Evidon is the world’s first and largest provider of privacy and compliance solutions for digital media, and creates a platform for companies to comply with the European ePrivacy Directive, industry self-regulatory programmes, and to audit and manage website cookies. VivaKi is the leading media and digital agency in the US self-regulatory programme, delivering billions of in-ad notice impressions served on behalf of their clients, and this agreement will affect a broad range of companies across a variety of verticals including automotive, finance, retail, CPG and pharmaceutical.

Marco Bertozzi, EMEA Managing Director for the VivaKi Nerve Center, comments: “We have been using Evidon’s solutions in the US for some time and our clients are pleased with the results. We are now looking to strengthen and expand our strategic relationship, as part of our commitment to ensure best practice in the area of online privacy. VivaKi is a strong supporter of privacy controls and we support our clients’ desire to empower consumers to make informed decisions about their information use online, while complying with the ePrivacy Directive”.

CEO of Evidon, Scott Meyer, adds: “This decision by VivaKi to extend the agreement with Evidon into the UK and Europe further underlines our leading market position and track record of exceptional delivery of results. Evidon works in tandem with VivaKi’s agencies and the VivaKi Nerve Center’s Audience On Demand team to educate and implement the OBA solution for clients in the US, and we are excited to expand this support to the European market. We look forward to delivering privacy and compliance solutions on behalf of their extensive list of clients”.

About VivaKi

VivaKi is part of Publicis Groupe (Euronext Paris Exchange: FR0000130577; and part of the CAC 40 index) the world’s third largest communications group.

VivaKi aggregates the marketplace influence of four autonomous brands, including two global media agency networks: ZenithOptimedia and Starcom MediaVest Group; and two leading digital marketing agencies: Digitas and Razorfish. On behalf of its agency brands and their clients, VivaKi faces the market to help identify and build technology, message distribution, audience aggregation and content solutions for the future. Sitting at the core of VivaKi is the VivaKi Nerve Center, which serves as a think tank, R&D center and testing ground to activate new pathways for clients to connect with consumers in an increasingly digital world. VivaKi also includes a Talent & Transformation Practice, which leverages the scale of the VivaKi brands to develop and deliver tools and approaches designed to attract, develop, train, motivate and reward the world’s best people.

For more information, please visit www.vivaki.com

About Evidon

Evidon is the world’s first and largest dedicated provider of privacy and compliance solutions for digital media.

The company provides strategy and technology to help leading brands, agencies, publishers, and solutions providers comply easily with privacy law and self-regulatory “Ad Choices” programs across North America and Europe. Evidon serves Ad Choices notice on billions of impressions on behalf of these businesses—in the U.S. and in local languages across Europe—giving consumers transparency into and control over how their information is used online. With insights fuelled by its popular Ghostery browser extension and its rich, 800+ company privacy database, Evidon also helps businesses control their audience data.

By protecting themselves and empowering consumers, businesses build their brands and improve results. For more information, please visit www.evidon.com

NEW YORK – AOL announced today that it has brokered a unique partnership with VivaKi, the strategic entity that combines the media and digital assets that sit inside of Publicis Groupe. This partnership aims to explore the online video advertising arena and continue to innovate and identify top performing ad models that are best for advertisers, publishers and consumers. This initiative will leverage the success and momentum of VivaKi’s ongoing research effort, The Pool, which has conducted extensive research and testing in the online video space. In its first three waves of research or “lanes,” the ASq was selected as the most superior online video ad model, out-performing the industry’s pre-roll standard.

To date, ASq has 15 certified publishers, including AOL, and has supported over 150 client campaigns across 35 advertisers and garnered more than 400 million impressions. This partnership between VivaKi and AOL will build on the success of this model and identify other formats that provide more personalization and social components within the online video user experience. ASq is powered by VINDICO, a leading video ad management platform, which will also serve the VivaKi-AOL partnership.

“We are excited to be partnering with VivaKi to push product innovation forward and evolve online video ad models,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman & CEO, AOL. “We challenged the industry last year with the launch of Project Devil in display, which helped us rethink how content and advertising should be viewed on the Web, and we wanted to explore what the Devil principles and philosophies could mean for video ad formats. There is still so much opportunity for growth and innovation.”

“We know the ASq is a breakthrough idea, but there is room for more ad models that support the medium. No other platform can be sustained through simply one format, look at TV or display,” said Tracey Scheppach, VivaKi’s EVP/Innovations Director and Co-Founder of The Pool. “We gave our employees around the world, as well as our trusted partners, an opportunity to voice their ideas for the best online video ad models and we received 72 ideas in total, which we’ve narrowed down to the top three that will go into testing.”

The first model that will go into field trial testing consists of a pre-roll overlay within a video player that gives the viewer an option to click and expand the ad into a branded toolbar, which provides viewers with multiple ways to interact with the brand. The second model is a slate ad format that asks whether the viewer would like to watch a full :30 ad or a :15 ad and then answer a question immediately following the ad. The third and final model is a pre-roll overlay that provides buttons for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social platforms to enable a seamless way to interact and share ads with their social circle. To reinforce the sharing option, this model would also include a billboard at the end of the pre-roll or at the end of the content. VINDICO will handle ad serving for all three models during this process.

Since its inception in 2008, The Pool has launched nine lanes globally and logged over 35,000 hours, working with over 100 different companies while reaching 262 million consumers.

This lane will kick off in November 2011 and is open to all VivaKi clients. Results are expected in early 2012 and official names will be given to the three models during The Pool process.

About AOL

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a premier global media company with a suite of brands and products serving consumers, advertisers and publishers worldwide. The AOL Huffington Post Media Group is a leading source of news, opinion, entertainment, community and digital information comprising a wide range of destination websites, including AOL.com, The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Moviefone, Engadget, Patch, AOL Music, StyleList and MapQuest. The AOL Advertising.com Group includes Advertising.com, ADTECH, Pictela, Video (inclusive of AOL Video, goviral and 5min Media), Content Solutions and Sponsored Listings and serves a combined content and advertising market at scale through video, brand advertising, content and ad serving. AOL is focused on engaging consumers and providing online advertising services and solutions on both AOL Huffington Post Media Group destination websites and third-party websites, in addition to serving consumer platforms including AOL Mail, AIM, about.me, and mobile experiences. AOL also operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services in the U.S., which serves as another distribution channel for its consumer subscription products, such as AOL TechGuru and Computer Checkup.

About VivaKi

VivaKi is part of Publicis Groupe (Euronext Paris Exchange: FR0000130577; and part of the CAC 40 index) the world’s third largest communications group. VivaKi aggregates the marketplace influence of four autonomous brands, including two global media agency networks: ZenithOptimedia and Starcom MediaVest Group; and two leading digital marketing agencies: Digitas and Razorfish. On behalf of its agency brands and their clients, VivaKi faces the market to help identify and build technology, message distribution, audience aggregation and content solutions for the future.

About The Pool

The Pool is a first of its kind industry program that unites the financial resources and thought leadership of its clients and a host of content providers to test and create industry standards for new advertising models. By “pooling” insights and resources, this initiative aims to identify future engagement models across a variety of emerging media platforms. Participating clients and content providers are given the opportunity to view and evaluate new advertising models and receive access to all proprietary research ahead of the marketplace. The following lanes have been launched and released: Lane 1: US online video – November 2008 launch, February 2010 industry release; Lane 2: US short-form online video – July 2009 launch, September 2010 industry release; Lane 3: China online video – April 2010 launch, April 2011 industry release. The following Lanes have been launched and are still in progress: Lane 4: UK online video – October 2010 launch; Lane 5: MENA display – September 2010 launch; Lane 6: Spain online video – November 2010 launch; Lane 7: Australia online video – March 2011 launch; Lane 8: China online video/cross media metrics – August 2011 launch; Lane 9: US Tablets – October 2011 launch.

LOS ANGELES – Panache, the advertising platform for digital video, announced its unique role within The Rising Tide Co-Op to enable video publishers and content owners to access a new online video ad format called the ASq and to standardize the technology pipeline for online video ad delivery; thereby facilitating future innovation in the space.

“VivaKi and The Rising Tide Co-Op’s industry-wide initiative will help standardize a pipeline for digital video advertising spend, enabling scalable innovation as the industry identifies optimal ad experiences for Internet-distributed video,” said Steve Robinson, CEO, Panache. “Panache’s business was built working with publishers’ player engineering, ad operations, and sales teams. We are bringing that experience to the Co-Op to make publisher enablement for buy-side ad spend fast and easy.”

VivaKi, the strategic entity that comprises the digital and media assets inside of Publicis Groupe, announced, this February, results from its unique research initiative The Pool. The first wave of research, focusing on online video, identified the Ad Selector as the most optimal online video ad format for advertisers, consumers and content owners. The Rising Tide Co-Op is working to operationalize this model and unveil a new version of the ad model in September, called the ASq. The ASq is a format that allows users to select one of three ads to view before the commencement of non-advertising video content.

All ASq campaigns will be 3rd-party ad served by The Rising Tide Co-Op, with publishers using in-house ad servers for ad scheduling, configuration of ad parameters and for in-house tracking. In order to access The Rising Tide Co-Op for ad serving, all publishers will need to integrate their video player(s) with the Panache platform, which will standardize the delivery method for any current and future ad formats. In addition, Panache enables the testing and rendering of ASq, as well as advanced publisher-facing analytics and scalable workflow solutions. Panache’s work with major video publishers’ Ad Operations and technical teams has helped publishers innovate around ad loads and ad mixes, maximizing profitability within their digital video business.

”The Rising Tide Co-Op is a group of industry pioneers who are dedicated to pushing the industry forward and bringing the advertising value of online video close to that of television,” said Tracey Scheppach, VivaKi Director of Innovation and creator of The Pool. “Panache is an integral member of this group due to its publisher-facing role in the Co-Op, facilitating publisher adoption of the ASq.”

Panache’s technology is currently embedded in the digital video ecosystem of clients including all MTV Networks properties, PBS, Fox as well as a breadth of partners such as Adobe, Microsoft, thePlatform, Brightcove, Akamai, PointRoll, and many others.

Along with VivaKi, Panache joins Vindico, Visible Measures and Tidal TV in the Co-Op.

About The Rising Tide Co-Op

The Rising Tide Co-Op was formed to provide a scalable and open technology stack for ASq, a branded, optimized version of the Ad Selector experience. The Rising Tide Co-Op solution integrates best-of-breed optimization, reporting, serving, and rendering technology, all tailored to the requirements of ASq.

About Panache

Founded in 2006, Panache helps premium video publishers make Internet-distributed video into a profitable and sustainable business with a comprehensive ad platform. The Company simplifies all aspects of premium publishers’ direct ad sales business resulting in increased ad inventory and full ad loads. Panache’s platform includes ad products, ad product planning, ad fulfillment workflow technology and visually represented ad effectiveness reporting.

Founded in 2006, Panache is a privately held company headquartered in Los Angeles.

Event to Take Place at Hudson Theatre in NYC on March 17 from 6:00pm-9:00pm

NEWTON, Ma. & NEW YORK – VideoNuze, the leading online publication for the broadband video industry, announced that it will be hosting the “2009 Broadband Video Leadership Evening” at the historic Hudson Theater in New York City on March 17th from 6:00-9:00pm. The event coincides with surging broadband video consumption and mounting industry disruption.

Recently, ComScore reported 13% month-over-month growth to a record 14.3 billion videos viewed in December 2008. As such, VideoNuze is bringing together top digital media and online advertising executives to discuss the implications of the shifting video landscape, evaluate different monetization models and address key industry challenges.

Distinguished speakers for the panel discussion include:

* Albert Cheng, EVP, Digital Media, Disney/ABC Television Group
* Greg Clayman, EVP, Digital Distribution & Business Development, MTV Networks
* Karin Gilford, SVP, Fancast and Online Entertainment, Comcast Interactive Media
* Curt Hecht, President, VivaKi (Publicis Groupe)
* Tom Morgan, Chief Strategy Officer, Move Networks

The evening will begin with a “VideoSchmooze” networking reception from 6:00pm – 7:30pm, where attendees can meet and exchange ideas with top executives from the broadband video industry. The panel discussion will commence at 7:30pm and will be moderated by VideoNuze editor and publisher Will Richmond.

“It’s a real privilege to have these executives, who are on the front lines of driving the broadband video evolution, share their unique insights and varying perspectives on the market’s growth and future direction,” Will Richmond said. “Broadband video continues to be the most important strategic opportunity in the video landscape today. Attendees are certain to take away valuable lessons about what they can do now to benefit from broadband’s significant reach & impact.”

For more complete information about the leadership evening, please visit www.nyc.videonuze.com. To RSVP, please email Evan Goldberg at egoldberg@horngroup.com.

What: 2009 Broadband Video Leadership Evening

When: Tuesday, March 17, 2009; 6:00-9:00pm

Where: Hudson Theatre; 145 W 44th St New York, NY 10036 Get directions

About VideoNuze

VideoNuze is the leading online publication for the broadband video industry, providing analysis and news updates. Published each business day, it provides essential data and insight for the large and growing audience of broadband video executives. VideoNuze is edited and published by Will Richmond, a 20-year veteran of the cable TV, content and technology industries. www.videonuze.com.

Chicago-based Performics, one of the leading search marketing service providers, helps to improve the performance of advertisers’ investments and maximize client campaign effectiveness. Its profit-driving suite of marketing solutions includes Performics’ reporting platform, local platform, advanced market expertise and active account management.

The acquisition of Performics will enrich Publicis Groupe’s strong search capabilities and strengthen the offering of the VivaKi Nerve Center, a new strategic entity launched by the Groupe in June. VivaKi leverages the collective scale of Digitas, Starcom-MediaVest, Zenith-Optimedia and Denuo to develop new services, tools and partnerships, including new and emerging performance marketing platforms. The VivaKi Nerve Center includes a number of performance marketing assets, including Phonevalley, Webformance, Click2Sales and iBase. The addition of Performics will deliver a full and enhanced suite of performance marketing tools and capabilities to Publicis Groupe agencies and their clients.

Launched in 1998, Performics now employs nearly 200 search marketing specialists with employees in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, London, Hamburg, Sydney, Singapore and Beijing. The business will report into Curt Hecht, President of the VivaKi Nerve Center.

Performics will position Publicis Groupe and its clients to capitalize on the increasingly profitable search spending market. According to Jupiter Media, the search market represented an estimated $9.9BN in 2008 and is projected to grow at a 12% compound annual growth rate through 2012. Performics has over 130 search engine marketing (SEM) clients, representing over 200 top global brands.

“Publicis Groupe has been a leader in the advertising industry for decades, and we believe Performics’ growing business will benefit from being a part of it,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google. “We look forward to working with Performics as a partner.”

Maurice Lévy, Chairman & CEO of Publicis Groupe, commented, “The acquisition of Performics will position the Groupe for significant growth by delivering a broad portfolio of clients into our operations. Performics will also bring widely-recognized talent and capabilities that can be embedded into the client teams inside Digitas, Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia. Not only will this acquisition bring critical mass to Publicis Groupe’s formidable Search capabilities, but it will also enhance our affiliate marketing and overall performance marketing offering.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2008.

About Google Inc.
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day.
Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Web Site : www.google.com

About Publicis Groupe
Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris: FR0000130577] is the world’s fourth largest communications group. In addition, it is ranked as the world’s second largest media counsel and buying group, and is a global leader in digital and healthcare communications. With activities spanning 104 countries on five continents, the Groupe employs approximately 44,000 professionals. The Groupe offers local and international clients a complete range of communication services, from advertising through three autonomous global advertising networks, Leo Burnett, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi and two multi-hub networks, Fallon and 49%-owned Bartle Bogle Hegarty; to media consultancy and buying, through two worldwide networks, Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia; interactive and digital marketing led by Digitas; Specialized Agencies and Marketing Services offering healthcare communications, corporate and financial communications, sustainability communications, shopper marketing, public relations, CRM and direct marketing, event and sports marketing, and multicultural communications.
Web Site: www.publicisgroupe.com

If all this is confusing to you, you may want to read the official release from Publicis, below. Juicy.

Paris, June 25, 2008 Publicis Groupe, today announced the creation of a new technology platform as part of its just launched VivaKi Nerve Center that will deliver the largest Audience on Demand Network in the digital advertising industry. The Audience on Demand Network will build upon Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and Platform-A tools to enable clients to connect with precisely defined global audiences —e.g. moms, travellers, dog owners—in a single campaign buy across the multiple networks. To date, agencies and clients have had to work through a highly fragmented media environment of ad networks, exchanges and direct publisher relationships.

“Our Nerve Center has orchestrated an open source solution across the world’s largest digital media companies to integrate global audiences while also providing diversity, liquidity and transparency of content. We don’t believe that digital media companies are aiming to disintermediate, we believe they are providing the industry with the technology to help us, plan and execute campaigns more efficiently,” said David Kenny, managing partner of Publicis Groupe’s VivaKi. “Our intention is to provide access to an audience of this scale through a single point of entry, with optimized pricing”

This is a first step in bringing more scale to the overall digital ecosystem with potential to extend to other platforms.

Using the DoubleClick adserving platform, Publicis Groupe will now extend a custom technology layer across all clients that will make it easier to connect to other publishers, networks and exchanges through a single interface. It will also allow clients to leverage their data to find additional audience across the partners collaborating in this initiative. As part of the VivaKi Nerve Center, the partnership will deliver additional audience trough the DoubleClick exchange. DoubleClick will also extend its Studio product to facilitate easier creative versioning to match messages to audiences across the multiple platforms.

The VivaKi Nerve Center will also work to integrate with Yahoo!’s Right Media Exchange, the first and largest open exchange platform featuring over 50,000 buyers and sellers, including advertisers, agencies, publishers and networks, that trade over six billion impressions a day. Yahoo! will enable Publicis Groupe clients to apply deep insights to their Exchange buys for precision targeting. Publicis Groupe also intends to leverage the capabilities of AMP! from Yahoo!, the company’s forthcoming advertising management platform designed to significantly simplify the process of buying and selling ads online.

“The VivaKi Nerve Center believes that creating open technology solutions in the marketplace will make it easier for clients to scale digital marketing, reaching vast but keenly defined audiences through a simple, one-stop buying process,” said Curt Hecht, President of VivaKi’s Nerve Center. “The development of this new capability will allow our clients to connect with specific audiences using one core ad-serving platform, DoubleClick, across the world’s four largest audience networks. This will ultimately improve ROI for our clients and enhance the overall workflow process and bring greater innovation to the industry.”

“Yahoo! believes that the industry’s next phase of growth will be driven by collaboration and through platforms that enable a more open approach to the way online advertising is bought and sold online,” said Hilary Schneider, Executive Vice President, Global Partner Solutions, Yahoo!. “Publicis’ Audience On Demand Network is a logical extension of what we will enable with AMP! from Yahoo! so that advertisers can find the audiences they most want to reach in the most efficient, effective and creative way possible.”

The VivaKi Nerve Center will work with Platform-A, connecting audiences across AOL’s leading media properties and the thousands of websites participating in the Advertising.com network. “We’re delighted that Platform-A will be a part of the Publicis Groupe solution that lets clients easily purchase audience on demand in an open architecture,” said Platform-A President Lynda Clarizio. “Platform-A is the industry’s largest ad platform, with a comprehensive suite of global marketing solutions powered by the Web’s best advertising technologies. The reach and global audience that we can offer through Platform-A will be valuable to marketers and ultimately consumers, who will receive advertising that is more relevant to their needs and interests.”

Microsoft will also work with VivaKi Nerve Center to help Publicis Groupe clients reach one of the largest and highest converting consumer audiences on the internet, through its online network of sites, including MSN, Windows Live, Microsoft Office Live, Xbox LIVE and more than 500 publisher sites via DRIVEpm, its premium ad network. DRIVEpm has been a leader in adding value to publisher inventory to precisely target ads using demographic, geographic and contextual information to help reduce the amount of under-performing ad inventory. This partnership is a natural fit in that Publicis Groupe works with some of the most well-known advertising brands in the world and MSN and DRIVEpm have some of the most desirable audience segments on the internet – this combined network will ultimately benefit consumers who are looking to engage with more relevant and meaningful advertising.

About Publicis Groupe
Publicis Groupe is the world’s fourth largest communications group. In addition, it is ranked as the world’s second largest media counsel and buying group, and is a global leader in digital and healthcare communications. With activities spanning 104 countries on five continents, the Groupe employs approximately 44,000 professionals.
The Groupe offers local and international clients a complete range of communication services, through three autonomous global advertising networks, Leo Burnett, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi and two multi-hub networks, Fallon and 49%-owned Bartle Bogle Hegarty; to media consultancy and buying, through worldwide networks, Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia; interactive and digital marketing led by Digitas; Specialized Agencies and Marketing Services offering healthcare communications,
corporate and financial communications, sustainability communications, shopper marketing, public relations, CRM and direct marketing, event and sports marketing, and multicultural communications.
Web Site: www.publicisgroupe.com