The Social

BuddyMedia, a New York-based start-up that develops social-network games as well as branded applications for clients, has launched a new product that tackles one of the challenges of social advertising: that it's just plain difficult to tell how successful it is.

The company calls the creation "BuddyBrain," and is gearing it toward clients who turn to BuddyMedia for "appvertising," or branded apps designed specifically for product marketing. The data provided to clients--yes, arranged in the shape of a brain--provides statistics on installs, usage, and time spent per user; a feed of news and blog reports relevant to the brand and campaign; and documentation resources.

Facebook and other social networks typically provide a less extensive array of analytics to developers who have created applications on their platforms.

"Many advertisers and marketers are becoming aware of the value in advertising through social media channels, but have yet to do so because of an inaccurate perception that no methods or tools exist to sufficiently measure the reach and success of a campaign," CEO Michael Lazerow said in a statement. "We've spent the past few months developing the BuddyBrain to combat these very fears to both entice more brands to make the leap into social advertising and to better service our existing clientele."

Early BuddyBrain stats, the company says, have come up with some numbers that conveniently support BuddyMedia's own cause: that consumers are 75 times more likely to "interact" with a widget ad than a banner ad, that "appvertisements" average 140,000 installs in the first month of a campaign, and that 85 percent of social-network users who install a branded application will use it more than once.

Some of BuddyMedia's clients have included FedEx, Microsoft, Reebok, and Anheuser-Busch.

Buddy Media, a New York-based company that operates a number of social-media developer platform applications including Pirates vs. Ninjas, Zombies vs. Werewolves, Pub Darts, and a Sudoku game, announced Tuesday that it has raised $6.5 million in Series B funding in a round led by Softbank Capital.

A number of big-name investors like Ron Conway, Greycroft Partners, and the European Founders Fund (which has reportedly put cash behind Facebook) also contributed to the round along with 14 of the company's Series A investors.

Buddy Media uses a loyalty program called AceBucks across all its gaming applications, in which players can earn points that they can eventually trade in for real-world goods. Additionally, the company develops branded applications for clients like InStyle magazine, Anheuser-Busch, Priceline.com, and the Huffington Post.

Michael Lazerow, founder and CEO of Buddy Media, told me earlier this week that the company had initially wanted to raise $3 million in its Series B round, but investor interest raised it to $5 million and then finally $6.5 million. Previously, the start-up pulled in $1.7 million in Series A funding in a round led by PayPal founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel.

Softbank Capital's Eric Hippeau and Karin Klein will join Buddy Media's board of directors.

Lazerow told me that Buddy Media is "even more excited" about its other announcement, the debut of its social-media ad network. The invitation-only network will extend to "premier developers" on Facebook as well as OpenSocial-compatible platforms.

A number of digital advertising companies, including AdBrite, have launched ad networks for the developer applications that have been flooding social networks for the past year. But Lazerow hopes that BuddyMedia will get a leg up from its history: developing and operating applications itself.