BARCELONA, Spain – Prospects for mobile advertising in 2009 are promising despite the economic downturn, but realism is called for, says Analysys Mason, the global telecoms adviser during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The current economic downturn is placing significant pressure on the global advertising market. Consumers will be spending more time at home, and looking for free and inexpensive entertainment and information. Advertisers require high-impact media that are highly engaging and highly personal in order to deliver the best value for money. Mobile advertising has the potential to address both of these needs effectively.

“For mobile, the downturn creates a conflicting set of pressures. On the positive side, mobile advertising will benefit indirectly from the accelerating shift of advertising spend from traditional to digital media, particularly as consumer take-up of mobile entertainment services grows in line with greater take-up of 3G,” explains Alexandra Rehak, Principal Analyst at Analysys Mason.

Analysys Mason forecasts that, by 2012, mobile advertising will account for over 4% of total advertising spend in European countries that have relatively high mobile penetration and 3G network coverage, and for as much as 2% of advertising spend in emerging Central and Eastern European economies.

“However, for most players in mobile content markets, it is unrealistic to expect significant amounts of revenue from mobile advertising in the short-to-medium term,” explains Rehak. “The current economic environment will restrict investment in new technologies and services, and limit advertisers’ appetites for untested propositions, as well as potentially constraining consumer spend on new mobile content services that could support advertising, and on higher-spec mobile devices that support richer mobile entertainment applications.”

In order to survive the difficult economic conditions, mobile operators and their advertising partners should bear in mind the following trends.

* Search advertising will become a key platform on mobile. Major online search players, such as Google and Yahoo!, are better placed to attract mobile advertising spend than new entrants or mobile-only players, at least in the short term.
* Producers of highly popular branded content will look to capitalise on brand by selling mobile advertising directly. For example, UK pay-TV provider BSkyB began offering mobile display advertisements in November 2008, served on its mobile sports and news syndicated services.
* Developing markets and 16–25 year-old users will be particularly responsive to mobile advertising. Attention has centred on targeting advertisements by subscriber interests or behaviour, but simpler targeting (by consumer age or level of market development) can be very effective as a lower-cost starting point.
* Ad-funded services and applications will be a significant growth area. As consumers tighten their budgets, ad-funded or ad-subsidised games, music, video and even messaging services on the mobile present excellent opportunities for advertisers to reach targeted audiences.

“The market will experience something of a breathing period now, as advertising buyers reconfigure advertising budgets to suit the new economic conditions, and mobile operators focus on keeping subscribers on board and happy. To the extent that mobile advertising can help facilitate this, in a manner that is both attractive and highly cost effective from the advertiser’s perspective, all parties will benefit from its growth,” explains Rehak.

For more information and analysis of the mobile advertising and mobile content markets, please visit our website at www.analysysmason.com. Relevant work includes:

* Service Provide Strategies for Mobile Advertising: Case Studies – Analysys Mason Research Report
* Consumer Content and Applications Research Programme – Analysys Mason Research Programme

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – ChoiceStream, the premier personalization service provider for the world’s largest retail and entertainment brands, including Tesco, Overstock.com, Borders, Blockbuster, Yahoo!, and AT&T, announced the appointment of industry veteran Darin Hicks to the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO). Hicks joins ChoiceStream from Acxiom Corporation, a global interactive marketing services company, where he served as Vice President and General Manager. Hicks will play an integral role in leading ChoiceStream into performance-based, online advertising, helping the company bring the power of its personalization technology to the advertising market.

“Darin has tremendous experience in managing and growing multiple business lines in markets that are critical to ChoiceStream, most recently in marketing data management systems,” said Steve Johnson, co-founder and CEO of ChoiceStream. “We are pleased to have Darin join ChoiceStream at such a momentous time for our company. Darin will play a critical role helping lead the continued growth of our global personalization and advertising businesses in 2009, and for years to come.”

While at Acxiom, Hicks led an aggressive growth plan for the insurance, high technology and health businesses. He oversaw the development of new products and the growth of Acxiom’s largest global clients in its fastest-growing businesses, leading the company to a top 10 spot in American Banker’s FinTech 100 technology provider rankings. Prior to joining Acxiom in 2004, Hicks was founder and president of Software Leadership Services, a management consulting company providing operating expertise to early stage software companies. Previously, he spent nine years at Trilogy Software in key leadership positions, driving growth from $5 million in revenue and 12 employees to approximately $250 million in revenue with nearly 1,000 employees. Hicks graduated from Stanford University with a degree in industrial engineering.

“I’m excited to be joining ChoiceStream. The company provides the retail industry with cutting-edge personalization technology that drives greater sales and better relationships with their customers,” said Darin Hicks. “The organization is coming off of a successful year, and our new advertising solution positions the company for tremendous growth. I look forward to leveraging my experience to help ChoiceStream develop great relationships in the retail industry, deliver solutions that drive the best value for our customers and build a fantastic place to work.”

About ChoiceStream, Inc.

ChoiceStream delivers dynamic, personalized product recommendations and display ads that increase purchases and customer engagement for today’s biggest brands, including Overstock.com, Tesco, Borders, Blockbuster, AT&T, and Yahoo!. Recently named the company with the “deepest experience of the ‘pure-play’ personalization engines” by a leading independent research firm, ChoiceStream enables retailers to put the right content and products in front of the right people at the right time to maximize the value of every interaction with consumers.

NEW YORK – Lotame, a platform enabling targeted advertising to customizable audiences using social data, announced it achieved significant company growth and momentum in 2008. Closing the year with its highest quarterly revenues to date, more than a 450 percent increase as compared to the first quarter of the year, the company expanded its staff to over 50 employees and added locations in Boston, San Francisco and Chicago along with a new data center in Virginia. Lotame’s innovative technology enables brands to more effectively target and message to consumers based on their behavior on social media sites.

Company Growth Amidst Down Economy

In an industry marked by contraction and gloomy forecasts, Lotame experienced overall company growth by all metrics, including revenue, customers, ads placed, and a staff increase of 20 percent in the fourth quarter alone. The company also expanded its executive team with the addition of COO Adam Lehman.

“Even with the advertising market in transition, Lotame continues to lead the way for advertisers seeking measurable and effective results from their marketing efforts within social media,” said Andy Monfried, founder and CEO, Lotame. “Given Lotame’s unique targeting, delivery and monetization approaches, the company is well positioned for another outstanding and successful year in 2009.”

In late summer of 2008, Lotame closed on $13 million in series B financing led by Emergence Capital Partners with continuing participation from previous investors including Battery Ventures and Hillcrest Management.

Technology Innovator Breaks New Ground

The company’s growth was spurred by its successes on behalf of an impressive roster of over 100 brands including 36 Fortune 500 companies ranging from the largest CPG brands to top entertainment providers and automakers. In the fourth quarter alone, Lotame increased the number of ads it served by 26 times on behalf of its brand partners. In addition, Lotame tripled the number of publishing partners it works with as more publishers began to recognize the value of Lotame’s solutions.

The introduction of Lotame’s newest offering, Time Spent™, attracted several large brands and agencies seeking to optimize the performance of online advertising. Time Spent measures the impact of advertising based on the time that individuals spend viewing display ads. Lotame’s Exposure Tracker technology counts the time that a user actually spends viewing an ad without counting time when the ad is obscured, minimized or scrolled out of view. By accurately monitoring and combining the time each user spends with the ad in plain sight, Lotame can measure the actual impact on the desired audience.

About Lotame

Lotame provides a platform for easily building and addressing customizable consumer audiences based on social data in addition to implied or stated interests. Lotame has specifically designed its patented Crowd Control platform to take full advantage of the unique attributes of social media, using participation and user generated content as a foundation for improved campaign performance. Lotame is a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Please visit www.lotame.com for more information.

The Media in Canada industry profile is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the media industry. It includes detailed data on market size and segmentation, plus textual and graphical analysis of the key trends and competitive landscape, leading companies and demographic information.

Scope

* Contains an executive summary and data on value, volume and/or segmentation
* Provides textual analysis of the industry’s recent performance and future prospects
* Incorporates in-depth five forces competitive environment analysis and scorecards
* Includes a five-year forecast of the industry
* The leading companies are profiled with supporting key financial metrics
* Supported by the key macroeconomic and demographic data affecting the market

Highlights

* Detailed information is included on market size, measured by value and/or volume
* Five forces scorecards provide an accessible yet in depth view of the market’s competitive landscape

Why you should buy this report

* Spot future trends and developments
* Inform your business decisions
* Add weight to presentations and marketing materials
* Save time carrying out entry-level research

Market Definition

The media industry consists of the advertising, broadcasting & cable TV, publishing and movies & entertainment markets.

The advertising market consists of agencies providing advertising including display advertising services. The market value reflects income of the agencies from such services.

The broadcasting & cable TV market consists of all terrestrial, cable and satellite broadcasters of digital and analog television programming. The market is valued as the revenues generated by broadcasters through advertising, licensing (or public donations) and subscriptions.

The publishing market consists of books, newspaper and magazines, and advertising revenues generated in these segments.

The movies & entertainment market includes both producers and distributors of public entertainment formats, such as movies, music and sports. The sports and movie box office sectors have been valued as the revenues received by box offices from total annual admissions. The music and video sectors have been valued using the retail selling price (RSP) of items, such as DVD, VHS and CD.

Key Topics Covered:

* CHAPTER 1 Market Overview
* CHAPTER 2 Market Value
* CHAPTER 3 Market Segmentation I
* CHAPTER 4 Market Segmentation II
* CHAPTER 5 Five Forces Analysis
* CHAPTER 6 Leading Companies
* CHAPTER 7 Market Forecasts
* CHAPTER 8 Macroeconomic Indicators
* CHAPTER 9 Appendix
* LIST OF TABLES
* LIST OF TABLES

Companies Mentioned:

* Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
* Publicis Groupe SA
* Sun-Times Media Group Inc

For more information visit

http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/7d3cd0/media_in_canada

Source: Datamonitor

SAN DIEGO – Though most signs point to a downward economy, interactive advertising, including local search, display ads and e-mail marketing, is expected to grow from 7.4 percent of the global advertising market at the end of 2007 to 21 percent by 2012 (source: The Kelsey Group). Encouraging further growth, ClickZ presents the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) San Diego, the only purely educational event of its kind – built around content that drives action and delivers insight that online marketers can build into their marketing plans immediately. The ClickZ Network is the world’s largest online resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference.

Set at the Westin Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego, California, from February 4-7, 2009, the Online Marketing Summit attracts marketers from leading companies who will gather to share best practices and learn from expert online practitioners. Leading educators in online marketing will facilitate a world-class forum of best practices in interactive marketing. Hands-on workshops, thought leadership panels, one-on-one usability and search engine optimization (SEO) classes and peer work groups are conducted by best-of-breed speakers and organizations.

The only objective of the OMS Summit is to educate attendees on how to execute the best known practices in online marketing. By incorporating feedback from past events, new “Acumen Tracks” will address various levels of expertise. Designed to meet the unique needs of beginner, intermediate, and expert-level practitioners, the content of the summit will allow attendees to educate themselves at a foundational level on a topic unfamiliar to them or dive deeper into a topic they want to learn more about.

The 2009 OMS Summit includes sessions on:

* Social Media Business Strategies
* Search Engine Marketing in-depth education
* Website Usability Primers
* Customer Experience Best Practices
* Web Analytics & ROI Tracking
* Planning & Budgeting for Online Success
* Email Marketing & Landing Page Tactics
* Website Strategy Thought Leadership
* Behavioral Targeting & Testing

“OMS is exclusively for marketing professionals interested in learning and networking,” said Aaron Kahlow, founder of Online Marketing Summit. “We’re sort of an ‘anti-conference’, and it’s working out for us. There is no expo hall, no conflagration of sponsor logos, and no sales-folk to interfere with the world-class education and networking opportunities on which we’ve built our reputation. It’s 100% peer to peer knowledge sharing. Can’t get any more direct than that.”

“No marketer knows it all. And if they do, they’re probably speaking at OMS,” noted Matt McGowan, Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media’s Interactive Marketing Group, including Search Engine Strategies, SearchEngineWatch.com and the ClickZ Network. “If there’s a question you have, there’s likely a session that will answer it. Attendees will not only receive invaluable education and direction from each session, but they’ll also have the opportunity to network, collaborate and share ideas with interactive marketers from leading companies around the world.”

Discounted passes are still available and include access to the 2009 Resource Center to download the slide decks, professionally video recorded session and media from all the presentations. To register, visit https://www.onlinemarketingsummit.com/registration/default.php. For more details on the Online Marketing Summit event and other ClickZ events including free online marketing webinars visit www.ClickZEvents.com.

About the Online Marketing Summit (OMS)

The Online Marketing Summit (OMS) is truly unique from any other conference. There are no vendors, no salesmen, no exhibitors/booths and no pitching allowed. The application process ensures only attendees who are serious about trying to gain a competitive advantage through education. The environment facilitates networking and collaboration amongst like-minded marketing peers. This summer tour will be attended by at least 2000 professionals who are passionate about marketing. OMS is a not-for-profit organization with the simple mission to educate marketers on the emerging best practice of online marketing

About Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC — A Division of Incisive Media PLC

Incisive Media’s The ClickZ Network is the largest resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference in the world, online or off-. From search to e-mail, technology to trends, our coverage is expert, exclusive, and in-depth. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include the Search Engine Strategies global conference and training series focused on search engine optimization and search engine marketing and Search Engine Watch which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, LegalTech, Post, Real Estate Forum, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and The American Lawyer. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com.

Wilkinson has held senior executive positions in some of the leading advertising and media companies in the U.S. including PVI Virtual Media Services, video ad management company BlackArrow Inc. and Time Warner subsidiary HBO. Prior to joining MirriAd, Wilkinson was CEO at etc.tv, the Canadian advertising on-demand network which has delivered campaigns for major brands including General Motors, Ford Motors of Canada, Unilever, and Procter and Gamble.

Wilkinson will report to MirriAd CEO Mark Popkiewicz who said, “Denny’s wide ranging experience in the content and advertising market has given him huge insight into the potential opportunities for MirriAd. In particular, his U.S. knowledge and expertise that he has developed over 25 years will be invaluable in developing the MirriAd business in one of the key worldwide markets.”

“The advertising and broadcast industries are struggling to make the established advertising models work in this digital age,” commented Wilkinson. “We have to accept that the consumer is increasingly in control of the viewing experience and able to avoid traditional advertising. MirriAd’s technology and solutions take account of the new industry dynamics by placing advertisers back in touch with their audiences while maintaining the uninterrupted viewing experience that the consumer clearly wants. That is a compelling proposition and one I am looking forward to implementing.”

About MirriAd Limited

MirriAd Limited seamlessly embeds advertising into any video content, as if it was always there. The company’s solutions allow content owners to effectively monetize their assets and deliver a means by which brands can capitalize on the worldwide shift from the analog broadcast model to multi-platform, on-demand digital video delivery.

London based MirriAd is the first and only company that has the ability to embed advertising, words, images and interactive hyperlinks cost-effectively, in small and large volume digital content and with high quality on any platform using its proprietary ZoneSense™ technology.

MirriAd is funded by venture capital funds including London Seed Capital, Oxford Technology Management and South East Growth Fund and by private investors led by Seraphim Capital.

For more information: www.mirriad.com

MirriAd was recently named in Library House’s MediaTech top 100 list, which lists Europe’s hottest private media technology companies, likely to have the biggest impact on the industry.

Snapdatas Snapshots UK Advertising 2008 provides 2007 year-end market size data, with 2008 estimates, 5 years of historical data and five-year forecasts. The Snapshots report gives an instant overview of the UK advertising market and covers press, television, direct mail, internet, outdoor & transport, radio and cinema advertising. Market value is based on advertising expenditure. The data is supplied in both graphical and tabular format for ease of interpretation and analysis. The Snapshots UK Advertising 2008 forms part of Snapdatas Media industry coverage.

Snapshots Report Overview:

-Executive Summary

-Market size

-Market Segmentation

-Market Share

-Distribution

-Socio-Economic data

-Forecasts

Benefits of the Snapshots Reports:

-The Snapdata product range is designed to save time for clients by providing an industry data overview, market size, shares and forecasts; verified with full sourcing.

-Easy to search, quick to access, and clear and concise to use: Snapdata reports can save 40% of resources in those early stages of a project. Sometimes just a report from the Snapshots Series is all that is required for an internal client’s first request. But when the project develops, the reports also help your internal research team prepare a fuller picture for their end-users utilizing the further sources provided in each report for industry drivers and analytical information, enabling them to provide a more detailed document based on solid figures but tailored to the end-users’ requests.

Key Topics Covered:

- Snapshots Executive Summary

- Category Definitions

- Market Size by Value (2003-2007)

- Market Segmentation by Value

- Market Shares by Volume

- Company Websites (Main Players)

- Market Forecast by Value

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/a1a192/snapshots_uk_adver

BURLINGAME, Calif. – Limbo, one of the largest mobile social networks in the US, and GfK Technology, a leading market research agency, released their latest joint Mobile Advertising Report (MAR). The third quarter report reveals that mobile advertising awareness grew 33 percent in nine months against a backdrop of six percent growth in cell phone usage. This suggests an increased allocation of advertising dollars to mobile formats through the first nine months of the year.

“In economic slowdowns, advertisers typically divert budgets from branding media to direct marketing channels and it appears that mobile media is benefiting from this in 2008,” says Limbo CEO Jonathon Linner. “Mobile offers advertisers a way to reach their core audience in an interactive and cost-effective medium. We anticipate these numbers will continue to grow as more and more advertisers experience firsthand the benefits of mobile advertising.”

Nearly four out of ten Americans with a cell phone (104 million) recall seeing advertising on the device between July and September 2008. This is the first time the number of Americans aware of mobile advertising has exceeded 100 million in a 3-month period. The most commonly viewed ads were in text messages – 60 million consumers recalled seeing text message-based ads – an increase of 42 percent in nine months. Mobile Web advertising also grew strongly, but with 31 million people recalling this format, it has about half the reach of text messaging ads.

The profile of people recalling mobile advertising offers few surprises:

* 57 percent male, 43 percent female
* 52 percent are between 35-64 years of age, 28 percent are aged 50 and above and just 43 percent are under 34
* Their ethnic profile is also similar to the US population – 68 percent Caucasian, 20 percent African American and 12 percent Hispanic

“The US is the world’s dominant advertising market but has traditionally been behind Asian and European markets in terms of consumer use of mobile devices. The latest Mobile Advertising Report shows that US consumers are accelerating their use of the mobile device and advertisers are hot on their tails, using the new medium to reach consumers in pioneering ways,” says Colin Strong, head of Mobile Communications Research at GfK Technology.

About the Mobile Advertising Report

The Limbo-GfK Technology Mobile Advertising Report is a tool used to help marketers and their agencies understand the fast-changing mobile advertising medium. The report is produced quarterly and is distributed free to marketers. The Q3 2008 report is based on a survey of 1,000 representative American adults and 1,000 UK adults interviewed by telephone.

To receive a copy of the full report, as well as future editions, send your request to mar@limbo.com.

About Limbo

Limbo (www.limbo.com), founded in 2005, is the largest, fasted growing mobile community, with three million passionate members and a monthly reach of over five million people. Limbo makes life more social by giving us more from our mobile phones: more friends, more fun, more connections. Limbo is free for everyone to use and is paid for by innovative mobile advertising formats. The award-winning, privately held company, headquartered in Burlingame, Calif., is backed by three of the world’s top venture capital funds: Azure Capital Partners (www.azurecap.com), Draper Fisher Jurvetson (www.dfj.com), and New Enterprises Associates (www.nea.com).

About GfK Technology

With a global team of over 200 research professionals in 40 countries, GfK Technology is a leading provider of tailored consumer and business related research services to the Technology, Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment industries. As these sectors continue to converge and evolve, the opportunities for the industry players are huge. But they face many challenges – increasingly complex markets; new types of competition; and the need to carefully manage growth and diversification. At the same time, consumers and businesses are becoming more demanding, sophisticated and influential in the way that they choose, buy and use technology, data and content – increasingly on the move.

To find out how GfK Technology can help you meet these challenges and exploit new opportunities, visit our website at www.gfknop.com/technology.

Snapdata’s Snapshots Russia Advertising 2008 provides 2007 year-end market size data, with 2008 estimates, 5 years of historical data and five-year forecasts. The Snapshots report gives an instant overview of the Russian advertising market and covers television, print, outdoor, radio, internet and other advertising. Market value is based on gross advertising expenditure. The data is supplied in both graphical and tabular format for ease of interpretation and analysis. The Snapshots Russia Advertising 2008 forms part of Snapdata’s Media industry coverage.

Snapshots Report Overview:
- Snapshots Executive Summary
- Category Definitions
- Market Size by Value (2003-2007)
- Market Segmentation by Value
- Market shares by Value
- Company Websites (Main Players)
- Market Forecast by Value (2008-2012)
- Socio-Economic Data for Russia
- Snapshots Sources for Further Research

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/469a05/snapshots_russia_a

LOS ANGELES – The Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global ad network optimization, unveils the latest edition of the 2008 Online Advertising Market Report, the Q2: Ad Network Landscape, Trends and Outlook, detailing the state of the market in the second quarter of 2008 and beyond. Drawing on its unique third-party position between ad networks and website publishers, the Rubicon Project provides an insider perspective of the changing Internet advertising landscape based on a wealth of market data to provide a deeper understanding of the current industry climate and future trends. This market intelligence is based on analysis of 15 billion impressions served during Q2 alone across more than 130 ad networks.

“2008 has been a challenging year for the U.S. and worldwide economy. Fortunately, the online advertising market has been somewhat cushioned from the majority of economic blows,” said Frank Addante, CEO and founder. “The Rubicon Project is committed to helping navigate the tumultuous yet continuous growth and development of this market, in part, through education. Through this report, we are sharing billions of pieces of market intelligence we have combined with informed analysis of current and future trends.”

State of a Dysfunctional Industry

With nearly $370 million invested in ad networks in Q2, the market remained a good buy for private firms and holding companies. This indicates investors’ confidence in networks ability to innovate and increase monetization.

However, not all news was rosy. Big-name publishers such as ESPN, Forbes.com and CBS Sports discontinued their use of third-party networks in the second quarter, generating a slew of bad publicity for the ad network industry.

Sample Findings:

* Despite criticism, ad networks grew during the economic storm in Q2 – eCPMs increased by an average of 7 percent across all networks.
* Publishers and networks dysfunctional relationships are hindering growth – they need each other but don’t trust one other on issues such as inventory pricing, fee payment and collection or the quality of the ads and the sites they run on.
* Big publishers are both entering and navigating the broader network space – with several heavy-hitters becoming ad networks themselves.
* International traffic remains an untapped growth opportunity – some major U.S. Web sites draw more than half their traffic from outside the country but only a small fraction of ad revenue is able being monetized from that traffic.

Sample of Emerging Trends

* The Ad network role in the online advertising ecosystem will continue to grow – both publishers and media buyers need and want third-party support.
* Networks face obstacles to expansion – publishers need to diversify across many ad network channel opportunities to continue growth.
* Online advertising will continue to grow – overall ad spend may decrease but a natural reconciliation will occur to even out the discrepancy between Internet usage (33 percent) and percentage of ad budgets dedicated to online spend (8 percent).
* In a recession, efficient models prevail – online advertising is more efficient than other forms of advertising such as broadcast and print.

The complete 2008 Q2 Online Advertising Market Report is available as a free download at: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

About the Rubicon Project

The Rubicon Project is a group of industry-experienced, aggressive and passionate renegades dedicated to bringing a new level of efficiency to the fragmented Internet advertising space. The founders of the Rubicon Project shook up the online advertising industry in 1998 when they created L90/adMonitor, one of the most successful Internet advertising platforms that served over 3,000 of the web’s most recognized sites, reaching 65 percent of the Internet population before DoubleClick acquired it. $27 billion was spent advertising online in 2007, yet it’s still too hard for Web sites to sell their ad space online. The Rubicon Project’s web-based, self-serve solution gives any size Web site the most complete access to the total available advertising market and its smart matching technology does all the work to perfectly match each ad impression with the optimal money-making opportunity. The Rubicon Project is the new online advertising standard that makes it effortless for Web sites to generate the mad cash they’ve always dreamed of. And, it’s free to join. Web sites looking to make more money while doing less work should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank’s blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/

LOS ANGELES – the Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global Ad Network Optimization, offers solutions for publishers concerned about channel conflict between ad sales conducted by in-house sales teams and those sales made by third-party ad networks. The recent IAB/Bain research report on digital pricing re-enforces the opinion that channel conflict is one of the largest concerns facing large publishers.

“One of our concerns in working with ad networks is channel conflict,” says Greg Liberman, President and Chief Operating Officer of Spark Networks (AMEX:LOV), a leading provider of online personals services in the United States and internationally. “If ad networks are directly pitching our site for lower rates than our direct sales team is, it could hurt our pricing leverage. Working with the team and technology of the Rubicon Project, we are able to reap the benefits of monetizing unsold ad space across ad networks without constantly worrying about the channel conflict risk.”

Ad networks sometimes use a website’s specific name to entice advertisers. A dangerous practice is when a sales representative at an ad network lures the advertiser to buy through them rather than directly from the site by offering it at a lower price. While many ad networks have programs in place to reduce channel conflict, the problem continues to cause publishers pain. Over recent months several notable big-brand publishers have completely severed their ad network relationships, in part, due to concerns around channel conflict driving down CPM’s and the impact on direct sales efforts.

the Rubicon Project pioneered an intensive Ad Space Certification Program to provide independent verification of publisher inventory that ensures safety and accuracy for advertisers buying through ad networks. A key feature of this program, in addition to bringing more ad dollars online, is guarding publishers against channel conflict.

How the Rubicon Project tackles channel conflict:

* Certified Blind Sites: the Rubicon Project rates and classifies sites by quality, prominence and popularity so that a site’s value can be leveraged without specifying a name (e.g. top-tier news site)
* Certified Content Segments: e.g. Entertainment Channel, a selection of more than 300 entertainment sites, rather than a specific one
* Certified Audience & Geographic Channels: ad networks can safely re-sell high quality ad inventory by demographic information such as age, gender or ethnicity without having access to data on specific sites
* Restricted Information: since the publisher’s primary relationship is with the Rubicon Project, ad networks do not need to employ “Chinese walls” with information because they do not directly interact with the publisher

“Channel conflict is a real problem for big publishers,” said Frank Addante, CEO and Founder of the Rubicon Project. “As a result, many publishers have disabled their ad networks from effectively selling their ad inventory by preventing them from using information such as their site name and other critical data such as demography and context. Our job is to help websites become effective ad network channel managers. With this program, we are re-enabling this important channel to generate the highest possible rates for publishers while protecting their direct sales efforts.”

Because the Rubicon Project is addressing channel conflict head on, there’s hope these issues will soon be a thing of the past. Until then, publishers can’t afford to ignore the opportunities ad networks provide – anywhere from 40 to 80 percent of the average publisher’s inventory goes unsold by a publisher’s direct sales team – and ad networks obviously need publishers to place their ads. With the help of the Rubicon Project, both parties can move beyond fear and distrust toward their common goal: making money.

To learn more about channel conflict and other issues affecting online advertising, visit www.rubiconproject.com

About the Rubicon Project

the Rubicon Project is a group of industry-experienced, aggressive and passionate renegades dedicated to bringing a new level of efficiency to the fragmented Internet advertising space. The founders of the Rubicon Project shook up the online advertising industry in 1998 when they created L90/adMonitor, one of the most successful Internet advertising platforms that served over 3,000 of the web’s most recognized sites, reaching 65% of the Internet population before DoubleClick acquired it.

$27 Billion was spent advertising online in 2007, yet it’s still too hard for websites to sell their ad space online. the Rubicon Project’s web-based, self-serve solution gives any size website the most complete access to the total available advertising market and its smart matching technology does all the work to perfectly match each ad impression with the optimal money-making opportunity. the Rubicon Project is the new online advertising standard that makes it effortless for websites to generate the mad cash they’ve always dreamed of. And, it’s free to join. Websites looking to make more money while doing less work should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank’s blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/

Figures in brackets show our previous forecasts, issued in Mar 2008 * change in methodology to include classifieds in press

The main driver of these reductions for 2008 is downward revisions for ad spend in four economies: the US, the UK, Spain and China. Elsewhere, the majority of the developed economies are predicted to contribute less than 5% growth, with the impetus – and double-digit growth – coming from emerging economies in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Latin America.

Commenting on the forecasts, Jerry Buhlmann, CEO of Aegis Media, said: “It’s clear that the worldwide economic issues affecting businesses are having an impact on where and how advertisers spend their money. It is also significant that the US and the UK, as the highest spenders on advertising in their regions, are showing reductions in our forecasts. But overall, the picture is still one of growth.

“The emerging economies of Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America are predicted to achieve double-digit growth both this year and next. And though their spend is still small compared to North America and Western Europe, these regions are catching up fast.

“Similarly, whilst TV”s share of spend has stabilised, internet advertising is continuing to drive spending ahead of other sectors in nearly every region. Internet is set to overtake radio this year to become the world’s third most popular medium, behind TV and print. But changes in consumer behaviour aren’t the only reason for this. With search now central to the planning and execution of any campaign, online media brings a greater level of accountability not just to itself but to TV, print and other forms of advertising. This is why we are predicting further strong growth for internet, even when advertisers are cautious in many of the other sectors.”

The US, UK, China and Spain

Growth in the US is predicted to slow to 2.1% from our earlier forecast of 3.8%, with newspapers, magazines and radio all having shown declines this year, but there will be growth in TV, thanks to the presidential elections and the Olympics, and in the Internet. The UK’s overall forecast has been cut from 4.3% to 2.5%, with a downward revision of 1.8% points.

China’s growth has been revised downwards by a percentage point for this year, as the true picture of the impact on 2008 of the May earthquake and what will happen to spending post-Olympics becomes clear. 2009 is forecast to see a more significant decline in growth, with forecasts down from 13.2% to 10.9% in what will become the world’s third largest advertising market, though it is important to remember that this growth is still well ahead of predictions for the developed world.

However, Spain’s ad spend forecasts have changed the most, down from 3.8% to -2.3% as a result of local macro-economic trends and the severe housing downturn. The majority of spend is coming out of newspapers, magazines and TV, with forecast declines of -6.2%, -4.5% and -3.9% respectively. The internet is predicted to grow by 25% to make up 7.1% of total spend in the country. The Spanish economy is expected to pick up again in late 2009 with -0.8% growth forecasted.

Regional breakdown

As the above indicates, the trend for growth in the developed regions – North America, Japan and Western Europe – remains below the global figure with 2-3% on average forecast for both 2008 and 2009. The global figure is lifted by the fast growth in emerging economies, most notably Russia (22.8%), India (21.0%) and Mexico (20.0%). Despite the downward revisions since March, China is still one of the fastest growing markets for advertising with growth of 18.2% predicted for this year.

For 2009, the fastest growth regions are Central and Eastern Europe at 15.2% and Latin America at 14.1%.

Sector breakdown

TV is set to grow this year and next ahead of 2007′s performance. Similarly, cinema’s growth is strong, but it comes from a very low base. Only newspapers are predicted to decline on a worldwide basis.

Spending on internet advertising continues to grow ahead of all other sectors, albeit not at the same rate as 2007, and we predict that this slowdown in growth will continue through into 2009. The below chart indicates that the growth of the internet is primarily at the cost of print advertising spend, even though newspapers and magazines together still dwarf internet’s share. TV is predicted to grow its share year-on-year in both 2008 and 2009.

About Aegis Group plc
Aegis Group plc is the world’s fastest growing marketing communications group. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, it operates in media communications with Aegis Media, which includes Carat, Vizeum, Posterscope and Isobar, and market research with Synovate. More information on Aegis Group plc can be found at www.aegisgroupplc.com.

About Carat
Carat was established in 1968 and was the first independent media specialist in Europe. Carat was a pioneer of unbundling – the separation of media services from full service creative agencies. It is now a global independent media communications network represented in 82 countries and offers clients a range of services including: communications planning, sponsorship, interactive, direct, event, pr, consumer research and insight, business to business, International services, regional and global client servicing. www.carat.com.

- Overview of the Australian Advertising Industry for 2008
Snapdata’s Snapshots Australia Advertising 2008 provides 2007 year-end market size data, with 2008 estimates, 5 years of historical data and five-year forecasts. The Snapshots report gives an instant overview of the Australian advertising market and covers newspapers, television, radio, magazines, internet, outdoor, cinema and other print media advertising. Market value is based on gross advertising expenditure. The data is supplied in both graphical and tabular format for ease of interpretation and analysis. The Snapshots Australia Advertising 2008 forms part of Snapdata’s Media industry coverage.

Partnering with AdJug helps the Rubicon Project answer the increasing global demands to improve ad performance and placement. As part of the agreement, AdJug is able to monetize the UK inventory of hundreds of the Rubicon Project’s Certified U.S. publishers, offering high fill rates on ad impressions. This easy and efficient solution for advertisers and high profile publishers also allows AdJug to build deeper channels and provide enhanced performance for advertisers.

The Rubicon Project recently launched its Certified Ad Space program , that gives ad networks, and their advertisers, quality and safety assurance for content, placement, targeting and reporting. the Rubicon Project’s smart-matching technology deciphers ad inventory from thousands of sites, breaking it into micro-segments based on geographic, demographic and contextual information. the Rubicon Project’s Ad Network Optimization solution then matches certified inventory to the strengths of a specific ad network, bringing that ad network top-performing, “smarter” ad impressions.

“Partnering with AdJug in the international advertising market allows us to engage quality advertisers from the UK, while increasing revenue for our publishers,” said Frank Addante, CEO and founder of the Rubicon Project. “International monetization is a rapidly growing opportunity and, therefore, a key focus for us. Working with AdJug offers us a scalable solution to bring more sites with international traffic online, adding to our growing customer base of 1,000+ websites.” “Our partnership with the Rubicon Project marks a giant leap forward for AdJug by offering immediate access to a new breadth of quality ad inventory,” said Michael Stephanblome, CEO and founder of AdJug. “This instantly helps us to bring additional liquidity into our marketplace and creates new and exciting inventory opportunities for our advertisers.

About AdJug
AdJug is an online advertising marketplace where advertisers and publishers buy and sell ads directly. It eliminates the need to use an advertising network, giving advertisers and publishers greater choice, transparency & control on how ads are bought and sold. AdJug’s mission is to become Europe’s leading online advertising marketplace. The company is headquartered in London.

About the Rubicon Project
The Rubicon Project is an advertising technology company run by a group of industry-experienced, aggressive and passionate renegades on a mission to automate the large, yet highly inefficient Internet advertising industry. While online advertising is expected to reach $27 billion in 2008, up to 80% of a websites’ ad space goes unsold (directly). Unsold ad space is sent to ad networks. Today, advertisers spread money across 300+ ad networks causing fragmentation and complexity for websites trying to monetize their unsold ad space. In 2007, the Rubicon Project pioneered the Ad Network Optimization category with the launch of its first product.

The Rubicon Project’s Ad Network Optimizer uses smart matching technology to match each ad impression to the optimal money-making opportunities. Within the first 6 months of launch, the company optimized more than 25 billion ads for more than 1,000 websites and 150 of the top ad networks while reaching more than 150 million unique Internet users.Other innovations include a free-hosted Ad Network Ad Server for websites and a Certified Ad Space program to ensure safety, accuracy and trust for ad networks (and their advertisers) when placing ads on websites. The founders of the Rubicon Project created one of the first, and most successful, ad servers in 1998 (L90/adMonitor) that was later acquired by DoubleClick. Websites looking to make more money while doing less work should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Irvine, Calif. and London — March 12, 2008 — Specific Media, the largest independent online advertising network, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire all the assets of Adviva, a leading display advertising network in the United Kingdom. The combination of Specific Media and Adviva in the UK gives brand advertisers an opportunity to combine massive reach with every method of targeting to produce the results they are looking to achieve. The Adviva acquisition marks Specific Media’s entry into the European market, giving the company a strong start on global expansion. The deal closed this week for an undisclosed amount.

With $5 billion in online advertising revenues in 2007 according to eMarketer, the UK is the largest European advertising market. Adviva’s broad network of brand-friendly content driven websites reaches more than 21.3 million unique UK internet users. Post-acquisition the combined companies will become the fourth largest ad network in the UK reaching 25.9 million unique UK users.

“Specific Media has anonymous data on 365 million consumers globally and the acquisition of Adviva gives us the opportunity to utilize the European portion of that data,” said Tim Vanderhook, co-founder and CEO of Specific Media. “Specific Media chose to partner with Adviva because it had a compelling value proposition of brand advertisers, quality publishers and a tremendous team that are enthusiastic about the opportunities in front of us.”

Specific Media is the only advertising network offering brand advertisers a complete targeting solution that combines demographic, behavioral, contextual, and geographic methods. The company currently works with more than 300 of Fortune 500 brands including seven of the top 10. Following the acquisition, Adviva’s London office will become Specific Media’s European headquarters. The acquisition of Adviva brings the total employee count for Specific Media to close to 200.

“Specific Media and Adviva have a great deal in common already and the new synergies will further benefit our advertisers and publishers,” said Todd Treusdell, co-founder and CEO of Adviva, who will stay onboard as Specific Media’s Managing Director, European Operations. “Now reaching nearly 80 percent of consumers in the US and the UK, Specific Media gives publishers and advertisers an attractive alternative to the large, publicly-held players in the industry.”

About Specific Media

Specific Media, the advertising industry’s fastest-growing interactive media company, enables advertisers to target consumers based on demographics, behaviors, geographic locations and/or the contextual relevance of websites visited. Specific Media works with many of the Fortune 500 brands including seven of the top 10 companies. Specific Media’s network reaches more than 140 million U.S. monthly unique users. Since 1999, the company has partnered with hundreds of top quality publishers such as: ABC, CBS, FOX, Major League Baseball, Sportsline.com and VIACOM. For additional information, visit www.specificmedia.com