BlueKai, which claims to be the first intent data focused ad exchange, launched today. They will act as the middleman in auctions between publishers selling data on consumer’s purchase-driven behaviors and advertisers and ad networks buying the data to target advertising. The data will be based on cookies and participants in the network will be required not to combine the data with personally identifiable information. According to a CNET News article, BlueKai’s CEO Omar Tawakol compared the company to “the idea to the direct mail marketing business. Offline, marketers call up a data company like Axciom to buy the names and addresses of household decision makers in a certain ZIP code, for example. Then they would take that data and create a campaign.” While the company claims to have a number of the top 10 ad networks and publishers, so far only Autobytel and online video advertiser Tremor Media have been mentioned publicly.
The company is also touting what it calls “polite marketing”, providing consumers information and control over what information is collected from their data providers. The company also will give rewards in the form of charitable donations to consumer for maintaining data on the site.