And, why? It’s simple. There’s a great ad filter on Super Bowl Sunday called “really expensive media time,” which ensures that only the best ads get airtime. I have to hand it to the car guys–Kia, Chrysler and Audi… and the Moto Tablet had me thinking Apple showed up too. And who hasn’t tried to get that email back like the Bridgestone guy running all over town?

The Super Bowl is proof that Americans actually want ads one day of the year, but what about all the other days? That’s the job of AdKeeper: to be Advertising’s Super Bowl the other 364 days. With AdKeeper consumers can gather just the ads of interest and bring them together in one place. Keep the best, toss the rest.

People actually like the ads they want, that are delivered when they want, when they have the time and when they’re in the market for specific goods or services. And why wouldn’t they?

People use ads, every day. Ads save us money, help us research products, explore what to see, do or where to go. They keep us connected with our favorite brands and the best ones entertain us.

The problem with online ads is that they try to interrupt when we’re busy doing something else. Content is our primary purpose for visiting sites; the ads are secondary. So, AdKeeper is designed to help people who want to engage with advertising as a primary activity–later, when they have time.

Ok, we like ads, but why Keep?

• I’m busy; I came online to read or find something, and while the ad messaging is appealing, I just have to keep doing what I’m doing. I’ll Keep that ad for later.
• I’m in the market for something and want to compare all the options side-by-side when I have time. Keep for later.
• The ad is personal in nature (and they all are, right? Medical, job hunting – even shopping for a car) and I want to dive in when no one’s looking over my shoulder. Keep for later.
• I want to share the ad with someone else. Keep to share.

OK, we like ads, Keeping seems to make sense, but can it be easy enough?

The trick was getting all the friction out for the consumer. AdKeeper lets users Keep ads anytime they see the K. No pre-registration, no set-up, no software, no downloads, no browser extensions, no plug-ins – nothing. Click. Kept. Period. Click the K and they continue whatever they were doing. Do it over and over. Then, whenever they’re ready to engage with their Kept ads, they just click through any K, on any ad, anywhere and they’re delivered to their personal, private Keeper.

The truth about human nature.

People save the ads they want.

We have drawers filled with coupons and wallets and handbags filled with useful ads we’ve torn out. We have ads sprinkled into our stacks of paper. Hairstyles, resorts, the latest fashions, the newest vehicle features…. we’re busy so we grab these ads and keep on going.

And, we love the ads on niche Web sites and buy special interest magazines like Field and Stream, Ski and Vogue as much for the ads as for the content.

The fact is, 90 percent of people have torn an ad from a magazine. Over three billion coupons were redeemed last year, just for packaged goods.

People do it now. People want it online.

Most of us want to Keep ads. Not everyone, but most.

Multiple focus groups had consumers literally jumping out of their seats asking when this tool could be theirs to use. 56 percent of Internet users intend to use the service based on two different Nielsen studies.

Of the 56 percent who said they intended to use AdKeeper 71 percent intend to use it two times a week and 27 percent, more than five times a week.

Consumers also said they like AdKeeper for all these reasons: It’s easy – 87 percent; Saving for later – 87 percent; It’s secure – 86 percent; Sharing – 78 percent; Top ads showcased – 77 percent; Value – 76 percent; Organization – 75 percent; Money saving – 72 percent. And 69 percent were surprised that this has never been done before.

This behavior simply hasn’t yet migrated from offline to online since there wasn’t a mechanism to make it possible.

The fundamental construct of Internet advertising is backwards

We moved from linear TV to the interactive Internet but didn’t move from interruptive to invitational advertising. Advertising has historically relied on being interruptive, often annoyingly so.

That’s over. Users are in control on the Internet, like never before. Simply: interruptive advertising in a dynamic medium is illogical. What’s crazy is that it took us 15 years to create Keeping. IMPRESSIONS and CLICKS are fine, but KEEPS are a big deal.

We don’t dislike individual ads when they’re properly targeted, at the right time in the right place, with respectful presentation. When we get what we want, we can organize it, sift it, make it useful and control it – advertising is awesome.

Online advertising is broken, but not beyond repair.

After 15 years of phony input fields, punching monkeys, and every annoying trick in the book, you’d think that we’ve destroyed the medium, that we’ve created 100 percent banner blindness. Luckily, it’s not true.

While banner blindness gets worse by the day, the good news is there is still time to fix it. In fact, the best online ads are able to rise above the noise. The Online Publishers Association released a fascinating eye tracking study last November that showed 96 percent of people noticed OPA ad units while naturally surfing and 67 percent looked back before leaving the page. Imagine, instead of just looking back, now you could hold onto the ad and engage on your terms.

That said, the industry needs more clicks–and today, clicks on ads may be the most pitiful thing to happen in the history of the Internet. .09 percent are clicking, less than one in 1000. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. And, with 28 percent of consumers’ media time spent online, but only 13 percent of the ad spend, Internet ad models need some serious fixing.

Respect for consumers and putting them in control is long overdue, and the pent up demand from our advertising partners shows that we’re not alone in craving this change. There’s a reason more, bigger and better brands have signed on with AdKeeper than any new media effort, ever.

The industry’s role in Keeping

AdKeeper is good for everyone in the ad ecosystem. We’re out to create extra impressions and deeper engagement – more clicks, actions, sharing, printing, likes, fans, tweets, conversions and enhanced CRM. This is good for advertisers, publishers and most importantly, consumers.

The more ads with Keep Buttons, the more people will see them, understand them and want to use them. We know for a fact that people want to Keep ads that make a difference in their lives. Now we – all of us – need to help make it happen.

The Internet is the greatest medium of all time. Super Bowl Sunday proves that people like ads that can make an impact. AdKeeper makes it Super Bowl Sunday for advertising, every day.

But I’ll take one more crack at it here, anyway.

Almost everyone ignores almost every Web ad they see, which makes AdKeeper’s mission pretty tough: Who’s going to save an ad they’re not going to pay attention to?

But AdKeeper says that advertisers will learn to create more engaging and relevant ads. Okay. Let’s say that happens. Why do you need a Web locker to store them?

Here, for instance, is a cool, novel ad that’s worth looking at. Not just the video below, but the entire Web page where the ad resides, which includes a beer-opening schematic that you can print out if you’d like.

But even so–do you really need to save this one? Or are you happy to watch it once and perhaps pass it along to a friend?

Carlsberg could make it more save-worthy, I suppose, by attaching a coupon or some other kind of offer to the ad. But even then, I’m not sure how many people would be interested in collecting the ad–and more important, remembering to check back and look at it again.

But again, we’ll see. AdKeeper CEO Scott Kurnit says he’ll launch this thing by mid-February, and sometime after that, we can come back and see who’s saving what and assess this again.

Add that to the $8 million AdKeeper rounded up earlier in 2010 from investors including DCM, Spark Capital, First Round Capital, and the New York Times, and you get a sense of the ambition involved here. CEO Scott Kurnit thinks he’ll end up creating a new kind of advertising platform — if Internet users cooperate.

The concept is pretty simple: Web visitors click on ads they like, and store them in a digital locker so they can check them out later. Advertisers will pay AdKeeper a premium.

If it works, it could be huge, but that assumes consumers play along. More than that, really: AdKeeper expects consumers to change their behavior, and start embracing Web ads instead of ignoring them.

Google works brilliantly because it can show searchers relevant ads. But the overwhelming majority of Web surfers ignore conventional display ads — the kind that AdKeeper wants to work with. So who’s going to save ads they’re not looking at in the first place?

Kurnit’s short answer is that he expects marketers to start making ads people will want to hang on to. For a longer answer, check out this AdAge interview. He’s an excellent salesman, and does a good job of banishing the CueCat comparisons I keep thinking of. For now.

This is normally the part in a funding story where a startup talks about its impressive growth in users/traffic/ad impressions or something. But AdKeeper can’t do any of that, because it’s not on any ads yet. Kurnit says that should happen by mid-February.

Instead, the company points to a long list of advertisers, like Pepsi and AT&T, that have said they like the idea. It also points to market research it commissioned which it says shows a majority of Web users would like to save their ads.

And perhaps the company’s biggest selling point is Kurnit, who built About.com during the first Web boom and sold it to Primedia for $700 million in 2001. The company, a forerunner to Web story mills like Demand Media, ended up at the New York Times, where it still makes up a big chunk of the paper’s online business. And its success made Kurnit wealthy and well-respected.

How well-respected? Enough to round up endorsements from people who might not be convinced about AdKeeper, but like its CEO quite a bit.

Here’s the response I got from a member of Kurnit’s advisory board when I asked them to explain AdKeeper to me: “Not sure I get it myself. But I love Scott!”

The new service—from start-up AdKeeper—bills its technology as “bookmarks for banner ads” or “TiVo for advertisements.”

Advertisers drop a small button into the corner of their ads that shows up wherever the ad appears. The button, a small k, expands when users mouse over it, telling them to “keep this ad.” Users can click on it to save the ad to a separate webpage and continue browsing. Later, they can return to that ad-collection page and scroll through, filter and click on the ads.

“Internet advertising is pretty pitiful,” says AdKeeper founder Scott Kurnit, who also founded the content company that became About.com in 1996. He says people need to be able to enjoy online ads more on their own time: “We have to figure out how to get people to want to engage.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

That’s a nice outcome for 5Min’s team, and for its investors, who put in $13 million, including Globespan Capital Partners and Spark Capital. (I mistakenly identified Scott Kurnit as an angel investor in the company. He was not.) Interesting that AOL (AOL), which has extensive reach already, felt it needed to invest in a distribution play, but you can read CEO Tim Armstrong’s explanation below.

And perhaps someone can ask him about it if he makes another acquisition announcement in the near future.

AOL ACQUIRES 5MIN MEDIA, WEB’S LARGEST VIDEO CONTENT SYNDICATION PLATFORM

Combination of 5min Media and AOL’s Video Capabilities Creates Powerful
End-to-End Offering

New York, NY, September 28, 2010 – AOL Inc. [NYSE: AOL] today announced it has acquired 5min Media, the Web’s largest video syndication platform.* The acquisition allows AOL to significantly expand its consumer offering of contextually relevant, high-quality video across its sites, increasing the AOL Network’s appeal to advertisers and is expected to further enhance the distribution and monetization of AOL-produced original video content throughout the Web.** Deal terms were not disclosed.

“Our acquisition of 5min Media is the latest in a number of steps we have taken this year to better position AOL to capture the growing video opportunity on the Web,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AOL. “AOL is building a video ecosystem for the next decade. 5min Media is the perfect complement to our powerful video capabilities — it provides a missing piece in the AOL value chain that completes our end-to-end video offering from content creation through syndication and distribution to the consumer experience and monetization.”

“AOL and 5min Media share the same excitement about the direction our industry is taking, and our complementary video capabilities make us a compelling fit and an attractive combination for content creators and publishers,” said Ran Harnevo, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, 5min Media. “We’ve seen rapid and successful growth as an independent organization and becoming part of AOL is a natural next step. We’re confident that AOL’s organizational horsepower, combined with the vast library, audience and syndication capabilities 5min Media offers, present compelling opportunities for AOL as well as the content creators we work with and the publishers we serve.”

Leading Video Syndication Network and Library to Enhance AOL’s Properties

5min Media is the world’s leading video syndication network with a library of more than 200,000 categorized, tagged and rated videos from more than 1,000 of the world’s largest media companies and professional independent video producers. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City with offices in Tel Aviv, 5min Media has been named the largest U.S. independent video property by comScore, with more than 20 million unique viewers and more than 130 million video streams (including ad and content videos) in the U.S. in August 2010. 5min Media’s growing network of 800 partner sites allows content creators to reach this audience of targeted viewers across 21 different verticals, including six verticals – Home, Food, Beauty / Fashion, Health, Travel and Pets – that lead their categories, according to comScore Video Metrix, August 2010. VideoSeed, 5min Media’s proprietary semantic technology, contextually matches the most relevant videos with a partner site’s text content to enhance the consumer experience and increase monetization rates.

AOL has already begun to integrate 5min Media’s video content on its sites through a commercial agreement executed prior to the acquisition. “With 5min Media we’ll be able to add more video inventory to our pages. Importantly, we’ll also be able to identify video content holes among our sites, tap our StudioNow capabilities to fill those needs and create a truly ‘demand informed’ video library,” Armstrong said.

Combination Completes Next Step in AOL’s Value Chain

With the addition of 5min Media, AOL will significantly increase its consumer offering in video programming and connect consumers with high-quality video. In January, AOL acquired StudioNow, the premier online platform for quality video content creation and distribution. With StudioNow, AOL has formed a fully functional platform to produce high-quality video content in a rapid, cost-effective and scalable way for both AOL as well as third-party publishers. In addition, AOL is forging exciting new partnerships to provide relevant content to specific audiences, including partnering with: The Ellen DeGeneres Show; Marlo Thomas; The Jonas Group and MGX Lab to found Cambio (www.cambio.com); and A Squared Entertainment LLC to create children’s content featuring Warren Buffett, Gisele Bündchen, Martha Stewart and the late Carl Sagan.

The New York-based service opened its doors last week, but it won’t really kick into gear until Apple (AAPL) signs off on its iPhone app, and that’s taking a bit longer than the company expected. Founder Justin Shaffer still thinks he’ll be up and running on Apple’s platform in a few days, but until then, you can check out this video interview I shot with him yesterday, where you can get a sense of how the app will work.

Or if you’re impatient, here it is in a nutshell: The service is supposed to let users converse in real-time about “events”–whether a football game, business conference or maybe even a really good house party.

You can already do that on Twitter and Facebook, but the pitch is that Hot Potato will help “curate” the chatter, so you will end up talking to both your friends and interesting people you don’t know–and that’s something Twitter and Facebook don’t do well right now.

If it works, there are some obvious advertising/sponsorship opportunities available for the service: The NFL could sponsor chatter about its games, for instance. Or someone who isn’t related to the football league could sponsor chatter about the games–since this is user-generated content in its purest form, Hot Potato isn’t required to get the go-ahead from anyone before it creates a conversational stream.

In any case, Hot Potato now has a pile of money to help it figure this stuff out. Last week, the company closed its first funding round of $1.4 million (I had originally reported that it was raising “about $1 million”), and in addition to VC backers First Round Capital and RRE Ventures, the start-up has an array of high-profile angel investors who have pitched in.

Here’s the roster: Super-angel investor Ron Conway; real-time start-up incubator Betaworks; Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer and his son Ben Lerer, who runs Thrillist; New York Observer owner Jared Kushner and his brother, Josh Kushner; ZelnickMedia’s Strauss Zelnick; Hunch and Founder Collective co-founder Chris Dixon; About.com co-founder Scott Kurnit; Facebook executive (and Apple vet) Dave Morin; Boxee’s Zach Klein; angel investor Allen Morgan; and entrepreneurs and investors Scott and Cyan Banister.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091125/hot-potato-is-ready-to-eat-do-twitter-facebook-users-want-another-realtime-chatter-service/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091104/sphere-leader-exiting-aol-but-staying-on-as-special-venture-advisor/ http://allthingsd.com/20091104/sphere-leader-exiting-aol-but-staying-on-as-special-venture-advisor/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:30:28 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=20267

Tony Conrad, CEO and co-founder of Sphere–the contextually relevant content engine AOL bought in the spring of 2008 for upward of $25 million–left the Time Warner (TWX) online unit last month, several sources have told BoomTown in recent weeks.

But, in an effort by AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong to hold onto entrepreneurial talent, Conrad (pictured above) has agreed to become “Special Advisor” to its AOL Ventures Unit, headed by Jon Brod.

Conrad, who also works as a partner at San Francisco venture firm True Ventures, is also apparently looking to launch a new start-up.

These many moves have now been confirmed by a blog post–obtained by BoomTown–set to be published by Conrad at Sphere, which has recently changed its name to Surphace (a goofy moniker that still makes me weep, and not for joy).

Titled, “Next,” the post will also be appearing on the True Ventures site.

In it, Conrad outlined the changes and also gave big thanks all around.

You can read the whole thing below. In the post, Conrad noted that “I also find myself with a burning need to start another company…[and] I’ve decided that I need to move on from Sphere to figure it out.”

Sphere was founded in 2005 and raised about $4.25 million from many investors, some of which included Radar Partners, Trident Capital and well-known Web players Scott Kurnit and Will Hearst.

Conrad, who was involved with Webmail and RSS aggregator Oddpost (acquired by Yahoo in 2004), is also on the board of Automattic/WordPress, the blog publishing system this site uses.

This kind of history gives him a lot of Silicon Valley cred to help AOL, which also recently hired former Yahoo (YHOO) exec Brad Garlinghouse to run its communications arm and be its “CEO of Silicon Valley.”

Both will be working with Brod, who came to AOL via its acquisition of hyperlocal community news start-up Patch Media.

Brod has previously worked closely with Armstrong, who was a major Patch investor.

All these players will have their hands full trying to push AOL’s reputation among entrepreneurs, which is–how can I put it delicately?–pretty nonexistent.

But boosting innovation will be key to success as AOL prepares to spin off from Time Warner later in the year.

And that was not exactly helped by its recently released slate of board picks, who are a little light on fast-paced, Web 2.0 entrepreneurial skills.

So, keeping someone like Conrad in the AOL tent is a good move, especially since several similar execs at start-ups bought by the online giant have left.

They include Michael Jones of Userplane, who is now COO of News Corp. (NWS) social networking unit MySpace, as well as many others.

Here is a video interview I did with Conrad in mid-2007 (which also includes a visit with GigaOm’s Om Malik):

And here is Conrad’s blog post:

Next

It’s been almost five years since Martin Remy, Steve Neiker, Toni Schneider and I started working on Sphere. For me, it’s around 10% of a life. And it’s a time when I find myself thinking a lot about a particular question: What do I want to do next?

In 2005, I had the good fortune of being on the founding team of Sphere and joining True Ventures simultaneously. I always thought that I’d eventually focus all of my attention on one or the other, but both were too much fun and I guess I’m selfish in that way. As time passed, I went deeper into each role and I never got around to choosing one or the other. It worked out nicely. True is on its second fund and Sphere had a successful sale to AOL in 2008. Most importantly, Sphere’s business and team are both thriving within AOL. While I’m proud of my contributions to both, the heroes in this equation are Martin, Steve, Toni, Shea DiDonna, Braughm Ricke, Om Malik, Puneet Agarwal, John Burke, Phil Black, Jon Callaghan, Marty Moe, Bill Wilson and AOL–they trusted and empowered me to pursue both. I am extremely grateful.

As I’ve thought through the question of what’s next, I’ve realized that I love the complementary perspectives acquired from building a company as an entrepreneur and investor. They are symbiotic roles and it’s really hard to say which has influenced me more. While my role at True as a Venture Partner will continue to deepen (because there is nothing more rewarding than working with people you admire and trust), I also find myself with a burning need to start another company. I’ve discovered my formula and doing both makes me happiest.

As for my next company, I’m not sure what the answer to that question is, but I’ve decided that I need to move on from Sphere (now Surphace) to figure it out. This may feel like old news as I’ve been working to make myself obsolete as Josh Guttman transitioned into the CEO role. My decision is easy as I know that Surphace is in excellent hands. I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving if I didn’t believe that Josh was the right leader for the business today. He’s a natural leader and has a strategy for the future that I believe is going to accelerate growth for Surphace and AOL. I couldn’t be more pleased for Josh and excited for the Surphace team.

As for my thoughts about Surphace and AOL’s future, I’m more optimistic than ever. We joined AOL at an opportune time. AOL is doing what great, sustainable businesses do every so often – they’re reinventing themselves. As the business model of the oldest and one of the biggest Internet businesses evolves, Sphere/Surphace has become an important piece of their strategy to reach across and engage the web. In the past year, we’ve had an insiders’ view into how AOL’s new leadership team has moved aggressively to engage their audience (new vertical focused websites; a focus on engagement and not page-views for page-views sake; hiring leading journalistic talent when others downsized; acquisitions in the local content space; shorter development cycles with an emphasis on release, iterate and release). There is nothing like winning and the AOL publishing business is winning. As a result, I’m pleased to also announce that I’ve agreed to serve as a Special Advisor to AOL Ventures as they reinvent themselves. I am thrilled at this opportunity to evolve my relationship.

I want to give a huge thanks to the people who’ve made the last few years what they were: my family tops the list, an entrepreneur is only as good as their support system and this is my secret sauce. My co-founders, Martin and Steve, who trusted me to play a role in helping them get the tech they invented the exposure it deserved. Toni and Phil who taught me about generosity at a moment when I was able to learn. Matt Mullenweg who opened up my thinking of how a start-up operates. Marty and Bill who have been consistently supportive since Day One–I can’t underscore enough how much I appreciate the manner in which they’ve empowered us to thrive in an appropriately independent environment. They have treated me (and the Sphere team) with enormous respect for which I am both thankful and flattered. The original Sphere team, the current Surphace team who have embraced AOL. Our investors and advisors who supported and helped shape our vision. The True team and entrepreneurs who have taught me about sacrifice, vision, execution and the value of pursuing your dreams–and, of course, Lewis Dvorkin, Kevin Lockland and Bill who paid us the nicest compliment of all in offering to acquire our company and then doing so.

It’s been a thrilling, at times difficult, always rewarding and lucky ride I’ve been on. Thanks to all.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091104/sphere-leader-exiting-aol-but-staying-on-as-special-venture-advisor/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20080415/aols-big-give-and-whirling-dervish-show/ http://allthingsd.com/20080415/aols-big-give-and-whirling-dervish-show/#comments Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:03:58 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080415/aols-big-give-and-whirling-dervish-show/ AOL is turning into the Oprah Winfrey of the digital world, it seems, opening up Time Warner’s (TWX) checkbook to as many start-ups as it can.

Last month, it was $850 million in cash for social-networking site Bebo.

And, today, it’s a much smaller slug for Sphere, which started as a blog search engine and morphed into a widely distributed “contextually relevant” content engine, used on news and blog sites across the Web (and which AllThingsD uses on this site, in fact).

While one source said the price was upward of $25 million, sources at other companies to whom the San Francisco-based start-up also talked, including Google (GOOG), said Sphere was looking for more than that.

In any case, the sale is surely a win for CEO and Co-Founder of Sphere Tony Conrad, a longtime entrepreneur who also has been a VC at True Ventures, which also invested in Sphere.

Oh, it’s a mosh pit of jolly interbreeding in the Web 2.0 start-up world!

Sphere raised about $4.25 million from many investors, some of which included Radar Partners, Trident Capital and well-known Web players Scott Kurnit and Will Hearst.

AOL has surely shown a knack for snapping up small and innovative properties with clever technologies–the Truveo video search engine and communications app maker Userplane, for example–and has let them stay relatively intact, as it has promised it will do with Sphere.

But it also has not exactly leveraged any of them in a massive way either and still faces the problem of holding onto talent from those start-ups, as BoomTown reported here.

One hopes that AOL can do more with the more complex and elegant Sphere, which has deep relationships with major publishers all over the Web, including many Time Warner properties like Time.com and CNN.

It would be a shame for Sphere to fall into one of AOL’s deep holes there.

But perhaps not, given all the frenetic multitasking activity at AOL of late, including yesterday, when it also announced a deal in which its Platform-A online ad division would sell ads for Verizon (VZ) on the Web and for its mobile units.

Oh, and its top execs, CEO Randy Falco and President Ron Grant, whom AOL sources tell me have been AWOL of late, have also been ferreting away on a possible deal to be the alternative for Yahoo (YHOO) in its takeover battle with Microsoft (MSFT).

While Yahoo troops are not really happy with such a union, as BoomTown reported here, neither are some top Time Warner execs at the possibility that AOL might simply be being used as a stalking horse by Yahoo, in an effort to get Microsoft to up its bid.

“Do you think they’re using us?” joked one Time Warner exec to me yesterday, given the deal activity seemed to have slowed down this week.

Um, yes, of course!

While that wouldn’t be sporting, if Yahoo does end up going to Microsoft, it just means AOL will need to get a lot more energetic and do a lot more Spheres in the future to keep up.

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