SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Double Fusion, the leading independent in-game advertising network, announced its acquisition of NeoEdge Networks, a pioneer in social and casual in-game advertising. This strategic acquisition of NeoEdge’s assets positions Double Fusion as the premier, comprehensive in-game advertising solution for advertisers, brand marketers and publishers to reach any demographic playing any game genre on the PlayStation®3 system as well as social and casual platforms.

NeoEdge and its partners add over 100 million monthly video impressions in numerous casual and social games to Double Fusion’s extensive global network of 3 billion monthly impressions in top games from publishing partners such as Ubisoft, THQ and 2K Sports. In addition, much of this new social inventory is based on the latest highly engaging advertising formats designed to deliver powerful brand interaction with consumers.

“This acquisition highlights our commitment to deliver a complete 360 degree in-game advertising solution for our clients and partners,” said Dan Chambers, Double Fusion’s Head of Sales. “Gaming has become much more than the entertainment of choice for males 18-34. With the dramatic rise of social and casual gaming, it’s now mainstream and appeals to women as well as Generations X and Y. You can basically find a game to fit every age and demographic.”

By offering a full spectrum of dynamic in-game advertising opportunities in console, social and casual gaming, Chambers points out that Double Fusion enables advertisers and brand marketers to reach “super targeted, super engaged, super consumers” with high impact campaigns.

According to technology researcher Gartner Group, worldwide spending on gaming will exceed $74 billion this year, up 10.4% from 2010. By 2015, spending will reach $112 billion with online gaming rising to $28.3 billion in 2015. PopCap Games Research reports that there are an estimated 98 million social gamers in the US, a 71% increase since just 2010.

Leveraging this explosive growth, in-game advertising is proving to be a ‘must have’ in today’s media buying mix. Gaming offers a uniquely engaging environment that leads to across the board better brand awareness and recall versus TV, radio, print or other media. In-game ads provide access to an affluent, brand-literate audience and reach every segment of the population. Having worked with some of today’s blue chip brands including McDonald’s, Twentieth Century Fox, Dr. Pepper, State Farm and Toyota, Double Fusion has exclusive in-game opportunities with 2K Sports, as well as games like Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, Square Enix’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Mortal Kombat and Ubisoft’s Shaun White Skateboarding and Driver®: San Francisco.

“THQ has always had an excellent relationship with Double Fusion and we are excited about their recent expansion,” said Tim Walsh, Vice President, THQ Partners. “We have and will continue to embrace in-game advertising to add realism, information and an additional revenue stream for us and our developers.”

To expand its presence in Canada, Double Fusion also sealed an exclusive sales relationship with Toronto-based Cue Digital Media. Recently named one of “Canada’s Most Promising New Digital Companies” at The Digi Awards, Cue represents several highly visible, U.S.-based digital content sites, including UFC.com, Heavy.com, CollegeHumor.com, celebrity news site TMZ.com and FunnyOrDie.com.

“We are excited to add Double Fusion to Cue’s roster of top tier media properties,” commented Cue CEO David U.K. “With Canada’s gaming industry representing $1.7 billion in economic activity in 2011, with an expected growth rate of 17% over the next two years as per ESRB 2011 Canadian Study, there is clearly a massive opportunity for Canadian marketers to reach deeply engaged consumers through in-gaming advertising.”

To help leverage its expanding footprint, Double Fusion has also opened a New York sales office. Newly hired Jesse Paynter, with over 6 years of experience at AOL as well as stints at Turner Broadcasting and Ryan Partnership, will lead the team as VP of East Coast Sales. Paynter will be joined by Senior Sales Director, Lou Bridda and Sales Director, Don Snellings. Senior Sales Director Michele Sushin has also joined Chambers in Double Fusion’s West Coast office.

About Double Fusion

Double Fusion is one of the world’s leading in-game advertising networks with unmatched reach across console, social and casual gaming. Double Fusion connects Fortune 500 brands to millions of video game players through its award-winning dynamic ad-serving technology and marketing services. Double Fusion provides highly engaged, authentic experiences for gamers and the advertisers looking to reach them across all demographics, platforms and game genres.

Privately-held and headquartered in Santa Monica, Double Fusion has offices and/or affiliates in Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, London, Madrid, New York, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto.

For more information: www.doublefusion.com and www.facebook.com/doublefusionads.

CHICAGO – Tap.Me, creators of the gaming industry’s revolutionary game-first advertising platform, announced the founding of an advisory committee led by five top advertising executives with world-class agency and in-house experience. The Advertising Advisory Board represents a powerhouse dream team that will provide counsel to Tap.Me.

The Advertising Advisory Board brings a wealth of forward thinkers to the table with deep marketing and gaming experience. This power-packed bunch bring years of advertising know-how, intimate familiarity with current and budding trends, and strong connections with key brands and potential partners.

The advertising gurus joining the ranks of Tap.Me’s Advertising Advisory Board include:

Brandon Berger, Chief Digital Officer, Worldwide at Ogilvy & Mather
Brandon Berger is the worldwide head of Digital for Ogilvy & Mather. Berger is one of the pioneers in the intersection of brands and video games having founded the Digital Innovation Group at Ogilvy, which leads all gaming efforts for the agency. Formerly at MDC Partners, where as VP of Digital Innovation, he was responsible for all digital investments, acquisitions and partnerships for the network, growing the digital capabilities of the holding to where they are today. Berger is also co-founder of wireless technology company, Qwikker (formerly WideRay Corp), and is a board member and advisor to many of the top adtech companies in the space.

Tim Harris, Co-Founder, SVP and Managing Director, Denuo; and Founder, CEO, Seven Lights
Harris is the guiding force of Denuo, Publicis Groupe’s creative innovations arm. He was also co-founder of Play, the industry’s first and most recognized agency unit dedicated to leveraging game mechanics for marketing and games themselves as a consumer contact channel. Harris serviced clients such as GM, P&G, LEGO, Miller and Allstate, eventually integrating the Play offering into a seamless part of Denuo’s broader creative expertise. Harris is also Founder and CEO of Seven Lights, a company that specializes in the creation of customizable online entertainment. In bringing games like The Continuum to market, Harris has filled the roles of game designer, community manager, marketing/promotions director and producer, and continues to innovate in multiple areas of game development. He was named as one of the iMedia25 Class of 2010, recognizing the key influencers in interactive marketing.

Dave Knox, Chief Marketing Officer for Rockfish Interactive
A seven-year veteran of Procter & Gamble, Knox was instrumental in the digital turnaround that led to P&G being named to AdAge’s Digital A-List. As Brand Manager for Global Branded Entertainment, Knox led the strategy for new business models in venture investment, digital media and original content. Knox’s knowledge of the space and influential voice has landed him in the iMedia 25 Class of 2010, created by AdAge, as “1 of 25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter” and Media Industry News as a “2010 Social Media Superstar.”

Saneel Radia, North American Head, BBH Labs
In addition to his current title at BBH Labs, a cutting edge research and development arm of BBH, Radia is Director of Innovation at BBH NY. He is an atypical hybrid talent, spanning both a Creative Director and Media Director positions, servicing a wide client base form Google, Kellogg, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Nintendo and Miller. While previously at Publicis, Radia co-founded Play, the industry’s first and most recognized agency unit dedicated to leveraging game mechanics for marketing and games themselves as a consumer contact channel. He’s also been recognized as an Internationalist “Agency Innovator” (2009), an Advertising Age “Twentysomething” (2005) and as MediaWeek’s “Media All-Star.”

Tom Weigman, Partner, The NextGen Marketing Group
Weigman’s background as both an operating executive and consultant is in helping businesses integrate effective marketing solutions into their established operations. At NextGen he is currently developing strategic marketing plans for clients in the wireless, internet and new media arenas. Weigman has a strong operating background, as former CMO and President of Sprint’s consumer business, as EVP of Wireless Services for Aircell, and driving key marketing initiatives at Mars and Procter & Gamble. As a consultant, he has provided strategic services to the likes of Quaker Oats, Duracell, Kraft, Japan Telecom, Ralston Purina and many others. He has also been a member of the Boards of Directors of Sprint PCS, MDC Partners, Upoc Networks, and On2 Technologies.

“We’re thrilled with the Dream Team assembled for the Advertising Advisory Board,” said Joshua Hernandez, CEO of Tap.Me. “Our ability to attract key industry leaders is a vote of confidence from the advertising world. The Advertising Advisory Board recognizes that Tap.Me has a unique platform for in-game advertising that is non-disruptive and actually enhances the game play experience for the player. Our goal from the beginning was to build a truly scalable platform that not only provides a great experience for gamers and advertisers, but makes buying into in-game advertising simple and effective. Our all-star Advisory Board has played a key role in making sure that we have a product that they want to buy because of its flexibility across mobile, social and local marketing efforts. ”

“Gaming offers a huge opportunity for brands, yet most ad platforms are limited to in-game signage with no targeting,” said Saneel Radia, Director of Innovation at BBH Labs. “Tap.Me’s ability to target actions in games offers a more authentic and effective approach that capitalizes on the very reason advertisers want to be in games: a highly engaged, happy audience.”

The key to Tap.Me’s success is streamlining the process to offer real rewards to coincide with innovative and captivating gameplay. Having launched its platform during GDC 2011, the Tap.Me team has been tapping into their developer network for feedback on creating a gameplay-first mobile in-game advertising platform. Tap.Me’s platform allows brands to reach a critical mass of mobile gamers in an unobtrusive, fluid and engaging way for users of all levels. Developers meta-tag in-game content which advertisers can sponsor and apply their brand attributes in a way that makes sense in the context of the game, putting gameplay and content first – where it belongs. The benefit for the player is an extended gameplay experience with in-game and real-world rewards — something that goes well beyond traditional ad impressions and banners.

For more information, please visit Tap.Me’s homepage at http://tap.me/wp/.

About Tap.Me

Based in Chicago, IL, Tap.Me is a new startup focused on reinventing the in-game advertising space with the introduction of the industry’s first in-game advertising platform. Founded in 2009, Tap.Me is channeling the founding team’s game development roots and experience in advertising and game design to build and offer a set of products that will disrupt how advertising has traditionally been applied both in video games and in mobile game apps. For more information, interested parties may visit http://tap.me.

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – Intergi Entertainment, the premier global gaming site representation company, announced that it is one of the select advertising providers for the Facebook Platform. Developers creating applications for the Facebook platform can only use listed providers to monetize Facebook applications.

Intergi Entertainment is comScore’s top ranked destination for reaching online gaming and entertainment enthusiasts. The company enables advertisers to engage with more than 62 million unique consumers including the highly desirable 18-34 year old male and 25-54 year old female demographics.

“With more than 500 million active users, Facebook has quickly become the platform of choice for reaching consumers,” said Jayson Dubin, CEO of Intergi Entertainment. “The opportunity to monetize applications on the Facebook platform is a potentially transformative event for the consumer advertising industry, and Intergi is honored to be included in this selective list of advertising providers.”

Intergi specializes in tailored and integrated advertising campaigns, including banner ads, takeovers, and in-game opportunities. The company is known for providing customized, quality campaigns that support the branding goals of both its advertising and publishing clients.

Intergi represents more than 3,000 of the leading video game publishers worldwide, providing exclusive online video advertising and sales for its high-profile clients. The company recently launched a new online video platform, Playwire, which includes a free online video player for developers and publishers. For more information, please visit: www.playwire.com.

About Intergi Entertainment

Ranked by comScore as a top digital outlet for reaching video game and entertainment enthusiasts online, Intergi Entertainment offers advertisers unparalleled access to millions of online gaming enthusiasts powering the multi-billion dollar gaming industry. Intergi helps connect advertisers and brand managers with the coveted male (18-34) and female (25-54) consumer engaged in online gaming. Intergi creates customized, site specific and channel-wide opportunities designed to help each advertiser deploy tailored, integrated advertising campaigns, including banner ads, takeovers and in-game opportunities, across entertainment and specialized gaming categories. For more information, visit http://www.intergi.com.

Game Developers Conference 2011
SAN FRANCISCO – Blue Noodle, one of the leaders and innovators in advertising services for casual and social games, announced the launch of its new video ad-bar, Clickstrip, at the 2011 Game Developers Conference.

Unlike other in-game ad products that are forced upon users, Clickstrip delivers on-demand video-ads whenever the player chooses to view them. The simplicity of the ad-bar allows players to receive instant virtual rewards for viewing ads and quickly get back to playing their game. Plus, the bar is simple to integrate and fully customizable so it blends into the experience of any game. Blue Noodle will be debuting and demonstrating this innovative technology at their gold sponsorship table during GDC’s Social and Online Games Summit.

“Over 250 million people play social games each month, yet just 2% pay for premium items and services,” said Lesley Mansford, CEO, Blue Noodle. “Blue Noodle is introducing the next big wave of monetization with a platform that enables game developers to generate revenue by bridging the gap between brands and social gaming. Brands want into social gaming and are looking for new and innovative ways to reach consumers. We believe that the addition of Clickstrip to our already robust platform will provide developers and advertisers the ability to serve social gamers meaningful and beneficial ads that translate to higher returns.”

Blue Noodle is leading the charge in melding online advertising into social and casual games, resulting in a combined offering that enriches both the developer’s revenue and the user experience. Blue Noodle is also uniquely positioned to spur on such innovations, because it pairs world-class video ad technology with industry leaders from Pogo.com, Microsoft, and Electronics Arts. Now, with one of the largest catalogues of video-ad enabled games and strategic partnerships with Yahoo! Games, iWin, and RedAtoms, Blue Noodle is monetizing hundreds of millions of casual and social players each day.

About Blue Noodle

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, with sales offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto, Blue Noodle (formerly NeoEdge) is a leading digital media company. To advertise with Blue Noodle or learn more about increasing revenue through ad-supported social and casual games, visit www.bluenoodle.com.

Game Developers Conference 2011
SAN FRANCISCO – Tap Me, Inc. unveiled the industry’s first in-game, mobile advertising platform. The company’s namesake platform breaks new ground as it addresses a fundamental problem inherent in current advertising solutions that brands and advertisers have until now used to reach consumers in-game. Tap Me is introducing a new standard to in-game monetization — built with the gamer in mind and designed to play to the natural strength of the game medium. The Tap Me platform enables brands to engage with gamers in a way that adds value to their experience as they are playing the game — rather than taking them out of it.

Games are highly-active, participatory entertainment platforms, and existing advertising solutions were never designed to work well with this medium. Current advertising solutions are interruptive, out of context, and ineffective; they also occupy valuable screen space, are prone to accidental clicks, or inject offers that require players to shift experiences outside of the game.

“Tap Me’s platform is the first, targeted and relevant approach to mobile media I’ve seen. It considers the developer, user and brand advertiser in a way never done before. In a nutshell, it’s nothing short of utter genius,” noted Mills™ of ustwo, a digital design and app development studio.

Beginning today, Tap Me has opened up the beta to their iOS integration library and its web-based management tools to a select group of game platforms. Tap Me welcomes iPhone and iPad app developers to visit http://tap.me/wp/how-it-works, sign-up and download its integration library for iOS and support documentation to get started. The company also has plans to extend support to other mobile platforms such as Android to follow shortly.

Spurring Huge Spikes in User Engagement Rates

Tap Me’s current testing shows engagement rates of players choosing sponsored power-ups as high as 20%, and in certain games above 50%. These engagement rates while early are unprecedented, particularly in comparison to traditional banner ad click-through rates that typically linger below 1%.

“One of Tap Me’s unique strengths is that we are a team of mobile game developers, which gives us an innate understanding of game design and development fundamentals. We set about to create a first-of-a-kind ad platform that takes advantage of the natural attributes of games, with the goal of maximizing the contextual opportunities for advertisers to participate in this exploding medium,” noted Joshua Hernandez, co-founder and CEO of Tap Me. “Importantly, our platform enables developers to monetize the vast majority of gamers who do not engage in other game monetization methods.”

Currently, there are nearly 300 million gamers worldwide; mobile users spend more time on their mobile devices playing games and social networking (47%) than they do making phone calls and sending messages (32%).

For Game Developers:

- Tap Me’s platform enables developers to add their games, categorize content, create sponsored leader boards and obtain performance metrics.
- Game developers can freely meta-tag and classify game content, such as for “endurance” or “speed,” so that advertisers can sponsor relevant content.
- Tap Me creates new real estate for advertising that can be used along side other ad platforms, such as iAd or AdMob, or integrated into virtual goods or currency systems.
- The company provides both a turnkey solution for developers to drop into their games as well as an API that allows for custom GUI integration.

For Advertisers:

- Tap Me provides a new level of user-selected, long-term engagement.
- Advertisers can be included alongside achievements in a game. The notion of an achievement is always a positive moment in the game for a player, so that any advertiser can attach a brand to an “achievement” earned by the player.
- Advertisers can buy audiences in aggregate across Tap Me’s network based on key attributes instead of per individual game title.
- Advertisers can also engage gamers in-context and, adding value to a game, awarding progress or integrating social media. Using Tap Me’s Player Messaging system, sponsors and developers can communicate with players in a non-intrusive manner. For example, sponsors can send a message to a player’s in-box, encouraging the player to “get 5 of their friends to retweet a message to earn 1,000 points.”

For Gamers:

- The Tap Me platform adds value to the game in the form of fun advantages, incentives, and content.
- Players get to choose which participating sponsors they want to involve in their game play. For example, a player can choose to get more endurance or speed from, say, Nike or Gatorade, two companies that could hypothetically associate their brands by sponsoring these meta-tagged attributes in games.

Commented Andreas Vasen, CEO of Machineworks NorthWest, an academy-nominated (AIAS) mobile publisher and developer, “TapMe is one of those obviously brilliant ideas that stare you in the face and nobody sees it.”

About Tap Me

Based in Chicago, IL, Tap Me is a new startup focused on reinventing the in-game advertising space with the introduction of the industry’s first in-game advertising platform. Founded in 2009, Tap Me is channeling the founding team’s game development roots and experience in advertising and game design to build and offer a set of products that will disrupt how advertising has traditionally been applied both in video games and in mobile game apps. For more information, interested parties may visit http://tap.me.

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – Armor Games, a popular online gaming portal, has signed an exclusive advertising agreement with Intergi Entertainment, the premier global gaming site representation company. Armor Games selected Intergi for the quality of its advertising partners and tailored, creative approach to developing high-performing ad campaigns.

“Armor Games is growing quickly, and we’re working hard to ensure the best possible user experience,” said Daniel McNeely, founder and CEO of Armor Games. “Intergi will help us combine the most relevant advertising partners, compelling creative and effective formats to engage our audience and monetize our content.”

Armor Games offers many popular titles including Crush the Castle, Sonny, Hedgehog Launch, Sushi Cat, Shift and Neon Rider. Intergi’s online advertising expertise is especially critical for Armor Games as the company prepares to launch Armor Games version 3 (AGv3) mid next year. Intergi and Armor Games are working closely together to optimize AGv3 to make it a top gaming site for premium advertisers and campaigns.

“Armor Games is a leading game publisher, and we look forward to a successful partnership,” said Jayson Dubin, CEO of Intergi Entertainment. “We’re also honored to have such a unique opportunity to collaborate with Armor Games on AGv3 to develop new ways of engaging online gamers for our advertising partners.”

The premier digital outlet for reaching video game and entertainment enthusiasts online, Intergi Entertainment represents a number of leading, high-profile clients in the gaming world. The company specializes in tailored and integrated advertising campaigns, including banner ads, takeovers, and in-game opportunities.

About Armor Games

Armor Games is a top-ranked place to play online games, and its games have been played more than one billion times since the company was founded in 2005. The company offers games developed both externally and in house, with hits including Crush the Castle, Sonny, The Last Stand, Hedgehog Launch, Sushi Cat, Achievement Unlocked, Shift and Neon Rider. Based in Irvine, California, Armor Games was founded by Daniel McNeely and employs top game developers such as John Cooney, Larry Root, Tony Lavelle, Joey Betz, Krin, Loussi, Chris Condon and Ian Douglas. For more information, visit: http://armorgames.com.

About Intergi Entertainment

Ranked by comScore as a top digital outlet for reaching video game and entertainment enthusiasts online, Intergi Entertainment offers advertisers unparalleled access to millions of online gaming enthusiasts powering the multi-billion dollar gaming industry. Intergi helps connect advertisers and brand managers with the coveted male (18-34) and female (25-54) consumer engaged in online gaming. Intergi creates customized, site specific and channel-wide opportunities designed to help each advertiser deploy tailored, integrated advertising campaigns, including banner ads, takeovers and in-game opportunities, across entertainment and specialized gaming categories. For more information, visit http://www.intergi.com.

SAN FRANCISCO – MindJolt, the largest social gaming platform for 3rd party game developers, announced AdJolt, an innovative monetization product that maximizes advertising and virtual currency revenues for independent game developers on MindJolt owned gaming websites and applications that reach 20 million users across the Web.

AdJolt provides game developers with easy to integrate API’s that provide a full service advertising and virtual currency solution to monetize their content. Developers that have converted to AdJolt have reported exponential increases in revenue, while the company has doubled daily revenue over the last 90 days.

“Small game developers can build big businesses on MindJolt,” explained MindJolt CEO Chris DeWolfe. “We reward their high quality games with the highest possible financial return—putting real money in their pockets. MindJolt’s new advertising solution cranks up the cash flow: Developers simply borrow a few lines of codes to make more money with every game play.”

“Switching over to MindJolt’s AdJolt has dramatically increased our revenues,” said a representative of Adam Jones Productions, an independent flash games developer. “On average, Adam Jones Productions has seen a 50-70% increase over the previous ad solution. MindJolt has always been our highest source of game plays, and now they are offering the highest returns per play.”

For independent game developers, MindJolt’s solution allows them to focus wholly on creating great games, while MindJolt solves business concerns such as distribution, monetization, and analytics. MindJolt delivers their games across popular websites and leading social networks to more than 20 million gamers, and monetizes their content through advertising and virtual currency. For many developers, the opportunity to focus on the creative work of game development while offloading crucial business functions provides the opportunity to remain independent and profitable.

About MindJolt

MindJolt is a social gaming platform that provides independent game developers of all sizes a way to monetize their games, and access to a massive gaming audience on the world’s most popular web destinations. With 20 million unique users across the Web, MindJolt makes it easy for casual and social game developers to bring their games to a massive audience of gamers. MindJolt’s catalog aggregates more than 1,300 of the most popular casual games on the Web making it simple for millions of users to discover and engage with entertaining content. MindJolt was acquired in March of 2010, by the team that founded MySpace in partnership with Austin Ventures.

For more information, please visit: www.mindjolt.com

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) revealed results from a study conducted by The Nielsen Company which shows the degree to which brand advertisements within video games can boost real life sales. The study, commissioned by EA on behalf of Gatorade, shows that in-game advertising increased household dollars spent on Gatorade by 24%, and offered a return on investment of $3.11.

The study focused on households that purchased at least one of six EA SPORTS™ titles: NHL® 09, NHL 10, NBA LIVE 07, NBA LIVE 08, NBA LIVE 09 and NBA Street Homecourt. Gatorade had a variety of product placements within the games including arena signs, players’ water bottles, score updates and other call outs.

The study was based on Nielsen’s US Homescan panel of more than 100,000 households, representative of the US population, including a subset of Homescan homes that scanned video game UPC (Universal Product Codes) barcodes. The scanned barcodes were matched to a reference library of more than 14,000 video game titles. Nielsen compared the households that purchased at least one of the studied games before and after Gatorade branding was integrated into the games (the test group) with households that didn’t purchase one of the games (the control group).

These test and control group homes are projected out to the broad Homescan panel by matching them with the larger Homescan household universe based on similar purchase patterns and demographics in order to achieve a statistically reliable sample. Finally, the sales impact of Gatorade advertising was measured by analyzing and comparing Gatorade purchase behavior between the households that had and hadn’t purchased the games that carried Gatorade advertising.

This is the first time that this type of sales lift analysis has been done for advertising within video games. The study is the result of work undertaken by EA and The Nielsen Company to help marketers better understand the potential of advertising in this space.

“Nielsen’s study is a milestone for interactive entertainment,” said Elizabeth Harz, Senior Vice President of Global Media Sales at EA. “For the first time, advertisers are able to link the value of their in-game marketing or sponsorship to actual sales. Now brands can feel confident adding gaming as a core media channel for their advertising.”

”Video games are a deeply engaging consumer experience,” added Gerardo Guzman, Director, Media Product Leadership for The Nielsen Company. ”Bringing our industry accepted ad effectiveness understanding to video games is another way to help marketers understand how consumers respond to advertising across different environments. This should help optimize the impact of and derive a return on media investments. In this case the story is simple – dollars put into video game product placement result in more retail dollars.”

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA Mobile™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2010, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.7 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million units. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

SAN FRANCISCO – Betawave, the online media company that partners with premium publishers to deliver highly attentive audiences to brand marketers, announced that SPIL GAMES has joined its site portfolio in North America.  SPIL GAMES, the worldwide leader in online gaming websites, attracts more than 115 million unique visitors to its websites each month and is ranked among the Top 50 most visited online properties in the world, according to comScore Media Metrix. As an industry leader with female and young gamers, SPIL GAMES affirms Betawave’s position as the dominant collection of gaming and entertainment sites for brand marketers to reach these highly sought after audiences.

Betawave will exclusively handle sales and advertising product development for all of the localized North American SPIL GAMES sites including GamesGames.com (for women and families), GirlsGoGames.com (for girls), Agame.com (for tweens), and A10.com (for teens).  SPIL GAMES will leverage Betawave’s technology & targeting platform, and proprietary, custom ad products to support these efforts.  They will also look to Betawave as its strategic partner in concepting and introducing novel advertising solutions that improve results for marketers while respecting and serving the user experience.

With the addition of SPIL GAMES, Betawave’s overall portfolio reaches more than 39 million U.S. monthly unique users (comScore*).  Already the leader in reach to youth audiences for over a year, the addition of SPIL GAMES elevates the Betawave portfolio’s reach against mom’s to second largest ahead of iVillage (comScore Lifestyles category) and Disney.   In addition, it greatly increases Betawave’s composition of women and moms.

“We were excited to partner with SPIL because they are growing and innovating faster than major media companies and pure plays in the gaming space,” says Tabreez Verjee, President of Betawave.  “SPIL’s award-winning, targeted game sites, combined with our proprietary ad products, will allow us to reach more youth, women and moms in meaningful ways for brands. These demographics are notoriously difficult to reach and engage at similar scale in any other medium.”

“SPIL GAMES is a world class company that prides itself on having the ultimate casual game destinations for consumers and advertisers,” says Sidney Mock, Chief Commercial Officer of SPIL GAMES.  “Betawave provides world class ad technology and solutions for premium publishers like SPIL GAMES.  When it comes to building our brand portfolio in the U.S., we wanted to forge a long term partnership with a company at the forefront of digital marketing with whom we could work to pioneer new and better solutions for advertisers.”

SPIL GAMES (www.spilgames.com) owns and operates a global family of web properties dedicated to online games. With 45 localized online game destinations in 17 languages, SPIL GAMES is ranked as a Top 50 most visited online property in the world (according to comScore Media Metrix) and attracts more than 115 million unique visitors to its websites each month. A deep understanding of the online gaming market enables SPIL GAMES to produce localized and targeted websites such as GamesGames.com (for families), Agame.com (for tweens), A10.com (for teens), and GirlsGoGames.com (for girls). In its current portfolio, SPIL GAMES has a collection of more than 4,000 online games, which have been developed both in-house and through partnerships with top-tier game developers and studios. The company is based in the Netherlands.

Betawave Corporation (www.betawave.com) is an online media company with a premium portfolio of publishers that creates unique brand experiences at scale. Betawave has assembled some of the leading gaming, social media, entertainment, lifestyle, and parenting websites to deliver highly attentive audiences for brand marketers totaling over 39 million U.S. unique users.  Since launching two years ago, Betawave has grown to be #1 in reach to Kids, #1 in time spent with Moms and #1 in reach to Parents (when ranked against the properties in the comScore Entertainment-Kids, Lifestyles and Parenting categories). Betawave is headquartered in San Francisco with sales offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

(*comScore, March 2010)

Game Developers Conference 2010
LOS ANGELES – Sometrics (www.Sometrics.com) and IGG, Inc. (www.IGG.com) announced that they have partnered to provide advertiser-based offers to the 15 million registered players of IGG’s 15 popular MMO online games. The two companies made the announcement today from the Game Developers Conference, held in San Francisco through Saturday.

IGG – which stands for “I Got Games” – is a digital interactive entertainment company focused on MMORPGs. Its free-to-play games include Lords Online, Tales of Pirates, Angels Online, GodsWar Online, and Myth War II Online, among others.

Sometrics’ Offer Solution delivers high-quality offers and surveys to a global gaming audience. The offers will enable IGG gamers to take an advertiser-sponsored action to earn points redeemable within the game. Sometrics provides custom targeting and optimization to ensure maximum conversion and ad revenue for IGG. The Sometrics solution has a global reach with more than 4,000 ads across the network, and has achieved eCPMs as high as $700-$900.

“IGG has an active audience of passionate gamers who are likely to be highly motivated to take these ad-sponsored actions to earn points to enhance their game play,” said Ian Swanson, Sometrics co-founder and CEO. “We’re excited to partner with IGG and expand our offer network to include the company’s worldwide audience.”

“Sometrics’ Offer Solution is a great way to generate revenue from free-to-play gamers,” said Kevin Xu, COO of IGG, Inc. “But beyond that, it’s a way to reward our players for being active within our community and for the time they spend here. The more engaged they are with offers and other incentives, the more they become invested in our site and in helping us grow our community.”

Sometrics launched the industry’s first platform to manage virtual currency monetization from multiple offer providers. Using Sometrics’ Offer Solution and Payment Manager, game developers and publishers are able to view metrics across all offers and networks, see which audience demographics are responding to which offers, and direct traffic accordingly to optimize conversions and increase revenue.

On average, Sometrics partners have seen a 15 percent lift through optimizing third-party virtual currency offer providers and ad networks via its Payment Manager Platform.

About Sometrics

Sometrics (www.sometrics.com) pioneered social intelligence – combining deep, relevant social analytics with precision-targeted ad serving capabilities to help developers and brands monetize the social web. The company has adapted its advanced targeting and optimization expertise to give online game developers the first-ever full-service offer and payment management solution. Sometrics provides one place to manage everything – all the ads, all the offers, and all the offer networks – coupled with powerful analytics capabilities that help publishers/developers analyze all activity, down to detailed demographics. Sometrics has received funding from Steamboat Ventures, Greycroft Partners, AT&T and was the first recipient of capital from The Mail Room Fund, an investment consortium that combines big Hollywood (the William Morris Talent Agency) with Silicon Valley (Accel and Venrock). Sometrics is based in Los Angeles.

About IGG, Inc.

IGG (www.igg.com) a leading digital interactive entertainment company focused on MMORPGs. It’s dedicated to developing itself into the largest interactive entertainment platform by bringing a unique gaming environment and community to gamers all over the world. Established in June 2005, IGG has developed into a professional high-tech company that covers the business range of online game development, publication, distribution and service, serving a community of over 15 million players worldwide. The Company is backed by IDG VC, Vertex and Hearst Interactive.

‘Shop & Earn’ Gives Users a Safe and Secure Way To Earn Virtual Currency With Retail Purchases

LOS ANGELES – Sometrics (www.Sometrics.com) launched a new in-game Shop & Earn Shopping Feed that enables consumers to earn virtual currency for games when they make online purchases at select brand-name retailers. Shop & Earn helps consumer’s purchases go further while generating revenue for publishers of free-to-play games.

“This is a no-brainer for publishers who want to give their players an easy, safe and secure way to earn virtual currency and deepen their participation in and loyalty to their favorite games”

Much like earning airline miles or cash back when using a credit card, people playing participating games online can use the Sometrics Shop & Earn Shopping Feed to earn virtual currency for use within a participating online game, extending and enhancing their game play. Players looking to earn game currency simply click through the Shopping Feed to get to their favorite participating retailers, purchase products as they normally would, and watch their game credits increase.

Sometrics’ feed includes hundreds of global shopping offers from trusted, brand-name retailers. The transactions are fast, safe and secure, and players can revisit the same merchants as many times as they want for repeat buying.

“This is a no-brainer for publishers who want to give their players an easy, safe and secure way to earn virtual currency and deepen their participation in and loyalty to their favorite games,” said Ian Swanson, co-founder and CEO of Sometrics. “This is a loyalty program that taps into a method consumers are already comfortable with – earning points or virtual currency for purchases they would make anyway at their favorite stores. It’s a great way to start monetizing gamer users who don’t want to pay to play.”

More than 200 million people worldwide play casual games (which are often free-to-play), according to the Casual Games Association. Free-to-play social games represent the largest and fastest-growing segment of the U.S. virtual goods market, which will top $1 billion this year and is expected to grow to more than $1.6 billion next year, according to Inside Social Games.

For publishers of online games, Shop & Earn offers a new safe and secure revenue channel and a way to enhance the game experience to keep players engaged. After easy integration, a custom iFrame displays shopping offers from major brands worldwide – aimed at attracting both hard core gamers and non-paying users who want to earn virtual currency through actions they would take anyway, like shopping for clothes or electronics through their favorite online merchants. Intuitive navigation allows users to browse by category – automotive, clothing, electronics, flowers, etc. – or by individual retailer.

Sometrics’ Shop & Earn Shopping Feed has gone live with several of the company’s publisher partners.

Sometrics launched the industry’s first virtual currency platform to help publishers manage payment options and optimize multiple offer providers from a single dashboard. On average, Sometrics partners have seen a 15 percent lift through optimizing third-party virtual currency offer providers and ad networks. The Sometrics solutions have achieved an average eCPM of more than $700.

For product demos, contact Jennifer Bartlett or Mickey Maher at demo@sometrics.com.

About Sometrics

Sometrics (www.sometrics.com) pioneered social intelligence – combining deep, relevant social analytics with precision-targeted ad serving capabilities to help developers and brands monetize the social web. The company has adapted its advanced targeting and optimization expertise to give online game developers the first-ever full-service offer and payment management solution. Sometrics provides one place to manage everything – all the ads, all the offers, and all the offer networks – coupled with powerful analytics capabilities that help publishers/developers analyze all activity, down to detailed demographics. Sometrics has received funding from Steamboat Ventures, Greycroft Partners, AT&T and was the first recipient of capital from The Mail Room Fund, an investment consortium that combines big Hollywood (the William Morris Talent Agency) with Silicon Valley (Accel and Venrock). Sometrics is based in Los Angeles.

REDMOND, Wash. and RESTON, Va. —  For the first time ever, advertisers will now be able to see the direct impact that in-game advertisements have on consumer online behavior, thanks to a new research partnership between Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp., and comScore, Inc.  Through an innovative methodology developed by the two companies, advertisers will get an inside look at the degree to which in-game ads motivate gamers to visit Web sites, conduct brand-related search queries and engage in other online actions, something that previously had gone un-measured.

“We know from 80-plus independently verified post-campaign studies that in-game advertising increases brand engagement,” said JJ Richards, general manager of Massive Inc., the creator of a leading network for dynamic video game advertising. “But what we didn’t know was the correlation between in-game ads and consumer action.  Through this partnership with comScore, we will also now be able to measure those consumer actions that result from in-game ads.  We think this has the potential to literally ‘change the game’ for both advertisers and publishers who want to improve the effectiveness of their in-game ad efforts.”

Ad Effx Action Lift for Gaming matches in-game console ad serving data from Massive with comScore’s third-party, post-campaign panel data to track and measure in-game advertising effectiveness. By combining Microsoft’s proprietary, non-personally identifying Anonymous ID data, which is common across Xbox LIVE and Microsoft Web properties (known as Windows Live IDs), with user data from comScore’s panel of two million Internet users worldwide, comScore can determine if panelists who saw in-game advertising subsequently visited a brand’s Web site, searched brand-related terms or engaged in other online behaviors important to advertisers.

The methodology is similar to the ad tracking and measurement standards currently accepted for other forms of digital advertising, and maintains strict consumer privacy and anonymity in the process.

Preliminary research conducted by comScore using the new methodology on a number of recent Massive in-game campaigns showed that people exposed to in-game ads demonstrated the following online behaviors when compared to a control group of people who were not exposed to the ads:
·                     280 percent increase in visits to a TV channel’s Web site;
·                     125 percent increase in search queries for a movie rental brand and 57 percent spike in visits to its Web site; and
·                     17 percent increase in visits to entertainment sites after seeing ads for a particular movie.

“We believe Ad Effx Action Lift for Gaming puts in-game advertising campaign measurement on a level playing field with comparable digital media,” said Mike Hurt, senior vice president, comScore. “With this kind of methodology, we are addressing the need for better standards of ad effectiveness measurement across all forms of digital media. Advertisers can now track post-campaign online activity, including direct Web site visits, search queries, and other consumer behaviors among people who have been exposed to in-game ads.”

comScore and Massive have submitted this new methodology to the Advertising Research Foundation for validation.

The announcement coincides with the second annual Microsoft Advertising Gaming Upfront event in New York City — the only event of its kind that showcases new video game titles from leading game publishers to that allow enable advertisers to connect and engage audiences on the Massive in-game advertising network.
About Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising provides advertisers and publishers with media, tools and services designed to drive deep and profitable engagement with their audiences. This includes a global media network of Microsoft properties such as MSN, Windows Live, Xbox LIVE, and partner properties such as Facebook, WSJ.com and Verizon. The Microsoft Advertiser and Publisher Suites simplify planning and management of campaigns and content, offering a range of services that help advertisers and publishers untangle the complexities of digital media and get more out of their marketing and content investments. Microsoft Advertising makes buying and selling media simple, smart and cost-effective across media and devices spanning 42 markets and 21 languages. Visit http://advertising.microsoft.com for more information.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

SAN FRANCISCO – As consumers spend more time playing in immersive gaming environments, marketers and game publishers have been struggling to compare campaign results because different measurement methodologies are used by different platforms. To establish a common methodology for counting impressions and to simplify the process of buying and selling in-game advertising, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release of In-Game Advertising Measurement Guidelines, the first of their kind.

The public comment period for these guidelines was formally opened at the premier IAB Marketplace: Games event, taking place in San Francisco and focused on educating marketers and agencies about the increasing brand opportunities in PC and console-game advertising.

In order to encourage market growth, the IAB Games Committee worked with key industry stakeholders to develop a single methodology for in-game advertising measurement. The IAB’s proposed new guidelines cover dynamic, in-game advertisements that appear in PC or console-based games and:

* Establish a common methodology for counting impressions, thus making it easier to buy and sell in-game advertising
* Provide key measurement definitions to help marketers better understand and quantify the value of advertising exposure within the gaming environment

“Because the in-game environment is unique in advertising with regard to its level of consumer engagement and the way advertising is experienced within those environments, it requires specific methodology for counting impressions,” said Jeremy Fain, Vice President of Industry Services of the IAB. “When these guidelines are widely adopted by game publishers and ad servers, it will be easier for marketers and agencies to justify larger investments as consumers spend more time playing immersive games.”

“This is an important step in clarifying and simplifying the process of buying advertising within the in-game environment,” said David Sturman, IAB Games Committee Co-Chair and Principal Architect for Microsoft’s in-game ad company Massive. “Clear standards and methodologies help to demystify a new and exciting form of advertising which will only bring more marketers into games.”

“The IAB’s work in providing measurement guidelines across the interactive advertising ecosystem has supplied critical tools to the industry, and these guidelines are another component of this important work,” said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of the Media Rating Council (MRC). “In-game advertising is an emerging medium with lots of opportunity for growth. These guidelines help build the foundation for a strong future.”

Members of the industry—advertising agencies, advertisers, online publishers and technology vendors—are encouraged to read the proposed guidelines and submit comments on the IAB site at: www.iab.net/in-game

After the comment period closes on July 17, 2009, the feedback will be reviewed and the guidelines will be finalized and released.

About the IAB Games Committee:

The mission of this committee is to articulate the value of gaming as an advertising platform.

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

Since 1996, GameRevolution has been one of the leading online sources for video game news, reviews and information written by gamers for gamers. Drawn by GameRevolution’s comprehensive editorial content, hard-core gamers frequent the site on a daily basis for industry scoops on the latest games, opinion columns, polls, forums, and interactive strategy guides. AtomicOnline acquired GameRevolution in February 2008 and recently completed a major website redesign to prepare the property for its role as the hub of a community of gaming sites.

“In addition to providing reach against the elusive young male audience, GameRevolution will enable advertisers to engage the gaming community on a much deeper level than the typical gaming network, incorporating many rich media and video ad opportunities,” said Mike Dodge, Senior Vice President and General Manager of AtomicOnline. “The unique integrations we will be able to offer on this hub will take sponsorship opportunities to the next level.”

GameRevolution’s new position in the AtomicOnline universe underscores the company’s continued dedication to developing and nurturing leading consumer internet brands that connect online communities through major demographic hubs. These include CraveOnline for men, SheKnows for women, theFashionSpot for fashionistas, and now GameRevolution for hard-core gamers. Unlike the myriad of distributed media networks that merely aggregate or “roll-up” disparate, unrelated websites, Atomic’s hubs are legitimate branded destinations, comprised of a network of best-of-breed, contextually relevant websites.

About AtomicOnline:

AtomicOnline is a diversified online media company that develops leading consumer internet brands that connect internet communities. Atomic brands include CraveOnline, SheKnows, theFashionSpot, TeenCrunch, and GameRevolution. Atomic properties are distinguished by their presentation of both broad general and deep niche content, exposing users to subject matter they otherwise would not explore. Unlike distributed media networks that merely aggregate disparate, unrelated websites, Atomic properties are legitimate branded destinations which own and manage most all their sub-properties. Founded in 2004, the company is headquartered in Los Angeles.

Acclaim Games, based in Beverly Hills, California, is a private online video game company that offers free Massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Founded in 2006, the company is the successor of Acclaim Entertainment. Acclaim Games has released multiple game titles including: The Chronicles of Spellborn, RockFREE, Kogamu, BOTS, 9Dragons, 2Moons, Ponystars, Dance Online, My Diva Doll, Knights Blood, Prize Potato and others.

“Acclaim’s games are free to play, and the company has more than 7 million registered accounts and a large active player base across all games. If you add this to our growing list of representation sites, we lead the category in terms of reaching the active online gaming enthusiast marketplace,” said Jayson Dubin, president of Intergi.

“Keeping the online gaming community focused on the video game enthusiast is what we’re all about at Acclaim,” said Howard Marks, CEO of Acclaim Games. “Intergi is able to customize campaigns, per brand, to help keep our online consumers engaged while adding significant value to their overall online experience. Their core competency – customized content and reach that penetrates across today’s hottest online video game properties – closely matches our pledge to keep gaming about the gamer.”

About Intergi

Intergi is a leading online gaming and entertainment advertising representation firm offering advertisers unparalleled access to millions of online gaming enthusiasts powering the $25 billion

gaming industry. Representing today’s largest collection of best in class online properties – including bellwether brands such as World of Warcraft and Sony Online Entertainment – Intergi helps advertisers and brand builders connect with the coveted male (18-34) and female (25-54) consumer engaged in online gaming – one of today’s only consistently growing retail leisure categories. Intergi creates customized, site specific and channel-wide opportunities designed to help each advertiser deploy tailored, integrated advertising campaigns, including banner ads, takeovers and in-game opportunities, across entertainment and specialized gaming categories including massively multiplayer online (MMO) and first person shooter (FPS) genres. The company’s global reach allows advertisers and publishers to connect from different parts of the world to access a more robust and viable gaming enthusiast. Based in Deerfield Beach, Florida, Intergi was launched in May 2007 by a team of seasoned video and online gaming industry veterans. For more information, visit www.intergi.com.

About Acclaim Games

Acclaim is a revolutionary company with a familiar name. Three years and 7 million registered users ago, former Activision Studios Chairman, Howard Marks has built Acclaim into a free to play powerhouse. Superstar game director David Perry, Acclaim’s Chief Creative Officer head the game development efforts. Acclaim strives to offer its users a fun, community-oriented experience with a selection of titles ranging from casual browser games to hardcore MMOs. To learn more, visit www.acclaim.com.

Analysis Pinpoints Ways for Publishers of Casual and Social Games, Virtual Worlds and Social Apps to Boost Revenue as Advertisers Seek Measurable ROI

NEW YORK – Helping publishers and developers of casual, social and free-to-play games turn user engagement into revenue, Sometrics (http://www.sometrics.com) unveiled a new white paper that introduces the concept of “advertiser-supported transactions” as a way to monetize even those consumers who don’t want to pay for virtual items.

The company released the white paper at Engage! Expo, the leading virtual worlds conference, held here through March 11. Sometrics co-founder and CEO Ian Swanson speaks at the conference today at 11 a.m. In his session, titled “Understanding Your Audience and Optimizing Revenue Streams,” Swanson will discuss using virtual items, incentives and alternative payment methods to optimize revenue in casual, social and free-to-play games.

Available for download at blog.sometrics.com, the white paper explores a number of trends: the proliferation of casual, social and free-to-play games; the growing supply of virtual items within those games; the motivations of people who spend money on virtual items; and the rise of micro-transactions.

It offers an in-depth evaluation of the virtual goods market, and explores how publishers can make money using a virtual economy. It ends by diving deep into the latest form of monetization, advertiser-supported transactions – discussing how publishers can use incentives to drive user actions that lead to advertising revenue. The paper also describes Sometrics’ own Advertiser-Supported Transaction Platform.

“Advertisers still need to reach consumers and they’re looking for cost-effective ways to do so,” said Swanson. “Meanwhile, users of casual and social games are engaged and motivated to take action. Publishers have something valuable to offer both advertisers and consumers, and they can successfully harness that value to drive revenue.”

Developers and publishers of social applications increasingly rely on incentive-based offers to encourage their users to take a particular action – view an ad, for example – ultimately increasing advertising revenue.

Sometrics offers the industry’s only Advertiser-Supported Transaction Platform. It gives publishers and developers one place to manage everything – all the ads, all the offers and all the offer networks – coupled with powerful analytics capabilities that help publishers and developers analyze all activity, down to detailed demographics.

Nearly 2,000 publishers of social applications and communities are now using Sometrics’ social advertising and measurement solutions to increase traffic and boost revenue. Sometrics is the first to tailor its analytics and ad managing solutions to focus on social networking platforms and applications, providing the most relevant and effective audience analysis and social ad targeting available.

For product demos, contact Jennifer or Mickey at demo@sometrics.com.

About Sometrics

Sometrics helps publishers and developers monetize free-to-play games, virtual worlds and social applications with the industry’s first Advertiser-Supported Transaction Platform. Publishers gain a new revenue source that enhances existing payment methods, and increased conversions among paying users. Sometrics gives publishers full control, total transparency and comprehensive customer support. Sometrics works with nearly 2,000 developers, some reporting 200 percent growth in traffic as a result. A pioneer in social intelligence – Sometrics combines deep, relevant social analytics with precision-targeted ad managing/social branding capabilities to help developers and brands monetize the social web. Sometrics is the first recipient of capital from The Mail Room Fund, an investment consortium that combines big Hollywood (the William Morris Talent Agency) with Silicon Valley (Accel and Venrock). Its first funding round also included AT&T and Greycroft Partners. Sometrics is based in Los Angeles.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the launch of the IAB Certificate in Interactive Advertising, a new educational credential earned after 40 hours of official training with the IAB or its approved partners. The latest component of the IAB’s Professional Development Program, this recently developed curriculum consists of a series of classes on platforms, like social media and in-game advertising, and tools, such as metrics and yield management. Drawing on the unique expertise of IAB’s members and staff, the program provides publishing, marketing and advertising agency professionals the key skills and competencies they need for success in the new media landscape.

The certificate program begins with the six classes in the IAB Professional Development Program Spring 2009, detailed below. All are affordably priced and, like the other classes in the program, count towards the IAB Certificate in Interactive Advertising.

“The IAB is able to take a wealth of practical, working knowledge we’ve amassed over the years, as well as the in-depth proprietary research we’ve conducted, and combine that with the on-the-ground experience of our members to create an unsurpassed educational program that will train participants to do their jobs better or even advance into more significant roles in interactive media,” said Michael Theodore, Vice President, Member Services of the IAB. “This program is part of our overarching strategy to educate the entire ecosystem on the latest tools and techniques in online advertising, and if you don’t know these basic skills, you’ll be left out.”

Classes coming up in March, for which registrations need to be made immediately, include:

* March 17 – Marketing with Social Media and Networks – Taught by Peter Spande, VP Sales at Federated Media. This class will provide an overview of the major players in the social media and social networking space, as well as successful strategies for leveraging online communities for marketing purposes.
* March 25 – Ad Operations for Account Execs – Taught by Ad Ops experts from AOL, New York Times and Univision. This class will provide an overview of the process of operations in online advertising campaigns, including lessons on how to speed execution and improve the bottom line. It will also focus on the ad ops role and the key operational issues account executives must be familiar with when selling to ensure their clients’ campaigns are successful.

The other Spring 2009 classes include:

* April 7 – Managing Multiple Sales Channels
* April 23 – Video Game Advertising
* May 7 – Understanding and Using Online Metrics
* May 20 – Yield Management Best Practices.

Registration is currently open for a limited number of seats at http://www.iab.net/events_training/690291. All classes will be held at IAB’s headquarters office in New York City.

For more information on the program and the IAB Certificate in Interactive Advertising Certificate, please visit: http://www.iab.net/professional_development

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 400 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

SAN FRANCISCO – December 1, 2008 – Leading independent in-game advertising company Double Fusion has strengthened its PLAYSTATION®3 portfolio by securing exclusive advertising opportunities with the world’s top videogame publishers, including THQ, SEGA, Eidos and Midway.

The announcement comes during a record breaking sales year for the videogames business, which propelled Double Fusion’s high double-digit revenue growth. The company continues to pave the way for advertisers looking to reach young consumers in an increasingly challenged and fragmented media landscape by offering immersive in-game marketing programs available nowhere else.

“One only has to look at the recent videogame sales figures to realize that games are the one form of entertainment consumers don’t want to live without,” states Jonathan Epstein, president and CEO, Double Fusion. “We are pleased to partner with and provide incremental revenue opportunities to game publishers by offering advertisers a variety of hand-selected cross-genre games we know will be a hit with gamers and the marketers looking to reach them.”

The partnerships underscore Double Fusion’s commitment to offer advertisers and agency partners the broadest possible range of advertising opportunities across all demographics. Double Fusion’s full-service solution, including sales, marketing, integration consulting, and enabling technology provides game publishers increased opportunities for revenue while strengthening their core business of game titles appealing to 18-34 male consumers.

Developers and publishers interested in learning more about increasing per-title revenues through integrated and dynamic ad placement opportunities on PLAYSTATION®3 should contact business@doublefusion.com

About Double Fusion

Double Fusion reaches more consumers across the broadest range of demographics than any other game advertising network. Utilizing their award-winning fusion.sdk™ and fusion.runtime™ dynamic in-game ad serving technologies originally developed for AAA hard core graphic intense 32 bit video games, the company has successfully expanded the idea that any game type, genre, or platform can harness the power of advertising. Double Fusion currently boasts over 30 top-tier game publishers in a portfolio reaching gamers from 12 to 49 years old. The network’s acclaimed integrated marketing solutions continue to inspire Fortune 500 companies to get in the game with groundbreaking advertising campaigns. Privately held and headquartered in San Francisco, Double Fusion has offices in Chicago, New York, Jerusalem, London and Tokyo. More information about Double Fusion is available at www.doublefusion.com.

Advertisers interested in opportunities within the Double Fusion Network; and developers and publishers interested in increasing their per-title revenues through integrated and dynamic ad placement opportunities should visit www.AdvertisingInPlay.com.

Owing to the international success of its role-playing game DOFUS now has 10 million members worldwide. The French headquartered Ankama group, with over 300 employees worldwide, recognized its need to improve its download and response times on its online gaming websites in order to provide demanding gamers an excellent user experience.

Ankama’s main goal was to manage the dramatic spikes in website traffic that could occur whenever the company pushes out a DOFUS update. To handle these recurring load increases, Ankama sought a reliable partner who could meet this challenge successfully and thus, ensure the online distribution of its updates with the best possible quality and price ratio.

Akamai, a benchmark partner of top gaming publishers, recommended its Electronic Software Delivery solution, which allows all types of software to be delivered with optimum performance, making it easier for users to download online games from the Ankama website.

“After an initial one-month testing phase, Akamai’s download solution performed very well and accomplished its main goal – that was to handle massive traffic spikes for Ankama website and sometimes even exceeding 24 Gbps,” said Jerome Renoux, Major Account Executive of Digital Media at Akamai. “Our content routing capabilities combined with our strong commitment to service quality were also key factors that set us apart from our competitors. The performance was immediately reflected in the sharp rise in the number of game subscriptions recorded on Ankama’s DOFUS game website after implementing the Akamai’s solutions.”

After this conclusive trial period, Akamai subsequently recommended the Dynamic Site Accelerator solution, a unique service that accelerates the speed, scope and performance of websites featuring the richest interactive content. Akamai currently delivers 10-20% of all Internet traffic worldwide and has the largest web content delivery and acceleration platform, with more than 40,000 servers connected to 900 networks in 70 countries. The Akamai solutions mean that Ankama does not have to deploy its own global download platform or worry about possibly overloading its own platform when releasing new patches, upgrades and demos.

“We spent several months looking for a service provider to ensure optimal bandwidth quality for both normal everyday web traffic and dramatic load increases. Akamai was the only provider that was able to come up with an effective solution to this twofold issue. Since partnering with Akamai, our technical teams have been able to breathe more easily,” commented Thomas Bahon, Ankama’s Director of Products.

Bahon added, “The solutions deployed by Akamai live up to their promises and provide the quality of service that we want to offer our global gamers on a daily basis so that we can keep expanding internationally and secure our position as leader of France’s online gaming market. We needed a partner that could truly support us in achieving our ambitions. In addition to increasing the ease of installing download solutions for our users and the fact that Akamai now takes care of all our storage needs, we have observed a marked increase in the number of hits on our websites from online gamers and visitors ever since we set up this platform.”

About the ANKAMA Group
Founded by Anthony Roux, Camille Chafer, and Emmanuel Darras in Roubaix, France in 2001, ANKAMA is an independent group which produces digital creations and employs over 300 people. The international success of the group’s MMORPG DOFUS, with more than 10 million players, enabled ANKAMA to branch out into several related industries: online games, publishing, animations, web design, press, mobile phone services, video games for next gen’ consoles. ANKAMA is also currently developing Wakfu, a crossmedia project including animated series/video game/card games and comic books. Find out more on our official website: www.ankama-group.com

DOFUS
Treading a lush path between video game and animated cartoon, DOFUS brings a whole new dimension to online Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. With its manga-inspired graphics, gripping tactical game play and wild humor, DOFUS has created a unique style of its own for other MMORPGs to follow and currently boasts 10 million players worldwide. Find out more on the official website: www.dofus.com.

The Akamai Difference
Akamai® provides market-leading managed services for powering rich media, dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai’s services have been adopted by the world’s most recognized brands across diverse industries. The alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai’s global network of tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for businesses to succeed online. Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more viable place to inform, entertain, interact, and collaborate. To experience The Akamai Difference, visit www.akamai.com.

- Independent Videogame Site Crispy Gamer Launches with 1 Million Monthly Unique Visitors and $8.25 Million in Funding
Crispy Gamer (crispygamer.com), a new independent destination dedicated to offering a voice for serious gamers, has formally opened its site with more than 1 million unique visitors. The new media company has secured $8.25 million in backing from Constellation Ventures and the company’s founders. Crispy Gamer is the brainchild of Chris Heldman, former head of media entertainment at Google, who recruited John Keefer, former editorial director at GameSpy, and Chris Hoerenz, former chief marketing officer at eMusic, to co-found the venture.

- care2 Chooses Pontiflex for CPL Lead Generation
Pontiflex, the industry’s first open and transparent CPL market, announced today that it has been selected by care2 for transparent Cost-per-Lead (CPL) lead generation advertising. In CPL advertising campaigns, online marketers can buy display and direct response advertising and pay only for qualified sign-ups from interested consumers.
The world’s largest community site for people that care about progressive causes, care2 is leveraging Pontiflex as a single point of connection to manage its online campaigns with more than 50 non-profit organizations.

Standard, Flash or Rich Media Banner
Agency: A&E Television / Client: Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels
Agency: IAC Advertising Solutions / Client: Bacardi
Agency: MS3 Marketing / Client: Castrol SYNTEC

Standard, Flash or Rich Media Expandable Banner or Overpage Unit
Agency: Juxt Interactive / Client: Coca-Cola Co./Coke Zero
Agency: Liquid / Client: Paramount/The Spiderwick Chronicles
Agency: Unicast / Client: Warner Brothers/Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Homepage Takeover/Sponsorship
Agency: AvatarLabs / Client: Sony Pictures/Pineapple Express
Agency: AvatarLabs / Client: Walt Disney Pictures/Wall-E
Agency: The Visionaire Group / Client: Universal Pictures/Wanted

Content Integration
Agency: Digitas / Client: American Express OPEN
Agency: Monster Worldwide Inc. / Client: PBS/Military.com
Agency: Sojern / Client: Delta Air Lines/E-Ticket

Standalone E-mail
Agency: Digitas / Client: American Express and DailyCandy, “Local Deals”
Agency: Merkle Inc. / Client: Corporate Express
Agency: Yesmail / Client: HP

E-mail Campaign
Agency: Moxie Interactive / Client: Verizon Wireless
Agency: Smith-Harmon Inc. / Client: REI
Agency: Tribal DDB / Client: Pepsi-Cola North America, “Pepsi Stuff Insider”

Search Campaign
Agency: 90octane / Client: Globus Family of Brands
Agency: Bigmouthmedia / Client: Hilton Hotels
Agency: Stinson Partners / Client: Costa Cruise Lines

Video Appearing in a Banner, Pre-Roll, Interstitial or In-Stream Unit
Agency: A&E Television / Client: A&E Television
Agency: TM Advertising/Janimation/EyeWonder – Client: Superpages.com
Agency: VML / Client: Dr Pepper

Standalone Video (Not Principally Deployed on YouTube)
Agency: AKQA / Client: AOL News, “Where Are They Now?”
Agency: Enlighten / Client: Bioré, “Let’s Face It”
Agency: Vibrant Media / Client: Unilever, “Blondes vs. Brunettes”

YouTube Video Ad
Agency: Element79 / Client: Gatorade, “Ball Girl”
Agency: Intuit / Client: TurboTax, “Ping Pong and Taxes Made Easy”
Agency: KulaVortex.com / Client: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, “28 Seconds Later”

Rich Media Campaign
Agency: A&E Television / Client: Paranormal State
Agency: Avenue A | Razorfish/Euro RSCG Worldwide / Client: Nabisco/Ritz, “Open for Fun”
Agency: PointRoll/Armchair Media/Turf / Client: College Board

Contest/Promotion/Sweepstakes
Agency: Dailey / Client: Intuit/TurboTax, “Tax Rap”
Agency: Exopolis/MMA Creative Group / Client: Roxy and Schick Quattro, “Follow Your Heart”
Agency: Liquid Advertising / Client: After Dark Films, “Miss Horrorfest”

Campaign in Social Media
Agency: Avenue A | Razorfish / Client: Washington Mutual
Agency: McCann Erickson / Client: VeriSign Inc.
Agency: Sapient / Client: Coca-Cola Co./Burn

Mobile or Wireless Campaign
Agency: Ad Infuse/Mindshare/Phonevalley / Client: Strongbow Cider, “Flirtogram”
Agency: AKQA / Client: Nike, “PHOTOiD”
Agency: Moxie Interactive / Client: Twentieth Century Fox/Jumper

Use of Gaming
Agency: AKQA / Client: McDonald’s
Agency: MS3 Marketing / Client: Colgate Palmolive/Speed Stick 24/7
Agency: Play/Denuo / Client: General Motors/Buick

Use of Widgets
Agency: Cheil Worldwide / Client: Samsung/Juke
Agency: Euro RSCG 4D / Client: iShares
Agency: Mediaedge:cia/Mindshare / Client: Ford/Sync

Viral Campaign
Agency: Brief Attention Span Communications / Client: Serena Software, Inc., “Just @#$% It” and “Go @#$% Yourself”
Agency: Element79 / Client: Gatorade, “Ball Girl”
Agency: McKinney / Client: Virgin Mobile, “Promiscuous Text”

Advertising/Promotion Web Site or Microsite
Agency: 65 Media / Client: Twentieth Century Fox/The Simpsons Movie
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / Client: Adobe Creative Suite 3, “Adobe Layer Tennis”
Agency: Q Interactive / Client: UPS, “UPS Whiteboard Headquarters”

WPP holds 55% of Series A Preferred Stock of IGA Limited. Revolution Ventures holds the remaining 45% of the Series A Preferred Stock, with founder shareholders holding the remaining common stock in the company.
InGame Ad, based in Shanghai, is a leading independent dynamic in-game advertising network in China providing consumer reach through a portfolio of premium quality online games, including mobile games.

This investment continues WPP’s strategy of developing its networks in important markets and sectors and demonstrates its commitment to developing its business in China.

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intergi (www.intergi.com), a leading video game and entertainment site representation company and advertising network, today announced four new exclusive representation deals with a collection of high profile, web-based portals targeting the gaming and entertainment communities. The new sites – QJ.net. Evil Avatar, Fpsbanana.com and NSider2.com – each offer three key tenets Intergi looks for in growing its network: the ability to deliver targeted content, an established community of gaming and entertainment enthusiasts and the opportunity for media buyers and planners to achieve billions of impressions. The four new sites include:

* QJ.net – (www.qj.net) Known as the QuickJump network, QJ.net offers an online portal to all things video gaming and entertainment, with aggregated content that allows visitors access to reviews and updates on news within the video games, film and entertainment industries.
* Evil Avatar – (www.evilavatar.com) An aggregate site for gaming enthusiasts and developers, offering daily gaming news “with attitude.” The site features headline news, community threads and previews of all that is current in today’s world of video gaming.
* Fpsbanana.com – (www.fpsbanana.com) FPSBanana is the largest website on the Internet tailored specifically to online First Person Shooter (FPS/Action) game customization for gamers and game designers.
* Nsider2.com – (www.nsider2.com) Nintendo Insider Forum, offering an online community dedicated to Nintendo entertainment content. The member-based site features bulletin boards, YouTube clips and game reviews.

“Today, online advertising is all about being able to deliver targeted messaging that truly hits the consumer, where, when and how they want,” said Jayson Dubin, president of Intergi. “By adding QJ.net, Evil Avatar, Fpsbanana.com and nSider2.com, we increase our ability to offer direct access to millions of gamers who are spending more of their time online. Any advertiser today looking to connect with anyone who is passionate about gaming and entertainment need look no further than the Intergi network, which is now over 700 websites strong!”

Currently securing an additional round of funding, Intergi has spent the last year investing seed capital to further build out its web-based technologies to deliver more targeted impressions, bolster its sales force and integrate more publishers into its network. Other representation partners include Wizards of the Coast, gamerDNA, K2 Networks and more.

Intergi is a leading online gaming and entertainment advertising network and representation company offering broad and unparalleled access to the $25 billion gaming industry. Offering reach capabilities of over 9 billion page views and 160 million unique visitors each month, Intergi offers targeted advertising placements – site specific, channel-wide and run-of-network – through more than 700 specialized gaming and entertainment categories including massively multiplayer online (MMO) and first person shooter (FPS) genres. Intergi’s global market allows advertisers and publishers to connect from different parts of the world and access a more robust and viable gaming enthusiast. Based in Deerfield Beach, Florida, the company was launched in May 2007 by a team of seasoned gaming industry veterans. For more information, visit www.intergi.com

NEW YORK — Aug. 5, 2008 — Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. and a leading network for video game advertising, Paramount Pictures and Ubisoft Entertainment have teamed up to create a first-of-its-kind dynamic in-game advertising promotion. To promote the upcoming film “Tropic Thunder,” the companies have placed an interactive scavenger hunt in “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2,” published by Ubisoft, which encourages gamers to actively interact with the dynamic in-game campaign, take action from the clues, and get rewarded at the final stage of the hunt.

“This innovative scavenger hunt enables us to reward our target audience and give them a direct call to action to go see ‘Tropic Thunder,’” said Amy Powell, senior vice president of Interactive Marketing for Paramount Pictures. “We’ve had a track record of success working with Massive since the business started. This is taking our in-game advertising campaigns to the next level by making them interactive and actionable. Gamers are motivated to seek out the next ad, which is an amazing way for us to build awareness and excitement for our new release.”

Gamers see a series of nine branded “clues” within “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2,” each leading them to the next clue, until they successfully reach the end of the scavenger hunt. Everyone who completes the scavenger hunt will receive an invitation to join Ubisoft’s VIP club and the chance to download a free digital VIP map for “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2,” and will be entered into two prize drawings. In the first drawing held July 31, 25 winners received a “Tropic Thunder” Gift Pack: two tickets to “Tropic Thunder” and a “Tropic Thunder” T-shirt and hat.* The second drawing, on Aug. 22, will award one grand prize winner an Xbox 360 Elite system as well as a one-year Xbox LIVE subscription and a collection of Ubisoft’s upcoming video game releases.**

“This is a new and highly innovative use of dynamic in-game advertising and really demonstrates the creativity and marketing power of this medium,” said Cory Van Arsdale, CEO of Massive.

The scavenger hunt began on July 18 and will run through Aug. 25 to drive awareness leading up to the movie opening on Aug. 13.

About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company’s labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies and DreamWorks Studios. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group, and Worldwide Television Distribution.

About Massive Inc.
Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp., is the creator of a leading network for dynamic video game advertising. The Massive Network offers advertisers the ability to engage an aggregated gaming audience in real time across multiple platforms. Over 200 blue-chip advertisers have run campaigns across the Massive Network throughout North America and Europe. Publishers in the Massive Network generate revenue through dynamic in-game advertising, enabling them to fully realize the value of their content while preserving and enhancing the game experience. Massive’s technology allows for all forms of downloadable media and advertising content to be contextually integrated into the game environment, including image, audio, video and game object formats. More information can be found online at http://www.massiveincorporated.com.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Check out their press release below, it seem they’re the first to be properly audited for in-game ad impressions counting.

NEW YORK — June 3, 2008 — Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. and a leading network for video game advertising, today announced that it has successfully completed an audit by Interactive Media Services Group Ltd. (ImServices) to verify the accuracy of Massive’s process for impression counting. As the first dynamic in-game advertising network to undergo a third-party impression audit, Massive provides advertisers and agencies with the accountability required of a mature media form.

“Our audit by ImServices, an industry leader in auditing Web sites and advertising networks, is the latest affirmation that the Massive in-game advertising network is taking the necessary steps to rapidly evolve and to deliver the level of measurement and accountability our clients expect,” said Cory Van Arsdale, chief executive officer of Massive. “As the pioneers and leading innovators in the in-game industry, we remain committed to a high level of transparency and integrity in our processes, and third-party auditing is a critical step.”

“Our review of Massive’s controls over advertising delivery, measurement and data security shows Massive to be compliant with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Ad Impressions Measurement and Audit Guidelines and applicable Minimum Standards as published by the Media Rating Council (MRC),” said Dick Bennett, CEO of ImServices. “I believe it is significant that Massive, one of the top players in online gaming, has taken the leadership role and become the first in-game advertising network to seek a third-party audit.”

Massive will undergo annual audits on the performance of its current procedures based on standards for accuracy and accountability. Specifically, the audit verifies that Massive’s process for impression counting is consistent, and that the sizes, angles and cumulative second thresholds cited are accurately reflected in the network’s technology and operations.

While no industry standards currently exist for in-game advertising measurement, Massive will be one of a number of in-game advertising companies working with the IAB and the MRC to develop acceptable standards. Once such guidelines are in place, Massive will evaluate its processes and make necessary adjustments so that it is in full compliance, and will make them the basis of all subsequent audits.

The team’s broad industry experience at ImServices has given them considerable insight into the needs of online advertisers, content providers and service providers. They possess a thorough knowledge of the processes involved with developing independent measurement standards and have been deeply involved in initiatives to create these critical standards for the online advertising community. Through active participation in key organizations such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), they have helped to shape evolving online measurement and verification standards.

About Massive Inc.
Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp., is the creator of a leading network for dynamic video game advertising. The Massive Network offers advertisers the ability to engage an aggregated gaming audience in real time across multiple platforms. Over 200 blue-chip advertisers have run campaigns across the Massive Network throughout North America and Europe. Publishers in the Massive Network generate revenue through dynamic in-game advertising, enabling them to fully realize the value of their content while preserving and enhancing the game experience. Massive’s technology allows for all forms of downloadable media and advertising content to be contextually integrated into the game environment, including image, audio, video and game object formats. More information can be found online at http://www.massiveincorporated.com.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Check out the two videos below to see how in-game advertising (product placement, in fact) currently looks like – you’ll agree it’s nothing glamorous so far. In-game advertising is still a vaste untapped resource of targeted audiences but nobody seems to have figured exactly how to do it, or has developed the technology.

Always Sunny ads in an Xbox game:

The Simpsons, Ford, Verizon, Subway, BIC and others in EA Skate game (US version):

Relevant ad metrics are practically inexistant for in-game ads at the moment and will continue to be so until suitable technologies are developed – something that will most likely open a can of worms in terms of data collection and privacy concerns.

With consumers being increasingly aware of privacy issues and not willing to provide much profiling and usage data, one could expect agencies to have a hard time including in-game ads in their clients’ media plans – once the novelty wears off, there is little justification to spend money on something with unquantifiable benefits.

Interpret conducted detailed research on behalf of Massive and four of its advertisers: adidas utilizing brand advertising for footwear and apparel, a quick-service restaurant (QSR) brand promoting a tie-in to gaming and a specific menu option, a candy company marketing new creative for its candy bar brand, and an entertainment studio advertising the DVD release for a hit film. The study measures a broad range of brand metrics across game environments and suggests best practices to guide advertisers and their agencies within this rapidly maturing medium.

adidas tested ads it ran through the Massive Network in “Major League Baseball® 2K7,” published by 2K Sports, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. Among those exposed to the adidas ads (the test group), 40 percent recall the company’s tagline of “Impossible Is Nothing” — an increase of 90 percent over those not exposed to the ads (the control group). The number of gamers exposed to the ads who agreed with the statements “adidas is the only brand for me” and “adidas is an inspirational brand” rose 70 percent over those not exposed to the ads. In addition, 73 percent of gamers recalling the ads agreed with the statement that “the ads enhanced the realism of the game.”

“The influence of gaming on our target for adidas can’t be denied,” said Brian Mathena, group media director for Carat. “The scalability and effectiveness that Massive’s dynamic in-game solution provides is evident in the results of our efforts. Massive has consistently been a true partner in consulting on the best gaming solutions for adidas and the rest of our clients.”

Drawing on its unparalleled experience in video game advertising research, Massive has conducted studies for more than 30 clients across North America and Europe assessing the impact of in-game ads across numerous key brand metrics, including purchase interest, brand recommendation and brand attributes. Results such as these released today help the advertising community understand how and why in-game advertising works, and guides the development of best practices for this important component of media plans.

Across all game genres and advertisers studied, the research revealed that an average of 70 percent of gamers agreed with statements that the dynamic in-game ads “contributed to realism,” “fit the games” in which they were served and looked “cool.”

A leading QSR brand executed custom ad creative for select titles with strong results. Among those gamers exposed to the QSR ads in “Need for Speed Carbon,” a racing title published by Electronic Arts Inc., the number saying that they would recommend the QSR brand to others rose by 39 percent compared with the control group, and those assigning the QSR brand the highest possible brand rating rose by 17 percent from the control group to the test group. Fifty-six percent of exposed gamers agreed with the statement that the ads made the gaming environment feel more interactive.

A global candy bar company executed a branding campaign in “NASCAR® 08,” published by Electronic Arts. Seventy-five percent of gamers recalled the candy bar in-game advertising with 56 percent recalling the specific ad creative. Within the test group, 72 percent agreed with the statement that the candy bar is “a great snack to eat while playing video games,” an increase of 29 percent from the control group; the proportion agreeing that the candy bar “gives you energy” and “is cool” rose 24 percent and 21 percent from control group to test group, respectively.

An entertainment studio ran a campaign advertising the DVD release of a hit film in “Rainbow Six: Vegas,” an action title published by Ubisoft Entertainment. Unaided awareness of the DVD increased 16 percent among gamers exposed to the ads as compared with the control group, with 66 percent of those recalling the campaign having a more positive opinion of the DVD following in-game exposure. Purchase intent for the DVD rose 23 percent from control group to test group, with 80 percent of exposed gamers responding in the survey that “they would probably or definitely purchase the DVD.”

“The depth of this research reflects Massive’s commitment to offering advertisers an understanding of how in-game advertising can impact brands across game genres and advertising categories,” said Cory Van Arsdale, CEO of Massive. “As the in-game medium matures and establishes its position on the media plan, advertisers and agencies are eager for insight into creative nuances and best practices for maximizing its impact. We view this type of guidance as an essential part of our role as an industry leader and innovator.”

Methodology
Interpret implemented a test/control methodology for each game in which Massive dynamically served ads, totaling over 1,000 gamers across the United States. Both control and test group respondents played the same game title that was studied for each ad client. The control group consisted of those who had played the game but were not exposed to ads delivered from Massive. The test group had played the game on a connected Xbox 360 system or PC during the time the ad campaigns were live, and had the opportunity to be exposed to the ads delivered by Massive. Both groups were asked the same set of questions about the brands and ads included in the study, and the respondent differences were evaluated to identify significant shifts in each brand metric measured.

About Interpret LLC
Interpret is a next-generation media and market research firm with a focus on evaluating and measuring the intersections of content, advertising, technology and consumer behavior. Interpret’s management team has unique experience pioneering new custom research methodologies and analytics to help companies Plan, Test and Measure™ their new media strategies. In addition to campaign ad effectiveness testing, Interpret’s suite of products and services include GaMeasure and GamerLog, two syndicated services developed to deliver planning and measurement intelligence to the burgeoning field of in and around-game advertising. The firm is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, with offices in New York and London. More information can be found online at: http://www.interpretllc.com.

About Massive Inc.
Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, is the creator of a leading network for dynamic video game advertising. The Massive Network offers advertisers the ability to reach an aggregated gaming audience in real time across multiple platforms. Over 200 blue-chip advertisers have run campaigns across the Massive Network throughout North America and Europe. Publishers in the Massive Network generate revenue through dynamic in-game advertising, enabling them to fully realize the value of their content while preserving and enhancing the game experience. Massive’s technology allows for all forms of downloadable media and advertising content to be contextually integrated into the game environment, including image, audio, video and game object formats. More information can be found online at http://www.massiveincorporated.com.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

As the exclusive advertising representative for Habbo.com, Double Fusion will handle advertising sales, sponsorships and promotional opportunities with brands seeking to reach Habbo.com’s growing base of 2.4 million unique visitors per month (source: Comscore). Utilizing their extensive sales experience in 2D and 3D environments for in-game advertising and marketing campaigns, Double Fusion will work with advertisers from the entertainment industry, retail, fashion and sports arenas to create relevant and interactive brand campaigns. By integrating branding elements into its virtual world, Habbo builds exposure and increases awareness without the use of intrusive ads. The partnership aims to build campaigns that support the Habbo experience, and that organically grow due to the community support.

“Habbo teens are savvy and insist on interacting with brands in a way that is both fun and enhances the online experience, and Double Fusion is unique in its ability to blend traditional media with immersive online campaigns which our users will enjoy,” said Teemu Huuhtanen, Executive VP, Marketing, Ad Sales and Business Development, Sulake Corporation and President, North America, Sulake Inc. “Over 200 advertisers have used Habbo globally and the trend is growing. The average Habbo user spends nearly 40 minutes on the site per visit, which provides a rich foundation for a company seeking to build an identity in a virtual world environment.”

Leveraging Habbo’s virtual world for real world branding, advertisers can execute a variety of marketing initiatives, including in-game billboards, contests, interstitials and instant-console messaging, customized brand rooms, sponsored quests, – all of which create a natural integration that adds value and appeals to teens.

“Double Fusion understands the power of Habbo, and the richness and depth of the audience and environment,” said Jonathan Epstein, president and CEO, Double Fusion. “The virtual world environment is a natural extension of our vast experience building both sponsorship and media programs in the gaming landscape.”

There are currently Habbo communities in 32 countries on six continents. To date, more than 92 million Habbo characters have been created globally and 8.6 million unique users worldwide visit Habbo each month (source: Google Analytics).

About Habbo:
Habbo is a richly colorful, multi-dimensional virtual community and game environment for teens. Users join by creating a fully customized online character called a Habbo. From there, they can explore many public hang-outs, play a variety of games, connect with friends, decorate their own rooms, and have fun through creativity and self expression. Currently there are Habbo communities in 32 countries on six continents. To date, over 94 million Habbo characters have been created and 9.5 million unique users worldwide visit Habbo each month (source: Google Analytics).

About Double Fusion:
Double Fusion is the game advertising expert. The company brings together the leading in-game ad serving technology, the broadest network of games across a wide variety of genres, and a sales force that has helped create and evolve the in-game advertising industry. Double Fusion provides marketers and their advertising agencies with the broadest range of in-game, around-game and web-based solutions with which to engage and sell the valuable and hard-to-reach gamer demographics. Double Fusion is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Jerusalem, London, and Tokyo. More information on Double Fusion is available at www.doublefusion.com.

Advertisers interested in opportunities within the Double Fusion network; and developers and publishers interested in increasing their per-title revenues through integrated and dynamic ad placement opportunities should visit www.doublefusion.com.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., and NEW YORK — March 18, 2008 — Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. and a leading network for video game advertising, today announced an expansion and two-year extension of their agreement to offer dynamic in-game advertising for EA video games. The new global agreement provides unprecedented opportunities for advertisers to engage with EA’s highly coveted audience — especially males ages 18 to 34 — through its roster of blockbuster games on the Xbox 360™ platform and exclusive rights to a majority of EA’s premium PC products.

With over three years of experience in dynamically serving advertisements in video games, Massive is the definitive in-game advertising solution for advertisers around the world, including Ford Motor Co. in the U.S., Rogers in Canada, and Puma in Europe. Massive’s long-standing relationship with EA, publisher of many of the world’s most popular games, provides advertisers with extensive reach through EA’s portfolio of premium content video games. This agreement represents a critical point of differentiation for Massive as the in-game advertising medium continues its momentum as a more attractive and effective medium compared with traditional forms of established advertising.

With the latest agreement, EA will further expand the opportunities available to advertisers by extending the participation of current titles in the Massive network as well as incorporating additional, highly anticipated games over the course of the deal. The wide range of EA content that will be available in the Massive network includes the next two iterations of popular EA SPORTS™ franchises including Madden NFL* football, NBA LIVE basketball, NASCAR* ® racing and NHL® hockey.

Massive will continue to be the exclusive in-game ad network for PC and Xbox 360 platforms of the world’s largest racing franchise, EA’s Need For Speed™, including current live titles Need for Speed Carbon and Need for Speed ProStreet. Massive is also working with marketers to incorporate dynamic advertising into another popular EA racingtitle, Burnout™ Paradise.

“We continue to utilize the breadth and depth of Massive’s content to market a range of our clients’ key brands,” said Brian Bos, senior vice president, Convergence Director, Mindshare – Team Detroit. “With this expanded partnership, we will be able to plan dynamic in-game campaigns several years out, which is critical in making Massive’s content platform a more integral part of our video game marketing strategy.”

“EA strongly believes that dynamic in-game advertising is an important growth area for our business, and is one of many opportunities we are pursuing in growing the advertising market,” said Kathy Vrabeck, president of the Casual Entertainment Label at EA. “We selected Massive because they are the industry leader in this space with a global sales footprint, solid brand recognition and in-depth experience in video game advertising.”

By providing certainty around Massive’s ad inventory for years into the future, the multiyear agreement enables advertisers to plan in-game advertising on a calendar year basis as part of a holistic campaign development process alongside other mediums such as TV, online and print media.
Rouwen Bastian, Coordinator European Media Strategies at Opel said: “In-game advertising plays an essential role for us in reaching today’s young adult consumers. The multi-year agreement between Massive and EA makes it possible for us to make greater strategic use of in-game advertising by incorporating it into the same long-term planning as other media forms.”

Richard Dance, Group Account Director at MindShare Interaction UK, said: “The growing channel of in-game advertising provides an exciting and creative medium in which to work. Although we are only scratching the surface with regards to the opportunities it provides, more and more of our clients are keen to include in-game advertising as a part of their multichannel strategy.”

“Our latest agreement with EA expands advertisers’ unprecedented access to EA’s world-class franchises to reach young male gamers around the world,” said Cory Van Arsdale, CEO of Massive. “This multiyear partnership reflects both the maturity of the dynamic in-game advertising medium and the benefits that our network continues to deliver for both publishers and advertisers.”

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA, NASDAQ: ERTS), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA SPORTS BIG™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2007, EA posted revenue of $3.09 billion and had 24 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

About Massive Inc.
Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp., is the creator of a leading network for dynamic video game advertising. The Massive Network offers advertisers the ability to engage an aggregated gaming audience in real time across multiple platforms. Over 200 blue-chip advertisers have run campaigns across the Massive Network throughout North America and Europe. Publishers in the Massive Network generate revenue through dynamic in-game advertising, enabling them to fully realize the value of their content while preserving and enhancing the game experience. Massive’s technology allows for all forms of downloadable media and advertising content to be contextually integrated into the game environment, including image, audio, video and game object formats. More information can be found online at http://www.massiveincorporated.com.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS BIG, POGO and Need for Speed are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. John Madden, NFL, NBA, NASCAR and NHL are trademarks of their respective owners and used with permission. Xbox and Xbox 360 are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.