Visible World, a targeted cable advertiser, raises $25M
Targeted advertising, based on geographic location, age, gender and other factors, is a pretty common concept by now. Visible World wants to bring it to cable television, with an added twist — editing of specific commercial spots to appeal more to individuals.
Say a large company like Toyota doesn’t want to exclude certain groups from an advertisement, but does want to make it appeal more to each individual. Visible World’s technology allows a special version for each person; for example, an urban dweller would see a car rolling through a cityscape, while a rural viewer would see it speeding past trees and fields.
Visible World has about 200 advertising partners and can reach 52 million homes, according to an article in TV Week. It was founded in 1999, and is based in New York, close to its Madison Avenue targets.
The $25 million funding was discovered by VentureWire (update: based on an older release, as noted by a commenter below). Adams Street Partners and AllianceBernstein led the round, and were joined by Comcast Interactive Capital, Dawntreader Ventures, Grey Ventures, Leucadia National, Marketing Services Risk Surety, Time Warner and Viacom. The company has raised about $75 million to date.
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About the Author, Chris Morrison
Chris Morrison writes about cleantech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology. He got his start writing about tech for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Chris has also covered public equities and regulatory issues. He originally hails from southern Virginia, graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington, and now lives in San Francisco.