• by Joe Mandese , August 11, 2010

ValueClick Media, the online audience network division of online marketing services giant ValueClick Inc., Tuesday unveiled a "Platform Services" offering that could make it a significant player in the burgeoning demand side platform segment of the online display marketplace.

The company named Nancy Hall vice president-platform services, and said she would oversee the new services unit. Hall. Who had been vice president-sales and client development of ValueClick's Mediaplex division, will report to Bill Todd, general manager of ValueClick Media.

ValueClick claims its online audience network already is one of the largest and most robust of any online audience network in the marketplace, with "direct relationships" with 8,000 publishers. To date, its real-time bidding and audience targeting systems have operated like other conventional advertising networks, but the new platform services unit will utilize new data, audience targeting and technology components that position it more for the "demand" side of the industry.

ValueClick Media debuted the first of its platform offerings, one dubbed the Retail Performance Platform, Tuesday during the eTail East 2010 conference in Baltimore, and said it was geared specifically for e-commerce retailers, with features designed to improve conversion rates, increase average order values and decrease shopping cart abandonment.