Spot Runner has raised $51 million in equity investment from new and existing investors, which will allow the company to grow and expand its offerings.
Global media giants Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) and Grupo Televisa, along with Legg Mason Capital Management and Groupe Arnault/LVMH invested in the Internet ad agency, Spot Runner said. “These strategic investments serve as a strong validation of Spot Runner’s technology-driven advertising model, as well as the results we have generated for advertisers and media owners,” said Nick Grouf, Spot Runner’s chairman/CEO.
“As a media company with one of the largest bases of local advertisers in Europe, we look forward to collaborating with Spot Runner and applying its model to our business, particularly as we continue to innovate in connecting advertisers with local audiences,” said David Roddick, commercial director of Northcliffe Media, the local media division of DMGT.
Spot Runner’s previous investors include Allen & Company, Battery Ventures, Capital Research and Management, CBS, Index Ventures, The Interpublic Group, Tudor Investment Corporation and WPP.

Comcast Media Center has added CBS College Sports Network, Fox Cable Networks, GSN and National Cable Communications to it roster of companies using the center’s Ad Distribution Network (ADN).
ADN, which has more than 1,100 users across the country at cable systems and regional and corporate MSO offices, allows programming networks and advertisers to publish and refresh their spot commercials from one centralized content management location. Among companies already using CMC’s ADN are A&E, Comcast Entertainment Group and Lifetime Networks. Cable system affiliates may preview and download either high-resolution or lower resolution IP-video formats from MSO-specific portals, allowing further customization of campaign creative at the corporate and market levels. Affiliates can download high-resolution ads directly to their local editing suites or directly to their local ad servers. Local ad sales departments can download lower resolution files for use in sales presentations. ADN also features a reporting package for cable programming networks and MSOs that allows them to track downloads of campaign materials.
“As these agreements indicate, ADN’s usage is gaining momentum with television programming networks,” said Leslie Russell, CMC’s vice president of sales and marketing, said in a prepared statement. “In addition, our relationship with NCC will help to accelerate the advertising community’s interest in this fast and efficient method for delivering spot commercials to local markets.”

A recent study from Accenture found that while consumers may be growing increasingly disenchanted with their overall TV experiences, they are remaining remarkably loyal to their favorite programs. Accenture’s inaugural Global Broadcast Consumer Survey determined that although TV remains the predominant mass communications device today, consumers’ viewing habits are changing with the times. Companies are going to have to make sure they cover all the bases when it comes to catching eyeballs.
Some 83% of respondents are unhappy with their TV experience and a majority (64%) said that TV commercials are what disliked most about ‘live’ TV. That would suggest ads must appeal more to consumers.
“People are experiencing new consumption opportunities and moving away from traditional, linear programming,” said David Wolf, a senior executive with Accenture’s Media & Entertainment practice, in a prepared statement.
The survey findings underscored the fact that consumers throughout the world today have more power and control than ever before in terms of what to watch, when to watch it, and on what device. In today’s digital environment the definition of what constitutes “TV” and its intended purpose is becoming increasingly blurred, as ambitious new entrants, channels and new interactive capabilities flood in from all sides.
According to the survey, consumers have already developed some ideas about what type of content fits best on which alterative device. Moreover, they are beginning to discern the genres they prefer to watch “live” or “on demand.” Nearly one-half (46%) of consumer prefer to watch sports and news “live”. Almost a quarter (23%) prefer to watch dramas and situation comedies “on demand.”

HE SAID: "TVs are bigger than ever, kids are fatter than ever, and gas has never been more expensive. We have the whole country on their couches right now. If we can't sell them stuff, we should all be ashamed of ourselves."
-- Jimmy Kimmel speaking during ABC’s upfront presentation in New York City

SHE SAID: “The golden goose would be set-top-box data, which I think we are all looking for, because it will give us the granularity, or the accountability that TV needs. ... That data would also give us behavioral data, which is how we are really looking to start dissecting the TV consumer.”
-- Donna Speciale, president-investment activation at Publicis Groupe’s Mediavest, on Advertising Age’s question to media-buying executives about the metrics they’d like to see the industry adopt.