• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, November 9, 2010

Here we go again. It was just a few weeks ago that we reported on the Specific Media buy out of video ad net and marketing company BBE. Now another major player in the display space pulls a video tech company in.

Undertone acquired Jambo Media yesterday, which claims 17 million unique users. Jambo services 1,000 sites and serves video for a number of ad networks and publishers. Its main business is as a supplier of video to third parties like the other ad networks. Undertone says it will incorporate the Jambo video player and content management system. Part of the aim is to give marketers a more seamless buying experience across display and video buys.

Undertone already had a video offering, but CEO Mike Cassidy told me that the acquisition gives the company its own syndicated player, content management and ad delivery, "enabling us to execute integrated campaigns across brand-safe sites from a single platform for increased reach and more meaningful measurement."

On the publisher side, Cassidy also sees this combination helping the supply side consolidate its vendors and have video tech, distribution and advertising monetization in a single package. Rather than compare this deal with Specific's purchase of BBE, he sees it more like AOL's acquiring 5min because it is more involved with content syndication and a player technology.

Cassidy says to expect new products to come from this combination of technologies and ad types in the first quarter of next year. He says that Undertone is looking ultimately to move across the screens (TV, PC and mobile). "Our product roadmap is driven by the goal of executing campaigns from a single unified platform for display, high impact and video formats." He is also expecting the current targeting capabilities of display to be applied across all of those screens from this unified ad serving platform.

The other message that came through last week at AdNets was that the audience-centric demand-side platforms and agency trading desks that have only seen a trickle of spending so far are going to become important buyers of ad inventory in short order...or so all of the vested parties say. In an environment where the main media buyers have themselves bought into the DSP model, the market likely has to simplify and consolidate. In order to maintain their visibility and relevance among these new entities, ad nets will need more than scale. They will need premium publishers and a compelling feature set.