• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 24, 2005

Yielding to the growing popularity of the online marketing term "adware," ValueClick Monday announced plans to change the name of AdWare Systems, a unit that has managed media buys for ad agencies since 1981, before online marketing even existed. ValueClick, a multifaceted operator of online marketing services that is perhaps best known for its ad networks and affiliate marketing services, said it was merging AdWare Systems with its Mediaplex operations, and that the combined unit would operate as Mediaplex. Mediaplex provides services for managing online advertising campaigns.

AdWare Systems had been aggressively trying to dissuade the industry from utilizing the term "adware" as a generic reference to software that, when downloaded on a user's computer, causes advertising and marketing messages to appear automatically. The term "adware" has become somewhat notorious due to consumer, industry and government backlash that has associated some forms of the software as "spyware," which itself has led to efforts to regulate or legislate some related online marketing practices.

AdWare Systems, which began as a proprietary media buying and management system developed by McCann-Erickson, competes with Donovan Data Systems and other systems providers that manage the transactional and financial aspects of media buys for agencies. The company is expected to make a major push this year to market itself under its new brand name in an effort to capture some of Donovan's dominant share of the market. One of its advantages is AdVault, a system that enables agencies to quickly access their media databases via a browser-based application.

As part of the restructuring, Mediaplex named Joe Lampert to lead its AdVault marketing efforts from vice president of client services at Donovan.