Ringleader Digital Partners With EyeWonder for Rich Media and Video Advertising Expertise Across its Mobile Third-Party Ad Serving Network

NEW YORK – Ringleader Digital, the only mobile third-party ad-serving network, announced a partnership with EyeWonder, Inc., a leading innovator in interactive digital advertising technologies and services. The partnership features collaboration between Ringleader Digital and EyeWonder to develop rich media and video solutions across Ringleader Digital’s third-party advertising network. The agreement provides a flexible platform to address the emerging market for mobile advertising in rich media applications and services.

Demand for rich media continues to expand rapidly, with industry analyst Screen Digest projecting that the market will reach $2.79 billion by 2012*. The mobile video market also continues to grow, with The Nielsen Company reporting 24% annual growth in subscriptions to mobile video, increasing to 16.4 million customers in Q3 2008**. Additionally, the growing ubiquity of mobile handsets with multimedia support is central to driving rich media demand. Advertisers, logically, are turning their attention to rich media to reach mobile users in a meaningful and impactful manner.
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- Merkle Releases 2009 ‘View from the Inbox’ Email Marketing Trends Report
Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing database marketing agencies, today released its 2009 ‘View from the Inbox’™ email marketing report. This report highlights the results of Merkle’s annual study, which is conducted in conjunction with the national survey research firm Harris Interactive. The study sets out to measure the attitudes and behaviors regarding permission-based email among U.S. consumers. Permission-based or “opt-in” email marketing is a marketing approach used to reach consumers who voluntarily sign-up to receive updates, offers and information from select organizations.
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Data shows decision-makers are turning to event marketing to drive purchase behavior and deepen engagement in the face of an intensifying worldwide financial crisis

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. & DALLAS – The largest and longest-running annual survey of corporate sales and marketing executives, EventView 2009, reveals that senior sales and marketing executives in North America believe that among all marketing channels, meetings and events are the discipline that can be leveraged now to best drive ROI, and accelerate and deepen brand relationships.

These findings and many others are uncovered in the annual EventView 2009: North America report, the first report in a year-long series that will also provide insight into marketing in Western Europe, Asia Pacific and a number of verticals including Healthcare, Technology, Automotive and Financial Services. Between December 2008 and February 2009, 1,000 senior managers from North America, Europe and Asia Pacific were interviewed via telephone with the goal of bringing clarity to the value and role that events play in the marketing mix.
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ATLANTA – LSN, Inc., Local Solutions Network, with the nation’s largest local mobile advertising network, announced the availability of their LSN Local Content Widgets in Yahoo! Go (http://go.yahoo.com), leveraging Yahoo! Blueprint, Yahoo!’s mobile development platform.  Starting today, Yahoo! Go users will be able to access local news, weather, sports, school closings and much more from LSN’s affiliate network of 140 local media partners, including ABC, NBCU, Telemundo, McGraw Hill, Cox, Gray, Raycom, and other leading media.

Yahoo! Go is Yahoo!’s award winning all-in-one mobile application, available on more than 280 devices across 19 countries.  Yahoo! Go lets users enjoy the best of the Internet on their phone.  Users can send email, upload photos, download a map, search for answers, check stock quotes, or get breaking news—all from one application on their mobile device.
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- Gannett Broadcast Announces Executive Appointments
* Ken Tonning will become president and general manager of Gannett’s CBS affiliate WTSP-TV in Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL. Tonning currently is president and general manager of WTLV-TV and WJXX-TV, Gannett’s NBC and ABC stations in Jacksonville, FL. He replaces Sam Rosenwasser who has announced his retirement effective the end of this year.
* Dodie Cantrell-Bickley will become president and general manager of the two Jacksonville stations. She currently is president and general manager of WMAZ-TV in Macon, GA. A replacement for Cantrell-Bickley has not been announced.
* Anthony Diaz will become vice president of sales strategy and development for Gannett Broadcasting. Diaz currently is vice president/general sales manager for W*USA-TV, Gannett’s CBS affiliate in Washington, DC.

ARRIS, BIAP, BlackArrow and Sigma Systems to Showcase Personalized Television Advertising for Cable and Telecom at Management World Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla. – ARRIS, BIAP, BlackArrow and Sigma Systems jointly announced that they have formed an unprecedented group of technology leaders to revolutionize television advertising. The group will demonstrate its cutting-edge Advanced Advertising solution as part of TM Forum’s Content Encounter 3, which takes place at the Management World Orlando conference.

The Content Encounter initiative at the TM Forum encourages companies to collaborate on solutions that address the creation, delivery and monetization of digital media services. The Personalized Advertising for Cable and IPTV demonstration within Content Encounter 3 will illustrate that advanced advertising is real and doable with today’s telecommunications and cable standards, and that service providers can use a common deployment architecture to deliver rich entertainment services, including content specific ad-insertion and addressable ad-insertion.
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In-stream video ads from Olay, TRESemme and Continental Airlines give viewers control over the advertising experience by featuring interactive product placements

ATLANTA/CAMBRIDGE, MA – November 24, 2008 – EyeWonder, Inc., a leading innovator in interactive digital advertising technologies and services, and Akamai Technologies, Inc., the global leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, announced today that they delivered the first in-stream advertisements via Microsoft Silverlight for New York Magazine’s “Where’s Rogan?” interactive campaign.

The “Where’s Rogan?” series aired in eight weekly segments on New York Magazine’s Website at www.nymag.com/rogan/ and is a tongue-in-cheek expose of eco-conscious fashion designer Rogan Gregory, who goes missing during New York’s Fashion Week. During the Webisodes, viewers can control the advertising experience by interacting with product placement bugs and tickers from three advertisers involved with the project: Olay, TRESemme and Continental Airlines. During one episode, a ticker advertisement for Continental Airlines runs across the bottom of the screen. When a viewer clicks on it, a separate window opens to the airline’s main booking page, allowing users to book a flight while watching the video. Another episode features an Olay product placement bug which, when clicked, pauses the video to show the viewer a mini commercial. When the ad finishes, the video resumes playing.
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* Attack traffic continues to grow, both in terms of country counts and number of targeted ports
* New Internet connectivity up significantly during the quarter, through undersea cables, WiMAX, and satellite
* Akamai observes a nearly ten percent increase globally in the number of unique IP addresses connecting to its network; may be attributable to more people turning to the Internet for news and video content related to the Beijing Olympic Games
* Investments in rural connectivity drives quarter-over-quarter increases in high broadband connections in many U.S. states

CAMBRIDGE, MA – November 19, 2008 – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, today announced the release of the third edition of its quarterly “State of the Internet” report available for download at www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet. Leveraging published reports and information available on its network, Akamai’s quarterly report provides insight into key Internet statistics such as origin of attack traffic, network outages and broadband connectivity levels across the globe. As the Company’s third published edition, the report also now provides a quarter-over-quarter view into trends.
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