This increase in auto advertising from OEMs and aftermarket parts and services companies aligns with Vibrant’s expansion in the automotive sector. ComScore has reported an increase of 26% in unique visitors in Vibrant’s auto vertical for 2010.

Top 100 advertisers, such as Ford, rely on Vibrant’s ability to precisely target their audience through keywords grouped into brand names, segment, key features and sales terms as well as brand-attribute terms like “performance” and “quality.”

“This growth is driven by the tremendous value we are providing to auto advertisers, publishers and consumers,” says Doug Stevenson, Vibrant Co-founder and CEO. “Our U.S. auto publisher network has grown 24% Y-Y this quarter, and our unique audience is now 130 million in the U.S. We are working with 90% of OEM’s for national and regional initiatives, and we are well-positioned to grow as the automotive industry returns to advertise as usual.”

“Vibrant has long been an effective tool for Ford. Their contextually relevant placements reach our audience while they’re engaged with content in a brand-safe environment,” says Alex Hultgren, Ford & Lincoln Digital Media Manager, Ford Motor Company.

Vibrant’s powerful performance in the auto vertical follows on the heels of its 44% Y-Y growth in auto revenue reported in H1 2010. Earlier, record profit and revenue growth was announced for 2009. The company has increased its user base by 50% over the past year and now reaches 61% of the U.S. online audience according to comScore.

About Vibrant

Vibrant (www.vibrantmedia.com) is a world leader in contextual technology aligning billions of words across the Internet with relevant video, information, tools, and advertising. With 4,500 premium publishers, reaching over 170 million unique users per month (comScore, August 2010), Vibrant gives top brand marketers the opportunity to deliver highly targeted advertisements within premium Web content and offers publishers premium editorial tools to re-circulate users throughout their websites. Vibrant works with top brand advertisers such as Microsoft, Unilever, Warner Bros and AT&T. The company was founded in 2000 and has offices in London, New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf. Vibrant’s rapid growth has been recognized by the Inc. 500 and Deloitte Fast 50 lists. In 2010, the company was named by Advertising Age as one of the “Best Places to Work in Marketing & Media.” For more information, visit: www.vibrantmedia.com or www.hyperlinkevolved.com or www.facebook.com/vibrantmedia or http://twitter.com/vibrantmedia.

SAN FRANCISCO – The world’s leading brands have embraced the power of the real-time web, and CoTweet is playing a key role in their success. CoTweet announced that companies including Coca-Cola, Ford, McDonald’s, Microsoft, SunTrust, Whole Foods and others have enrolled in the CoTweet Enterprise Innovators Program, a new program that includes exclusive Enterprise Edition product features and services that help companies manage their brands on Twitter. The program is available to customers for a fee, demonstrating one of the first examples of a Twitter ecosystem application to generate revenue.

Companies recognize that Twitter has become an essential channel for communication with customers and other constituents – one that is uniquely direct, genuine and immediate – with significant upside potential for enterprises that can “crack the Twitter code.”

CoTweet’s Enterprise Innovators Program offers companies a set of uniquely-tailored business tools that include:

Reach analytics – provides visibility into the true reach of Twitter messages and click-through rates on embedded links
Engagement analytics – reports on inbound and outbound message types (DM, @replies, @mentions), response rates and times, most active users
Influence analytics – measures the social media influence of brands and users, including those most influential in specific industries and topics; provided through partnership with Klout.
Extended customer conversation history – a lifetime archive of customer interactions
Priority updates – faster access to Twitter updates
Dedicated account management – a single point of contact providing account analysis and priority product support and training

Additionally, Enterprise Innovator Program participants will play a key role in shaping the future direction of the CoTweet product based on their emergent requirements.

“In social media, the experience you give people on their first effort to reach you had better be the way you want them to remember you,” said Scott Monty, Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager at Ford. “CoTweet helps us engage customers in authentic two-way conversations that ensure we’re consistent and coordinated as a team and that we leave a positive impression.”

“Successful social business design requires focus on people, process and technology,” said Peter Kim, Managing Director, North America at Dachis Group. “At a time when so many social technology companies are struggling to prove an effective business model, the CoTweet team has shown they know what it takes to help a growing number of companies derive measurable value from their social media initiatives.”

CoTweet allows multiple people to communicate through corporate Twitter accounts and stay in sync while doing so. A sophisticated workflow engine enables users to manage multiple accounts from a single dashboard, support multiple editors for each account, track conversations, assign tasks, create follow-up tasks and schedule posts, and designate who is replying on a company’s behalf. CoTweet also offers direct integration with bit.ly, enabling users to tap into real-time click tracking and analytics from the industry’s leading URL shortening service.

“Businesses have different requirements than consumers when it comes to social media engagement,” said Jesse Engle, CEO of CoTweet. “Companies must monitor their brands, provide customer service and measure the impact of outbound marketing. Team collaboration is key. CoTweet is the only tool that’s focused exclusively on the needs of enterprises, from grocers to bankers, and everyone in between.”

For more information on the CoTweet Enterprise Innovator Program visit: http://CoTweet.com/eip. The CoTweet public beta remains free for consumers and enterprises.

About CoTweet, Inc.

CoTweet is the real-time business collaboration platform for Twitter. Working with companies such as Coca-Cola, Dell, Ford, JetBlue, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Pepsi, Sprint, Starbucks, the City of San Francisco/311, Southwest Airlines, Twitter and Whole Foods, CoTweet has established itself as the tool of choice to brands to connect and engage with customers and stakeholders. Founded in 2008, CoTweet is based in San Francisco, CA.

ADDITIONAL CUSTOMER QUOTES

“McDonald’s is mentioned on Twitter every 10-20 seconds. We are embracing this tremendous opportunity to engage in conversations with our customers and others through @McDonalds each and every day. CoTweet enables us to have those real-time conversations across multiple business units, including our marketing, customer satisfaction, public relations and media relations teams.” –Bill Whitman, vice president of communications, McDonald’s USA.

“We’ve got dozens of Microsoft-branded Twitter accounts, each with a unique focus and set of followers. All together, that represents a significant volume of tweets. We love CoTweet. It’s been the key way for our teams to tweet as individuals and still retain our brand identity.” – Marty Collins, Group Marketing Manager, Windows Digital Marketing, Microsoft

“Social Media based service is being woven into the fabric of our daily lives. Over the next several years it will be as ubiquitous as the telephone. At SunTrust, we strive to help our clients Live Solid and Bank Solid, which includes leveraging Social Media to connect with our clients, wherever they are, communicating with them on their terms, rather than ours. Co-Tweet helps us hear the voice of client from within the Twitterverse and respond to their questions, concerns, compliments, and complaints.” — Robert W. Ross, Relationship & Planning Manager, Enterprise Client, SunTrust

SAN FRANCISCO – From CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008, Medio Systems, the leader in mobile search, today announced a partnership with AdMob, the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace. As part of this agreement, AdMob will deliver targeted mobile search ads to consumers using Medio’s analytics-driven mobile search service.

This partnership brings Medio’s strength as the leading mobile search provider and relationships with major mobile operators together with AdMob’s unmatched, diverse ad traffic to deliver highly targeted and relevant ads to consumers on the mobile phone. Medio is partnering with AdMob to ensure consumers see high quality ads and make it easier for advertisers to reach consumers on their mobile phones.

“We’re proud to partner with AdMob, the largest mobile advertising network in the world,” said Brian Lent, CEO of Medio. “Our partnership is a critical step in the new world of mobile search advertising. AdMob’s unmatched quality advertising traffic means we can present the industry’s most targeted and relevant ads to both our operator partners and publisher network, while enabling AdMob’s advertisers to reach consumers in that ‘last mile’ with analytics-driven, targeted search ads.”

“We’re excited to partner with Medio, the leader in analytics driven mobile search. Their decision to work with AdMob validates our clear leadership position in mobile advertising and the strength of our technology platform,” said Omar Hamoui, founder and CEO of AdMob. “We serve billions of targeted ads on the mobile Web every month and this new relationship with Medio will make it even easier for our advertisers to reach their target audience.”

With this alliance, Medio consolidates its advertising business as a search advertising provider, delivering ads on-deck with its operator partners as well as off-deck with mobile publishers like CBS, ABC and more.

About AdMob

AdMob is the world’s largest and highest quality mobile advertising marketplace, serving more than 2 billion mobile banner and text ads per month. Founded in January 2006, AdMob allows advertisers to reach their customers on the mobile web and enables publishers to increase the value of their mobile sites. AdMob offers both advertisers and publishers the ability to leverage targeted and personalized advertising in more than 160 countries. Sample AdMob customers include Coca Cola, P&G, Adidas, Ford, MSN, Paramount Pictures, Reuters, MTV and many more. AdMob serves ads for over 3000 mobile web sites including AccuWeather, CBS, Weather Underground, Maxim and Peperonity.

To learn more about AdMob, visit www.admob.com.

About Medio Systems

Medio Systems delivers best-in-class mobile search and advertising solutions, helping mobile operators and publishers to offer the best customer experience and advertisers to reach their target audiences. Created specifically for mobile, Medio Mobile Search combines an intuitive, effortless user interface with powerful recommendation and personalization technologies. Medio’s search platform has been adopted by leading operators and publishers worldwide.

Using the precise targeting capabilities of the mobile search platform, the Medio MobileNow Search Advertising Network enables advertisers to identify and reach audiences that are interested in what they are selling—at just the right time—to achieve the best results for their campaign. Through Medio’s unique partnerships with mobile carriers and publishers, ads are integrated into the consumer mobile search experience where increased relevance drives maximum response.

Medio was selected as a Technology Pioneer 2008 by the World Economic Forum, named one of IDC’s 10 Wireless Entertainment Players to Watch in 2008 and was a recipient of Frost & Sullivan’s 2008 North American Mobility Award. For more information, visit http://www.medio.com.

SAN FRANCISCO – PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) and leading provider of rich media advertising, and USA TODAY premiered the first expandable, rich media ad units specifically created for the Apple iPhone. The new PointRoll product, initially launching on the USA TODAY mobile site, will feature both the Ford (NYSE: F) campaign for the all-new 2009 Ford Flex; and NBC Universal’s Focus Features campaign for Joel and Ethan Coen’s new movie, the comedy thriller “Burn After Reading,” starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pitt, which opens nationwide this weekend.

During CTIA, held at Moscone West in San Francisco, Calif. on September 10-12, 2008, PointRoll will provide live demos of the iPhone rich media ads and overviews of the technology at The Marriott San Francisco in Suite Salon 4 and on-the-go in the “Demo Limo,” to help members of the media attending the conference reach their destinations while viewing the new interactive ads that will be distributed on the USA TODAY mobile site initially and on the global PointRoll Web-based advertising inventory in the near future.

“The new Ford Flex marketing campaign is all about engaging consumers in the most relevant and technologically advanced way possible. Mobile is the most interactive way of engaging potential and existing customers, and we are excited to provide wireless devices with the same rich media advertising capabilities that we currently use online,” said Ford Communications Manager, Usha Raghavachari. “Our key focus is to give our audiences relevant information to help them choose their next vehicle and this technology helps us take this to the next dimension.”

“The launch of our new iPhone solution is a great opportunity to showcase PointRoll’s innovation, by extending user-initiated rich media advertising to a new environment,” said Max Mead, Vice President, Business Development & Strategy for PointRoll. “We’ve fine tuned our advertising technologies to enable agencies and marketers from leading brands to create personalized and original interactive campaigns on web pages viewed on the iPhone.”

The PointRoll mobile ads are fully expandable upon user initiation and provide many advanced features including video click-to-play, coupon downloads, integrated mapping technology directly linked to Google Maps, user-initiated click-to-call and more. PointRoll also provides its in-depth engagement metrics and analytics, allowing marketers to track interaction rates, brand time, and other key measures of activity. Without requiring users to download any applications or plug-ins to view the ads, PointRoll’s full-service production team enables marketers to extend their current rich media campaigns into the highly-effective mobile environment with ease.

“PointRoll is staying ahead of the industry to offer marketers first-of-a-kind expandable interactive ads on mobile devices,” said Jason Tafler, CEO of PointRoll. “PointRoll’s rich media solutions are all about personalizing the conversation between marketers and their customers through engaging campaigns, and we are proud to be the first to introduce these capabilities into the mobile channel via the iPhone.”

Mobile advertising is growing incredibly quickly. In the fiscal 2008 third quarter, Apple sold 717,000 iPhones and remains on track to reach its target goal of selling 4 million iPhones in 2008, according to RBC Capital Markets. PointRoll leads the rich media industry, serving more than 70 billion rich media impressions each year and calling two-thirds of the Fortune 500 its clients.

The Demo Limo will be provided on September 10th only, during regular CTIA I.T. and Entertainment conference hours.

About PointRoll

PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), is the world’s leading online advertising rich media provider. PointRoll’s superior rich media technologies and services enable brand marketers to connect with consumers by creating interactive online environments. Providing interactive features such as streaming video, polling, instant e-mail and data collection, PointRoll delivers measurable online advertising campaign results. PointRoll serves more than 70 billion rich media impressions each year – and serves two-thirds of the Fortune 500 brands. For more information, please visit www.pointroll.com.

About USA TODAY

USA TODAY is the nation’s top-selling newspaper. It is published via satellite at 34 locations in the USA and at four sites abroad. With a total average daily circulation of 2.3 million, USA TODAY is available worldwide. USA TODAY is published by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI). The USA TODAY brand also includes: USATODAY.com, an award-winning news and information Web site that is updated 24 hours per day; USA TODAY Sports Weekly, a magazine for enthusiasts of college and professional football and baseball; USA TODAY Mobile, offering up-to-the minute news and information on a variety of mobile platforms and devices; and USA TODAY LIVE, the television arm of the USA TODAY brand that brings the spirit and quality of the newspaper to television.

BEDFORD, Mass. – Jingle Networks, Inc., the leader in free advertiser-supported directory assistance and operator of 1-800-FREE411, has launched “JingleConnect,” an in-call advertising network service to connect advertisers with millions of ready-to-buy consumers. Using its own ad-serving technology, Jingle Networks will help advertisers and companies with high call volume earn revenue by selling in-call ad time – a proven way to reach consumers via a one-to-one calling environment.

JingleConnect allows any company with high call volume to easily and seamlessly insert audio advertisements in their calls, by taking advantage of Jingle’s existing base of more than 130,000 advertisers on 1-800-FREE411. Jingle’s technology can distribute audio advertising to other companies that operate call centers, information lines, or any calling environment where their consumers are on hold.

JingleConnect is already serving millions of advertisements each month for more than a dozen publishers. These include companies such as SayNow, which enables fans to send phone and text messages to celebrities and Slydial, which lets you slip a message directly into voicemail. Other publishers include Snoozester, Inc. and RH Brands, operators of The Rejection Hotline.

“JingleConnect is a logical evolution for us, as we’ve already created a profitable ad-supported directory assistance service that has served more than 900 million ads to date,” said John Roswech, president of Jingle Networks. “JingleConnect has the ability to attract advertisers that are looking for new and effective ways to talk to a large audience of consumers – and to help companies easily monetize in-call time.”

In-call advertising is becoming an increasingly important media channel for advertisers who are looking for new ways to reach a fast growing mobile population. Given that wait times for customer service lines now average up to 15 minutes or more per call, converting dead air into a revenue stream while capturing a captive audience on hold has become an attractive revenue opportunity for companies of all types and sizes.

Since launching 1-800-FREE411 in 2005, Jingle has assembled one of the largest telephonic audio ad networks in the world, with more than 130,000 advertisers. Partners such as Idearc and Citysearch.com, marquee brands like McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Ford and Radio Shack, and small independent retailers use Jingle’s interactive audio campaigns to engage target audiences.

“A successful in-call ad network requires an ad inventory that will attract companies looking to build a revenue stream from their customer hold time, and having the technology to deliver the ads,” said Matt Booth, senior vice president and program director, Interactive Local Media for The Kelsey Group. “With its track record in bringing in-call advertising to its own customers in the free directory assistance business, Jingle Networks is well positioned to deliver JingleConnect to other markets.”

For more information, or to join the JingleConnect, contact bizdev@free411.com or go to www.jingleconnect.net.

About Jingle Networks

Jingle Networks is transforming the way advertisers view the telephone. Jingle runs the nation’s leading ad-supported directory assistance service 1-800-FREE411 (www.free411.com), providing consumers an anytime, anywhere source of free information by phone. 1-800-FREE411 offers advertisers highly targeted and timely promotional opportunities to reach a large but targeted customer base who are ready-to-buy, garnering a response rate twice that of other direct response media. The company also operates JingleConnect, an in-call advertising network that allows any company with high call volume to easily and seamlessly insert audio advertisements in their calls, by leveraging of Jingle’s base of over 130,000 advertisers. For more information on Jingle Networks and 1-800-FREE411 go to www.free411.com and for information on JingleConnect go to www.jingleconnect.net.

With more then fifteen years of experience, Len has evangelized and sold new technology to key decision makers including online publishers, agencies and clients, in addition to maintaining responsibility for over $40 million in online ad revenue. He has also been recognized by peers and management, winning both quantitative sales awards as well as receiving acknowledgement from colleagues.

Being among the first online sales persons in the digital industry, Len has been written about in BusinessWeek regarding the online advertising marketplace. Additionally, he has consulted with companies including Olive Garden, America Online, Jet Blue, Sony and more. Known for his ability to quickly identify sales opportunities, Len takes great pride in understanding client’s marketing and business goals. He thrives on presenting dynamic products and services that leverage bottom line results. Adopting innovative approaches and concepts, Len demonstrates a solid grasp on revolutionary marketing solutions, delivering groundbreaking ideas that impact heavily on the digital arena.

Prior to joining SpotXchange, Len was national sales director at Knocknock, formerly known as Avant Interactive, where he maintained responsibility for revenue generation and implementation of pioneering digital marketing solutions. His clients included Lifetime, ABC, CBS, NBC, AT& T, Scripps Networks, Honda and Ford, to name a few. Len strongly believes that the key to his success is founded on his ability to build solid relationships with both clients and agencies. In addition to Avant, his career includes time with Scripps Networks, Mobliss, Inc., Claria Corporation and DoubleClick. At DoubleClick he served as senior strategic sales person selling advertising on DoubleClick’s network of over 1100 highly rated web sites.

Based in Colorado and launched in November 2006, SpotXchange is an online video advertising network that provides sophisticated targeting, a hands-on client services team, reporting, and a transparent marketplace that meets publisher and advertisers online video advertising needs.

About SpotXchange
The SpotXchange patent-pending online video advertising platform received the 2007 Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award for BEST VIDEO AD PLATFORM. The company was spun off from Colorado-based digital marketing and technology company, Booyah Networks in March 2007. Booyah Networks ranked 23rd on the 2006 Inc. 500. Clients and partners include Voxant, Blinkx, Adap.tv, LiveVideo.com, NeoEdge, United Press International and others.

Standard, Flash or Rich Media Banner
Agency: A&E Television / Client: Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels
Agency: IAC Advertising Solutions / Client: Bacardi
Agency: MS3 Marketing / Client: Castrol SYNTEC

Standard, Flash or Rich Media Expandable Banner or Overpage Unit
Agency: Juxt Interactive / Client: Coca-Cola Co./Coke Zero
Agency: Liquid / Client: Paramount/The Spiderwick Chronicles
Agency: Unicast / Client: Warner Brothers/Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Homepage Takeover/Sponsorship
Agency: AvatarLabs / Client: Sony Pictures/Pineapple Express
Agency: AvatarLabs / Client: Walt Disney Pictures/Wall-E
Agency: The Visionaire Group / Client: Universal Pictures/Wanted

Content Integration
Agency: Digitas / Client: American Express OPEN
Agency: Monster Worldwide Inc. / Client: PBS/Military.com
Agency: Sojern / Client: Delta Air Lines/E-Ticket

Standalone E-mail
Agency: Digitas / Client: American Express and DailyCandy, “Local Deals”
Agency: Merkle Inc. / Client: Corporate Express
Agency: Yesmail / Client: HP

E-mail Campaign
Agency: Moxie Interactive / Client: Verizon Wireless
Agency: Smith-Harmon Inc. / Client: REI
Agency: Tribal DDB / Client: Pepsi-Cola North America, “Pepsi Stuff Insider”

Search Campaign
Agency: 90octane / Client: Globus Family of Brands
Agency: Bigmouthmedia / Client: Hilton Hotels
Agency: Stinson Partners / Client: Costa Cruise Lines

Video Appearing in a Banner, Pre-Roll, Interstitial or In-Stream Unit
Agency: A&E Television / Client: A&E Television
Agency: TM Advertising/Janimation/EyeWonder – Client: Superpages.com
Agency: VML / Client: Dr Pepper

Standalone Video (Not Principally Deployed on YouTube)
Agency: AKQA / Client: AOL News, “Where Are They Now?”
Agency: Enlighten / Client: Bioré, “Let’s Face It”
Agency: Vibrant Media / Client: Unilever, “Blondes vs. Brunettes”

YouTube Video Ad
Agency: Element79 / Client: Gatorade, “Ball Girl”
Agency: Intuit / Client: TurboTax, “Ping Pong and Taxes Made Easy”
Agency: KulaVortex.com / Client: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, “28 Seconds Later”

Rich Media Campaign
Agency: A&E Television / Client: Paranormal State
Agency: Avenue A | Razorfish/Euro RSCG Worldwide / Client: Nabisco/Ritz, “Open for Fun”
Agency: PointRoll/Armchair Media/Turf / Client: College Board

Contest/Promotion/Sweepstakes
Agency: Dailey / Client: Intuit/TurboTax, “Tax Rap”
Agency: Exopolis/MMA Creative Group / Client: Roxy and Schick Quattro, “Follow Your Heart”
Agency: Liquid Advertising / Client: After Dark Films, “Miss Horrorfest”

Campaign in Social Media
Agency: Avenue A | Razorfish / Client: Washington Mutual
Agency: McCann Erickson / Client: VeriSign Inc.
Agency: Sapient / Client: Coca-Cola Co./Burn

Mobile or Wireless Campaign
Agency: Ad Infuse/Mindshare/Phonevalley / Client: Strongbow Cider, “Flirtogram”
Agency: AKQA / Client: Nike, “PHOTOiD”
Agency: Moxie Interactive / Client: Twentieth Century Fox/Jumper

Use of Gaming
Agency: AKQA / Client: McDonald’s
Agency: MS3 Marketing / Client: Colgate Palmolive/Speed Stick 24/7
Agency: Play/Denuo / Client: General Motors/Buick

Use of Widgets
Agency: Cheil Worldwide / Client: Samsung/Juke
Agency: Euro RSCG 4D / Client: iShares
Agency: Mediaedge:cia/Mindshare / Client: Ford/Sync

Viral Campaign
Agency: Brief Attention Span Communications / Client: Serena Software, Inc., “Just @#$% It” and “Go @#$% Yourself”
Agency: Element79 / Client: Gatorade, “Ball Girl”
Agency: McKinney / Client: Virgin Mobile, “Promiscuous Text”

Advertising/Promotion Web Site or Microsite
Agency: 65 Media / Client: Twentieth Century Fox/The Simpsons Movie
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / Client: Adobe Creative Suite 3, “Adobe Layer Tennis”
Agency: Q Interactive / Client: UPS, “UPS Whiteboard Headquarters”

LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BlogWorld & New Media Expo, the first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference and media event dedicated to blogging and new media, will offer companies critical real-world information on integrating blogs into their corporate communications strategy in order to improve customer relations, build community around their products or services, and energize their brands.

The exclusive pre-show Executive & Entrepreneur conference will feature advice, insight, and experiences as shared by senior executives from Fortune 500 companies and industry thought leaders, all of whom have already fought the battles, made the tough decisions, and successfully implemented social media operations at their own companies.

Blogworld Expo will be held Sept. 20-21, 2008 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Registration is still open at www.blogworldexpo.com.

Featured speakers at the pre-show event on Sept. 19 include John Andrews, Sr. Marketing Manager – Emerging Media at Walmart; Michael Brito, Social Media Evangelist at Intel; Hilary Weber, Director, Internet Marketing Services at Kaiser Permanente; and Michael E. Rubin, Vice President of Community at The Blog Council.

With more than 112 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media online (1), the business of blogging continues to boom. The medium is disrupting the traditional channels of business communications, as companies – such as Nike, Southwest Airlines, Motorola, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Ford, and General Electric – have turned to blogs as a catalyst for creating more personalized customer service, branding, humanization, and community cultivation.

A study conducted by Burson-Marsteller earlier this year found that 15% of Fortune 500 companies communicate with consumers via blogs. According to the agency, this figure represents an approximate 270% increase compared to when Wired magazine and Socialtext began tracking Fortune 500 blogs in December 2005. This same study found that larger companies are more likely to be using blogs than their smaller counterparts – as blogs can be found at nearly one-third (32%) of the Fortune 50, 16% of the Fortune 201-250, and only 2% of the Fortune 451-500.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo brings together visionaries, senior-level executives, and pioneers from the corporate blogging world, as well as those looking to make their first leap into blogging, livecasts, podcasts, micromedia, and other social media programs. Companies can learn first hand how to use blogs to increase brand awareness, build a passionate community, establish thought leadership, and improve customer service. Attendees will see tangible results and proof points from real-world success stories in social media to help understand the business case and ensure buy-in for their corporate blogging and social media programs.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo sponsors include Investor Village, Six Apart, Southwest Airlines, b5media and Pajamas Media. Additional information on BlogWorld & New Media Expo, including speaker topics, session descriptions and registration details, is available at www.blogworldexpo.com.

About BlogWorld & New Media Expo

BlogWorld & New Media Expo is the first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of blogging and new media. BlogWorld features dozens of seminars, panel discussions and keynotes from iconic personalities on the leading-edge of online technology and Internet-savvy business. Designed to give participants the strategies, tools and technologies they need to stake their claim in the blogosphere, BlogWorld takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Sept. 20-21. More information on BlogWorld & New Media Expo can be found at www.blogworldexpo.com.

SAN MATEO, Calif. & NEW YORK & LONDON – AdMob, the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace, announced today that it has launched a global iPhone ad marketplace with new interactive advertising formats that take advantage of the device’s capabilities and mobile context. The new ads include Brand and Performance formats that will function in both the browser environment as well as native applications built for the iPhone. AdMob also announced that it will give $1 million in advertising to developers to promote their iPhone applications, sites and services.

AdMob is launching the developer program to fuel the growth of a new wave of mobile publishers. AdMob has fielded strong demand from advertisers for iPhone ads. As part of the program, AdMob will give $1 million to developers to promote their applications and services. The program is available worldwide. Beginning today, developers can apply to be included in the program at http://admob.com/iphone.

“AdMob has seen enormous growth in both our iPhone traffic and advertiser interest. This new class of device, led by the iPhone, is pivotal to the future of mobile browsing and of mobile media business models,” said Omar Hamoui, CEO and Founder of AdMob. “We are excited to leverage our platform to take advantage of the uniquely mobile connected experiences that the iPhone makes possible.”

AdMob’s new iPhone ads are available immediately to advertisers on www.admob.com and through AdMob’s sales organization. The ads blend graphical display with one of eight iPhone-specific actions. These actions take advantage of the integration of applications on the iPhone to provide one-click access to:

* iTunes: open the iTunes store and purchase music or video content from iTunes
* App Store: visit the App Store and download applications
* Audio: listen to recorded or streaming audio content
* Video: view video and share video with friends
* Call: initiate a voice call
* Maps: launch maps and display relevant locations near that user’s location
* Web: visit iPhone websites
* Custom: interactive user experiences

For video examples of the ads, visit http://www.admob.com/iphone/video.html.

Launch Advertisers and Publishers who are currently working with the new ad formats include:

Brand Advertisers: Ford, Electronic Arts, Land Rover, Jaguar and Universal Pictures “The Mummy”

Performance Advertisers: vsnax, Stitcher, Loopt and Shozu

Publishers: AccuWeather.com, MovieTickets.com, Mippin, Flirtomatic and Loopt

“The iPhone audience represents the most influential and affluent demographic of mobile phone users,” said Brian Bos, Senior Vice President, Convergence Director for Mindshare, ad agency for the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands. “AdMob has leveraged its mobile expertise to deliver these users rich, interactive and engaging ads that Ford is excited to utilize to reach these consumers.”

These partners join thousands of existing advertisers and publishers across the AdMob network that have leveraged AdMob’s initial iPhone advertising solution over the last 11 months.

“The iPhone allows us to provide users of MovieTickets.com a new level of mobile experience,” said Joel Cohen, Executive Vice President and General Manager of MovieTickets.com. “AdMob worked with publishers to build ad formats that fit well with our site, iphone.movietickets.com, fit well with our business model. They have been a great partner as we build out our mobile services.”

AdMob is no stranger to iPhone advertising, having pioneered its first iPhone-specific ad unit in September 2007. AdMob served 51.8 million iPhone ads in June 2008 alone, a 30% month-over-month increase versus May, and has served 249 million ads to iPhone users since launch. More than 1,000 of AdMob’s 5,500 publishers served iPhone ads in June. AdMob’s new iPhone network will be available across this existing traffic base.

About AdMob

AdMob is the world’s largest and highest quality mobile advertising marketplace, serving more than 3.5 billion mobile banner and text ads per month. Founded in January 2006, AdMob allows advertisers to reach their customers on the mobile Web and enables publishers to increase the value of their mobile sites. AdMob offers both advertisers and publishers the ability to leverage targeted and personalized advertising in more than 160 countries. Sample Q2 AdMob customers include MTV, Marriott, Jaguar, P&G, American Express, Adidas, Electronic Arts, MSN, Paramount Pictures, Warner Home Video and many more.

To learn more about AdMob, visit www.admob.com.

Check out the two videos below to see how in-game advertising (product placement, in fact) currently looks like – you’ll agree it’s nothing glamorous so far. In-game advertising is still a vaste untapped resource of targeted audiences but nobody seems to have figured exactly how to do it, or has developed the technology.

Always Sunny ads in an Xbox game:

The Simpsons, Ford, Verizon, Subway, BIC and others in EA Skate game (US version):

Relevant ad metrics are practically inexistant for in-game ads at the moment and will continue to be so until suitable technologies are developed – something that will most likely open a can of worms in terms of data collection and privacy concerns.

With consumers being increasingly aware of privacy issues and not willing to provide much profiling and usage data, one could expect agencies to have a hard time including in-game ads in their clients’ media plans – once the novelty wears off, there is little justification to spend money on something with unquantifiable benefits.

“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
The distinguished panel of industry judges consisted of:

* Guy Phillipson, CEO, IAB UK
* Peter Bale, Executive Producer, Microsoft
* Dr. Jochen Kalka, Editor-in-Chief, W&V
* Susan Kingston, Business Director International, Neo@Ogilvy
* Rich Sutcliffe, Digital Editor, Media Week
* Richard Townsend, Managing Partner, Circus Street
* Rob Watt, Media Director, Avenue A | Razorfish

Three awards were presented.

Gold Award:
First Place (Gold) was awarded to Yahoo! Answers (Carat Digital, UK). The campaign creative was custom built for in-text and designed to intelligently align the Yahoo! Answers database of real user questions with relevant words within online web content. Each creative was pre-populated with actual questions asked by Yahoo!’s users. For example the word “pasta” would trigger the question “how do you cook pasta?”. This unit would drive users to real-time answers related to cooking pasta and the opportunity to post their own responses. This campaign ran across 12 different sectors and achieved an outstanding average CTR.

Silver Award:
Second Place (Silver) went to Fiat (Isobar, France) for their 2008 Fiat 500 campaign. Fiat used words such as ‘compact’, ‘chic’ and ‘fun’ to deliver creative that featured objects commonly identified with these words. These objects created a personality for the compact car and the relevant product and emotional words helped to raise awareness amongst their two target audiences of core targets and early adopters. The average CTR for the campaign was excellent.

Judges Choice Award:
Finally, the Judges Choice Award (Blue), is a special honour awarded to Chrysler France (Mediaedge:cia / Proximity BBDO, France) for its innovative and creative Chrysler Sebring launch in France. Creative agency Proximity BBDO France created five videos clips specifically for in-text that focused on daily situations (e.g. cooking dinner, asleep in bed, doing exercise). The creative maximised the intimacy of the internet with a comic video clip. As the user moved their mouse over relevant words within web content they would trigger an ad that would show a man who had been interrupted during his daily routines. The clips were shown relative to the time of day so if the user moused over in the morning they would see him being woken up or in the evening they would see him cooking dinner. The annoyed man would play an active role, directing users on how to use the unit to click for photos, car information, their local dealer or to request a brochure on the new Chrysler Sebring.

Vibrant will be hosting its US inaugural Vibrant Awards on 12th June in New York.

About Vibrant Media
Vibrant Media is a world leading video and contextual advertising network, giving marketers the opportunity to deliver highly targeted, user-initiated advertisements The company works closely with advertisers, agencies and Web publishers to plan, buy, deliver and optimise Vibrant In-Text Advertising campaigns across thousands of websites. Vibrant Video provides measurable brand engagement through the largest pay per click video advertising network. Reaching more than 120 million unique users per month, Vibrant Media manages more than five billion words per month for top advertisers such as Sony, Intel, New Line Cinema, Microsoft and Toyota. The company was founded in 2000 and has offices in New York, London, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Paris and Hamburg, with more than 200 employees. The Company’s rapid growth has been recognised by both the Inc. 500 and Deloitte Fast 50 list for two consecutive years. For more information, visit www.vibrantmedia.co.uk.

“Google’s move to open up its network to PointRoll is a win for everyone involved,” said Jason Tafler, CEO, PointRoll. “PointRoll advertisers now have the option to run creative, engaging and effective rich media campaigns on the world’s largest ad network. Using PointRoll’s precise targeting technology and measurement capabilities, advertisers are able to reach their desired audience with the most relevant and salient messages, and definitively analyze campaign effectiveness. Additionally, this signals Google’s commitment to creating a truly agnostic environment that, in the end, creates the best experience for users and advertisers.”

The Google content network encompasses hundreds of thousands of websites, including premium publishers and long-tail niche sites. Google and PointRoll worked together to ensure that the ads served to the Google content network meet Google’s policies and specifications. After completing Google’s certification process, PointRoll’s sophisticated targeting technologies can now optimize the breadth of Google’s sites and categories, matching advertisers’ messages to the users who find them most relevant.

“We are thrilled that Google has decided to open up the network to PointRoll rich media,” said Darren Herman, Head of Digital Media at The Media Kitchen. “PointRoll’s ability to develop and implement new and innovative technology has allowed us to consistently deliver engaging campaigns to our clients. Measurement and analytics are consistently evolving and interaction and engagement are hot topics that we’re addressing at The Media Kitchen. PointRoll has allowed us to go beyond the click [CTR], and now we can continue to drive our clients’ messages to the Web’s largest audience.”

The Google content network joins the more than 3,000 online publishers-including elite sites such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo! and The New York Times-that leverage PointRoll rich media to provide powerful, engaging brand experiences to users. PointRoll’s unparalleled service ensures that its ads seamlessly integrate on the many sites with which the company works.

Companies such as Ford, Sears, Cadbury-Schweppes, Toyota, CVS and McDonald’s turn to PointRoll not only because it proactively offers best-in-class solutions that enable more engaging, effective online advertising, but also because it consistently outmatches the competition with its full-service approach and ability to solve complex problems.

About PointRoll

PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), offers a solution to the limited performance of standard banner ads by effectively bringing a mini web site to the user without requiring a click. PointRoll’s superior rich media technology and service enable advertisers to connect with consumers by creating an interactive online environment that generates conversion. With interactive features such as streaming video, polling, instant e-mail, data collection and more, marketers can easily create and deliver ads that build brand awareness and drive sales. The result: great creative controlled by the user and improves ad effectiveness-without the negative experience associated with intrusive technologies. Additionally, PointRoll delivers comprehensive, real-time reporting that definitively illustrates return on investment. For more information, please visit www.pointroll.com.

AdMob’s 20 billionth ad impression was from financial services conglomerate HDFC. The ad was served in India at 1:56am GMT on Tuesday, March 25, while a visitor was browsing Cricinfo’s mobile web site on a Nokia N70.

“This is an exciting milestone, but we’re most encouraged by the progress we’ve made on the underlying platform and technology that powers our marketplace. Our relevance and optimization efforts led by our team of statisticians and researchers have already yielded double digit gains in our ability to monetize our publisher’s sites. I’m very confident that over the next two quarters we will be making significant product enhancements and releasing entirely new solutions that will further unlock the true potential in mobile.” said Omar Hamoui, AdMob’s founder and CEO.

AdMob has grown its ecosystem on the back of technology built to optimize relevance and targeting for the mobile environment. Hundreds of advertisers create and run ads through the marketplace on www.admob.com every day and AdMob serves ads to mobile web users in over 160 countries daily. AdMob recently launched a Japanese language version of its online marketplace to serve the Japanese market, which is among the most developed country markets for mobile web browsing.

“Mobile is a key part of Cricinfo’s multi-platform offering. AdMob has worked with us to deliver highly relevant and valuable ads on Cricinfo’s mobile site wap.cricinfo.com across geographies and their platform has helped us track and manage our ad inventory effectively. We wish AdMob success in achieving their next milestone,” said Anil Nair, Head of Wireless Media, CricInfo.

AdMob has seen a dramatic increase in both the number and size of brand-focused campaigns in the last 9 months.

“The AdMob network has demonstrated consistent, significant reach, and has proven to be a valuable customer acquisition method for EA Mobile,” said Adam Sussman, VP of New Business Development. “We constantly test and evaluate innovative ways to connect with consumers. Banner and text ads served via AdMob have worked well for us in North America. We congratulate them on their significant milestone, and look forward to our continued collaboration.”

AdMob also serves agencies and brand advertisers through full serve sales efforts in San Mateo, California, New York, London, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

“Ford believes mobile marketing is an important and engaging way to reach consumers,” said Brian Bos, SVP, Convergence Director of Mindshare – Team Detroit. “AdMob has provided us with an efficient and highly targeted way to engage potential customers in the mobile environment. We congratulate them on their momentum and leadership in this medium.”

AdMob publishes network statistics on countries and devices on a monthly basis at www.admob.com/metrics.

About AdMob

AdMob is the world’s largest and highest quality mobile advertising marketplace, serving more than 2.5 billion mobile banner and text ads per month. Founded in January 2006, AdMob allows advertisers to reach their customers on the mobile web and enables publishers to increase the value of their mobile sites. AdMob offers both advertisers and publishers the ability to leverage targeted and personalized advertising in more than 160 countries. Sample AdMob customers include Coca Cola, P&G, Adidas, MSN, Paramount Pictures, Reuters, MTV and many more. AdMob serves ads for over 3900 mobile web sites including ESPN, CBS, Weather Underground, Maxim and Peperonity.

To learn more about AdMob, visit www.admob.com.

“As there’s a great deal of activity in the industry with mergers, acquisitions and IPO’s, at PointRoll, we remain focused on constant innovation and working closely with advertisers, agencies and publishers to enable creativity and results,” said Jason Tafler, CEO of PointRoll. “We’re sticking to our core competencies and are adding to our team as we continue to drive the future of online advertising.”

Companies such as Ford, Sears, Cadbury-Schweppes, Toyota, CVS and McDonald’s turn to PointRoll not only because they proactively offer best-in-class solutions that enable more engaging, effective online advertising, but also because they consistently outmatch the competition with their full-service approach and ability to solve complex problems for clients.

“As the rich media industry continues to grow at a fast pace, we are always looking for the best of the best,” continued Tafler. “What we’ve learned over our eight years in business is that a resume doesn’t always tell the full story. We look at the person behind the resume and that has helped us build a team of incredibly knowledgeable, dedicated and long-term employees who have pride in PointRoll. As other companies in the industry shake up their teams, we’ll be taking resumes.”

About PointRoll

PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), offers a solution to the limited performance of standard banner ads by effectively bringing a mini web site to the user without requiring a click. PointRoll’s superior rich media technology and service enable advertisers to connect with consumers by creating an interactive online environment that generates conversion. With interactive features such as streaming video, polling, instant e-mail, data collection and more, marketers can easily create and deliver ads that build brand awareness and drive sales. The result: great creative controlled by the user and improves ad effectiveness—without the negative experience associated with intrusive technologies. Additionally, PointRoll delivers comprehensive, real-time reporting that definitively illustrates return on investment. For more information, please visit www.pointroll.com.