Friday, December 04, 2009

Milabra



The 1 trillion images on the Web are Advertising's Next Frontier.

Pairing images with targeted ads is the Holy Grail for Advertisers. The reason: consumers rely heavily on images in search engine result pages.

The age of Visual Ad Targeting is just around the corner.

Google recently announced plans to begin matching images from its fast-growing Google Image Search with display ads. Presently, Google photos are indexed by text and other metadata.

But, a NYC startup called Milabra beat Google to the punch last year by launching the world's first contextual ad network with targeting based upon visual content. And, it's getting a lot of attention from major ad networks and digital chiefs at big ad agencies.

Milabra (www.milabra.com) uses cutting edge visual recognition software to see what's important in an image, and targets advertising based on that data. Visual media publishers simply add the Milabra tag to their site, and Milabra automatically segments and moderate their content into advertiser friendly "buckets", increasing their inventory value and improving their performance.

Why is visual recognition ad targeting so effective?
It actually connects with the hard wired patterns of the human mind to create a more effective advertising experience. It's the language of pictures. By connecting to our primary sense, sight, it connects with consumers on a more fundamental level than other forms of targeting.

Milabra has signed up a slew of Ad networks since it launched over a year ago.

Most of the leading digital chiefs on Madison Avenue have met with Milabra and are looking under the hood of its technology, developed by a Columbia University neuroscientist.

TechCrunch wrote a glowing post back in February after the startup raised $1.2m in angel investments. No ad trade or mainstream media coverage to date. Milabra was the talk of AdTech last week and recently premiered to rave reviews at the NY Video Meetup and AlwaysOnMedia.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Outbrain's OutLoud: Earned Media Maximizer




One of the biggest problems in the PR field called Media Relations is that media placements, these days called "earned media", have a limited shelf life. Sure, a media placement such as an article in the New York Times can live on forever in Google News Search, but how do you maximize the longevity of a "PR hit" in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.

Outbrain, an NYC startup that provides content recommendation technology to over 25,000 websites, has come up with an answer: "OutLoud". “OutLoud”, lets customers submit articles, blog posts or videos for only $10 a month and have them distributed in a scaled and targeted way. "Amplify your earned media and positive press, build an audience for your corporate blog, or bring new audiences to your own crafted content" says Outbrain, which will be featuring OutLoud at this week's AdTech event. BTW: Bruni PR is using OutLoud to blast a recent Financial Times placements on behalf of Beyond Media, a New Brunswick NJ based client.

Friday, August 14, 2009




What if retailers had a Digg-like social media game that predicts what they should sell for the Spring 2010 season?

Believe it or not, Limited Brands is spending substantial money right now on just that. It has hired a new NYC-based startup called StyleHop to conduct "predictive" research on what young female consumers will be buying next Spring.

StyleHop has been gathering results from a panel of 10,000 monthly "StyleHoppers"/ users and feeding the findings to Limited. StyleHop (www.stylehop.com) CEO David Reinke thinks that Limited and other clients, including Calvin Klein, are spearheading a "revolution" in the use of predictive behavior research.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

E.Factor: the largest Entrepreneur Group on the Globe



E.Factor (www.efactor.com) is fast becoming the largest entrepreneur group on the planet, approaching 1 million members, according to VP-Marketing Stephanie Frasco. E.Factor branches are sprouting up around the world, especially in Europe and Southeast Asia.

Another first for E.Factor: the first even Health Insurance plan for entrepreneurs. E.Factor and Access Health are offering the three-tier plans (individual/couple/family) to members.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Livestream Launches Twitcam



Livestreaming finally comes to Twitter as Livestream, a NYC startup, launches Twitcam.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

UpNext iPhone app



You can fly like Superman around buildings on the amazing new UpNext NYC iPhone app. Google might offer a great Streetview of Manhattan, but this young NYC startup has come up with something that's on, well, a higher level. As you zoom thru Manhattan you can tap a building to see what's inside or search for bars, restuarants, hotels, etc. In the Top 20 in the Travel section of the iPhone app store. It's worth more than the $2.99 fee.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Plagium



Plagiarism is a huge problem today. During the past several months, Science and Medical journals have been reporting an upsurge in academia and the research community. Even high schools are now using software to check term papers.

How do you check to see if your content, words, quotes or ideas are being ripped off? Septet Systems, a NY-based computer/software consulting firm, has come up with a solution: www.plagium.com. This cool little Google-like interface allows you to type in content and check across the Web to see if anyone is stealing your stuff.

Bruni PR will be pitching this to Publishers Weekly and other key trades in the publishing world as well as the mainstream media outlets.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Startups To Watch in 2009




Which Silicon Alley startups should we be watching in 2009?

Here's the official BRUNI PR list:

Mogulus
Boxee
AdaptiveBlue
SkyGrid
BuddyMedia
Esty
StyleHop
E.Factor
Innovid
Aviary
Urbis.com
Adarky
10Gen
Beyond Media
Blip.tv
Kaltura
AdMob