Deutsche Post Enters Web Ad Biz, Buys ‘Predictive Behavioral Targeting’ Platform
by Tim Negris
Deutsche Post AG, the mail side of Deutsche Post DHL, has acquired nugg.ad (http://www.nugg.ad/en/), a provider of technology and services for enabling highly targeted online ad campaigns, on undisclosed terms.
Since its founding in 2006, Berlin-based nugg.ad has grown into the largest firm of its kind in Europe, offering software and services “for agencies and advertisers to tailor their advertisement design to particular target groups, significantly increasing the effectiveness of ads.”
The company boasts unique intellectual property in the form of proprietary software algorithms that work with web users’ click patterns, survey data and other information to serve up highly targeted ads on the web in real-time.
What, you may well ask, does web advertising have to do with delivering letters and packages, or, for that matter even with direct mail marketing services?
Nothing obvious. But, according to the announcement made in Bonn last week by the post and parcels giant, the move “has consolidated new areas of growth in online marketing fully in accordance with its 2015 strategy.”
Really?
In March, 2009, Deutsche Post World Net CEO Frank Appel unveiled “Strategie 2015” (http://tinyurl.com/Strategie2015), a corporate strategic framework that said:
• The new name Deutsche Post DHL underscores a two-pillar strategy based on mail and logistics
• The Mail Division is to focus on quality and new products in electronic communications
• DHL is to strengthen cross-divisional collaboration
According to Appel “Our goal is to remain ‘Die Post für Deutschland’ as well as ‘the logistics company for the world.’” The announcement further laid out the goals for the Mail group like this:
“To recalibrate the business in response to decreasing volume and increasing digitalization, the Mail Division will refocus its core business while retaining the high-quality level enjoyed by German customers. In the process, the company will primarily concentrate on the integration of physical and digital solutions in dialog marketing. It will also introduce an online letter to provide secure electronic communications as well as integrated sender and recipient services at Parcel Germany. To meet these objectives, the Mail Division plans to step up investments in coming years and may also consider partnerships. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the company’s unique position as an integrated service provider for secure and reliable communications.”
The “electronic communications” targeted by the strategy include secure e-mail, in-country parcel tracking and e-mail marketing. It says nothing about advertising, and the nugg.ad site says nothing about mail. Furthermore, the announcement of the acquisition (http://tinyurl.com/DPnuggBuy) says that nugg.ad will stay where it is in Berlin, with its current management and mission intact.
And, in the announcement, Jürgen Gerdes, Mail Group chairman, says, “We are confident that we will establish our position in the online advertising market with nugg.ad.” And, Stephen Noller, nugg.ad CEO, says, “It is a dream combination for us because in Deutsche Post we have found a buyer that consolidates our position like no other as a neutral service provider in the value creation chain.”
So, in reality, for Deutsche Post, this deal seems to be an unacknowledged departure from its core business and from Strategie 2015, and it gives nugg.ad’s founding investors what is hard to see as anything but an exit. It is hard to imagine how this will end well for Die Post für Deutschland.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.