claims to have inventory from more than 70 national cable TV networks trading through Malibu. Some of SpotRunner's early stage investors include Interpublic and WPP Group, but WPP recently filed a shareholder suit against SpotRunner.

The companies said the new agreement will enable direct response media buyers to seamlessly export data from Malibu into CoreMedia's CoreDirect system to view results for direct TV campaigns bought through the Malibu platform, including buys, "pre-logs," and "post-logs."