Ad Operations Online » Rich Media Ads

Celtra’s AdCreator Platform Now Supports All Five IAB Mobile Rising Stars Formats

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:00:11 +0000

CAMBRIDGE, MA - Celtra Inc., the industry leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics, today released all five of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Mobile Rising Stars into its award-winning AdCreator 3 platform. Celtra has also certified these formats across a wide range of publishers and ad networks.

Celtra tailored its Rising Stars offering to provide as robust an experience possible within the IAB guidelines. Focusing on the Slider and Pull as flagship formats, Celtra added a breadth of richness to these two formats that make them unique to the AdCreator 3 platform.

“Advertisers and publishers now have the ability to take advantage of these new Rising Stars ad formats from our AdCreator platform,” said Mihael Mikek, Co-funder and CEO at Celtra. ”Celtra’s Rising Stars deliver highly engaging ads that leave users with a positive brand experience.”

Celtra’s Mobile Rising Stars are comprised of the following formats:

Pull - Vertically pulls a full screen ad experience over the publisher content
Slider - Slide banner to show or close ad
Sticky Banner - Dynamically locks to designated area
Filmstrip - Multi-panel, scrollable vertical or horizontal ad
Full Page Flex - Full screen experience that accommodates both portrait and landscape orientation

“The Mobile Rising Stars are designed to provide brand marketers with engaging mobile canvasses as scale,” says Peter Minnium, head of Brand Initiatives at IAB. ”Given the complexity of the mobile ecosystem, naming standards is just half the challenge — enabling these across mobile devices and publishers is an equally important task. Celtra’s support of these units in its platform will greatly ease that challenge for its broad list of clients.”

Celtra’s Rising Stars ad formats support a full set of AdCreator features, such as video, animation, location based features, gaming features and social media features. Complete media and engagement analytics is available for all new formats.

To learn more about Celtra’s support of the IAB Mobile Rising Stars formats, please watch this video or visit the Celtra blog. For more information about the IAB Mobile Rising Stars, please visit www.iab.net/risingstarsmobile.

About Celtra Inc.

Celtra Inc. is the global leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics. Celtra’s AdCreator 3 platform, which is used by world’s leading agencies, publishers and networks in more than 18 countries, is the only complete, SDK and ad server agnostic platform for rich media mobile advertising. Celtra’s unparalleled HTML5 ad products are designed to provide the best user experience, performance and reliability on distinctive mobile platforms with one single ad unit. For more information, visit Celtra at www.celtra.com or @CeltraMobile on Twitter.

Celtra is headquartered in Cambridge (MA), with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London (UK), and Ljubljana (SI).

Celtra Appoints Deborah Szajngarten Vice President of Marketing Communications

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:00:27 +0000

Former Vimeo Global Communications Director to Help Raise Celtra’s Brand Awareness

CAMBRIDGE, MA - Celtra Inc., the industry leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics, appointed Deborah Szajngarten as Vice President of Marketing Communications. Located in Celtra’s New York office, Ms. Szajngarten will create and deliver marketing communications strategies designed to elevate Celtra’s brand visibility across the advertising ecosystem.

“Deborah brings a wealth of communications and brand-building experience to Celtra,” said Mihael Mikek, CEO of Celtra Inc. ”Her demonstrated leadership and strategic approach will help drive awareness for Celtra’s leading role in rich media mobile advertising.”

“I’m very excited to join such an innovative and talented team at a time when mobile advertising is growing at record pace,” said Deborah Szajngarten. ”Celtra is uniquely positioned to become the industry standard for all rich media mobile ad creation, serving, and analytics.”

Previously, Ms. Szajngarten led the global communications team that helped drive Vimeo’s growth from a 12-person team to a 100+ person company. Prior to Vimeo, she spent 15+ years within the consumer electronics industry, leading successful communications programming for such brands as Samsung, Canon and Sony.

About Celtra Inc.
Celtra Inc. is the global leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics. Celtra’s AdCreator 3 platform, which is used by world’s leading agencies, publishers and networks in more than 18 countries, is the only complete, SDK and ad server agnostic platform for rich media mobile advertising. Celtra’s unparalleled HTML5 ad products are designed to provide the best user experience, performance and reliability on distinctive mobile platforms with one single ad unit. For more information, visit Celtra at www.celtra.com or @CeltraMobile on Twitter.

Celtra is headquartered in Cambridge (MA), with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London (UK), and Ljubljana (SI).

DG Announces Significant Advancement in Multiscreen Ad Management

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:00:31 +0000

Advertisers to benefit from HTML5 and video creation tools

New York, NY – DG (NASDAQ: DGIT), the world’s leading multiscreen ad management company, announced today that advertisers will now be able to use advanced technology to manage multiscreen campaigns on the DG MediaMind platform including mobile, video and desktop, supporting both Flash and HTML5.

Among the newly introduced features are MediaMind HTML5 Factory, an integrated authoring tool for HTML5 Rich Media ads, and MediaMind Video Ad Designer, a WYSIWYG tool made to assemble interactive video ads (VPAID) that are compliant with DG’s IAB award-winning AdAPPter format. The powerful combination not only makes for scalable multiscreen executions but does so without compromising the creative flexibility synonymous with the MediaMind Rich Media offering.

”The proliferation of screens and video is changing the advertising landscape at a rapid pace.” says Ricky Liversidge, chief marketing officer at DG. “This latest MediaMind platform release maximizes advertisers’ opportunities to reach and establish a strong connection with consumers. DG is committed to providing advanced, scalable and effective technology that enables engagement across screens and in a converged video landscape.”

Also featured in this product release are enhancements to DG’s Analytics product surrounding video metrics as well as significant additions to Smart Versioning, DG’s market-leading dynamic creative optimization (DCO) solution. Staying true to its heritage as a provider of scalable advertising through technology, DG continues with this release to integrate its various tools to enable a smooth campaign process from creative production all the way to ad delivery, measurement and optimization.

About DG

DG (NASDAQ: DGIT) is the leading global multiscreen advertising management and distribution platform, fueling campaign management across TV, online, mobile and beyond. Through a combination of technology and services, DG empowers brands and advertisers to work faster, smarter and more competitively. Boasting the world’s largest hybrid satellite and internet network for broadcast video delivery, the company’s unparalleled campaign management encompasses multiscreen ad delivery, cross-channel research and analytics, and unified asset management. The DG product portfolio consists of two overarching product lines for online and video campaign management: MediaMind and VideoFusion.

With New York as a center of operations, DG is a global company that connects over 14,000 advertisers and 7,400 agencies worldwide with their targeted audiences through an expansive network of over 50,000 media destinations across TV broadcast and digital advertising in 78 countries, managing approximately ten percent of the world’s media assets. For more information, visit http://www.dgit.com .

AdCreator Now Brings Video Ad Content Into Focus

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:00:09 +0000

Precisely Measures Viewer Engagement and Consumption of Video Content in Mobile Rich Media Ads

CAMBRIDGE, MA - Celtra Inc., the industry leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics, announced that AdCreator, Celtra’s rich media ad production, delivery and analytics platform, now incorporates precise video reporting to measure interaction with video incorporated into rich media ads. Video has become one of mobile advertising’s most popular features — nearly 50 percent of all videos initiated within rich media ads are watched all the way through.

The new AdCreator video analytics capabilities consolidate video metrics into a single view to give advertisers an accurate understanding of a video’s effectiveness by measuring total video consumption, average video play time and video attention span. Additionally, the video reporting breakdown includes ad placements, mobile devices and mobile platforms — offering advertisers an overview of the performance of video content across the publisher’s entire ecosystem.

“Advertisers are keen to know which parts of their videos are the most interesting to viewers and conversely, where any drop-off happens,” said Matevz Klanjsek, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Celtra. “Our new video analytics offer the most granular video attention span reporting. Results can be presented by quartiles or by viewing time, right down to the second. This reporting gives advertisers comprehensive insights into the value of video content as a part of entire mobile ad experience.”

“Mobile video is a powerful way for brands to reach and engage consumers, and leveraging detailed analytics is a critical part of the process,” said Marcus Startzel, General Manager of North America, Millennial Media. “Celtra is a great partner of ours, and they are helping us work with brands to execute on the tremendous opportunities in mobile advertising.”

Celtra takes a closer look at video consumption

Celtra examined over 150 videos used on ads running in Q4 2012. The selected sample included a balanced mix of different video types — movie trailers, TV commercials and product presentations. More than 730,000 people viewed these videos, allowing Celtra to capture valuable data surrounding video content consumption. Some remarkable findings of the study include:

· Video is most popular ad feature - 43% of ads have video

· Video length - 80% of videos are shorter than 1 minute; 46% shorter than 30 seconds, average video length is 45 seconds

· Videos encourage more engagement - 14.4% of viewers interacted with the ad by playing the video, up 50% compared to Q3

· Video offers exceptional completion rate - Nearly 1/2 of all viewers (47.8%) watched the entire video

· Genesis of videos - most still produced for other media; TV commercials & movie trailers prevail

· Average play time across all videos - 28 seconds; 62% of total video length

“Advances in mobile video measurement metrics ultimately improve OMD’s ability to educate brands on the value of mobile marketing solutions,” said Joao Machado, Director of Mobile, OMD. “More measurement increases the clients’ comfort level, which means a greater willingness to invest in mobile. Agencies are developing multi-screen video strategies and advances in metrics helps fill a void that may have been a barrier to entry.”

“As video continues to be the most popular and consumable content in mobile rich media ads, advertisers are starting to produce videos exclusively for mobile consumption,” said Klanjsek.

“Such videos consistently out-perform content produced for other channels and used in mobile ads, such as TV commercials, and can reach completion rates north of 80%. Interestingly, the length of the video doesn’t have a significant effect on the performance as users typically drop off in the first couple of seconds or tend to watch the video until the end if it proves interesting enough. Quality of the content is essential and we expect to see many more videos produced specifically for mobile advertising in the future.”

Celtra is headquartered in Cambridge (MA), with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London (UK), and Ljubljana (SI).

blurbIQ Launches iPaQ: Suite of Unique Cross-Platform Interactive Video Overlay Units

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:00:03 +0000

New Formats Drive Unparalleled Increase In Viewer Engagement and Interaction with Video Advertising

Las Vegas - blurbIQ Inc., whose patent-pending technology allows advertisers and publishers to overlay rich interactive experiences on video, today launched a suite of new interactive overlay units supported by its advanced metrics, reporting and analytics system. Collectively called the blurbIQ iPaQ (Interactive Performance Advertising), a number of the units have already been certified, tested, or executed by leading networks, including adMarvel, Break Media, Grab Media Networks, iVillage, Mojiva, Specific Media, and the Wall Street Journal and today are being made available to all brands, agencies and networks.

blurbIQ iPaQ enables brands to engage users within the video frame using interactive messaging sequenced to their video assets in a variety of ways such as selecting the storyline of a video ad, selecting product features to view personalized built products, choosing how to watch a carousel of brand videos, skipping video ads by typing in brand messaging, and earning reward points by answering quizzes on brand highlights. blurbIQ has also integrated brand site search functionality into the video frame, a full range of social media features as well as interactive consumer experiences triggered by clicking on icons that appear only when viewers touch (or mouse over) the video frame.

“blurbIQ iPaQ offers a more powerful creative and video solution that uses gamification and interactive elements to drive consumers to engage with the videos and brand messaging like never before,” says Scott Reese, CEO of blurbIQ Inc. “Our technology helps brands entertain and engage their consumers, and maybe more importantly, enables them to measure every viewer interaction to help optimize completion rates, brand recall, message retention and brand lift.”

“Tens of millions of impressions of the blurbIQ iPaQ units have been executed across the CPG, automotive, financial, and entertainment verticals. The performance metrics speak for themselves with up to 81% video completion rates, interaction rates 60x higher than standard video, and a click through rate of up to 5.86%,” adds Mr. Reese.

“blurbIQ is successfully defining new ad formats and monetization models in the mobile interactive video ad space,” says Jack Hallahan, VP of Innovation at Mojiva. Their strategy is simple: deliver quality interactive video overlay experiences that get viewers deeply engaged with brands. blurbIQ is getting to market first by innovating based on a data-driven qualitative and quantitative approach.”

The blurbIQ iPaQ interactive units are easily deployed and measured in most all IAB standard ad formats. In particular, blurbIQ’s creative canvass is well positioned to take advantage of the growing excitement among brand advertisers for the IAB’s Digital Video Rising Stars formats.

Furthermore, the units can be executed, as interactive pre-roll, interstitial, or in-banner units, across devices (desktop, mobile and tablet) and across channels (apps, websites, social media, interactive television). blurbIQ’s clients utilize the company’s intuitive drag-and-drop tools, or work with blurbIQ’s creative team, to create and customize interactive overlays on their own video assets. All customers can measure the performance of overlay units with quick-time analytics dashboards that track viewer interactions for every live campaign.

“blurbIQ’s innovation with interactive video is consistent with the IAB’s vision of driving greater consumer engagement with branded video campaigns,” says Peter Minnium, Head of Brand Initiatives at the IAB. “Marketers are excited about the opportunity to make digital video interactive and the IAB Rising Stars lay the groundwork for that to happen.”

iPaQ Suite

iqVideo adds engagement with pre-roll by overlaying relevant brand and survey questions on the video to drive the viewer to understand and retain the video messaging. The pre-roll video is “gamified” and the viewer is scored at the end of the video. Customizable in video tabs can also be inserted within the interactive pre-roll unit. If a viewer clicks a tab, the pre-roll can stop and the viewer can explore the full in-player experience before returning to the pre-roll and then the video.

Link To Example 1 Link To Example 2

iqAdventure allows the viewer to choose their own video experience by selecting the sequence of video assets to view. Custom storyboarding or video thumbnail selection turn a 30 second TV spot into a longer, immersive engagement that can be shared across social media. Link To Example

iqBuildIt allows the viewer to build their own product. An interactive overlay of product questions invites the viewer to respond as the video streams. At the end of the video the viewer is presented with a view of the product with the features they have selected. Link To Example

iqChoice allows the viewer to choose between playing a 15-second ad with a sequenced survey overlay or watching a 30-second ad. A single advertiser slate appears prior to content asking viewers to choose an ad to watch before content runs. If no choice is made, a default ad runs. Link To Example

iqeCommerce Advertiser’s video asset is overlayed with call to action to shop or buy. Viewers can shop and purchase within the ad unit without having to exit to a new webpage. Link To Example

iqSkipAd allows the viewer to skip a pre-roll ad by responding to survey questions or by typing in the brand messaging the advertiser wants the viewer to receive. Link To Example

iqSocial allows advertisers to direct viewers to various branded social media pages through their pre-roll units. Advertisers can add the logos of up to four social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest and can control at which point the logos appear. Note iqSocial components are standard on all iq ad models. Link To Example

iqSearch allows the viewer to search product information using a brand’s site search functionality, or by utilizing a major search engine, integrated into the video frame. Link To Example

blurbIQ (http://www.blurbiq.com ) is the leader in interactive experiences on video across the digital marketing spectrum. The patent-pending technology overlays video with interactive brand messaging sequenced to a brand’s video assets and uses gamification to get viewers involved. blurbIQ turns video commercials into interactive “games” that dramatically increase viewer engagements, video completion rates, brand recall and message retention. blurbIQ’s interactive units work seamlessly with pre-roll, in banner, mobile, tablet, and social media ad units. The company’s platform provides quick-time analytics so brands can measure every viewer interaction with their interactive video content like never before. Since launching in July of 2010, blurbIQ has executed cross platform campaigns with some of the biggest brands in the world such as AT&T, Campbell’s Soup, Jamba Juice, E*Trade, Duracell, Church & Dwight, General Motors, Focus Features, and Universal Pictures.

Celtra Wins IAB Digital Rising Stars Competition

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:28:37 +0000

Celtra Selected to Participate in IAB Digital Video Rising Stars Ad Control Bar Working Group, a Collaborative Effort That Will Set Industry Standards for Digital Video

CAMBRIDGE, MA - Celtra Inc., the industry leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics, today announced that the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has selected the company as a winner of the IAB Digital Video Rising Stars competition. The Agency Working Group evaluated more than six dozen entries to arrive at the five creative ad product concepts that will become the IAB’s first-ever Digital Video ad format standards. Now that winners have been announced, the IAB will form Working Groups in which the winning companies will collaborate with input from the Agency Working Group and the Ad Ops Working Group, to craft a final Style Guide and Technology Specifications for each of the five Digital Video Rising Stars.

Celtra has been chosen to participate in the IAB Digital Video Rising Stars Ad Control Bar Working Group with fellow digital video innovators to define, build and implement this Digital Video Rising Star. Key aspects of Celtra’s Interactive Video Pre Roll submission was voted among the top in the Ad Control Bar category, and its innovations will be incorporated into the final Style Guide and Tech Specifications for this Digital Video Rising Star.

Celtra’s winning ad concept brings a full range of reliable interactive ad capabilities to digital video. These features, that have been available and used with huge success in Celtra’s standard rich media ad formats, allow advertisers to leverage, among others, social media and location-based services and are expected to push engagement levels and effectiveness of rich media ads even higher within the video context.

“Celtra is honored to be named one of the Digital Video Rising Stars, and extremely happy to be able to contribute to the development of the innovative new mobile ad formats within the IAB Working Groups,” said Matevz Klanjsek, Chief Product Officer and Co-founder at Celtra. “We have always been a huge advocate of quality ads that offer slick end-user experience. The Celtra team is excited to be part of the group bringing a new, standardized ad product to market that will make mobile rich media ads more friendly and exciting for consumers, as well as help brands and agencies deliver more engaging and effective advertising experiences.”

“As a leading mobile partner to publishers and agencies, Celtra is well-placed to help extend the Rising Stars to connected devices,” said Peter Minnium, Head of Brand Initiatives, IAB. “The judges found that their submission to the Digital Video Rising Stars provided an elegant user experience, which is sure to make the IAB Ad Control Bar unit a success in the marketplace.”

Celtra is headquartered in Cambridge (MA), with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London (UK), and Ljubljana (SI).

Celtra, Mindshare and Capcom Bring Compelling Mobile Rich Media to Twitter and Facebook

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:04:09 +0000

Combined Twitter and Facebook Campaign Makes Innovative Use of Social News Feeds to Target Relevant Large Scale Mobile Audiences by Delivering an Immersive Mobile Experience

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Celtra Inc., the industry leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics, today unveiled a unique social mobile rich media campaign with strategic partner Mindshare and gaming industry powerhouse, Capcom. The campaign, built for Capcom’s new game DmC Devil May Cry™, delivers an engaging, entertaining brand story using mobile rich media combined with the broad reach of the Twitter and Facebook news feeds — the world’s most popular social networks.

“As a pioneer in the gaming industry, we’re constantly looking for new and unique ways to reach and engage our audience,” said Craig Brown, UK Product Manager at Capcom. “With the help of Celtra and Mindshare, we’re seamlessly connecting with gamers where they live — on their mobile platforms and in the Facebook and Twitter news feeds.”

The DmC Devil May Cry campaign is the first Celtra mobile rich media execution for Twitter and the first combined social rich media campaign using both Facebook and Twitter platforms. This new approach allows brands like Capcom to tap into social news feeds, the prime real estate to grab a wide audience across social channels. Mobile social rich media gives brands the opportunity to tell their story in an engaging, entertaining and valuable way while using the social channel to reach the broadest relevant audience. These social rich media experiences can be promoted using Facebook and Twitter’s mobile advertising products for increased reach and engagement.

“Mindshare selected Celtra last year as its rich media mobile advertising partner because of the company’s comprehensive approach to quickly and easily deliver quality rich media ads to any device,” said James Chandler, head of mobile at Mindshare. “This campaign with Capcom showcases the new and innovative ways that we’re working together.”

This social rich media campaign is built upon Celtra’s AdCreator platform, which takes a unique approach to delivering the next generation of ad display technology. Offering simple implementation of rich engagement features, this creative solution addresses many facets of mid-funnel marketing with regard to prospect interest, intent, direct response and analytics.

“Celtra’s multiscreen functionality means brands don’t have to worry about the complexity of delivering a beautiful user experience to any device. We work on any smartphone, iPad and supported desktop browsers,” said Jonathan Milne, general manager, Europe at Celtra. “The success of this combined Twitter and Facebook rich media campaign means brands now really enjoy the network effect benefits of targeting and quickly converting a much broader audience by becoming part of their trusted social circles.”

About Celtra Inc.

Celtra is headquartered in Cambridge (MA), with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London (UK), and Ljubljana (SI).

About Mindshare

Founded in 1997, Mindshare was set up to pioneer and innovate in order to give our clients a competitive advantage. In the intervening decade, we have been the world’s fastest-growing media agency — and we have witnessed a true communications revolution. Traditional notions of what marketing agencies can do have been ripped up and the lines between digital, creative, media, direct and consultancy have blurred. Both for right now and for the future our ambition is to lead the definition of what a media agency can do and should do.

We believe we exist to solve our clients’ communications problems and to deliver results. In a rapidly changing environment, our role is to make the complex simple — whether through advanced analytics and strategy, elegant creative solutions or highly efficient media investment.

About Capcom
Capcom is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment for game consoles, PCs, handheld and wireless devices. Founded in 1983, the company has created hundreds of games, including best-selling franchises Resident Evil®, Street Fighter®, Mega Man® and Devil May Cry®. Capcom maintains operations in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Korea, with corporate headquarters located in Osaka, Japan. More information about Capcom and its products can be found at www.capcom.com or www.capcom-unity.com.

Capcom, the Capcom logo, Devil May Cry, Mega Man and Resident Evil are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Capcom Co., Ltd. Street Fighter is a registered trademark of Capcom U.S.A., Inc.

GoldSpot Media Launches Digital One-Voice Rich Media

Otilia Otlacan — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:34:39 +0000

Single Media Buy To Simplify Cross-Platform Rich Media Advertising

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - GoldSpot Media, the industry’s leading 3-screen digital rich media advertising company, launched their Digital One-Voice solution for advertisers to simplify cross platform rich media advertising. Through a single rich media buy for online, tablet and mobile, advertisers now have the ability to deliver a consistent brand experience on every screen, while optimizing media and creative in real time for maximum ROI.

“GoldSpot’s Digital One-Voice solution provides advertisers the power of multi-screen marketing by optimizing content for each screen to leverage the unique attributes of these digital touch-points,” said Jason Newport, SVP Digital Strategy, Aegis Media. “Streamlining media buys across all digital screens has become a necessity for ad agencies to maximize efficiency and to minimize opex.”

Targeting the right audience on the right screen at the right time is imperative for advertisers to conquer digital advertising. Content consumption patterns have changed significantly with the explosion of digital devices used throughout the day – smartphones on the go, laptops during the day and tablets at home with TV co-viewing. Providing a consistent brand experience on all devices is challenging when media is bought in silos across online, mobile and tablets. A unified digital media buy with the option to dynamically optimize budgets and creative on every screen is the holy grail of digital advertising.

“GoldSpot’s Digital One-Voice solution brings tremendous efficiencies to advertisers and agencies through a single media buy, execution and reporting across every digital screen,” said Srini Dharmaji, Founder and CEO of GoldSpot Media. “We are excited to be the first digital advertising platform to offer 3 screen rich media buys with the dynamic media and creative optimization feature.”

About GoldSpot Media

GoldSpot Media is the digital ad management platform to create, traffic and measure rich media campaigns simultaneously on all screens – online, smartphones and tablets. GoldSpot helps advertisers deliver a consistent and rich ad experience across every digital screen through 3D, motion, video and animation, while optimizing the campaign in real time across the best performing screens to maximize brand recall, conversions and engagement.

A privately held and venture-backed company, GoldSpot Media is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Japan and India. For more information, visit www.goldspotmedia.com.

PulsePoint Taps Republic Project To Offer Innovative Rich Media Ad Solution – Unifies Mobile, Social & Display At The Click Of A Button

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:59:10 +0000

Republic Project’s “Fire Blaze” Technology System Merges Display, Native & Social Ad Formats While Integrating Best Practices From Previous Rich Media Efforts

LOS ANGELES - PulsePoint, an award winning digital media and advertising technology company, has partnered with Republic Project, a cloud-based dynamic digital creative platform, to offer its newly launched Fire Blaze creative system for the publishing and serving of innovative cross-channel rich media creative.

Republic Project recently launched Fire Blaze as the first SaaS creative system that enables a marketer to create, launch and manage standard display as well as native ad units with rich media capabilities across display, mobile and social in just minutes. The system enables immediate publishing and management of all these formats while leveraging all elements previously only associated with rich media, including live streaming and social sharing technology.

“Republic Project is a truly unique opportunity for our customers to integrate all their channels with a single creative execution and target users across multiple platforms in a seamless, easy to use fashion,” says John Ruvolo, PulsePoint SVP of Sales. “This system is unlike anything we’ve ever seen and this is the kind of easy to use solution that our clients have been begging to get into.”

PulsePoint and Republic Project are launching this month with brands such as Dell, Red Bull, and Fan IQ – all of who have expressed excitement at being able to offer sharable rich media native ads.

“Our units take previously established best practices from rich digital media advertising, work inside of the news feed across all social marketing platforms, and are capable of being served on all mobile platforms including both Android and iOS,” says AJ Vernet – CEO of Republic Project. “Our ability to publish live in just minutes, cross all platforms and leave a imprint on social media with units that are proving to have a higher than average engagement rate ensures PulsePoint’s customers will be at the cutting edge of cross-channel digital marketing without the risk usually associated with that position in the market. Simply put – this stuff works and it’s working really well.”

Republic Project campaigns with PulsePoint will be in market in the next two weeks.

ABOUT PULSEPOINT

Poised at the intersection of audience and content, PulsePoint helps agencies and marketers target and serve relevant ad placements across screens – from display and video to social and mobile. Combining patented targeting and optimization technology platforms and great service, Pulse Point delivers consistent and scalable results for brand and direct response campaigns.

ABOUT REPUBLIC PROJECT

Republic Project is a cloud-based creative platform that enables any marketer, within minutes, to create, publish and serve rich media creative ads across any digital platform. Whether its display, social or mobile, Republic Project combines the best of rich media display with the burgeoning categories of mobile advertising and native advertising on social so that marketers can be seamless in their delivery of highly engaging, highly impactful ads to any audience they want to speak with. The proprietary “Fire Blaze” system integrates such capabilities as video, social sharing, live streaming, and all other innovations in rich media with no initial set-up required. Republic Project, based in Los Angeles, is backed by Venture 51, Google Ventures, 500 startups, Mesa Global, Ludlow Ventures and various angels. Republic Project currently works with a number of Fortune 100 brands and is rapidly becoming the standard for cross-channel rich media publishing.

Celtra Secures New Financing Round Led by Softbank Capital

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:22:56 +0000

Strategic Investment to Boost Expansion in 2013 After Impressive 300% Revenue Growth in 2012

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Celtra Inc., the industry leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics, today announced a $4 million strategic investment led by investor SoftBank Capital. Ron Fisher, managing partner at SoftBank Capital, will join Celtra’s Board of Directors.

In addition to SoftBank Capital, existing Celtra investors GrandBanks Capital and Fairhaven Capital participated in this round. The investment will be used to explore business opportunities in Japan and elsewhere in the Asia Pacific by leveraging SoftBank Capital’s strong relationships and experience in the region. In addition, funds will be used to expand the company’s engineering presence in the U.S. by bringing product development operations to San Francisco.

“2012 was a watershed year for mobile advertising, and Celtra’s technology established the company as the uncontested leader in the rich media ad-serving space,” said Ron Fisher, managing partner, SoftBank Capital. “Celtra’s AdCreator platform takes a unique approach to deliver the next generation of ad display technology. Having the creative builder, ad server and analytics integrated in a single online platform simplifies all stages of the campaign lifecycle, provides dynamic campaign optimization and opens new possibilities for more insightful analytics.”

Celtra saw phenomenal success in 2012, becoming profitable in Q3 and consistently exceeding goals, with revenue growth of more than 300 percent. The company’s AdCreator platform has been widely adopted across the largest mobile publishers, ad-networks and other ecosystem players such as exchanges and RTBs. Celtra is serving more than 200 clients and partners on the sell-side, including four of the top five mobile ad networks. Celtra is also highly regarded among the world’s leading media agencies, which increasingly rely on AdCreator for rich media ad serving and analytics. In fact, eight out of the top 10 media agencies are using Celtra’s platform.

Additional 2012 achievements include the launch of Celtra’s AdCreator 3 platform, the introduction of Celtra’s innovative Rich Media Post for Facebook product, and the forging of strong partnerships with global agencies such as Mindshare in the U.K. Celtra also was named one of the Most Innovative Tech Companies of the Year by the American Business Awards and won MassTLC’s Innovative Mobile Technology of the Year Award.

“The Celtra team has both a clear vision and a proven ability to execute,” said Clark Kokich, Chairman at Razorfish. “They are constantly innovating and pushing the industry forward, and as a result, Celtra is experiencing rapid adoption by advertising agencies.”

“We are thrilled about this strategic investment from SoftBank Capital,” said Mihael Mikek, co-founder and CEO at Celtra. “It comes at a pivotal time for the company as we look to expand our footprint domestically and abroad. I am confident SoftBank Capital’s involvement will have a significant impact on our business as we enter into our next phase of growth.”

About SoftBank Capital
SoftBank Capital makes early and growth stage investments in companies that connect people, devices and the world. The fund focuses on category leaders in consumer and enterprise mobile, online advertising, ecommerce, social media, and cloud computing. We have been making investments since 1995, with recent exits including Buddy Media, Hyperpublic, Huffington Post, OMGPOP, Pivot, and ZipList. Our investors include SoftBank Corp., which introduced the iPhone to the Japanese market and recently announced the strategic acquisition of Sprint; Yahoo! Japan, the largest search engine and content portal in Japan; and Alibaba, the largest online B2B company in China. To learn more, visit www.softbank.com.

Celtra is headquartered in Cambridge (MA), with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London (UK), and Ljubljana (SI).

Ad Operations Online » Rich Media Ads

Celtra’s AdCreator Platform Now Supports All Five IAB Mobile Rising Stars Formats

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