The New Company, Rulo, to Provide Privacy-First Audience Solutions for the Open Web

NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Today, consumer intelligence company CivicScience formally announced the founding of Rulo, a new media and advertising company aimed at revolutionizing digital marketing in a privacy-centric future. The venture is backed by strategic investors including Jeff Wilke, former CEO of Worldwide Consumer at Amazon, Thomas Tull, founder of Legendary Entertainment, and Tod Johnson of The NPD Group. The announcement follows $15 million in seed funding raised for the new venture this summer.

The company was founded to support the open web through privacy-compliant, responsibly-sourced audience data, without dependence on third party cookies. What sets Rulo apart is direct engagement with the user: bringing respondents into the advertising process.

The inspiration for Rulo’s name, branding, and design is a Reuleaux triangle: the shape formed from the intersection of three circles in a Venn diagram. Rulo brings together three key components: CivicScience’s unique base of voluntary poll respondents, premium publishers, and brand marketers.

“We are in a unique position to engage all three participants of the open web ecosystem: users, content creators, and advertisers,” says Rulo CEO Doug Lauretano, a 20-year media veteran. “Publisher and brand partners have long been asking CivicScience Intelligence for the ability to leverage its data in advertising efforts. This new venture is the natural extension of a research business valued by CMOs at top brands and rooted in trusted relationships and engagement with users.”

As privacy initiatives filter through the open web in advertising, challenges await all brand stakeholders. In a world where third-party cookies are well on their way to being obsolete, advertisers can harness Rulo. The company’s offering will not be dependent on third-party cookies, rather, CivicScience Intelligence will power Rulo’s advertising solutions with data collected voluntarily from millions of respondents and identified using first party technology through partnerships with leading digital publishers.

The company’s responsibly-sourced consented data set makes it seamless for advertisers to reach the right consumer through data already trusted by Fortune 500 companies.  Rulo brings a level of audience specificity –often only found in the web’s walled gardens– to the open web with the anonymity and permission users require in a privacy-first world.

Rulo is building its team from the ground up, and is aggressively hiring for multiple positions in product, marketing, and sales. This month, Rulo joined the IAB Tech Lab to collaborate with leaders from across the industry in plotting a course for a privacy-centric future.  Lauretano will be on a panel at their summit, titled: “Renaissance, The Next Generation of Privacy, Addressability & Safety” on October 13, along with executives from both publishing and advertising to discuss how to address common misconceptions and educate your organizations on the core tenets of privacy.

Read the press release here.