Verklin to spearhead
the sizable Canoe

Project Canoe, a unified advertising initiative by the nation's largest cable companies, has selected David Verklin to lead it, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Project Canoe hopes to establish a platform for the automated insertion of ads into local spots across national cable networks. For cable companies that already have an ad system in place, Canoe shall unify them under one platform.

Because they're often the ISP of choice for households they serve, cable companies may leverage across-the-board TV and web behavior to target ads on both media. (Phorm, a UK-based service, generated public outcry for enabling ISPs to serve ads with similar targeting tactics.)

Verklin says Canoe plans to market its technology to programmers, not advertisers, positioning the program as a tech vendor instead of a sales operation. Programmers will sell the ads directly.

Verklin is the former CEO of Aegis Group's Carat Digital Exchange. He recently announced his decision to step down to assist Canoe. Shortly thereafter, Carat told users it would shut Digital Exchange down, then rescinded, saying it would relaunch with a "broader industry mandate."

Executive VP Mitch Oscar of Carat has said he would join Verklin at Canoe if asked.