Tatto Media is an

affiliate marketing Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which Affiliate (commerce), affiliates receive a wiktionary:commission, commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to Outsourcing, ...

advertising network An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is an aggregation of ad supply from publishers and matching it with the advertiser' ...

based in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Tatto Media sold to Ozura World Ltd. for US$60 million on April 11, 2011.

Products

Tatto Media has what it calls an Advertising Platform, a Display Platform, a Performance Platform and a Virtual Currency Platform. The Self Serve Advertising Platform enables advertisers to create campaigns and place tracking codes signifying new customers. From there, Tatto Media analyzes the campaign and optimization algorithms to distribute across the right distribution channels. The Display Platform is for display publishers looking to place advertisements. The platform can show advertisement formatted for social applications, site banners or the full page. The Performance Platform links affiliates with exclusive advertisements. The Virtual Currency Platform includes payment processing, advertiser network, and statistics for tracking and customization of advertisements.

Awards

It was named by ''

Business Week ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'' as one of the top 25th

entrepreneurial Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

es of 2007. In late 2008 the company received the title of Babson Student Business of the Year Award. Tatto Media is a member of the IAB and

American Marketing Association The American Marketing Association (AMA) is a professional association for marketing professionals with 30,000 members as of 2012. It has 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States. The AMA was formed in from t ...

(AMA).

Controversy and legal issues

Washington State vs. Tatto Media

In late 2008, the company was the subject of investigation into false and deceptive advertising with the Washington State Attorney General's Office. On November 17, the company and Washington State Attorney General settled in Assurance of Discontinuance for $20,262. In early 2009, the company had further discussions with the Attorney General's Office over a disagreement regarding the Assurance of Discontinuance of November 17, 2009 and eventually settled for half a million dollars. Tatto Media used to partner with

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher known for its social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile an ...

but this business relationship was terminated in 2009. The CEO of Zynga,

Mark Pincus Mark Jonathan Pincus (born February 13, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus was the ...

, had following to say about Tatto Media: :''We have worked hard to police and remove bad offers. In fact, the worst offender, tatto media '' ic', referenced in the techcrunch article, had already been taken down and permanently banned prior to the post''. Tatto Media has repeatedly featured as a scam advertiser. Quote from

Techcrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

: :''A typical scam: users are offered in game currency in exchange for filling out an IQ survey. Four simple questions are asked. The answers are irrelevant. When the user gets to the last question they are told their results will be text messaged to them. They are asked to enter in their mobile phone number, and are texted a pin code to enter on the quiz. Once they’ve done that, they’ve just subscribed to a $9.99/month subscription. Tatto Media is the company at the very end of the line on most mobile scams, and they flow it up through Offerpal, SuperRewards and others to the game developers.'' The company was criticized on a similar scam using free poster offers - including '' The Twilight Saga'' stars that tied an undisclosed monthly credit card subscription fee to the poster request. The company has been noted for running deceptive offers involving text charges and mobile subscriptions which often trick consumers into signing up for services.

References

{{reflist, 2 Internet properties established in 2006