NEW YORK – Casale Media Inc., a leading premium online media company, published a research brief showing that advertisers and agencies will increase spending on digital video advertising by 25 percent over the next 12 months and would amount to about 23.8 percent of total online ad budgets. “Digital Video Advertising: Removing Barriers Equals Greater Opportunities,” is based on an October 2011 research study conducted by Advertiser Perceptions for Casale Media that surveyed more than 150 media buyers, managers and planners at leading advertisers and agencies in the United States. The report examines the factors contributing to online display and video media decisions.

Respondents generally agreed that video advertising provides a much more engaging environment for marketers to relay their brand messages. The report shows that growth in spending on video ads will require key factors:

Removal of barriers: A separate study by eMarketer found that 85 percent of advertisers and ad buyers are more likely to book video ads if the planning, creative and execution of video ad campaigns were more simple and painless. More than a third of those surveyed in the Casale Media study found the planning (38 percent), creative (40 percent), and execution (35 percent) phases to be difficult.

Increasing awareness: Marketers and agencies view digital video advertising as one of the most effective ways to realize brand lift – 80 percent of the survey’s respondents use video ads to increase awareness of traditional and new brands, products and/or services.

Measuring and realizing a return on investment: The most common responses to why marketers are not using digital video advertising more were because it is too difficult to measure ROI (40 percent) and there is not enough ROI to justify increasing spend (38 percent).

“When it comes to video, many online advertisers still perceive it as the Wild West because it continues to evolve and grow, but without giving publishers and advertisers enough control,” says Joe Casale, CEO of Casale Media. “Our research provides clarity for those involved in online media spending decisions to help identify where the barriers are, how to overcome them and realize the maximum potential of digital video advertising.”

The Digital Video Advertising report details the issues marketers are facing in each phase of a video ad campaign – planning, creation and execution – as well as who is most responsible for budget and creative decisions at brands and agencies. The full research report can be downloaded at: http://casalemedia.com/dva-report.

About Casale Media

Since 2003, Casale Media has been redefining the standard for online media quality, ad delivery management and media optimization technologies with premium services that generate measurable success for all stakeholders in media and marketing. CasaleX, the industry’s first premium exchange with real-time bidding, is a highly controlled, brand-safe media marketplace that provides publishers with maximum control and advertisers with exclusively high quality inventory.

The company’s premium advertising network, MediaNet, is used by eight of the top 10 U.S. online display advertisers and reaches nearly 70 percent of the U.S. online audience across more than 3,000 actively monitored properties. One of the leading independent digital media companies, Casale Media is guided by its dedication to needs-based development and quality-focused culture. More information is available at www.casalemedia.com.

About Advertiser Perceptions

Advertiser Perceptions is the world leader in providing the media industry with research-based advertiser insight and guidance necessary for strengthening brands and increasing advertising sales, market share and competitive advantage. The company specializes in determining, analyzing and communicating what advertisers think – their plans, opinions and motivations. Advertiser Perceptions proprietary database of media decision makers is one of the largest in the world. The advertiser survey and questionnaire development process that they employ ensures optimal response. Focus and media industry expertise enables Advertiser Perceptions to effectively analyze and accurately interpret the research that they conduct on behalf of their clients who represent many of the largest international media companies.

NEW YORK – Casale Media Inc., a leading premium online media company, today announced a strategic relationship with Turn Inc., the only open, enterprise-level digital marketing platform, giving Casale’s current roster of nearly 3,000 premium publishers access to advertisers within the Turn platform. This integration dramatically increases the volume and selection of quality advertising for Casale’s publishers while giving Turn’s advertising partners more premium media environments to choose from.

For the past eight years, Casale Media’s mission has been to pioneer online advertising technologies that help the industry live up to its potential, seamlessly connecting the highest quality publishers with effective advertising. The integration with Turn is another step to that end, giving premium publishers exposure to new revenue opportunities with leading agencies and Fortune 500 brands who utilize the Turn platform without having to give up control of their advertising inventory.

Snagajob, the leading provider of talent management solutions for hourly employers, currently uses Casale Media’s premium exchange – CasaleX – to help sell out its advertising inventory, which includes more than 250MM ad impressions each month. The integration of Casale Media and Turn gives Snagajob an even larger demand source and additional opportunities to maximize the company’s revenue on unsold inventory. In addition, Snagajob maintains the control and transparency for which Casale Media is known by determining exactly which ads can appear on its site and at what rate.

“Our goal at Snagajob is always to place the highest quality and best targeted advertisements on our site given our unique audience,” said Shade Wilson, Director B2B Marketing at Snagajob. “The integration of Turn with CasaleX strengthens our ability to reach that goal. Each month, we fill a large percentage of our high value unsold inventory through CasaleX while also keeping complete control over which ads end up on our site.”

“This partnership was driven by our clients’ strong desire for access to the premium publishers available through Casale,” said Bill Demas, president and CEO of Turn. “Having scale and access to quality inventory from partners like Casale is critical for our clients and working with them has been a real pleasure. Not only was Casale one of our fastest real-time bidding integrations, it has quickly become one of our top fifteen inventory partners in terms of volume – a perfect testament to both teams’ efforts.”

“Partnering with Turn allows us to continue delivering on two of our biggest publisher promises: quality and control,” said Joe Casale, CEO of Casale Media. “By giving our premium publishers access to even more quality advertisers while still maintaining control of their ad inventory, these publishers can continue to optimize ad performance on their sites through new sources of demand.”

About Casale Media
Since 2003, Casale Media has been redefining the standard for online media quality, ad delivery management and media optimization technologies with premium services that generate measurable success for all stakeholders in media and marketing. CasaleX, the industry’s first true premium exchange with real-time bidding, is a high quality, brand-safe media marketplace that gives publishing partners maximum control and advertisers premium impressions from 3,000 of Casale Media’s actively monitored publishing customers.

The company’s premium advertising network, MediaNet, is used by eight of the top 10 U.S. online display advertisers and reaches nearly 70 percent of the U.S. online audience. One of the leading independent online media companies, Casale Media is guided by its dedication to needs-based development and quality-focused culture. More information is available at www.casalemedia.com.

About Turn
Turn is the advertising industry’s only open, enterprise-level digital marketing platform that delivers exceptional campaign performance and real-time audience insight for cross-channel engagement. The Turn Platform is utilized to manage the advertising campaigns for over fifty Fortune 200 brands. Turn’s global infrastructure, optimization algorithms, intuitive software and analytics represent the future of marketing and advertising. Turn is based in Silicon Valley with locations in New York City, Charlotte, Chicago, London, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. For more information visit www.turn.com.

Otilia Otlacan: Congratulations for the launch of casaleX – could you share with us what were the main drivers behind this initiative?
Andrew Casale: Over the past eight years, Casale Media has focused its efforts on helping publishers maximize the yield coming from their indirect sales channel. When we started our efforts into this field over a year ago, real-time bidding represented exactly what publishers desired: a new demand channel to access their supply. But at the same time it came with a series of challenges that publishers were naturally very concerned about: sales channel conflict, data protection, ad quality, auction based buying driving prices down not up, etc. Here at Casale, we spent the time to look at each area of concern, speaking to publishers who were actively experimenting with the model and encountering these challenges, and we built a product that spoke to each concern. Our solution enables publishers to safely and seamlessly leverage this new demand channel without worry. Each DSP and trading desk is vetted before being allowed into our casaleX marketplace, and the draw for buy side is access to premium publishers and impressions they otherwise wouldn’t find on other exchanges. Our publishers, in turn, get access to quality brands and are given full control over the entire process. It’s a win-win for both stakeholders.

Otilia Otlacan: We witness a resurgence of display advertising and ad exchanges seem to be leading the way. How does a premium exchange fit into the rapidly re-shaping marketplace; what sets casaleX apart from its competitors?
Andrew Casale: No matter how the marketplace is re-shaping, advertisers and agencies will continue to seek the very best brand safe environments on the web, and no matter how the mechanism of buying changes, the end result is still the same, agencies want to place their client’s brands in front of the correct target audience, at the correct time, in an environment that is appropriate to the brand’s image. Because casaleX is a premium exchange of our carefully selected publisher partners, it sources the very best in possible online ad placements. This selection process drives ad spend where advertisers are getting the best audiences without compromising the brand value. A lot of what has fueled the growth of ad exchanges and RTB has been audience and data driven buying, and while this is an exciting and very valuable mechanism environment, context and quality have lagged to date. These three factors make casaleX stand out from other similar value propositions. At Casale we are looking to represent quality impressions, not just a quantity of impressions for which many exchange-based sources of supply are traditionally known.

Otilia Otlacan: News keeps coming through indicating there may be a trend in shifting agencies away from ad networks and onto exchanges, primarily for reasons of transparency and control. Do you think we may get to see the beginning of the end for ad networks?
Andrew Casale: The shift is more about buying value than anything else. The ad network category is incredibly crowded and it has just become far too difficult to sort through the ad networks that provide real value and those that don’t. Whether advertisers shift dollars from networks to exchanges to SSPs doesn’t really matter. Advertisers just need a solution that will generate the best value. We can’t predict the possible end of ad networks however, as long as the players in this market deliver the transparency and control that advertisers and publishers expect, they will be around a long time. The ad networks that can’t develop the technology to deliver on these needs are in the ones nearing their end.

Otilia Otlacan: Casale Media has recently published a comprehensive and long-awaited study correlating ad placement and ad performance. What prompted you to look deeper into this correlation, and how are these findings incorporated into casaleX?
Andrew Casale: The measurement of ad impressions needs work— for example no matter their placement, all impressions are generally given the same weight as each other. For instance, ad impressions that are above the fold are more than 7x more effective than ads that are below the fold, yet that is not clear to advertisers on ROI reports.

The report is designed to inform the advertising community and quantify the effect of various types of impressions on websites. From feedback we’ve heard from media and partners, it’s helped to uncover the need for a new measurement process much like the one outlined by the IAB to measure not just reach, but quality and “viewable” impressions. At Casale we’re all about quality and if we can in some small way help encourage more attention and oversight, the industry stands to benefit, and we stand to rise with it.

With casaleX and our media marketplace, ad placement and frequency are part of the measurement model we advise advertisers to consider when they look at how effective their campaigns are.

Otilia Otlacan: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Andrew Casale: Casale Media is here to help and is committed to innovation and the future of our industry. Traditionally labeled an ad network, there is sometimes a generalized assumption that both publishers and agencies tend to have about the stance Casale holds on topics like real time bidding, programmatic buying, trading desks and demand side platforms. While this may be true of many of the players in the category, we want the community to know that this is not true of our stance. Since we started the company we’ve always been about creating new technologies that generate real value. As we continue tomove ahead and grow we will remain just as committed to the future trends that come our way as we have those that now rest behind us. Since we flipped the switch on casaleX we have heard from publishers and advertisers on how much success they’ve been having with campaigns. Advertisers love the quality and publishers love the very granular controls. We are always looking to add more partners for casaleX, and we encourage any conversations we can have with potential partners.

About Andrew Casale
Andrew Casale has been with Casale Media as Vice President of Strategy since the company’s founding ten years ago. Son of the founder and CEO, Joe Casale, Andrew is responsible for overseeing the deployment and execution of Casale Media’s new products, as well as managing the needs of its thriving marketplace across the supply, demand and technology business units within the firm. Most recently, Andrew’s leadership has played a key role in developing and establishing Casale’s premium RTB exchange, casaleX.

NEW YORK – Casale Media Inc., a leading premium online media company, today announced casaleX, an offering that gives select demand side platforms (DSPs) and agency trading desks exclusive access to premium inventory from leading online publishers. casaleX, the industry’s first true premium exchange with real-time bidding (RTB), expands quality advertiser demand available to its publisher partners by integrating real-time bids from select agency trading desks and demand side platforms (DSPs) while still leaving its publishers with maximum control over ad campaigns.

Casale Media is the first premium online media technology company to transform the ad exchange model into a high quality, brand-safe media marketplace. Demand partners are carefully vetted and hand-selected before integration with casaleX to ensure advertisers most appropriate for its publishers. In turn, marketers access the highest quality above-the-fold inventory from Casale Media’s premium publisher roster. Casale Media’s publishing customers utilize RTB for a head-to-head comparison between agency trading desks, DSPs and Casale Media-sourced advertisers to see who can best monetize inventory. Publishers have unprecedented control of campaigns, choosing which advertisers and campaigns can bid for inventory.

“Publishers want to boost revenue with real-time bidding, but they don’t want to give up full control over what specific advertisers and industries are authorized to bid right down to the exact campaigns and creative,” said Joe Casale, CEO of Casale Media. “With both factors in mind, we organically created a real-time bidding engine and hand-selected demand partners that meet our strict requirements to ensure the quality of ads and bids coming through the system. Our focus on choice, control and ease streamlines the process for our publishing clients, many of whom we’ve been working with for four or five years, to unlock new streams of revenue.”

Advertisers want assurances that their brand is not mixed in with low-quality ads or low-quality pages. To that end, casaleX sources above-the-fold, premium-quality impressions with very specific placements from leading publishers, inventory which is not available on other exchanges. Unlike other ad serving platforms, Casale Media offers viewable impressions and true reach based on actual ads served, which, combined with a selective pool of publishers, allows for a high level of exclusivity and quality for demand partners.

casaleX empowers publishers to be selective and choose the best advertisers for their brand and the best monetization opportunity for their inventory. Publishers access a fully transparent list of new campaigns being bought through RTB and compare that with advertiser demand generated through Casale Media’s sales team. They can see who is bidding, which campaigns, what volumes, what bid prices, and what creative. Publishers can choose which advertisers and campaigns to add to their Web sites. Casale Media offers a guaranteed eCPM through its advertisers, ensuring that all inventory is monetized.

Casale Media’s premium-quality supply augments the power of RTB. RTB is a natural extension of Casale Media’s existing technology. The company has operated as a real-time private marketplace since 2003. All real-time bidding campaigns are bound by the same guidelines and parameters as all other campaigns run on the Casale Media’s marketplace.

About Casale Media
Since 2003, Casale Media has been redefining the standard for online media quality, ad delivery management and media optimization technologies with premium services that generate measurable success for all stakeholders in media and marketing. casaleX, the industry’s first true premium exchange with real-time bidding, is a high quality, brand-safe media marketplace that gives publishing partners maximum control and advertisers premium impressions from 3,000 of Casale Media’s actively monitored publishing customers. The company’s premium advertising network, MediaNet, is used by eight of the top 10 U.S. online displayer advertisers and reaches nearly 70 percent of the U.S. online audience. One of the leading independent online media companies, Casale Media is guided by its dedication to needs-based development and quality-focused culture. More information is available at www.casalemedia.com.

NEW YORK, NY – Casale Media Inc., a leading premium online media company, published a research brief that quantifies the effects of page positioning, view order and frequency of online ads. “The Link Between Ad Placement & Performance,” is a June 2011 study that analyzed nearly two billion ad impressions in the first quarter of 2011 (January to March) over the Casale Media advertising network, MediaNet.

Although much of the online advertising industry is predicated on the notion that ad impressions are all equal, the Casale Media research brief confirms the hypothesis that certain impressions are generally more effective, and therefore more valuable and less wasteful of ad spend, than others. The report found that:

Above-the-fold is a lot more effective: Ads displayed within the first screen of a user’s browser window were almost seven times more effective at generating a click-thru than ads delivered below-the-fold.

Banner blindness occurs fast: Users are three to four times more likely to act on an ad if it is the first or second one they see during their session. Ad effectiveness plummets as the user progresses through their online viewing.

Repetition works… to an extent: Ads shown five times or more to a user were 12-14 times more effective than ads shown less than five times. However, marketers need to apply frequency capping to prevent oversaturation.

“Working with thousands of premium publishers to monetize their content, we have deep insight into what ads are effective and how they can be optimized to better engage web users,” said Joe Casale, CEO of Casale Media. “Our ad visibility research shows that all ad impressions are not created equal and that relying on singular indicators such as reach or hyper-targeting, does not tell you the full story. Vigilance on the part of marketing managers and accountability from their advertising partners are vital to executing a successful campaign.”

The report indicates that advertisers focused on brand penetration with consumers should consider a number of factors when considering the environments in which their ads will be running. Casale Media also found that campaigns often suffocate from reduced share of voice on cluttered Web pages, are ignored when surrounding engaging content like photo galleries and may not even be seen by their audience when displayed on a Web site that inflates impressions through auto-refresh mechanisms.

All impressions sampled during the research period went to performance-based campaigns running Flash-based creative. All creative clicked through to simple, one-step actions (e.g. newsletter sign-ups). Click and action counts were recorded by Optimax, Casale Media’s proprietary ad serving technology.

The full research report can be downloaded at: http://casalemedia.com/files/Casale-Ad-Visibility-Report-FINAL.pdf

About Casale Media
Casale Media is redefining the standard for online media quality, ad delivery management and media optimization technologies. Its premium advertising network is a brand-safe media environment that is used by 8 of the top 10 U.S. online display advertisers and seamlessly integrates survey, panel and actual product consumption data from leading market research firms to make it easy to reach the best customers quickly and at scale. Casale Media obtains quality inventory from 3,000 actively monitored premium publishers, across which it reaches nearly 70% of the U.S. online audience. Generating measurable success for all stakeholders in media and marketing, Casale Media is guided by its dedication to needs based development and its quality focused culture. More information is available at www.casalemedia.com.

NEW YORK – Casale Media Inc., a leading premium online media network, announced that it is now the exclusive source of online advertising inventory for established educational content publisher Infoplease.com and its sister site Factmonster.com. The two sites reach a combined 2.75 million unique users (comScore, March 2011) and serve more than 50 million ad impressions each month.

As the exclusive direct sales partner for Infoplease, Casale Media will draw upon its expertise in online ad sales to attract brand name advertisers for Infoplease, building on a successful six year long network-based relationship with the publisher. Eight of the top ten U.S. online display advertisers use Casale’s premium advertising network, MediaNet. Additionally, a recent Advertiser Perceptions Digital Advertiser Intelligence Report showed that agencies working with Casale Media experienced superior satisfaction with their campaigns. Casale Media will incorporate most standard display ads in addition to takeovers, floating ads and Casale Media’s proprietary Videobox video-enabled ad unit for both Infoplease and Factmonster. Casale Media will roll out many similar deals with publishers throughout the year.

“Infoplease chose Casale Media as our direct sales partner because of the company’s proven track record with top-tier advertisers and agencies. We recognize Casale’s ability to drive our entire advertising revenue,” said Jess Brallier, publisher of Infoplease and Factmonster. “With Casale handling our advertising needs on a daily basis, we can focus on creating trusted, authoritative content on Infoplease and Factmonster.”

Infoplease and Factmonster are part of Family Education Network, a trusted publisher of educational material containing fact-based content with no crowd-sourced information. The company maintains high-quality editorial through in-house researchers and writers. Casale Media will sell directly on both sites, which garner 2.75 million unique visitors per month, according to comScore (March 2011). For advertisers looking to target influential decision-makers like professionals, parents and teachers, direct buys on the Infoplease and Factmonster are a natural fit. Additionally, advertisers can choose to run advertorial campaigns on the sites, leveraging Infoplease’s quality content to better connect with consumers in branded environments.

“Casale Media is thrilled to extend our long-time relationship with Infoplease and become its direct sales partner,” said Joe Casale, CEO of Casale Media. “Our sales team’s unmatched knowledge of the space expands the value of our publisher partners. This agreement demonstrates our team’s hard work since we first began working with Infoplease on our MediaNet network in 2005. In the coming months we expect to extend more direct sales relationships with digital media companies that are as trusted and respected as Infoplease.”

About Casale Media
Casale Media is redefining the standard for online media quality, ad delivery management and media optimization technologies. Its premium advertising network is a brand-safe media environment that is used by eight of the top ten U.S. online display advertisers and seamlessly integrates survey, panel and actual product consumption data from leading market research firms to make it easy to reach the best customers quickly and at scale. Casale Media obtains quality inventory from 3,000 actively monitored premium publishers, across which it reaches nearly 70% of the U.S. online audience. Generating measurable success for all stakeholders in media and marketing, Casale Media is guided by its dedication to needs based development and its quality focused culture. More information is available at www.casalemedia.com.

NEW YORK – Casale Media Inc., a leading premium online media network, announces Videobox, a fully customizable branded video environment. The platform transforms Casale Media’s existing network of high-quality premium display inventory into video-ready media with high branding value. Videobox makes it easy for agencies and their advertising clients to run scalable, targeted and fully customized video campaigns using Casale-hosted serving that eliminates traditional cost barriers associated with running video advertising online.

Videobox removes the guesswork and complexity from interactive video through a highly simplified approach that consolidates all of the technical assembly, hosting, delivery, and media required to deploy video campaigns online. Casale’s Videobox operations team works directly with agency creative teams to obtain campaign assets and then assemble them into a Web optimized Videobox. On user interaction, Videobox expands to deliver a fully customizable brand experience with interactive functionality like social media sharing, player frame controls and multiple viewing choices. To make the transition seamless for advertisers, Videobox companion ads are available in all standard IAB ad units offered through Casale Media’s premium network, MediaNet. The entire experience from companion ad to full screen overlay is designed for the advertiser, with no player co-branding of any kind.

“The most impressive value we are seeing from Casale Media is the branding options they enable on the unit and the total elimination of ad serving costs to make this an easy and effective solution for our advertisers,” said Jim McHugh, President of Gigante Vaz. “Together with Casale Media, we are empowering advertisers to broaden creativity in online display by leveraging video to engage targeted audiences on a wide scale.”

At launch, the brand advertisers slated to run video campaigns on Casale Media’s network include Febreze Carpet Care Products, US Airways Vacations and St. Martin’s Press. To offer agencies and their advertising clients the precision and scale they have come to expect from Casale Media’s network, Videobox campaigns can be tailor-made using any combination of Casale Media’s existing targeting solutions, including audience, demographic, psychographic, technographic, contextual, and associative filters.

For publishers, the Videobox platform offers improved revenue opportunities by seamlessly enabling video buys on their sites. Videobox creates an ideal balance between revenue and user experience, generating high average CPMs for publishers, while maintaining user control and improving the user experience. Upon engagement, the user stays within the host site, making it easy for them to return to the publisher’s content.

“Video advertising evokes a more emotional response from users, which is what online display advertising needs more of. If advertisers can deliver that in creative and easy ways at scale, they will extract far more value from their display ad dollars,” said Joseph Casale, CEO of Casale Media. “Video advertising should be a key part in major brands’ campaigns. Combining this opportunity with high quality inventory and audience data creates an impressive synergy that makes Casale Media and our agency partners stand out to advertisers.”

The potential in online video advertising is well-documented. According to comScore, Americans viewed more than 4.3 billion video ads in January, where time spent watching video ads totaled 1.7 billion minutes during the month. Furthermore, according to eMarketer, advertising dollars are shifting from traditional banner ads, and even from rich media ads, to video. The firm claims that by 2014, the share of video will amount to almost 40% of the entire online display ad market.

About Casale Media

Casale Media is redefining the standard for online media quality, ad delivery management and media optimization technologies. Its premium advertising network is a brand-safe media environment that is used by 8 of the top 10 U.S. online display advertisers and seamlessly integrates survey, panel and actual product consumption data from leading market research firms to make it easy to reach the best customers quickly and at scale. Casale Media obtains quality inventory from 3,000 actively monitored premium publishers, across which it reaches nearly 70% of the U.S. online audience. Generating measurable success for all stakeholders in media and marketing, Casale Media is guided by its dedication to needs based development and its quality focused culture. More information is available at www.casalemedia.com.

NEW YORK – Responding to marketers’ call for better brand safety and enhanced transparency online, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced that 16 member companies are the first to commit to comprehensive self-certification against the IAB “Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines.” Released in June of this year, the guidelines are part of a far-reaching industry initiative lead by the IAB to increase buyer control over the placement and context of advertising on ad networks and exchanges. The announcement was made at ClickZ Connected Marketing Week in San Francisco, where the IAB Networks & Exchanges Committee programmed a one-day forum on ad networks and exchanges.

The first 16 IAB member companies that will self-certify in early 2011 are:

24/7 Real Media

Fox Audience Network

Adify

Google

AOL/Advertising.com

ScanScout

AudienceScience

Specific Media

Burst Media

Traffic Marketplace

Casale Media

Tremor Media

ContextWeb, Inc. / ADSDAQ Exchange

Yahoo!

CPX Interactive

ValueClick Media

“We applaud the efforts of these ad networks and exchanges to be the first to commit to the standards and practices covered by ‘Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines,’” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “It is no small task to undergo the self-certification process and, once compliant, these organizations will provide marketers the highest level of brand safety. Every agency and marketer should consider compliance with these guidelines as a buying standard and we invite additional ad networks and exchanges to join the program.”

“The IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines demonstrate to marketers and agencies that we put brand safety first,” said Jay Sears, General Manager of ContextWeb, Inc.’s ADSDAQ Exchange, and Co-Chair of the IAB Networks & Exchanges Committee. “These 16 companies that have raised their hand must now engage in a full-scale implementation that will require extensive training and investment—it shows a true commitment to control, transparency and simplifying the buying of digital media.”

“The certification program we designed is a way to provide marketers and agencies a standardized approach that will make buying advertising easier and give increased control over where ads are placed,” said David Jacobs, Senior Vice President, Advertising.com, and Co-Chair of the IAB N&E Ad Certification Working Group. “We anticipate broad adoption of these guidelines by parties participating in the self certification process.”

The rigorous self-certification process requires the participating companies to:

Attend IAB training sessions developed to guide compliance officers through the proper implementations of the guidelines
Conduct quarterly internal audits to test compliance with the guidelines
Submit forms to the IAB from both the compliance officer and business unit leader attesting to adherence to the guidelines
“Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines” can be found on the IAB website at: http://www.iab.net/ne_guidelines.

About the IAB’s Networks & Exchanges Committee:

The IAB Networks and Exchanges Committee is comprised of senior leaders of ad networks and ad exchanges that are general member companies. The committee is dedicated to furthering the interests of ad networks and ad exchanges in today’s complex ad marketplace. Committee objectives are to foster the highest standards of professionalism and accountability in relationships with publishers, advertisers and the agency community, to develop programs that enable revenue growth, and to create best practices that protect consumers and the industry. A full list of Committee member companies can be found at: http://www.iab.net/networks_and_exchanges_committee.

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.

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world today reported the top 25 ad networks based on their reach among U.S. Internet users in April 2009. The ranking showed that AOL’s Platform-A remains the top ad network, reaching nearly 176.5 million U.S. Internet users, or 91.5 percent of the total audience, followed by Yahoo! Network (167.1 million) and Google Ad Network (164.5 million). New ad network FOX Audience Network ranked sixth, reaching 149.2 million people. Several ad networks in the top 25 achieved double-digit growth during the past year, led by Turn Inc. (up 121 percent), CPX Interactive (up 88 percent) and 24/7 Real Media (up 48 percent).

______________________________________________________________________________
Top 25 Ad Networks

April 2009 vs. April 2008

Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations

Source: comScore Media Metrix

Total Unique Visitors (000)
Apr-2008        Apr-2009       % Change

Total Internet: Total Audience          190,728         192,875           1

Platform-A                              170,508         176,455           3
Yahoo! Network                          160,206         167,129           4
Google Ad Network                       155,882         164,518           6
ValueClick Networks                     140,930         160,307          14
Specific Media                          144,773         158,012           9
FOX Audience Network                        N/A         149,249         N/A
24/7 Real Media                          99,959         147,668          48
Traffic Marketplace                     114,682         143,519          25
Microsoft Media Network US              119,595         139,674          17
Tribal Fusion                           135,113         138,274           2
Casale Media – MediaNet                 127,184         137,884           8
interCLICK                              107,961         134,834          25
Turn, Inc                                60,617         134,028         121
Adconion Media Group                    117,965         133,498          13
CPX Interactive                          69,178         130,370          88
Collective Network by Collective Media   88,279         129,808          47
ADSDAQ by ContextWeb                     93,815         123,534          32
AudienceScience (formerly Revenue Science)  N/A         121,001         N/A
Burst Media                              89,670         116,727          30
Undertone Networks                       72,940          97,053          33
AdBrite                                  81,838          91,033          11
Pulse 360                                   N/A          82,574         N/A
Vibrant Media                            72,351          80,779          12
Adify                                       N/A          73,467         N/A
Kontera                                  52,159          72,870          40
______________________________________________________________________________

“Underscoring the growing importance of ad networks to the digital advertising economy, each of the top 25 ad networks has expanded its reach during the past year,” commented Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. “It almost seems that new ad networks are emerging every day, each aimed at helping advertisers achieve their campaign objectives, whether it’s to deliver reach and frequency or to target a specific audience segment.”

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

ad:tech Chicago, the leading conference for the global marketing community taking place August 5 and 6, 2008 at the Chicago Navy Pier, is the industry event of the season. Celebrating its fourth consecutive year in Chicago, the 2008 ad:tech show will answer the burning questions on the minds of advertisers and marketers today while providing a roadmap for conquering the industry’s next frontier.

The Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA) and William Blair and Company recently surveyed 150 Chicago-area interactive marketing companies to gauge the health of the industry. According to two-thirds of the respondents, the economic turbulence is affecting spending and most predict that online advertising will grow at a rate of only about 16 percent this year compared to a forecast of 19 percent during previous years, which they attribute to the state of the economy.2 As advertising is becoming less efficient, key opinion leaders are turning to their peers to better understand the market and the fast-paced environment in which it is evolving.

“ad:tech Chicago offers an inside look at the industry by professionals experiencing the same hurdles in reaching both broad and niche audiences,” said ad:tech Chairman, Programming & Senior Global Analyst Drew Ianni. “The challenge exists not in knowing who your target is but where and how to engage that person, and understanding the various tools and mediums that help you get there.”

Consistent branding and effective messaging are the key ingredients to a successful brand experience, and one that resonates with consumers and creates advocates out of users. Brad Jakeman, Former Executive VP, Marketing, Federated Department Stores, will expand on this topic further during the second day of the conference through his keynote address titled “The Big Idea Strikes Back”. Jakeman will discuss the importance of creating a big idea and executing it consistently across all the channels available today to marketers.

“Few marketers have a big idea behind their brands that can be expressed across the full gamut of consumer touch-points—advertising (online and offline), in-store environment, employee training, product design etc.,” said Jakeman. “The best brand ideas I’ve seen have been grounded in a deep consumer insight or human truth, are compelling enough to engage and excite consumers, and seize some white space in the category in which the brand operates. They represent a ‘North Star’ toward which all aspects of the consumer experience are relentlessly and obsessively directed.”

ad:tech Chicago will offer attendees access to more than 120 speakers and 23 breakout sessions with the industry’s biggest names, including Amtrak, ConAgra Foods, Dell, Inc., FTD Floral, FOX News, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney and many more. In addition to these brands, the event highlights the local talents of more than 30 Chicago and Midwest-based speakers representing the biggest agencies, publishers and analysts, including the Sun-Times News Group, Carlson Marketing Worldwide, Starcom USA, Cars.com, Leo Burnett North America, HSBC, CBS Digital Media, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune Interactive and many more.

The exhibit hall will showcase key exhibitors from companies such as Casale Media, DoubleClick, Google, Moniker and Yahoo! to name a few. The Navy Pier will also house multiple meeting and business presentation rooms for domestic and international organizations along with ample room for networking. For a list of current exhibitors, please visit www.ad-tech.com/chicago/adtech_chicago_exhibitors.aspx.

Gold Sponsor: AdShuffle Silver Sponsors include: Avenue A | Razorfish; Casale Media Bronze Sponsors include: AdECN; Google; iContact; Leapfrog Online; Singer Direct Premiere Media Partners include: Advertising Age; Fast Company; Forbes.com; iMedia Connection; Revenue Magazine Media Partners include: BtoB; DIRECT; Digital Moses Confidential; DM News; eMarketer; MarketingSherpa; Mobile Marketer; Personal Life Media; PRWeb; Search Marketing Standard; SmartBrief; Target Marketing; Webmaster Radio; Website Magazine Association Partners include: AIMA; CIMA; MMA; OPA; WOMMA

For public information, please visit www.ad-tech.com.

About ad:tech: ad:tech expositions, LLC is the leading organizer of conferences and exhibitions for the interactive marketing community worldwide. ad:tech produces the world’s largest interactive marketing events held in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, London, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore and Sydney. ad:tech is produced by dmg world media; based out of the company’s headquarters in Larkspur, California. For listings of exhibitors, speakers, events and upcoming conference offerings, visit www.ad-tech.com.

About dmg world media: An international exhibition and publishing company, dmg world media produces over 250 market-leading trade exhibitions, consumer shows and fairs each year and publishes 45 related magazines, newspapers, directories and market reports. dmg world media employs 900 people and maintains a worldwide presence through more than 40 offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, the United Arab Emirates, China, India, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. dmg world media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc (DMGT), one of the largest and most successful media companies in the United Kingdom. Additional information on dmg world media can be found at www.dmgworldmedia.com.

1 Interactive Advertising Bureau, August 2007
2 AdWeek July 8, 2008

During the 2-day conference, ad:tech Chicago will explore new and emerging technologies on the social media, video and mobile fronts while sharing best practices for audience acquisition, engagement and retention in an age of earned media. The Chicago conference brings together top brands, award-winning agencies and leaders in metrics, publishing and search, offering attendees a great networking opportunity and a chance to explore the trends shaping today’s market.

“ad:tech Chicago provides a multi-faceted platform to learn, listen and understand the opportunities and challenges in the ever evolving branding landscape,” said Drew Ianni, Chairman, Programming & Senior Global Analyst for ad:tech. “The digital space is an uncontrolled environment that requires marketers to interact with consumers rather than just deliver static messaging.”

The conference will kick off with a keynote address by Kevin Kells, CPG Industry Director for Google, titled “Welcome to the Age of Performance Branding,” discussing a new branding technique that encourages open dialogue with consumers to position brands positively and achieve desired results. Day one will close with a keynote address delivered by Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, titled “Here Comes Every Customer: The Former Audience is Talking Around You,” touching on how the former audience, the customer, is now driving user generated content (UGC) on the Internet. And, it’s the advertiser who better be listening.

Social networking and UGC sites have experienced extraordinary growth in recent years. As numbers on these sites have risen, so has user engagement, with 83 million users creating and sharing content on the Internet.1 UGC has changed the rules of the game as the existing lines between advertisement and consumer are often blurred. In 2006, UGC sites attracted 69 million users in the United States alone, and in 2007, UGC generated $1 billion in advertising revenue. By 2011, UGC sites are projected to attract 101 million users nationwide and earn $4.3 billion in ad revenue.2

“Today’s business climate requires more precision in our marketing and advertising than ever before. Leading marketers must be creative and obsessive. Creative in developing consumer experiences that enable connections with our brands and obsessive about choosing the place and time when consumers are most receptive for delivery of experiences,” said Kevin Doohan, Director of Interactive Marketing at ConAgra Foods and speaker at ad:tech Chicago in the Power Panel: Master Class CPG Roundtable — Growing Online Brand Advertising Dollars.

ad:tech Chicago will offer attendees unbridled access to more than 120 speakers and 23 breakout sessions with the industry’s biggest names including Amtrak, ConAgra Foods, Dell, Inc., FTD Floral, FOX News, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney and many more.

The exhibit hall will showcase key exhibitors from companies such as Casale Media, DoubleClick, Google, Hitwise, Moniker and Yahoo! to name a few. The Navy Pier will also house multiple meeting and business presentation rooms for domestic and international organizations along with ample room for networking. For a list of current exhibitors, please visit www.ad-tech.com/chicago/adtech_chicago_exhibitors.aspx.

Gold Sponsor includes: AdShuffle Silver Sponsors include: Avenue A | Razorfish; Casale Media Bronze Sponsors include: AdECN; Google; iContact; Leapfrog Online; Singer Direct Premiere Media Partners include: Advertising Age; Fast Company; Forbes.com; iMedia Connection; Revenue Magazine Media Partners include: BtoB; DIRECT; Digital Moses Confidential; DM News; eMarketer; MarketingSherpa; Mobile Marketer; Personal Life Media; PRWeb; Search Marketing Standard; SmartBrief; Target Marketing; Webmaster Radio; Website Magazine Association Partners include: AIMA; CIMA; MMA; OPA; WOMMA

For public information, please visit www.ad-tech.com.

About ad:tech: ad:tech expositions, LLC is the leading organizer of conferences and exhibitions for the interactive marketing community worldwide. ad:tech produces the world’s largest interactive marketing events held in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, London, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore and Sydney. ad:tech is produced by dmg world media; based out of the company’s headquarters in Larkspur, California. For listings of exhibitors, speakers, events and upcoming conference offerings, visit www.ad-tech.com.

About dmg world media: An international exhibition and publishing company, dmg world media produces over 250 market-leading trade exhibitions, consumer shows and fairs each year and publishes 45 related magazines, newspapers, directories and market reports. dmg world media employs 900 people and maintains a worldwide presence through more than 40 offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, the United Arab Emirates, China, India, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. dmg world media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc (DMGT), one of the largest and most successful media companies in the United Kingdom. Additional information on dmg world media can be found at www.dmgworldmedia.com.

1 eMarketer, April 2008.
2 eMarketer, “User Generated Content: Will Web 2.0 Pay its Way?” June 2007.