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.

“The Sales Excellence awards are based primarily on customer feedback—the very best indicator of outstanding leadership and performance of both individual account executives and sales organizations. The Service Awards recognize individuals who made exceptional contributions to building the interactive advertising industry as a whole. Both awards acknowledge the hard work, dedication and excellence necessary to drive growth in our industry, particularly in such challenging times,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP Industry Services for the IAB. “We congratulate all the winners and celebrate their achievements.”

Sales Excellence Awards

The Sales Excellence Awards, given by the IAB and developed under the auspices of the IAB’s Sales Executive Council in conjunction with The Myers Annual Survey of Advertising Executives, honor outstanding interactive sales organizations and individual account executives. The survey has been asking marketers, agency planners and buyers to evaluate the performance of interactive sales organizations since 2004. The IAB Sales Excellence Awards are based on proprietary questions and analyses of Myers’ database.

2009 Sales Excellence Award Winners include:

Long Term Achievement: Google
Most Innovative: Yahoo!, Inc.
Best Newcomer: Federated Media Publishing
AE of the Year: Kevin Sullivan, Burst Media
AE of the Year Finalists:
David Antonelli, MTV Networks Digital
Mike Chu, ValueClick Media
Ryan Mayward, NBC Universal Digital Media
Ali Van Putten, AOL, Inc.
2009 Service Excellence Awards

Across the IAB’s nearly 400 member companies, 18 IAB councils and committees, and dozens of working groups, hundreds of IAB members participate in shaping the interactive advertising business and driving educational outreach to the marketplace. The IAB Service Excellence Awards honor individual members who have demonstrated strong leadership and provided an exceptional contribution to one or more significant, completed IAB initiative over the past year.

CAMERON CLAYTON, Vice President of Mobile & International, The Weather Channel, for his significant contributions on the IAB Mobile Buyer’s Guide
PETER CONTI, Executive Vice President, Borrell Associates, for his dedication and leadership to the IAB Local Road Show in 2009
RYAN CUNNINGHAM, for his leadership of the Digital Video Player-Ad Interface Definition (VPAID) working group
RICK LANE, Vice President of Government Affairs, News Corp., for his dedication to improving the industry’s policy positioning in Washington, D.C.
JEFF LITVACK, General Manager, Mobile and Emerging Products, The Associated Press, for his significant contributions to the IAB Mobile Buyer’s Guide
MARK LOPEZ, Chief Operating Officer, Terra Networks, for his dedication and leadership as co-chair of the IAB Hispanic Committee
GARY MEO, SVP Print & Digital Media Services, Scarborough Research, for his dedication to and leadership of the IAB Local Road Show in 2009
BILL NIELSEN, Director, Industry Outreach, Microsoft Advertising, for his leadership as part of the IAB’s broader online behavioral advertising self regulatory initiative
ARI PAPARO, Product Director, Advertising Products, Google, for his dedication and leadership to the Video Ad Server Template (VAST) initiative
DON ROSEN, Senior Director, Business & Legal Affairs, Yahoo!, Inc., for his dedication and leadership while part of the Standard Terms and Conditions Taskforce
GARY SCHWARTZ, Chief Executive Officer, Impact Mobile, for his significant contributions to the IAB Mobile Buyer’s Guide and his dedication as co-chair of the IAB Mobile Committee since its inception in 2007
SUZIE WHITE, Corporate Counsel, Transactions, Facebook, for her leadership while part of the Standard Terms and Conditions Taskforce
About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 460 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 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.

VAST 2.0 includes critical updates that:

* Permit optional tracking of companion ads and other ad elements
* Provide support for multi-part creatives
* Allow for a broader range of digital video ad products
* Clarify many technical requirements to ease implementation

“As more and more marketers embrace digital video for its ability to engage consumers and showcase brands, standardization is critical,” said Jeremy Fain, vice president of Industry Services, IAB. “VAST 2.0 will allow publishers who use it to be able to plug into multiple third-party digital video ad servers and networks without additional development, making it easier for marketers to reach large audiences through digital video.”

“By standardizing ad serving on VAST we can open the floodgates of agency media spend and allow publishers to maximize their yield per video view,” said Ari Paparo, Group Product Manager, Advertiser Products of Google.

“Vast 2.0” is the latest addition to the IAB’s work over the past year dedicated to creating a common infrastructure across the digital video ecosystem. The IAB’s efforts have addressed specific concerns around technology, metrics and consistent terminology. This ongoing initiative has included the release of the following documents:

* Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions Guidelines (VPAID)
* Digital Video Overview Document
* Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Best Practices
* Digital Video In-Stream Ad Metrics Definitions

All of these documents can be reviewed at: http://www.iab.net/digitalvideo

To review “Vast 2.0,” please go to: http://www.iab.net/vast

About the IAB’s Digital Video Committee:

The Digital Video Committee of the IAB is comprised of over 145 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 – 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.

Adgregate Markets’ ShopAds™ will become an innovative addition to DoubleClick’s service offering. Poised to revolutionize the landscape of online display advertising, ShopAds™ transform traditional banner ads into fully transactional e-commerce ad units. Customers can securely purchase any product from within ShopAds™, without ever needing to click away to another website. By teaming with Adgregate Markets, DoubleClick will have access to a comprehensive platform that allows their advertisers to expand their e-commerce strategy beyond the reaches of existing online retail channels.

“Adgregate Markets’ ShopAds are a great solution for direct response and brand response advertisers, and we are excited to work with them to bring this cutting edge technology to our clients,” said Ari Paparo, Google’s Group Product Manager.

“Teaming up with Google and DoubleClick makes a lot of sense for us. As an industry leader, DoubleClick understands the needs of agencies and marketers who will no doubt embrace our ShopAds technology,” stated Adgregate Markets’ CEO Henry Wong. “We know our technology is game changing and that DoubleClick is positioned to help us deliver this innovation to their customers.”

For more information about Adgregate Markets, visit http://www.adgregate.com.

About Adgregate Markets

Adgregate Markets is pioneering the world’s first fully transactional performance ad network, one that brings a frictionless shopping experience to consumers. ShopAds™ guide prospective customers from the point of discovery to the point of purchase entirely within the innovative ad widget. ShopAds™ are easily distributed through ad networks, blogs, and social networking communities simply by copying and pasting the widget code into any web environment. Adgregate Markets enables distributed commerce by helping advertisers easily turn banner ads into ShopAds™. Publishers can leverage Adgregate to enhance their advertising offering or become an affiliate by simply grabbing transactional ShopAds™ to publish on their sites. Adgregate Markets is a privately held San Francisco-based company and is venture-backed by leading investors. For additional information, please visit www.adgregate.com.

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.

“Microsoft has always had a strong commitment to working closely with partners and the industry to enable them to leverage our tools and platform to deliver great user experiences. With Silverlight, we’ve extended that commitment to the advertising space,” said Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President, .NET Developer Division. “We’re pleased to see the investment DoubleClick has made to enable customers such as NBCOlympics.com to take advantage of Silverlight to offer compelling packages to their advertisers.”

DoubleClick In-Stream is a video ad serving solution used by online publishers to deliver exciting new advertising experiences into Flash, Real Media, Windows Media and now Silverlight 2 video players. As part of the DoubleClick Revenue Center, the product is completely integrated into DoubleClick’s core ad serving platform, DART for Publishers. The combined DoubleClick solution enables trafficking, targeting forecasting and reporting for video advertising. By working with DoubleClick to serve ads into Silverlight 2, NBCOlympics.com is able to leverage their existing ad operations workflow and staff to package video ads with other opportunities, such as online display and mobile ads. One platform for online display, video and mobile has made it possible for NBC to create compelling cross-channel packages for advertisers who want to reach the Olympics-viewing audience.

“With hundreds of advertisers, multiple platforms and large site traffic spikes, we needed to work with a partner that could provide an integrated, scalable, robust solution,” said Steven Gold, Vice President, Sales Planning and Operations, NBC Universal Digital Media. “Thanks to DoubleClick In-Stream’s new support for Silverlight 2, we are able to monetize our groundbreaking online video coverage on the same platform we already use for display and mobile advertising. This lets our sales and operations teams work together really efficiently.”

“DoubleClick’s vision is to help publishers grow their revenues by creating great user experiences and providing compelling value to advertisers,” said Google Group Product Manager Ari Paparo. “By expanding the capabilities of DoubleClick In-Stream to work with Silverlight 2, we can make it possible for clients to create unique entertainment and advertising experiences without increasing their workload or creating new complex processes.”

For more information on DoubleClick In-Stream, please visit http://www.doubleclick.com/instream

To learn more about the entire DoubleClick Revenue Center, please visit http://www.doubleclick.com/revenuecenter

About DoubleClick
DoubleClick is a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services. The world’s top marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick’s expertise in ad serving, rich media, video, mobile, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium. From its position at the nerve center of digital marketing, DoubleClick provides superior insights and insider knowledge to its customers. DoubleClick is a division of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Learn more at www.doubleclick.com.

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

“Digital video is one of the most exciting platforms to emerge within the interactive advertising ecosystem,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “VAST is a critical industry accomplishment because it lays out a much-needed mechanism for standardization in one of the hottest areas of interactive advertising.”

“VAST allows for standardized communication between ad servers and players which is essential as more and more marketers embrace digital video as a key element of their interactive media plans and publishers wish to maximize yield on their video inventory,” said Ari Paparo, Group Product Manager, Advertiser Products of Google.

The public comment period will last until September 10, 2008. The feedback will then be reviewed and the document will be finalized and publicly released.

To review the complete document, please go to: http://www.iab.net/vast

About the IAB’s Digital Video Committee:
The Digital Video Committee of the IAB is comprised of over 145 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/member_center/35088?iabid=a0330000000s0p4AAA

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.

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.”
Interactive agencies and marketers often look to Widget Ads for easy integration of viral distribution options into any online campaign. Widget Ads are developed using the same creative process and applications as DoubleClick Rich Media ads. In addition, Widget Ads are created with a customizable Sharing Component to support virality.

“Since DoubleClick’s Widget Ads follow the same creative workflow as rich media ads, incorporating widgets into a campaign is straight-forward for our creative developers,” said Laura Primack, creative producer of Avatar Labs. “From a creative standpoint, we can build the most exciting and engaging viral content, seamlessly include the Sharing Component, then configure it to support our preferred social networks.”

The sharing component is powered by Gigya, a leading provider of tools and technologies for distributing widgets. Gigya’s Wildfire technology installs hundreds of thousands of widgets per day to more than 50 of the leading social networks, blogs and bookmarking platforms.

“Incorporating viral functionality helps give advertisers the ability to tap into the incredible power of potential brand evangelists,” said Ben Pashman, vice president of business development with Gigya. “The combination of DoubleClick’s leading rich media advertising technologies, world-class analytics, and our proven Wildfire widget sharing tools are now enabling great creative to enter a user’s social circle, where it may become an even more powerful, user-endorsed ad unit.”

Widget Ads may be distributed in a multitude of ways including branded websites, word-of-mouth outreach and even through another rich media ad. In addition, integration with the industry-standard DART platform allows for valuable Widget Ad metrics including impressions, interactions, video metrics, viral “grabs” for different social networks, and reach and frequency, all easily managed with DART for Advertisers (DFA). These metrics help provide insight into viral distribution patterns and the effect of widgets on conversion, as well as the option for refreshable content and message control.

About Gigya
Gigya delivers innovative discovery and monetization solutions to the social media ecosystem, connecting brand advertisers, content publishers and an enormous audience of active social media users. Gigya serves the world’s largest brands with a full-service widget advertising model covering design, development, hosting, distribution, viral promotion and tracking. Gigya’s Wildfire technology installs hundreds of thousands of widgets per day and tracks over three billion impressions per month. Learn more at www.gigya.com.

About DoubleClick Inc.
DoubleClick is a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services. The world’s top marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick’s expertise in ad serving, rich media, video, mobile, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium. From its position at the nerve center of digital marketing, DoubleClick provides superior insights and insider knowledge to its customers. Learn more at www.doubleclick.com.

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.

Widget advertising is a growing trend, especially within social networks. According to Prospero, 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: eMarketer, 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.”

Interactive agencies and marketers often look to Widget Ads for easy integration of viral distribution options into any online campaign. Widget Ads are developed using the same creative process and applications as DoubleClick Rich Media ads. In addition, Widget Ads are created with a customizable Sharing Component to support virality.

“Since DoubleClick’s Widget Ads follow the same creative workflow as rich media ads, incorporating widgets into a campaign is straight-forward for our creative developers,” said Laura Primack, associate creative director of Avatar Labs. “From a creative standpoint, we can build the most exciting and engaging viral content, seamlessly include the Sharing Component, then configure it to support our preferred social networks.”

The sharing component is powered by Gigya, a leading provider of tools and technologies for distributing widgets. Gigya’s Wildfire technology installs hundreds of thousands of widgets per day to more than 50 of the leading social networks, blogs and bookmarking platforms.

“Incorporating viral functionality helps give advertisers the ability to tap into the incredible power of potential brand evangelists,” said Ben Pashman, vice president of business development with Gigya. “The combination of DoubleClick’s leading rich media advertising technologies, world-class analytics, and our proven Wildfire widget sharing tools are now enabling great creative to enter a user’s social circle, where it may become an even more powerful, user-endorsed ad unit.”

Widget Ads may be distributed in a multitude of ways including branded websites, word-of-mouth outreach and even through another rich media ad. In addition, integration with the industry-standard DART platform allows for valuable Widget Ad metrics including impressions, interactions, video metrics, viral “grabs” for different social networks, and reach and frequency, all easily managed with DART for Advertisers (DFA). These metrics help provide insight into viral distribution patterns and the effect of widgets on conversion, as well as the option for refreshable content and message control.

About Gigya
Gigya delivers innovative discovery and monetization solutions to the social media ecosystem, connecting brand advertisers, content publishers and an enormous audience of active social media users. Gigya serves the world’s largest brands with a full-service widget advertising model covering design, development, hosting, distribution, viral promotion and tracking. Gigya’s Wildfire technology installs hundreds of thousands of widgets per day and tracks over three billion impressions per month. Learn more at www.gigya.com.

About DoubleClick Inc.
DoubleClick is a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services. The world’s top marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick’s expertise in ad serving, rich media, video, mobile, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium. From its position at the nerve center of digital marketing, DoubleClick provides superior insights and insider knowledge to its customers. Learn more at www.doubleclick.com.