Recognizes Outstanding Performance and Achievements in Interactive Advertising

CARLSBAD, Calif. – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the winners of its 2009 Sales and Service Excellence Awards. The Sales Awards honor IAB members for outstanding performance and leadership in interactive advertising sales. IAB Service Excellence awards honor outstanding member contributions to IAB industry-related initiatives. The announcement was made during IAB’s third Annual Leadership Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: Revenue the Next Wave, in Carlsbad, California, where leaders across the digital media landscape have converged to address the most critical issues facing the industry.
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Improves Process of Buying and Selling Vibrant Digital Advertising Platform

NEW YORK – The lightning-quick pace of innovation in digital video ad platforms and tools has resulted in divergent technologies and systems that impact the successful deployment of advertising campaigns. To resolve this friction point and continue its leadership role in standardizing digital video the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), released “VAST 2.0”, an update to the Digital Video Ad Serving Template that it created in July 2008 to standardize the communication protocol between video players and servers. The announcement was made at the IAB’s annual Ad Ops Summit in New York City.
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ShopAds™ Allow DoubleClick to Bring Syndicated e-Commerce Driven Advertising to Consumers

SAN FRANCISCO – Adgregate Markets, the leading provider of transactional advertising technology, announced the support of syndicated e-commerce advertising with rich media ads created by DoubleClick, a division of Google, Inc. ShopAds™ enable DoubleClick, a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, and their clients to integrate e-commerce into any banner ad campaign to allow consumers to browse, interact, and purchase directly within an ad unit. Adgregate Markets’ ShopAds technology, the first certified transactional e-commerce ad solution to work with DoubleClick Rich Media, will now be widely available to all of DoubleClick’s advertisers. ShopAds™ allow brands to build a network of syndicated e-commerce partners through paid media and social networks.
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I barely got the time to bitch point out DoubleClick’s apathy in updating us, and they announced that their in-stream platform can now power video advertising in Silverlight 2 players, in addition to Flash, RealMedia, and Windows Media.

The new feature doesn’t seem to have propagated in all DFP accounts yet, and the knowledge base doesn’t seem to include any new entries about streaming Silverlight. I’ll let you enjoy the feature announcement in full, below.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (August 05, 2008) –Today, DoubleClick, a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, announced the new capability to serve video ads into Microsoft Silverlight 2 video environments. The move is part of DoubleClick’s ongoing effort to help clients maximize the yield on their advertising inventory as they deliver content into emergent online, video and mobile channels.

With this new feature of DoubleClick In-Stream, DoubleClick clients such as NBC Universal Digital Media are able to monetize video content played within the Silverlight 2 player. NBCOlympics.com, a division of NBC Universal, will be one of the first sites to open Silverlight 2 content up to advertisers with DoubleClick In-Stream. The solution carves out new video inventory across 2,500 hours of video content running as part of NBC’s Olympics coverage.
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Great news for publishers with video inventory, at last! The IAB jumpstarted discussions around standardizing communication protocols between video players and servers – I wish the initiative took place half year earlier and save me and my coworkers a great deal of guesswork and improvisation around building our player (www.muzu.tv) and enable in-stream advertising (due next week, by the way). We’re working on it these days and we’re definitely going to share our experience, grievances, and, of course, successes

NEW YORK, NY (July 29, 2008)—To meet the need for standardization in the expanding digital video landscape, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today announced the release of a “Digital Video Ad Serving Template” (VAST), designed to standardize communication protocol between video players and servers.

VAST will allow companies to build digital video players and video ad servers that have the same interfaces and speak the same standard language. Publishers who use the standard will be able to plug into multiple third-party digital video ad servers and networks without additional development and therefore enable a powerful tool for improving yield.

This document:

- Defines a standard ad response for in-stream video
- Provides specifications that are compatible with any video player framework
- Includes guidance for most on-demand video players (i.e., Adobe’s Flash, Microsoft’s Windows Media Player and Real Player)
- Includes accommodations for linear video and interactive ads (e.g.“pre-roll”) as well as non-linear ads such as clickable overlays as described in the IAB Digital Ad Format Guidelines
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Widget Ads Provide Media and Creative Agencies with Virality, Content Delivery and Consumer Behavior Metrics

New York, March 17, 2007 – DoubleClick Inc, a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, today announced the support of widget advertising within the core DART for Advertisers (DFA) ad serving platform through the creation of the new Widget Ad rich media format. Widget Ads enable media and creative agencies to integrate a viral component into any campaign to allow consumers to “snag” or “grab” the ad onto their personal homepage or social network page. Widget Ads allow brands to move beyond strictly paid media and help them to build an ongoing interactive and engaging relationship with consumers.

Widget advertising is a growing trend, especially within social networks. According to eMarketer, 22 percent of marketers surveyed used widgets as a social media marketing application last year. They predict that this year, the number of marketers who plan to use widgets will double to 47 percent (Source: December 2007, “Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending and Usage).

“Widgets are part of a fundamental change within the online marketing arena,” said Ari Paparo, vice president of advertiser products for DoubleClick. “Widget Ads provide audiences with the ability for self-expression and identification with well-loved brands while providing marketers the benefits of virality and engagement along with the measurability of traditional online channels.”
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Widget Ads Provide Media and Creative Agencies with Virality, Content Delivery and Consumer Behavior Metrics

New York, March 17, 2008 – DoubleClick Inc, a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, today announced the support of widget advertising within the core DART for Advertisers (DFA) ad serving platform through the creation of the new Widget Ad rich media format. Widget Ads enable media and creative agencies to integrate a viral component into any campaign to allow consumers to “snag” or “grab” the ad onto their personal homepage or social network page. Widget Ads allow brands to move beyond strictly paid media and help them to build an ongoing interactive and engaging relationship with consumers.

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