Meredith Corp. is on an acquisition binge.
The women’s interest publisher announced it has acquired yet another marketing business, Grocery Server, which specializes in targeting local
digital advertising for consumer packaged goods and grocery retail outlets.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Grocery Server is focused on shoppers who use mobile to research and
find deals, including while creating shopping lists and looking for products in store. It delivers product offers to shoppers based on their recent mobile activity, for example targeting a mobile user
who recently searched for recipes for “sloppy Joes” with an offer for paper towels at a nearby retailer.
Meredith began using Grocery Server’s technology last year and has
already used the system to deliver native placements across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, for clients including Target, Unilever and Del Monte, in campaigns involving Meredith’s media
properties, including Allrecipes.
This is just the latest in a series of acquisitions and new launches from Meredith.
In October, the women’s interest publisher launched a new
native advertising platform called “Buzz,” which integrates marketers’ native ads into contextually relevant content areas that are endemic to Meredith brands, including the food,
home, parenting and lifestyle categories. And earlier this year, it acquired Selectable Media, which specializes in native advertising.
On the publishing side, Better Homes and Gardens
unveiled a redesigned Web site that is optimized for mobile devices, with new options in the areas of native and video advertising. It also acquired Shape magazine and struck a long-term
licensing agreement giving it responsibility for ad sales for Martha Stewart Living.