I’ve used Burst Media in some capacity since the mid-90s. Today I only use them to serve some ads on InsideTransit as the other networks in my chain have performed better in both CPM and fill rate. Last year Burst Media announced several niche ad networks including a niche online gamers ad network. I assume the acquisition of Giant Realm will help to strengthen the Burst ad networks.

Giant Realm raised just over $5 million since early 2008. The company is based in midtown although no information was provided as to whether they will move in with Burst either in NYC or in Mass.

Last month Kara Swisher provided a list of companies she thought might be acquired soon and Giant Realm was one of the names on her list.

Related: check out all of our Burst Media coverage.

Burst Media includes the follow creative types in the rich media category: expandable units, floating units and polite ads. 

Burst Media

Burst describes today’s new ad network, "The Burst Gamers Network’s young, predominantly male, audience is technologically savvy, passionate about digital and video games and has an appetite for a host of products and services — ranging from electronic gadgets and entertainment to snack foods and the hottest sneaker styles." They will be hand selecting sites to become part of the network.

Burst also notes that they will offer new creative formats including: widgets, video cubes, storytelling modules, and mobile display ads. I’ve never seen any campaigns in these formats in 12 years with the company. If they are able to sell more 2008-ish formats, that’s a good thing.

We are part of the early adopters ad network but so far no campaigns have come our way. I’ve moved most of our inventory to Tribal Fusion as they seem to be the best of the remnant compaign providers. I want Burst to succeed – I almost feel like after being with them for 10+ years that I have a vested interest (yet of cours no financial interest). As I’ve written so many times before, Burst is still stuck in 1998. Sometimes you have to realize that it’s time for a new playbook, the old one won’t work no matter how you turn it.

Burst Media

Burst describes today’s new ad network, "Advertisers can use the Burst Trendsetters Network to target influencers of new trends, many of whom use the Internet as their primary information source to research brands, and who very often act as brand advocates to their peers." The Burst Trendsetters Network includes users ages 15-34 and includes 100 websites that reach 7 million unique visitors and delivers more than 51 million web impressions.

We are part of the early adopters ad network but so far no campaigns have come our way. I’ve moved most of our inventory to Tribal Fusion as they seem to be the best of the remnant compaign providers. I want Burst to succeed – I almost feel like after being with them for 10 years that I have a vested interest (yet of cours no financial interest). As I’ve written so many times before, Burst is still stuck in 1998.

This news comes after the 2008 launches of the Burst Food ad network, Moms ad network, and the Early Adopter ad network. We are a member of the Early Adopter network but so far haven’t seen any targeted campaigns. I have heard similar chatter in the other networks.

I’ve tried to help Burst – spent hours on the phone with their execs (for free) and offered them help to get the ship moving forward. These networks will get Burst a pinch of PR but not much else. The issue is that these ad networks are still serving mostly 1990s ads. It’s time for Burst to innovate in the space – though I have been wishing for this since the old days.

Burst Media

comScore reports that the network serves 23 million unique visitors a month and Burst notes that the content areas include, "content ranging from gadget reviews and tech talk to music and video games". Last month Burst Media launched the Moms Ad Network and a Food Ad Network.

Will these vertical ad networks help Burst become a leader again? Sadly I say no. I want to see Burst reinvent themselves and kick butt in the space but these ad networks are just little patches on a hole thats too large for patch work. It’s time to chop down the rest of the wall and build a new one. I will have more thoughts on this in the next week about how Burst (and many of the other Web 1.0 ad networks) can reinvent themselves. They are seriously starting to run a fine line between growth and death – and if they aren’t willing to look past the banner ad, one can only imagine what side of the line they will (sadly) be on soon.

For those interested, here are the demographics for the Early Adopter network:

Mediapost has additional details on the launch which include, "The CDKitchen Cooking Network is made up of 30 food-focused Web sites drawing more than 4.3 million visitors and delivering more than 23.5 million page impressions monthly. In addition to CDKitchen.com, sites in the network include DianasKitchen.com, ActiveDiner.com, VegSource.com, Massrecipes.com, and RecipeCircus.com."

The launch of this food-related ad network comes a month after the launch of Burst’s moms ad network. This shift to vertical ad networks within Burst makes sense if (and only if) they are able to sell ads. Their ad sales capability gets questioned regularly on the Burst publisher forum. I would suggest that they share their strategy with their publishers, something that they haven’t done as of yet.

Checking the CDKitchen site, the ads were all served by Tribal Fusion. Perhaps Burst should get them fixed up before pushing the press release to the wire.

(Editor’s note: Burst serves a tiny fraction of ads on CN, the percentage used to be much higher until the fill rate and pricing dropped)

In my research over the last 12+ years, moms click ads more than any other segment. So it makes sense that Burst target this demographic. Will Burst be successful with this moms network? Sure if they can sell ads into the network. I believe they are seriously struggling on selling ads into the technology channel.

From the note to Burst publishers, "Burst created the Moms Network to give advertisers a focused set of high quality websites – centered on the needs of young mothers – in a fully transparent environment." Double points for including "transparency" in the release – what does an ad network have to do with transparency?

Updated January 8 – I received an update from Chief Marketing Officer David Cooperstein, "As you will know from being a publisher on Burst Network, we offer publishers and advertisers full information about each other – reative, campaigns, and eCPMs for publishers, and site lists, performance, and publisher information on the advertiser front."

Unfortunately Burst along with many of the other ad networks are still stuck in 1996. I’ve been with Burst since they began and have seen no innovation whatsoever. I am working on a longer post about this topic in general but am continually disappointed by the lack of innovation. 

Editor’s note: Burst handles an ever-shrinking portion of ads on CenterNetworks.