That’s the observation made by The Fournaise Marketing Group, one of the global leaders in all-media marketing effectiveness tracking, when it recently completed its 2010 Global Marketing Pulse Report.

The report compiled insights from close to 1,000 Marketers around the world on several aspects of their Marketing ROI: from the increased pressure for results they get from top management to the effectiveness of marketing strategies they implement, and their expectations of ad agencies.

Fournaise noticed this Marketers’ perception of agencies still not being result-driven enough is a global trend: it is around the 70%-mark in developed economies such as the US, Western Europe and Australia (where the fight for the customer wallet is tremendous), and has now exceeded the 50%-mark in developing regions such as North Asia, Southeast Asia and India, where the ever-increasing sophistication of customers makes each sale even more difficult.

The independent Marketing Tracking & Maximisation Specialist also found that Marketers around the world classify ad agencies into three groups: (1) the Result-Drivers who truly believe that the primary purpose of a campaign is to deliver the bottom line results of their clients, and do whatever they can for that (35%); (2) the Result-Pretenders who claim they believe in making campaigns that deliver results, but are internally not prepared to put in place the relevant systems and processes to do so (43%); and (3) the Dreamers who still live in old “Adland” (22%).

Fournaise further identified three of the major weaknesses Marketers believe the majority of non-result-driven ad agencies have:

1) Their customer insights expertise and knowledge is not deep enough (74%). They don’t know enough about and don’t spend enough time and money investing in better knowing their clients’ target audience. They still rely too much on gut-feeling and “hear-say”, and often end up developing strategies and campaigns that have little impact.

2) They are too award-driven and see campaigns as a way to boost their creative portfolio instead of boosting the P&L of their clients (71%). This in turn often leads them to be creatively inflexible.

3) Because they usually don’t have systematic tracking mechanisms in place to measure the effectiveness of the all-media campaigns deployed, they don’t know enough about what worked (and why) and what did not, and have difficulties fine-tuning their strategies and campaigns accordingly to boost their ROI (70%).

“We work with many ad agency networks around the world and it is clear to us that those who, on top of their standard creative services, have the triple combination of (1) customer insights, (2) creative flexibility and (3) systematic tracking mechanisms have a bigger chance of developing campaigns that deliver better results”, says Jerome Fontaine, CEO & Chief Tracker of Fournaise.

“The Brands’ board of directors and top executives want to boost shareholders’ value. And that starts with boosting their top line by acquiring more customers through better Marketing ROI. It is therefore no surprise to see more and more Marketers flock to these result-driven ad agencies” he added.

While many IPG agencies received awards for their work over the course of 2009, notable recognition in yesterday’s US press includes:

The Martin Agency: Adweek “US Agency of the Year”
R/GA: Adweek “Digital Agency of the Year”
UM: Adweek “US Media Agency of the Year”
Draftfcb: Ad Age “A–List”
The Martin Agency: Ad Age “A–List”
UM: Ad Age “Comeback Agency of the Year”
Weber Shandwick: Ad Age “A–List”
Deutsch LA: Ad Age “Next in Line”
Gotham: Ad Age “Ones to Watch”
HUGE, Inc.: Ad Age “Ones to Watch”
R/GA: Ad Age “Next in Line”
About Interpublic

Interpublic is one of the world’s leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services companies. Major global brands include Draftfcb, FutureBrand, GolinHarris International, Initiative, Jack Morton Worldwide, Lowe Worldwide, Magna, McCann Erickson, Momentum, MRM Worldwide, Octagon, Universal McCann and Weber Shandwick. Leading domestic brands include Campbell-Ewald; Campbell Mithun; Carmichael Lynch; Deutsch, a Lowe & Partners Company; Hill Holliday; Mullen; The Martin Agency and R/GA. For more information, please visit www.interpublic.com.

NEW YORK – Since the release in 2002 of the “4A’s/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions v2.0,” interactive advertising platforms have evolved dramatically. Buyers and sellers of interactive advertising have often found themselves burdened with protracted, time-consuming negotiations and lengthy addendums. To remove these frictions and delays, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Association of American Advertising Agencies (4A’s) announced the release of the “4A’s/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions for Interactive Advertising Version 3.0” for public comment.

“We brought agencies and media companies together with the idea of creating a document that will improve work flow and make it easier to buy interactive advertising and I think we’ve succeeded.”

This new version of the Terms & Conditions (Ts&Cs) now encompasses the breadth of advertising platforms and tools that are currently utilized in the creation of an interactive advertising campaign, including performance-based advertising and user-generated content platforms. This contract will become the standard by which media companies and agencies or advertisers expedite the most common types of interactive media buys.

In addition to including new interactive platforms, the “4A’s/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions for Interactive Advertising Version 3.0” contains updates across the following key areas:

Data usage
Third-party ad-serving, tracking, and billing
Billing and payment terms
Cancellation terms
Editorial adjacencies
Late creative
Indemnity
“This is an enormous accomplishment on behalf of the advertising industry,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “Streamlining business processes in interactive has been one of our main objectives as an organization and with the contributions from both advertising agencies and media companies we believe that we have accomplished this goal.”

“The revised Ts&Cs will have a dramatic—and positive—impact on the daily business practices in the advertising community,” said Nancy Hill, President and CEO of the 4A’s. “We brought agencies and media companies together with the idea of creating a document that will improve work flow and make it easier to buy interactive advertising and I think we’ve succeeded.”

The need for new Ts&Cs was identified by the 4A’s/IAB joint Reinvention Task Force and the Version 3.0 initiative was launched in April 2009. More than 100 finance, legal, sales and buying leaders from a cross-section of media companies and media agencies volunteered to take part in updating the Version 2.0 document.

“Updating the Ts&Cs is a perfect example of what the Reinvention Task Force was meant to accomplish. Instead of spending time negotiating the same things over and over again for each campaign, an industry-accepted Ts&Cs document will allow us to use our resources where they are needed most—ensuring campaigns maximize advertisers’ results,” said David Cohen, Executive Vice President, US Director of Digital Communications for UM, Chairperson of the 4A’s Digital Marketing Committee and the agency lead of the Interactive Reinvention Task Force. “We now want to make sure that Version 3.0 of the Ts&Cs is adopted throughout the industry.”

One of the most important updates in Version 3.0 addresses the new challenges of data rights and usage. Media companies, agencies and advertisers want to utilize data to the benefit of brand advertisers while protecting consumers who use their sites. For the first time, the new document details a set of rules regarding the types of data at issue and how each side may use these types.

“Advertising data use has emerged as a sensitive and complicated debate among agencies, advertisers and media companies. We are very happy that the new Ts&Cs represent an alignment around terminology and principles related to such a difficult issue,” said Jason Ryning, a Senior Attorney at Microsoft and Co-Chair of the IAB Legal Affairs Council. “Version 3.0 represents a significant industry effort to build a contract that preserves the best of the Version 2.0 language and add terms that contemplate the rapidly evolving digital advertising marketplace. Standardized language that accounts for a variety of operational scenarios allows the industry participants to focus on providing a fantastic customer experience while minimizing the friction associated with individual transactions.”

As part of the process of educating the marketplace and encouraging adoption, the Task Force has released “An Educational Guide to the 4A’s/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions Version 3.0” that documents the rationale behind both the new and unchanged language. The 4A’s and IAB strongly urge all those who review the new version to read the Educational Guide first. To review the Educational Guide and the Version 3.0 document and provide your feedback, please go to www.iab.net/tscs3.

The 4A’s and the IAB will also co-host two webinars that will take participants through the major changes and give them the opportunity to ask any questions they may have. To find out exact dates and to register for those webinars, please go to www.iab.net/TCwebinar.

The public comment period will remain open until Friday, January 29, 2010.

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.

About the 4A’s

The American Association of Advertising Agencies is the national trade association of the advertising agency business. The 1,196 member agency offices it serves in the United States employ 65,000 people, offer a wide range of marketing communications services, and place 80 percent of all national advertising. The management-oriented association helps its members build their businesses, and acts as the industry’s spokesman with government, media, and the public sector. For more information visit our Web site at www.aaaa.org.

SALT LAKE CITY – LinkTrust and RingRevenue have joined forces to offer pay-per-call services for merchants and networks, opening new streams of revenue for players in the performance based marketing industry.

“We’re excited about the potential for growth in this area,” said Bret Grow, president of LinkTrust. “Even with the increase in online purchasing and marketing, the potential to reach consumers making purchases over the phone is huge. But the question has always been: How do affiliates get paid for these leads?”

Consumers still make millions of purchases over the phone every day, and advertisers spend more than $200 billion dollars a year in offline marketing. The new LinkTrust pay-per-call service bridges the gap between pay-for-performance programs and offline sales. Now LinkTrust partners can more successfully promote those higher-ticket and more consultative products and services that have traditionally been harder to sell online. Affiliates get credit for any lead they generate, whether it’s a call or a click.

“Merchants are converting calls into sales at rates of 30-50 percent and frequently see average order values of 1.5 to 2 times that of online orders,” said Jason Spievak, RingRevenue co-founder and CEO. “So merchants want those calls. LinkTrust’s new pay-per-call service enables LinkTrust partners to grow their transaction volume through a single platform they know and trust.”

The LinkTrust pay-per-call service makes it easy to create, track and manage call-based campaigns. Merchants and affiliates can use the real-time reporting and campaign management tools to maximize the ROI on their campaigns. The service is integrated with LinkTrust’s online tracking platform, so it’s easy to use and requires no complex technical integration for networks, merchants or affiliates.

“As the performance marketing landscape continues to evolve, we’re evolving with it,” Grow said. “We’re committed to providing the best tracking and management solutions to our customers, so it was a natural fit for us to partner with RingRevenue, the leader in tracking and managing call-based campaigns.”

LinkTrust pay-per-call is available to existing and new LinkTrust partners. For more information and a complete list of features and benefits of LinkTrust pay-per-call, visit: http://www.linktrust.com/paypercall.

About RingRevenue, Inc.

RingRevenue tracks and manages calls even better than clicks, making it easy for affiliate networks and advertising agencies to track purchases made by phone. RingRevenue’s patent-pending pay-per-call platform makes it easy for online and offline publishers to promote call-based campaigns through the leading affiliate networks, and the company’s proprietary call quality processing engine ensures delivery of the highest-quality callers to advertisers. RingRevenue provides its pay-per-call platform to several leading affiliate networks and agencies. For more information about RingRevenue or to schedule a demo, please visit www.ringrevenue.com or call 866-943-6426.

About Link Trust

LinkTrust Systems is the leader in hosted tracking solutions for the online marketing and advertising industry. LinkTrust has established strong relationships with industry leaders by consistently providing the most accurate tracking and highest level of customer support.

RingRevenueTM and Track Calls Like ClicksTM are pending trademarks in the U.S. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Other product or company names mentioned may be trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

• eXelate Dataland Panel – MediaMath CEO Joe Zawadzki will be a featured panelist discussing the effects of digital targeting data on buying specific audiences, and the resulting ability agencies now have to precisely align impression-level bids with the projected value those impressions deliver for client campaigns. The panel will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, 2009 at the W Court Hotel in New York City.
• Right Media Forum – Mark Mannino, MediaMath’s Vice President of Supply & Data, will participate in an expert panel entitled “The Power of Online Data, Today and Tomorrow” on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 3:15 p.m., being held at Yahoo! New York City. The panel will focus on how agencies can use innovative data techniques to generate higher client performance and business results.
• Merriman Curhan Ford 2009 Investor Conference – Richard Greenberg, MediaMath’s Vice President of Marketing, will join senior industry executives on the “Nothing but Net” panel to be held November 10, 2009 at 10 a.m. at the Sofitel New York Hotel. Discussion will focus on emerging dynamics in online media and how innovations such as real-time bidding and data-enabled buying are impacting agencies, advertisers, and publishers.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

• Joe Zawadzki is the founding CEO of MediaMath, the leading media-buying platform and services company that is helping to transform the modern agency. Joe was previously the Founder and President of [x+1], a marketing optimization company that was one of Inc 500’s fastest growing. He worked with AOL and Google/DoubleClick on their optimization and yield management strategies, was awarded a patent, and is an active investor in technology, media, real estate, and film. In the more distant past, Joe was an investment banker and a Teaching Fellow at Harvard.
• Mark Mannino has been a senior executive at several innovative media startups and is MediaMath’s VP of Supply & Data. Mark’s primary role is to lead MediaMath’s exchange, publisher, and data supplier relationships, and evangelize the advantages that exchanges and biddable media offer to networks and publishers. From 2002 to 2006, Mark led revenue at WhenU and grew the business to $50M in sales. Between WhenU and MediaMath, Mark was VP of Operations at Motionbox, a personal online video service, where he successfully launched online marketing programs and the company’s marketing intelligence platform.
• Richard Greenberg is a 16-year marketing veteran, and MediaMath’s VP of Marketing. At MediaMath, Rick focuses on corporate marketing efforts, platform partnership development, and select client relationships. Prior to MediaMath, Rick was a Partner at Rosetta, the largest independent interactive agency in the U.S., where he helped clients in the financial services, telecommunications, and travel sectors improve their digital and direct marketing results. Rick also spent five years in brand management at Procter & Gamble and Unilever, and over six years in senior roles at such companies as Cordiant Communications Group and Madison Direct Marketing.
The MediaMath buying platform provides advertising agencies with the technology and back office services to trade effectively across leading display advertising sources. It includes a common interface and workflow, data management layer that integrates marketer and third-party data, PhD-designed algorithms and bid optimization, and deep relationships with over a dozen major sources of quality supply, including Yahoo! RightMedia, Google’s DoubleClick Advertising Exchange, Microsoft AdECN, Facebook, and others.

ABOUT MEDIAMATH

MediaMath’s automated buying platform provides advertising agencies with access to more than 10 billion impressions daily, and a simple workflow that manages the powerful analytics and rich data necessary to make best use of them. Headquartered in New York, the company was founded in 2007 by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs, marketers, technologists, and quants. Investors in the company include Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE), QED Investors, and European Founders Fund. For more information on MediaMath, visit www.mediamath.com.

“In the past if a client wanted to check out rates on, say, ESPN in Dallas, they would have to call and get rates themselves. Now we have them all,” says Mpower spokesperson Joe Mershon. “It’s both odd and surprising this has never happened before, and we are the first and only.”

The Mpower Media development team says they plan to add radio, billboard and online advertising rates to this database in the very near future, making it easy for small businesses to plan a complete campaign that remains well within their marketing budget.

Since its inception Mpower Media has been the voice of the little man. The advertising giant has dedicated itself to helping small businesses compete in a global market overrun with corporate giants by putting the power of affordable advertising into their hands.

Television production rates start at $500, well below that charged by most national advertising agencies, and provide Mpower Media clients with access to the company’s extensive resources – a list that includes not only a team of some of the country’s finest young marketing professionals but also a database of over 5,000 clips, quips and images.

“Mpower Media boasts an award-winning production division that can take any concept directly to reality,” says Mershon. “Whether we are bringing your vision to audio or three-dimensional and/or two-dimensional video life, our team of graphic designers, copywriters, directors and talent will present the national high quality look and feel that speaks to any demographic.”

For more information on Mpower Media, visit them on the web at http://www.MpowerMedia.com.

The Global Online Advertising Market 2009-2012

This report provides a thorough analysis of the online advertising market that is currently changing shape – exploring the techniques being used and the main approaches being taken to advertising on the Web, along with an examination of the positioning of the top players, the central issues facing the sector and market forecasts up to 2012 by country and by ad format.

Key Questions

• What is the size of the online advertising market, worldwide and nationally?
• At what rate will the market progress between 2009 and 2012 at a time of global crisis in the advertising sector?
• What weight does search marketing really have?
• What market share will display ads have as rich media and video advertising develop?
• What are the most widely anticipated technologies and developments: behavioural targeting, video advertising, audience measurement?
• How is the sector’s new value chain being organised between advertisers, agencies, online ad services, keyword sales and Websites?

Players Included in the Report:

Supporting sites

Google
Yahoo!
Microsoft/MSN
AOL
Ask
Facebook
MySpace
YouTube
Hulu
CNN
New York Times
The Weather Channel
Craigslist
Bebo
BBC
The Guardian
Virgin Media
Au Féminin
Pages Jaunes
Dailymotion
Skyrock
Doctissimo L’Equipe
Deezer
Orange
Web.de
GMX
T-Online
Spiegel Online
El Mundo
Marca
Terra
Libero
Corriere della Serra
Gazzetta
Baidu
QQ
Sohu
Sina
Naver
Cyworld
Daum
Livedoor
FC2
Mixi

Online ad solutions

Adtech (Platform-A)
DoubleClick
24/7 Real Media
ValueClick
Right Media
aQuantive
InterCLICK
FOX Networks
Adviva
Hi-Media
Horyzon Media
Adverline
Orange Advertising Network
AdLink
Ad2Net
Coguan
Premium Publisher Network
Allyes
Digital Advertising Consortium

Agencies

TBWA Worldwide
Rapp
Agency.com
Razorfish
Digitas
Performics
Efficient Frontier
iCrossing
Omniture
Sapient
Carat
Isobar
FullSix
XiTi
Wunderloop
Scholz & Friends
Plan.net
Allyes
Cheil Worldwide
Portfolio
Dentsu
Hakuhodo
Asatsu-DK
Affiliation platforms
Commission Junction
LinkShare
Hydra Network
Advaliant
Clickbooth
TradeDoubler
Webgains
Affiliate Advantage
Effiliation
Netaffiliation
Zanox
Affilinet
ChineseAN
LinkPrice
ValueCommerce

1. Executive Summary

2. Methodology

3. Market Structure

3.1. Market overview

3.1.1. Definition
• Above the line and below the line marketing
• Internet: a medium serving non-media advertising
• Pricing models
• Spending on advertising (gross, net)

3.1.2. Market segmentation
• Goals of advertising campaigns
• One format per buying cycle
• Display and sponsoring
• Search marketing
• Classified ads
• Online directories

3.2. Market estimates 2005-2008

3.2.1. Market by advertising format
• Display
• Search Marketing
3.2.2. Market by geographical zone
• EU-27 and EU-5
Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the UK
• The United States
• China, South Korea, Japan

3.3. Key factors

3.3.1. Key technologies
• Improving relevance
• Targeting: segmentation and qualification
• Contextualisation
• Tracking and behavioural targeting
• Behavioural targeting
• Right to privacy and regulated limits
• Rise of video advertising
• Audience measurement
• Efficiency of the advertising-content mix
3.3.2. Consumption patterns driving the growth of online advertising
3.3.3. Service industry trends
• Advertising innovations
• Video and new ad formats
• Marketing 2.0
• Display: new generation banners
• Developments in audience measurement

4. Structure & Strategy

4.1. Player profiles

4.1.1. Value chain
• Search marketing
• Display
4.1.2. Competition structure
• Large number of advertisers
• Online ad services: a splintered market
• Online advertising end market: an oligopoly
4.1.3. Business models
• Widely varying ad creation costs
• Revenue and costs for a typical online company
• Sharing ad revenue
• E-marketing and e-commerce

4.2. Player profiles

4.2.1. Summary table
• Display sites
• Online advertising services
• Agencies
• Affiliation platforms
4.2.2. Player profiles

4.3. Strategic analysis

4.3.1. Evolution of the main formats
• End of the golden age for search marketing?
• The rise of a two-tier display market?
4.3.2. Local advertising: a boon for online marketing
4.3.3. Ad creation: going beyond the Flash vs. link dilemma
4.3.4. How the Web is adjusting to the crisis

• Shrunken advertising market overall
• Online advertising market continues to grow
• Increasing demand for performance-based formats
• Increased pressure on prices

5. Markets & Forecasts

5.1. Growth factors

5.1.1. Analysis of growth/disruptive factors
5.1.2. Forecast hypotheses

5.2. Market forecasts

5.2.1. Forecasts 2009-2012
5.2.2. Forecasts by segment, by platform
5.2.3. Forecasts by geographical zone

List of Tables

• Table 1: Main features of above and below the line advertising
• Table 2: Forms of online advertising
• Table 3: The AIDA model applied to online advertising
• Table 4: Growth of time spent online per week in Europe, from 2006 to 2008
• Table 5: Growth of online video viewing in France, Germany and the UK, 2007 and 2008

List of Figures

• Figure 1: Online advertising market: worldwide, in Europe and in the United States, 2005-2012
• Figure 2: Breakdown of the global online advertising market in 2007
• Figure 3: Breakdown of advertisers and spending in the first half of 2008
• Figure 4: 24/7 Real Media’s Open AdStream platform
• Figure 5: Growth of Internet users worldwide between 2007 and 2008 (% of total population)
• Figure 6: Most popular online activities in Europe, 2007 and 2008
• Figure 7: Growth of the number of monthly searches performed by Internet users around the world, 2007 and 2008
• Figure 8: Change in the breakdown of European users’ weekly media consumption time, 2006 to 2008
• Figure 9: Share of European users’ weekly media consumption time spent on the Internet in 2008
• Figure 10: Change in average advertiser spending in France, by medium, 2006-2008
• Figure 11: Number of videos watched online in the United States
• Figure 12: Number of unique visitors to video sites in the United States
• Figure 13: Percentage of American Internet users who have watched a video online
• Figure 14: Average time spent watching videos online, per viewer in the United States
• Figure 15: Growth of social networking site users around the world between September 2007 and September 2008
• Figure 16: Growth of the number of unique monthly visitors on the main social networking sites around the world, 2006-2008
• Figure 17: Percentage of Internet users who have bought at least one item online
• Figure 18: Overlay in online video and sponsoring
• Figure 19: YouTube InVideo Ads
• Figure 20: Product placement in an online video
• Figure 21: Blinkx un-roll
• Figure 22: Logic of contextual advertising in online video
• Figure 23: Internet users’ reaction to in-video ads
• Figure 24: Sample communities: Nike, EasyJet and H&M on MySpace
• Figure 25: Verizon’s Business Page on Facebook
• Figure 26: Pizza Hut application on Facebook
• Figure 27: Engagement Ads on Facebook
• Figure 28: Growth of annual advertising spending on social networking sites worldwide, 2007-2013
• Figure 29: Breakdown of advertising spending on social networking sites in the US, in 2008 and 2009
• Figure 30: Buying a DVD via a banner ad, developed by Tailgate
• Figure 31: Advertising industry organisation
• Figure 32: Growth of Google advertisers (thousands)
• Figure 33: Breakdown of advertisers’ media spending in France, by advertising medium
• Figure 34: Top 5 ad networks in terms of penetration rate in the United States in December 2008
• Figure 35: Breakdown of the ad server market in 2008 (% of requests sent to ad servers)
• Figure 36: Market share of the top five search engines in the United States (% of requests launched on the five engines)
• Figure 37: Most popular search sites in Europe in March 2008 (% of searches)
• Figure 38: Breakdown of China’s search marketing market in Q3 2008 (% of revenue)
• Figure 49: Breakdown of visits to e-commerce sites in France brought by sponsored links, in February 2008
• Figure 40: Leading ad carrying sites in the US in June 2008 (% of impressions)
• Figure 41: Advertising revenue’s contribution to Google, Yahoo! and AuFéminin.com’s income in 2008
• Figure 42: Breakdown of Google’s annual revenue
• Figure 43: Breakdown of Google and Yahoo!’s operating costs in 2008, by cost item
• Figure 44: Change in the annual growth rate of Google’s search marketing business and revenue in the United States
• Figure 45: Yellow Pages’ online revenue in the US, 2002-2008
• Figure 46: Breakdown of business directory segment revenue in France
• Figure 47: Forecast annual spending on local digital media* advertising in the United States
• Figure 48: Digital media’s share of spending on local advertising in the United States
• Figure 49: Growth forecasts for advertising spending worldwide in 2009 and 2010, according to Carat
• Figure 50: Media likely to benefit from budget changes in 2009, at the expense of others
• Figure 51: Media that will suffer from budget changes in 2009 that will benefit others
• Figure 52: Revised online ad spending between 2008 and 2009
• Figure 53: Advertisers’ stated reasons for increasing their Internet budgets, at the expense of other media
• Figure 54: Change in the breakdown of online ad revenue in the United States by pricing model
• Figure 55: Change in average net CPM for display ads (excl. commission), all sizes of site
• Figure 56: Change in average net CPM for display ads (excl. commission), by size of site
• Figure 57: Change in the CPC on the top search engines in the United States
• Figure 58: Google’s quarterly income in 2008
• Figure 59: Google’s quarterly net income in 2008
• Figure 60: Google’s annual income 2004-2008
• Figure 61: Google’s annual net income 2004-2008

To order this report:

Reportlinker Adds Online Advertising – 2009 Edition

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0147072/Reportlinker-Adds-Online-Advertising—2009-Edition.html

NEW YORK – Fervent calls for a creative revolution in online advertising have galvanized the ecosystem. A driving force behind this relaying cry, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the prodigious cross-industry talent that will appear at its fifth annual MIXX Conference and Expo, September 21-22, in New York City.

The Official Interactive Event of Advertising Week, MIXX is the primary venue for elite advertising agencies, brand marketers and publishers responsible for transforming the consumer media experience. They will all address this year’s theme, “Fueling Interactive Advertising’s Creative Revolution.”

The star-studded lineup includes representation from venerable brands—AstraZeneca, AT&T, General Mills, Frito-Lay, Intuit and Procter & Gamble. Featured speakers include:
Chris Anderson – Author, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, and Editor-in-Chief, Wired Magazine
Tim Armstrong – Chairman & CEO, AOL
Nikesh Arora – President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development, Google
Colleen DeCourcy – Chief Digital Officer, TBWA Worldwide
Bob Greenberg – Chairman, CEO, Global Chief Creative Officer, R/GA
Ashton Kutcher – Co-Founder, Katalyst Media
Nick Law – EVP, Chief Creative Officer, North America, R/GA
David Moore – Chairman & Founder, 24/7 Real Media, and Chairman of the Board, IAB
Yusuf Mehdi – SVP, Online Audience Business Group, Microsoft Corporation
Elisa Steele – CMO, Yahoo!
Lucas Watson – Global Team Leader, Digital Business Strategy, P&G
Steve Wax – Managing Partner, Campfire

“By putting the creative revolution front and center at the MIXX conference, the most important industry gathering of interactive leaders, we showcase the simple fact that advertising is a conversation—a story told by creatives,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “The best advertising is storytelling, and this year the media industry’s most gifted storytellers are on our stage to illuminate what really matters most in marketing—how to make an emotional connection that moves people.”

In addition to the main stage keynote speakers, MIXX 2009 will give its audience an enormous amount of content to choose from—workshops, panels, breakouts, industry forecasts and an exhibit hall filled with a wide breadth of companies showcasing innovative services and tools.

Adding texture and context to the two-day agenda, MIXX will feature three distinct tracks focused on creativity, innovation and impact—the main pillars of great advertising:
See how big brands like Betty Crocker, Crestor and Cheetos have overcome obstacles in social media to harness consumer engagement and achieve brand lift and sales
Listen in as five startups pitch a venture capitalist on why their company’s big idea could just be the next billion-dollar enterprise
Experience the augmented-reality advertising that is redefining interactive
Be an insider to the backroom debate on the future of television and online video
Watch leading solutions providers as they win over a major marketer on the power of mobile advertising

For a full list of speakers, the complete agenda and information on how to register, please visit www.mixx-expo.com.

The event takes place on September 21-22 at the Crowne Plaza Times Square and will culminate on the evening of September 23 with the 2009 MIXX Awards Gala hosted by Jim Breuer, Saturday Night Live comedian.

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.

The U.S. Display Advertising Industry report, published annually, contains timely and accurate industry statistics, forecasts and demographics. The report features 2009 current and 2010 forecast estimates on the size of the industry (sales, establishments, employment) nationally and for all 50 U.S. States and over 900 metro areas. The report also includes industry definition, 5-year historical trends on industry sales, establishments and employment, a breakdown of establishments, sales and employment by employee size of establishment (9 categories), and estimates on up to 10 sub-industries, including outdoor advertising, billboard advertising and poster advertising.

Industry Definition and Related Industries

NAICS 54185: Display Advertising Industry. This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in creating and designing public display advertising, campaign materials, such as printed, painted, or electronic displays, and/or placing such displays on indoor or outdoor billboards and panels, or on or within transit vehicles or facilities, shopping malls, retail (in-store) displays, and other display structures or sites.

Related Industries

* Advertising Agencies
* Media Representatives
* Printing Industry

U.S. Census Categories

NAICS 54185 – Display Advertising is almost comparable to: 100% of SIC 7312 – Display Advertising

Sub-Industries

* Outdoor advertising services
* Billboard advertising
* Poster advertising, outdoor

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c67a43/2009_u_s_display

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. – Advertising Agency Search Consultant, Hank Blank, released a new CD called “Why Agencies Don’t Want New Business.” The CD outlines some of the most common mistakes advertising and public relations agencies make in the New Business Process. It is available on www.hankblank.com.

Hank Blank recently completed the Villeroy & Boch USA Bath and Wellness Division review. Hank Blank is an advertising agency search consultant specializing in identifying advertising, public relations and interactive agencies for clients. He also conducted the Jenny Craig advertising selection process.

“This CD is based on my findings as an agency search consultant and has obviously a very facetious title. All agencies would die for New Business, but in the process they make mistakes that undermine the success of their New Business Process. Agencies are great at marketing their clients but often not very good at marketing themselves,” said Blank.

Hank Blank’s CD on “Why Agencies Don’t Want New Business” has been well-received in the advertising community.

“I recently purchased Hank Blank’s New Business CD for myself and my key management staff. If you are involved in any aspect of new business development, agency management or operations and strategic agency growth, I would encourage you to purchase this CD. This will be your best investment in your business growth you may make this year,” said Eric Morley, Principal of Blue C Advertising.

“New business and the prospect pipeline are the lifeblood of all agencies. Any principal who is not championing a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly new business effort is flirting with disaster in these difficult times. Hank’s new message about Why Agencies Don’t Want New Business is a must-listen – it’s motivational and a reminder of how much better we can all be at attracting and winning potential clients,” said Jim Hughes, Founder of the Brand Establishment.

About Hank Blank Inc.

Hank Blank specializes in finding advertising, public relations and interactive resources for clients based on his knowledge and his network. Hank has spoken on New Business Development to many AAF Chapters.

For more information please visit www.hankblank.com or e-mail hank@hankblank.com

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies(4A’s) announced agreement on actions that will reduce the costs and complexity of buying and selling interactive advertising. The announcement was made at the IAB’s Annual Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: Brands Battle Back.

The two industry associations joined forces to create the 4A’s/IAB Reinvention Task Force to focus on the following three areas:

* Standardization in business document formats. The recent E- Business Interactive Standards, a beta release of an XML-based solution for automating the transfer of business documents, standardizes order information including requests for proposals, insertion orders, and invoices between advertising agencies and media companies. Beta testing partners will be implementing and refining this solution throughout 2009. www.iab.net/ebiz
* Updating the 4A’s/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions. As interactive has grown and changed, so have the contractual requirements. The IAB and 4A’s are committed to updating the current standard Terms and Conditions language in 2009 to reflect the current operational and marketplace environment.
* Improving automated exchange of impression and other metric data for discrepancy resolution and billing. Solving the discrepancy problem is a top priority for both agencies and publishers, and a method for detecting discrepancies during a campaign is essential.

“The timing of these initiatives could not be more important for our industry,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “We must re-double our focus on costs as we continue to revolutionize the business of marketing. These efforts will only enhance the value of interactive for all stakeholders and consumers.”

“At a time when agencies and media companies are evolving the nature of their relationships and their businesses, the Reinvention Task Force is a critical step in improving the most fundamental elements of how we operate,” said Nancy Hill, President and CEO of the 4A’s. “These solutions will help drive revenue and allow all partners to more effectively scale operations.”

Though publishers and agencies have been developing sophisticated media buying and selling tools for years in the interactive space, they have often been difficult to integrate. The E- Business Interactive Standards will provide immediate operational efficiencies, enable scalability for all partners, and, by eliminating a large part of multiple entry, will reduce communication errors between publishers and agencies.

“The collaboration between publishers and agencies on the Reinvention Task Force has enabled us to accelerate the process by which these standards are implemented across the digital ecosystem,” said Zack Rogers, VP of Revenue Operations, CBS Interactive and the Publisher Lead of the Reinvention Task Force.

“We are pleased at the progress we have made to date on the Reinvention initiative,” said David Cohen, Executive Vice President, US Director of Digital Communications for Universal McCann, Chairperson of the 4A’s Digital Marketing Committee, and the agency lead of the Reinvention Task Force. “Through an impression exchange solution and consistent nomenclature for RFPs, insertion orders and invoices we believe that we have taken an important first step towards achieving that goal. Our attention will now turn to widespread adoption of these standards and working through the next iteration of industry standard Terms & Conditions.”

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.

About the 4A’s

The American Association of Advertising Agencies is the national trade association of the advertising agency business. The 1,196 member agency offices it serves in the United States employ 65,000 people, offer a wide range of marketing communications services, and place 80 percent of all national advertising. The management-oriented association helps its members build their businesses, and acts as the industry’s spokesman with government, media, and the public sector. For more information visit our Web site at www.aaaa.org.

Business Wire is the official news wire for Search Engine Strategies London 2009. Breaking news releases, advisories, photos, and multimedia are available at Tradeshownews.com, Business Wire’s trade show, conference, and event news resource.

Listed below are Search Engine Strategies London 2009 exhibitor profiles.
Company:           ACQUISIO
Stand:         305
Media Contact:         MARC POIRIER
Phone:         450.465.2631 x210
E-mail:         mpoirier@acquisio.com
Web:         www.acquisio.com

Montreal-based Acquisio is a SaaS (software as a service) company that offers a pay-per-click (Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN AdCenter) management software designed specifically for advertising agencies. The tool, Acquisio SEARCH, allows campaign managers to launch, manage, and optimize all of their client’s campaigns from a single interface, without the need to log into Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, or MSN AdCenter. Additionally, it provides integrated reporting for designing and building beautiful client-ready PDF reports to help you save even more time.

Company:         Efficient Frontier
Stand:         Track Sponsor
Media Contact:         Merinda Peppard
Phone:         2071665220
E-mail:         sales-europe@efrontier.com
Web:         www.efrontier.com/uk

Efficient Frontier is the market and technology leader in providing paid search marketing solutions. The company provides the most powerful, most effective search engine marketing technology and comprehensive strategic and tactical services, to ensure that clients with large-scale, complex search marketing campaigns can achieve the highest possible return on investment. The largest advertisers in the most competitive markets use Efficient Frontier to achieve unprecedented levels of search marketing efficiencies, scalability, risk reduction and campaign growth. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, USA with offices in New York, the United Kingdom, France and India and licensing partnerships in Japan and Australia. Please visit www.efrontier.com/uk and blog.efrontier.com.

Company:         The Search Monitor
Media Contact:         Laura Nolte
Phone:         321-206-9705
E-mail:         laura@greentheoryinteractive.com
Web:         www.thesearchmonitor.com

The Search Monitor provides real-time competitor monitoring software. TSM crawls and monitors Google, Yahoo, MSN, social media, and shopping engines daily and can be geo-targeted. Interactive agencies, search marketers, and affiliate marketers use The Search Monitor for several reasons (1) to acquire competitive intelligence on paid and organic search including market share, keyword research, ad copy research, discovery of competitive promotions/offers, rank, and budgeting strategies; (2) to police brand use in ad copy, display urls, and branded keyword sponsors; (3) to identify and measure brand buzz; and (4) to police affiliate marketers for compliance with affiliate programs.

Company:         WebTrends
Stand:         309
Media Contact:         Thomas Flischer
E-mail:         Thomas@octopuscomms.net

About WebTrends Inc.

WebTrends provides web analytics and online marketing solutions to optimise marketing campaigns and customer engagement. WebTrends Marketing Lab delivers the industry’s most recognised analytics, SEM, and visitor intelligence solutions to enable companies to understand their customers, drive customer engagement, and enhance marketing and brand awareness. Thousands of leading global organisations, including HSBC, Microsoft, Reuters, General Mills, and Ticketmaster have chosen WebTrends business solutions and client services expertise to optimise their customers’ online experiences.

For more information, visit: www.webtrends.com

About Business Wire

Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is utilized by tens of thousands of member companies and organizations worldwide to functionally enhance and communicate investor relations and public relations content to target audiences. As a recognized disclosure service in the United States, Canada and a dozen European countries, Business Wire facilitates the simultaneous flow of market-moving press releases from corporations to financial markets and their audiences, including regulatory authorities, media, investors, financial information systems and consumer news services. Business Wire also handles XBRL tagging, document formatting and regulatory filing into EDGAR, SEDAR, FSA and other systems.

Communications professionals turn to Business Wire to optimize and issue press releases, photos and multimedia to news organizations, journalists, trade publications, search engines, and individuals, with full-text posting to web sites, online services and databases. A range of distribution options enables members to target by geography, industry, news theme and audience demographics.

Founded in 1961, Business Wire has dual headquarters in San Francisco and New York, with 30 bureaus in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Paris, Frankfurt, London, Brussels, Tokyo, Toronto and Sydney and reciprocal offices throughout the world. Business Wire’s patented NX data platform supports XML, XHTML and XBRL code that enhances news release interactivity, social media sharing and search engine optimization. More information about Business Wire and its services is located on its website at www.BusinessWire.com.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release for public comment of Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions Guidelines (VPAID). The announcement represents another important step in the IAB’s infrastructure initiative that seeks to build a common language for buying, selling, creating and delivering digital video advertising.

The series of definitions in the VPAID Guidelines help the interactive industry:

* Define a standard method for video ads to communicate with video players and enable ad compatibility across all VPAID-compliant players
* Provide specifications that can be implemented by any type of video player
* Cut production costs and improve ROI for advertisers while enabling a less intrusive experience for video content viewers.

Until now, video ads could only be posted on publisher sites that supported the same technology as an agency did when creating the ads. With VPAID, publishers adhering to these standards will be able to render any type of video advertisement from any video ad serving technology that also adheres to the standards. Likewise, advertisers that adopt the standards can be assured that the ads they create are usable by any ad serving technology and publisher.

Over the past year, the IAB has taken a lead role in the industry-wide effort to create a common structure across distinct areas of digital video. In addition to VPAID, the IAB’s efforts have included the release of the following documents as part of this initiative:

* Digital Video Measurement Guidelines
* Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Best Practices
* Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST)
* Digital Video In-Stream Ad Metrics Definitions

All of these documents can be reviewed at: http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/508950

“Interactive advertising is a bright spot in the current advertising environment, and digital video is one of its most promising formats,” said Jeremy Fain, Vice President of Industry Services at IAB. “VPAID is the final piece of the current Digital Video Infrastructure Initiative. All five parts of the initiative help define the digital video ecosystem, reduce costs and increase efficiency for all parties and, most importantly, make it possible for advertisers to more easily reach larger online audiences.”

“Advertisers and agencies today require more interactive formats that go beyond linear TV ad spots, demand more control over how they experience ads, and want the ability to learn more about particular subjects of interest,” said David Ku, SVP of the Advertising Technology Group at Yahoo!, a member company of the IAB’s Digital Video Committee. “VPAID provides a common standard for how video ads will interact with players and serves as an important step forward to deliver on the promise of digital video ad formats.”

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: http://www.iab.net/vpaid. After the comment period closes on March 5, 2009 the feedback will be reviewed and the guidelines will be finalized and released.

About the IAB’s Digital Video Committee:

The Digital Video Committee of the IAB is comprised of over 180 member companies actively engaged in the creation and execution of digital video advertising. One of the goals of the committee is to implement a comprehensive set of guidelines, measurement, and creative options for interactive video advertising. The committee works to educate marketers and agencies on the strength of digital video as a marketing vehicle. A full list of Committee member companies can be found at: http://www.iab.net/digital_video_committee

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.

SAN FRANCISCO – Federated Media Publishing (FM), a next-generation media and publishing company, announced a partnership with Mixx, a customizable social media website with an unprecedented blend of user-recommended media, online social networking and comprehensive personalization tools. Mixx joins FM’s industry-leading collection of more than 100 conversational media sites and social networking applications like Boing Boing, Dooce, Mashable and Graffiti.

“What we love to do more than anything else is create media experiences that bring together great sites, passionate audiences and brand marketers,” said John Battelle, founder, chairman and CEO of FM. “Mixx is just the sort of partner that will add genuine value to that equation, offering possibilities unlike any other platform we have worked with. I look forward to the great things we’ll do together.”

Mixx launched in October of 2007. Since then, the site has grown to more than 6 million unique users per month. Unlike one-size-fits-all recommendation sites, Mixx puts users in control of their own personal blend of news stories, photos and videos. Mixx users search and discover relevant media and interact within networks of friends by submitting, voting and commenting on online media using social networking and personalization tools.

“Mixx is growing at a tremendous pace and we have now reached a scale at which we can add monetization to our focus,” said Chris McGill, founder and trouble-maker-in-chief of Mixx. “This partnership with Federated Media is the first step in doing this. Just as we have changed the social media model, we intend to change the advertising model to create a dialogue between advertisers and users in appropriate settings. We are thrilled about our new partnership with FM and are excited to hit the ground running.”

FM will leverage Mixx’s large, engaged audience and unique structure in order to bring brand marketers into conversations while maintaining the transparency and credibility that are crucial to Mixx users. FM and Mixx will work closely together to design and implement successful conversational marketing executions for FM’s long list of Fortune 500 brand marketing partners.

FM has also welcomed a number of other high-quality social media sites into the FM family over the last few months including Alltop, Liqurious, Inhabitots, DVDtalk and Outblush.

About Mixx

Mixx is owned by Recommended Reading, Inc., a privately-held company based in McLean, Virginia, dedicated to connecting users and publishers in an ever more crowded digital media environment. Mixx is a customizable social media website that empowers both users and publishers of mass market content with an unprecedented blend of user-recommended media, online social networking and comprehensive personalization tools. It is built on a fundamentally different structure that allows publishers to drive highly qualified traffic to their sites while transforming their audiences into grassroots evangelists. Mixx users engage in an intuitive, threaded experience as a result of their participation in community activities around topics they define, and creation of their own interest-based start pages with customized content submission and delivery. More information is available at www.mixx.com or info@mixx.com.

About Federated Media

Federated Media (FM) is a next generation media and publishing company that connects the highest-quality conversational content with leading brand marketers. FM Represents more than 100 of the world’s most respected websites, blogs, and social networking applications. With a unique combination of quality, safety and scale, FM leverages deep, long-term relationships with brand marketers and advertising agencies to create cost effective and meaningful media and marketing executions. Learn more at www.federatedmedia.net.

Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

LONDON – The Fournaise Marketing Group, one of the global leaders in all-media marketing effectiveness tracking, released that 60% of all advertising spending it tracked around the world in 2008 failed to deliver the results expected by their marketers and can therefore be considered wasted.

Specialised in tracking, measuring and auditing the real-time performance of marketing and advertising campaigns deployed in both traditional and online media, Fournaise used its proprietary marketing effectiveness tracking solutions to measure the ability of the advertising campaigns to generate both direct and indirect engagement with their target audience, and therefore their ability to boost the advertisers’ Profit & Loss (“P&L”) through:

- increase in retail traffic;
- increase in sales;
- increase in leads/prospects captured; and/or
- increase in positive target audience conditioning.

Through the campaigns it tracked across offline and online media, Fournaise revealed that while the average Marketing Wastage Rate (“MWR”) in the business-to-consumer (B2C) industry is 65%, it falls to 47% in the business-to-business (B2B) industry.

“We noticed that the majority of B2B marketers are very focused on making their campaigns deliver hard, tangible results, i.e. leads or prospects that they can convert afterwards. On the other hand, the majority of B2C marketers tend to rely heavily on the old and traditional model of brand building: by mainly going after awareness and recall through expensive and impact-driven media buys, they hope to deliver more sales and/or in-store traffic down the line – a fundamental mistake nowadays given the high level of advertising clutter, which leads to high levels of wastage” says Jerome Fontaine, CEO & Chief Tracker of Fournaise.

“The good news is that with our solutions, marketers are able to pinpoint real time what worked and what did not, all the way down to media, insertions and even formats. From there they can put in place strategies to reduce this wastage and increase effectiveness, real time” Fontaine added.

Fournaise identified that the 3 most effective media for the campaigns it tracked in 2008 (i.e. the media with the lowest MWRs) were:
1. Text emails and eDMs (online category)
2. Direct mailers (direct marketing category)
3. Newspapers (print category)

While the 3 least effective media tracked (i.e. the media with the highest MWRs) were:
1. Sponsoring (sponsorship/endorsement category)
2. Posters/billboards (outdoor/out-of-home category)
3. Banner/display ads (online category)

To help their company successfully ride this recession storm, Fontaine believes marketers around the world must overcome 4 challenges:

1. They must first pull their head out of the sand, get out of their comfort zone and accept their reality once and for all: their job as a marketer is to grow their company’s P&L, nothing else;

2. They must change their approach by starting to be much more bottom-line-focused and embrace P&L-related key performance indicators: every single advertising spend must be tracked and must deliver tangible results;

3. They must be prepared to handle the truth, to take the necessary action to adjust their plans and to move their budgets to where the results are coming from in order to achieve the highest yields, real time – even if it means to cut or reduce the areas that they spend on out of tradition; and

4. They must start thinking like business owners and treat their budgets as if it was their own money. Would you agree to give away 60% of your own money every month without getting anything back in return?

About The Fournaise Marketing Group – The Tracker of Marketing Effectiveness™
The Fournaise Marketing Group (“Fournaise”) is one of the world’s leading Marketing Effectiveness Tracking Companies. Using its proprietary and revolutionary Marketing Effectiveness Tracking solutions (called wTAMs™ – pronounced weetams), Fournaise has the unique ability to help brands, advertisers and advertising agencies track, measure, analyse and maximise the actual performance of all their marketing campaigns – deployed offline and online – on a real-time basis for better results and incremental growth. Its portfolio of clients includes MNCs from the FORTUNE 500 group of companies, leading International Advertising Agencies and Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) seeking to grow locally and/or internationally. Its wTAMs™ are used and/or accessed by more than 50,000 organisations and individuals in more than 14 countries worldwide. www.fournaisegroup.com

NEW YORK & TOKYO – 24/7 Real Media, Inc. (“24/7”), the leading digital marketing company, and cyber communications, inc. (“cci”) (4788.T), Japan’s leading media representative company, announced the merger of their subsidiaries DENTSU e-LINK, INC. and K.K. 24-7 Search to form Dentsu Search & Link. Japan’s largest advertising agency Dentsu Inc. (“Dentsu”), currently a shareholder in both subsidiaries, shall remain a shareholder of the newly merged company. Dentsu Search & Link will deliver a full spectrum of search engine marketing (“SEM”) services to the Japanese market. Financial terms were not disclosed.

cci and Dentsu will contribute their extensive Japanese marketing industry knowledge and connections to the venture, and consign to the venture SEM services provided to their clients. 24/7 will license its industry-leading Decide DNA® technology and provide its search engine marketing expertise to Dentsu Search & Link. Takeshi Matsuoka, currently Director and President of KK 24-7 Search, will serve as President and CEO of Dentsu Search & Link.

The merger of DENTSU e-LINK INC. and K.K. 24-7 Search is designed to create a best of breed search engine marketing services’ company in Japan. Dentsu Search & Link will leverage cci’s considerable industry relationships and broad media representative experience in combination with 24/7 Real Media’s industry-leading proprietary search management technology, Decide DNA.

“cci has acquired experience in the SEM field through our subsidiary DENTSU E-LINK. The newly merged company shall play a key role in the SEM field in the Dentsu Group. Dentsu Search & Link shall become a robust and optimum company combined with Dentsu Group’s sales force and experience in the Japanese market and 24/7 Real Media’s most advanced technology,” said Hideyuki Nagasawa, President and CEO of cci. “I am confident that Dentsu Search & Link shall lead the continuously growing new market with high competitiveness.”

“24/7 Real Media looks forward to building a strong relationship with Japan’s leading media representative company cci. cci has embraced digital marketing through its subsidiary DENTSU e-LINK and will continue to lead the Japanese SEM marketplace through its new partnership with 24/7 Real Media. Dentsu Group clients have benefited from cci’s and Dentsu’s progressive view of utilizing technology to provide clients with a competitive advantage,” said David J. Moore, Chairman and Founder of 24/7. “We are confident that the enhanced partnership between cci, Dentsu and 24/7 Real Media will provide even more benefits to cci’s and Dentsu’s clients and help expand 24/7’s technology presence in Japan.”

According to eMarketer*, the Japanese paid search market is on pace to reach approximately 226.5 Billion Yen by 2011. Japan has the second highest number of Internet users after China, and the highest number of broadband Internet users in the Pacific Rim, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Media Outlook 2007.

As the majority owner of Dentsu Search & Link, cci will report consolidated financial results including Dentsu Search & Link. Additional details will be provided during cci’s fourth quarter earnings call in 2009.

*Source: eMarketer; Dentsu, as cited in press release, April 16, 2007

About cyber communications, inc.

cci was established in 1996 in the early period of online advertising market in Japan and has led the market growth as a subsidiary of Dentsu Inc. cci has established the business model whereby, as a media representative, it makes connections between thousands of online media and advertising agencies in Japan. cci describes itself as a total interactive, one-stop marketing service company that provides various services regarding internet advertising such as media planning, ad serving technology, ad creative service and market analysis. For more information, please visit http://www.cci.co.jp/english/.

About 24/7 Real Media, Inc.

24/7 Real Media, Inc. a WPP company, the leading global digital marketing company, empowers advertisers and publishers to engage their target audiences with greater precision, transparency and ROI. Using its award winning ad serving, targeting, tracking and analytics platform, together with its powerful search marketing technology and global network of specialized Web sites, the company has turned the art of reaching audiences across virtually any digital medium into a measurable science. The company is headquartered in New York, with 18 offices in 12 countries throughout North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, please visit www.247realmedia.com.

24/7 Real Media: The Science of Digital Marketing.

24/7 Real Media is a member of the NAI and adheres to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC. These principles are designed to help ensure Internet user privacy. For more information about online data collection associated with ad serving, including online preference marketing and an opportunity to opt-out of 24/7 Real Media cookies, go to: www.networkadvertising.org.

The Ad-ology Small Business Marketing Outlook survey found that small business owners are cautiously optimistic going into 2009. While 25% stated they are fearful about the current economic situation and 58% are concerned, 83% expect 2009 sales to be up or about the same as 2008.

When broken down by media type, over half of small business advertisers plan to spend the same or more on the following: Online advertising (69%), Yellow Pages (54%), newspapers (51%), and direct mail (51%).

“Small business owners rely on advertising sales reps for guidance and are clearly looking for consultative partners in the advertising process,” said C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. “They are more likely to purchase advertising from those that understand their business,” Smith said.

Other key findings from the survey:

* “Knows my company/line of business” is the top attribute small business owners look for in a media advertising sales rep. “Delivers what they promise” is the second most desirable attribute.
* 52% of small business owners surveyed agree with the statement “you can gain market share by marketing while your competitors are cutting back.”
* 74% believe their company “must be one of the first 2-3 that come to a customer’s mind” when they need what the small business owner is selling.
* More than half of respondents plan to spend the same or more time and money on their Web sites and email marketing in 2009.
* The majority of small businesses are not using other emerging media: 77% do not use online video, 83% do not podcast, and 82% do not use mobile advertising.

The Small Business Marketing Survey was conducted in October 2008 by Ad-ology Research to study the attitudes of small business owners. The Small Business Marketing Outlook report is available for purchase through Ad-ology.net.

ABOUT AD-OLOGY RESEARCH

Ad-ology Research analyzes key marketing and advertising trends in over 370 industries and what motivates end-customers. The company’s research is used by over 2,000 advertising agencies, media properties and product marketing departments across the United States. Ad-ology Research is a division of Sales Development Services (SDS), Inc. – a Westerville, Ohio firm founded in 1989.

METHODOLOGY

Ad-ology Research surveyed an online panel of 863 owners of U.S. businesses with less than 100 employees in October 2008. The margin of error for this survey is +/- 3.34 percentage points.

NEW YORK – ReplaceAds announced that it debuted as the third largest online radio advertising network in the October comScore/Arbitron Online Radio Ratings. According to comScore/Arbitron, nearly 1.8 million different people (1,770,500) age twelve and older listened for five or more minutes to stations affiliated with the ReplaceAds Advertising Network Monday-Sunday 6A-Midnight during an average week in October. The ReplaceAds Network includes more than 3,500 broadcasting stations, and includes music, sports, news, talk and special Interest broadcasts. ReplaceAds works with advertisers to develop Internet advertising campaigns that deliver premium and measurable results while delivering revenue to ReplaceAds’ broadcast partners.

The comScore/Arbitron Online Radio Ratings service is the leading source of audience estimates for the online radio network industry. The service provides ratings that can be compared on “like to like” basis with Arbitron’s audience estimates for terrestrial stations. It is based on continuous and passive measurement from more than 200,000 U.S. participants within the comScore global consumer panel.

“ReplaceAds has a large and demographically appealing online radio audience for advertisers,” said Bill Rose senior vice president of marketing, Arbitron, Inc. “We are pleased to welcome ReplaceAds as a customer because we can now provide a more complete picture of online radio consumption.”

“Now advertisers can compare the size and impact of the ReplaceAds audience to other online and traditional radio vehicles,” said Jeff Pescatello Co-Founder of ReplaceAds. “We selected comScore/Arbitron to provide third party verification of our internal metrics because we believe they are the gold standard for online radio ratings”.

About ReplaceAds™

ReplaceAds provides local, regional and national advertisers the highest return on their brand advertising investment. ReplaceAds has aggregated the majority of people watching or listening to broadcasts on the Internet on a daily basis. Because of the enormity of our daily audience, the premium nature of our broadcasts, and the long periods of time our listeners and viewers spend with us each day which typically exceeds two hours per session we can offer brand advertisers a new unique and highly effective way to reach those consumers with their message on brand safe stations.

The ReplaceAds™ Network team is comprised of veterans from the film, music, radio, advertising, and Internet broadcasting industries who all share a passion for building value for our customers and partners. www.ReplaceAds.com

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/boilerplate.

About Arbitron

Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is a media and marketing research firm serving the media – radio, television, cable, online radio and out-of-home – as well as advertisers and advertising agencies in the United States. Arbitron’s core businesses are measuring network and local market radio audiences across the United States; surveying the retail, media and product patterns of local market consumers; and providing application software used for analyzing media audience and marketing information data. The company has developed the Portable People Meter, a new technology for media and marketing research.

Through its Scarborough Research joint venture with The Nielsen Company, Arbitron provides additional media and marketing research services to the broadcast television, newspaper and online industries.

Arbitron’s marketing and business units are supported by a world-renowned research and technology organization located in Columbia, Maryland. Arbitron’s executive offices are located in New York City.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today announced the release for public comment of Audience Reach Measurement Guidelines, a major industry-wide initiative that provides clear, consistent definitions of metrics and sets standards for how to measure unique audience across different methodologies. The guidelines were released at the IAB’s annual Leadership Forum on Audience Measurement in New York City, where leaders of media companies, measurement companies and advertising agencies convened to gain insights on the evolution of audience measurement and where sessions will be devoted to a detailed review of the proposed guidelines.

“These guidelines represent an industry wide endorsement of clarity and transparency of methodologies and metrics, particularly around reach, a core metric used throughout the media world,” said Sherrill Mane, senior vice president, Industry Services of the IAB. “The driving force for marketers’ ongoing embrace of interactive media is the accountability that interactive provides and these guidelines will enhance that clarity and certainty.”

The gathering, reporting, and measurement of audience metrics has a material impact on interactive media buying decisions. Transparency into these methodologies and clear definitions of commonly used terms are critical to the ongoing growth of interactive media as marketers continue to allocate a larger portion of their budget to the platform.

The guidelines will address these key areas of audience measurement:

* Provide definitions of key industry metrics such as unique users, unique cookies, unique browsers, visits and time spent.
* Establish a framework for all measurement providers to have their methodologies audited, providing greater certainty for the industry.
* Foster greater accuracy and reliability of all forms of online audience measurement, whether based on server data, online panels or user registration.

“Audience size and composition are vital to planning interactive advertising campaigns,” said Lynn Gutstadt, Director of Corporate Research, CBS Interactive and a member of the IAB’s Audience Measurement Working Group. “Adoption of these guidelines by the interactive industry will give marketers, agencies and other stakeholders in the digital ecosystem greater certainty in the measurement of our audience.”

“Ongoing Media Rating Council (MRC) audits of several of the syndicated measurement companies represent a commendable step toward accountability,” said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of the MRC. “The completion of the IAB Audience Reach Measurement Guidelines paves the way for other measurement organizations, for example census measurers such as sites, ad-servers or analytics organizations, to have rigorous consistent guidelines to help ensure consistent measurements of unique cookies, devices or in certain circumstances even users.”

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/audiencemeasurement. After the comment period closes on January 20, 2009, the feedback will be reviewed and the guidelines will be finalized and released.

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.

“While the relevance of location-based advertising for the location industry is huge, the hype is never far away,” says ABI Research director Dominique Bonte. “Too many location based services (LBS) providers see advertising as the cornerstone of their business plans. The reality is a nascent industry with many barriers still to be removed: the lack of understanding of location-based mobility, a fragmented location ecosystem, immature click-to-locate and click-to-navigate direct response models, limited indoor location technology, and intrusiveness and privacy-related user acceptance issues. Startups such as social networking sites are advised to introduce location-based advertising gradually next to more traditional pricing schemes based on subscription fees or pay-per-use, or a combination of free ad-funded basic services with paid premium offers.”

Transparent opt-in processes and advanced levels of customization will be key success factors for location-based advertising. The seamless integration of location into standard demographics and usage-related advertising targeting parameters will be equally important.

While free ad-funded off-board navigation solutions are already offered by companies such as Jentro Technologies and Locationet, ABI Research expects the bigger brands such as Google and Nokia to dominate this space in the future. The Mobile Marketing Association and advertising agencies such as 1020 Inc. with its Placecast service are key players in enabling this new form of advertising and increasing awareness and understanding within the location and advertising industries.

A new ABI Research Brief, “Location-Based Advertising” describes the types of location-based advertising, the latest trends, drivers, and barriers, and the ecosystem. Case studies of the most relevant initiatives are included. The Research Brief also provides forecasts for free ad-funded navigation.

It forms part of the firm’s Location Aware Services Research Service, which also includes other Research Briefs, Research Reports, Market Data, an Online Database, ABI Insights, ABI Vendor Matrices, and analyst inquiry support.

ABI Research is a leading market research firm focused on the impact of emerging technologies on global consumer and business markets. Utilizing a unique blend of market intelligence, primary research, and expert assessment from its worldwide team of industry analysts, ABI Research assists hundreds of clients each year with their strategic growth initiatives. For information, visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.

Available as a free download at www.pontiflex.com/roi, the calculator provides an on-demand calculation of returns on online advertising purchased on CPM, CPC and CPL pricing models. Marketers can enter custom CPM and CPC campaign metrics or use averages derived from industry research data.

The ROI calculator is a useful tool for online marketers that are moving away from a “push” announcement-based strategy to a “pull” engagement focused one. At the 2008 Forrester Research Marketing Forum, industry analysts clearly stressed the need for a new approach to marketing, and proposed engagement as a new metric for brand marketers. Brand marketers can use the ROI calculator to calculate the budget required to build a qualified pipeline of unique, brand specific consumer leads for engagement vehicles such as community sites, newsletters and reward programs.

The calculator comes at a time when marketers are shifting investment from CPM pricing models towards performance based models. The 2007 IAB PWC Internet advertising report showed advertiser spend on performance based advertising was greater than that on CPM advertising for the first time.

In correlation with this shift towards pay-for-performance advertising, Pontiflex has also experienced record growth, expanding the advertiser lead universe by 300% to 51 million leads across 21 industry categories in five months. New clients include Reynolds Handi-Vac, Designer Linen Outlet, Travel Nevada, New Egg, IO USA., as well as advertising agencies True North, Mullen and RUF.

“With transparency a reality in the online lead generation market, marketers are now adding CPL advertising to their media mix in addition to CPM and CPC campaigns,” said Zephrin Lasker, CEO and Co-founder Pontiflex. “We believe the ROI calculator is a useful tool for marketers to determine budget allocation across different online pricing models, particularly towards those that produce guaranteed returns on online advertising.”

The ROI calculator can be accessed at www.pontiflex.com/roi.

About Pontiflex

Pontiflex is the first open and transparent cost per lead (CPL) market. Advertisers connect to interested consumers through Pontiflex and pay only for brand-specific marketing leads, not just clicks or impressions that might never convert.

Pontiflex AdLeads offers publishers, advertisers and agencies a single point of connection for CPL media buying, management and optimization. Because Pontiflex AdLeads is open, advertisers and publishers can use manage all of their campaigns (even those not generated through Pontiflex) for no charge. Because Pontiflex AdLeads is transparent, advertisers can optimize campaigns by mapping leads to their sources and increase returns even further.

Advertisers use Pontiflex to generate marketing leads for their newsletters, direct marketing campaigns, member loyalty programs and vendor-specific sales efforts.

Pontiflex is proudly backed by New Atlantic Ventures and Greenhill SAVP. If you wish to find out more information, please email us at sales@pontiflex.com or call 1.888.877.3947

“The Bluewolf MediaTrak SalesPack is a complete solution that will help media organization move into the 21st century,” said Corinne Sklar, vice president of marketing for Bluewolf. “MediaTrak is extremely easy to customize, with quick time to value, providing a cost-effective alternative to traditional on-premise media solutions like Mactive and AdMarc that are cumbersome and difficult to customize. We understand the complexities of managing ad sales and the entire media sales lifecycle through working to revolutionize the process with the largest media companies in the world. We designed MediaTrak to meet the needs of media companies in this fast-changing landscape.”

“The newspaper industry is struggling to compete in today’s market,” said Mike McLeland, a 20-year media industry veteran with Hearst and Gannett. “One of the challenges that the industry faces is the fact that we’ve traditionally been slow to adapt and change. The speed to market and flexibility of Bluewolf’s new system will help newspapers adapt quickly and compete. Changes on a traditional system from current vendors can take one to two years or more. The same changes on this system take weeks or months, and would be implemented instantly for all users.”

Bluewolf MediaTrak SalesPack Includes:

MediaTrak Ad Booker: Enables media companies to better manage advertising insertion orders for multiple lines of business, including print, broadcast, online and seminars. It automates the calculation of complex commission splits. With an easy-to-use interface, it enables advertising executives to select brands and add information respective to the brand of each line of business.

MediaTrak AdSync: Enables media companies to execute the entire ad sales cycle, from order entry to editorial to billing. In addition, it allows advertising agencies to place orders through a web portal. With AdSync, media companies can keep up with the speed of the market, realize lower total cost of ownership, and deliver further business efficiency by integrating with existing systems. In addition, the new MediaTrak AdSync includes a robust on-demand billing system, powered by Zuora (R), the leader in online subscription billing and recurring payments. It enables media organizations to oversee all of their advertising functions, including classified, retail, Web, order entry, Internet sales, billing, accounting receivable and business administration

MediaTrak Client Manager: Launched in 2007, this media-specific Salesforce CRM solution allows media organizations to track complex relationships among brand, advertiser and agency, providing a complete view of the business. It manages client insertion orders in one interface and has pre-built media-specific reports. Client Manager helps media organizations build strong customer relationships and market awareness to drive ad sales success.

Bluewolf’s MediaTrak is available immediately via the Force.com AppExchange at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange.com, or by contacting Bluewolf at www.bluewolf.com. MediaTrak AdSync will be available later this year, and all MediaTrak solutions will be demonstrated at Bluewolf’s booth at salesforce.com’s Dreamforce user and developer conference, November 2-5, 2008 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

About Bluewolf

Bluewolf is the leading Software as a Service, Open Source and Cloud Computing consulting company focusing on deployment, development and adoption of enterprise software applications. With eight years of SaaS experience and more than 1,200 customers, Bluewolf is defining a new style of consulting based on their Agile Consulting model that guarantees success and delivers on the promises of Cloud Computing. Bluewolf clients include Dow Jones, ADP, General Electric, and Fox Interactive Media.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today announced a series of groundbreaking initiatives designed to improve efficiencies by driving industry-wide adoption of critical workflow improvements, best practices and guidelines by media companies and advertising agencies within the digital marketing ecosystem. The announcements were made at the IAB’s annual Ad Operations Summit in New York City, where leaders in advertising operations and account management at media companies and advertising agencies convened to share a 360 degree view of key supply chain areas in interactive marketing.

The following solutions were announced:

* E- Business Interactive Standards, a beta release of an XML-based solution for automating the transfer of business order information between advertising agencies and media companies. Beta testing partners will be implementing and refining this solution throughout 2009. www.iab.net/ebiz
* Interactive Advertising Workflow Best Practices, a document that provides comprehensive process recommendations to agencies and publishers for improved communications and efficient operations throughout the entire lifecycle of an advertising campaign. The document’s best practices focus on how to improve the management of advertising accounts by decreasing discrepancies, campaign set-up errors and billing cycles between advertising agencies and publishers. www.iab.net/workflow
* Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST), an XML-based solution designed to standardize communication between digital video players and servers. VAST allows publishers to increase digital video yield by utilizing ad networks to sell unsold inventory and reduce friction with buyers by allowing third-party ad tags. www.iab.net/vast
* Ad Load Performance Best Practices, a document that details how agencies and publishers should develop and serve digital advertising campaigns to reduce load time for ads and improve their performance. www.iab.net/adload
* Best Practices for Rich Media Ads in Asynchronous Ad Environments, a solution that establishes a standard set of rich media implementation rules for rich media ad vendors, creative development teams, and publishers when serving ads into dynamic environments. www.iab.net/ajaxrichmedia

“These initiatives will revolutionize our industry by improving efficiencies in the interactive business—which means growth for publishers, for agencies and for marketers who will now reach their customers even more effectively,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.

Jeremy Fain, vice president of the IAB, said: “It is time to begin the critical work of adopting these standards and practices across the digital ecosystem and I encourage all stakeholders in the industry to take the necessary steps toward implementation so we can accelerate our trajectory of growth as an industry.”

“For our industry to increase revenues, we have to find efficiencies that help us maximize technology and reduce costs,” said Dan Murphy, senior vice president of Research, Univision Online. “By adopting these standards we have the opportunity to make the necessary improvements that will transform the industry into a truly scalable and integrated advertising marketplace.”

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.

NEW YORK – The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) has joined forces with 25-year veteran career fair producer Shomex Productions to present Diversity in Advertising Career Day (www.diacareerday.com), a daylong advertising career and job fair aimed at helping to increase the level of qualified, mid-career candidates from ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds.

Diversity in Advertising Career Day debuted in 2007 to commemorate the first anniversary of a landmark agreement between New York City and top NYC advertising agencies to not only diversify their ranks, but also to allow City officials to monitor the diversification process. It is the one Industry event that provides a forum for multicultural professionals to network and explore career opportunities in advertising, marketing and communications and for companies to source top-caliber, diverse candidates.

The third annual Career Day will be held at the Hilton Towers in New York City on Wednesday, April 22, 2009.

“One of the fundamental missions of the 4A’s is to improve and strengthen the advertising agency business in the United States by attracting excellent people,” said Nancy Hill, president and CEO, 4A’s. “We consider it a priority to foster a growing community of diverse, talented, committed and exceptional individuals throughout the industry and are thrilled to sponsor Diversity in Advertising Career Day to help to achieve those goals.”

The last New York event, on April 24, 2008, was officially proclaimed as Diversity in Advertising & Public Relations Career Day by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. He saluted the one-day job fair and conference saying, “In New York City, 200 languages are spoken, and men and women from every background live side-by-side in mutual respect. We derive our strength from this rich tapestry of cultures, and from residents whose unique abilities, traditions and experiences combine to create the vibrant city we love. We all benefit from a workplace that reflects our diverse city, and the City of New York is proud to celebrate Diversity in Advertising / PR Career Day.”

Lew Shomer, founder and president of Shomex Productions, said, “Diversity in Advertising Career Day provides an exciting and efficient environment for advertising, marketing and communications companies to source employees with many of the skill sets needed for mid- and senior-level positions. We believe that this event has the potential to literally change the face of the advertising industry, by the way in which the industry perceives diversity and realizes its ability to do something about it.”

“An increasingly multicultural workplace is good for business. We welcome the 4A’s as a partner in our efforts help advertising agencies and others to excel by mirroring the diverse communities which they serve,” said Shomer.

Backed by Industry, Community and Educational Leadership

Diversity in Advertising Career Day is backed by an outstanding group of cross- and multi-cultural community, professional and alumni partners. Included are the NAACP’s New York State Conference of Branches, ADCOLOR Industry Coalition, Advertising Research Foundation, Advertising Women in New York, the Asian American Advertising Federation, Center for Communication, Commercial Closet Association, the Council of Public Relations Firms, Echelon Business Media, Ethnic Events, Mediabistro, Minority Professional Network, NAMIC, National Society of Hispanic MBAs, Portada, Public Relations Society of America, Talent Zoo, The Network Journal, City College of New York, Columbia University Business School, Howard University, New York City College of Technology, New York University/NYU Wasserman Center for Career Development, New York Institute of Technology and State University of New York and its Fashion Institute of Technology.

About Shomex Productions

Starting in 1984 with one event, Shomex Productions (www.shomex.com) has emerged as a leader in all its business niches, and has built its Diversity Career Fair brand, presented in partnership with leading diversity organizations, into the leading live diversity recruiting platform in the U.S. Shomex has produced more than 1,000 events from coast to coast, in virtually every major U.S. market, serving dozens of industries including advertising, aerospace, pharmaceutical, healthcare, retail, financial services, computer, telecommunications, media and entertainment. The Shomex client list includes hundreds of America’s leading employers, including AT&T, Bank of America, Blockbuster, Disney/ABC, Lockheed Martin, Merck, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Toyota and Verizon Wireless.

About 4A’s

Founded in 1917, 4A’s is the national trade association representing the advertising agency business in the United States. Its membership produces approximately 80 percent of the total advertising volume placed by agencies nationwide. Although virtually all of the large, multinational agencies are members of the 4A’s, more than 60 percent of our membership bills less than $10 million per year. The 4A’s is a management-oriented association that offers its members the broadest possible services and expertise regarding the advertising agency business including information on how best to recruit diverse talent into its ranks.

For more information about participating in Diversity in Advertising Career Day as an exhibitor or as an attendee seeking job interviews, log onto www.diacareerday.com.

ATLANTA – U.S. search marketing spend showed strong growth in the third quarter of 2008, up almost 27% compared with Q3 2007. The findings come from a new quarterly study released today from SearchIgnite, a leading provider of search management and auction campaign optimization technology managing more than $350 million in paid search annually.

Spend from existing search marketing advertisers (“Same Advertiser Spend”) is up year-over-year (“YoY”) in Q3 across all engines by 26.9% in the U.S., a slight increase from the YoY growth seen in Q3 2007 over Q3 2006. Quarter-over-quarter spend growth was also strong and consistent with Q2 vs. Q3 2007.

The report revealed other notable findings on the current state of the search landscape:

* Volatile Quarter for Retail Spend: Retailers increased their search spend over Q3 2007, up 1.5% year-over-year, but intra-quarter figures show that retail search spend is declining. Q3 also saw a slight uptick in conversion rates, although average order value (“AOV”) is on the decline.
* Search Engine Market Share: Google continued to increase its dominance in the search market rising to over 72% of search ad dollars. Yahoo! lost slight market share in Q3, but is up several points from Q3 2007.

“Paid search spend continued to hold strong in Q3, despite the economic climate,” said Roger Barnette, President of SearchIgnite. “The strength of this ad market in today’s economy suggests that paid search continues to be a highly profitable and efficient digital marketing channel for brands.”

This report, the latest in a series of quarterly SearchIgnite white papers reviewing trends across the search Google, Yahoo!, and MSN from January 1, 2006 through September 30, 2008 across more than 500 marketers, all of whom are clients of SearchIgnite directly or via its sister company 360i.

Previous SearchIgnite reports can be found at: http://www.searchignite.com/about_research.aspx.

About SearchIgnite

SearchIgnite is a powerful search management and auction campaign optimization technology that simplifies large cross-engine search campaigns, providing marketers and advertising agencies with one central platform for managing, optimizing and tracking complex keyword portfolios in real time. Marketers who use SearchIgnite have full transparency and control over their campaigns with flexible bid management capabilities including manual bidding, rules-based bidding and portfolio optimization. Leading marketers and agencies depend on SearchIgnite to simplify and maximize the performance of their paid search campaigns. SearchIgnite is part of Innovation Interactive, a digital marketing services company. For more information, please visit http://www.searchignite.com/.

- Online Advertising Veteran, Alistair Goodman, Joins Leading Location-Based Advertising Network, 1020 Placecast, as Chief Executive Officer
Alistair joins the 1020 Placecast team with more than 20 years experience in marketing and advertising across various industries. Prior to joining Exponential Interactive, the parent company of Tribal Fusion™, he led the North American business division for Corven, a UK-based management-consulting firm, where his clients included a variety of Fortune 500 companies. Formerly, Alistair served as Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Impli, a new media company specializing in retail environments. In his 7 plus years of online advertising experience with Tribal Fusion and other companies, Alistair built relationships with major retail chains, media companies and advertising agencies, many of which he will now draw upon in his role at Placecast.

Santa Monica, Calif. – September 30, 2008 – Adconion Media Group, (www.adconion.com) the independent global advertising network, today announced the launch of its new video content syndication offering, AMG-TV which allows creators and studios access to Adconion’s massive global network of publisher sites, advertiser and agency partners to broadly distribute and effectively monetize their premium Web video content.

Adconion’s launch of AMG-TV signals its innovative evolution from the traditional ad network model pairing advertisers with publisher sites, to a truly global distribution platform designed to monetize all types of audience-targeted, multimedia content. For Adconion’s ad agency partners, AMG-TV provides a scalable branded video solution paired with highquality original content and the ability to optimize campaigns across video, display and email. In addition, Adconion will provide advertisers and brands with a range of data on the performance of their campaigns and how new and existing customers are interacting with their messages.

Vuguru (www.vuguru.com), the Emmy®-nominated new media studio backed by Michael Eisner’s The Tornante Company, is the first production studio using Adconion’s AMG-TV to syndicate its new show Back on Topps beginning today. Back on Topps, a hilarious, behind-the-scenes journey into one of the world’s most recognizable sports companies, will premiere new episodes twice weekly online.

“AMG-TV is a boon to both creators and agencies and brings Adconion closer to fulfilling our vision of becoming the largest IPTV network by 2010,” said Tyler Moebius, Founder and CEO, Adconion. “We are breaking the stranglehold that YouTube and other video platforms have had on professional video creators and giving them broader, global distribution and a sales force dedicated to pairing their content with brand advertisers for greater monetization opportunities. We are essentially meeting Web video’s two greatest challenges to date: audience and monetization.”

“The partnership with Adconion’s AMG-TV will provide an optimal platform for Back on Topps to achieve an instant global footprint through Adconion’s network of publishers,” said Michael Eisner, The Tornante Company. “As Vuguru continues to create high-quality professionally-produced content for the Internet, it becomes vital to develop measurement platforms and distribution models that will help move the space forward.”

“AMG-TV offers agencies a one-stop solution that unites hard-to-find quality content with massive distribution for instantly scalable video campaigns,” said Keith Kaplan, President of North America, Adconion. “We understand that many of our agency partners – both digital and traditional – are not interested in sponsoring user-generated content, and we will continue to add premium branded video content that will be syndicated across our worldwide network of publishers.”

Adconion’s network reaches over 240 million unique users, or nearly one-third of the global Internet population, according to comScore.

About Adconion
Adconion Media Group is the only independent global advertising network. The company completed a record $80 million Series C round of funding led by Index Ventures in February 2008. Since its founding in 2005 Adconion has focused on the realization of performance-driven branding campaigns that deliver massive global reach. Adconion’s clients consist of advertising agencies and direct advertisers as well as its partner base of premium websites from a wide range of sectors. Adconion combines its in-house technology and high touch client service with quality media to exceed its partners’ campaign objectives. The company has offices around the world in London, Munich, Hamburg, Paris, Madrid, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Toronto, Santa Monica, San Diego, Chicago and Detroit. Adconion is a member of the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) and a founding member of IASH Europe. Visit Adconion at www.adconion.com.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Pontiflex, the first open and transparent cost per lead (CPL) market, today launched web based Pontiflex AdLeads, opening up CPL advertising to all online marketers. Through Pontiflex AdLeads, advertisers can run direct response and display advertising on a CPL pricing model and buy brand-specific marketing leads from the entire market. They pay only for qualified leads – not for clicks and impressions that might never convert – and increase returns on marketing dollars.

The end-to-end campaign planning, setup and optimization capabilities of Pontiflex AdLeads brings the power of CPL advertising to brand marketers and agencies of all sizes. In today’s tough economic climate, brand marketers have increased the emphasis on increasing ROI by engaging consumers at multiple touchpoints. Pontiflex AdLeads allows them to buy brand-specific leads and build community sites, newsletters, reward programs and member acquisition programs quickly and cost-effectively.

Pontiflex AdLeads is open and transparent. Because it is open, marketers and agencies can use it to manage all of their campaigns – including those not generated through Pontiflex – at no charge. This is especially useful for advertising agencies that can now centralize campaign management for multiple clients and accounts.

Because Pontiflex AdLeads is transparent, advertisers know where their campaigns are running. They can map leads to their sources, turn campaigns on and off with a click and increase returns even further.

Like they would for a search engine marketing campaign, marketers and agencies can log on to the Pontiflex AdLeads web interface, and automate every step of online advertising. By using Pontiflex AdLeads, online marketers can:

* Find publishers based on campaign goals
* Set up transparent CPL campaigns in less than fifteen minutes
* Create display creative and run it on a CPL pricing model
* Traffic creative to publishers and approve tests
* Optimize campaigns in real-time
* Pay only for leads from interested consumers

“By being able to pay only for qualified leads and not for clicks or impressions, a Cost-per-Lead pricing model makes complete sense for advertisers,” says Kurt Homfelt, President and CEO of Dunhill Vacations, one of the fastest growing web sites in the travel category. “Transparency is critical. Leads from Pontiflex have vastly outperformed any CPM and CPC campaigns that we have tested.”

“CPL advertising was always more cost-effective than online banner and search advertising,” said Zephrin Lasker, CEO & Co-founder Pontiflex. “But banner and search campaigns offered marketers and agencies the advantage of being able to centralize campaign management, which is great, especially for marketers with limited resources. With today’s announcement marketers and agencies can run cost-effective CPL campaigns as easily as they would a search campaign.”

For a demo on Pontiflex AdLeads, please visit the The Pontiflex CPL Blog. Additionally, the company will host a free webinar training session for online marketers and interactive agencies on September 17, 2008 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. EDT. The webinar is targeted towards online marketers looking to build a pipeline of qualified, brand-specific leads for their e-newsletters, community sites, reward programs and sales teams in a cost-effective way. To register for the webinar, please visit https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/635930187

Pontiflex raised $2.5M in Series A funding in April 2008 from leading venture capital funds New Atlantic Ventures (www.navfund.com) and Greenhill SAVP (www.gsavp.com).

About Pontiflex

Pontiflex is the first open cost per lead (CPL) market for publishers, advertisers and technology providers. Advertisers connect to brand-conscious consumers through Pontiflex and pay only for specific customer leads, not just clicks or impressions that might never convert.

Pontiflex has redefined consumer lead generation through CPL, the fastest growing segment in online advertising. The company makes advertising accountable by eliminating the traditional guesswork inherent in CPM and CPC models to give marketers leads they can trust.

- Advertising Agency 22squared: Banks Rank Among Lowest in Consumer Advocacy
22squared, one of the nation’s leading independent advertising agencies, announced today the release of its white paper Igniting Advocacy in Retail Banking. The results: After subtracting critics from advocates, banks’ True Advocacy™ score was 9 percent – significantly lower than the multi-category norm of 21 percent. The comparative verticals include: apparel retailers, airlines, mobile service providers, personal computers and personal care products.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today announced the full lineup of participants in this year’s MIXX (Marketing and Interactive Excellence) Conference and Expo, the Official Interactive Event of Advertising Week 2008 and the preeminent annual gathering of the interactive industry. Energizing this year’s event is a new theme, “Invention and Reinvention.” This fresh direction for MIXX 2008 spotlights the constant state of creation and evolution required of business leaders in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape.

Speakers are a “who’s who” of top marketers, advertising agency executives, publishers and industry gurus including:

* Deborah Meyer, Vice President and CMO, Chrysler LLC
* Tim Armstrong, President, Advertising and Commerce, North America and Vice President, Google Inc.
* David Kenny, Chairman & CEO, Digitas (A Publicis Company)
* Michael Linton, SVP & CMO eBay, Inc.
* Young-Bean Song, Director of Analytics & Atlas Institute, Microsoft Advertising
* Henry Blodget, Editor, Silicon Alley Insider
* Jacqueline Corbelli, Chairman & CEO, Brightline iTV Marketing Specialists
* Clay Shirky, Writer, Consultant, and Teacher on New Media and the Internet
* Charlie Rose, Emmy Award-winning journalist and host of the Charlie Rose Show
* Leslie Moonves, President and CEO, CBS Corporation
* Andrew Robertson, President and CEO, BBDO Worldwide

“This year’s MIXX captures the feverish pace of transformation happening in the media world today,” said IAB president and CEO Randall Rothenberg. “The interactive industry’s continual innovation forces each of us to evolve and change how we do business—media companies now behave like advertising agencies and marketers act like media companies. And MIXX this year will share the very best thinking from all parties in the ecosystem on how to reach and engage consumers today, which is truly our single biggest combined challenge.”

In addition to the lineup of keynotes, panels, breakout sessions, industry forecasts and an exhibit hall filled with an all-star line-up of vendors, MIXX 2008 offers its attendees an unrivaled opportunity to learn from senior marketers who will share case studies from across a variety of emerging platforms.

* How does a top advertising agency decipher the ad network landscape for its biggest clients?
* Internet Television: It’s not the future, it’s the present and the industry’s leaders will share how to do it right.
* Gaming: Reaching and engaging the toughest audiences
* The NHL and Dodge,: Learn how two giant brands converged interactively for a fully integrated digital video campaign.
* The Next Big Thing: See a series of rapid-fire demonstrations from companies on the bleeding edge of the interactive revolution.

For a full list of confirmed speakers and information on how to register, please visit www.mixx-expo.com.

The event takes place on September 22-23 at the Crowne Plaza Times Square and will culminate with the 2008 MIXX Awards Gala on the evening of September 23.

About the IAB:

Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net) represents over 375 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising. IAB members are responsible for selling over 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 evaluates and recommends standards and practices, fields interactive effectiveness research, and educates marketers, agencies, and media companies, as well as the wider business community, about the value of interactive advertising.

- Lijit Networks, Inc. Secures $7.1 Million Series C Investment Round Led by Foundry Group – Lijit Networks, Inc. (www.lijit.com), a company that provides search-powered applications for both individual online publishers and online publisher networks, announced today that it has closed a $7.1M series C round of financing, led by Foundry Group. Existing investors, Boulder Ventures and Colorado Fund I, managed by High Country Venture, also participated in the round. Lijit will use the proceeds from this financing to launch its search-powered ad network, which empowers publishers to sell their own search ad inventory, as well as to expand its offices and employee base.

- YuMe names online media veteran Michael Mathieu as CEO – Mathieu has joined as CEO as the company begins global expansion and growth and heightens its focus on building new relationships with advertising agencies and publishers. Co–founder and former CEO Jayant Kadambi will take on a new role as President and will remain a member of YuMe’s Board of Directors.

- Useful Networks acquires KnowledgeWhere, location-based mobile games and advertising leader: leading enablers of compelling location-based services (LBS) for mobile phones, announces today the acquisition of Canada-based KnowledgeWhere, a premier provider of location-aware mobile games, location-based advertising (LBA) and developer-enablement programs.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., August 4, 2008 – Brightcove Inc., the leading global Internet video platform, today announced that it has appointed technology industry leader and entrepreneur Hisashige Hashimoto as general manager of Brightcove KK, Brightcove’s Japan-based subsidiary. It was also announced that Web TV distribution giant, PRESENTCAST, has selected the Brightcove Internet video platform for gorin.jp, the exclusive online video portal in Japan for coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. gorin.jp is backed by all of Japan’s commercial television broadcasters.

As general manager, Mr. Hashimoto will lead Brightcove’s operations in Japan and drive overall customer acquisition efforts targeted at Japanese media companies and marketers. Mr. Hashimoto joins Brightcove after two years as president and chief executive officer of Paygent, a mobile auction escrow service he launched in 2006 and grew to 2,000 customers before leaving in 2008. Prior to Paygent, Mr. Hashimoto worked in three different senior management positions for Macromedia KK, helping lead the Education, Channel Marketing, and Platform Product Marketing divisions. Before Macromedia KK, Mr. Hashimoto spent 14 years with Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

“Since the establishment of Brightcove KK, we’ve seen tremendous interest in the Japanese market for our Internet video platform,” said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. “With the addition of Mr. Hashimoto as general manager and the signing of a highly prestigious first customer, Brightcove KK is poised for accelerated growth in Japan, contributing to our overall international expansion.”

PRESENTCAST, a joint venture formed in 2006 by leading television broadcasters and advertising agencies in Japan, will tap Brightcove as its Internet video platform for gorin.jp, the official website providing exclusive online video content in Japan from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. PRESENTCAST will program and distribute more than 200 advertising-supported video segments from the Games available online at gorin.jp from August 6 to September 23, 2008.

Financing officially closed for Brightcove’s majority-owned subsidiary in Japan (Brightcove KK) on July 18. On that date the entity was formally established in Japan with investments of $4.9 million from Dentsu, Inc., J-Stream, Inc., transcosmos, Inc. (transcosmos), and Cyber Communications, Inc. (CCI).

About gorin.jp
Gorin.jp was established by 132 commercial broadcasters around Japan as the official online video distribution website of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. From August 6 to September 23, 2008, this site will present to the Japanese online audience popular events and high-profile athletes in action and free of charge. The site will allow users who missed their favorite events to catch up, and will also show clips from events not aired in Japan. For more information, visit www.gorin.jp (Japanese content only).

About PRESENTCAST
PRESENTCAST INC. is a joint venture formed in April, 2006 by the leading broadcasters and advertising agencies in Japan. They include: Nippon Television Network Corporation., TOKYO BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INCORPORATED, Fuji Television Network, Inc., TV Asahi Corporation, TV TOKYO Corporation, DENTSU INC., Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Incorporated, ASATSU-DK INC. and Tokyu Agency Inc. PRESENTCAST INC. launched the TV DOGATCH service (http://dogatch.jp), in December 2006 to help navigate TV information and promote distribution of TV and TV related content via the Internet.

About Brightcove
Brightcove is the leading online video platform. Media companies, businesses and organizations worldwide use Brightcove to publish and distribute video that reaches more than 135 million unique viewers every month. Founded in 2004, Brightcove is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business with offices across North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.brightcove.com

Below is an example of an Eyeblaster fullscreen video ad developed for the movie “13th Street”, ad that ran in the Netherlands.

http://creativezone.eyeblaster.com/#ItemName=13th%20Street

It would’ve been nice if the ad stayed in its expanded window and not open a new browser window on its own, without user interaction.

Ad details:

Campaign: SCIFI – NBC Universal – May 07
Creative Agency: Easyconcepts NL
Media Agency: Mediaedge:cia NL
Advertiser: NBC Universal
Ad Format: Full Screen Video
Vertical: Entertainment
Country: Netherlands

Realogy is now able to serve targeted ads and online displays to valuable home buying and selling audiences, and enable each participating site to view measurable analytics around the success of campaigns. The advanced targeting capabilities of 24/7 Real Media will enable advertising agencies and advertisers to reach specific targets among Realogy’s over 5 million monthly unique users for the first time.

“We chose 24/7 to deliver this new advertising capability for our Web sites because of its proven experience and targeting capabilities,” said Cathy Hoag, Realogy vice president of marketing. “This partnership combines our leading online real estate destination sites, with 24/7’s reach and digital marketing expertise, to provide advertisers and agencies with a powerful marketing vehicle.”

Realogy will utilize the full extent of 24/7’s advertising operations, including ad serving, data analysis and ad representation, to form relationships with top-tier brands seeking engagement with its extensive audience of home buyers and sellers. Customization based on content, geography, demographics, psychographics and consumer interaction will enable advertisers to maximize reach to focused audiences. In addition, co-branded and integrated relationships, content sponsorships, video and other custom solutions will also provide advertisers with a variety of advertising opportunities and flexibility for simple implementation of any digital format.

“Our new relationship with Realogy strengthens our media network and vertical market offering, and gives advertisers exclusive access to exceptional residential real estate brands with extraordinary reach,” said Ari Bluman, Senior Vice President of North American Sales and Operations for 24/7 Real Media. “We look forward to delivering significant cost efficiencies and measurability for advertisers through these real estate properties, and will demonstrate the benefit of 24/7’s unique targeting and technology capabilities.”

For more information on 24/7’s media network, visit www.247realmedia.com.

About Realogy Corporation
Realogy Corporation, a global provider of real estate and relocation services, has a diversified business model that also includes real estate franchising, brokerage, relocation and title services. Realogy’s world-renowned brands and business units include Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, CENTURY 21®, Coldwell Banker®, Coldwell Banker Commercial®, The Corcoran Group®, ERA®, Sotheby’s International Realty®, NRT LLC, Cartus and Title Resource Group. Headquartered in Parsippany, N.J., Realogy (www.realogy.com) has approximately 13,000 employees.

About 24/7 Real Media, Inc.
24/7 Real Media, Inc. a WPP company, is the leading global digital marketing company, empowering advertisers and publishers to engage their target audiences with greater precision, transparency and ROI. Using its award winning ad serving, targeting, tracking and analytics platform, powerful search marketing technology and global network of specialized Web sites, the company has turned the art of reaching audiences across virtually any digital medium into a measurable science. The company is headquartered in New York, with 18 offices in 12 countries throughout North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, please visit www.247realmedia.com.
24/7 Real Media: The Science of Digital Marketing.

24/7 Real Media is a member of the NAI and adheres to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC. These principles are designed to help ensure Internet user privacy. For more information about online data collection associated with ad serving, including online preference marketing and an opportunity to opt-out of 24/7 Real Media cookies, go to: www.networkadvertising.org.

Santa Monica, Calif. – July 22, 2008 – Adconion Media Group, the only independent global advertising network, today announced it nearly doubled its U.S. audience reach year over year, posting 94 percent growth for a rate outpacing every top 10 network for which comScore data are available including Google, Specific Media, ValueClick Networks and Tribal Fusion. According to the same data, Adconion’s reach grew 27.4 percent from January-June 2008.

Adconion is now the eighth largest network in the United States reaching over 125 million unique Internet users in June 2008, or 66 percent of the market, according to comScore. Globally, Adconion reaches over 244 million unique users.

“Expanding our audience network’s reach is a crucial piece of our mission to be a true partner to agencies and marketers by offering both an independent, global perspective and tailored services to protect their brands and reach the right consumer across platforms” said Tyler Moebius, founder and chief executive officer of Adconion, based in Santa Monica.
“Adconion’s vastly increased reach both in the U.S. and globally contributed to revenue growth of 35 percent from Q1 to Q2 this year.”

Since completing a record $80 million Series C round of funding in February 2008 and subsequently acquiring leading direct marketer Frontline Direct in March, Adconion has invested heavily in the North American market, opening offices in Santa Monica, New York, Toronto, San Diego, Chicago and Detroit, in addition to steadily growing its dedicated global sales team. Adconion now employs nearly 250 people in 12 offices worldwide. “We are committed to closely collaborating with agencies and marketers to build lasting relationships with them and their brands,” said Keith Kaplan, Adconion’s President of North America, based in New York. “Our focus continues to be on growing our audience network by working with high quality publishers, developing proprietary audience targeting technology and further broadening our global footprint to enable our clients to reach their audience in the U.S. and around the world.”

About Adconion
Adconion Media Group is the only independent global advertising network. The company completed a record $80 million Series C round of funding led by Index Ventures in February 2008. Since its founding in 2005 Adconion has focused on the realization of performance-driven branding campaigns that deliver massive global reach. Adconion’s clients consist of advertising agencies and direct advertisers as well as its partner base of premium websites from a wide range of sectors. Adconion combines its in-house technology and high touch client service with quality media to exceed its partners’ campaign objectives. The company has offices around the world in London, Munich, Hamburg, Paris, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Toronto, Santa Monica, San Diego, Chicago and Detroit. Adconion is member of the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) and a founding member of IASH Europe. Visit Adconion at www.adconion.com.

“Joining the NAI supports our ongoing commitment to transparent business practices and the highest of standards, particularly when it comes to protecting consumers’ privacy,” stated Dilip DaSilva, founder and chief executive officer of Exponential Interactive. “We look forward to working with the NAI and serving as an industry leader to establish additional responsible business and data management practices.”

“We’re thrilled that Exponential has joined the NAI and is demonstrating its commitment to protecting consumer privacy,” said Trevor Hughes, executive director of the NAI. “The growing participation in the NAI validates the importance of developing responsible, consumer-focused industry standards. “

The NAI is a trade association for online marketing organizations. The NAI was formed in 1999 in response to consumer concerns over the use of profile-based targeted online advertising. The resulting set of self-regulatory principles remain a model for effective industry self regulation. The NAI Opt-out Tool was developed for the express purpose of allowing consumers to “opt out” of targeted advertising delivered by member ad networks. Consumers interested in opting out of receiving cookies from Exponential’s Tribal Fusion network can do so on the NAI Web site or by visiting from Exponential’s privacy policy page.

About Exponential™ Interactive, Inc.

Exponential is a technology-driven media services company that delivers innovative products and services offering various types of digital marketing to meet the demands of advertisers and publishers. Representing over 1,500 of the key vertical publishers on the Net today, and as the partner of choice for many of the world’s leading advertising agencies and advertisers for their online campaigns, the company offers a fully integrated suite of online advertising solutions, including brand and CPM advertising, performance marketing, lead generation, local search, online shopping portal and in-text solutions.

Each of Exponential’s businesses – Tribal Fusion®, FullTango®, LeadGenuity®, EchoTopic®– brings state-of-the-art optimization technology and expertise, generating 30 billion online ad impressions per month, reaching 70% of the US Internet users and 230 million consumers worldwide.

Exponential Interactive, Inc. is privately held and headquartered in Emeryville, CA and has offices throughout the United States and in London and India. For more information, please call 510.250.4018 or visit: http://www.exponential.com

About the NAI

The NAI (Network Advertising Initiative) is a cooperative of online marketing companies committed to building consumer awareness and establishing responsible business and data management practices and standards. As increasingly sophisticated online advertising technologies evolve, consumer concerns about their impact on online privacy mount. The NAI is prepared to meet these concerns with both effective industry self-regulation and sensible protections for online consumers. To learn more, visit www.networkadvertising.org.

NEW YORK – Ringleader Digital, the only third-party ad serving network for mobile devices, today announced that it will provide the mobile advertising platform for IAC Ad Solutions (IAC/AS) and its broad range of consumer brands. For Ringleader Digital, the IAC/AS relationship significantly increases its direct publisher network to include some of the most visited Web sites in North America. The deal also creates greater reach and return on investment for mobile advertising campaigns, the fastest growing segment of the advertising world.

“We’re committed to offering our brands and external marketers powerful advertising tools that leverage digital technology,” said Rich Stalzer, President of IAC/AS. “As the mobile ad market grows, and our audience reach extends, we want to make sure our inventory is filled by the right brands, and delivered to the right people. We believe our partnership with Ringleader Digital will help make this happen.”

Ringleader Digital’s next generation mobile advertising network allows advertising agencies and direct brands to easily extend their digital advertising initiatives to mobile. The company offers the only third-party mobile advertising service that delivers ads by device functionality, not just device type, among many other targeting parameters. This means that advertisers purchasing inventory on mobile sites in the IAC/AS network can be sure their ads are sent to their entire target demographic on any available mobile network. Advertisers are no longer limited by incompatible ad formats or costs associated with designing and serving up multiple ad formats.

“Our partnership with IAC/AS is yet another example of a world-class publisher endorsing our third-party approach to mobile advertising, which allows advertisers and agencies to efficiently and effectively deliver their online ads to mobile,” said Bob Walczak, CEO of Ringleader Digital. “Ringleader is pleased to be working with an interactive leader that positively impacts the way we live and communicate every day with digital technology.”

Additional inventory will be made available to advertisers as IAC Ad Solutions continues to roll out its brands’ mobile sites throughout the year.

About IAC Advertising Solutions

A division of IAC Search & Media, a wholly-owned business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI), IAC/AS offers innovative marketing opportunities across some of the world’s top interactive brands, including Citysearch, Match.com, Evite, Ticketmaster, Excite, Fun Web Products, IWON, and RealEstate.com. Display and interactive media, content and feature sponsorships, custom creative solutions, direct marketing, and mobile are just some of the ways IAC/AS helps marketers effectively engage their target audiences. Main office of IAC/AS is located in New York City. For more information please visit iacadvertising.com or phone 212-404-1000.

About Ringleader Digital

As the next-generation mobile advertising network, Ringleader Digital brings the online advertising experience to mobile–fulfilling the potential and promise of the mobile Web. Ringleader’s device-agnostic network is the only third-party mobile ad service, and is the first to specifically target ads by device functionality. Ringleader simplifies advertising transactions and delivery by providing brands and publishers the ability to seamlessly and simultaneously distribute ad campaigns across any mobile digital platform. With this unprecedented control, publishers maximize the revenue potential for ad campaigns while brands and advertisers can finally track and audit every element of a campaign’s effectiveness. Ringleader is based in New York City. For more information please visit www.ringleaderdigital.com.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time agencies, publishers and marketers have come together to referee a major advertising awards program,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB, the trade association for interactive media in the United States. “This unprecedented assembly of media and marketing professionals reflects our belief that success in interactive advertising is about the entire ecosystem collaborating to drive growth.”

Winners of the IAB’s 2008 MIXX Awards will be announced at a ceremony in New York City on Sept. 23, near the start of Advertising Week, a gathering of the media and marketing industries that typically draws 10,000 professionals to conferences, seminars, recruiting events, and parties celebrating advertising and its evolution.

Agencies, marketers and publishers are invited to submit entries in any of the 18 MIXX Awards categories from today through June 20.

In addition to the traditional categories—which include Brand Awareness and Positioning, Product Launch, Search Marketing and Digital Video, among others—the IAB called for entries to three new categories this year: Social Marketing, Widget Marketing and Brand Destination Site, reflecting the steady stream of innovation that has been a hallmark of the growth of interactive media.

The MIXX Awards are open to marketers and advertising agencies that have run any media, marketing or advertising campaign that was carried out during the qualifying period: April 1, 2007 through March 31, 2008. Full details and entry forms are available at www.iab.net.

Founded in 2005 to honor creativity and effectiveness in interactive advertising, the IAB’s MIXX Awards have grown into the premier honor in digital marketing. Last year’s MIXX Award winners included many of the most prominent brand marketers in the United States, including Anheuser Busch, American Airlines, The Coca-Cola Company, BMW, Royal Caribbean, Showtime and Unilever, as well as leading agencies such as Universal McCann, Ogilvy, McKinney, Digitas, BBDO and Mindshare. In 2007, the gala’s ultimate honor, Best in Show, went to Goodby, Silverstein, and Partners, San Francisco, for its super-rich media campaign for Hewlett-Packard, “The Computer is Personal Again.”

From the beginning, the MIXX Award judging panel was composed solely of executives from consumer marketing organizations. But with the guidance of its MIXX Awards Advisory Board, the IAB changed the panel’s composition to include agency and publisher executives, as well.

“Case studies increasingly show that digital marketing excellence requires marketing strategy, media channel and advertising content work intimately together,” Mr. Rothenberg said, “so having judges who represent these different spheres simply made sense.”

The 2008 MIXX Awards Judging Panel: Marketers:

- Carole Irgang – SVP, Integrated Marketing Communications, Kraft Foods
- David Roman – VP, WW Marketing Communications, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett-Packard Company
- Debbie Jo Severin – VP, Marketing, Covad Communications Group, Inc.
- Joseph Eibert – Executive Director, Interactive Marketing, Warner Home Video
- Cheryl Guerin – VP, Promotions & Interactive, MasterCard Worldwide
- Carol Kruse – VP, Global Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company
- Arjen Linders – VP of Marketing, Philips DAP N.A.
- Tim Murphy – Senior Director Digital Marketing, Anheuser-Busch
- Jenny Howell – Manager of Interactive Marketing, American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

Agencies:

- Jean-Philippe Maheu – Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy North America
- Alan Schulman – SVP, Executive Creative Director, Executive Director of User Experience, imc2
- Marty Cooke – Chief Creative Officer, SS+K
- Hans Neubert – Executive Creative Director, Avenue A | Razorfish
- Michael Prieve – Chief Creative Officer, Doremus New York
- Baba Shetty – EVP Chief Media Officer, Hill, Holiday Advertising

Publishers:

- Suzie Reider – Director of Advertising, YouTube
- Lauren Wiener – SVP, Meredith Interactive Media
- Mark D’Arcy – Chief Creative Officer, Time Warner Global Media Group
- Jane Grenier – VP, CondéNet
- Heidi Browning – SVP, Client Solutions, FOX Interactive Media
- Wonya Lucas – EVP & Chief Marketing Officer, Discovery Communications
- David Sturman – Chief Technology Officer for Massive (A Microsoft Company)

Other:

- Todd Wasserman – Editor, Brandweek

To view the complete gallery of the 2007 MIXX Finalists, please visit: www.mixx-awards.com/gallery

About the IAB:
Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net) represents over 375 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising. IAB members are responsible for selling over 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the continuing 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 evaluates and recommends standards and practices, fields interactive effectiveness research, and educates marketers, agencies, and media companies, as well as the wider business community, about the value of interactive advertising

IAB Media Contact:
Marla Nitke
Director, Marketing Communications
212.380.4714
marla@iab.net

- Cover standard Web applications including e-mail, static and dynamic Web pages and address ad formats such as banners and buttons as well as transitional and various over-the-page units such as floating ads, page take-overs and tear-backs.
- Redefine rich media so that ads must be interactive aside from the ability to click-through in order to be categorized as rich media.
- Offer clear guidance on file weights and animation lengths for both rich and non-rich media online ads.

“Marketers understand that in the new digital ecosystem, the consumer expects an enhanced level of interaction and engagement with both content and advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “By defining certain ad formats and offering creative guidance for execution, we are paving the way for even greater adoption by marketers and ongoing innovation by agencies and publishers—that’s exciting for the industry and consumers.”

“The IAB Rich Media and Ad Unit Guidelines are vital to developing consistency within our industry, as well as fostering relationships between publishers and clients in regards to creative submission and creative acceptance,” said Shell Saras, Creative Services Manager, weather.com. “As an industry, if we focus on adhering to initiatives like these guidelines, marketers and clients will have a creative specification resource that is consistently accepted by major participating publishers.”

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.

- To comment on the Ad Unit Guidelines please go to www.iab.net/Ad_Unit.
- To comment on the Rich Media Creative Guidelines, please go to www.iab.net/Rich_Media.

After the 30-day comment period, the feedback will be reviewed and the guidelines will be finalized and publicly released.

About the IAB:
Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net) represents over 375 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising. IAB members are responsible for selling over 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the continuing 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 evaluates and recommends standards and practices, fields interactive effectiveness research, and educates marketers, agencies, and media companies, as well as the wider business community, about the value of interactive advertising

IAB Media Contact:
Marla Nitke
Director, Marketing Communications
212.380.4714
marla@iab.net

Redwood City, CA—April 28, 2008 —YuMe, the largest dedicated video ad network on the Web, today announced it has begun early beta testing of its AdMe Campaign Window, the first desktop utility that will allow advertisers to monitor and optimize online video ad campaigns across the net in real-time.

“We’re building tools like AdMe to help advance advertisers’ ability to manage, track and evaluate campaigns in the field rather than just evaluating a report after a campaign has run,” said Jayant Kadambi, CEO and co–founder of YuMe. “AdMe is going to be an important tool in helping advertisers optimize video ad campaigns across the Web to ensure delivery and performance metrics are met throughout the lifecycle of a campaign.”

YuMe’s new AdMe Campaign Window will display the current status of an advertiser’s online video campaign and offer alerts when campaigns are underperforming. Initially, AdMe will track campaigns running on the YuMe platform and shortly thereafter advertisers will be able to view real–time data on campaigns running on any site or network.

AdMe is an important advancement in bringing transparency to online video advertising campaigns. Only YuMe offers advertisers the ability to centrally measure and manage campaigns right from their desktop, making it easy to see which placements are live the day of launch, how the campaign is pacing against delivery goals and to evaluate and optimize a campaign’s performance based on quantified results.

The company will test the new desktop analytics tool with several leading advertising agencies in the coming weeks and will release the product to the industry in the third quarter of this year.

About YuMe
YuMe is the largest dedicated online video ad network and ad management system. With 400+ websites, more than 150 million video streams, and 46.9 million unique visitors, the YuMe network provides both audience scale and quality reach for advertisers. The YuMe ad management system gives advertisers and publishers the unprecedented ability to identify, classify, and track content to ensure brand safety, contextual relevance, controlled syndication, and consistent delivery across all digital media platforms—Web, downloads, mobile, and IPTV. Key YuMe innovations include the first cross–platform ad solution and the ability to serve multiple ad formats and placements through a single, unified system. YuMe is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, CA and backed by Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners, BV Capital and DAG Ventures.

For more information, visit YuMe’s website at www.yume.com and the take2video blog at www.yume.com/blog.

“LookSmart’s AdCenter platform allows us to create custom distribution channels for our customers, and our expanding global network provides the scale that our customers need,” said Jonathan Ewert, General Manager of LookSmart’s Advertising Networks. “Our expansion beyond North America allows us to provide even more value to our advertisers and network partners.”

LookSmart offers advertisers the ability to reach Internet users in the United States and Canada as well as Australia and the United Kingdom through the enhanced geo-targeting features built into its AdCenter technology platform.

Advertisers can manage their own campaigns through LookSmart’s easy-to-use, intuitive self-service ad serving interface or work directly with hands-on campaign managers skilled at optimizing campaign performance and maximizing ROI. Geo-targeting features have also been added to LookSmart’s widely-adopted open API, enabling bid management companies and advertising agencies to connect with more buyers in a highly targeted way.

The same technology and tools that create custom distribution channels on LookSmart’s advertising network are available to publishers who license the white label AdCenter platform. “Publishers make significant investments in building qualified audiences that are attractive to advertisers. LookSmart helps publishers segment their audiences to attract advertising campaigns that are highly relevant and will accelerate revenue,” Ewert added.

Working with LookSmart and other leading search providers, Excite Corporation connects advertisers to over 20 million monthly searches in the Australian and New Zealand market.

“Excite is thrilled with the success of our network’s expansion into the US and UK markets with LookSmart and we welcome their presence in Australia.” said Evan Balafas, Managing Director of Excite Corporation. “Revenue has been driven by the exceptional account management and customer service and we look forward to being one of their largest partners in the coming weeks.”

About LookSmart

LookSmart provides premium and performance advertising solutions for advertisers and publishers. LookSmart offers advertisers targeted pay-per-click (PPC) search advertising, contextual search advertising, and display banner advertising via its Advertiser Networks; and licenses its white label AdCenter technology to top publishers, search engines, media companies, social networking sites, retail sites, directories, ISPs and portals to manage advertiser relationships and third-party feeds within an auction platform. LookSmart is based in San Francisco, California. For more information, visit www.looksmart.com or call 415-348-7500.

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.

Users on LSN’s Local Wireless([R]) network can access news, streaming video, weather, finance, sports and more from more than 140 local affiliates by accessing www.localwireless.com through their mobile devices.

“With Ringleader Digital’s ability to integrate with existing online ad campaigns, rolling out multi-channel campaigns locally through mobile advertising is now a one-step process for advertisers,” said Bob Walczak, CEO of Ringleader. “And, through our relationship with LSN, our ad network now includes access to the most watched media in local markets nationwide. Our rapidly growing list of premium brands can finally leverage some of the most desirable ad inventory in local advertising.”

“We look forward to being a part of Ringleader Digital’s next generation advertising network and to benefiting from a third-party ad serving model that will help mobile advertising finally take off,” said Lee Durham, CEO of LSN. “During our thorough search for a mobile ad network, we looked at numerous vendors. Only Ringleader was able to provide a timely solution that made mobile ad serving simple and effective. Ringleader provides us with full end-to-end control and insight into all of our mobile advertising campaigns.”

Ringleader is witnessing a growing demand for larger and more expansive campaigns across multiple platforms as brand managers become more aware of the lucrative mobile Web experience. The company’s technical capability to break through common mobile ad barriers has already won the attention of major brands such as Best Western and Absolut.

“In 2005, the typical mobile purchase was only $5,000 to $10,000 per campaign,” said Mark Pearlstein, Vice President of Business Development at Ringleader. “However, as of last year, it increased from $50,000 to $100,000. Now in 2008, we are seeing mobile click-through rates at two to three percent, and advertisers are taking notice with campaign proposals in the seven figures.”

Ringleader’s next generation mobile advertising network works with publishers, carriers and advertising agencies to extend the online advertising experience to mobile. Ringleader has created a device-agnostic network that is the only third-party mobile advertising service to specifically deliver ads by device functionality. This means that Ringleader can seamlessly deliver ads on any available mobile network and distribute ads that work best with an end-user’s device.

About LSN

LSN works with leading television stations and broadcast groups to deliver local content to mobile users across all U.S. wireless carriers. LSN has the nation’s largest network of local media news content in both English and Spanish – currently offering news, weather, sports and more in over 140 local market affiliates across the country. For more information please visit http://www.lsnmobile.com/.

About Ringleader Digital

As the next-generation mobile advertising network, Ringleader Digital brings the online advertising experience to mobile–fulfilling the potential and promise of the mobile Web. Ringleader’s device-agnostic network is the only third-party mobile ad service, and is the first to specifically target ads by device functionality. Ringleader simplifies advertising transactions and delivery by providing brands and publishers the ability to seamlessly and simultaneously distribute ad campaigns across any mobile digital platform. With this unprecedented control, publishers maximize the revenue potential for ad campaigns while brands and advertisers can finally track and audit every element of a campaign’s effectiveness. Ringleader is based in New York City. For more information please visit www.ringleaderdigital.com.

EMERYVILLE, CA –March 19, 2008 – Exponential™ Interactive, Inc., the technology-driven media services company that delivers innovative products and services to meet the demands of advertisers and publishers, today released research about buyer perceptions of online video advertising. In an unprecedented industry move, Exponential employed a research study of 100 premier advertising agency media planners and buyers to better understand the barriers to buying and delivering video ads on the Internet.

Exponential’s research revealed several significant findings, most notably, the difference between those who have and have not purchased online video. Experience buying video changes perceptions of the format greatly — those who have purchased and run online video campaigns are most concerned with operational issues and the smooth delivery of campaigns. Those who have not yet bought appear to be questioning the end user’s overall experience.

“As a leader in online advertising, it is incumbent upon us to understand the thinking around buying online video. This research confirms the complexity of executing an online video buy at scale, and reveals many of the challenges the industry still needs to resolve in order to effectively support advertisers,” said Dilip DaSilva, Exponential’s founder and CEO. “The insights reveal opportunities for new innovation, as well as the need for standardization and education to meet the demands of the marketplace and advance the industry overall.”

Additional conclusions from the research:

* Pre-roll still remains the dominant, most commonly used format. Buyers do not perceive it as too intrusive, as some have reported.
* High prices for top tier video placements, often cited as a barrier, are a distant concern behind content quality, targeting capabilities, branding opportunities and reporting.
* Despite the buzz about the lack of standardization in online video metrics, those who have bought online video on average use three types of measurement: unique viewers who viewed ads, clicks/cost per click and length of time spent viewing ads. They report satisfaction with these metrics.

This research also provides insights into how agencies can leverage video, and what providers need to do to make the buying experience easier. Additionally, the detailed data compiled in Exponential’s study produced a consensus among advertisers about the need to create standards for online video advertising. Standards for buying, creating and measuring online video ads are essential to industry growth, removing barriers to widespread adoption of video as part of the online marketing mix.

Exponential employed third-party vendor, iModerate®, to conduct the online survey using a hybrid interviewing technique to collect qualitative and quantitative data. There were 100 completed surveys and several dozen chats conducted with advertising/media agency executives who met the following criteria:

* Their advertising or media agency must be involved in online/interactive advertising
* Their company must have online media department and respondent must be part of the department
* Must be the decision maker/participate in a decision in regards to purchasing media for online advertising campaigns
* 50 respondents have purchased/influenced the purchase of online video ads in the past 12 months

“The good news is that media planners who have tried online video as part of their campaigns have found it to be a valuable tool to reaching critical audiences. As an industry, we just need to make it possible for more people to try it,” DaSilva added.

According to eMarketer, video ad sales are expected to grow from an estimated $775 million in 2007 to $3.1 billion in 2010 and then to $4.3 billion in 2011. In addition, a Forrester Research study found that more than half of adults (53% of consumers 18 and older) say that they view online video.

About Exponential™ Interactive, Inc.

Exponential™ is a technology-driven media services company that delivers innovative products and services offering various types of digital marketing to meet the demands of advertisers and publishers. Representing over 1,500 of the key vertical publishers, and as the partner of choice for many of the world’s leading advertising agencies and advertisers for their online campaigns, the company offers a fully integrated suite of online advertising solutions, including brand and CPM advertising, performance marketing, lead generation, local search, online shopping portal and contextual solutions.

Each of Exponential’s businesses – Tribal Fusion®, FullTango™, LeadGenuity®, EchoTopic™ – brings state-of-the-art optimization technology and expertise, generating 30 billion online ad impressions per month, reaching 75% of the US Internet and 230 million consumers worldwide.

Exponential™ Interactive, Inc. is privately held and headquartered in Emeryville, CA and has offices throughout the United States and in London and India. For more information, please call 510.250.4018 or visit: http://www.exponential.com

NEW YORK, NY – March 11, 2008 – The Online Publishers Association (OPA) today announced that its 3rd annual global forum will feature CEOs and top marketing and media executives from advertising agencies, publishers, and global brands. Among the topics that will be addressed at OPA ’08 London: Forum for the Future include leveraging innovation to increase value, the mobile Web, online video advertising, marketing to the social Web, and more.

Among the confirmed speakers for the event, which will take place at the Landmark Hotel in London from May 14-16, 2008, are:

Chris Ahern – Reuters Media; President
Saul J. Berman – IBM; Global Strategy & Change Services Leader 
Dr. Scott Gallacher – BskyB; Director of Online & Partner Marketing
Alex Hungate – HSBC Holdings; Head of Personal Financial Services and Marketing 
Carol Kruse – Coca-Cola; VP of Global Interactive Marketing 
Andy Lark – Dell Inc., VP Global Communications & Marketing 
Caroline Little – CEO and Publisher, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive 
Tero Ojanperä – Nokia; Executive VP, Entertainment and Communities 
Simon Pestridge – Nike, Marketing Director 
Mark Read – WPP; Director of Strategy 
Dr. Stefan Roppel – Holtzbrinck eLAB; CEO 
Doug Scott – Ogilvy Entertainment; Senior Partner and Executive Director 
Rishad Tobaccowala – Publicis Groupe; CEO, Denuo and Chief Innovation Officer
For a full list of speakers, visit www.online-publishers.org/globalforum
In two days of speeches, panel discussions and case studies, the event will address pressing topics in digital media, including:

The Business Model and Monetization of Media: Transforming the economics of a media business and leveraging innovation.
The Internationalization of Global Media Brands: How major media brands are extending their reach beyond local borders.
Marketing to the Social Web: How digital customer communities build businesses.
Managing a Global Brand: What marketers are doing to leverage online media to build global brands.
The Mobile Platform: What media companies, suppliers and marketers should do to scale their mobile business.
Getting Beyond Pre-roll: How marketers and publishers are building innovative video formats.
The Future of Media: Inspiration, irritation and illumination.
Additional details and registration information can be found at: www.online-publishers.org/globalforum.

What: OPA ’08 London: Forum for the Future
Who: Advertising and Media Executives From Around the Globe
When: May 14 to May 16, 2008
Where: The Landmark London Hotel, 222 Marylebone Road, London NW1 6JQ, United Kingdom

About the OPA

Founded in June 2001, the Online Publishers Association is an industry trade organization whose mission is to advance the interests of high-quality online publishers before the advertising community, the press, the government and the public. Members of OPA represent the standards in Internet publishing with respect to editorial quality and integrity, credibility and accountability. OPA member sites have a combined, unduplicated reach of 131.7 million visitors, or 73% percent of the total U.S. Internet audience (Source: comScore Media Metrix, July 2007 combined home/work/university data). For more information, go to www.online-publishers.org.

New York, N.Y. – March 6, 2008 – Adconion Media Group, the global independent online advertising network, today announced it has acquired Frontline Direct, a leading data management and direct marketing solutions provider for $20 million in cash and equity. Frontline has longstanding relationships with leading companies – including ConsumerInfo.com, Inc., an Experian® company and Reunion.com – as well as top interactive advertising agencies.

“Beginning with my days as one of the first employees of Avenue A and through the founding of Adconion the vision has always been to enable advertising agencies and marketers to reach the same consumer across platforms,” said Tyler Moebius, founder and chief executive officer of Adconion. “Integrating Frontline’s technology with our own and taking it global as part of our independent network is a significant step towards that goal.”

The acquisition of Frontline, including its proprietary data management technology, email products and 25 employees, fuels Adconion’s rapid expansion into North America, including the planned opening of a new office in San Diego; Adconion currently has offices in New York and Toronto in addition to North American headquarters in Santa Monica. Globally, Frontline further enhances Adconion’s offering of global performance branded solutions to advertising agencies and marketers worldwide, including audience targeting, video and email.

“Adconion arms agencies with the technology solutions necessary to compete in the evolving media and advertising landscape, and we recognize that audience targeting is an important element of campaigns that advertising agencies are designing on behalf of their clients’ brands,” said Keith Kaplan, Adconion’s president of North America. “Nevertheless, we are extremely committed to respecting personal privacy; we already adhere to the stringent European privacy standards and will continue to respect those high standards wherever we do business.”

“Adconion is technologically and strategically a natural partner for Frontline,” said Kim Reed Perell, chief executive officer of Frontline Direct. “As part of Adconion’s independent global network we can instantly enhance our existing offerings for our clients and enable them to reach a much broader audience both here in the U.S. and abroad.”
Frontline Direct was represented by KPMG Corporate Finance in the transaction.

About Adconion:
Adconion Media Group is an international, independent Advertising Network which completed a record $80 million Series C round of funding led by Index Ventures in February 2008. Since its founding in 2005 the company has focused on the realization of performance-driven branding campaigns that deliver massive global reach. Adconion’s clients consist of advertising agencies and direct advertisers as well as its partner base of premium websites from a wide range of sectors. Adconion combines its in-house technology and high touch client service with quality media to exceed its partners’ campaign objectives. Adconion has offices around the world in London, Munich, Hamburg, Paris, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Toronto and Santa Monica. Adconion is member of the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) and a founding member of IASH Europe.

Visit Adconion at www.adconion.com.

Redwood City, CA— February 26, 2008— YuMe, the largest online video advertising network, today announced the addition of PointRoll’s TickerBoy video solution to its expansive selection of offerings available to advertisers. The in-stream video overlay ad unit is powered by the “TickerBoy” technology developed by PointRoll, the leading provider of rich media technology solutions, as another creative alternative to pre-roll ads. YuMe will also support PointRoll’s suite of rich media ad formats and has joined PointRoll’s select Included Program to open the door for a wider range of opportunities as well as significant cost savings for advertising agencies and their clients.

As online video grows in popularity among consumers, advertisers are seeking new and creative ways to reach this key audience in a non-intrusive, fully interactive manner. PointRoll’s TickerBoy technology enables an interactive banner ad to be integrated within a streaming video, without obstructing the viewing experience. When the ad overlay is clicked on by a consumer, the ticker expands to launch a video or interactive rich media ad within the player window while the video pauses.

“TickerBoy lets advertisers provide consumers with a fully interactive, branded dialogue that complements their online video experience rather than distracting from it,” said Jayant Kadambi, CEO of YuMe. “We’re pleased to expand our growing roster of innovative ad products with this new format, and to be the first video advertising network to offer our clients the benefits afforded by membership in PointRoll’s Included Program.”

With more than 30 members, including iVillage, AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, About.com, NYTimes.com, Walt Disney Internet Group, MySpace, IGN and Advertising.com, PointRoll’s Included Program makes discounted pricing available for advertisers seeking to adopt rich media solutions. By collaborating with online publishers who understand the strategic value of rich media, PointRoll removes traditional price and distribution barriers often encountered in such initiatives. PointRoll’s large agency/advertiser sales force leverages the Included Program in the thousands of sales calls the company conducts each year, acting as an extension of the publisher’s sales force and providing access to a broader range of advertising media buys.

“We are thrilled to have YuMe as a strong video partner in the Included Program. In-stream video advertising is on the rise and marketers are increasingly utilizing online advertising with video as a key brand vehicle,” said Jason Tafler, CEO of PointRoll. “TickerBoy creates a deeper, longer brand dialogue that encourages participation without being disruptive to the user, and we believe this will benefit advertisers and publishers in the YuMe network.”

TickerBoy will also now be supported by YuMe’s Adaptive Campaign Engine (ACE), a recently launched feature of YuMe’s ad management system, which helps publishers in its network match each video ad impression with the best money-making ad placement in real time. A unique capability of YuMe’s platform, ACE supports the delivery of ads from multiple sources: publisher sales team, YuMe sales team, third-party ad networks, third-party syndication feeds, and now PointRoll’s TickerBoy and rich media ad formats. With this announcement, YuMe adds yet another option to its leading ad management platform to help publishers maximize inventory revenue.

To view demos of the various ad placements available on the YuMe video network, including TickerBoy, visit the ad gallery at http://www.yume.com/ad_gallery/gallery.html.

About PointRoll

PointRoll, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), offers a solution to the limited performance of standard banner ads by effectively bringing a mini-website to the user without requiring a click. PointRoll’s superior rich media technology and service enable advertisers to connect with consumers by creating an interactive online environment that generates conversion. With interactive features such as streaming video, polling, instant email, data collection and more, marketers can easily create and deliver ads that build brand and drive sales. The result: great creative controlled by the user and improved ad effectiveness without the negative experience associated with intrusive technologies. Additionally, PointRoll delivers comprehensive, real-time reporting that definitively illustrates return on investment. For more information, please visit www.pointroll.com

About YuMe

YuMe is the first dedicated video advertising network and ad management system built exclusively for the new world of Web video. With 400+ websites, more than 150 million video streams, and 46.9 million unique visitors, the YuMe network provides both scale and quality for advertisers. The YuMe ad management system gives advertisers and publishers the unprecedented ability to identify, classify, and track content to ensure brand safety, contextual relevance, controlled syndication, and consistent delivery across all digital media platforms—Web, downloads, mobile, and IPTV. Key YuMe innovations include the first cross-platform ad solution and the ability to serve multiple ad formats and placements through a single, unified system. YuMe is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, CA and backed by Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners, BV Capital and DAG Ventures. For more information, visit YuMe’s website at www.yume.com and the take2video blog at www.yume.com/blog.

In recent months, three year-old Adconion, which has existing operations throughout Europe and Australia, has assembled its North American management team from a roster of industry veterans responsible for creating and managing some of the world’s most-recognized Internet advertising companies including DoubleClick, MSN, Yahoo, IAC and Avenue A (now Avenue A/Razorfish). Adconion CEO and Founder, Tyler Moebius was himself a Series A investor and early employee of Avenue A. An undisclosed minority percentage of the total capital raised during this $80M round will fund Adconion’s continued global expansion throughout North America and Asia. The strategic decision by Index Ventures, which counts Skype, MySQL, Last.fm, Netvibes, Joost and Spot Runner among its portfolio of successful technology companies, to invest in Adconion was informed by the company’s unique value proposition to marketers seeking not only domestic, but global ad distribution through a single, independent network that reaches nearly 200 million unique Internet users worldwide (ComScore January 2008).

“At the risk of sounding cliché, the modern business landscape is irrefutably global in scale and that is due primarily to the opportunities created by the Internet,” said Moebius. “Agencies choose to partner with Adconion because their clients are likely in a position where doing business internationally is either business as usual or a strategic opportunity for growth. This generous investment from Index and Wellington will position Adconion alongside the portals on marketer’s short-lists for global distribution partners.” “Adconion has the relationships, the industry expertise and the best-in-class technology becoming of a future market leader in technology’s hottest growth sector,” said Dom Vidal, Partner, Index Ventures. “Our experience as investors in the advertising space enables us to support Adconion in continuing its rapid expansion throughout North America and to further build its global presence.”

“Tyler and his team have done an outstanding job building a truly global online advertising network,” said Frank Boehnke, Wellington Partners. “We are very excited to continue to work with Tyler and Adconion on one of the most exciting growth stories in the global marketplace.”

About Adconion
Adconion Media Group is an international, independent Advertising Network. Since its founding in 2005 the company has focused on the realization of performance-driven branding campaigns that deliver massive global reach. Adconion’s clients consist of advertising agencies and direct advertisers as well as its partner base of premium websites from a wide range of sectors. Adconion combines its in-house technology and high touch client service with quality media to exceed its partners campaign objectives. Adconion has offices around the world in London, Munich, Hamburg, Paris, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Toronto and Santa Monica. Adconion is member of the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) and a founding member of IASH Europe. Visit Adconion at www.adconion.com.

About Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a leading European venture capital firm active in technology venture investing since 1996. The firm is dedicated to helping top entrepreneurial teams in the Information Technology and Life Science sectors build their companies into market defining global leaders. The firm has offices in Geneva, London and Jersey and focuses on investments from seed through growth stage companies. Recent exits include Skype (the pioneering communications company acquired by eBay); MySQL (the world’s most popular open source database recently acquired by Sun), Last.fm (the world’s largest social music platform, recently acquired by CBS) and BioXell (BIOX, floated on the SWX in 2007). For more information, please visit www.indexventures.com.

About Wellington Partners
Wellington Partners ranks among the most successful pan-European venture capital firms. With € 800 million under management and offices in London, Munich and Zurich, the firm invests into opportunities throughout Europe that have the potential to become global leaders, mainly in the areas of Information Technology, Media Convergence and Life Science. Wellington Partners has invested in more than 100 companies in Europe and Israel, including now publicly traded Actelion, SAF and XING, successful privately held companies like Alando (acquired by eBay) and ImmobilienScout24 (acquired by Deutsche Telekom) as well as current portfolio companies like Adconion Astaro, Questico and Truphone. For more information, please visit www.wellingtonpartners.com.

NEW YORK – Ringleader Digital, formerly known as MoPhap, today announced a $6 million Series A Round of venture funding led by W2 Group, a next-generation marketing services company. Ringleader will use the infusion of capital to continue building out its premium mobile advertising network, bolster corporate development and increase global marketing efforts. For W2 Group, the investment is yet another indicator of the organization’s aptitude for identifying and advancing the next disruptor in the digital mobile space. The strategic value in this partnership for Ringleader is the relationships that can be leveraged in the W2 top-tier portfolio of technology and healthcare clients.

As of today, Ringleader falls under the W2 umbrella of next generation companies offering a range of advertising, communications and marketing services to a long list of technology and healthcare clients.

“Ringleader is the first mobile advertising network that finally fulfills the promise and potential of the Mobile Web,” said Larry Weber, CEO of W2 Group. “Right now, other mobile advertising networks are complicated, segmented and filled with guess work and administrative headaches. Ringleader takes online advertising and puts it on mobile devices. It doesn’t get less complicated than that.”

Common mobile advertising practices typically require the use of server-side software that inherently brings exclusivity to inventory access. Also, mobile ads are often limited by different device requirements. The result is a complex and costly mobile advertising experience that requires multiple relationships between publishers, ad servers, ad networks and sometimes carriers for one single campaign. With delivery of third-party ad serving, Ringleader eliminates all of these complications.

Ringleader’s next generation mobile advertising network works with publishers, carriers and advertising agencies to extend the online advertising experience to mobile. Ringleader has created a device-agnostic network that is the only third-party mobile advertising service to specifically deliver ads by device functionality. This means that Ringleader can seamlessly deliver ads on any available mobile network and distribute ads that work best with an end-user’s device. For example, Ringleader would only serve a video ad to a phone capable of playing it.

“Ringleader can increase the value of an advertiser’s inventory by providing a solution that generates higher fill rates,” said Bob Walczak, CEO of Ringleader. “But, perhaps our biggest value to our customers is the ability to integrate Ringleader into their current online campaign management systems. This gives our customers the same control and insight into their mobile advertising that they already experience with their Web campaigns.”

Ringleader has already delivered mobile campaigns for brands such as Best Western, Absolut and Blu-Ray.

About Ringleader Digital

As the next-generation mobile advertising network, Ringleader Digital brings the online advertising experience to mobile–fulfilling the potential and promise of the mobile Web. Ringleader’s device-agnostic network is the only third-party mobile ad service, and is the first to specifically target ads by device functionality. Ringleader simplifies advertising transactions and delivery by providing brands and publishers the ability to seamlessly and simultaneously distribute ad campaigns across any mobile digital platform. With this unprecedented control, publishers maximize the revenue potential for ad campaigns while brands and advertisers can finally track and audit every element of a campaign’s effectiveness. Ringleader is based in New York City. For more information please visit www.ringleaderdigital.com.

About W2 Group, Inc.

W2 Group is a global marketing services ecosystem that helps CMOs in their new role as builders of communities and content aggregators. W2 Group companies, including Digital Influence Group and Racepoint Group, are leaders in social media marketing in both paid and unpaid media.