• by Laurie Petersen , July 25, 2007

It was an unusual kind of a morning - what with AOL and its behavioral marketing partner Revenue Science jointly sponsoring an event in New York City - as AOL simultaneously announced it was buying rival firm Tacoda.

How Revenue Science fits in the picture at AOL was a topic of considerable corridor talk at Tuesday's Behavioral Marketing Forum.

Revenue Science CEO Bill Gossman said it's business as usual and his firm will continue to power the behavioral marketing capabilities of AOL.com as it's been doing for about two years. In fact, he said, the deal with Tacoda only underscores AOL's commitment to being a leader in behavioral targeting.

Revenue Science is rolling out a consumer research project at this moment with the AOL Media Networks sales team.

"They fully intend to continue working with us," said Gossman whose firm is now the recognized remaining independent. He declined to talk about how long that independent status might last.

"I had a financial analyst call me today to ask how it felt," Gossman said. "He said, 'You're keeping a big customer. You've lost a competitor. You're the only independent left.'

"It might be odd working with [Tacoda]," Gossman continued. "But I'm certain we'll figure it out. I'm sure we'll bump into each other sooner or later."

JupiterResearch analyst Emily Riley equated the dual relationship to AOL working with DoubleClick, even though it had an ad server.

"It is an unusual situation," she said. "They just have to set boundaries."