San Francisco – In a recent survey of more than 450 advertising executives, marketers said that they will be allocating nearly 60% of their online budgets to brand advertising in 2012, indicating that spending on online branding may surpass spending on direct response advertising for the first time in the coming year. Some other top line findings from the report:

- 64% of marketers plan to increase their online brand advertising budgets in 2012, with 22% saying they will increase spending by more than 20%.

- In contrast, only 56% of marketers plan to increase their online direct response advertising budgets in 2012, with only 15% saying they will increase spending by more than 20%.

- Additionally, 60% of marketers responding indicated that they are allocating dollars away from direct response to brand advertising initiatives.

“These growth predictions are clearly optimistic, but very encouraging nonetheless,” says Dan Beltramo, CEO of Vizu, an online ad technology company that enables advertisers and publishers to measure and optimize Brand Lift in real-time. “There’s still more that needs to be done in order to realize those numbers and make online the medium of choice for brand advertisers. I believe that when brand advertisers understand that their online ads can now be measured and optimized using classic offline brand metrics such as awareness and purchase intent, we will see a further growth in their online ad budgets.”

Marketers agreed with Mr. Beltramo. When asked what would lead them to increase spending on online brand advertising:

·       Nearly 7 in 10 (68%) said “Improved clarity around the actual return on brand advertising investment.”

·       A majority (56%) also cited the “Ability to verify my brand advertising created the desired result (e.g. increased awareness of my product).”

·       In addition, a majority of respondents (53%) indicated the “Ability to use the same metrics to evaluate brand advertising effectiveness online as are used offline.”

“These issues are all indicative of a ‘metrics morass’ in the online medium, which often leads to information overload for brand marketers when trying to determine the efficacy of their advertising,” adds Mr. Beltramo. “In fact, 34% of respondents described themselves as ‘drowning in data’ when it comes to the online channel.”

Brands and agencies are in agreement on which metrics they would like to use to determine the effectiveness of online brand advertising:

- In the top spot, 8 in 10 of both agency and brand respondents said: “Brand Lift generated as a result of the advertising.”

- A majority (over 50%) of both also agree on “Sales generated as a result of the advertising.”

The survey also identified several opportunities to improve collaboration between brands and their partners in the digital media ecosystem, and maximize the value of online brand advertising initiatives:

Alignment around objectives:

- A vast majority (85%) of brands said it was “very important” to establish the primary marketing objective for a brand advertising campaign, and the metric used to measure performance against that objective, in advance of their campaign.

- Three quarters (73%) of media sellers also highlight the importance of this alignment, saying agreement around “what constitutes success” for the campaign was the number one thing that would help them improve results for advertisers.

- Unfortunately, only 18 percent of agencies said they are able to establish a single objective against which ROI will be measured with their clients in advance of a campaign.

Alignment around metrics used to measure performance against objectives:

- Brand marketers clearly indicate by a wide margin (55%) that they’d prefer to use “the exact same metrics used in the offline medium, and a few additional metrics specific to the online medium.”

- Media sellers, however, by a large margin (77%), say that they’re most likely to report only metrics related specifically to the online medium.

Alignment around metrics used to optimize performance against objectives:

- Nearly all brand marketers ranked “in-market optimization of campaigns against brand metrics” as “very important.”

- Agencies, however, said they are primarily optimizing against various measures of engagement (58% of the time) or even click-through rates (19%), as opposed to Brand Lift (16%).

- Not surprisingly, media sellers’ answers mirrored those of the agencies with whom they work.

“There are obviously opportunities to improve online brand advertising outcomes by ensuring everyone’s on the same page,” says Mr. Beltramo, “and our customers leverage Vizu’s technology to do just that. The last 10 years was the decade of direct response marketing online, but this will be the decade of online branding, and we’re excited to be a part of that.”

This study, conducted in November and December of 2011, was executed by Digiday and sponsored by Vizu Corporation. Download the full report here: http://brandlift.vizu.com/knowledge-resources/research/2012-industry-outlook/

You can also benchmark your organization’s brand advertising practices against industry best practices identified in this report here: http://brandlift.vizu.com/knowledge-resources/brand-ad-iq/

Digiday (www.digiday.com) is a media company and community for professionals who work in the digital media, marketing and advertising industry. Its mission is to connect the industry with insightful analysis and perspective, as well as each other. They provide key insights and information through their online publications and conferences that cover the changes, trends — and why they matter. They cover the industry with an expertise, depth and tone not find anywhere else. See Digiday.com to read or subscribe to their publications or for information on events; join Digiday LinkedIn or Facebook groups; follow them on Twitter @Digiday or their show commentary with #Digiday; or tune into live-streamed and archived video coverage of their events on their Livestream channel.

Vizu Corporation (www.brandlift.com) brings the same metrics used to measure and optimize brand advertising effectiveness in the offline world to the online medium. By providing the first real-time, enterprise technology platform that allows brand advertisers and their partners in the digital media ecosystem – publishers, ad networks, exchanges, and demand side platforms – to collaborate around measuring and optimizing Brand Lift metrics, Vizu enables its customers to move their target audience through the purchase funnel, from building awareness to creating intent and preference. Vizu’s brand advertising effectiveness platform is used by over 60% of Advertising Age’s Top 100 Brand Advertisers and Top 50 Media properties to support all key aspects of the advertising lifecycle, including media buying, audience profiling, and Brand Lift optimization.

STAMFORD, Conn. – InsightExpress, a leading marketing research and data analytics firm, announced the launch of Tablet AdInsights, a pioneering new ad effectiveness solution that measures the brand impact of campaigns running across tablet devices.

A timely response to a growing industry need, Tablet AdInsights was born out of InsightExpress’ industry leading AdInsights® offering. Tablet AdInsights allows advertisers, agencies and publishers to measure the brand impact of tablet-focused campaigns against metrics such as awareness, message association, favorability, consideration and intent.

Tablet AdInsights recruits respondents directly from their device while surfing the Internet. Using the AdInsights proven test/control methodology, InsightExpress recruits the control group (unexposed) prior to the campaign and any potential exposure. Once a campaign launches, respondents for the test group (exposed) are randomly recruited.

“At InsightExpress, we believe in staying way out ahead of the curve, not only providing clients with the solutions they need today, but also the ones they will rely on tomorrow. Tablet AdInsights fills a significant industry gap by allowing advertisers, agencies and publishers to understand the effect of campaign exposure via these revolutionary devices,” said Drew Lipner, EVP, Group Director at InsightExpress. “Given our longstanding expertise in brand communications and mobile research, InsightExpress is uniquely positioned to lead the research community down this exciting path.”

“As we have witnessed the tablet phenomenon and experienced the profound effect on media, a critical need has emerged to measure ad-effectiveness. With Tablet AdInsights, we are able to measure an ad’s brand impact within this unique environment,” said Paul Borgese, Director of Research and Insights at The Weather Channel Media Solutions. “We have partnered with InsightExpress on our ad effectiveness initiatives for many years, and see Tablet AdInsights as an extension of the creativity and vision that sets them apart in the research industry.”

About InsightExpress

InsightExpress is an industry leading marketing research and data analytics provider specializing in the measurement of brand communications. The company’s proven approaches include message evaluation, advertising effectiveness, creative development and cross-media optimization. With vast industry expertise, proprietary methodologies and an exclusive platform, InsightExpress helps agencies, media and marketers optimize marketing initiatives across online, mobile and other media. Founded in 1999, InsightExpress is headquartered in Stamford, CT, with offices in San Francisco and New York. For more information, please visit our corporate Web site at www.insightexpress.com or our InsightfulAnalytics blog at http://blog.insightexpress.com/; you may also call us at 203.406.3233.

“Adding someone with Evan’s knowledge and expertise to the team will help us bring Insights Driven Media to a market that holds an immense opportunity for Resonate,” said George Stewart, CRO of Resonate Networks. “His experience working with major brands and building local sales teams from the ground up will further speed the growth of our business in 2012.”

Rullman joins Resonate Networks to build the company’s presence in the Midwest.  There he will introduce agencies and brand marketers to Insights Driven Media, which provides brands with insights that are transformed into actionable media. With more than 15 years of experience in the online advertising industry, Rullman comes to Resonate from ChaCha where he was Senior Director of Branded Ad Sales in the Central Region. Prior to that, Rullman was Senior Director/VP of Branded Ad Sales for the Midwest Region at Demand Media.

About Resonate  
Resonate is the first online ad company to connect advertisers with audiences by understanding why people engage with a brand, campaign or issue. Its unique approach asks people about the values that drive their decisions allowing Resonate to deliver the right audience in the most optimal locations online. The result Insights Driven Media that deepens convictions and change minds in a way that traditional online advertising can’t. Visit www.resonatenetworks.com to learn more.

SAN FRANCISCO – Since launching its mobile video ad format earlier this year, Greystripe, the largest brand-focused mobile ad network and a division of ValueClick Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK), has seen an increasing number of brand advertisers flock to video.

The mobile video ad units were launched in June 2011. Since then, over 30 brands have run campaigns, delivering over 100 ad creatives throughout the Greystripe network on iOS, Android and the mobile web. The demand for mobile video ads has increased significantly in recent months; Greystripe has already seen a 300 percent increase in the number of campaigns booked so far in Q4 of 2011 relative to all of Q3 2011.

Universal Pictures and its agency, Ignited, ran a successful campaign with Greystripe to drive trailer views and promote the theatrical release of the new film The Change-Up. The two-week campaign, targeting men 18-34, generated nearly nine hundred thousand complete trailer views. A video of the ad displayed on an iPhone can be seen here. In addition to entertainment, retail, consumer-packaged goods, insurance and electronics brands have all run mobile video ad campaigns with Greystripe.

“We are consistently seeing mobile ad dollars flowing to mobile ad digital as users embrace multiple screens — often using their smartphones and tablets while watching TV,” said Vikrant Gandhi, senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

Greystripe is benefiting from the massive shift of broadcast advertising budgets into mobile, driven by the efficiency and effectiveness of reaching the 40 percent of TV watchers who are on their smartphones and tablets at the same time (Nielsen). In addition, advertisers are flocking to Greystripe’s video format because of impressive campaign results. On average, consumers have watched the entire video ad 50 percent of the time, with click-through-rates of between 1 and 3 percent. This is particularly impressive because users have the option to skip Greystripe video ads at any time.

“Mobile video ads will be the major growth driver for brand advertising spend in 2012, as traditional broadcast budgets continue to flow into mobile and online screens,” said Michael Chang, Greystripe general manager. “Greystripe is well positioned to take advantage of this video-fueled growth because of a fantastic ad user experience and our ability to serve more full-screen mobile video ads into premium content than any other mobile ad network – over 1 billion per month.”

For more information visit: http://www.greystripe.com/videoads/

About Greystripe

Greystripe, a division of ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK), is the largest brand-focused mobile advertising network in the US by reach. Greystripe delivers the highest engagement and most sophisticated targeting for brand marketers, the maximum revenue for publishers and app developers, and the best ad experience for users. Greystripe’s proprietary advertising platform serves billions of rich media impressions to over 40 million users of touch-driven devices through more than 3,500 application titles and mobile websites across all major mobile platforms.

For more information, please visit: http://www.greystripe.com

About ValueClick, Inc.

ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK) is one of the world’s largest digital marketing companies. Through a unique combination of data, technology and services, ValueClick increases brand awareness and drives customer acquisition at scale for the world’s largest advertisers, and maximizes advertising revenue for tens of thousands of online and mobile publishers. ValueClick’s brands include Commission Junction, ValueClick Media, Dotomi, Greystripe, Mediaplex, Smarter.com, CouponMountain.com, Investopedia.com, and PriceRunner. The Company is based in Westlake Village, California, and has offices in major advertising markets worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.valueclick.com.

LONDON – Adconion Media Group (http://www.adconion.com/uk/index.html) confirmed a restructure of its UK business and announced the launch of its two digital distribution platforms (DDP); Adconion Direct and Joost.

Announcing the launch, Matthew Hunt, Adconion Media Group’s UK Managing Director commented that the development of the two digital distribution platforms sends a clear signal to the market that Adconion has truly evolved from the traditional ad network business model.

“Adconion Media Group has built a reputation as one of the most successful independent global audience and content networks but we look at our achievements to date as the path leading to today’s announcement. Adconion Media Group is now an integrated digital marketing services organisation, with platforms that distribute content and advertising to three out of five people in the UK across display, email, video, connected TV, mobile and social channels. We have proprietary technology, a comprehensive range of products and services and have the team, expertise and scale across these channels to deliver leading solutions to the UK’s most demanding advertisers.”

“Advertisers today are extremely knowledgeable when it comes to understanding the complexity of multi-channel advertising distribution depending on whether the goal is to promote direct response or to broadcast a brand. As a result, skills, services and product lines have become more specialised and we have restructured accordingly.”

“The industry is experiencing radical change as media buying becomes more automated across multiple digital mediums. The game is changing and we’re proud to say we are ready and are ahead of the curve.”

Adconion Direct is a Direct Response DDP, which merges Adconion’s Audience Network with Adconion’s email solutions and social marketing capabilities. The result is a dedicated multi-channel solution that supports all pricing metrics and offers advanced optimisation and targeting technology. Data integration builds profiles of audiences for tighter targeting and connects campaign assets to the audience, re-targeting in real time, with behavioural recognition and response underpinned by Adconion Media Group’s optimisation engine and new social algorithm. The right audience is identified across multiple digital channels including display, email and social; and the right creative is selected to drive purchasing intent within that channel.

Joost is Adconion Media Group’s brand marketing DDP and operates on a separate platform. It brings the online properties and significant audience base of the video network and portal, together with the reach and scale of the Adconion advertising network and the creative resources of RedLever. The result is a dedicated multichannel platform supporting in-stream video, in banner video, premium display and rich media, mobile, connected TV combined with our in house creative services team. Joost is specifically developed to shift brand metrics and prove that television is no longer the only effective medium for reaching, engaging and affecting consumer mindsets.

Both DDPs will set new standards for brand protection through third party verification via AdXpose and Truste, compliance as a signatory to the recently announced European EU Framework for Behavioural Advertising and IASH standards across every campaign.

Adconion Direct and Joost will sit alongside Adconion Media Group business units RedLever and Adconion Platform Services. RedLever is a branded entertainment and creative production house specialising in sourcing, developing and negotiating sponsorship and funding agreements for high quality and entertaining content, while Adconion Platform Services allows third party use of Adconion Media Group’s proprietary technologies and workflow systems and licenses them for use.

ABOUT ADCONION MEDIA GROUP

Adconion Media Group is an integrated digital marketing services organisation with platforms that distribute content and advertising to three out of five people in the UK across display, email, video, connected TV, mobile and social channels. Adconion Media Group has a single minded proposition; to become the world’s leading content distribution and monetisation platform.

In the UK we deliver brand and direct response marketing results through having operational focus across four distinct businesses: Adconion Direct is a digital distribution platform for direct response marketing, Joost is a digital distribution platform dedicated to building brands, RedLever is a digital studio and Adconion Platform Services is an enterprise technology services business.

Globally Adconion Media Group (www.adconion.com) is one of the largest independent global audience and video content networks, reaching over 325 million unique users – or one-quarter of the total global Internet population – every month. Adconion has 16 offices in 8 countries around the world, is a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and is a founding member of IASH Europe.

For more information, visit: http://www.adconion.com

NEW YORK – Collective, a full service provider of media and technology solutions for display and video advertising, announced that it has acquired Tumri, the leading provider of dynamic creative optimization and personalization solutions for advertisers and agencies. The deal closed for an undisclosed amount.

Just months after the acquisition of video ad platform and services company Oggifinogi, the transaction further empowers Collective’s end-to-end audience buying solutions for brand advertisers by enabling the delivery of massively customized creative content at scale.

“A lot of companies can deliver impressions. At Collective, we help brand advertisers turn that impression into an expression,” said Joe Apprendi, CEO, Collective. “Tumri gives us the capability to target the right audience with the right messaging and ad format, dynamically based on data intelligence.”

Apprendi maintains that most optimization to date has focused on the ‘who’, which represents the data piece, and the ‘where’ –the ad environment– while not enough emphasis has been placed on optimization of the creative, the ‘what’. Further, the delivery of creative content leads to interaction rates that are over ten times the interaction rates of the campaign control group.

The acquisition strengthens Collective’s ability to manage the entire ad delivery process, enhancing audience buying, optimization and overall ad efficacy while adding much greater cost efficiencies for advertisers.

“DCO has been largely relegated to the direct and ecommerce channels, but its application can have spectacular results for brand advertisers as well. The combination of Tumri and Oggifinogi provides a rich, video-enabled canvas through which brands can connect with consumers across the entire spectrum of online display advertising,” Apprendi added.

Tumri powers dynamic marketing campaigns for many of the world’s most prominent brands including Nike, HP and Travelocity among others, who leverage the platform to cross-sell and up-sell a catalog of products and services based on a user’s actual site browse or action, driving maximum relevancy and ROI.

“Collective’s evolution as a business has brought incredible market opportunities across the entire display ecosystem,” said Hari Menon, CEO, Tumri. “Combining Collective’s AMP audience buying platform with intelligent ad versioning has created a powerful tool for advertisers, allowing them to engage with consumers with exact using the right creative.” Luma Partners advised Tumri on the transaction.

Continued Platform Development

Tumri’s deep engineering expertise in data-driven marketing platforms, ad serving optimization and analytics will be applied to Collective’s own AMP® Data and Media Management Platform technology roadmap. The combined engineering operation will greatly enhance and accelerate AMP product development, enabling Collective to release new features and functionality to both buy-side and sell-side customers using AMP.

About Collective

Collective helps brand advertisers connect and engage with target audiences across display, video and social media. Collective’s industry expertise provides a strategic advantage to its clients by leveraging proprietary audience modeling, insights and ad effectiveness metrics. Our flagship products, Collective Display and Collective Video®, are powered by AMP®, our market-proven data and media management platform. Collective is headquartered in New York with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London. Collective’s investors include Accel Partners®, Greycroft Partners and iNovia Capital. For more information, please visit www.collective.com.

About Tumri

Tumri is the leading provider of dynamic creative optimization and personalization solutions for advertisers and agencies. The Tumri Ensemble platform combines next-generation ad-serving with dynamic creative production to enable real-time 1:1 personalized marketing at scale. With Tumri, marketers can effectively cross-sell and up-sell a catalog of products or services to their consumers based on a user’s actual site browse or action, driving maximum relevancy and ROI. Marketers also benefit from a powerful auto-optimization engine and dynamic creative reports that allows for a more accurate and timely view of campaign metrics. Tumri powers dynamic marketing campaigns for many of the world’s most prominent brands including Nike, HP and Travelocity among others. To date, Tumri has executed more campaigns, served more impressions and created more distinct dynamic creative experiences than anyone in the space.

- Tremor Media’s Acudeo and ScanScout’s SE2 in-stream video technologies marry the market-leading publisher and advertiser platforms

NEW YORK – Tremor Media announced its acquisition of ScanScout, creating a clearly dominant player in online video – the fastest growing interactive advertising segment. The combined company’s scale makes it the undisputed leader in both video ad delivery and unique viewer reach.

As part of the acquisition, Jason Glickman becomes Executive Chairman of Tremor Media and Bill Day becomes the company’s CEO.

“By combining Tremor Media’s scale and robust publisher platform with ScanScout’s unrivaled brand protection and optimization technologies, we are creating the preeminent leader in interactive video advertising,” said Jason Glickman, Executive Chairman. “The addition of proven industry veteran Bill Day as CEO, and the strength of our combined management team place the company in a fantastic position to fully realize the enormous market opportunity.”

The acquisition comes in response to three key advertiser-driven objectives for online video that have not been available with a single solution until now. Combining the two largest digital video advertising companies, positions Tremor Media as the sole entity that can deliver results against all of these goals.

1. Reaching targeted audiences with scale: Both in broadcast and online, video advertisers want to reach specific audiences during specific day parts. Buyers who want to target a specific in-stream video campaign to, for example, eight million women on Thursday night between 8 and 11 PM can now accomplish this with Tremor Media.

2. Reaching targeted audiences with seamless execution: Only Tremor Media can deliver in-stream campaigns at scale across a network of thousands of sites, reaching over 100 million viewers, normalized by a unified technology platform.

3. Delivering campaigns with accountability against brand goals: Only Tremor Media can deliver video campaigns with immediate and measurable results, and can optimize campaigns to achieve an advertiser’s success metrics. Whether it’s brand lift, purchase intent, engagement or viewing duration, Tremor Media can deliver powerful results for advertisers.

“By combining the companies’ strengths, we can deliver what advertisers have told us they’re looking for and create a clear must-buy in the industry for large online video budgets,” said Bill Day, CEO of Tremor Media. “Tremor Media is the largest video ad network serving the most advertisers with absolutely the largest footprint of premium publishers and targeted video inventory. The company will continue to innovate and bolster its leading technology platforms. In addition, our strong balance sheet will enable us to be to be very aggressive in pursuit of expansion on all fronts.”

The ability to provide meaningful scale and accountability across thousands of publishers is something that further differentiates Tremor Media from Hulu, YouTube, and all other players in digital video. Tremor Media’s Acudeo platform provides publishers with a comprehensive ad management console to fully monetize their video inventory.

Tremor Media will now have 40 market-facing sellers in 11 offices throughout North America and Europe. The company’s combined technology suite will include a complete inventory monetization platform for publishers and intelligent targeting, brand protection and brand health optimization/analytics for advertisers. Both Tremor Media and ScanScout have been trailblazers in creating proprietary video ad formats, which include their vChoice and Super Pre-roll units. The company will continue to be a leader on all fronts to create the best video advertising experience for advertisers, publishers, and viewers.

The story was first reported in Advertising Age: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=146937

About Tremor Media

Tremor Media (www.tremormedia.com), the leading online video monetization and advertising company, provides brand advertisers with in-stream and in-page video advertising solutions to top tier publishers. It reaches more than 3,000 publishers who serve in-stream video, and more than 5,000 publishers who serve in-page video in exclusively brand-safe environments. Tremor Media’s innovative video ad formats, advanced targeting, and industry-leading SE2 brand success measurement tools, enable advertisers to deliver efficient, scalable, and engaging video campaigns with measurable impact.

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

LOS ANGELES – SVnetwork, the Web’s largest performance brand advertising network reaching over 80 million consumers every month, has released a white paper called “Performance Brand Advertising: The Audience is the Message.” Authored by CEO Jay Samit, the report describes how brands can optimize consumer engagement in social media through performance brand advertising.

The paper explains how engagement advertising delivers a lift in overall brand perception and provides brands a unique way of interacting with individuals and the content they publish in social media. By tapping into individuals’ motivations, this ad solution provides meaningful value-exchanges at a scale unrivaled by any other ad platform. Alternative advertising methods in digital media such as display advertising cannot deliver the personalization or level of engagement that performance brand advertising delivers.

“The millions of consumers on the SVnetwork spend an average of 40 seconds interacting with a brand,” says Jay Samit, CEO of SVnetwork. “Performance brand advertising brings real people, not impressions, to the conversation between brands and the audiences they serve.”

SVnetwork’s unique brand advertising platform charges advertisers only when a consumer has engaged with their brand, and some engagements have delivered campaigns with up to 100 times higher click rates than display advertising. SVnetwork revolutionizes brand advertising with a pay-for-performance model that gives brands meaningful ROI for their online ad spending.

SVnetwork, which was born from the cause-marketing platform SocialVibe, has delivered campaigns for the world’s biggest brands including Visa, Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Disney, Lionsgate, Best Buy, Coca Cola, Kraft, Nestle, and Procter & Gamble. By developing the Web’s most cost-effective solution for advertisers to engage consumers, SVnetwork provides scalable distribution for performance brand marketing in digital media.

About SVnetwork (www.svnetwork.com)

Reaching over 80 million unique consumers every month, the SVnetwork provides the most effective way for brands to reach, engage, and spread messages through a targeted audience of connected consumers in social media. Within the SVnetwork is SocialVibe, the leading social media utility that empowers individuals to make a positive, measurable impact for the charity of their choice by completing branded activities online. SVnetwork is backed by Redpoint Ventures, Jafco Ventures, and Pinnacle Ventures and is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) revealed results from a study conducted by The Nielsen Company which shows the degree to which brand advertisements within video games can boost real life sales. The study, commissioned by EA on behalf of Gatorade, shows that in-game advertising increased household dollars spent on Gatorade by 24%, and offered a return on investment of $3.11.

The study focused on households that purchased at least one of six EA SPORTS™ titles: NHL® 09, NHL 10, NBA LIVE 07, NBA LIVE 08, NBA LIVE 09 and NBA Street Homecourt. Gatorade had a variety of product placements within the games including arena signs, players’ water bottles, score updates and other call outs.

The study was based on Nielsen’s US Homescan panel of more than 100,000 households, representative of the US population, including a subset of Homescan homes that scanned video game UPC (Universal Product Codes) barcodes. The scanned barcodes were matched to a reference library of more than 14,000 video game titles. Nielsen compared the households that purchased at least one of the studied games before and after Gatorade branding was integrated into the games (the test group) with households that didn’t purchase one of the games (the control group).

These test and control group homes are projected out to the broad Homescan panel by matching them with the larger Homescan household universe based on similar purchase patterns and demographics in order to achieve a statistically reliable sample. Finally, the sales impact of Gatorade advertising was measured by analyzing and comparing Gatorade purchase behavior between the households that had and hadn’t purchased the games that carried Gatorade advertising.

This is the first time that this type of sales lift analysis has been done for advertising within video games. The study is the result of work undertaken by EA and The Nielsen Company to help marketers better understand the potential of advertising in this space.

“Nielsen’s study is a milestone for interactive entertainment,” said Elizabeth Harz, Senior Vice President of Global Media Sales at EA. “For the first time, advertisers are able to link the value of their in-game marketing or sponsorship to actual sales. Now brands can feel confident adding gaming as a core media channel for their advertising.”

”Video games are a deeply engaging consumer experience,” added Gerardo Guzman, Director, Media Product Leadership for The Nielsen Company. ”Bringing our industry accepted ad effectiveness understanding to video games is another way to help marketers understand how consumers respond to advertising across different environments. This should help optimize the impact of and derive a return on media investments. In this case the story is simple – dollars put into video game product placement result in more retail dollars.”

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA Mobile™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2010, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.7 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million units. 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.

SAN MATEO, Calif. – Brand.net, the leading independent demand-side platform for Brand advertising, announced the results of a joint research study with Vizu and Nielsen demonstrating that increased purchase intent during an online campaign translated into significant increased in-store product sales for up to six weeks after the campaign completed. The delivery of actionable Brand impact data during a SalesLink™ campaign gives advertisers and agencies the first fully-integrated media/measurement/optimization solution to drive increased offline product sales.

This pioneering measurement program was conducted with a Top 20 CPG company’s leading beauty brand on a Q4 2009 media campaign across 46 high-quality, contextually relevant publisher websites. Media was managed and optimized by Brand.net, purchase intent measured using Vizu’s Ad Catalyst solution, and offline sales impact measured by Nielsen.

“Our Brand customers have a clear business challenge: up to 95% of their revenue is generated from products sold offline in brick and mortar stores. They need to know that their online campaigns are driving increased offline sales, period, and they want data mid-campaign allowing in-flight optimization to drive that offline sales figure even higher,” said Elizabeth Blair, CEO and Co-Founder of Brand.net. “SalesLink™ delivers this comprehensive media/measurement/optimization solution. And unlike portal-based solutions, Brand.net manages, measures and optimizes campaigns across dozens of independent, top comScore sites, within contextually relevant channels. Our campaigns are driving real offline sales ROI for our customers, and we prove it to them.”

Brand.net’s SalesLink™ results for this study included the following insights:

- In this first campaign, Brand.net delivered 178% ROI on campaign media spend; well above the 157% average1 across >200 other Nielsen studies
- 14% lift in purchase intent for those answering “Definitely Will buy [CPG leading beauty brand] in the next 6 months?”
- 5% lift in offline sales within exposed group vs. control group already recorded within six weeks after the campaign ended.
- Numerous real time insights into by-unit media effectiveness, including the fact that 300×250 ad sizes were most effective in driving brand lift

“The addition of Ad Catalyst’s real time brand lift measurement metrics – which include overall campaign performance in addition to the contribution of individual media units, frequencies, and sites – into Brand.net’s SalesLink™ solution is a game changer for the online Brand advertising industry,” said Dan Beltramo, CEO of Vizu. “What’s really interesting about these results is that the drop off between intent measured online and behavior measured offline is relatively consistent with what we’ve seen reported when behavior is measured online. The implication is powerful for brand advertisers – you can use online intent data as a predictor of offline behavior and therefore calculate a true advertising ROI.”

Brand.net has integrated this revolutionary in-flight measurement capability into its SalesLink™ offering for CPG, Pharma, Retail and Automotive advertisers. With SalesLink™, Brands can now measure attitudinal impact due to online ad exposure (awareness, attitudes, favorability, preference and intent), correlate that impact to actual offline purchase activity (dollars or items sold per buyer, share of brand dollars versus top competitors, dollars measured against entire brand category, ROI and brand lift) and optimize accordingly – all with one integrated solution.

About Brand.net

Brand.net is the leading independent demand-side platform for Brand advertising for the world’s largest brand advertisers and media agencies. Brand.net delivers on their critical requirements: Quality, Scale and Value. Guaranteed.® The company’s platform integrates world-class proprietary technology for quality filtering, price and volume forecasting, buy automation and delivery management. Brand.net leverages this platform and the deep online advertising expertise of its team to execute efficient, effective online branding campaigns that deliver proven, outstanding results. The company is privately held and headquartered in Silicon Valley with sales offices throughout the US.

About Vizu Corporation

Vizu Corporation (www.vizu.com) specializes in measuring the effectiveness of digital media branding campaigns. Vizu’s Ad Catalyst platform is being used by hundreds of the world’s most important brands to measure the effectiveness of their online brand advertising efforts in real time. By providing a common currency of communication between advertisers and their partners in the digital media ecosystem—creative and media buying agencies, online publishers, and ad networks—Vizu is revolutionizing the efficiency and effectiveness of online brand advertising.

1 Source: Nielsen Online Presentation on 10/6/09 Citi Research conference call

NEW YORK – Zoom Media & Marketing, a leading provider of targeted & digital out-of-home media and promotional programs for brand advertisers in the United States and Europe, announced its acquisition of the Wellness Health Education Network (WHEN), a 255 venue digital signage network located in high-end fitness centers across the US. WHEN broadcasts engaging health and wellness information, lifestyle tips, facility-specific announcements, and advertising messages to help fitness members proactively manage their health via digital displays located in common areas.

The acquisition expands Zoom’s network of fitness facilities to over 1,350 digital venues across the United States in 123 DMAs and over 2,000 worldwide. Zoom plans to integrate the WHEN content platform into its existing ClubCom network, the fitness industry’s leading digital entertainment and digital signage platform.

“We are thrilled to acquire the leading provider of health and wellness editorial to fitness facilities,” said Dennis Roche, President of Zoom Media & Marketing. “Health and wellness is the defining ethos of the health club environment. Venues and patrons alike find this information engaging and useful. It will be an outstanding complement to our existing programming content.”

The integration of the WHEN content also provides an additional platform for advertisers and sponsors to leverage across Zoom’s digital fitness offerings. “Health and wellness information is a big area of growth for advertisers,” said Dan Levi, Zoom’s SVP of Digital Media & Strategic Partnerships. “WHEN provides Zoom’s advertisers with relevant editorial content targeting health conscious consumers during a heightened state of awareness.”

WHEN is the third significant business acquired by Zoom over the past fourteen months. Last March, Zoom acquired Alloy’s 2,000 venue nightlife media business. In September 2008, Zoom acquired ClubCom and its expansive global digital fitness platform. Adding to its capital reserves, in March 2009 Zoom raised $30MM from ABS Capital Partners. Overall, Zoom now operates digital media networks in over 2,750 domestic venues spanning the top 90 DMAs in the United States and static billboards in over 8,000 venues in North America. Zoom is the clear market leader in the fitness and nightlife media industries. Zoom also operates media networks in over 500 family entertainment venues and an extensive sampling and promotional business.

“The digital tide continues to rise amidst the downturn of other traditional media platforms. This is the ideal time to invest in targeted, relevant digital networks.” said François de Gaspé Beaubien, Chairman & CEO of Zoom Media & Marketing. “We are extremely pleased to offer advertisers more diversified digital content as well as expand into additional great fitness venues.”

About Zoom Media & Marketing

Zoom Media & Marketing operates indoor networks in over 10,000 venues including fitness centers, indoor soccer facilities, bowling centers, family entertainment centers, restaurants and nightclubs that reach active consumers. Zoom also has an in-house event marketing and promotion department that constructs custom media placements and marketing programs. With over 25,000 digital screens and over 55,000 billboard locations Zoom reaches over 100 million monthly viewers. Zoom is owned by the de Gaspé Beaubien family and ABS Capital Partners. For more information, please visit www.zoommedia.com.

San Mateo, California (PRWeb) January 21, 2009 – Jivox, the online video advertising service that helps small and medium-sized businesses reach local customers, today announced continued momentum over the past quarter as more companies discover the power of online video ads to attract local customers.  In Q4 of 2008, Jivox doubled its customer base and number of registered users from the previous quarter and reported four-fold revenue growth.  Jivox also tripled the number of ad views served on the Jivox Video Ad Network in this quarter.

Summary of key milestones in Q4:

Customer growth: Jivox doubled both its customer base and its registered users.
Revenue growth: Jivox achieved four-fold revenue growth.
Ad views: Jivox tripled the number of ad views served on the Jivox Video Ad Network.
New product features: Jivox released a number of new product features to extend the value of customers’ online video ads, including the ability to embed videos on a web site and upload videos to sharing sites like YouTube and local directories such as Local.com.
New partners: Jivox’s signed major partnership agreements with companies like Examiner.com, operator of a network of 60 local insider information Web sites; PixelFish, a leading provider of affordable and effective custom video ad solutions; and BigAdda, a leading youth networking web site in India
New brand customers: Jivox engaged with large brand customers for its subsidiary Jivox India, including LG, Sony and Nokia.

“While brand advertising overall has suffered in the face of the economic downturn, investment in online video advertising campaigns has never been stronger, as companies look for new, more cost-effective ways to promote their businesses online.  Online video has proven itself as a significantly more accountable and cost-effective form of advertising than many traditional forms of advertising,” said Diaz Nesamoney, CEO of Jivox. “We think 2009 is going to be the year online video advertising goes mainstream and makes significant inroads into the world of online advertising, to become a de facto format every business will use to reach customers.”

Jivox offers a do-it-yourself local online video advertising service, combining video ad creation tools, proprietary targeting technology and an extensive network of premium local publishers to help companies easily develop high-impact online video advertising campaigns. The Jivox Publisher Network has grown to include over 650 local TV, radio and newspaper websites across the country and now reaches more than 60 million unique viewers.

About Jivox
Jivox helps small businesses reach customers with online video advertising.  Jivox provides advertisers with an online, self-service tool to create high-impact video ads using stock footage, images, music or their existing video assets.  Jivox ensures high-quality placement of customer ads through the Jivox Publisher Network, a locally focused network of premium publishers that includes hundreds of local TV and radio stations, newspapers,  weather and other specialty websites, and offers geographic ad targeting at the city level as well as demographic and contextual targeting. Jivox is a privately held company based in San Mateo, Calif.  For more information about Jivox, please visit www.jivox.com.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – ChoiceStream, the premier recommendations service provider for the world’s largest retail and entertainment brands including Tesco, Overstock.com, Borders, Blockbuster, Yahoo!, and AT&T, today announced the findings of its 2008 Personalization Survey. According to the survey, retailers’ most attractive prospects–those who spend the most money and shop most frequently–are more likely to click on personalized ads than non-personalized ads. Overall, 39 percent of consumers are more likely to click on an ad if it is personalized; of those who shop online at least several times a month that number climbs to 58 percent. The survey also finds that the bigger the spender, the greater the interest in personalized ads with 50 percent of those spending more than $250 online over the past six months indicating that they are more willing to click on ads that are personalized.

“Online consumers are a savvy bunch and it’s not surprising that they’re more likely to tune in to ads personalized to their tastes and interests. What is surprising, though, is the extent to which the higher quality prospects seem to be more interested in personalized ads,” said Cheryl Kellond, senior vice president at ChoiceStream. “Advertisers that are spending premiums to target the biggest spenders and the most frequent shoppers should take note that those shoppers want intelligent ads that speak to their specific needs and shopping intent. The more personalized those ads are the better chance retailers have of connecting with those consumers.”

The survey also finds consumers surprisingly savvy about online advertising in terms of its effect on their behavior. 70 percent of consumers admit that their purchase decisions are at least sometimes influenced by having seen an ad for an item. A smaller, but still significant percent of consumers admit that they are influenced by brand advertising as well, with 39% admitting that they are more likely to buy from vendors or retailers that they have seen advertised than from unrecognized sources. In both cases, the bigger the spender, the more likely they are to admit to being influenced by advertising.

Consumers are also aware of how shopping sites use data to target ads to them. A full 60 percent of shoppers are aware that retailers use information about their online shopping behavior to target advertising to them.

“The results of the 2008 survey clearly show that today’s online consumers are smarter and more sophisticated than ever before. They understand the value of online advertising and know retailers have information about their shopping behavior that can make their experience more relevant,” said Steve Johnson, president and CEO of ChoiceStream. “Especially in these tough economic times, advertisers should be investing in more personalized forms of advertising that attracts high-quality prospects and repeat customers to shop in their stores.”

For information on how ChoiceStream personalization can create measurable results for online retailers, visit our website.

About the ChoiceStream Personalization Survey

The ChoiceStream Personalization Survey provides insight into consumers’ interest in, and perceptions of, personalization. The survey was first fielded in May, 2004. Each year the Survey is re-evaluated and, where appropriate, new questions are added to ensure that the survey stays relevant and addresses the current issues of the day. This year, new questions address advertising and online privacy. Specifically, the Survey delves into the value of personalized advertising; how aware consumers are of advertising’s affect on their purchase decisions; and what types of concerns consumers have about their online privacy with respect to personalized advertising.

The Survey brief provides detailed findings of the study and is available for download.

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 – Dynamic Logic, a Millward Brown company, announces the most effective online U.S. brand advertising campaigns for the second year. The top campaigns overall were compared to U.S. campaigns that were measured by Dynamic Logic last year. Campaigns are listed in alphabetical order by brand:

Brand Advertised: Kenmore Pro
Parent Company: Sears
Research Commissioned by: NBC Universal/Bravo.com

Brand Advertised: Olay Regenerist
Parent Company: Procter & Gamble
Media Agency: MediaVest
Research Commissioned by: Wild Tangent

Brand Advertised: PLAYSKOOL
Parent Company: Hasbro, Inc.
Media Agency: Beyond Interaction
Research Commissioned by: MTV Networks/NickJr.com

Brand Advertised: Samsung Bordeaux LCD TV
Parent Company: Samsung
Research Commissioned by: Yahoo!

Also among the top 10 campaigns, but not shown here, were campaigns produced by GSD&M Idea City and Publicis Modem.

Note: The criteria for inclusion were campaigns measured by Dynamic Logic in 2007 with the highest Online Ad Awareness scores, which were characterized by statistically significant increases at 90% or above. Additionally, the top-ranked campaigns performed in the top 20th percentile compared to other online campaigns within their industry category in either Brand Favorability or Purchase Intent, the two persuasion metrics measured for each campaign.

“It’s an honor to be included with this group of respected brands who are creating successful online brand advertising campaigns,” said Dan Hamilton, Olay Brand Manager, Procter & Gamble. “The power of online is really starting to shine through — these campaigns help to identify and illustrate some guidelines that other marketers may be able to learn from and apply.”

The top campaigns represented several brand verticals, mostly in the CPG & Technology categories. Similar to the top campaigns in last year’s ranking, many of the most noticed campaigns this year utilized some form of video. “We are often asked about what is working best with online video — optimal video length, re-purposed TV ads versus original content created for viewing on the Web, and in-page versus in-stream,” said Ken Mallon, senior vice president of custom solutions, Dynamic Logic. “What we know so far is that the creative concept is more important than tactical elements and the best answer depends on the product, audience and other factors. Thus, it’s important for these variables to be tested in-market.”

Media usage was another key factor in the success of the best campaigns. They were extremely effective at reaching their target audience and communicating with them at the right time by placing media on contextually relevant sites. Other ads ran in areas where site visitors spend a lot of time engaged on the page such as surrounding an online game, as seen in the Olay Regenerist campaign.

“It’s evident that one creative execution may not appeal to everyone. As marketers are leveraging different media channels to reach their target audience, they are also using a combination of online creative formats to convey their message,” said Mallon. “Many of these top campaigns achieved success by combining engaging and interactive creative executions with relevant media placement.”

Each quarter, Dynamic Logic uploads hundreds of AdIndex® studies, which measure online advertising impact, into their MarketNorms® database, an online planning and benchmarking tool. Using MarketNorms, Dynamic Logic identified the most effective online campaigns in terms of online brand performance as compared to all measured U.S. studies last year. The best campaigns were among the most noticed, with their Online Ad Awareness scores ranging from 12-38 percentage-point increases after exposure to online advertising. The ads were also highly persuasive, ranking in the top 20th percentile compared to other online campaigns within their industry category in either Brand Favorability or Purchase Intent.

To see creative examples of the best U.S. online ad campaigns, please visit:

http://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/research/topcampaigns.

About Dynamic Logic

Dynamic Logic is a leading research company with expertise in measuring marketing effectiveness. Dynamic Logic’s research includes: AdIndex® to test and analyze digital advertising campaigns including online, mobile, and gaming elements; CrossMedia ResearchTM to evaluate multimedia campaigns; MarketNorms®, a syndicated ad effectiveness planning and benchmarking database; and LinkSelect for Digital, an online copy-testing solution developed jointly with Millward Brown. Founded in 1999, the company is headquartered in New York City with offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Providence, London, Paris, Frankfurt and Hong Kong. Clients include leading marketers, advertising agencies and media companies. Dynamic Logic is a Millward Brown company, which is part of The Kantar Group, the information and consultancy arm of WPP. www.dynamiclogic.com

NEW YORK – AOL’s Platform-A announced the launch of a holiday-themed branding program for Schick Wilkinson-Sword that will integrate into Lemondrop.com, AOL’s new lifestyle destination for women aged 18-34. Lemondrop, http://www.lemondrop.com, is an irreverent, conversational website with content ranging from pop culture to politics. Launched in September, the site attracted nearly 2.6 million unique visitors in October, according to comScore Media Metrix. Lemondrop.com is part of AOL Living, http://living.aol.com, one of the top three women’s sites with more than 16.4 million monthly unique visitors and 477 million monthly page views. The site is one of more than 20 launches over the past year that build upon AOL’s broad publishing initiative to create experiences targeted at specific audiences.

During the one-month “Stocking Stuffers” campaign, Lemondrop.com editors will create original content that integrates Schick’s brand with posts such as “Best & Worst Guy Gifts,” “Dating Survival Tips During the Holidays” and “Genius Gifts from the Drugstore.” In keeping with Lemondrop’s editorial format, the content will refresh regularly and will include interactive, viral and blog-like elements to appeal to the site’s highly engaged audience. The program launched on November 25 and will run through December 26, 2008.

“This is a perfect example of how Platform-A and AOL can leverage highly valuable editorial environments to help deliver key brand messages to targeted audiences. We’re creating a unique platform for Schick that lets them reach a desirable and engaged audience,” says Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “Along with AOL’s leading media properties, Platform-A brings unmatched strengths to the market – our ability to offer brand advertising at scale, performance advertising across multiple media and precisely targeted campaigns at scale. And we’re delighted to have the opportunity to work with a great company like Schick to help them deliver their brand message.”

“This highly tailored campaign will let Schick engage with one of their key demographic groups at a time when they are making gift buying choices,” said Kristin France, Associate Media Director for Mediaedge:cia, Schick’s media agency of record. “By working with Schick to weave their messages into the increasingly popular Lemondrop.com site, Platform-A is helping them reach the right audience at the right time with an effective and engaging message.”

Since Lemondrop launched in September, advertisers such as Kohl’s, JCPenney, and Braun have also developed customized integrated sponsorships.

Over the past two years, AOL has rebuilt all its key branded programming channels and launched over two dozen specialty sites to appeal directly to an increasingly fragmented online audience. As a result, AOL has seen steady growth in its audience and engagement. Unique visitors to AOL’s programming content sites grew 7% year-over-year to 54.3 million, according to the October 2008 comScore Media Metrix Report, and page views more than doubled, up 101% year-over-year to 4.2 billion, while engagement (total minutes) grew 51% year-over-year. In October, total minutes also reached an all-time high on AOL.com, http://aol.com, growing 27% year-over-year as the site opened up many of its features to third-party content providers. In addition, many of AOL’s sites rank No. 1 in their categories, including Asylum, http://asylum.com, Black Voices, http://blackvoices.com, Music, http://music.aol.com, StyleList, http://stylelist.com, and Television, http://television.aol.com.

To date, Platform-A has fully integrated its sales forces and developed one insertion order and other processes to streamline ad buying. In addition, Platform-A has accelerated its product development efforts with recent launches including Spot Marketplace, enabling advertisers to bid on non-reserved inventory across AOL’s Web sites; PubAccess, a self-service interface enabling Web sites to place their inventory for sale in Platform-A’s third party display network; audience targeting across Platform-A; and the creation of a 300 x 600 ad unit across AOL’s homepages and co-branded sites.

About Platform-A

Platform-A, AOL’s advertising business, is the industry’s largest digital advertising platform, offering the most comprehensive suite of marketing solutions, powered by the Web’s best advertising technologies. Platform-A includes AOL’s leading media properties – AOL.com, AIM, MapQuest, and more – and Advertising.com’s third-party networks. Platform-A also includes TACODA’s audience insights and behavioral targeting; Quigo, a site- and content-targeting solution; ADTECH, an international digital ad serving business; Third Screen Media, a mobile ad serving network; and buy.at, an affiliate marketing solution. Platform-A currently has operations in the United States, nine countries across Europe, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK, and in Japan through a joint venture with Mitsui. Learn more at http://www.platform-a.com.

About Mediaedge:cia

Mediaedge:cia (MEC) gets consumers actively engaged with clients’ brands, leading to positive awareness, deeper relationships and stronger sales. Our services include brand and consumer insight and ROI, communications planning, media planning and buying, interaction (digital, direct, search), sport, entertainment and cause partnerships, retail consultancy and Hispanic marketing. Our 4,500 highly talented and motivated people work with local, regional and global clients from our 250 offices in 84 countries. We are a founding partner of GroupM, WPP’s media investment management group. To find out more go to: www.mecglobal.com.

2nd December, 2008 – Eyeblaster, home of the world’s most innovative digital marketing solutions, today announced the roll out of Eyeblaster TV, a new online video rich media ad unit, which delivers increased functionality for online advertisers.

Eyeblaster’s new online ad offering will encourage advertisers who are traditionally confined to television to spread their TV ad budgets towards online video. This will increase the reach and lifespan of TVCs, without necessitating a costly reformatting process for advertisers to transfer them into a workable online video ad format.

Eyeblaster Director of Operations APAC, Mick O’Brien says, “Eyeblaster TV allows the advertiser to better amortise the cost of building the TVC by allowing the commercial to translate easily into an online format. This positively impacts the advertiser’s bottom line and engages with consumers through a type of advertising that they are already familiar with. Eyeblaster TV extends the reach of an advertisers’ TVC to connect with consumers who are online and provides advertisers with metrics about their target market and the effectiveness of the ad campaigns in reaching that market.

“We have seen a surge of interest in this product since it went to market 6 weeks ago. Traditional TVC advertisers such as Coca-Cola, Mercedes and ING have embraced Eyeblaster TV because it simply makes sense to take an ad already running on TV and run it online as well. It’s a cost effective seamless process that gets their product out to more consumers.”

The Eyeblaster TV video unit will appear at the top right of a user’s monitor running 30 or 60-second TV commercials. Eyeblaster TV is particularly attractive for ad campaigns that consumers are accustomed to viewing on television in longer time frames, such as movie trailers. The online format can take this interaction one step further by engaging the consumer using interactive features such as clicking on the ad to view in full screen High Definition, collecting data capture, or pulling in dynamic content from the advertiser’s website allowing the user to immediately receive more information about the product and indicate purchase intent.

For businesses wanting to tap into the burgeoning online ad market, Eyeblaster TV allows them to increase the usability of their TVC’s, which are costly to generate, through a literally ‘cut and paste’ process. This seamless transition means that there is no longer a need to shoot video specifically for online ads because Eyeblaster TV extends the reach of an advertisers existing creative – translating into savings along the bottom line.

Advertisers using Eyeblaster TV include Visa Entertainment for the James Bond Quantum of Solace trailer through Sensis, MCN and Fairfax.

Managing Director of Fairfax Digital – Media, Pippa Leary says, “FDTV, which uses Eyeblaster’s new TV ad format, allows our advertisers to access the 14 million-strong monthly unique browsers on the Fairfax Digital network by targeted demographic.

“Encouraged by technology innovations like FDTV and the growing consumption rates of online video in Australia, we are seeing more categories, including FMCG, move their brand advertising online. Marketers are harnessing the incremental reach garnered through a predominantly light commercial TV viewing audience on our network.

FDTV allows advertisers to develop new creative video advertising formats for online audiences, combining the strength of video commercials with a rich media ad unit to a focused demographic, as well as extending the life and reach of their TVCs using existing creative.”

To see all Eyeblaster TV previews visit http://tinyurl.com/6zj4ox

About Eyeblaster Australia
Eyeblaster is the global leader in integrated digital marketing services and was the first company to bring third party video advertising technology to the Australian and New Zealand markets. Eyeblaster Australia services a range of marketing and online advertising agencies on behalf of numerous blue chip clients including Optimedia for 20th Century Fox, The Media Store for Toyota-Lexus, Initiative Media for Revlon, and Carat for Adidas. Eyeblaster’s impressive client list is a reflection of the personalised easy to use service as well as its innovative and ground breaking approach to digital technology.

In 1999, Eyeblaster was among the pioneers in rich media communication. Today, Eyeblaster extends its inventive heritage in digital advertising through Ad Campaign Manager (ACM). ACM enables interactive agencies, advertisers and publishers to manage campaigns across digital media channels, including online, mobile and in-game, and a variety of formats, including rich media, in-stream video, display and search. ACM is a robust, integrated and easy-to-use platform that allows customers to focus on campaign strategy, creativity and media efficiency without having to worry about the technical complexities associated with managing global advertising campaigns online.

In 2007, Eyeblaster delivered campaigns for nearly 7,000 brand advertisers serving approximately 2,500 ad agencies across over 2,700 global web publishers in over 40 countries worldwide throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. Learn more at http://www.eyeblaster.com.

BURLINGTON, Mass. – Burst Media, a leading provider of online advertising services, announced the launch of the Burst Auto Intenders Network, powered by adConductor™. Unlike other vertical ad networks, this Network consists of an advertising program that moves beyond content to include behavioral targeting of ads to consumers who have exhibited purchase-intent behaviors such as a price search or configuration by make and model on in-market automotive sites. Ads are shown to these in-market auto shoppers when they visit any of 4,600 highly-targetable web sites in Burst Network.

“Reaching consumers at the tipping point of a major purchase decision is critical for marketers,” said David Cooperstein, CMO of Burst Media. “Our Auto Intenders Network gives auto marketers the opportunity to reach the consumer who has displayed in active interest in buying a car, even when they are engaged in other, lifestyle-oriented content. In this challenging economic environment, being able to reach the active shopper is powerful opportunity marketers cannot pass up.”

The behavioral component of the Burst Auto Intenders Network allows advertisers to take advantage of the broad reach provided by Burst Network to potentially reach over 50% of all in-market auto consumers. Additionally, the Network includes auto specific content that appeals to auto buyers and enthusiasts, and can be packaged with lifestyle content to reach valuable demographic segments such as Moms, men, environmentally aware consumers, and luxury seekers.

In addition to the benefits to advertisers, the Burst Auto Intenders Network provides web publishers with high quality brand advertising at higher CPMs. The Burst Auto Intenders Network joins other Burst vertical networks as a tool for advertisers to reach out to consumers with specific interests and invite them to engage with their brands. Other Burst vertical audience networks include Entertainment, Moms, Early Adopters, Family Builders, Baby Boomers, Family Travelers, Green, Trendsetters, Gamers, Thought Leaders and Wellness. Burst also offers publisher-led networks including the CDKitchen Cooking Network, the RealGM Sports Network, the Daily Jolt College Network and the Kiwibox Teen Network.

About Burst Media

An online media and technology company founded in 1995, Burst Media (www.burstmedia.com) is a leading provider of advertising representation, services and technology to independent Web Publishers. Burst Media enables advertisers to reach finely segmented, engaged consumers as they visit Burst’s extensive number of interest-based sub-channels. Through its Burst Network and Burst Direct units, the company represents one of the broadest and deepest offerings of interest-based websites online. Burst also markets its ad management platform, adConductor™, which empowers content websites, online ad networks, and web portals to manage the complete process of ad sales and service. Burst Media is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, with offices throughout the United States and in London, UK. For more information, visit www.burstmedia.com or call 781.272.5544.

NEW YORK, Oct. 9, 2007 — Collective Media, a leading online advertising network, today announced that it successfully leveraged DoubleClick’s DART(R) Adapt automated optimization solution to deliver campaign optimization beyond standard direct marketing metrics. Collective engaged DoubleClick Inc., the premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, seeking to optimize a DoubleClick Rich Media campaign for a leading consumer products client.

DoubleClick’s DART Adapt solution uses a sophisticated algorithm to match ads to the users most likely to respond. By leveraging DART Adapt, Collective Media was able to automatically optimize the Rich Media ad interaction rate of the campaign, resulting in an 87% lift in consumer interactions over a single quarter.

“We’ve worked with Collective on a number of advertising initiatives for our clients, and in each case, DART Adapt has provided significant lift in a variety of key metrics, including interaction-rate,” says Sara Hall, OMD San Francisco. “It’s great to see how optimization tools can make sense for brand advertising, not only direct marketing.”

“Collective and DoubleClick worked together to customize DART Adapt to capitalize on the unique audience and inventory characteristics of the Collective Network,” said Joe Apprendi, chief executive officer of Collective Media. “In addition to the work we did for this particular client, the lift we’ve seen using DART Adapt has been measurable and actionable, giving our customers greater insight on campaign performance beyond click and conversion rates, including the audience engagement metrics that matters most to our brand advertisers.”

Since implementing DoubleClick’s automatic optimization tool, Collective Media has delivered significant lift in all key return on investment (ROI) metrics: click-rate, conversion-rate (post-impression and post-click) and interaction-rate for its advertisers. “In the most recent quarter, DART Adapt drove an average click-through lift of more than 30% with many advertisers experiencing a lift greater than 100%.”

“When we launched DART Adapt a year ago we wanted to enable publishers to improve campaign performance while generating more revenue from their ad inventory,” said Brad Bender, vice president of optimization solutions for DoubleClick. “This particular implementation demonstrates DART Adapt’s flexibility in optimizing against a variety of user actions, enabling clients to partner with advertisers to help drive ROI based on specific campaign objectives.”

About Collective Media
Collective Media is a leading online advertising network specializing in audience targeting and optimization solutions to increase relevancy and yield for both publishers and advertisers, reaching 120 million unique users monthly. Collective is comprised exclusively of high quality, brand-name publishers offering the largest network of online news sites in addition to a wide selection of entertainment, sports and health sites. Collective’s innovative approach enables both brand and direct marketers to achieve superior results through sophisticated audience targeting technology, including context, behavior, geographic and re-targeting. Founded in 2005, Collective Media is headquartered in New York City with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and Detroit. Learn more at http://www.collective-media.com.

About DoubleClick Inc.
DoubleClick is a 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, 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. Headquartered in New York, and with 17 offices and development hubs and 14 data centers worldwide, the company employs more than 1300 people and delivers billions of digital communications every day. Learn more at http://www.doubleclick.com.

NEW YORK – Platform-A announced plans during Advertising Week V to launch BidPlace, a self-service marketplace exchange that will give advertisers unprecedented control in managing display advertising campaigns. BidPlace, which will let advertisers dynamically bid on and manage display inventory across Platform-A’s network, will provide greater transparency for marketers on a real-time basis to maximize the efficiency of their campaigns. BidPlace will launch in the first half of 2009. Platform-A, http://www.platform-a.com, is AOL’s digital advertising business.

“BidPlace unleashes the industry’s most powerful advertising technologies and puts them in the hands of advertisers,” said Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “This is the next step in Platform-A’s efforts to provide marketers a unified solution for brand advertising at scale and performance advertising across multiple media. BidPlace gives advertisers what they’ve been asking for — a more accessible and transparent approach and an ability to adjust the dials to get the best results.”

BidPlace will allow advertisers to submit bids for CPM, CPC and CPA advertising on AOL, on select partner sites and on Platform-A’s third-party network, which combined reaches 90% of the online audience, according to the August 2008 comScore Media Metrix report.

BidPlace’s automated interface will let advertisers create and manage their campaigns, define budgets, pricing, targeting and the frequency of their ad placements. Advertisers will receive detailed reporting on campaign and creative performance.

BidPlace will utilize a new, upgraded version of Platform-A’s award winning AdLearn technology, which includes cutting-edge optimization and targeting technologies.

When fully launched, the benefits of BidPlace will include:

* Pricing – Change bids at any time;
* Creative Gallery – Manage creatives in a central repository for easy access;
* Price Volume Analysis – Get forecasts for expected volume at different price points and targeting options;
* Budget Allocation – Maintain complete control over how budgets are allocated across campaigns;
* Campaign Management Controls – Ability to have full control over campaign delivery;
* Reporting – View detailed reporting on campaign and creative performance.

BidPlace extends Platform-A’s aggressive product launch efforts. In recent months, Platform-A has launched: Spot Marketplace, which lets advertisers buy non-reserved site or content-specific media across Platform-A; Behavioral Targeting across Platform-A; an iPhone ad optimization solution that detects and delivers optimized ads on iPhones browsing the Web; an affiliate marketing solution that links Platform-A’s buy.at affiliate network to the widget-based marketing tools of Goowy Media. BidPlace complements PubAccess, the self-service interface Platform-A launched in April that lets publisher sites monetize their inventory through Platform-A’s third-party network.

About Platform-A

Platform-A, AOL’s advertising business, is the industry’s largest digital advertising platform, offering the most comprehensive suite of marketing solutions, powered by the Web’s best advertising technologies. Platform-A includes AOL’s leading media properties – AOL.com, AIM, MapQuest, and more – and Advertising.com’s third-party networks. Platform-A also includes TACODA’s audience insights and behavioral targeting; Quigo, a site- and content-targeting solution; ADTECH, an international digital ad serving business; Third Screen Media, a mobile ad serving network; and buy.at, an affiliate marketing solution. Platform-A currently has operations in the United States, nine countries across Europe, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and Japan through a joint venture with Mitsui. Learn more at http://www.platform-a.com.

SAN BRUNO, CA–(Marketwire – August 24, 2008) – Australian Chef Benjamin Christie today launched Gourmet Ads (www.gourmetads.com), the first Australian vertical advertising network focused on delivering major brand advertising to food, wine and beer enthusiasts. Gourmet Ads is powered by Adify (www.adify.com), the premier vertical ad network management company, to harness culinary enthusiasts and enable marketers to reach this engaged audience. The network encompasses food, wine, and beer blogs and Web sites in Australia, with plans for expansion to the United States early next year.

With a lack of options in Australia to monetize Web sites, Christie saw a need for a gourmet vertical ad network to help advertisers fight growing fragmentation and reach the long-tail food, beer and wine sites, while helping those sites generate revenue from brand advertising. A highly sought after audience for marketers, food enthusiasts are typically high-income females 27 to 45 years of age. With most Australian marketers still focusing on this audience through traditional print and television media, opportunities in the online space remain untapped. Adify’s ad serving technology coupled with Christie’s expertise and relationships with publishers helps marketers reach an audience that generates over three million page views per month for Gourmet Ads.

“The market in Australia is much different than that in the U.S. and brand marketers continuously gravitate to traditional media outlets, forgetting how successful the Internet can be in targeting highly engaged audiences such as food enthusiasts,” said Benjamin Christie of Gourmet Ads. “Advertisers that work with Gourmet Ads can target consumers that value high quality food, beer and wine. This audience relies on long-tail culinary sites for recipes, ideas and other resources that satisfy their interests. Marketers need to reach them on the sites that they visit, while they are in the right frame of mind and are thinking about food.”

Adify is providing the Gourmet Ads network with the key network management services required to execute successful advertising campaigns, including ad management, tracking, reporting, billing, payment and technical support functions. This infrastructure is capable of delivering content sponsorships, video, image and rich media advertising for its various network partners. Gourmet Ads editorial board hand-selects publishing partners for the ad network and is currently representing a cross section of popular Australian food blogs and recipe websites.

“Benjamin’s expertise as a television presenter, cookbook author and culinary educator has led to the creation of one of the most unique ad networks to date,” said Russ Fradin, president of Adify. “Today, long-tail culinary sites are being sought due to the growing interest in cooking and food in general, which has not only hit the United States but other countries as well. With more individuals gravitating towards the kitchen table, an effective way of reaching them is through vertical ad networks that cater to the need of the culinarily engaged.”
About Adify

Adify Corporation is the premier vertical ad network management company and an independent, wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, one of the nation’s leading media companies and providers of automotive services.

The NebuAd story and the US Senate looking into halting user-targeting via ISPs raised a whole lot of concerns: ‘Advertising per se is not the evil here,’ said Leslie Harris from the Centre for Democracy and Technology. ‘It’s the collection of individuals’ information, usually without their knowledge, always without their consent, creation of profiles and the complete inability of people to make choices about that.’ NebuAd, however, best known for their ad-targeting capabilities, insists that its profiles are interest-based, and not personally identifiable. ‘We have designed our entire company to make sure that we stay on the opt-out side of those laws and policies,’ says NebuAd CEO Robert Dykes.

It appears that neither the NebuAd story nor the US Senate looking into ISPs practices had a negative impact on the development of the behavioral targeting market – if anything, it will sustain a consistent growth over the following years and is due to reach $4.4 billion in 2012 (source: eMarketer.com)

With only $775 million in 2008, how can the US spending for behaviorally targeted online advertising reach almost a sixfold figure in only four years?

The answers are many but they all channel towards:

- the current economic state, where advertisers are constrained to track and justify each ad dollar spent, making behavioral targeting their preferred choice to maximize conversions efficiency;

- the rapid increase in online video advertising, requiring fine-targeting in order to make it cost-effective while CRMs and CREs are still extremely high.

According to the eMarketer, “impressive growth in behavioral targeting will occur from 2010 to 2012. The influx of brand advertising online will support behavioral targeting’s growth, but brands will not reach a critical mass for display-type advertising until that period”.

It is projected that approximately one in four dollars will switch from content site ads to behaviorally targeted advertising by 2012 but one big question is left to be answered: is the display ad spending driving the growth of behaviorally targeted ads, or the increasing opportunities and targeting technologies are the drivers of display ad spending?

For graphs and figures, check out the Behavioral Targeting: Marketing Trends report.

GlamX Allows Publishers and Brand Advertisers To Optimize Vertical Ad Inventory Across The Glam Publisher Network

BRISBANE, CA and NEW YORK, NY—July 9, 2008—Glam Media, (www.GlamMedia.com), the pioneer of vertical content networks and number one in reach for women online, today announced the launch of GlamX Ad Exchange, the Web’s first vertical ad exchange for display inventory placement and targeted brand advertising.

GlamX Ad Exchange enables advertisers to target by audience, content and placement effectively connecting publishers, advertisers, agencies and networks in one innovative platform. “By maximizing the exchange of open inventory between publishers and advertisers in a fast and efficient vertical ad exchange, GlamX delivers the efficiency our agencies and Glam Publisher Network partners have wanted online for a long time,” said Fernando Ruarte, CTO for Glam Media.

The GlamX Ad Exchange is the first vertical display advertising marketplace bringing together quality advertisers that want mass reach with professional publishers. GlamX brings ease to buying display advertising quickly and efficiently and brings increased value from available ad inventory. Media planners and buyers can set campaign goals and attributes creating increased return on investment for their brand ads. Publishers get an additional source of revenue by improving their sell through and offering additional ad inventory.

With this announcement, Glam now offers publishers, agencies and brand advertisers a full set of digital advertising services with the Glam Evolution Ad Services platform: Glam Digital Primetime™ for premium display and video ads; Glam Interactive Solutions for custom brand engagement campaigns; and now GlamX Ad Exchange for all other brand ads, below the fold and non-primetime remnant ads. “GlamX Ad Exchange compliments the Glam Evolution Ad Services platform by allowing members of Glam Media’s Publisher Network to optimize their non-primetime inventory while simultaneously helping advertisers reach their intended audience.

Everyone wins.” said Ryan Roslansky, VP of Products for Glam Media. The GlamX Ad Exchange is designed specifically to allow members of Glam Media’s Publisher Network to make additional ad inventory available to Glam approved brand advertisers, agencies and trusted ad networks. Advertisers can reach a highly targeted and engaged audience with secondary ads that provide far better reach.

GlamX is an open exchange, allowing brands to bid for different targets and optimize their spending in a fully transparent environment. Unlike broader ad exchanges and ad networks, GlamX is the first vertical exchange that brings audience focus and channel context to display ads. GlamX can target and deliver ad inventory by audience, content, primetime, page placement and context on the Glam Publisher Network.

Agencies and brand advertisers using GlamX then gain access to impact and audience profile analysis, ad target analysis, brand metrics and audience segmentation effectiveness metrics—all of which can be used to improve allocation of advertising budgets across campaigns. In addition, Glam Evolution’s Digital Primetime targeting and new audience behavior reporting capabilities combined with Glam Media’s reach of more of 42 million unique monthly visitors in the US and 77 million global uniques will both maximize monetization and provide valuable insight on brand awareness.

The GlamX beta is available immediately to select digital agencies and publishers in the Glam Publisher Network. GlamX will be available to all agencies in Q4 of 2008.

The Glam Publisher Network was formed in November 2005 with 12 initial charter members and has grown over to become the largest distributed vertical content network and category leader in women on the Web today. Glam facilitates the building of businesses for its hundreds of publishers by allowing them to focus on creating content and engaging their audiences while Glam Media’s vertical network connects branded display advertisers with the online audiences of 500+ Web sites and blogs in the Glam Publisher Network.

Glam’s vertical content network is five channels today including Living; Fashion & Beauty; Entertainment; Health & Wellness and Family. Curated from hundreds of sites in the Glam Media Publisher Network, each channel offers a distinctive blend of original editorial, syndicated and media partner content created by trendsetting insiders and experts. Glam Media interfaces with a network of partners to provide a host of media services such as display and video advertising, content syndication, advertorials, search and other applications.

About Glam Media
Glam Media pioneered the vertical content network model and is the fastest growing Top 20 Media Company in the US. With a total reach of 42 million unique monthly visitors in the US and 77 million global uniques (comScore Media Metrix), Glam Media provides a compelling mix of fresh, original content created in-house on its owned & operated web sites and the carefully curated Glam Publishing Network of more than 500 popular and influential lifestyle Web sites, blogs and magazines. For premium national brand advertisers, Glam Media offers an unprecedented array of reach and targeting that are singularly attractive to both upscale and aspirational consumers. Glam Media is backed by Hubert Burda Media, GLG Partners, Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Walden Venture Capital and Information Capital. Glam Media is based in New York City and Brisbane, California.