AzoogleAds is no more
I’ve sort of had a love-hate relationship with AzoogleAds all these years. I’ve been friends with the founders Joe & Alex for over a decade and have kept in touch with them (although mainly on AIM now). They were the first sponsors of my first party in 2000something, and had always been great friends, providing me with advice and often a great tip for my various publications. At the same time, I’ve always had issues with almost every company in the industry, and AzoogleAds history has included everything from association with adware to crappy download products being pimped. Still, when I found out that they were shutting down “AzoogleAds”, I almost shed a tear reminiscing about the past, my history with the company and their enormous influence.
Ok, “AzoogleAds” has been dead for a while. They had rebranded themselves a while back as “AZN” which at the time was rumored to be specifically because they wanted to go public and use that Stock Ticker. Still, for the online advertising community, they were always “Azoogle” – a funny name, and for a long time, really funny guys who talked with a funny Canadian accent. I remember the first time I learned of the company, when it was probably no more than 10 or so people. Alex Zhardanovsky and Joe Speiser has been reading my publication for a while, ADBUMb, while at their first company, Dealprovider (which I can’t remember what they did) and according to them were big fans. When I first read the name “Azoogleads” I think for at least a few months, I thought it was “AZOOG-Leads” and they were some sort of lead company called AZOOG. At the time it seemed a really funny name, but honestly no weirder than AZOOGLE.
My first ADBUMb party was in NYC in a small club, which was booked by Claudia Chan, who is now the President of Shecky’s (The hip Alternative to Zagat). At the time she was just dating the owner of Shecky’s and I had met her through Justin Champion, of Synergy6 fame. Honestly, I knew nothing about parties and without these two, I would probably have thrown it in some Midtown Kosher Pizza shop. It went really well actually – we had several great sponsors, put together some great gift bags and had what was probably the first major interactive advertising party.
That was the night that I met Joe and Alex, two great guys who made me seem like the VIP guest at my own party. I really knew nothing about them, but the entire night they kept on trying to get me to drink (I didn’t drink at the time, wish I never started) and get me to dance with hot girls. Honestly, I wasn’t really much of a socialite at the time so I was very uncomfortable: these guys introduced me to the “who’s who” of the sophomore advertising industry. After that night, we kept in touch and they were always huge supporters of my publications, buying advertising often in every issue, helping me make a name in the industry. For this, I will always be grateful to the Azoogle Guys.
Yes, I have 10 years of stories, up and downs, the good, the bad, the really, really weird involving strippers. However, that is for another time.
So, with the “Azoogle” brand being retired, and everyone attaching themselves to the much more generic “Epic”, we enter a new decade of interactive advertising. Those two guys have moved on from Epic, still best friends and business partners, and have started their own pet food company, PetFlow. I guess what started as a silly name, is now one of the largest interactive advertising companies out there. For those who have been doing this as long as I have, seen the companies come and go, please raise your cup of coffee to the demise of AzoogleAds.
Long Live Azoooogle.
12 Responses to “AzoogleAds is no more”
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I knew Fraser at AzoogleAds, what a nice guy he was, he moved on to another company , so I'm glad he did before it was too late… This company didn't work out for me .
I forget. Was this article about Azoogle, or beating your chest?
I don't know Mr. SouthBend Indiana, what you think?
Yes, it is sad to see things change so much. But that is how life i, It never really stays the way it was for very long, does it? When you think about it, we really are not here on this Earth for very long anyway, 100 years goes by so quickly!
I always thought Azoogle had something to do with A to Z and Google. Amazon does something similar with their logo. The arrow points from the letter "A" in Amazon to the letter "Z" and even forms a smiley.
Very nicely said.
I also had a funny experience with Alex. He contacted we when he just started Azoogle. I was publishing a rather large newsletter at that time, with 3.5 million subscribers. He called me "dude" and I was pretty upset. Grown up in Germany I had no real clue what he was talking about and thought it meant something like "dumb guy". Found out later that "dude" is nothing special, just a cool way of saying "man".
Anyhow, I never made to much money with Azoogle, but I was always kind of proud of my customer number which was just above one hundred.
Hello Pace, as we work on the internet we find a lot of companies come and go. I had my mlm go a few months back as did AzoogleAds. We get to depending on them and they just go away. It seems that they had good leadership you just don't know. Thanks, Andrew Gallop
Yes, I have 10 years of stories, up and downs, the good, the bad, the really, really weird involving strippers. However, that is for another time.
once again, you make yourself look like a classless dooshbag. you should get a real job.
"once again, you make yourself look like a classless dooshbag. you should get a real job."
If you are the only guy who hasn't ever been to a strip joint, then more power to you. LOL.
Thanks for this post!
The end of an era! Alex and Joe had a reporter contact us for an New York Times' article because our mailer did so well with the Iraqi Most Wanted Cards. The reporter got some facts off, but it helped promote us big time. Thanks guys. Now go feed those doggies.
I never dealt with Azoogle because I figured anyone who branded themselves by sounding similar to Google wouldn't have much going for them
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