• by Tameka Kee , November 6, 2007

BuzzLogic has embedded ad targeting into its online buzz monitoring service, allowing advertisers to create and serve real-time, contextually relevant ads to the participants of various blogs and forum discussions.

The new feature is Google AdSense-compatible, and will deliver both text and image-based ads, with options to expand to other content networks and ad formats in the future.

Meanwhile, Sunnyvale-based AnchorFree has launched its Hotspot ad targeting service--enabling Wi-Fi access providers like hotel chains, coffee shops and bookstores to either reduce or eliminate Hotspot service fees by serving ads.

For BuzzLogic, ad targeting was always slated to be part of the company's offering--and according to President and CEO Rob Crumpler, this new "conversation targeting" service contains elements of both contextual and behavioral ads.

"[Advertisers] are applying our search technology to help them get into the relevant conversations, and then traveling across multiple sites to deliver their message--with no need for a cookie," said Crumpler.

The ad-targeting feature is built into BuzzLogic's buzz monitoring platform, which aggregates keyword or phrase-specific data from across the Web--finding out which blogs or sites are generating popular, highly relevant conversations and where they link to (and get links from). The service initially just gave advertisers an excellent read on who the purchase and thought-influencers were in their industry--but now it also provides a list of those who are AdSense-compatible, and allows them to craft instant keyword-based ads that will show up on the site.

According to Crumpler, clients in the private beta of BuzzLogic's ad targeting service saw significant improvements in ad response and conversion rates--including online classified supplier Oodle, which touted an 80% improvement in traffic from the "conversation targeted" ads.

Meanwhile, Wharton Business School saw its MBA course downloads "more than double," and peer-to-peer lending firm Lending Club noted that BuzzLogic's ads netted "more than double the conversion rates" as compared to other contextually targeted ads.

With AnchorFree, business owners offset the costs of providing free Wi-Fi access by serving either venue-specific, geo- or contextually targeted ads in the browser window. A banner-sized ad module can display third-party ad content, as well as a branded section promoting info about the venue itself. So a coffee shop, for example, can serve ads from the local auto dealership in one end, while featuring their "flavor of the day" in the other end. The service also lets businesses customize the first page users see once they connect.

According to Mark Smith, AnchorFree's executive vice president of Strategy and Product Development, the company has spent the two years since its launch in 2005 perfecting the targeting technology.

AnchorFree provides businesses with a free router or automatically redirects their traffic to a data center that matches ads with locations and content. The ads are served by Microsoft's ATLAS, and create an "operator-agnostic blend of OOH and interactive advertising, that can reach a critical mass of consumers," said Smith.

Network access providers like Deep Blue Wireless (which powers Wi-Fi for hotel franchisees including Quality Inn Express and Comfort Suites) and Wi-Fi Guys (for Doubletree and Courtyard Mariott locations) were part of AnchorFree's pilot launch in June. Since then, the company has inked contracts with nearly 10,000 locations for use of the service for 2008.