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In-Brief: A look at Aggregate Knowledge, a content discovery/recommendation company that drives highly targeted and relevant content and product placements to consumers based on real-time buzz and collective buying behavior which it monitors across its network of 100+ media and retail websites. The newcomer is gearing up to make its mark on mobile. With one trial in progress (no word on whether it’s with a mobile operator or a content company) and others in the pipeline, it merits a closer look. Paul Martino, Aggregate Knowledge CEO and co-founder, talks about his company and the mobile trends on his radar. Best to listen. Paul is a serial entrepreneur whose social networking company Tribe Network was recently acquired by Cisco.

I first met with Aggregate Knowledge during RecSys 2007, a super-cool conference focused on recommendation engines and technologies. I felt it was a great opportunity to meet with companies sure to make a mark on mobile - and I was right. Aggregate Knowledge has since entered into its first mobile trials, and Paul tells me that other companies in the space are lining up. Why? Because mobile search is great if users know what they want, but most times they don’t. And even if they do, inputting their request on a mobile device can be a pain. That’s where discovery and recommendation come in. (Why I’ve consistently come out for tie-ups between companies in the two spaces - and why we’ve seen a string of M&A aimed to accomplish just that…)

I did the interview a few weeks back, but had to hold off on final production because industry conferences and speaking engagements kept me on the road and away from my studio. But sometimes being a little late is a good thing. Case in point: yesterday’s news that BusinessWeek has chosen Aggregate Knowledge to deliver “user-driven content recommendations” on BusinessWeek.com. How will it work? When a reader clicks on a breaking news story on the BusinessWeek site, Aggregate Knowledge will automatically provide user-driven content suggestions in the form of “More from BusinessWeek.” These suggestions are based on what visitors are actually reading across BusinessWeek.com.

Clearly, recommendation - not search - will transform how users find and buy content. The tie-up with BusinessWeek confirms that this is going to be a big thing in the online. I look for it to be huge in mobile - soon.

After all, the personal nature of device and the emergence of social networking are key factors that play in favor of any scheme that harnesses community buzz to bubble up cool content. (In a nutshell, this is what Aggregate Knowledge does and I encourage you to read my recent column for background on the company’s Pique Discovery Network, an offering that - true to the name - is designed from the ground up to pique the consumer’s interest in targeted content they will most likely find useful and most definitely would not have known otherwise existed.) As Paul puts it: “We think that discovery is going to be a line item on the marketer’s budget the way search is. And it’s not that discovery will cannibalize search or search will cannibalize discovery. It’s much more that there are two ways in which people find content.”

Listen to the podcast here. [10:13]

Content syndication and discovery: Paul is convinced that marketers are “going to have to have a discovery budget as well as a search budget.” How would this work and what would a CMO need to consider? Start with syndication and placement. “We take content and we syndicate it across our network. So for example, if you’re a major ticket vendor and you would like your tickets to appear next to news articles about the artists who are mentioned, we will take your ticket inventory and provide it at the right spot with the right marketing message next to the news article about your favorite band; or maybe it’s about the Super Bowl. So that’s an example of a tangible way in which discovery can become that line item to the marketer.”

Social networking: It’s a great fit with mobile and an ace in Aggregate Knowledge’s hand because it tracks buzz. But beware of the hype. As one of the first people to found a social networking company, Paul is in demand for his outspoken and realistic take on the explosion of social networks. “I get the vertically-oriented social network pitch at least once a week. I’m going to be a social network for Evangelical Christians; I’m going to be a social network for people who are over 65…Some of these are going to be very successful and some won’t. But the analogy I use really goes back to the entertainment business. Social networking is a hit-driven business and you’ve either got Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, or you’ve got nothing. It’s really a winner-takes-all kind of thing.”

Trends that matter: Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo was Paul’s top trend pick long before it was announced. What else does he expect to see in 2008? Ad networks will snap up analytics companies. Core Metrics and Co. have “high multiples related to the fact that they own the data sets to make targeting better….I think that those companies are doing very well but [will] get premium valuations if and when acquired by advertising networks because the value in that targeting data I think will out-strip their current services business.”

Mobile: We know that the company has a mobile trial and we know mobile is high on its radar. No other details, but Paul has promised he will let MSG know his next move first (!) In the meantime, he leaves us with an intriguing trend: Mobile and RSS feeds will become “ideal channels for marketers to get their content discovered in that magical and serendipitous way.”

• Posted in
• Recommendation, Mobile Social Networking, Web 2.0, Personalization, Mobile Search, Content Discovery, Mobile Advertising, Podcasts

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