RESTON, Va. & NEW YORK – LucidMedia (www.lucidmedia.com), an online contextual display advertising platform and meta-network, today announced several milestones surrounding its continued growth, inclusive of the completion of $8.8 million in funding, including the value of converted debt, to support the launch and expansion of LucidMedia’s contextual advertising network; the opening of a New York City sales office on Madison Avenue; and the hiring of a national sales team to better service its growing client base of interactive agencies and corporations. Despite the current economic climate, LucidMedia has experienced steady growth of its client base, driven by its patented contextual page-level technology, developed to maximize campaign performance, increase brand recognition online, and ultimately raise advertisers’ return on investment.

The funding is led by a combination of institutional and individual investors including Lake Street Capital, RLI Partners, Melton Investments, Silicon Valley investment veteran Milan Mandaric, and Redleaf Group, whose CEO, Michael Tomana, has joined the company’s Board of Directors. This is LucidMedia’s third round of funding.
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SHANGHAI, China – 24/7 Real Media, Inc., the leading digital marketing company, and OgilvyOne China’s ITOP Performance Marketing division, announced that they are entering a joint venture to create ITOP 24/7 – effective January 2009. Based in Beijing, ITOP 24/7 will be a Chinese display and contextual advertising network that will enable advertisers and publishers to effectively and efficiently engage their target audiences in the digital marketplace.

On top of OgilvyOne ITOP’s existing platform, the joint venture will utilize the award winning Open AdStream® ad management technology, enhanced specifically for the Chinese market. OgilvyOne ITOP’s existing ad network covers key categories like IT & Telecommunications, Fashion & Entertainment, and Business & Finance and provides mid to large scale advertisers high quality targeted ad placements and audiences.
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Vibrant Evolves Hyperlink to Offer Related Links to Articles & Video

NEW YORK – Vibrant (www.vibrantmedia.com), the world leader in contextual advertising solutions, has announced the launch of Vibrant Related Content, the editorial application of its advanced patented contextual technology. This automatic hyperlinking system recirculates users to more related articles, video, music, and images within a website. Users in turn are able to conveniently access more information pertaining to subjects of interest. Vibrant Related Content is live in beta and will begin rolling out to 3,500 publishers. As for advertising, publishers may choose to monetize these units which can accommodate standard IAB ads.
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LONDON, July 24, 2008 — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Vibrant Media, the world leader in contextual advertising, has announced the expansion of its London office to accommodate its growing business in Europe, Russia and Asia. Top-tier talent join the company as its business continues to accelerate and contextual advertising based on keywords increasingly becomes a significant piece of the marketing mix. Vibrant, which was founded in 2000, currently reaches 125 million users* each month and has doubled its revenue every year for the last five. New hires include:

Jonathan Baron joins Vibrant as the new Vice President of International Sales where he will lead pan-European sales as well as new territories including Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia. Before coming to Vibrant, Baron served as Microsoft Advertising’s Asia Regional Sales Director and then led the Multinational Sales force for the U.S., EMEA and Asia. Prior to that, he headed pan -regional sales in Asia for MSN. Jonathan got his start in the publishing business at United News Media, EMAP and IPC.

Naomi Ferguson brings extensive knowledge and experience to Vibrant as Head of Technology Client Sales. Previously, Naomi managed the technology, telecoms and gambling categories at AOL. Prior to that, Naomi worked at the Financial Times where she was Group Head of Technology Client Sales.
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LONDON, June 6, 2008 – Vibrant Media, the world leader in video and contextual advertising, presented its first Vibrant Awards last night in London, recognising the creative and strategic use of in-text and contextual video advertising.

“These awards reflect the growing influence of in-text on the advertising landscape as a whole.” Says Craig Gooding, CCO and Co-founder, Vibrant Media, “We have seen the industry embrace in-text advertising since our inception in 2000 and today Vibrant works with the world’s leading brand advertisers who are reaching more than 120 million users worldwide. The Vibrant Awards is designed to inspire excellence and we want to thank the winners for delivering some of the smartest, most impactful and creative executions of in-text and contextual video advertising across Europe.”

Hundreds of campaigns from around the world were considered and evaluated based on creativity, word selection and the campaign’s ability to effectively communicate the brand message/meet campaign objectives. European finalists included:
Adidas – End2End project
BP – Race for Champions
Chrysler France – Sebring Launch
Coke – Grand Theft Auto ‘Give a little Love’
Corel – Fortunately
Diageo – Pimms
Fiat – Fiat 500
Ford – Kuga
Fortis – Business leader
HP – The Computer is Personal
IBM UK – Wimbledon
Intel – Intel Centrium Processors
Karstadt – Jubel
Lloyds TSB – Premier Loans
Microsoft – Windows Mobile
Nike – Football T90
Nintendo – Super Paper Mario
Nissan – Urban Proof
Paramount Pictures – The Kite Runner
Sky – Lost Series 4
Tourism Ireland – Visit Ireland
Unilever – Axe Shock deodorant
xBox – Fun for all
Yahoo! – Yahoo! Answers
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