Interclick Launches Ad Platform, Fights Privacy Charges

Michael-Katz

In the face of legal woes and industry-wide anti-tracking efforts, behavioral ad network Interclick moved forward this week with the launch of its own video ad platform.

The platform is integrated into OSM, Interclick's data valuation platform, which purports to help marketers quantify the effectiveness of their display and video campaigns.

"By being able to quantify the impact of video on display, and vice versa, we are helping clients build consistent cross-channel executions," said Michael Katz, CEO of Interclick.

Interclick is also promising brand-safe environments for clients, thanks to its large network of media partners.

Facing an uncertain future, however, Interclick was recently sued by a New York resident for allegedly violating her privacy by using history-tracking technology.

Just this month, meanwhile, the first "do not track" legislation was introduced in Congress, which increased the likelihood that Web users will be able to prevent companies from recording their online behavior for marketing purposes.

The bill, dubbed the "Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011," would give the Federal Trade Commission the right to enforce regulations prohibiting online marketers from tracking consumers' online behavior.

What's more, top browsers -- including Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer -- have recently agreed to add mechanisms to make it harder for advertisers to track user behavior.

Readying for a fight, Interclick recently appointed Bill Wise, current CEO of MediaBank, to its board of Directors. Wise came to MediaBank from Yahoo, which he joined after the portal acquired ad exchange Right Media in 2007.

In addition, Interclick appointed another media veteran, David Honig, to its advisory board. Honig is currently vice president of business development of BuddyMedia.

For all its troubles, Interclick was named as a top-performing ad technology company in 2010 -- based on the number of non-compliant incidences in campaigns -- according to recent research from digital media-verification company DoubleVerify.

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