Bits and Bytes for September 27, 2004

Voting for Eyeblaster Awards to Begin

Online voting for the fourth annual Eyeblaster Awards opens tomorrow. The awards are designed to recognize creative and visually engaging rich media ads served by Eyeblaster between November 1, 2003 and August 1, 2004. Sponsors include Yahoo and media partner ClickZ.com.

This year’s nominees include campaigns from Deep Focus for BarberShop 2, Deutsch NY for Chiclets, AKQA for Xbox’s Counter Strike, True North for the DVD release of Kill Bill, WhiteRunkle for National Geographic, North Castle NextStep for Dymo, Zentropy Partners for Purina, Real Branding for Smirnoff, Big Spaceship for Starsky & Hutch, and Saatchi LA for the Toyota Tundra.

Members of the industry are encouraged to vote at: http://www.eyeblaster.com/ebawards2004/awards.htm. The ad receiving the most votes will be declared the winner on November 9 in New York City.

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Habeas Secures $7.5 in Venture Funds

Anti-spam player Habeas has secured $7.5 million in its second round of venture funding, which it says will be used to develop new email services. These services, it says, will be focused on “the authentication, certification, classification, compliance monitoring and tracking of business-critical email.”

“The company plans to use this additional funding to expand business operations while accelerating the development of future products and services,” said Habeas CEO Des Cahill.

A number of companies previously focused on reducing spam are now trying to diversify, as authentication technologies like Sender ID and Sender Policy Framework begin to take hold. It’s thought these technologies will help to reduce spam, presenting both challenges and opportunities to companies dedicated to fighting the problem.

The series B investment was led by Canaan Partners and Diamondhead Ventures, and also included participation from existing investor SkyMoon. The company has now raised $10 million all together.

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Dotomi, Too, Picks up Funding

Dotomi has also closed on funding. The online direct marketer announced $10.5 million in new venture money, which will be used to grow Dotomi’s sales force and marketing programs, the company said.

Dotomi’s Direct Messaging product serves personalized banners to opt-in customers as they surf the Web.

The lead investor in the round was Investor Growth Capital (IGC), a new stakeholder. Existing investor U.S. Venture Partners and new investor Velocity Equity Partners also contributed. As part of the funding, David Lee of IGC has joined Dotomi’s board.

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Maven Networks Kicks Off Agency, Marketer Partner Programs

Broadband video technology firm Maven Networks has launched two separate programs to attract new customers.

The Agency Partner Program gives member agencies special incentives, plus consulting and training resources. So far, Maven has signed AKQA, Avenue A, Carat, Digitas, Fallon Worldwide, Modem Media, OgilvyInteractive, Organic, Studiocom and Targetbase to the program.

Separately, the company has launched what it’s calling a Broadband Marketing Consortium. The company said member companies will receive attitudinal and behavioral research when they establish a “channel” to consumers using Maven technology. Members will receive full data on their own campaigns, and anonymized data from other member companies’ efforts.