LOS ANGELES – Break Media, the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men, today announced key findings of its proprietary research focused on helping advertisers understand men’s behavior online in order to maximize the potential of the online medium. According to the research, over two-thirds of men surveyed cannot live without the Internet when compared to television, supporting the notion that the Internet now rivals television as the primary destination for content consumption within this demographic.

The research, conducted by Hall and Partners, polled a nationally representative sample of more than five hundred males aged 18-34 who access the Internet at least once per month. It was designed to determine what male consumers (aged 18-34) are doing online, what their likes and dislikes are, how they respond to advertising on the Internet versus traditional media and what they think about online advertising in general. The findings also provide additional insight into the general psychographic profile of men aged 18-34 and best practices when it comes to targeting the male demographic. Full study details can be found here (http://breakmedia.break.com/auwhitepaper).

Research Highlights

The majority of men surveyed state that they often recall online advertising after their online experience has concluded. In fact, nearly half of respondents have purchased a product or service as a result of an online advertisement, demonstrating the impact of online adverting on buying decisions.

Contrary to commonly held industry perceptions, this demographic also proved to be very receptive to certain types of online advertising. According to the research, men aged 18-34 not only tolerate ads with a game or contest, but more than one-third of those polled actually like the experience. As the online ad industry evolves, it will be critical for advertisers to deliver advertising that is both fun and relevant for consumers.

Men’s Behavior Online

* 69% say they can’t live without the Internet, versus just 31% for television
* 63% have a smart phone and one in four use their mobile device to connect to the Web
* 40% use the Internet for more than 22 hours a week
* 36% say they can’t live without the Internet for socializing
* 33% say they can’t live without online entertainment

How Men Respond to Online Advertising

* 59% notice online ads
* 47% have purchased as a result of an online ad
* 35% like ads that allow them to play a game
* 34% like online ads that allow them to participate in a contest

With regards to general activity online, the research shows that males aged 18-34 spend upwards of 22 hours on the Internet per week, like to use the Internet for entertainment, and prefer to spend their time on the Internet over television.

In addition, the research shows 63 percent of men have a smart phone and one in four have used their mobile phone or wireless device to connect to the Internet. Mobile consumers are beginning to demand increased functionality and value-add from their mobile devices and consumer usage is likely to increase as providers offer more competitive services to access the Web. Therefore brands may be able to reach a more targeted and engaged audience via mobile with increasingly open mobile platforms and faster networks opening the door to this untapped market.

The survey also looked at top activities online, which include visiting social networking sites (63%), playing video games (60%), playing computer games (51%), forwarding links to online video (31%), reading blogs (31%), shopping (30%), commenting on online content (28%), and uploading photos to the Web (23%). Interestingly, the findings reinforce the significance of video games as a content genre for marketers seeking to reach and influence men online.

“Our research was a result of our desire to learn about our target demographic and what advertising appeals to them most,” said Keith Richman, CEO of Break Media. “We also wanted to be able to share this insight with our clients and partners so they can better target our audience and create ad campaigns that are more impactful and better able to achieve their advertising objectives.”

Additional Fun Facts

Making time for real women still trumps the Internet:

* 65% of young men are in a relationship
* 79% would rather meet a woman out on the town than online,
* 71% prefer a date with a hot girl to a poker game with the boys
* 74% would rather have sex than surf the Web

Men 18-34 see themselves as:

* Conformist: Only 26% think they are trendsetters
* Responsible: Only 18% agree that having fun is more important than being responsible
* Green: 53% say they care about the environment
* Social: 49% claim to have no trouble meeting new people; 51% like to spend as much time hanging out with friends as possible; only 20% said they valued appearance over personality when it comes to attraction
* Adventuresome: 68% enjoy traveling to new places; 61% enjoy spending time out of doors
* Laid-back: Only 38% say they live a fast-paced life
* Not wellness-centric: 38% claim to lead a healthy lifestyle; however 45% say their appearance is very important to them

The study sponsored by Break Media provides a guide for advertisers looking to validate online ad spend and determine the best creative ad formats to help drive engagement and build brands. Break Media is invested in helping to analyze and determine online video advertising effectiveness and to better understand the challenges in measuring ROI. Earlier this summer the company also issued findings, which tested the effectiveness of four popular in-stream video advertising standard formats established by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

About Break Media

Break Media is the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men. It’s wholly owned branded properties (Break.com, Cage Potato, Chickipedia, Holy Taco, Wall Street Fighter and Screen Junkies) and the over 80 site Break Media Network reach 60 million men worldwide each month. Founded in 1998, Break Media offers advertisers’ unrivaled opportunities to market directly to a young, male demographic using innovative ad formats that introduce relevant brands to the audience either broadly or on a targeted, integrated basis. For more information, please visit http://breakmedia.break.com/

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Break Media, the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men, and Panache, the video advertising delivery-platform leader, today announced key findings from joint research which tested the effectiveness of four popular in-stream video advertising standard formats established by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in May, 2008.

Leading brands, including Honda and T-Mobile, participated in the study by running campaigns run-of-site on Break.com over an 11 week period, which concluded on August 2, 2008. Each campaign used the four IAB standardized ad units: linear non-interactive (pre-roll), linear interactive (interactive pre-roll), non-linear non-overlay invitation ad (non-overlay ad) and non-linear overlay (overlay ad). The ads ran against short-form professional, semi-professional and user-generated content on Break.com with Panache providing the ad delivery and back-end reporting technology to test user interaction and engagement levels with each ad format.

“The standardization of video ad formats by the IAB was a critical first step in streamlining media buying, planning and creative processes across the digital video medium,” said Keith Richman, CEO of Break Media. “Our research was a result of our desire to provide data about the effectiveness of those new standards to our clients and partners, and to lay a foundation for future research initiatives to build and expand upon.”

Key Findings

Break Media and Panache were able to mine the data for trends and insights into consumer behavior and online engagement using the various ad formats.

Findings showed:
– Overall results demonstrate the high engagement levels of tested ad units and that marketing objectives should drive creative development
– Pre-roll offers a strong call to action (click-thru rates averaged 10%); Non-Overlays’ strength appears to be in building brand awareness (78% viewed the ad for more than 15 seconds, a majority of the time)
– Pre-roll showed surprisingly high engagement with incredibly high click-thru rates when interacting with a targeted audience
– Completion rates for both 15 second pre-roll and interactive pre-roll averaged 87%
– Pre-roll click-thru rate for the 15 second spot was close to 10%
– Interactive pre-roll click-thru rate for the 15 second spot ranged between 11% higher and 35% higher than non interactive pre-roll depending on the nature of the call to action
– The overlay ad yielded high exposure and overall engagement
– 77% viewed campaigns with the overlay ad for at least 15 seconds and click-thru rates were five times industry averages for standard in-page media
– Media-rich creative with bold colors and animation resulted in increased click-thru rates
– Click-thru rates almost tripled for the non-overlay ads when using brighter, vibrant colors (.045 vs. 0.13%)
– When using interactive pre-roll ads, having the entire ad clickable appeared to impact call to action
– Click-thru rates were four times as high when the entire ad was clickable vs. just the call to action.

“For the in-stream advertising market to evolve, the efficacy of ad formats—whether IAB-standard or new emerging formats—needs to be understood in order for our industry to scale,” said Steve Robinson, CEO of Panache. “This research begins to fill the knowledge gap between the formation of standards and the prophetic future of an efficient and scalable online advertising industry.”

“This study offers a window into the measurable effectiveness of new video ad formats, and it moves forward the broader discussion of online brand-building and advertising,” said Daniel Taylor, senior analyst at Yankee Group. “As the industry develops new ways to engage online audiences, it’s important to benchmark the progress we make. By making this study public, Break and Panache have advanced the entire industry.”

The study conducted by Break and Panache provides a guide for advertisers looking to validate online ad spend and determine the best format and creative to lift key engagement metrics and build brands. It is also intended to spur additional insight on best practices for brands advertising online.

About Break Media

Break Media is the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men. Its wholly owned branded properties (Break.com, Cage Potato, Chickipedia, Holy Taco, Wall Street Fighter and Screen Junkies) and the over 70 site Break Media Network reach 50 million men worldwide each month. Founded in 1998, Break Media offers advertisers unrivaled opportunities to market directly to a young, male demographic using innovative ad formats that introduce relevant brands to the audience either broadly or on a targeted, integrated basis. For more information, please visit http://breakmedia.break.com/.

About Panache

Founded in 2006, Panache is a privately held company headquartered in Los Angeles. The Panache technology enables Internet video sites and networks to dynamically deliver any ad format directly into video content from a third-party ad server or ad network. Ad formats can be generated and delivered to viewers based on profiling and behavioral targeting, resulting in a highly customized experience for the user and a highly scalable model for the video publisher. With Panache, ad formats are completely detached from the video player, allowing publishers to create and deploy new advertising formats in minutes without engineering resources. Panache’s patent-pending solution makes it easy to deliver advanced interactive advertising to all video-distribution channels, including broadband, television, IPTV and other emerging technologies. For more information, visit http://www.panachetech.com.