Infillion

Last updated

Infillion
Formerly
  • SocialVibe (2007–2013)
  • true[X] (2013-2022)
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Online advertising
Founded2007;17 years ago (2007)
Founders
  • Joe Marchese
  • Brandon Mills
  • David Levy
  • Rob Emrich
Headquarters
Key people
RJ Nicolosi (President & COO)
Rob Emrich (Executive Chair)
ServicesEngagement advertising, Media, Advertising technology
Number of employees
30–50
Website www.infillion.com

Infillion, formerly known as TrueX, Inc. (stylized as true[X]) and SocialVibe, is an American digital advertising company founded in 2007 by Joe Marchese, Brandon Mills and David Levy. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles and New York City. It was previously owned by 21st Century Fox, from 2014 until Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019, and The Walt Disney Company from 2019 until 2020.

Contents

Company history

The TrueX logo before being rebranded as Infillion Truex logo.png
The TrueX logo before being rebranded as Infillion

The company that would eventually become Infillion was founded as SocialVibe in 2006. [1] SocialVibe originally enabled customers to raise money for social causes they wished to support. In December 2007, it received $4.2 million in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures. [2] It was launched into public beta in February 2008. [3]

In January 2009, Jafco Ventures led an initiative along with Redpoint Ventures to raise the total amount invested in the company to $12 million, as the company shifted to a model in which it shared revenue with the charities it represented. [4] In March 2011, SocialVibe closed a $20 million round of funding led by Norwest Venture Partners. [5] [6] By this point, SocialVibe had expanded into online and mobile advertising, including running ad campaigns within Zynga games on Facebook. [6] In 2013 the company became known as TrueX. [1] Between 2013 and 2014, the company doubled its revenue. [7] In May 2014, the company received an additional $6 million in funding. [8] Later that year, it was acquired by 21st Century Fox in a deal worth $200 million. [9] One of Fox's first moves after buying the company was utilizing TrueX technology that gave viewers using web browsers and connected TV apps a choice to watch a single interactive ad at the beginning of a piece of video content, or to have that content interrupted by regular commercial breaks. [10] [11]

In September 2017, The Walt Disney Company assumed control of TrueX as part of its $71 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox. [12] [13] On March 17, 2020, Disney announced that it was looking to sell TrueX, as Disney considered it a non-core asset that did not operate as part of Disney's sales or technology divisions. [14] Disney announced that TrueX had been sold to the marketing data company Gimbal, Inc. on September 28, 2020. [12]

Following the sale of TrueX to Gimbal, the two companies became a single entity known as Gimbal/TrueX. [15] On March 1, 2022, Gimbal/TrueX rebranded as Infillion. [16] [17] In September 2022, Infillion acquired Analytiks.ai, a company that had developed technology that tracks customer traffic within brick and mortar stores. [18]

In September 2023, it was announced Infillion had acquired the New York-headquartered advertising technology company, MediaMath. [19]

Engagement advertising

Infillion has worked with Microsoft, Visa, Apple, Disney, Coca-Cola, Kia Motors, Kraft Foods, Macy's, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble and Discover Card on online advertisements. [20] The company delivers ad units that are self-selected by the viewer in exchange for access to online content such as videos, music, games, or more articles. [7] [21] The ads take over the browser of a user's computer for about 30 seconds, and require user participation for completion. [22] Infillion quantifies consumer engagement using metrics like video views, submitted survey forms, and social media likes, so that marketers pay more or less for ads depending on how much engagement they generate. [23] Infillion is also a source of ad inventory for text and visual ads. The company has provided ad space to publishers such as Tribune Company, AT&T, and Pandora Radio. [14] [24] These ads are distributed programmatically. [25] Their engagement-based nature is intended to reduce instances of ad fraud. [26]

Awards and recognition

In August 2010, Forbes recognized SocialVibe's engagement for Microsoft Bing on Zynga's FarmVille as one of the "Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns". [27] The campaign garnered over 425,000 fans for Bing in less than one day, and 70% of the fans visited the search engine in the following month. [27] [28]

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References

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