• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, November 16, 2016

Real-time location data and ad targeting services brought together some unlikely suitors this week ranging from xAd's acquisition of WeatherBug, to WPP's data alliance with Spotify, and Snapchat's data deal with Foursquare.

Earlier this week, xAd announced the acquisition of WeatherBug for an undisclosed sum. The cash to buy the company's mobile, Web and connected TV assets partially came from a $42.5 million Series E funding round.

The acquisition pulls together location and weather data, something search marketers have been doing for a few years. The combination of the two data sources provide insight into the types of ads to serve.

WeatherBug reportedly gets more than 20 million unique users monthly, It has more than 10,000 private weather stations from which it gathers data, and its app is rated No. 2 in the iOS App Store, according to xAd.

The company also said that the deal expands xAd’s insight into mobile users by 50 million. These users have opted in to share their location data many times daily.

Then there's the WPP Data Alliance partnership with Spotify. The multi-year agreement announced Tuesday enables collaboration around data, insights, creative and programmatic ad buying.

WPP's operating companies now have access to the unique listening preferences and behaviors of Spotify's 100 million users in 60 countries. It gives the agency's clients insights into the connections between music and listener's moods and activities. Music can help to predict moods, which enables advertisers to understand their audiences. 

GroupM gets an exclusive infusion of Spotify data into LIVE Panel via Lightspeed Research, which includes Spotify's internal audience segmentation study. Kantar is conducting media research in 12 markets to help measure the quantity and quality of the Spotify audience compared to radio listeners, for instance.

Snapchat announced a data deal with Foursquare on Wednesday to gain access to its data, which also has access to location data from Twitter, Uber, Apple, Pinterest and 100,000 other services