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The head of a digital marketing agency founded in Edinburgh just over a decade ago has been crowned European Entrepreneur of the Year.

Steve Leach, chief executive of Bigmouthmedia, yesterday took the title, at a ceremony in Paris hosted by the European Business Awards. It follows similar triumphs elsewhere; in the last 12 months, he has been crowned Entrepreneur of the Year for both Scotland and the UK.

Through a variety of fully integrated digital marketing channels: Search (PPC and Online Media Planning, Affiliates, Social Networking, Brand Monitoring, Online PR and Web Analytics, Bigmouth Media develops, achieves and tracks client‘s target result; whether that be sales, enquiries, brand exposure, brand buzz, demographic expansion, user engagement, relationship marketing and/or user reach.

Customers include British Airways, MTV, Hilton Hotels International, Tesco and Starbucks.

Tags: Bigmouth Media, British Airways, Hilton Hotels International, MTV, Starbucks, Tesco

Gigya, the Silicon Valley company that lets widget companies like Rockyou and others track how advertising performs on their widgets across the Web, has raised $9.5 million in a second round of funding.

The financing was led by the Mayfield Fund. Existing investors Benchmark Capital and First Round Capital participated.

Gigya develops tools for distribution, tracking and monetizing of widgets. Its widget distribution platform boosts the sharing and posting of widgets via social networks & blogs. With Gigya, Widget owners let their site visitors post widgets directly into their profile or blog with one click. Widget providers also get access to detailed reports with information on widget distribution & performance.

Gigya‘s partners include RockYou, Webshots, Metacafe, Snapvine and hundreds others. Widget owners can learn more about Gigya and get started at www.gigya.com/wildfire.

Tags: , Benchmark Capital, First Round Capital, Gigya, Mayfield Fund

Google is to sell display ads in video through a partnership with YuMe, an online video advertising network. Apparently YuMe will serve InVideo overlay adverts as part of Google‘s AdSense for video beta advertising program. YuMe publishers who are current AdSense customers will also now have the opportunity to accept AdSense for video ad placements.

Current YuMe publishers utilizing AdSense for video to monetize their content include VidShadow, Mondo Media and JoeCartoon, to name a few.

YuMe investors include Accel Partners, BV Capital, and Khosla Ventures.

Tags: Accel Partners, BV Capital, Google, Khosla Ventures, YuMe

In a posting on their company website, OpenX says that Jon Miller the former CEO of AOL has joined them as Chairman. Miller brings with him a wealth of experience from working with advertisers and publishers. OpenX (formerly OpenAds) boasts a number of tier one investors including First Round Capital, Index Ventures, Mangrove Capital Partners, O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures and Accel Partners.

Tags: Accel Partners, First Round Capital, Index Ventures, Mangrove Capital Partners, O'Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures, Openads

Habbo, the largest virtual world for teens, has announced it has partnered with William Morris Agency, a talent and literary agency. Habbo is the first online virtual world the agency will represent in the rapidly growing digital entertainment industry.

So far, so good but at this point a crap of marketeers appear to have stepped in and written a few words …. [Read more]

Tags: 3i Group, Balderton Capital, Elisa Group, Group Partners, Habbo, Movida Group, Sulake Corporation, Taivas Group, William Morris Agency