TargetSpot

We are announcing a new investment today on the Union Square Ventures weblog.

The company is called TargetSpot and is an advertising system/marketplace for streaming audio.

You can read all about it here.

Comments

[howard Lindzon]

Looks cool. Congrats

[Ken Berger]

Glad that such a qualified leader was found; it was fun for me to look at this earlier on.

This is going to be a winner!

[Ethan Bauley]

Fred, your plumber example in the USV post kind of geeks me out!

Is that the kind of ad you want to be HEARING when you're listening to the radio?

Any way for the radio DJ to control what ads get placed?

Obviously there are a million better examples (hipster local fashion boutique advertising to local listeners of an indie rock station).

Hyper targeting is rad and there is a ridiculously huge pie for TargetSpot, but it's still an interruption of the content. I hope that the numbers work for ~5min advertising/hour. I don't think young people are going to stand for much more than that.

I would say that it was the playlists that killed FM radio for me, but it was really the 15min of advertising/hour.

[Timothy Bryce]

Doug Perlson is a smart guy - good guy to bet on. Congrats!

[Doug Perlson]

Ethan - couldn't agree more. Our business models have all been based upon 5 min of ads per hour of programming, but up to the broadcaster to decide. But at 5 min, there should be significant monetization. As for the types of ads, that too is up to the broadcaster. Our system allows the partner to exclude certain advertisers or types of advertisers - and again think it will depend on the partner. While I agree that it may not make sense to have a plumber advertise on an indie rock station with a young demographic, it may make sense on an oldies station targeted to a zip code of single family homes. And since the advertiser can measure their performance through click throughs, trackable phone numbers, etc., if the ad doesn't work, it probably won't run very long.

[Science News]

Do you use no follow links here?

[Ethan Bauley]

Doug-

That's awesome! Glad to hear it.

Anyways, the stuff I brought up is kinda "Duh" in retrospect ;-)

But, important, I think.

I went through the site a bit more. The ad creation tools are pretty hip. Can't wait to hear some of those...a few will undoubtedly be hilarious.

In fact, I just checked the "Atomic Dog" mock-up. Sounds pretty delicious to me, it's almost 2am right now.

"Nobody beats our weenie"??? Yow!

That reminds me, I might have to bounce over to Pink's on La Brea right now...

Pastrami Burrito Dog anyone?

[those are seriously delicious, if you can believe it. dig this: two hot dogs, chili, onions, pastrami, swiss cheese, all rolled up in a giant flour tortilla]

I don't know what the heck this "Shake Shack" business is all about but it has nothing on Pink's. I live 3 blocks from this place and there is a 60 min wait 10 hours out of every day.

Bizarre.

[David Porter]

I think this has the potential to be huge, competition notwithstanding. I've long thought a Google AdWords-like market for internet radio would be fantastic for the sector.

I think the challenge will come in making it easy for would-be (small) advertisers to make a compelling audio spot, and for efficient/effective placement. But it sounds like TS is focusing on these issues.

Great to see for the future of internet radio.