Announces Initiative to Benchmark the Brand Building Efficacy of Different Social Media Tactics and Channels

San Francisco – Vizu Corporation, an online ad technology company that enables advertisers and publishers to measure and optimize Brand Lift in real-time, today announced the availability of a series of case studies developed to evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches to social media advertising. In recent weeks, the company has partnered with 33Across, BuzzFeed, BlogHer, and others to benchmark the effectiveness of brand advertising using social media tactics ranging from blogging to leveraging the social graph, from marketers such as Jones New York, GE, and Mary Kay Inc.

“In a recent study we conducted, 63 percent of brands told us they plan to increase their spending in social media this year,” says Dan Beltramo, CEO of Vizu.  “Faced with such a wide range of potential social media tactics and outlets, however, they don’t necessarily know where to place their bets. In response, we’ve instituted a new initiative to help ensure they know where to spend those dollars to maximize Brand Lift.”

Vizu’s partners used the company’s Ad Catalyst solution to measure and optimize  brand advertising in a variety of social channels. Examples include:

•    33Across built a custom Brand Graph™ that predicts large sets of new users for Jones New York by interpreting social habits and attributes across the retail category. 33Across and Jones New York used Vizu’s Ad Catalyst solution to get a real-time understanding of the brand-building effectiveness of their Brand Graph™ to drive purchase intent among women in or looking to enter the workforce. Ad Catalyst allowed both parties to access campaign performance data in real-time, facilitating communication and collaboration to identify the best-performing creative executions,  reallocate impressions to these executions (increasing purchase intent by 19 percentage points) and finally, to drive an overall 56.2% lift in purchase intent among 33Across’s Brand Graph™ consumers who had been exposed to the campaign.

•    GE partnered with BuzzFeed to create branded content through custom editorial posts and enlisted Vizu’s Ad Catalyst solution to analyze the impact on users’ perceptions. They found that branded content creates significant lifts in brand perception. Furthermore, these lifts are greatly amplified when the content is discovered through social media and sharing. Bottom line: branded content via trusted referrers leads to significant increases in brand affinity exceeding the bounds of a simple display ad.

•    Mary Kay Inc. teamed up with BlogHer, a network of the most influential women in social media, to create a branded blog outreach campaign to drive purchase intent. Mary Kay Inc. and BlogHer used Ad Catalyst to review the brand impact of the blog content, as well as the campaign’s frequency and lifetime performance in real-time. They found that the branded blog campaign drove an overall 259.6% lift in purchase intent, performing above average in comparison to branded ad campaigns and other beauty and purchase intent campaigns measured by Vizu.

“In light of the Facebook IPO and the demand from brands advertisers for more meaningful ad success metrics, social media is a hot topic these days,” adds Mr. Beltramo. “Determining what actually works, however, can be challenging. In addition to the various channels and tactics to choose from, the proliferation of performance metrics in the online medium further confuses the situation. In allowing our customers to measure and optimize their social media efforts using classic offline metrics such as Brand Lift, and in providing these benchmarks for the efficacy of different approaches to social media advertising, we’re helping marketers ensure they get the most from their social media investment.”

All of Vizu’s case studies can be found here: http://brandlift.vizu.com/knowledge-resources/case-studies/

Vizu Corporation (www.brandlift.com) brings the same metrics used to measure and optimize brand advertising effectiveness in the offline world to the online medium. By providing the first real-time, enterprise technology platform that allows brand advertisers and their partners in the digital media ecosystem – publishers, ad networks, exchanges, and demand side platforms – to collaborate around measuring and optimizing Brand Lift metrics, Vizu enables its customers to move their target audience through the purchase funnel, from building awareness to creating intent and preference. Vizu’s brand advertising effectiveness platform is used by over 60% of Advertising Age’s Top 100 Brand Advertisers and Comscore’s Top 50 Media properties to support all key aspects of the advertising lifecycle, including media buying, audience profiling, and Brand Lift optimization.

Traffiliate for Mobile now provides more accurate measurement of mobile ad effectiveness

When mobile advertisers pay per click, curbing click fraud is vital in delivering cost-effective campaigns

Leading ad network claims industry leading anti-fraud tool

Ra’anana, Israel – DMG (DSNR Media Group) – a leading provider of digital advertising solutions for online, mobile, and video, announced today that Traffiliate for Mobile, DMG’s platform that provides comprehensive real-time visibility of mobile campaigns,
now includes an anti click fraud solution for more accurate measurement of mobile ad effectiveness. Based on DMG’s extensive
experience in mobile advertising, serving over 10 billion impressions monthly, this anti click fraud capability identifies unwanted clicks that can result in savings of tens of thousands of dollars every month for mobile advertisers. In addition to reducing costs, this software provides a more accurate assessment of clicks, leading to better planning and more effective campaign results.

Click fraud, when a click is generated without having actual interest in the target of the ad’s link, has become a growing concern for
mobile advertisers. A Harris Interactive survey conducted last year reported that 47% of mobile application users clicked on mobile ads by mistake. Detecting accidental and fraudulent clicks for mobile advertising is more complex due to the variety of devices and browsers and the difficulty identifying unique IP addresses for each user. DMG utilizes a sophisticated system to detect suspicious patterns that can work around these technical complexities.

According to Shalom Berkovitz, CEO of DMG, “In today’s emerging mobile realm, advertisers are more likely to pay per click, and are
demanding a high level of accuracy for meeting their target audience. We are leading the industry by providing tools that can enforce a high level of integrity and trust enabling advertisers to more effectively use mobile advertising as part of their marketing mix.”

ABOUT DMG

DMG is a global digital advertising network serving advertisers, agencies and publishers.
Utilizing its unique optimization methodologies and technologies, DMG offers a full cross-platform solution for online, mobile and video. DMG delivers 40 billion impressions and over 7 million conversions each month, to over 350 clients worldwide. For more information, visit www.dsnrmg.com.

Unique MOO.COM Offer Follows Success and Momentum Generated from Enabling Individuals to Create Customized Business Cards Using Social Media Themes

Businesses with Facebook Pages Can Use Their Facebook Presence to Build Consumer Awareness and Affinity, Bringing Their Offline Fans Online

London, UK and Providence, RI – Following its successful launch to create new MOO.COM cards using personalized Facebook card designs, themes and information, MOO.COM today announced a new, free offer that allows businesses to create eye-catching cards based on their Page.

More than four million businesses have Pages on Facebook. As more and more business owners and brand evangelists turn to social media for marketing efforts, MOO.COM is enabling millions of Facebook users who are large and small business owners to create customized, buzz-generating MOO.COM Business Cards to take their business offline– for free.

The new offer leverages the full potential of compelling and creative content that businesses and brands add to their Pages.

Page admins will all now be able to integrate their products and services showcased on Facebook Pages into their offline social and business networking experience using MOO.COM’s cards.

Because businesses and brands often want to market different elements of their services, MOO.COM cards can be individually designed and personalized, with each highlighting a different component of the brand or business. With MOO.COM’s “Printfinity” feature, businesses and brands can pair just the right images for a new offering, service or product launch – whether it’s for strictly business or for fun social and networking occasions.

“The response from our first MOO.COM offer was very positive and generated great momentum for our business,” said Paul Lewis, Head of Marketing for MOO.COM.“We quickly realized that we were filling a very timely niche in the marketplace for users who wanted a more dynamic, buzzworthy and fun social networking experience. Our new offer is designed to fulfil a further need on the business side and meet the expectations of our loyal customers for other, more versatile ways to use MOO.COM cards – and we’re delivering.”

“As global businesses and brands, large and small, and their agencies seek new ways tocatch attention and take advantage of new marketing channels, we believe this free offer will be a much-sought after additional tool to add to their marketing suite,” said Richard Moross, CEO and Founder of MOO.COM. “MOO.COM continues to innovate to develop a compelling and unique portfolio of printed products that bridges the gap between the dynamics of social networking and the emerging needs of businesses of any kind.”

According to company data, MOO.COM’s initial offer to integrate customers’ Facebook Page information and photos with MOO.COMstylish business cards was a huge hit, with users from 150 countries taking advantage of the unique offer – not just MOO.COM’s home turf of the US and UK, but also far flung locations such as Greenlandand the Maldives.

About MOO.COM
MOO is an award-winning online print business that is passionate about great design and the difference it can make to its customers and the world. Launched in 2006, MOO aims to disrupt the $100 billion global print industry by combining the values of professional design with accessibility and reach of the web; making great design available to all. By applying Web 2.0 principles to a 500 year-old market, MOO has become one of the fastest growing print businesses in the world, with triple digit annual growth and a global reach since launch. MOO prints millions of cards a month and has served customers in over 180 countries. MOO also empowers companies of 10 or more employees with MOO Business Services, offering volume discounts and easy order management for entire organizations. For more information, visit www.moo.com.

NEW YORK - PubMatic (http://www.PubMatic.com), the digital media platform company for publishers, announced partnerships with publisher-side ad servers that will be integrated through PubLink, the company’s enterprise app marketplace for publishers.

PubLink is a set of open APIs and pre-packaged integrations that enable publishers to use PubMatic’s strategic selling platform as a single point of integration to access partners and services in real time. Through PubLink open APIs, PubMatic’s platform services are now available to several ad servers such as AdJuggler, Adzerk and Zedo. These companies can now extend PubMatic’s real-time bidding technology to the ad servers’ publisher clients.

“PubLink extends the publisher base for PubMatic beyond its existing customers who are using a variety of ad serving technologies,” said Rajeev Goel, Co-Founder and CEO of PubMatic. “We’re excited that ad serving companies are eager to integrate with our platform. Together, we will bring best-of-class monetization capabilities to publishers and help them grow their businesses.”

PubMatic will connect ad servers’ customers to the programmatic media buyers working with PubMatic. The integrations will increase liquidity in the real-time bidding marketplace and help them improve monetization for their publishers. To further illustrate the benefits of the integration to their customers, Adzerk announced the partnership on their blog.

PubLink allows publishers to access a variety of point solutions including audience data, ad verification and privacy controls, enhanced analytics, malware scanning, mobile content optimization and mobile ad serving. PubMatic will continue to add more partners in the coming months.

“Working with PubMatic represents another important step in AdJuggler’s publisher monetization strategy,” said John Shomaker, CEO of AdJuggler. “Our Exchange Media Program team has integrated closely with the PubLink API bidding and reporting infrastructure to extend our proposition of providing higher CPMs and fill for our publisher customers.”

PubLink is fully integrated with PubMatic’s strategic selling platform and a complementary set of capabilities that work with the PubDirect suite of management tools for premium publishers. Through PubDirect and PubLink, premium publishers are powering their own holistic revenue strategies and leveraging the influence of their brands for advertising partners and consumers.

About PubMatic

PubMatic (http://www.PubMatic.com) gives premium publishers a real-time media selling platform for managing revenue and brand strategy. PubMatic’s platform combines real-time bidding (RTB), the most comprehensive brand protection tools, extensive audience insights and hands-on support to serve the world’s leading publishers. PubMatic is privately held, backed by funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Nexus Venture Partners, and Helion Ventures, and has seven offices around the world in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Cambridge, MA – Swoop, a service that seamlessly integrates relevant information about products and services — at times in the form of sponsored content or advertising — into web content, today announced that the company is providing its innovative service to leading online food and lifestyle publishers, including: Cooking.com, iFood.tv and a number of food blogs including CinnamonSpiceandEverythingNice.com and Drinkoftheweek.com. Swoop helps publishers increase engagement with users by providing consumers with relevant information – integrated directly into website content – which they would normally seek in a secondary search, or may not have even known was available.  As a result, publishers enjoy the benefit of keeping users more engaged and on their sites longer.

Swoop is designed to discover billions of decision moments and create serendipitous engagement opportunities where publishers can enhance user experience and advertisers can deeply engage with their target consumers.

“iFood.tv has been a leader in bringing innovative ways to teach beginners and experts alike how to cook.  We are now excited to partner with Swoop to bring our users an innovative new way to ensure that they are saving money and to serendipitously discover exciting new offers.  Their integration at the ingredient level is an entirely new concept in advertising,” said Vikrant Mathur, CEO of iFood.tv.

“By using Swoop, we can provide our visitors with valuable information that they would normally seek in a secondary search, integrated directly into the recipes and articles they are reading,” said Jennifer Lee, VP Advertising, Cooking.com. “This helps to keep users engaged and coming back for more.”

“Being able to enhance and customize the user experience on a website is our number one priority,” said Ron Elwell, CEO of Swoop. “Swoop takes pride in being able to provide relevant information to consumers that they normally would have to search for, without ever having to leave the site. Improving the user experience is something that many publishers strive for, and we look forward to working with publishers to achieve this goal.”

Swoop recently launched their Local Offers service, which presents hyper-local content that matches a consumer’s interest, or intent, as it relates to food with corresponding offers and coupons at the local market where they shop. Swoop’s ability to identify a consumer’s intent and interest provides advertisers the opportunity to create meaningful engagement by inviting the consumer in for a relevant and timely discussion.

About Swoop

Swoop is a service that seamlessly integrates relevant information about products and services – at times in the form of sponsored content or advertising – into the content that consumers are engaged with online.  Swoop is able to discover a consumer’s intent and interest based on a deep understanding of the content they are engaged with, providing advertisers with the opportunity to have deep and meaningful engagement with consumers.  Founded by a team with deep experience in web publishing, advertising technology and consumer marketing, Swoop is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Swoop is venture backed by US Venture Partners and Valhalla Partners.  For more information, please visit www.swoop.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Maker of Leading Sharing Platform Consolidates Brands Around AddThis as Company Crosses 1.3B User Milestone

Mclean, Va. – AddThis launches today a robust set of social plugins, analytics, and audience products to provide a full suite of sharing and engagement tools for publishers and brands. The announcements from the company, formerly known as Clearspring, accompany consolidation of the company’s brands under AddThis and come with new milestones for unique users and domains.

As the industry leader on the social open web, AddThis is now used by 14 million domains and reaches over 1.3 billion users monthly. The platform is loaded 3 billion times daily and processes 70 terabytes of real-time social data from across the web weekly to power an end-to-end data-driven product suite.

“The flow of big data for advertisers and publishers is only valuable if the data becomes actionable,” says AddThis CEO Ramsey McGrory. “AddThis powers the social web and social advertising through sophisticated data-driven products that make site owners and brands smarter and more effective.”

For site owners, AddThis expands its product set beyond sharing to a full suite of social plugins. The addition of Follow, Welcome, and Trending Content plugins and enhanced real-time Analytics will help to help publishers and advertisers make their sites and content more personal and engaging for visitors.

- Follow Tool – Follow buttons can be placed with content on site to allow users to become fans, followers or subscribers in one click.

- Trending Content Tool – The Trending Content tool uses a content feed API to continuously promote a brand’s top content in real time on their site, in newsletters or on social channels.

- Welcome Tool – The Welcome tool allows publishers to optimize an incoming user’s experience by welcoming them with a personalized greeting and call-to-action.

- Additions to Analytics platform – The Analytics product is expanding to provide insights on content generating fans and followers and the most popular sharing format – copying/pasting a URL.

“Together AddThis Analytics and the Trending Content tool automatically showcase the content our readers are engaging with most. Trending Content visually programs the most shared articles, while our editors log in to AddThis Analytics to get real-time insights into social performance for creating more of the content our users want,” says Ryan Urtheil, Director of Operations, Parade Magazine.

For brands, AddThis is expanding its social suite to activate data for paid-owned-earned strategies with their Social+ audience product set, which serves over 500 brands and their agencies. Social+ audiences leverage the largest social and interest graph on the web, enabling advertisers to tap how users are connected by social behavior, brand affiliation and intent.

“We utilize AddThis data products and services to drive receptive new 1-800-Flowers users into our conversion funnel. For Mother’s Day, we are relying on AddThis’ custom modeled audience targeting capabilities to reach users at significant scale for greater efficiency and ROI during our biggest holiday period,” says Will Ferguson, Senior Director of Online Marketing, 1-800-Flowers.

“We partner with the AddThis team on social data solutions because AddThis’ audiences provide quality reach we can’t get elsewhere,” said Xaxis’ Eugene Becker.

As of May 10, 2012, the AddThis, Clearspring Technologies, and XGraph will consolidate and move forward under the name AddThis. XGraph will remain a standalone brand for the data technology and processing platform of AddThis.

About AddThis

AddThis is the leader in socially connecting publishers, services and advertisers to audiences on the open web. Reaching more than 1.3 billion unique users monthly, AddThis’ social tools and analytics are used on more than 14 million unique domains to distribute and track digital content such as web pages, widgets, and videos to social networks, bookmarking sites, blogs, and more. AddThis’ proprietary XGraph data technology processes 70 percent of the world’s web traffic to deliver real-time insights, data-driven tools, and high-performing audience products. Visit addthis.com to learn more.

Sandy Shanman Joins as general manager, Mobile

EMERYVILLE, CA – Exponential Interactive, the global digital advertising company, today launched Appsnack (TM), a mobile advertising division that provides in-app, rich-media brand engagement solutions for brand advertisers.

Appsnack provides advanced HTML5 rich-media advertising that delivers sophisticated and engaging brand experiences that behave like bite-sized apps, hence the name Appsnack. The ads enable users to engage with video, product info, and, for example, locations of nearby retail stores.  Appsnack will use Exponential’s e-X Advertising Intelligence platform to bring advanced audience targeting to mobile ads, so brands can reach their prospective customers and engage them with relevant, high-impact campaigns.

It has appointed Sandy Shanman as general manager, mobile, to lead this new division. Mr. Shanman was most recently senior VP, mobile solution sales, strategy and business development at cloud-based applications provider Limelight Networks. Prior to Limelight he held VP sales roles at Quattro Wireless, now Apple’s iAds, and AOL-owned advertising network Advertising.com.

Mr. Shanman says, “Rich media and video are rapidly becoming the most effective brand vehicles in the app economy, just like on the web. There’s a tremendous opportunity for brands and their agencies to capitalize on this trend in a more intelligent way, and that’s what Appsnack will provide.”

Mr. Shanman and team will oversee relationships with agencies such as MediaCom, Pereira & O’Dell, Starcom, Universal McCann and Zenith Optimedia.  Appsnack will also capitalize on Exponential’s global footprint to deliver its offering to agencies across the globe.

Dan Beer, media and strategy supervisor at Pereira & O’Dell, says, “As audiences increase their time on both display and mobile platforms, it will be extremely helpful to have a single source of actionable intelligence to use to target in both environments. Appsnack’s solution is the kind of comprehensive approach we’ve come to expect from Exponential.”

Appsnack will also provide a comprehensive monetization solution for publishers and app developers. “App developers will capitalize on Appsnack’s rich-media ads via a lightweight SDK. We will offer some of the most engaging mobile ads for iOS and Android that leverage our media efficiency layer and custom HTML5 rich-media creative development,” says Mr. Shanman.

The new mobile solution is being offered to Exponential’s existing publisher partners who have allocated at least 12 billion in-app mobile impressions, including BuddyTV Guide, ChaCha, Dictionary.com, goodreads, MapMyRUN, MeFeedia, Photobucket and XE. Concurrently, Shanman and his team will be driving relationships with new publishers and app developers through the company’s sales presence in 25 countries worldwide.

“Trying to navigate the complexities of the mobile ecosystem can be challenging, particularly when trying to maximize revenue across multiple mobile devices. Appsnack provides the advanced technology and seamless integration we need to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible,” says Richard Jalichandra, CEO of MapMyRun.

Appsnack (www.appsnack.com) is a mobile advertising solution that provides in-app, rich-media brand engagement campaigns for brand advertisers. It is a division of Exponential Interactive, the global digital advertising company that also owns global online advertising provider Tribal Fusion, engagement video platform Firefly Video and in-stream video advertising specialist AdoTube. Exponential is headquartered in Emeryville, California and offers its solution to brand advertisers in 25 countries.

BEIJING - Guohe, China’s leading mobile advertising management platform, has launched its ad management SDK in Microsoft’s Windows Phone SDK Gallery, becoming Microsoft’s key mobile advertising partner. Guohe SDK for Windows Phone is a mobile advertising management platform which has already integrated three mainstream ad networks on the Windows Phone platform including Microsoft. Influential apps like iFanr, Douding Radio, Rainbow Whether, Jiepang Time Machine, etc. have already become early users of the Guohe SDK for Windows Phone.

With Guohe SDK for Windows Phone, Microsoft aims to provide app developers a new choice in developing their mobile advertising strategy and achieving profit. Microsoft will continue to cooperate with Guohe to better serve Windows Phone developers and to explore an integrated ad management solution to help developers enhance profits via mobile ads.

Neo Zhang, co-founder of Guohe, says, “To be part of Microsoft’s Windows Phone SDK Gallery is a significant milestone for us. We firmly believe that Windows Phone is a platform with substantial potential and we are honored to be part of it. This partnership will surely bring larger value and better mobile intelligence experience to the mobile internet ecosystem, and to create more business opportunities for app developers in China. ”

Guohe is dedicated to providing the best autonomous ad management experiences and supporting developers in mobile ad exchange and sales. With Guohe, developers can manage and analyze ads in their own apps, for instance, tracking detailed statistics such as ad exposure, CTR, daily ad-receivers, total ad-receivers, etc. Moreover, according to pre-set ad proportion and priority, Guohe can automatically optimize ad performance based on location, demographics, etc. Guohe also provides unique direct advertising services for developers and advertisers, ensuring outstanding brands’ exposure in top apps.

Guohe SDK for Windows Phone is now available for download: http://guohead.com/v/sdk.html

About Guohe

Guohe (guohead.com) is a leading mobile advertising management platform in China dedicated to helping developers realize business value for their apps and provide advertisers with mobile ad planning, analysis and optimization services. Guohe has integrated 15 mainstream advertising networks both inside and outside China and concentrates on providing premium advertising optimization and management services.

Guohe has won recognition from prominent experts within the industry and has been adopted by many of the elite developers in China since it was founded at the end of 2010. Guohe has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei. Guohe was awarded “Best Mobile Ad Platform” at the end of 2011 by Sohu IT, and nominated for ChinaMode’s “Award for Most Attended Start-ups” and Business Value magazine’s “Award Internet Innovation in China”.

Program to Provide One Stop Shop for Marketers Seeking and Evaluating Data-Powered Media Solutions and Apps

Cupertino, Calif. – BlueKai, the world’s most connected customer data cloud for data management, analysis and activation, today announced the launch of a new partner program.  The BlueKai Partner Program is designed to give marketers an easy way to evaluate all of BlueKai’s over 110 (and growing) partners, offering a range of solutions for media execution, analytics, attribution, site and creative optimization and more.

The BlueKai Partner Program (www.bluekai.com/partner), further positions BlueKai as the category leader in the burgeoning data management space as widespread adoption of data-driven marketing strategies continues to grow.  The partnerships reflected in the program represent three major trends that are currently taking place:

• ·         Marketers and agencies continue to have a myriad of options when it comes to data-powered media.  As a result, real-time data access through seamless integration with other media buying processes are key to deciding which partners to choose

• ·         Data Management Platforms (DMPs) are no longer just tools for marketers.  Rather, the marketplace is witnessing quick adoption within the publishing community as well as data aggregators who are looking to better manage and monetize their data assets.

• ·         Data utilization is getting more mature and is extending beyond just ad targeting.  A whole new realm of app partners are now plugging in data as a service to help inform and power their own solutions, from audience analytics, modeling, attribution, site optimization and dynamic creative optimization, to name just a few.

“BlueKai’s mission is to create seamless data connectivity, not just from an infrastructure standpoint but also from a partnership perspective,” said Omar Tawakol, CEO of BlueKai.  “Our vast network of partners is an indication of the growth of data-driven choices that are now available to marketers and publishers to better realize the potential of data.  This new partner program was created to make this ecosystem more accessible to marketers who are evaluating these innovative services and to create partnership dialogue among various solution providers.”

As part of the program, BlueKai Partners will be segmented into the following areas where they will be assigned various badges that denote the level of integration, partnership or affiliation with BlueKai and its data program:

• ·         Media Partners – Partners (ad networks, exchanges, trading desks, publishers, etc.) who tap into BlueKai’s vast data assets to target ads more effectively and efficiently across online or video inventory.  Integration levels will be assigned based on data transfer methods, ability to ingest media data and integration into BlueKai’s interfaces.  Integration is key to maximizing data transfer and targetable audience size, building scale in the shortest time possible and gaining real-time and integrated access to BlueKai’s 3^rd party data.  Badges denote further partnership attributes including international coverage and incorporation of data for analytics.

• ·         Branded Data Providers – Includes data aggregator partners whose third party audience data is made available for acquisition in the BlueKai Exchange.  These badges showcase a variety of data types including Intent, Retail, CPG, Travel, Auto, Behavioral, Offline, B2B, Financial and Demographic.

• ·         App Partners – Partners who are tapping into BlueKai data as a service and building value-add solutions for Attribution Models, Video, Modeling, Survey, Social and Creative and Site Optimization and beyond.

• ·         DMP Partners – Marketer, publisher and data aggregator partners who leverage BlueKai’s data management platform to manage, monetize, analyze and take action on first party data assets.

• ·         Privacy Partners – BlueKai is affiliated with these partners to drive initiatives around self-regulation, data certification as well as consumer transparency and privacy.

“It’s become increasingly important for marketers and publishers to connect their data given the rapid adoption of integrated marketing,” said Bruce Beigel, Senior Managing Director at Winterberry Group.  “This partner program will help to simplify the the whole process of connecting the data sources to each other and making the data actionable across a variety of data use cases, campaign execution platforms  and marketing channels.”

BlueKai recently announced a partnership with Cognitive Match, who joins the BlueKai Partner Program as an app partner.  Cognitive Match, developer of market leading Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) solutions, is tapping into BlueKai’s platform for data intelligence to inform its dynamic creative offering to marketers.  For more information, see press release.

About BlueKai
BlueKai (www.bluekai.com) provides the leading data management platform (DMP) that connects, analyzes and activates proprietary data assets for marketers and publishers. By aggregating all the customer data assets within an organization, BlueKai’s platform provides an intelligent unified view of consumers allowing for more relevant interactions across all touch points. This enables BlueKai customers to achieve higher marketing performance, more customers and more revenue. The BlueKai platform is uniquely integrated with the world’s largest marketplace for anonymous 3rd party audience data providing unparalleled audience prospecting and analytics.

The BlueKai customer data grid is the most connected and most adopted data platform in the ad tech ecosystem. Trusted by 6 of the top Fortune 15 corporations and numerous global brands, the privately-held company is based in Cupertino, Calif., and is a recipient of the 2011 OnMedia B2B Company of the Year award.

The adtivity Platform, Based on Campaigns Reaching People as They Perform Activities Across Web, Social and Mobile, Is Capturing Billions of Records of Data Monthly to Take Advantage of the “Biggest Opportunity in Years to Change Advertising for the Better”

Equips entertainment companies with advanced forecasting features and audience management capabilities to better manage cross-platform campaigns

SAN MATEO, California – FreeWheel, the video technology company serving enterprise-class entertainment companies, today unveiled three new extension products for their flagship ad management system, Monetization Rights Management® (MRM), that will support entertainment companies in delivering on their integrated television and digital upfront commitments.

Developed with input from programmer and distributor customers participating in the upfronts, the new products will allow MRM customers to offer a better experience for their viewers across connected devices, optimize ad revenue generation on their content, and give advertisers additional options to target specific audiences at scale.

Several existing FreeWheel customers have already deployed or have signed on to use the MRM extensions, which are:

·      Audience management, which publishers can use to bolster their proprietary data with third-party data sources and enhance ad targeting to known audience attributes at scale and across connected devices. MRM customers already target against specific content and content locations, but now they can provide more relevant ads for specific demographics of viewers

·      Scenario forecasting, a powerful management tool that predicts how inventory availability, ad delivery, and ad sell-through rates are affected by “what-if” changes to inventory settings, such as increasing commercial breaks or driving additional traffic to particular Web pages. This functionality protects a user’s experience while watching video content and balances supply with demand across inventory types

·      Extended forecasting, which gives MRM customers up to two full years of visibility on inventory availability during and after the upfronts season and how it adjusts due to seasonal programming events

The products have been designed with flexibility around the business of FreeWheel’s customers in mind. For example, one customer is leveraging audience management to not only enhance their targeting, but also execute demographic-targeted campaigns as make goods for under-delivery in linear TV, an especially useful feature to fulfill commitments emanating from upfront agreements.

“The television upfronts are rapidly changing to account for consumers watching video content on a variety of devices, as well as via many distribution methods, such as VOD and game consoles,” said Frans Vermeulen, SVP of Revenue and Strategy. “It’s vital that our customers are able to quickly expand their revenue strategies across devices and environments, and these solutions were developed with this in mind.”

The television upfronts generated $9 billion in ad sales, or 15 percent of full-year ad sales, for television networks last year, according to market research firm eMarketer. With an increased focus on multichannel advertising campaigns, as well as exposure from the Digital Content New Fronts, expectations are that larger, multiplatform campaigns will be utilized to take advantage of consumers viewing content on the nearest available screens.

FreeWheel makes video revenue decisions for 70 percent of the brands in thestandard cable TV channel line-up, the majority of which will hold presentations during the television upfronts.

Additional technical information about the new product extensions can be found on FreeWheel’s FreeThink blog.

About FreeWheel

FreeWheel manages the economics of content for the enterprise-class world of entertainment, offering technical infrastructure for revenue rights management and business operations, wrapped in advisory services. Founded and led by a team of executives from the world’s leading technology companies, FreeWheel’s solutions have already armed companies like AOL, ESPN, FOX, NBCUniversal, Sky, Turner, and VEVO with the technology andservices they need to profitably scale their professional content across devices and revenue models. For more information, visit www.freewheel.tv. Follow the company @FreeWheel.

Automotive, CPG, Retail and Travel Advertisers Broaden Ability to Reach “Spend-a-Like” Audiences at Scale

Cupertino, CALIF and Westminster, COLO - Brand marketers have a new modeling resource as the result of an expanded partnership announced today between BlueKai and Datalogix. BlueKai provides the world’s most complete platform for data management, analysis and acquisition; Datalogix is the leader in building purchase-based digital audiences and predictive consumer data models. Together they will offer marketers in leading verticals such as Automotive, CPG, Retail and Travel reliable high-propensity audience reach at unmatched scale by marrying BlueKai’s valuable audience assets with Datalogix’s modeling capabilities.

Today’s announcement is important to brands seeking to bridge the gap between their digital marketing initiatives and the world of “big data.” Objective research released just last week from Columbia University Business School shows that 91% of respondents agreed that successful brands use customer data to drive marketing decisions, yet only 39% were satisfied with their own company’s ability to collect and disseminate that data. By combining audience data from the BlueKai Data Exchange with the customer purchase-based resources and models of Datalogix, brands can confidently access, reach and engage relevant audiences without having to rely solely on their own customer data.  The partnership will give marketers a proprietary data asset that expands on their own data in a way that is unique to each marketer.

“BlueKai is becoming the de-facto data platform,” said Omar Tawakol, BlueKai chief executive officer.  “We’re excited to partner with Datalogix, whose analytical chops and deep expertise in consumer purchasing behavior is unparalleled.  Through this partnership, marketers will no longer have to choose between big data and better algorithms, they can now have both.”

“Marketers are looking for high-performing audiences at scale,” said Eric Roza, Datalogix chief executive officer. “BlueKai pioneered the delivery of cross-vertical intent data in one integrated media-agnostic platform, and Datalogix pioneered the delivery of purchase-based digital audiences.  We are excited to leverage our experience building ‘spend-a-like’ models for over 1,000 direct marketers, to partner with BlueKai in advancing the state-of-the-art in delivering highly-relevant audiences at scale.”

Effective immediately, the partnership will provide marketers with the ability to select BlueKai audiences or their own first party data and then expand those universes based on Datalogix modeling, which is key to reaching beyond the declared buyers at the bottom of a purchase funnel.

About BlueKai

BlueKai provides leading solutions for comprehensive data management, acquisition and analytics to maximize performance from all audience data. The BlueKai Platform™ is a complete technology solution for managing private data assets and analyzing campaign performance to maximize return on marketing dollars. The BlueKai Exchange™ is the world’s largest marketplace for anonymous 3rd party audience data, with exclusive access to BlueKai Intent™ and branded data in reaching more than 200M unique users across the entire marketing funnel. As an industry leader in consumer transparency and control, BlueKai has created book-end solutions including a registry for consumers to see what marketers know about them, edit their online preferences and gain rewards through charitable donations. The privately-held company is based is based in Cupertino, Calif., and is a recipient of the 2011 OnMedia B2B Company of the Year award.

About Datalogix

Datalogix is the leader at integrating database marketing and digital media. Its mission is to leverage the power of purchase-based audiences to drive measurable online and offline sales. The company offers audience segmentation and integrated programs directly and through all leading digital media companies.  Datalogix is based in Westminster, CO, with offices in New York, Boston and Chicago.  For more information, visit www.datalogix.com.

validated Campaign Essentials™ (vCE) Enhances Transparency and Accountability for Digital Advertising Market

LONDON, UK  - comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, announced the UK launch of its validated Campaign Essentials™ (vCE) product, a new measurement solution for validating digital ad delivery. vCE is an innovation that enables the advertising industry to measure verified impressions across key areas such as visibility, targeting and brand safety.

vCE enables a comprehensive, holistic view of validated impressions, which can be expressed as ‘validated gross rating points’, or vGRPs. This new metric reflects measurement of ads that were not only delivered, but that had an opportunity to have an impact on consumers. Validated impressions are also the basis for vCE’s campaign audience reports, which include reach and frequency, comprehensive demographics, and behavioural segments, providing measurement of only the people who have received a valid exposure to the advertising campaign.

“With nearly 800 billion display ad impressions delivered in the UK in 2011, it’s clear the online ad market today features a surplus of inventory, with many ads delivered on parts of a web page that are never viewed by the user. Ads that aren’t seen by the target audience can dilute the impact of campaigns for advertisers and drag down prices for publishers,” said Mike Read, SVP and managing director of comScore Europe. “The ability to measure validated impressions, which are delivered in-view to the right target audience, in a brand safe environment, will help increase transparency and accountability for online campaigns. As we help to enhance advertisers’ trust in the digital medium to deliver desired results, the flow of marketing expenditure is likely to follow.”

vCE Charter Study Findings 
To better understand the quality of ad delivery today and to start an informed discussion across markets, comScore conducted a European vCE Charter Study to measure if ads had an opportunity to be seen by the target consumer, in the right geography, next to appropriate ‘brand safe’ content and absent of fraudulent delivery.
The European charter study included 15 campaigns from advertisers such as Kellogg’s, Nivea, P&G, Ralph Lauren and Telefónica (O2) and analysed 640 million impressions, across 213,000 publisher sites without requiring publisher site pixels. Impressions across all delivery methods including iframes were measured.

The following results are the highlights from the first phase of our European study.

• Across the European charter campaigns measured, 67 percent of ad impressions were classified as being ‘in-view.’* The remaining 33 percent were delivered but never seen by a consumer, a likely result of a consumer scrolling past the ad before it loaded or a consumer never scrolling the ad into view. In-view percentages varied by site and ranged from 64 percent to 72 percent.
• An average of 7 percent of ad impressions were delivered outside the desired geography, but individual campaigns ran as high as 27 percent. In many cases, ads were served in markets where the advertised product is not sold, meaning wasted ad spend and sub-optimal effectiveness results.
• 67 percent of Charter Study campaigns had at least some ads running next to content deemed “not brand safe” by the advertiser, meaning that the content is deemed objectionable by the brand. This type of unsafe delivery has the potential to damage the brand, creating a difficult situation for all members of the digital advertising ecosystem.

The above is part of a global initiative to support industry discussions on validated impressions. The full results from the US-based vCE Charter Study involving online advertising campaigns for 12 premium advertisers, are available for download here:http://www.comscore.com/vce-charter-study.

*In the UK, a standard for ‘in-view’ hasn’t been defined yet. For this charter study the parameters recommended by the American initiative, ‘Making Measurement Make Sense’, consisting of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Association of National Advertisers (4A’s) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB.) have been used as a guideline. These parameters say that at least 50 percent of the advertisement must be viewable for at least 1 second in order to be considered in-view.

Industry Leaders on vCE and vGRP
“At Kellogg’s we have tripled our digital marketing spend over the past few years and are continually seeking ways to get the most return from the investment. One of the key factors justifying this shift is the ability of online to measure every impression – from visibility to targeting effectiveness. Our aim is to make sure media plans deliver the intended brand impact and vCE gives us the visibility we need to achieve this.”
––Matt Pritchard, European Digital Director at Kellogg’s

“In order for our clients to have the same confidence in the digital channel as they do in TV, they need reliable measurement that validates ad delivery. The insights from comScore’s vCE solution and the possibility to optimise campaigns in-flight, helps our clients to reach relevant audiences and improve the overall efficiency of online advertising.”
– Paul Silver, Head of Product for Audience on Demand (AOD), VivaKi

“The inclusion of vCE within the overall comScore suite of tools will offer us another metric to provide to our clients with the type of data they require and have been seeking for many years. They want to know that the money they are spending online is doing its job and will actually have a chance to make an impact. This type of third-party, holistic validation is a great start to do just that and is a win for all parties in the industry. Once standards are in place this can and will serve as a new currency in the marketplace.”
–– Julian Zilberbrand, SVP Global Digital Director, Technology Activation Group, Starcom Mediavest Group

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo

New Technology Simplifies Video Streaming and Broadens Video Landscape for Digital Advertising

Los Angeles, CA – PK4 Media (www.pk4media.com), the premium, performance-based media company today announced the availability of the Bishop Video Platform. Designed for the next generation of online video, the platform provides an easy-to-use solution for publishers and advertisers seeking to incorporate video on their website, or in their marketing mix.

This ground-breaking format enables a new breed of marketing. Publishers no longer need content delivery network relationships, a video player, or an expensive video platform. Now they can quickly and easily upload video to Bishop, embed a player and begin optimizing their content. Videos are automatically monetized. This easy to deploy solution also benefits creators. As content is deployed and syndicated across more than 1,000 sites within the Bishop distribution network, royalties go right back to the content creator.

“Bishop Video Platform is the next step in online video advertising. Brand advertisers have unprecedented control over their brand image in relation to video content. Additionally, revenues are shared directly with content creators and publishers, fueling a robust and dynamic video library,” said Tom Alexander, CEO, PK4 Media.

Bishop has been in a private test period since Q4 2011 opening up to a select group of early adopters. These participants include major publishers, advertisers and brands such as: P&G, Oxygen Media and Virgin America. The company is currently streaming over 5 terabytes of video content; 35,000 video hours per month. Given this high volume and market demand, the Bishop Video Platform will be opening up to an additional 5,000 content creators and publishers.

One example is PK4 Media’s original production: Kim in the Kitchen. Since the series launched last November, there have been more than 7 million views; growing exponentially as the publisher base expands.

“Bishop Video Platform addresses two key issues. First, it provides small content creators with a viable distribution channel that can immediately generate revenue for them. Second, it provides publishers with a turn-key solution to add revenue-producing video content with no plug-ins required. It’s a win-win,” said Jimi Smoot, VP Product Development, PK4 Media.

PK4 Media is a premium, performance-based media company with a proprietary video platform for publishers, advertisers and content creators. The company offers a brand-centric, results-oriented media solution through a unified network of brand-safe publishers. The platform delivers advanced tracking, targeting and optimization capabilities extending beyond typical video ad solutions.

About PK4 Media
Founded in 2009, PK4 Media is headquartered in Los Angeles, California with sales offices throughout the United States, including San Francisco and New York. PK4 Media is a privately-held company led by industry leaders from OMD, Blue Lithium, ValueClick, Mindshare, thinkLA and Initiative. For more information, please visit: www.pk4media.com.

Earlier this week, digital media agency Exact Drive and display ad design platform Canned Banners announced a partnership to offer marketers a one-stop solution for launching and managing dynamic display ad campaigns. The service increases the performance and precision of display ad campaigns by personalizing ad creative in real time for each viewer. We’ve asked Myles Younger, Canned Banners Co-founder and Head of Marketing & Business Development, to give us more insights into the current display advertising market, the challenges and opportunities for SMBs and long tail advertisers.

 Otilia Otlacan: Recent news about the partnership between Canned Banners and Exact Drive have brought attention once again to the challenges in quickly sourcing display advertising creatives. Tell us a bit about Canned Banners and what drove you to create this company.

Myles Younger: We created Canned Banners with three goals/philosophies in mind:

1.) Good ad creative is important, but good creative shouldn’t be kept behind a high price barrier that marketers from launching display campaigns.

2.) There are many aspects of display ad design that are simple or repetitive, and which can be automated or delivered more efficiently through self-serve tools. This presents opportunities to streamline the creative workflow, reduce design costs, and offer the advertiser (or the agency or ad network) more flexibility in quickly making design updates or content changes.

3.) Most display ads are still created “the old fashioned way.” This stands in stark contrast to display media buying, which has seen an explosion of innovation in scalable, automated, and intelligent platforms. We’re developing a platform and tools that can add the same kinds of efficiency and economies of scale to the creative process.

Otilia Otlacan:  Last I checked, there were quite a number of DIY ad building services around. What’s different about Canned Banners, where does the company position itself on the market?

Myles Younger: There are several competing DIY solutions, but as we’ve learned first-hand, it’s not easy to build a simple self-serve interface for display ad design. Canned Banners is the best available (my unbaised opinion, of course) primarily because our team includes former ad and marketing guys as well as engineering talent; most of our competitors are lacking in one area or another, despite the fact that they’re both critical.

We’ll continue to position ourselves as a go-to resource for novice and SMB advertisers, but once we roll out our next wave of innovations, we’ll be marching “upstream” in terms of client size (this has already started), as well as expanding “horizontally” into new areas like performance advertising, search marketing, and marketing automation.

Our partnership with Exact Drive is one of these examples of horizontal expansion, where we’ve expanded from basic ad creative to dynamic creative. And supporting dynamic ads also puts us in a prime position to serve dozens of industry verticals that can benefit from display ads that are created in real time, such as e-commerce, real estate, and travel.

Otilia Otlacan: Let’s look a little into the display advertising market available to SMBs and the general small advertiser. The options for these buyers to access premium display ad placements used to be grim at best. Do you see any hope for them in the near future?

Myles Younger: Yes, absolutely. Why do I know this? Because SMBs have money to spend, and when you put them all together, they represent a massive market. But the barrier to providing SMBs with premium solutions lies in the fact that it’s historically been very expensive to aggregate hundreds of thousands of relatively tiny SMB marketing budgets into something meaningful.

However, with each passing month, more and more steps of the display ad workflow are being automated. Once the seesaw tips and it’s possible to serve SMBs without a staff of thousands and massive marketing expenditure (ex. Groupon), you’ll see a proliferation of more “premium” options become available to SMBs, either directly or through intermediary marketing platforms. Obviously Canned Banners wants to play a part in that transformation.

Otilia Otlacan:  You’ve recently partnered with digital media agency Exact Drive to create a real-time, dynamic display advertising platform. Can you explain us the mechanisms behind this offering and the requirements for advertisers to access it?

Myles Younger: The mechanisms fall into three categories:

1.) The Canned Banners API, which provides a programmatic interface to update ad creative on-the-fly.

2.) Creative rules and advertiser source content (e.g., XML, API, etc). These are the rules that define what content (e.g., product photos & prices) will be shown to which viewer segments. These rules will be unique for most campaigns, as every advertiser has different available content and different audience targeting strategies. This is where Canned Banners and Exact Drive overlap and come together to develop unique, performance-based targeting strategies. For example, we might develop a rule like this for a real estate company: “When prospects view the real estate ads, we’ll show nearby listings from the real estate company’s database, and we’ll only show listings that are in the viewer’s expected price range.”

3.) Media buying and targeting from Exact Drive. This is where they’re experts. When a client comes to us with campaign goals and target audiences, Exact Drive has a wide array of media buying strategies it can employ in very precisely defining those target audiences so that we can optimize the relevance of the ad content and achieve the goals of the campaign. Media buying strategies could include retargeting, geo-targeting, contextual targeting, etc.

As far as advertiser requirements, dynamic advertising becomes difficult to justify when you dip below a media spend of roughly $10K per month (the setup costs start to eat up the ROI). It’s also important that advertisers have a healthy variety of products, messages, offers, or content. More content variations means greater personalization of final dynamic ad content, which boosts performance. Within those two relatively simple criteria, we can work with any advertiser that wants to run a dynamic campaign.

Otilia Otlacan:  What’s next for Canned Banners, what are you working on?

Myles Younger: Canned Banners is all “next” right now! Things are moving very quickly. We’ll be relaunching our website in a few weeks to announce all our new solutions. We’ll keep improving upon our Basic Ad Builder, but we’ll be rolling out an API to allow ad networks, agencies, and brands to develop their own ad creation tools and dynamic ad solutions.

There’s always been a great deal of interest in the Canned Banners approach to automating display ad creation, but without an API, we’ve always had one hand tied behind our back when trying to meet our clients’ needs and integrate into their existing software and workflows. Look out for solutions for agencies, search marketers, and e-retailers, as well as more innovation with our partner Exact Drive (which won’t be limited to dynamic display ads, by the way).

Otilia Otlacan:  Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

Myles Younger: We’re just excited to see what people do with our next wave of products and tools. There’s a whole world of “mash-ups” to explore where you can leverage outside data and APIs to automate certain aspects of display ad creation.

To illustrate what I mean, here are two demo apps we’ve created recently (apologies in advance if they’re slow or perhaps even broken…they’re just informal demos):

1.) This demo creates display ads using photos and property descriptions from the UK real estate listing service Nestoria.co.uk: http://demo.cannedbanners.com/nestoria/

2. This app automatically generates multiple banner variations using images imported from the Getty Images stock photo API: http://demo.cannedbanners.com/getty-images/

These are just two rough examples of how, when you have the right tools, you can add a whole new dimension of flexibility and scalability to display ad design. It’s worth noting that all together, we only spent about 2 days developing and launching those apps (i.e., we created two working ad design apps in less time than most designers could turn around a single piece of basic ad creative).

Social ad platform 140 Proof (www.140proof.com) announced, earlier this month, a new solution for political campaigns that allows candidates to reach large groups of targeted voters within the social stream. Co-founder and CTO John Manoogian III gave us further insights into how political campaigns can best leverage the opportunities offered by social media.

Otilia Otlacan: 140 Proof has just launched a social ad solution for political campaigns – congratulations! What made you look into building this type of platform?

John Manoogian III: [roaring applause] Thank you very much! No, but seriously, we saw the huge potential of social early on for brand marketers and we noticed very high engagement rates based on our interest graph targeting, so it was logical to keep expanding this into a potentially billion-dollar business. As you know, with all the presidential candidates active on Twitter as well as the majority of Congress, 140 Proof’s social relevance targeting is just a natural fit for politicians looking to reach key voting segments at scale

Otilia Otlacan: What is the reach potential of the new service, are you considering extending beyond Facebook and Twitter?

John Manoogian III: 140 Proof reaches nearly 200 million US uniques via Twitter and Facebook, and we’re constantly expanding both our audience network and our capabilities. So far in 2012 we’ve added a number of new social apps to expand the network, and we’ve launched a new ad product offering that enables shareable video in our social ads… and we’re just getting started.

Otilia Otlacan: How important is user engagement for a political campaign through social media? Is engagement the ultimate goal or should the focus be on reach?

John Manoogian III: General get-out-the-vote campaigns should focus on reach, but candidates have deep targeting options when it comes to social advertising and engagement. Candidates can target specific demographics with social ads to open conversations on topics near and dear to that demographic.

Otilia Otlacan: Tell us a little about how budgets can be managed on the 140 Proof platform. What kind of campaign optimization can be performed?

John Manoogian III: We’re extremely flexible. We run everything from the standard one-month brand promotion to multiple flights of different creative at different budgets. Our sales leads and account reps work with every advertiser to create customized programs. Our ad operations team then ensures that budget, targeting, flighting, and creative are managed throughout the campaign, both through our automated learning network as well as by careful oversight.

Otilia Otlacan: There’s a lot of earned media on the table, with both Facebook and Twitter. Can the levels of earned media be monitored through the 140 Proof platform?

John Manoogian III: Yes, our ad operations team monitors and reports on earned media response both during and after the campaign, which is important because these campaigns can have a very large effect quickly. Paid offerings like 140 Proof serve to bring predictable performance and scale to social campaigns, and these paid campaigns act as “firestarters” for earned media in a measurble way.

Otilia Otlacan: The U.S. elections are of great interest at a global scale and the candidates’ messages are always scrutinized worldwide. Do you anticipate an interest from the candidates in reaching international audiences as well?

John Manoogian III: As with most US brand advertisers, the biggest emphasis will be on spending budget to reach US voters. Interest in international awareness usually increases AFTER the election, when the President wants to maximize buy-in for international programs. That said, while US is still the hugest market for social advertising, social is truly global and we have customers from across the globe.

Otilia Otlacan: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

John Manoogian III: To make the most of social, candidates need to look for ways to extend their reach beyond their existing followers – otherwise they’re just preaching to the choir (and usually a pretty small one at that). If candidates are using Twitter as their mouthpiece, they should really also be using 140 Proof social ads as their megaphone.

About 140 Proof

140 Proof is the leading social stream media platform, providing brand advertisers a simple and effective way to reach millions of consumers primed to discover and share. The company delivers sharable ads to users above their information feeds from Twitter, Facebook and other socially connected services. 140 Proof’s stream-analysis technologies match ads to the target audience persona groups based on public social cues like who they follow and keywords in their feeds. Social and viral effects deliver unique benefits to brand advertisers, while maximizing revenue for partners, enabling them to provide compelling stream-based applications and services to consumers on their web and mobile devices. The stream is everywhere — 140 Proof is headquartered in San Francisco and has sales offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. For more information, please visit: www.140proof.com

Danish software company Adform (www.adform.com) has been seeing great growth following the launch of the first Pan-European demand side platform in November last year. Recent news around Adform’s expansion have put the company in the spotlight once again. CMO Martin Stockfleth Larsen shares with us some insights into the current state of display advertising and explains how the Adform platform is radically different.

Otilia Otlacan: We’ve been hearing a lot of good news from Adform lately and it seems that the past 6 months were very busy for you. Can you walk us a little through what Adform does and what differentiates it from similar ad serving platforms?

Martin Stockfleth Larsen: First of all we are beyond ad serving, so you don’t find similar platforms. Adform is Europe’s biggest technology and service provider within display advertising, which mission is “making display advertising simple, relevant, rewarding”. Our product strengths and strategic focus areas lie within our real time buying, rich media and dynamic creative optimization offerings, as these areas will create the most value for our clients going forward, we call it the Adform trilogy.

Supporting the offering we have developed an end-to-end ad serving platform offering comprehensive media planning, campaign optimization and reporting functionality. The platform supports various online channels, such as social media, search, mobile and video, enabling our clients to optimize display campaigns using data from all online channels.

On a historical note, Adform was established 10 years ago in Copenhagen, Denmark by three engineers from Denmark’s Technical University and today we have offices in 12 European countries including the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Eastern Europe and the Nordics. We work with leading media agencies and online advertisers and receive a great deal of praise for our unrivalled service, flexibility, data reporting and targeting capabilities. We serve more than 2,000 advertisers and 200 agencies across all our markets.

Otilia Otlacan: What is your view of the current state of the display advertising market? Many have touted its resurgence but does the growth live up to the hype created around it?

Martin Stockfleth Larsen: Hype is the wrong word. It’s not hype but simply a matter of huge potential for many years to come; the market is for real.
The reason behind the growth of display advertising is threefold.

1. Shift
Marketing spend is shifting from offline to online marketing. The reason behind that is digitalization. This makes people spend more and more time online, whether by using a computer, tablet, Smartphone or any other connected device.
Display is benefitting a lot from this shift.

2. Innovation
During the last couple of years, we have seen a good deal of innovation coming to life to help display advertising become a performance channel just like search engine marketing. Technologies such as retargeting, personalized ads, real-time bidding, cherry picking, etc., are legitimate and used across industries.

3. Branding
Branding is huge—not only with outdoor and TV ads, but, indeed, also online. Rich media, video and mobile give brand marketers some fantastic formats and creative opportunities to make the consumer engage with the brand through unlimited creativity, and deeply linked with social media platforms. The distance between branding and engagement in the outside world is far apart, but in the online world, it is happening in real time. This is another good reason for growth within display.

Otilia Otlacan: What type of publisher could benefit most from allowing the ad inventory to be sold through RTB? Are there any particular characteristics of publishers that can generate higher ROI?

Martin Stockfleth Larsen: We are on the demand side and not the supply side, so we help agencies and advertisers.

Otilia Otlacan: Do you ever receive requests for custom metrics through Adform? What metrics do you see as most relevant for display advertising nowadays?

Martin Stockfleth Larsen: Yes, although we have almost 100 metrics, the metrics still evolve. We have recently created a new metric that is a branding index score that is as close as possible to the true branding effect of a campaign or creative. This metric is called “The Branding Exposure Duration” and is the most relevant measure for branding campaigns.

Most relevant for performance-driven advertisers or campaigns, are actual sales, which are consolidated across channels and either de-duplicated or cross-attributed.

Otilia Otlacan: Can you share with us what’s in your pipeline for the rest of the year; what are you working on?

Martin Stockfleth Larsen: We don’t reveal our pipeline, but the market will be thrilled.

Otilia Otlacan: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Martin Stockfleth Larsen: It’s a fantastic industry to work with; so much is happening in the U.S., EMEA and APAC —and it will continue for many years. Right now, though, Europe is on fire, for sure, so look out for the Adform Crusade!

About Adform
Adform close the loop by integrating media planning, buying, optimization, and reporting for all online display advertising in one place, thus saving an enormous amount of time, money and resources.

Adform’s unique platform incorporates display ad serving, rich media, video, mobile, dynamic ads, personalised targeting, and real-time bidding through integrations with major inventory players, making display advertising simple, relevant and rewarding for media agencies and online advertisers. Adform was established in Denmark in 2002 and now has offices in 12 countries including Nordics, UK, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Visit http://www.adform.com or www.twitter.com/adforminsider for more information.

PubLink Consolidates Point Solutions into a Single Platform

New York, NY– PubMatic (http://www.PubMatic.com), the digital media platform company for publishers, today announced PubLink, the enterprise app marketplace for publishers.  PubLink is a set of open APIs and pre-packaged integrations that enable publishers to use PubMatic’s strategic selling platform as a single point of integration to access partners and services in real time.

PubLink offers publishers on-demand, third-party services and aggregated point solutions that reduce complexity and increase operational efficiency.  Publishers can access seven different categories of point solutions via PubLink: audience data, ad verification and privacy controls, enhanced analytics, malware scanning, self-serve ad serving, mobile content optimization and mobile ad serving and mediation. PubLink makes it easier for publishers to monetize, measure and control the way they sell media across platforms and formats in an open, agnostic environment.

“The digital efficiency dream for publishers is a single platform to manage multiple needs including guaranteed & non-guaranteed sales, mobile and display sales, sponsorship and programmatic sales,” said Rajeev Goel, Co-Founder and CEO of PubMatic.  “PubLink is a natural consolidation point that allows publishers to get all the data and insight to share across the platform and simplifies the amount of work that the publisher has to do.”

Offering publishers open access to best-of-breed services and tools, PubLink provides one-stop access to all of the segments of the ecosystem to drive their business forward.  PubMatic will continue to add more partners in the coming months. Evidon is just one of the companies that are making their services available via PubLink.

“Evidon is committed to protecting brands and empowering consumers with transparency and choice,” said Scott Meyer, Founder and CEO, Evidon.  “PubLink is a great way for us to help more publishers comply with the AdChoices program in the US and the ePrivacy Directive in the EU.”

PubLink is fully integrated with PubMatic’s strategic selling platform and the PubDirect suite of management tools for premium publishers.  PubDirect offers premium publishers everything they need to navigate the increasingly complex digital marketplace by allowing them to monetize their guaranteed and non-guaranteed inventory in a private marketplace that covers all demand channels.

“Publishers frequently ask us to integrate point solutions into our platform so that they can more efficiently monetize their inventory. They don’t want to go through all of the work to get several point solutions up and running. With PubLink, we’ve consolidated point solutions so that publishers can access them in one place,” said Kirk McDonald, President of PubMatic.

About PubMatic

PubMatic (http://www.PubMatic.com) gives premium publishers a real-time media selling platform for managing revenue and brand strategy.  PubMatic’s platform combines real-time bidding (RTB), the most comprehensive brand protection tools, extensive audience insights and hands-on support to serve the world’s leading publishers.  PubMatic is privately held, backed by funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Nexus Venture Partners, and Helion Ventures, and has seven offices around the world in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Facebook’s mobile ads, announced on February 29, are an attempt to patch one of the biggest holes in the company’s revenue model.

Until today, the company didn’t have any way to make money from its mobile apps due to the lack of ads. Compounding the problem is the fact that consumers really don’t like it when ads take up valuable real estate on their tiny smartphone screens.

The company recognized this lack of revenue as a big enough problem that it listed its mobile platform as an investment risk in its S1 filing for an initial public offering.

Now Facebook has a strategy to turn brand content into ads that show up in your mobile news feed, thus tapping into a previously unused ad revenue stream. Facebook’s strategy is similar to Twitter, which announced yesterday that it would be inserting promoted tweets into the timeline on its iPhone and Android apps.

For Facebook, brands can now make popular news updates with high levels of engagement into “Sponsored Stories”(shown right) that show on Facebook’s website and mobile apps. Rather than hitting the viewer over the head with outright advertising, these stories have a similar status to updates from his or her friends and family members.

While the strategy is aimed at unlocking Facebook’s final ad revenue frontier, it is also a big shift in the way brands interact and advertise on Facebook. That means a lot is riding on how advertisers react to the new options.

Less ads, more engagement for businesses
To get some perspective, VentureBeat spoke with Victoria Ransom, chief executive at WildFire, a social media company that helps brands market themselves on Facebook.

“Facebook’s strategy really puts the pressure on brands to send out the right content,” said Ransom. “Facebook’s mobile platform has limited real estate and brands need to be careful to make sure their ads are entertaining.”

In short, companies will need to provide engaging, valuable content. If you got constantly bombarded with blatant ads whenever you checked Facebook on your phone, you’d un-like that company’s page pretty quickly. Ransom says that brands will have to focus on starting conversations and make use of the new Offers feature so that customers can engage with the brand and don’t ignore advertising efforts.

The timeliness of ads will also play a crucial role, and Ransom says that a six month-planned ad campaign may not be relevant enough for Facebook’s ever-changing news feed.

“Basically if you’re gong to start putting ad content in someone’s stream it needs to be interesting and timely, otherwise it won’t do well,” Ransom told VentureBeat. “Especially now, with Facebook’s new features, brands need to be nimble, they need to listen and understand their customers.”

Will companies like the changes?
In order to be successful, brands will likely need to shift much of their marketing strategy to get the most visibility with Facebook’s new strategy. But will they want to?

“For Facebook, there is a lot of anxiety over changes like this, but people ultimately get used to it, and find it substantially better,” Reggie Bradford, chief executive of social media dashboard Vitrue, told VentureBeat in an interview. “For example, when Facebook shifted between becoming a Fan of a company to Liking a company page, there were short term dips in engagement and then it skyrocketed. I expect a period of transition, but then marketers will see the increased value, especially with the direct messaging of brands and a more curated timeline.”

Bradford also pointed out that it is in a company’s best interest to embrace these changes, especially when it comes to mobile.

“If you’re a marketer and you’re not optimized for mobile, you’re missing 40 to 60 percent of your audience. Companies need to optimize the mobile experience as their primary screen,” he said.

As long as brands can see the value in following Facebook’s new strategies, Facebook will reap the benefits. It might not be enough to eliminate the mobile platform’s risk entirely, but it is the first step in generating revenue from platform that has been free of ads for a very long time.

Mobile phone on a table with Facebook app image via Flickr user Johan Larsson.

This article originally appeared on VentureBeat, by author Sarah Mitroff.

Recent news from the CeBIT 2012 front have firmly put ADmantX (www.admantx.com) on the map of online advertising technologies. ADmantX allows companies to reach their online advertising targets more effectively by providing precise, real-time information about the content of a web page as well as blogs and social networks. Using semantic technology, ADmantX offers an increased visibility of web content and conveys the feelings they transmit to readers.

Luca Scagliarini, the company’s CEO, spoke to us about the current challenges in display advertising and about the ADmantX ad targeting solution works.

Otilia Otlacan: First of all, congratulations for the great news from CeBIT! ADmantX has received the European Seal of e-Excellence – what weighed the most in bringing you this award?
Luca Scagliarini: Thanks, we are proud that our solution for contextual advertising has been recognized. Our win confirms the importance of innovative technology products for advertising. The market has started to value deep content based targeting and I think that our semantic based web service offers the richest and most accurate data to drive effective online ad campaigns.

Otilia Otlacan:  What do you see as the biggest challenges in today’s display advertising?
Luca Scagliarini: Brands today are too often exposed to a less than optimal or even unsafe experience in being matched with online content. Comscore reports that $12.4 billion in online advertising is wasted each year when 31% of ads are never seen because consumers scroll past them, 4% of ads delivered to geography where the product is not available, and 72% of campaigns on sites are “not brand safe.” The risk is that brands will start thinking about whether the investment really provides a return.

Otilia Otlacan:  Where does ADmantX fit into the display advertising landscape, what are your strengths and where would you like to improve?
Luca Scagliarini: We focus on the content of the page without using any cookies or behavioral tracking. We analyze the content and return the richest set of data that forms the basis for accurate targeting. Our web service returns 4 channels of data including topics (based on an IAB compliant taxonomy), feelings, intentions, and entities (e.g. people, places and things). The granularity of our taxonomy together with our unique capability to identify the feelings and intentions expressed on a page are very valuable for brands. In addition, we offer the possibility to mix and merge these elements to create new matching algorithms (we call them “admants”) that are specifically designed for the brand who is running the campaign. For example, a new smartphone might want to target content related to feelings such as “modern” and “success”. ADmantX can return the content related to “success” independently whether the keyword is present or not because the semantic understanding of the content helps to really identify the mood of the page.
Today we work only on text but we are developing procedures to analyze all page elements including picture and video.

Otilia Otlacan: I’ve played a bit with the tool on ADmantX home page (www.admantx.com), that shows a real-time contextual analysis of URLs and found it eerily accurate. How do you do it, can you share with us some of what drives your semantic intelligence technology?
Luca Scagliarini: ADmantX leverages deep linguistic analysis and the vast knowledge embedded in its semantic network to analyze and arrive at the context. We perform the most accurate disambiguation of the meaning of words having more than one meaning (e.g. is jaguar an animal or car? Is Apple a fruit or a company?). The technology uses all the information in a sentence, paragraph or page to answer which of the alternatives is correct. What is interesting in the work is to recognize that words themselves do not contain context but the words around them determine or point to the context. As we like to say “You will know a word by the company it keeps”.

Otilia Otlacan: Could the ADmantX technology be used in conjunction with standard contextual advertising solutions, such as Google AdSense?
Luca Scagliarini: Yes, absolutely. The tags extracted by ADmantX can be passed to Google Adsense to increase accuracy and therefore CTR. We are now testing this feature with real publishers and the results are very encouraging. Soon we will be able to publish official metrics about it and I am sure that (publishers and Google will like them.)

Otilia Otlacan: What metrics does ADmantX use in determining the success of a campaign; do you think that the CTR is slowly but surely becoming obsolete?
Luca Scagliarini: I think that CTR will remain a metric that is valid for a certain set of campaigns. However, using CTR to measure a brand campaign is, in my opinion, wrong as it measures only one dimension of the impact of the campaign on the user.

Otilia Otlacan: Can you tell us what does your typical publisher look like? Are you open to the long tail or will you remain premium only?
Luca Scagliarini: We target all publishers. This is why we have invested in an open public interface (http://webservice.admantx.com) and from the interface publishers can easily sign up for the service.

Otilia Otlacan: Is there anything else that you would like to share with us?
Luca Scagliarini: I ask all the readers a favor; access www.admantx.com and start playing with the product and then please send us an email to let us know what you think.

March 9-13 Promotion Enables Consumers to Be the First to Use New Card-Linked Coupon Technology that links Coupons directly on their Credit or Debit Card

 Austin, TX.  — RetailMeNot.com, the biggest online coupon site in the United States, today announced it is the first in the deal and discount industry to test a new way to help consumers save money when eating at some of Austin’s top food trucks from March 9-13, 2012, during the SXSW Interactive Festival.

By linking coupon offers on your major credit or debit card, hungry consumers hitting the streets of Austin can experience instant savings with each purchase by simply swiping their card at the point of sale.  Even better, the promotion accepts nearly every major credit and debit card.

No online code required.  No scanning barcodes on a mobile phone.  No need for printed coupons.  No waiting for your discount.

With this new card-linked coupon technology, consumers can put coupons from over a dozen food trucks in downtown Austin directly on their credit or debit card.

Once a card is registered, consumers can put single-use coupons available at http://rmn.com/foodtrucks on their credit or debit card.  As opposed to waiting for their credit or bank statement each month or logging online to see if the discount was applied, the new card linked coupons identify the discount on the receipt at the point of purchase – another industry first!   A simple swipe of the card at participating food trucks enables consumers to experience instant savings viewable on their receipt.

RetailMeNot.com’s “What the Truck?!” promotion enables consumers to save up to 40% automatically when a purchase is made at participating food trucks.

“We could not think of a better place than our hometown to be the first in our industry to test this new card-linked coupon technology,” says Cotter Cunningham, CEO of WhaleShark Media, Inc., the operator of RetailMeNot.com. “This promotion enables Austinites and tech-savvy visitors to be the first to test this new savings technology we’re offering as we innovate within our industry and support local businesses who prepare some of the best food in town! So eat your heart out – the discount is on us!”

To put offers on your credit or debit card for participating food trucks from March 9-13, log onto http://rmn.com/foodtrucks with a mobile device and follow the easy instructions for linking offers.

The “What the Truck?!” promotion is made possible through a beta test of new technology developed by RetailMeNot.com in partnership with CardSpring and First Data.

National retailers interested in RetailMeNot.com’s card-linked coupon technology can learn more by emailing advertise@whalesharkmedia.com.

About RetailMeNot.com

RetailMeNot.com (www.retailmenot.com) is the leading consumer destination for collaborative online coupon, deal and promotional code hunting and sharing. Our mission is to help consumers save money and enjoy a hassle-free discount shopping experience. Since November 2006, our users have shared hundreds of thousands of deals and offers from retailers from across the globe. Online coupons are rated and ranked by users, ensuring that quality deals rise to the top and expired coupons drop down the list. RetailMeNot.com is operated by WhaleShark Media, Inc., the world’s leading marketplace for online coupons and deals.

Make sure to “like” RetailMeNot.com on Facebook and follow the company via Twitter @retailmenot.

About WhaleShark Media, Inc.

WhaleShark Media, Inc. (www.whalesharkmedia.com) is the world’s leading marketplace for online coupons and deals. The company’s websites enable consumers seeking to save money to find hundreds of thousands of offers from retailers across the globe. WhaleShark Media welcomes more than 300 million visitors to shop its sites every year. The WhaleShark Media portfolio of coupon and deal websites includes www.RetailMeNot.com, the largest online coupon site in the United States;www.VoucherCodes.co.uk, the largest online coupon site in Europe; www.Deals.com; www.Deals2Buy.com;www.CouponSeven.com; www.CouponShare.com; and www.Gutschein-Codes.de. WhaleShark Media is a fast-growing, profitable company funded by venture capital firms Austin Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Adams Street Partners, Google Ventures, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP).

Be sure to “like” WhaleShark Media on Facebook and follow the company via Twitter @WhaleSharkPR

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Turn introduced new features to its cloud-based Turn Media Platform, which provides marketers with a comprehensive set of tools for the precise execution of advertising campaigns. The Winter 2012 Release includes the industry’s first real-time brand safety controls, new contextual data from best-of-breed vendors, and robust video advertising optimization features.

• The new contextual targeting capabilities in Turn Media Platform increase the relevancy of advertising by correlating the content of a Web page with the content of the advertisement being displayed. Advertisers can create custom rules for buying inventory next to specific types of Web page content; for example a travel advertiser might only want to place advertisements on Web pages about warm weather.
• New robust brand safety controls help advertisers avoid placing ads next to content that does not align with their brand values.
• Finally, new dynamic video bid optimization features expand Turn Media Platform’s cross-channel capabilities. These features enable marketers to adjust the price paid for in-stream or mobile video inventory based on specific performance goals.

In an industry first, Turn Media Platform applies contextual targeting and brand safety rules in real-time at the impression level, before inventory is purchased. Rules are “universal,” meaning they are applied consistently across every exchange, ad network and direct publisher media purchase in a campaign.

“By understanding page content, marketers can bid with confidence in real-time bidding markets,” said Ming Wu, vice president of trading, Accuen. “That’s why we need partners who offer actionable information for understanding and reaching target customers in a way that ensures both relevance and brand safety.”

Three leading contextual information providers, AdSafe Media, Crystal Semantics and Peer39, are the initial vendors for this launch data. Information from these vendors will be integrated directly with Turn Media Platform alongside more than 100 partners that are already part of the Turn best-of-breed ecosystem. Furthermore, advertisers can easily switch on data from a single provider, or multiple providers, as part of their campaign set-up process.

Turn Media Platform gives advertisers the clarity they need to execute campaigns with precision. The easy-to-use, self-service interface puts data insights into action in real-time, helping advertisers more effectively plan, optimize, and analyze their marketing activities.

About Turn

Turn delivers real-time insights that transform the way marketers and agencies make decisions. Our cloud applications and Internet-scale architecture work together to provide clients with a complete picture of customers, help them execute cross-channel advertising, and connect with a worldwide ecosystem of over 100 partners. Global 2000 marketers and leading agencies rely on Turn for greater control over prospect targeting, for optimizing campaigns, and for achieving market-leading advertising results. Turn is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Amsterdam, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, London, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Company revenue has doubled every year of Turn’s existence. For more information, visit turn.com or follow @turnplatform.

CeBIT, Hannover, Germany

ADmantX, the next-generation semantic advertising Web service, has been awarded the European Seal of e-Excellence in the Platinum category for its contextual advertising application (http://webservice.admantx.com). The prestigious European and global award honors ICT and digital media companies with an excellent track record in innovative marketing.

The 2012 Winners were announced today at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany. Margaretha Mazura, EMF Secretary General, declared: “2012 is a special year for the Seal: It is its 10th anniversary. In the quick-changing world of ICT, this is an achievement we are proud of. The Seal is increasingly gaining recognition and becoming a major focal point not only for Europe’s most successful digital media companies, in term of products and services, but also in terms of marketing. For the first time, we have 5 winners from China among the 42 winners from altogether 18 countries. This is an important step forward towards collaboration with emerging economies that started already years ago with Indian winners, and continued last year with winners from Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. Our virtual “Club of e-Excellence” shows European high-level companies paired with their global counterparts for fruitful future cooperation”.

“This award confirms the importance of innovative services to monetize online content”, said Luca Scagliarini, CEO, ADmantX. “We are proud that our leadership in this process is appreciated, and hope to bring even greater visibility to Italian technological excellence through this recognition.”

European Seal of e-Excellence
Awarded annually by EMF – The Forum of e-Excellence and its Partner Associations, the European Seal of e-Excellence is widely known for promoting companies in the digital field with innovative products and services, and excellent marketing practices to promote them.

First platform to launch upfront video buying technology

London, UK – Adap.tv, the company that provides a programmatic way to plan, buy, sell and measure television and video advertising, today announced the launch of the Adap.tv Upfront Marketplace, the first media buying platform to automate the way of securing future inventory across multiple screens. The new offering will reduce the amount of time and money spent by media buyers and sellers on managing this once time-consuming process.

Video advertising is a growing industry, but the RFP buyer-execution and seller-review is still based on an offline, manual system.  Most media planners agree that a significant part of the average media plan cost is currently wasted on administrative activities. In contrast, Adap.tv’s automated process allows agencies the ability to negotiate and execute upfront buys across hundreds of sellers at the same time.

Using Adap.tv’s Upfront Marketplace to engage sellers in an auction, media buyers can secure the inventory that is right for them, quickly and easily. Data is a key component as it enables users to identify audience-specific inventory using target demographics and connect with the sellers whose inventory matches their specifications.

For sellers, the improvements and automations made to the media buying process result in a reduced cost of sale and improved access to additional demand. Prior to being invited to participate in the Upfront Marketplace, sellers are pre-qualified across a variety of data and metrics, eliminating the need for RFP or response. The sale is qualified for buyers, which streamlines deal closings and time to cash for sellers.

“The traditional media buying process is not time and cost efficient when it comes to buying video. Adap.tv is combining its technical expertise and understanding of how media is currently bought to provide players with new opportunities and ways to do business,” says Brian Fitzpatrick, managing director for Adap.tv in Europe.  “The programmatic approach addresses the issues caused by audience fragmentation and the proliferation of viewing devices.”

Adap.tv’s Upfront Marketplace is now available. Please visit www.Adap.tv for more information.

About Adap.tv
Adap.tv builds technology that destroys the inefficiencies of television and video advertising. It delivers a programmatic way to plan, buy, sell and measure across multiple sources, screens and methods of transacting. Adap.tv is comprised of two operational units – the Adap.tv Platform and the Adap.tv Marketplace.  The Adap.tv Platform provides advertisers, publishers and ad networks with automated ad trading solutions customised to meet any business goal. As the world’s largest source of video supply and demand, the Adap.tv Marketplace has thousands of sellers and hundreds of campaigns running daily. Headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., Adap.tv has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, London and Sydney. Adap.tv is a privately held company backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Gemini Israel Funds, Redpoint Ventures and Spark Capital. For more information, please visit http://adap.tv/. Follow Adap.tv on Twitter @Adaptv.

Ad Agency Founder, Former Ad-Tech CMO, and 15-Year Digital Marketing Veteran Completes Executive Staff

REDWOOD SHORES, CA – Rocket Fuel, the leading provider of artificial-intelligence advertising solutions for digital marketers, announced that Eric Porres has joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer. Porres has over 15 years experience in the digital marketing industry, where he has founded several companies and held executive roles at leading agencies, brands, and technology organizations.

NEW YORK & MIAMI - AOL Inc. [NYSE: AOL] announced that the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Portrait and Pushdown display advertising formats, winners of the IAB’s 2011 “Rising Stars” competition, are among the new official standard formats. The IAB made the official announcement at its 2012 Annual Leadership Meeting’s Creative Showcase last week. The Portrait and Pushdown are part of AOL’s Premium Formats offering, powered by its ad tech company Pictela.

“We are thrilled our submissions to the competition, Portrait and Pushdown, have been recognized as official IAB standard ad units,” said Greg Rogers, Senior Vice President, Premium Formats, AOL, and CEO, Pictela. “This acknowledgment shows the IAB is committed to driving online brand advertising forward via ad formats that provide marketers the palettes they need to fully convey their brand stories.”

The IAB, which has been the standard-setting body for interactive advertising formats since 1997, called upon the industry last year to develop new creative standard ad units that would help transform brand marketing on the Web. AOL accepted the IAB’s challenge and has continued to modify its advertising offerings to suit the needs of brand marketers.

Since the launch of Project Devil in September 2010, over 120 advertisers have run more than 500 campaigns using Premium Formats across AOL and the Advertising.com network.

“Our engagement metrics market leading, making Premium Formats a win-win-win for advertisers, publishers and consumers alike,” Rogers said.

About AOL:

Having helped millions of Americans to get online, AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is on a mission to inform, entertain and connect the world. The home of a world-class collection of premium brands, AOL creates original content that engages audiences on a local and global scale. We help marketers connect with these audiences through effective and engaging digital advertising solutions.

Proprietary Algorithm Automatically Adjusts to Individual Campaign-Critical Metrics to Optimize Media Allocations for Brands

REDWOOD CITY, CA – YuMe, the operating system for TV 2.0, today announced a first for the video advertising industry: the YuMe Placement Quality Index (PQI), a proprietary algorithm that monitors and identifies the optimal placement of video ads on digital properties. In this age of site list parity, media buyers need a better way to evaluate expected performance for their campaigns. Not all impressions are created equal, and the PQI ensures that campaigns deliver the best possible performance and maximum impression value to align with brand marketing objectives.

YuMe’s PQI algorithm is a composite function of key performance metrics that are important to brand marketers including: interaction rate (IR), video completion rate (VCR), video player size, player on-page location, among many others based on campaign objectives. A baseline PQI is calculated continuously for YuMe’s Connected Audience Network, so new campaigns can be evaluated in real-time against the average performance of the entire network. Additionally, as the campaign progresses, the real-time PQI calculations allow YuMe to automatically adjust campaign placements to optimize overall performance. As a result, the PQI highlights new opportunities to maximize the value of each impression per the advertiser’s desired price point, ensuring that each advertiser gets what they pay for. Placement quality is a critical component of YuMe’s 8 Essential Elements for successful video advertising.

“We are excited to be the first video ad network taking a dynamic approach to optimize performance so that advertisers do not have to rely on outdated or oversimplified data,” said YuMe CEO Jayant Kadambi. “With PQI, brands are assured that their campaigns will reach the right audience and run on sites that yield the highest possible performance according to their desired campaign objectives.”

YuMe has conducted extensive testing to demonstrate the impact of utilizing a PQI-based media allocation compared to a traditional site-list based media allocation on video ad campaign performance. In one instance, YuMe compared a set of 10 campaigns with major travel and telecommunications brands utilizing the PQI algorithm against 10 campaigns that opted out. These campaign sets and audience targets were identical, and the associated creatives were placed on the same digital publisher properties. Key findings of these tests include:

· PQI optimized video ad campaigns yielded a 215 percent lift in Interaction Rate (IR) as compared to campaigns which were not.

· PQI optimized video ad campaign yielded a 90 percent lift in Video Completion Rate (VCR) as compared to campaigns which were not.

PQI ultimately proves that site lists are less important than the actual placement on a page. One site might perform well for one campaign and quite poorly for another. PQI unearths valuable publisher inventory wherever it might exist based on the campaign type and goals.

Placement quality is one of YuMe’s 8 Essential Elements of video advertising for brands, which includes:

Ad visibility assurance: YuMe’s viewport detection solution guarantees that no impressions will go unseen, so every video ad impression truly extends reach and brand awareness.

Brand-safe distribution: YuMe ensures ads are associated with safe content to protect brand equity. Since video ad players are portable, YuMe’s brand security measures follow the video player wherever it goes to guarantee protection.

Cross-screen compatibility: YuMe enables marketers to reach any screen their customers are viewing, be it a computer, mobile device, or connected TV. Moreover, advertisers can build their YuMe Ads just once and run them on all screens.

Premium, 100% in-stream video inventory: User-initiated, well-lit video ad placements on quality publisher properties and applications yield high brand impact and optimal branding opportunities.

Video ad placement on professionally-produced content: YuMe ensures that the brand message is always paired with high-quality video content for brand credibility via the first-ever Placement Quality Index.

Highly interactive video ad units: Socially rich ad units drive brand awareness, favorability, recall, and purchase intent for immediate brand engagement.

Advanced, guaranteed audience targeting: YuMe delivers ads to the right audience using a variety of targeting techniques to meet audience guarantees, ensure relevance, and maximize brand favorability.

Powerful analytics for brand performance optimization: YuMe provides instant, actionable insight into video ad campaign performance across all connected devices.

About YuMe
YuMe is the software infrastructure provider powering digital video and the next generation of television with its operating system for TV 2.0. Its video advertising technology and services seamlessly connect advertisers, app developers, content distributors, consumer electronics manufacturers, and publishers across the globe. YuMe’s patent-pending Relevance Engine powers its premium in-stream video ad network, the YuMe Connected Audience Network, and its industry-leading advertising management solutions, ACE for Publishers and ACE for Advertisers. The YuMe Relevance Engine matches the right ad to the right audience on whatever screen they are viewing—PC, mobile, or connected TV. YuMe is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, CA with its European headquarters in London. The company is backed by Accel Partners, BV Capital, DAG Ventures, Intel Capital, Khosla Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and Translink Capital. For more information, visit www.YuMe.com, follow @YuMevideo on Twitter, or like YuMe on Facebook at www.facebook.com/YuMevideo.

New ad unit from leading social stream ad platform gives brands a powerful new way to drive views and engagement around their videos in the social stream

SAN FRANCISCO – 140 Proof, the leading social ad platform for Twitter and Facebook, launched a new in-app social video ad unit that enables brands to increase social engagement around videos and better capture the positive buzz surrounding their video campaigns. This is the first time advertisers will be able to serve video content to consumers within their favorite social apps.

140 Proof helps marketers reach consumers in social feeds through paid media placements and a growing percentage of these ads now include links to videos. With 140 Proof’s new in-app video ad unit, brands can now drive consumers to a custom video viewing experience within the app for a seamless user experience when they click through to watch a video. This enhanced video viewing experience allows brands to add a number of different social and branding elements like video ratings and a tweet stream of all the social conversation around the video. Consumers can now also click to play the video from within the viewing experience itself.

140 Proof’s new in-app social video ad unit includes:

- Creation and hosting of a customized video viewing experience;

- A state-of-the-art HTML5 Video Player that allows consumers to watch the video from the page;

- An In-App Video Rating widget consumers can use to rate the video within the page;

- A Discussion widget that creates a feed of all tweets referencing the client’s hashtags.

“140 Proof helps marketers reach relevant consumers in an environment where they’re actively looking to discover and share interesting content, particularly videos. Our data shows that a large percentage of social stream ads include a link to a video,” said Jon Elvekrog, CEO of 140 Proof. “With 140 Proof’s new in-app social video ad unit, brands can boost engagement around their videos by creating a rich, native viewing experience that is totally integrated into the consumer’s use of the app and doesn’t take them away from the social stream.”

140 Proof delivers relevant, sharable ads at the top of consumers’ social feeds in 50 of the top mobile and desktop social applications, elevating a brand’s message above the torrent of Twitter and Facebook updates that consumers check daily. The company’s patented technology helps marketers target consumers in the social space based on whom they follow, keywords used in their social streams and other publicly available keys from their social graph. Marketers can leverage the platform in real-time to serve more engaging social display ads.

About 140 Proof

140 Proof is the leading social stream media platform, providing brand advertisers a simple and effective way to reach millions of consumers primed to discover and share. The company delivers sharable ads to users above their information feeds from Twitter, Facebook and other socially connected services. 140 Proof’s stream-analysis technologies match ads to the target audience persona groups based on public social cues like who they follow and keywords in their feeds. Social and viral effects deliver unique benefits to brand advertisers, while maximizing revenue for partners, enabling them to provide compelling stream-based applications and services to consumers on their web and mobile devices. The stream is everywhere — 140 Proof is headquartered in San Francisco and has sales offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. For more information, please visit: www.140proof.com