Double digit growth for online advertising as Display drives European growth rate to 15.3% year-on-year

Display advertising is back! That’s according to figures just released by IAB Europe that show a revival in digital Display in 2010. With an average growth rate of 21.3%, Display overtook Search advertising as the fastest growing online ad format in Europe. Search, which has been the catalyst of online advertising growth in recent years, increased 15.1% in the same period across the 25 markets measured. Video, mobile and social media all contributed to the powerful performance of Display.

IAB Europe’s annual AdEx survey is the definitive guide to the state of the European advertising market. Released at IAB Europe’s Interact Congress in Barcelona, it shows the online advertising market accelerating at a growth rate of 15.3% in 2010 – outperforming the overall European advertising market which grew 5.0% in the same period. Total online adspend was €17.7bn in 2010, compared to €15.3bn in 2009. Market growth ranged from 37% in Russia and 24% in the Czech Republic, to 14% in Denmark and 7% in France.

Compiled by IHS Screen Digest, the research covers the entire European region, from the mature markets of Western and Northern Europe to the emerging markets in Eastern and Southern Europe for the calendar year 2010. New to the report is the Czech Republic.

The markets with the highest online adspend in the report are UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy and Spain (in that order). Together they account for almost three quarters (74%) of the total online advertising market. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) markets now represent almost a tenth (9.8%) of the total.

Display’s Brand Boost

Display* advertising enjoyed growth rates of 20% or more in many markets – both emerging and mature – during 2010.  Above average growth rates were experienced in Ireland (31%), Spain (30%) and Russia (27%).

The continued growth of online TV inventory, and long-form video consumption, pushed up spend while simultaneously maintaining high CPM (cost per thousand). Online video adspend has doubled in most markets. In Spain online video grew 125% to a value of €13m; growth in the UK was 90%, to a market value of €63m.

Super Search

Paid search continued to grow double-digit at an average of 15.1%. It remains the biggest category in online advertising, with 45% of total advertising spend compared with 33% for Display and 22% for Classifieds and Directories. Whilst some of the more established markets experienced smaller increases (UK +8% like-for-like, France +10%) many saw explosive growth (Hungary +44%, Poland +31%).

Mobile Advertising Gets Carried Away

Mobile search and mobile display are included in the AdEx survey for the first time this year. Although mobile adspend figures are available for only 12 of the 25 markets, they confirm that the long-awaited take-off of mobile advertising has been realised thanks to the advent of the smartphone/3G/apps ecosystem. In those markets, mobile adspend already accounts for 2% to 3% of total online adspend.

The Big Picture

With €17.7bn of adspend last year, online now accounts for 18% of the entire European advertising market. It is now beyond 20% in some markets (UK 29%, Denmark 28%) whilst it’s only 5% in Greece and 4% in Romania. European market value is smaller than the US which also experienced a 15% growth rate last year and is now worth $26bn/€19.6bn.

According to Vincent Létang, Senior Analyst at IHS Screen Digest says “Back in 2009, video was the only growth engine in an otherwise flat Display market. In 2010 by contrast, three pillars – mobile, video and social – attracted new advertising investment. On top of fast-growing new formats, let’s not forget that traditional PC-based, banner-style formats have retained their appeal thanks to innovations in design and targeting and a rise in mainstream brands using Display for branding campaigns.”

Alain Heureux, President and CEO of IAB Europe, concludes “The IAB network has worked tirelessly to showcase how effective online Display advertising can be at supporting brand advertising campaigns. I am delighted to see that message has been getting through and the innovative ways brands are incorporating online in their advertising campaigns.  At IAB Europe’s Interact Congress this week we’ll be recognising the best of online advertising creative at with the MIXX Awards. We will also be celebrating with the winners of the Research Awards – without this valuable insight, we would not be able to prove the contribution online makes to advertising campaigns.”

Note:

*Display includes PC-based and mobile banners, rich media and video formats

The data has been compiled by IAB Europe based on information provided by the national IAB offices around Europe. It is then processed and analyzed by IHS Screen Digest. The report includes market size and value information for the full membership of the IAB Europe in 2010 including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Russia, Spain, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The data represents the calendar year 2010 January-December. This is the fifth edition of AdEx which began in the calendar year 2006

About IAB Europe

IAB Europe is a federation of national Interactive Advertising Bureaux (IAB) across Europe. Its mission is to promote the growth of the interactive advertising markets on behalf of its clients and national members. Supported by every major media group, advertisers, agency, portal, technology and service provider, its voice represents the interest of more than 5000 company members. IAB Europe coordinates activities across the region including public affairs, benchmarking, research, setting standards and best practices. The member countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the UK. Our corporate members include Adconion, Adobe, ADTECH, Alcatel-Lucent, Aol, AudienceScience, BBC, CNN, comScore Europe, CPX Interactive, Criteo, e-Bay, Ernst & Young, Expedia Inc, Fox Interactive Media, Gemius, Goldbach Media Group, Google, GroupM, Hi-media, InSites Consulting, Koan, Microsoft Europe, Millward Brown, MTV, Netlog, News Corporation, nugg.ad, Nielsen Online, Orange Advertising Network, Prisa, Publicitas Europe, Sanoma Digital, Selligent, Specific Media, The Walt Disney Company, Tradedoubler, Truvo, United Internet Media, ValueClick, White&Case, Yahoo! and zanox.

About IHS Screen Digest

IHS Screen Digest is the pre-eminent firm of industry analysts covering global media markets. Headquartered in London, with offices in the US and Australia, we employ a team of 50 specialist analysts covering film, television, broadband media, mobile media, cinema, home entertainment, gaming and advertising. Our online services and reports provide the information and analysis that hundreds of media companies worldwide base their decisions on. Screen Digest was acquired by iSuppli Corporation in November 2010 and the combined entity was acquired immediately after by IHS. Screen Digest and iSuppli will together be the base around which IHS builds out its coverage of the TMT sector. To find out more, contact Screen Digest sales@screendigest.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 7424 2820. www.screendigest.com

Explanatory note on IAB Europe/IHS Screen Digest AdEx figures

Each national IAB in Europe runs its own annual online advertising spending study and the IAB Europe AdEx figures are based on these results. As the methodology of the studies varies country by country, IAB Europe and IHS Screen Digest have defined methodology rules to represent the figures in such a way as to make them realistically comparable. This involves:

·         Readjusting local figures to allow for harmonised representation. Readjustment rates are supplied by groups of local market experts
·         Estimating/harmonising adspend data for certain formats or segments in certain countries where local IAB studies do not include data or the definition or scope of a format is substantially different from IAB Europe standardised segments
·         Where local data is collected in a currency other than euros, the average exchange rate in 2010 has been used to convert this to euros. To provide data for prior year growth rates, the prior year figures have also been re-calculated using the 2010 exchange rate in order to give transparency over the growth rate
·         AdEx focuses on four normalised segments: ‘Display’ (including mobile Display, rich media and video), ‘classifieds and directories’, ‘paid search’ and ‘other’ (including email but excluding email marketing).
·         Figures quoted are gross figures (i.e. net invoiced value of the media, plus agency commission if any).

The MAG’s January Numbers Indicate Android OS Still Top for Smartphones

NEW YORK — Android is capitalizing on the variety of smartphones and mobile devices available on the market, continuing its dominance with 52 percent of the unique mobile audience in January 2011, according to the Mojiva Mobile Audience Guide (MAG) for February. The report also showed explosive growth in overall unique users on the Mojiva network from December 2010 to January 2011.

Additional Findings from Mojiva’s February MAG:

* On the iPad, Unique users grew 537 percent, audience engagement doubled and ad requests increased by 866 percent from November 2010 to January 2011.
* Android users were most likely to be nursing a New Year’s Day hangover and surfing the mobile Web — 48 percent of the unique audience on 1/1/11 came from the OS. iPhone users made up 33 percent of the audience.
* iPhone users were most active and engaged during the Martin Luther King holiday (January 17), taking 37 percent of the unique market audience with a click-thru rate (CTR) of 1.2 percent.
* Users on WAP-enabled mobile phones and early smartphones showed consistent engagement with mobile ads in Jan 2010 compared to Jan 2011, supporting data from Nielsen’s State of the Media 2010.
* The Mojiva ad network overall grew by 30 percent to 77.6 million unique users month-over-month.

About Mojiva’s Mobile Audience Guide (MAG)

The MAG is a monthly index comprised of data from the Mojiva network internal analytics and reporting platform. The data encompasses users in the United States and focuses on the mobile user activity within the Mojiva mobile media network. Data in the report is compiled based on unique users, unless otherwise specified, to ensure the cleanest possible information is provided to readers.

About Mojiva
Mojiva (www.mojiva.com) is a mobile ad network which reaches more than 77 million users globally and represents 3,000 mobile publisher and apps, including ABC, Univision, TMZ, International Business Times and MySpace. Through deep and open integration with all major rich media providers (PointRoll, EyeWonder, Phulant, Sprout, Crisp Wireless, and Celtra) and ad servers (DART and Atlas), Mojiva can provide ad agencies with every imaginable mobile creative execution across mobile web sites, apps and devices. Founded in May 2008 and based in New York City, Mojiva is led by a team of advertising and media veterans from Google, DoubleClick, Yahoo, Nokia and AdMob, with more than 100 years of collective experience in mobile marketing and technology. Mojiva is an independent ad network operating under parent company Mojiva Inc., which has a total of $10 million venture funding from Pelion Partners and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments.

C. Eoin Townsend Joins as Sr. VP Partnerships and Business Development

New York, NY – DoubleVerify, the pioneer and worldwide leader in online media verification, announced a new addition to the executive team, C. Eoin Townsend, senior vice president of partnerships and business development. Previously a senior product, services and business operations executive in the online media industry, Townsend leads DoubleVerify’s partnership and collaboration with ad networks and exchanges. He has more than 15 years of experience in designing and launching products as well as in creating and executing business strategies.

Townsend previously led DoubleClick’s international business expansion and product development, and has lived in London, Hong Kong and Japan as he supported its global growth. He was also a VP and GM at ChannelAdvisor, the leading software provider that helps retailers world-wide sell more online through search, comparison shopping, marketplace development and RichMedia. Most recently, Townsend was an active consultant, investor and co-founder of MainStreetSocial, a leading brand safe network focused on local government and community publishing and monetization. He attended the University of Toronto where he studied computer science and economics.

“DoubleVerify partners with ad networks and exchanges to increase the quality of online inventory and promote trust in our industry from all players,” said Oren Netzer, co-founder and CEO of DoubleVerify.  “Eoin’s experience and expertise will help us tremendously in our efforts to ensure networks, publishers, DSPs and exchanges are well-equipped with the tools and services they need to drive change and bring more ad dollars online. We’re thrilled to have Eoin as a part of our team because he truly understands what the market needs to move forward.”

Recently, DoubleVerify announced various initiatives in an effort to bring more trust in online advertising, such as the “Advertising Fraud Detection Lab,” a team of online advertising security experts whose primary focus is to find fraudulent online advertising activities, and the first ever “Trust Index” benchmark report. With the goal of bringing accountability, transparency, brand safety and compliance to online advertising, DoubleVerify continues to be the leading technology provider for digital media verification.

About DoubleVerify
DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com) is the worldwide leader in online advertising verification and the top choice of marketers, agencies, ad networks and publishers looking to ensure brand safety, campaign transparency and regulatory compliance. DoubleVerify verifies over 35 billion advertising impressions per month for hundreds of leading Fortune 500 marketers. DoubleVerify is headquartered in New York City, with engineering offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. Investors in DoubleVerify include Blumberg Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, First Round Capital and Genacast Ventures.

Findings from DoubleVerify’s 1H 2010 Report Drawn from 150+ Billion Impressions from Industry’s Leading Ad Networks, Publishers, Ad Exchanges & DSPs

New York, NY – DoubleVerify, the pioneer and worldwide leader in online media verification, released findings from its 1H 2010 Trust Index. The report provides insight into compliance and brand safety in online advertising with the intentions of increasing trust and accountability in the market. Highlights from the Trust Index include: identification of the best-in-class networks in the market with regard to non-compliance, benchmarks for advertising delivery and types of non-compliance and an analysis of the overall industry performance. DoubleVerify analyzed hundreds of advertisers, thousands of verified campaigns and more than 150 billion advertising impressions between January and June 2010 to produce the bi-annual report, which can be downloaded at: http://www.doubleverify.com/trust-index-1h-2010/

To identify the top performers in the industry, DoubleVerify analyzed networks based on benchmarks of non-compliance, including: instances of ads served out of inclusion lists, in exclusion lists, alongside inappropriate content and ads served to international audiences. Companies determined top performers include (listed alphabetically): AOL’s Advertising.com, AudienceScience, Burst Media, FOX Audience Network, interclick, Microsoft Media Network, Tribal Fusion and ValueClick Media.

“In order for brand dollars to shift online, advertisers need to trust that their campaigns are running as intended and the Trust Index provides an overview of how the industry is doing against those expectations,” said Oren Netzer, CEO of DoubleVerify. “Our data shows that improvements are being made across the board to increase brand safety and trust. Verified campaigns especially showed vast improvement in non-compliance. Nevertheless, there’s still work to be done and we hope this data will provide benchmarks for advertising vendors to guide them toward these goals and move the industry forward.”

DoubleVerify took additional data into consideration when analyzing overall non-compliance of the online advertising industry, including: instances when multiple ads from the same advertiser were served, when ads were served alongside a competitor and when ads were served below the fold. According to the report, the most compliant advertising networks had an average of 2 percent incidents of non-compliance over the first six months of 2010. In comparison, the ten networks that struggled most saw an average of 37 percent incidents of non-compliance. Additionally, the most compliant platforms (DSPs, Ad Exchanges and Trading Desks) showed an average of 6 percent incidents of non-compliance – outperforming the lower tier of players by almost five times.

While each industry sector showed an effort to decrease non-compliance, all players were subject to fluctuations that illustrate the fact that even the best players face issues. The Trust Index details the overall average of non-compliance as well as the standard deviation of each group of industry players, showing how much variation there is from the “average”.  The standard deviation for the top performing advertising networks, for example, was 17 percent across campaigns. The standard deviation for the lowest performing ad networks was 28 percent.

DoubleVerify also analyzed how non-compliance on specific campaigns changed over time. Advertisers who worked with DoubleVerify to monitor, remediate and block non-compliant impressions witnessed a 67 percent decrease in inappropriate content and a 72 percent decrease in internationally targeted traffic.

Additional highlights around overall advertising delivery norms include:
• 44 percent of ads on verified campaigns were served below the fold
• 10 percent of advertising pages included multiple ads by the same advertiser
• 4 percent of ads in verified campaigns were shown alongside a competitor’s ads

For more information and to view the report in its entirety, visit http://www.doubleverify.com/trust-index-1h-2010/

Methodology
DoubleVerify used a robust set of data analysis tools to analyze online advertising campaign activity across more than 150 billion advertiser campaign impressions from January 1, 2010 through June 30, 2010. Types of non-compliance analyzed include instances of ads served out of inclusion lists, in exclusion lists, alongside inappropriate content, multiple ads from the same advertiser, ads alongside a competitor, below the fold ads and ads served to international audiences. The data in the analysis was carefully normalized to the best of our ability. Advertising delivery providers were categorized into 3 main categories: Advertising Networks, Platforms (includes DSPs, ad exchanges and trading desks) and Publishers. Video Networks and Video Publishers were not included in this analysis.

About DoubleVerify
DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com) is the worldwide leader in online advertising verification and the top choice of marketers, agencies, ad networks and publishers looking to ensure brand safety, campaign transparency and regulatory compliance. DoubleVerify verifies more than 35 billion advertising impressions per month for hundreds of leading Fortune 500 marketers. DoubleVerify is headquartered in New York City, with engineering offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. Investors in DoubleVerify include Blumberg Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, First Round Capital and Genacast Ventures.

Company Adds Sr. VP of Sales Operations, VP of Marketing and Sr. Director of Account Management; Moves into Midtown Manhattan Office

New York – DoubleVerify, the pioneer and worldwide leader in online media verification, announced an expansion of its executive team with three key hires of sales and marketing veterans from Yahoo!, NBC Universal and Google. Rose Steinberg joins as senior vice president of sales operations, Jennifer Hyman joins as vice president of marketing and Laura Anderson is now the company’s senior director of account management.

DoubleVerify has shown massive momentum recently, securing key partnerships with the top ad agency holding companies, ad networks and Web portals and increasing its staff to more than 60 employees. The company recently moved into new offices in midtown Manhattan to account for its rapid expansion.

“With the additions of Rose, Jennifer and Laura, we are building a team with vast knowledge of online advertising and digital media, and with experience managing large scale partners and customers,” said Oren Netzer, CEO of DoubleVerify. “As we establish the company as the pioneer in online media verification, we are looking forward to bringing more accountability, transparency and trust into this market.”

Rose Steinberg is a senior digital media executive and veteran of Yahoo! with 14 years of professional management experience. Steinberg was senior director of global business transformation and senior director of global sales operation at Yahoo!. There, Steinberg globalized the sales operations function across Asia-Pacific and Emerging Markets, driving regional and worldwide programs. In addition, she helped launch the Yahoo! Publisher Network in Australia by developing and implementing the first publisher solution in Asia-Pacific, including the Bebo AU, Digital Niche and Walt Disney anchor accounts. Additionally, Steinberg was a critical driver of Yahoo’s Right Media implementation across Asia-Pacific and Emerging Markets.  Steinberg has a Bachelor of Arts in communications studies and a minor in business administration from the University of San Diego.

Jennifer Hyman is a seasoned marketing executive with expertise in online consumer and business technology products. Before joining DoubleVerify, Hyman was the head of YouTube marketing, North America, at Google where she led a team of marketing managers to grow Google’s video and display advertising businesses including YouTube, Google’s Video Network and Google Branded Entertainment. Hyman joined Google in 2003 and worked on Google’s early vertical sales strategy as well as the launch of several core search and syndication products including Google Custom Search, Accessible Search and Google Finance. In addition, Hyman was a senior sales and marketing manager at Jupiter Research/Jupiter Media Metrix. Hyman earned her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Laura Anderson has more than 10 years experience in the Internet advertising industry specializing in sales planning, account management and operations.  Most recently, Anderson was an executive at NBC Universal, where she served as director of sales operations for all network and cable websites and held responsibility for all campaign implementation and sales fulfillment. Prior to NBC, Anderson spent five years at Yahoo! where she managed the East Coast Operations team, which fulfilled the largest book of business in the Yahoo! North America region.  Prior to her operations role, Anderson was one of Yahoo’s strongest account managers, handling $25MM of yearly revenue that included premium entertainment, travel and telco clients such as Warner Brothers Entertainment, NBC Universal, Discovery Networks, Continental and Cingular.  Previous to Yahoo! Anderson worked at iVillage.com as a sales planner. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from UNC Charlotte.

DoubleVerify offers a comprehensive suite of verification products that benefit all entities in the online advertising ecosystem such as buyers, aggregators and sellers. The company is backed by more than $10 million in venture capital funding and is poised for growth in the U.S. and abroad.

About DoubleVerify
DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com) is the worldwide leader in online advertising verification and the top choice of marketers, agencies, ad networks and publishers looking to ensure brand safety, campaign transparency and regulatory compliance. DoubleVerify verifies over 35 billion advertising impressions per month for hundreds of leading Fortune 500 marketers. DoubleVerify is headquartered in New York City, with engineering offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. Investors in DoubleVerify include Blumberg Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, First Round Capital and Genacast Ventures.

By: Jay Friedman, COO of Goodway Group (http://www.goodwaygroup.com)

It seems the industry has battled for years over 4th party ad calls.  Publishers don’t like them because it’s extra load time.  Agencies and advertisers love them because they are usually there to verify, provide additional data, or serve a very useful function.  The real problem is that with many publishers not wanting or allowing 4th party ad calls, ad tags could very easily integrate 5th, 6th, and 7th party ad calls at this point – there are that many great services that deliver value.  How will the industry tackle this?

First, let’s quickly identify where they’re coming from.  Having an audience measurement pixel, like one from Quantcast, in each ad would sure be nice.  Then we can see the general makeup of the audience who is viewing the ad and whether or not it fits the target we wanted to hit.  Having verification is a must, like a pixel from Adometry or DoubleVerify.  Certainly there are times where two ad servers are used, such as a rich media ad server but then also a standard ad server so all data can be in one place.  We’re up to six (user, publisher, and standard ad server are the first three.)  And more valuable metrics and verification services keep coming up.  How can we integrate this value without hanging up the user’s experience to such that no publisher will accept all this?

One solution is a universal tag container that cookie matches with each of these companies and outright transfers the pixel firing to its own servers.  TagMan is a container solution but it still requires pixels to be fired while the user is on the page.  It delays them do it doesn’t delay load, but if the user navigates away too quickly, the calls aren’t made.  The other solution would be for ad serving companies to buy these other companies and integrate them into their own ad call.  If you’re an ad serving company looking to make a real challenge to DoubleClick, installing all of this functionality within a 3rd party ad server would be enough reason for a whole lots of advertisers to make the switch.

Tremor Media’s Ad Monetization Technology Acudeo Built into Media Player Architecture

NEW YORK – Tremor Media (www.tremormedia.com), the leading video monetization and advertising company, announced it will be among the first online video advertising network providers for the Open Source Media Framework (OSMF). OSMF simplifies the development of media players by allowing developers to assemble components to create high-quality, full-featured video playback experiences based on the Adobe® Flash® Platform. Tremor Media has developed a plug-in version of Acudeo®, its ad management technology, for OSMF. The plug-in will allow web video publishers that are using OSMF to easily utilize all of the video monetization features available through Tremor Media’s Acudeo platform.

“OSMF provides online video publishers with a powerful new open framework so they can create customized video applications for the Adobe Flash Platform,” said Charles Parra, vice president of product management at Tremor Media. “The open architecture gives developers the ability to take full advantage of the advanced functionality and ease of use of Tremor Media’s Acudeo ad management framework, thus enhancing publishers’ ability to fully monetize their video content.”

With OSMF-Acudeo integration, companies with premium online video can manage advertising policies, integration with multiple advertising networks, ad formats, delivery and inventory fulfillment in a single, easy-to-use interface through the Acudeo console. The Acudeo plug-in works through a simple, one-line integration.

“The Acudeo plug-in for OSMF provides key components for online advertising and video monetization, which can dramatically save media companies time so they don’t have to start the process from scratch,” said Scott Wellwood, director of business development for Dynamic Media at Adobe. “By providing an open framework for media players based on the Adobe Flash Platform, content owners can easily integrate best-of breed components and reach the largest possible online audience as they bring their OSMF-based video players to market.”

“The Open Source Media Framework will be an essential technology for developers and video publishers looking to provide engaging, rich online video experiences that leverage the strength of the Flash platform,” said Jason Glickman, CEO of Tremor Media. “As a leader in the video monetization space it was important for us to create a plug-in that works for the Adobe Flash Platform, the number one video delivery format on the web today.”

In recent months Tremor Media has announced several new products and partnerships that further differentiate it in the online video marketplace. These advances include real-time audience targeting, several engagement-driven in-stream ad formats including the proprietary vChoice unit, and the first of its kind strategic partnership with DoubleVerify for third party ad verification. Read more at www.tremormedia.com.

About Tremor Media

Tremor Media (www.tremormedia.com), the leading online video monetization and advertising company, provides brand advertisers with in-stream and in-banner video advertising solutions on top-tier publisher sites with a combined 192.5 million uniques, reaching 90.4% of internet users. Tremor Media’s innovative video ad formats, advanced targeting, and industry-leading measurement tools enable advertisers to deliver efficient, scalable, and engaging video campaigns with measurable impact.

In addition, Tremor Media’s Acudeo technology provides publishers with a full suite of products and services to monetize streaming video and maximize ROI. Acudeo delivers the industry’s most flexible and easy-to-use ad policy management tools and provides access to the industry’s leading revenue sources including turnkey integrations with all major online video platforms, video ad networks, ad serving, and video analytic technologies. With Tremor Media’s Acudeo technology, publishers can achieve maximum revenue while retaining total control and flexibility over their advertising inventory.

DFJ Growth Fund Leads Investment to Support Tremor Media’s Aggressive Growth

NEW YORK – Tremor Media (www.tremormedia.com), the leading video monetization and advertising company, announced it has raised $40 million in funding led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund with participation from DFJ and Triangle Peak Partners. Existing investors including Canaan Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and SAP Ventures also participated significantly in this financing. The capital will allow Tremor Media to accelerate its lead in the online video advertising space and continue its rapid growth trajectory. It will primarily be used to invest in R&D to bolster Acudeo®, its leading technology platform, with new solutions for both advertisers and publishers, and to drive expansion into other media channels where digital video advertising will grow significantly.

Tremor Media, which has the leading video advertising network with the largest audience reach, has more than doubled the size of its network from 2009 to 2010*. The company became profitable in 2009, demonstrating revenue gains that exceeded more than twice the rate of growth of the overall online video market.

“Tremor Media is at the epicenter of video advertising. We have created the preferred technology and media platform for video advertisers, publishers and consumers and we are continuing to build long-term solutions that will meet the demand of the rapidly evolving digital video landscape,” said Jason Glickman, CEO, Tremor Media. “The next 12-18 months are critical for online video’s growth as massive advertising budgets shift to online video and consumption of online video rises. This infusion of capital will allow us to accelerate our lead in the marketplace and fuel our continued innovation. It is a validation of our company’s success and indicative of the enormous opportunity for the digital video space.”

“The online video industry is exploding and represents a major growth sector for the advertising industry. We’ve been evaluating this sector for quite some time and Tremor Media has clearly emerged as the category leader. The company has established its position through a combination of unsurpassed reach, audience targeting and ad management technology innovation that gives its blue chip advertisers tremendous buying efficiency and performance,” said Randy Glein, Managing Director of DFJ Growth Fund. “Tremor Media understands the needs of publishers and advertisers, delivering high impact media solutions that benefit the entire value chain. The company has demonstrated phenomenal growth and financial performance and has done an outstanding job anticipating the trends that are driving video advertising forward.”

In recent months Tremor Media has announced several new products and partnerships that further differentiate it in the online video marketplace. These advances include real-time audience targeting, several engagement-driven in-stream ad formats including the proprietary vChoice unit, and the first of its kind strategic partnership with DoubleVerify for third party ad verification. Read more at www.tremormedia.com.

*ComScore Video Metrix, comScore Releases February 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings. February 2010.

About Tremor Media

Tremor Media (www.tremormedia.com), the leading online video monetization and advertising company, provides brand advertisers with in-stream and in-banner video advertising solutions on top-tier publisher sites with a combined 189.9 million uniques, reaching 90.6% of internet users. Tremor Media’s innovative video ad formats, advanced targeting, and industry-leading measurement tools enable advertisers to deliver efficient, scalable, and engaging video campaigns with measurable impact.

In addition, Tremor Media’s Acudeo® technology provides publishers with a full suite of products and services to monetize streaming video and maximize ROI. Acudeo delivers the industry’s most flexible and easy-to-use ad policy management tools and provides access to the industry’s leading revenue sources including turnkey integrations with all major video ad networks, ad serving, and video analytic technologies. With Tremor Media’s Acudeo technology, publishers can achieve maximum revenue while retaining total control and flexibility over their advertising inventory.

About Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund

Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund invests in revenue-stage technology companies that are expanding rapidly in large markets and are well-positioned to be category leaders. Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a leading venture capital firm with global presence through the DFJ Global Network of funds. DFJ’s mission is to identify, serve and provide capital for extraordinary entrepreneurs anywhere who are determined to change the world. The DFJ Network has grown to encompass over 150 venture capital professionals in more than 30 cities around the world, more than 600 portfolio companies funded, and over $6 billion of capital under management. The DFJ Network has produced such notable, industry changing companies as Athenahealth (ATHN), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by eBay), Focus Media (FMCN), DivX (DIVX), Mobile 365 (acquired by Sybase), Massive (acquired by Microsoft), EnerNOC (ENOC), FeedBurner (acquired by Google), Four11 (acquired by Yahoo), xFire (acquired by Viacom/MTV Networks), Mozy (acquired by EMC), Myfamily.com (acquired by Spectrum Equity Investors), Overture (acquired by Yahoo), Parametric (PMTC), TicketsNow (acquired by TicketMaster), and buy.at (acquired by AOL).

Ground-breaking Technology Companies of 2010 Recognized for their Contributions to Marketing, Branding, Advertising, and Publishing

Winners to be Honored at OnMedia Conference February 1-3 in NYC

NEW YORK – AlwaysOn, the leading open media blog and event community, announced the winners of the 2010 OnMedia 100 Top Private Companies. This award recognizes the cutting edge technology companies that have emerged as leaders in the worlds of advertising, media, marketing, branding, and publishing. Each winner will be acknowledged at the OnMedia conference on February 1-3 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City.

In its fourth consecutive year, AlwaysOn challenged companies to demonstrate that they excelled in five primary categories: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value creation, and media buzz. During the two-and-a-half day executive event, the top CEO’s from the OnMedia 100 will present their market strategies in a series of “CEO Showcases” and engage in high-level debates on which forces are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities through technology and innovation. The agenda for OnMedia NYC can be found here: http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/33604.

“In a tough and uncertain economic year technology companies have been determined to forge ahead and push the boundaries of innovation,” said Tony Perkins, CEO & Founder, AlwaysOn. “The companies on this year’s list are at the nexus of change, using their unique insight to create market-making technologies. I congratulate every winner selected for this year’s award and greatly look forward to watching these companies as they stimulate economic growth and further diversify the industry.”

To order tickets by phone or inquire about group rates, please contact Jeannene Glass at 650.465.6544 or jeannene@alwayson-network.com.

The AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe select the top 100 private companies. This year’s winners include:

Advertising Networks and Exchanges:

Adchemy
Admeld
AdSide
AppNexus
AudienceScience
BlueKai
BrightRoll
Collective
Invite Media
JiWire
MediaMath
Mpire
PaperG
PerformLine
Pontiflex
Reply!
Rocket Fuel
Simulmedia
Yieldex
Yodle

Advertising Service Providers:

33Across
Adgregate Markets
Brand Affinity Technologies
Context Optional
Covario
FreeWheel
Operative
Peer39
Spongecell
Tumri
WrapMail
Zadspace

Community Platforms:

BiddingForGood
Gilt Groupe
Imagini
IMShopping
kajeet
Live Gamer
PlaySpan Marketplace
Unisfair
Viewpoints Network
Viximo
Weplay

Digital Publishers:

Arkadium
eRepublik Labs
HopStop
MUZU TV
ON Networks
RoofTop Media
Turbine
Yext
Zillion TV

Mobile Marketing and Advertising:

Hipcricket
Millennial Media
MobileCause
Mobixell Networks
PointAbout
Transpera
Zoove

Next Generation Search:

Altruik
Clicker
Eventful
Goby
Marin Software
RAMP
Redlasso
uLocate Communications

Technology Enablers:

Black Arrow
Conduit
Critical Media
DoubleVerify
Hoodlum
HubSpot
ion interactive
JanRain
Long Tail Video
Marketo
Mercent
MyPRGenie
ORCA
Pyxis Media
Rhiza Labs
Skyhook Wireless
Twones
Vidyo
WhereverTV
WhichBox Media
WideOrbit
Yield Software
YieldBuild

Web and Media Analytics and Research:

Ace Metrix
AdSafe Media
Affective Interfaces
Causata
Coremetrics
Datran Media
GumGum
Lattice Engines
Quantcast
SeeWhy
About AlwaysOn

AlwaysOn is the leading business media brand networking the Global Silicon Valley. AlwaysOn helped ignite the social media revolution in early 2003 when it launched the AlwaysOn network (alwayson.goingon.com). In 2004, it became the first media brand to socially network its online readers and event attendees. AlwaysOn’s preeminent executive event series includes the Summit at Stanford, OnMedia, OnHollywood, OnDC, OnDemand, Venture Summit Silicon Valley, Venture Summit East, GoingGreen, GoingGreen East, and GoingGreen Europe. The AlwaysOn network and live event series empower readers, event participants, sponsors, and advertisers to spearhead the global innovation economy.

Introduces New “Verification Included” Program to Further Protect Clients

NEW YORK – Undertone Networks, an online advertising network, announced the one-year anniversary of its unchallenged Quality Guarantee, which ensures that ads appear only on high-quality Web sites from Undertone Qualified Publishers (UQP). To further validate the company’s commitment to brand safety, Undertone is now working with third-party verification partners, including DoubleVerify, to provide insight and reporting for online ad campaigns.

Launched in November 2008, the Undertone Quality Guarantee is a money-back assurance that advertisers working with Undertone will only see their ads on the Web’s best sites. Undertone hand-selects its publishers to ensure their content is professional and appropriate. On its one-year anniversary, the Guarantee remains unmatched by any other online advertising network and unchallenged, with thousands of campaigns for Fortune 500 and other leading brands having run with Undertone since the Guarantee was introduced.

“Undertone is willing to put its money where its mouth is, which is a point of differentiation in the network space,” said John Nitti, senior vice president, digital director, Zenithmedia. “The Guarantee shows that Undertone knows how important brand protection is to my organization and to our clients. It not only adds a higher level of accountability, but also provides a sense of comfort with the methods utilized by Undertone to procure inventory that will ultimately showcase my client’s brands.”

As an extension of its commitment to brand quality, Undertone has now introduced a new “Verification Included” program. The first partner to join the program is third-party verification company DoubleVerify. By pairing its high-quality network and money-back guarantee with third-party campaign verification, advertisers receive an added layer of accountability, offering reassurance that they’re getting exactly what they pay for. The company will be expanding the program by adding several other qualified partners to provide verification options for marketers.

“The Undertone Quality Guarantee reflects what we’re about – giving advertisers quality inventory on great sites, without the risk that is often associated with running ads with a network,” said Mike Cassidy, CEO, Undertone Networks. “By extending this commitment and working with auditing firms like DoubleVerify, we’re responding to marketers’ demand for greater accountability and taking our Guarantee that extra step further.”

About Undertone Networks

Undertone Networks, an online advertising network, provides advertisers with quality placements on the Web’s best sites. The company carefully selects its media partners and hand-purchases all its inventory, delivering above-the-fold visibility and brand protection for marketers who care where and when their ads run online. The Undertone approach ensures that media buyers and the advertisers they serve can drive successful brand awareness and direct response initiatives with a comprehensive blend of high-impact ad formats, rich media, targeting capabilities and personalized service. The company is based in New York, with fully staffed offices in major U.S. markets. For more information, visit www.undertone.com.