After building a strong investment foundation of media-intensive venture capital firms and early strategic backers, advertising services developer Spot Runner Inc. has greatly expanded that base in a $51 million late-stage round from global media and consumer companies to accelerate its growth in both online and offline media marketing.

As investors in the round Spot Runner added Britain's Daily Mail and General Trust plc [DMGT], Mexico's Grupo Televisa, Legg Mason Capital Management and France's Groupe Arnault/LVMH, along with previous backers CBS Corp., Allen & Co., Interpublic Group [IPG], WPP Group plc [LON: WPP], Index Ventures, Tudor Investment Corp. and Capital Research and Management.

London-based WPP had been rumored as a potential buyer of Spot Runner last fall. But the new funding allows the online ad sartup to remain independent and accelerate growth, further boosting its potential valuation in an online ad industry where M&A activity is soaring.

Since landing original venture investment from Index and Battery in two $10 million rounds in 2005 and 2006, the four-year-old web-based ad agency has focused on strategic investment, with broadcasting giant CBS and traditional advertising conglomerate WPP coming in on a $40 million round in October 2006. At the time, Spot Runner co-founder and CEO Nick Grouf (pictured) said the company sought strategic partners that could both drive top-line growth with the advertising dollars they controlled, but also broaden the type of clients the company works with.

Grouf said the addition of the current roster of investors strengthens the company on both of those counts, as well as validating Spot Runner's technology-driven ad model, which allows customers to create ads from thousands of made-for-primetime templates that can be customized to reflect the specifics of their business. Spot Runner also has a platform for customers to create ad schedules.

Grouf said the new strategic partners create a more solid global footing for the company, adding the world's largest Spanish language media company in Grupo Televisa; the world's largest luxury goods group in Groupe Arnault, which owns Moët & Chandon, Hennessy, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Sephora and TAG Heuer; and a broad array of media in the U.K. with DMGT's holdings in national newspapers and related digital operations, local media, business and financial information, conferences and radio.  -- Clifford Carlsen

See 2006 story on Spot Runner funding from TheDeal.com
See September 2007 post on Spot Runner from Tech Confidential
See April 25 post on online ad M&A from Tech Confidential
For more see Mashable.com, PaidContent.org and SiliconAlleyInsider