AdKeeper was an

online advertising Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...

platform that allowed consumers to keep online ads for future use. A button was inserted into advertising creative elements, and was visible to users as a small button in the ad with the letter “k” inside the button. Consumers could click on the k button to keep the ads, and then return to the cloud-based Adkeeper at a future time, to review the ads they had kept. The users could also share ads with others, via

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

or social networks.

Features

AdKeeper provided users with a personal "Keeper", where they could come to view ads they've collected from various places on the Internet, or the Ad Gallery display area in AdKeeper. Ads that are kept display the date they were kept, when they expire, a short description, and also allow for users to rate them, when they are logged in. Common social sharing tools, such as Email,

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

are available, and in the aforementioned gallery, users can keep more ads from participating advertisers.

History

AdKeeper was founded in March, 2010, by

Scott Kurnit Scott P. Kurnit (born March 25, 1954) is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor in media and technology. Career Early career After graduating from Hampshire College with a BA in Communications, Kurnit became a Program Director at WGBY-TV (WG ...

, who serves as Chairman and CEO. Kurnit is best known as the founder of '' About.com'', which grew to a public market value of $1.7 billion, and was sold to Primedia for $724 million, in 2001. ''About'' is now owned by

IAC IAC may refer to: Medicine * IAC (chemotherapy), a chemotherapy regimen * Internal auditory canal Organizations * IAC (company), an American media company * India Against Corruption * Indigenous Advisory Council, an Australian government agency * ...

. AdKeeper operated in stealth until October, 2010, when it launched in private beta. The AdKeeper service became generally available to consumers on February 14, 2011.

Clients

AdKeeper began its service with a list of advertisers who used AdKeeper in their online ads, including Air Alaska, Allstate, Ally Bank, AT&T, Best Buy, CBS, Ford, Gap, General Mills, InterContinental Hotels Group, JetBlue, Kia Motors, Kmart, Kraft Foods, Macy’s, McDonald’s, Nextag, Pepsi, Sara Lee, Sears, Showtime, The Advertising Council, The Home Depot, Unilever and Warner Bros.

Finances and governance

In March, 2010, the company raised $8 million in funding from DCM, True Ventures,

Spark Capital Spark Capital is a venture capital firm in the United States, responsible for early-stage funding startups of consumer, commerce, FinTech, software, frontier, and media sectors. It has branches in San Francisco, Boston, and New York City. Hi ...

First Round Capital First Round is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies. Founded by Josh Kopelman and Howard Morgan First Round typically provides seed-stage funding and focuses on portfolio companies ...

Betaworks Betaworks is an American startup studio and seed stage venture capital company based in New York City that invests in network-focused, consumer-facing media businesses. Its hybrid investor/builder model has led to both investments in fast-grow ...

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, Lerer Ventures and several individual investors. In December, 2010, the company raised $35 million from

Oak Investment Partners Oak Investment Partners is a private equity firm focusing on venture capital investments in companies developing communications systems, information technology, new Internet media, healthcare services and retail. History The firm, founded in 1 ...

, DCM, and other previous investors. AdKeeper’s Board of Directors consists of Scott Kurnit, Fred Harman (Managing Partner of Oak Investment Partners), Dixon Doll (Co-Founder and General Partner, DCM), Jon Callaghan (Founder, True Ventures) and Ron Unterman (scientist and former Managing Director, Slater Technology Fund).

References

External links