Acxiom Acquires Ad Technology Firm Kefta

Acxiom announced today that it has acquired online marketing and advertising technology company Kefta.

Kefta offers dynamic targeting technology that allows marketers to tailor e-mail messages, banners, pop-up ads and Web pages based on such information as clickstream data, previous sites visited, operating system and connection speed.

The move increases data giant Acxiom’s ability to offer clients the ability to deliver marketing messages and Web content based on a combination of psychographics, demographics and online behavior.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. No layoffs are expected, according to representatives.

“It [the acquisition] does add additional information to our behavioral customer profile, and increases our ability to trigger communications off of that behavior,” said Kevin Johnson, leader of Acxiom Digital, the company’s online marketing unit. “For us the missing link in terms of driving continuous and integrated communications has been: ‘What do we do once that person gets to our customer’s Web site?’”

Previous to this acquisition, Acxiom could pass some data onto customers, and customers could try and adjust their Web sites based on that data, but such adjustments are not easy, especially once the Web site visitor gets past the landing page, Johnson said.

“Kefta really solves that problem, as well, because they have a unique and simple solution where, with a little bit of code added to each page, we can start modifying those pages based on the full individual customer portrait,” he said.

The move also allows Acxiom to offer more traditional database marketing overlays to Kefta’s current customers, said Johnson.

“We told some of Kefta’s clients about the acquisition and they got it right away,” he said.