Typically the first to adopt new advertising technologies, online publishers demand innovative solutions along with white-glove service supported by teams that understand their business. The Global Publisher Unit helps publishers expand beyond the basic ad unit experience and scale their rich media product offering with advanced, innovative technologies such as dynamic creative optimization, mobile and in-stream video.

The MediaMind Global Publisher Unit has collaborated with the IAB to develop four of the six IAB Rising Star Formats recently launched for North America. In response to MediaMind’s announcement of this new Unit, Peter Minnium, Head of Digital Brand Initiatives at the IAB stated, “The IAB views the MediaMind Global Publisher Unit as a key partner in setting industry standards and developing innovative formats that will enable consumers to connect with brands more effectively.”

Many of the leading global publishers already benefit from partnering with this unit. “As a unified team, we are even better positioned to support key global publishers such as MSN, Yahoo!, the budding social media marketplace, as well as news and entertainment broadcast channels such as NBC, CBS, etc.,” said James Dillon, Senior Vice President of the MediaMind Global Publisher Unit.

For more information on MediaMind, visit http://www.mediamind.com .

About MediaMind
MediaMind, a division of DG (NASDAQ:DGIT), is a leading global provider of digital advertising campaign management solutions to advertising agencies and advertisers. MediaMind provides media and creative agencies, advertisers and publishers with an integrated platform to manage campaigns across digital media channels and a variety of formats, including rich media, in-stream video, display and search. During 2010, MediaMind delivered campaigns for approximately 9,000 brand advertisers, servicing approximately 3,800 media and creative agencies across approximately 8,200 global web publishers in 64 countries.

SALT LAKE CITY – mediaFORGE, a dynamic display media provider, released a white paper detailing its position on why optimizing campaigns for impressions, post-impression attribution, and click-through rate (CTR) does not give an adequate understanding of campaign performance, and how post-engagement is able to substantiate performance with much more meaningful results.

Given the influx of media coverage around online ad measurement, and the creation of the “Making Measurement Make Sense” (3MS) initiative by IAB, ANA, and 4As, it’s clear that advertisers are consensually dissatisfied with current performance metrics. What’s less clear is how to identify the best solution.

mediaFORGE’s white paper was written to empower advertisers to make the right decisions when exploring campaign metrics amidst the growing clamor of proposed solutions.

“Optimizing campaigns is about much more than identifying a metric to report against,” explains mediaFORGE CEO, Tony Zito. “It also determines the design of your campaign, including who you’re targeting and how. It’s important that advertisers understand the implications of the metrics they choose, and we hope this paper will give them a step in the right direction.”

The full whitepaper can be downloaded from the mediaFORGE website at mediaFORGE.com/resources. Some of the paper’s key conclusions include:

- Limited viewable ad inventory challenges validity of attributed view-through conversions.

- Narrowing target audience to optimize campaigns for clicks leads to substantial opportunity cost.

- Campaigns should be optimized for engagement to maximize yield.

- Tracking ad engagement validates that impressions were viewable.

- Clicks are not the exclusive indicator of purchase intent.

About mediaFORGE

mediaFORGE is a dynamic display media company that delivers a personalized and interactive ad experience designed to capture prospects and increase revenue. Its pioneering shared-revenue model charges marketers according to measured engagement that can be attributed to incremental revenue – never for impressions or view-throughs. With mediaFORGE, online marketers can employ the best aspects of display advertising with a low-risk business model, transparent data reports, and best-in-class account managers, making it the most compelling and efficient paths to optimal return on ad spend (ROAS). For more information, visit mediaFORGE.com.

Survey of Nearly 200 Advertising and Marketing Industry Thought Leaders Showcases Emerging Data Approaches & Identifies Key Challenges to Widespread Adoption

NEW YORK – Continuing to demystify the myriad of digital data now available to marketers and online publishers, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) teamed with strategic consulting firm Winterberry Group to create a new study titled “From Information to Audiences: The Emerging Marketing Data Use Cases.” The white paper reveals new practices in data aggregation, management and deployment and spotlights barriers to widespread adoption. Its findings are based on research results from a survey of nearly 200 industry thought leaders and influencers, as well as Winterberry Group’s own quantitative and qualitative research.

The study found that forward-thinking marketers have begun shifting from traditional data focused on products, channels and campaigns to the real-time identification and optimization of consumer audiences. The long-established use of personally identifiable information (like names and postal addresses) for targeted marketing purposes is increasingly being complemented by aggregated and anonymyzed “digital data”—with a focus on improving ad effectiveness (through better targeting) as well as efficiency (through more economical media buying).

“The plethora of new data sources, targeted technologies and advertising delivery platforms enable marketers to amass more intelligence from varied sources,” said Patrick Dolan, Executive Vice President and COO, IAB. “This promising resource can only bear fruit if marketers can take that raw data and harness it effectively, going beyond traditional usage. This study shows us that there are some hurdles we need to address before we can expect widespread adoption—and the ability for ‘big data’ to deliver big result.”

Currently, the data-driven marketing use cases with the most potential are still in the early adoption stage, and the white paper scrutinizes four of them in greater detail:

Audience Optimization – At a low maturity level. Early adopters include digital advertisers and ecommerce players who use resulting audience profiles to find “look-alike audiences” across channels–-from tablets and laptops to smartphones and other mobile devices.

Channel Optimization – At a low maturity level. Early adopters include publishers and e-commerce players who integrate data on customer preferences and intent across the various media channels to deliver more relevant advertising in real time.

Ad Sales/Yield Optimization – At a low maturity level. Early adopters are primarily publishers, who use such tactics as third-party data overlays, enterprise data management platforms and data exchanges to create richer audience data sets designed to maximize rates and improve the attraction of remnant inventory.

Media Buying/Ad Targeting – At an intermediate maturity level. Early adopters include digital ad agencies and demand-side platforms that enable advertisers to identify and target high-value customers across channels by using real-time bidding and more efficient bidding prices.

The study also identified several challenges to widespread optimization of marketing data, including the need for:

Aggregation and Anonymization – While traditional data management practices were built largely around “personally identifiable information” elements—usually consumer names and postal addresses—the collection, analysis and segmentation of online data now requires the aggregation and anonymization of virtually all data sets.

Improved Operating Infrastructures – The primary barrier to widespread marketing data optimization is legacy operating infrastructures—characterized by rigid organizational “silos” and a lack of data-savvy expertise in marketing, IT and sales operations.

Strong Service- and Technology-Enabled Partners – The fastest, most efficient “big data” aggregation, analysis and throughput solutions require strong service- and technology-enabled partners. The burgeoning data supply chain is proving to be extremely agile in streamlining and processing data for marketing performance—supported by of a new class of open-source tools, as well as maturing advertising optimization that offer new solutions for managing and redeploying large quantities of disparate data sources.

Marketing Data Governance – Data governance has emerged as a critical priority for everyone in the data ecosystem. But whereas organizations have long employed policy experts to advise on the regulatory ramifications of data utilization, many are coming to see marketing data governance—defining the “rules of the road” for assigning distinct data sources to different promotional tasks—as equally important.

“The digital marketplace has been growing by leaps and bounds, with data collection and usage representing a very complex and integral part of the puzzle,” said Jonathan Margulies, Managing Director, Winterberry Group. “Early adopters are making strides in pointing the ecosystem in the right direction, but a substantial ‘data divide’ continues to distinguish a small group of early adopters from those who have yet to explore the real potential impact that data may have on their advertising effectiveness.”

“From Information to Audiences: The Emerging Marketing Data Use Cases” represents the latest addition to the IAB’s efforts to demystify data and bolster dialogue between media planners, publishers and data providers. It builds upon last year’s “Data Segments & Techniques Lexicon” and an earlier “Data Usage & Control Primer” The former provided media planners with a framework for clearer communication with publishers and data partners, while the latter addressed and helped resolve the contractual and competitive challenges that surround data usage and collection within the interactive advertising landscape. Both of those industry efforts were developed by the IAB Data Council, which is dedicated to enabling revenue growth through the establishment of quality, transparency, accountability, and consumer protection in data usage.

Supporting sponsors for the study include BlueKai, eXelate, Janrain, ShareThis and V12 Group.

Complete findings are available for download at www.iab.net/marketingdatause.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that 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.

About Winterberry Group

Winterberry Group is a unique research and strategic consulting firm that helps advertising, marketing, media and information companies grow value. Affiliated with Petsky Prunier LLC (“PPLLC”)—a leading investment bank providing merger and acquisition advisory services to companies in the same industries—the Firm offers its clients strategic perspective that is unparalleled in its addressable industries, while PPLLC maintains exceptional relationships with industry executives and business owners. This combination of market intelligence, research and strategic operating experience (as well as the ongoing dialogue among buyers and sellers of marketing businesses) provides an educated outside perspective that we bring to each engagement. For more information, please visit www.winterberrygroup.com.

The addition of the latest digital video advertising technologies to 24/7 Real Media’s award-winning Open AdStream® ad management platform, creates new and expanded revenue generating opportunities for clients of both companies and gives 24/7 Real Media the industry’s most comprehensive integrated advertising management platform.

“Panache’s technology capabilities and extensive selection of video ad formats are unmatched in the industry,” said David J. Moore, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of 24/7 Real Media. “The addition of these assets to 24/7 Real Media’s robust offerings, will empower us to satisfy the large and growing appetite for video in the digital advertising marketplace.”

Online video advertising is expected to continue its explosive growth. A recent study released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), conducted by Advertiser Perceptions, shows that 69% of marketers and 55% of agencies plan to increase their digital video advertising, with 22% growth predicted in the next 12 months.** 24/7 Real Media is now positioned to help its clients seize this growth opportunity. Panache’s Ad Catalog includes a portfolio of 25 formats, all of which are supported on a range of commonly used video players.

“24/7 Real Media is a respected leader in multiplatform ad management, targeting and analytics,” said Steve Robinson, President, Panache. “Our combined capabilities create opportunities to greatly boost video and advertising revenues for our clients across all formats and devices, while reducing their operating costs and increasing efficiencies. Any publisher serious about profitable video ad monetization needs to pause, put decisions on hold, and look at what our combined companies bring to the table.”

By fully integrating Panache’s digital video advertising capabilities into its market-leading technology platform, Open AdStream, 24/7 Real Media leaps ahead on in-stream video with workflow, formats, and analytics-driven insights that drive new revenue opportunities for publishers, advertisers and agencies alike. Advertisers now have access to scaled reach with brand safe video capabilities across 24/7 Real Media’s Global Web Alliance and many of the premium publishers leveraging Open AdStream.

** Source: An Inside Look at Demand Side Perceptions of Digital Video Advertising, http://www.iab.net/digital_video_perceptions

About 24/7 Real Media, Inc.

24/7 Real Media, Inc., a WPP company, provides digital marketing solutions for advertisers and publishers globally by empowering them to reach their target audiences with greater precision and transparency, resulting in better ROI. 24/7 Real Media’s award-winning ad management platform, Open AdStream®, and its Global Web Alliance of high quality publisher websites, have turned the art of reaching audiences across any digital medium into a measurable science. Behind every insight, there’s the experience of 18 offices in 12 countries, billions of global advertising impressions served every month and a stellar reputation as a leader in the digital marketing industry. 24/7 Real Media is headquartered in New York and operates throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.247realmedia.com.

24/7 Real Media is a member of the NAI and adheres to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC. These principles are designed to help ensure Internet user privacy. For more information about online data collection associated with ad serving, including online preference marketing and an opportunity to opt-out of 24/7 Real Media cookies, go to: www.networkadvertising.org.

24/7 Real Media: The Science of Digital Marketing

About Panache

Panache provides digital video ad fulfillment software and services that help premium publishers accelerate ad revenues through ad planning, innovative ad formats, workflow processes and performance metrics. Paired with professional services and unparalleled domain expertise, Panache enables leading premium publishers such as Fox News, CBS, and MTV Networks to grow their digital video advertising business with ease. Founded in 2006, Panache is a privately-held company headquartered in Los Angeles.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the promotion of David Doty to Executive Vice President and CMO from Senior Vice President and CMO. David Doty now becomes the organization’s second Executive Vice President, alongside Executive Vice President and COO Patrick Dolan. Working under the ongoing leadership of IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg, Doty and Dolan will comprise the top-level management team of the IAB.

With this new role, Doty will be responsible for the organization’s industrywide brand marketing-related activities. In addition, while maintaining his duties as CMO leading marketing and events, Doty will oversee research as well as international efforts and partnerships.

“David’s experience in working with government entities and similar stakeholders outside the U.S., his command of several languages, and his natural diplomatic skills position him perfectly for this new, vital role,” said Rothenberg. “In addition, his experience, insights and drive will be invaluable when it comes to leading mission-driven industry initiatives in the ever-critical brand marketing and research arenas.”

An expert in strategic communications, branding and the commercialization of intellectual capital, Doty joined the IAB in 2007 from Booz Allen Hamilton. There, beginning in 2001, he served as Director of Corporate Branding and Creative Services. His work was recognized with such honors as the Gold Award of the League of American Communications Professionals, the Telly Award and the Thoth Award from the PR Society of America.

Before joining Booz Allen, Mr. Doty worked in communications for over two decades, developing expertise in web sites, magazines, books, and television networks. As a journalist, author and then as a consultant, he worked with the Hearst Corporation, Microsoft, Turner Entertainment Networks, Primedia, American Express, and others. In 2004, he was named Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite by the President of France for his work as a journalist and consultant to the French Government Tourist Office, deepening the understanding between the U.S. and France.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that 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.

In Time for the Holidays: ‘Mobile Shoppers’ Study Shows How Ubiquitous Data Spawns Savvier Consumers

NEW YORK – Understanding the crucial role of mobile in marketers’ holiday strategies, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and its Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence released “Mobile Shoppers,” a new report that looks at how consumers’ access to mobile data will inevitably influence both what they buy and where they buy it. In addition, the study unveils the first-ever ranking of the most mobile shopping savvy cities in the U.S.

When it comes to being adept, able and prone to shop on mobile devices, “Space City” consumers nabbed Houston the highest spot on the list, followed by New York and Atlanta. Perhaps surprising to those who think of San Francisco as the hub of technology on-the-go, the Bay Area did not break into the top 10, landing instead at 11th place in the rankings.

The complete “2011 IAB U.S. Mobile Shopping Savvy Cities Index” is as follows:

1) Houston
2) New York
3) Atlanta
4) Los Angeles
5) Dallas/Ft. Worth
6) Tampa/St. Petersburg
7) Chicago
Philadelphia
9) Washington, D.C.
10) Seattle/Tacoma
11) San Francisco/Bay Area
12) Boston
13) Detroit
14) Minneapolis/St. Paul
15) Phoenix

The rankings were determined by looking at the mobile shopping audience today along with the distribution of mobile-savvy shoppers across major U.S. cities. The research used to determine the list refers to “mobile shopping” to mean both completing purchases via a phone or tablet and using a phone or tablet to research or shop for products that are later purchased in physical retail locations or online.

“Early data this holiday season already indicated the growing importance of mobile as a shopping tool,” said Joe Laszlo, Deputy Director, IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. “Identifying mobile shoppers and delivering relevant messages to consumers as they are in shopping mode represents a key opportunity for marketers. That’s why we took this study one step further – pinpointing cities where advertisers would need to quickly embrace mobile strategies as a part of their overall plans to attract shoppers, both during the holiday season and throughout the year.”

Some of the other findings explored in this report include:

- Mobile shoppers are younger and have higher incomes than the average mobile user

- Ten percent of U.S. mobile users use their mobiles for comparing prices

- Almost 20 percent of U.S. mobile users use their phones to text or call family or friends about a product while in a store

To download the entire “Mobile Shoppers” study please visit www.iab.net/mobileshoppers

Methodology

In creating the “2011 IAB U.S. Mobile Shopping Savvy Cities Index,” IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence leveraged BIGinsight’s Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM), a biannual survey of over 20,000 consumers, conducted in June 2011, a large enough sample to yield data on mobile usage for each of the top 15 U.S. DMAs. The IAB examined four key data points: ownership of a mobile device (primarily smartphones or tablets), propensity to be influenced by mobile coupons, ownership of a mobile retail app on a handset or tablet, and ownership of a mobile social media app. For each of these data points, the IAB constructed an index for each DMA relative to the U.S. national average. The IAB then combined them into a single metric, weighting device ownership most heavily, followed by coupon influence and retail app ownership. Social media apps, as conduits for sharing shopping and other information, received a relatively lower weighting.

About the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence

The IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, an independently funded and staffed unit inside the IAB, is charged with driving the growth of the mobile marketing, advertising and media marketplace.

The Mobile Center devotes resources to market and consumer research, mobile advertising case studies, executive training and education, supply chain standardization, creative showcases and best practice identification in the burgeoning field of mobile media and marketing. Our agenda will focus on building profitable revenue growth for companies engaged in mobile marketing, communications and advertising, and helping publishers, marketers and agency professionals understand and leverage interactive tools and technologies in order to reach and influence the consumer. For more information or to find out how to join, please visit www.iab.net/mmcoe.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that 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.

NEW YORK, NY – Martini Media (www.martinimediainc.com), the platform for reaching people who buy, spend and share the most online, is bringing premium brand advertising to niche media in a systemic way for the first time. Beginning this month, Martini will introduce a number of multimedia advertising programs–starting with the threefold Portrait introduced by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB, www.iab.net)–that allow premier advertisers to do storytelling at scale within the most engaging environments that were previously inefficient to activate. The new Martini programs bring publishers top advertisers at the premium value multimedia units create. MINI, Victoria’s Secret and VISA lead the list of charter advertisers.

“We’re expanding the rich media marketplace,” said Bill Rowley, SVP/Business Development and Publishing at Martini Media. “Now elite, niche publishers can attract the premier advertisers that have been the province of portals. And premier advertisers can make specialty environments a mainstay in brand campaigns. Without our new programs at scale, this could not happen.”

Martini will act as a service partner, eliminating technology obstacles to making niche business and lifestyle publishers a consistent showcase for brand ads. That’s increasingly important as advertisers seek more affluent consumers that still buy more in a shaky economy. The $100K+ consumers buy twice as often as the general public and spend three times as much on each purchase, whether that’s household goods or travel (Ipsos Mendelsohn 2011). What’s more, they spend the most time online, and they prioritize the specialty media that serve their passions, from wine to tennis to investing (“Beyond Influence,” Added Value 2011).

As a first step, Martini is bringing the IAB Portrait unit to long-tail sites and offering advertisers a chance for more than 100 million page views. That’s the largest audience an advertiser can reach through one source with the IAB Portrait, which combines a banner, video, text and social media feeds in one oversized ad. It is also a largely unduplicated resource; most Martini sites have not run interactive ads before.

“In an effort to deliver the most meaningful and engaging ad experiences to our affluent audience, Investopedia consistently seeks to partner with forward-thinking advertising partners,” said Adam Smith, marketing manager at Investopedia (www.investopedia.com). “It is in this spirit that we partnered with Martini Media to provide exposure for their extensive portfolio of luxury brand clients via the Portrait IAB Rising Star unit, allowing us to deliver maximum brand impact to our highly engaged audience.”

For publishers and advertisers alike, the value is higher return on engagement. “The IAB Portrait has already proven itself as a true ‘star,’ with engagement rates averaging 7 percent and regularly climbing into the double digits in certain categories,” said David Doty, Senior Vice President and CMO, IAB. “We expect to see equally promising results from Martini Media’s use of the Portrait.”

The new Martini programs represent a reinvigoration of mass marketing. For the first time, brand advertisers can predictably market from the inside out, reaching people with money and influence at scale in their preferred environments and letting them expand a brand online.

“By bringing valuable, interactive content to the people with the most money and influence, brands can activate a chain of recommendation that only consumers can create,” said Rowley  “That’s a new way to achieve efficient critical mass.”

About Martini Media
Martini Media is the platform for engaging people with the most influence and money online. Martini allows advertisers to build campaigns influence-first by scaling niche sites—the places these people prioritize because they cater to passions—into an audience of more than 120 million. Martini provides a publisher network of 1,000 sites in lifestyle and business with revenue support encompassing Web, video, mobile, email, social and data. For more than 270 premium-advertising clients, Martini combines proprietary audience targeting and tracking with full-service marketing support. Martini Media was founded in 2008, funded by Venrock, Reed Elsevier Ventures and Granite Ventures, along with a number of prominent angel investors. For more information, see www.martinimediainc.com.

IAB MIXX Conference & Expo 2011
NEW YORK – Launching its groundbreaking Rising Stars Display ad units this past February, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) pledged that it would drive a creative transformation of the interactive advertising space and boost marketers’ confidence that they could successfully build brands online. This morning, the early results from the Rising Stars, announced at the IAB MIXX Conference & Expo, prove that these brand canvases propel new heights of consumer interaction and engagement.

Built to allow creatives the freedom to take advantage of interactive’s full scope of benefits, these ad formats have already garnered strong payoffs for top-tier marketers such as BMW, Procter & Gamble, Levi’s, Ford, and HBO, taking the evaluation of online advertising campaigns beyond click-through rates.

“Rising Stars was designed to unlock all the unique and creative assets that the interactive advertising arena has to offer, giving marketers a dynamic and vibrant canvas on which to tell their brand stories,” said Peter Minnium, Consulting Director, IAB, and lead of the Rising Stars initiative. “We are only scratching the surface of what these new ad formats can bring to bear, rousing the next wave of evolution in our industry.”

Both the Billboard from Google and YouTube, and the Filmstrip submitted by Microsoft, brought in impressive returns. Consumers who saw the IAB Billboard on YouTube were four times more likely to watch the company’s videos, search for the brand, or visit the advertiser’s site, than those who were not exposed to the ad. Also striking high marks, the IAB Filmstrip has increased both exposure time and interaction rates by over 90 percent compared to other rich media ads on the MSN homepage.

“In marketing our new Giulietta, we needed to engage and connect with our target consumer. A car purchase is a complex and emotional process. Each panel of the Filmstrip invited the user to explore a different aspect of our new car—the sleek exterior, the details of the interior, the engine designed for performance,” said Maurizio Spagnulo, Digital Marketing Director, Alfa Romeo and Fiat Group Automobiles. “We were thrilled with the engagement that the Filmstrip delivered. Sixty percent of users who interacted with the Giulietta Filmstrip watched the video on the last panel through to completion, and the average exposure time for a user on MSN Italy was over seven minutes!”

Adding more fuel to the Rising Stars fire, the IAB Sidekick, submitted by Unicast, has already seen ad engagement time soar to seven times the industry average. Similarly, the AOL/Pictela-developed Pushdown has upped ad engagement to more than three times the norm. Meanwhile, AOL’s Portrait unit also shines, with engagement rates averaging 7 percent and regularly climbing into the double digits in certain categories.

“Today, effective online communication with consumers can’t just be calculated based on standard click-through rates. Digital has other unique capabilities that can help us capture mindshare,” said David Levin, President, Creative & Technology, 360i. “And, with the help of the new IAB ad formats like the Sidekick and the Pushdown, we are able to deliver more engaging experiences that strengthen our brand messages and the stories we tell online.”

Promoting comparable innovation on mobile platforms, the IAB has also been calling for entries to the Rising Stars Mobile Contest. The winning ad units for mobile are expected to be unveiled at the IAB Annual Leadership Summit in February 2012.

“Early evidence of Rising Stars Display’s success only spurs us to work more closely with publishers, creatives and marketers to make sure that these units become industry standards, and that our upcoming mobile units deliver the same sort of brand-building results,” said David Doty, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, IAB.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

IAB MIXX Conference & Expo 2011
NEW YORK – Michael Lebowitz, Founder and CEO of Big Spaceship, is the new chairman of the IAB Agency Advisory Board, a consultative body formed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to focus close attention on the frontiers of creativity and brand marketing, and to improve the vital relationships between publishers and creative, media, and public relations agencies. Lebowitz succeeds Brad Brinegar, Chairman and CEO of McKinney, who has helmed the esteemed group of agency leaders since its establishment in 2009. The IAB also announced today that seven other advertising thought leaders have accepted invitations to become new members of this distinguished assembly of industry advisors. The announcements were made at the IAB MIXX Conference & Expo in New York City.

Over the course of the past two years, the IAB AAB has come together on a quarterly basis to drive new ways of thinking about how to make the web as creative and compelling a medium as possible for brand marketers in the interactive era of paid, owned and earned media. The AAB has contributed such tangible results for the industry as helping shape IAB work on the Rising Stars program, which introduced cutting-edge display ad formats built to inspire creativity in digital brand advertising, and on digital ad measurement standards.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Michael Lebowitz as the new chair of this influential company of interactive thought leaders, and we salute Brad Brinegar for his leadership over the past two years harnessing this incredible resource for the industry and for our members,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “Michael’s breadth of knowledge and practice in creating award-winning, cutting-edge digital experiences will help agencies and interactive media work fruitfully together to drive client benefit and mutual growth. Since the IAB Agency Advisory Board’s inception, this group of dynamic senior voices has become a partner in our conspiracy to reinvent advertising and marketing.”

“Big Spaceship has always embraced cross-disciplinary efforts that result in innovative, actionable solutions, which is why I’m particularly honored to serve as chair of the IAB Agency Advisory Board,” said Lebowitz. “The level of collaboration that this board represents is a strong acknowledgment that nobody can flourish in the digital arena today when working in a vacuum. I’m looking forward to driving substantive initiatives with the IAB to support our collaborative efforts.”

“When I started talking with the IAB about the formation of the Agency Advisory Board, we knew that our ultimate goal was to ensure that interactive publishers were working as effectively as possible with agencies like ours,” said Brinegar. “And once we got all of these creative trailblazers to the table together, we had an incredible opportunity to exchange our ideas and best practices and to encourage more brand marketing in interactive media.”

The seven additions to the roster boast equally compelling credentials:

Current members feature luminaries in the interactive advertising world:

For more information about the IAB Agency Advisory Board, please visit: http://www.iab.net/agencyadvisoryboard

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

NEW YORK – Internet ad revenues rose 23.2 percent — to a record $14.9 billion — in the first half of 2011, according to figures released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC US). The rate of growth more than doubled year-over-year, as last year’s first-half ad revenues of $12.1 billion had represented an 11.3 percent increase over 2009.

Internet ad revenues for the second quarter alone also reached new heights, increasing 24.1 percent to $7.7 billion. That performance compares to last year’s same-period revenues of $6.2 billion, up 13.9 percent from 2009.

Display-related advertising — which includes banner ads, rich media, digital video and sponsorships — totaled more than $5.5 billion in the first six months of 2011. Display increased 27.1 percent over the same period in 2010, substantially exceeding the previous year’s growth rate of 16 percent. Digital video once again commanded double-digit growth — up 42.1 percent over a year ago, and moved close to the $1 billion mark with $891 million in half year 2011 revenue.

Display accounted for 37 percent of all interactive spend in the first half of 2011, with search remaining the leading online category at 49 percent of the total — nearly $7.3 billion. Search and Display each grew about 27 percent year-over-year, with Search more than doubling its previous year’s growth rate of 11.6 percent.

In other online ad formats, dollars spent on lead generation increased 25.4 percent over the same period in 2010, but classified ad dollars were down 2 percent and email spend decreased 34.2 percent.

IAB and PwC US looked at revenue models supporting online ads. Ads using performance-based models increased faster than ads using impression-based models, rising to $9.6 billion. Impression-based ad spend did grow by 10.8 percent, though that pricing model accounted for only 31 percent of total ads, down from 35 percent year-over-year.

“The remarkably resilient performance of interactive advertising so far in 2011 demonstrates that more marketers are placing big bets on digital to tell their brand stories,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “This welcome news, in light of the weakness in a large part of the rest of the U.S. economy, confirms that the innovations happening in interactive marketing deliver great value to the industry and to the consumer.”

“Strong online advertising growth has continued into the first half of 2011,” said David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. “Fueling this growth is the ability of advertisers to correlate performance and results with the dollars they are investing.”

“These figures build upon the positive news we saw in the 2010 year-end revenue report,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Industry Services, IAB. “It’s a clear signal that all of us in the interactive advertising industry are delivering meaningful results to marketers — and that they are confident in investing in interactive.”

Annual Figures

The following chart highlights half-year Internet ad revenue since the IAB began measurements in 1996; dollar figures are rounded.

Ad Category Breakouts (in millions)

Revenue Pricing Models (in millions)

The IAB sponsors the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which is conducted independently by the Internet Media Group of PwC US. The results are considered the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues because the data is compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, free e-mail providers, and all other companies selling online advertising.

The full report is issued twice yearly for full and half-year data, and top-line quarterly estimates are issued for the first and third quarters. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information. Past reports are available at www.iab.net/AdRevenueReport.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

About the PwC Network

PwC firms provide industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to enhance value for their clients. More than 161,000 people in 154 countries in firms across the PwC network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice. See www.pwc.com for more information.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) called on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to withdraw its controversial new domain-naming plan, saying that the program to assign hundreds of thousands of new domain names would cause incalculable financial damage to brand owners, including the hundreds of media brands in its membership. These “top-level domain” addresses, which could include domain endings that focus on specific trademarked brand names such as .coke, .jetblue, .cnn, .facebook or .verizon, would come at an extremely high cost to publishers and advertisers, and would also offer “cyber squatters” an opportunity to harm a brand’s integrity and/or profit greatly from their bad-faith domain registrations.

“This could be disastrous for the media brand owners we represent and the brand owners with which they work. We hope that ICANN
“ICANN’s potentially momentous change seems to have been made in a top-down star chamber. There appears to have been no economic impact research, no full and open stakeholder discussions, and little concern for the delicate balance of the Internet ecosystem,” said Randall Rothenberg, CEO and President, IAB. “This could be disastrous for the media brand owners we represent and the brand owners with which they work. We hope that ICANN will reconsider both this ill-considered decision and the process by which it was reached.”

The IAB move followed strong criticism of the ICANN plan by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). The ANA has labeled the plan as economically unsupportable, stating that it is likely to cause irreparable harm and damage to its membership and the Internet business community in general. At the same time, according to the ANA, the program contravenes the legal rights of brand owners and jeopardizes the safety of consumers.

Unless the IAB, ANA and other organizations can effectively defeat plans for ICANN’s “top-level domain” program, these new domain endings are expected to roll out in late 2012.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

NEW YORK – The wealthiest American consumers, those in homes with at least $100,000 annual incomes, have long been difficult for marketers to reach through traditional media like TV and radio, but “Affluent Consumers in a Digital World,” a study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) finds these higher-income Americans embracing digital media – and its ads.

The study, conducted for the IAB by Ipsos Mendelsohn, which has been surveying the affluent market since 1977, found that 98 percent of affluent consumers use the Internet, as compared with 79 percent of the general population. They spend 26.2 hours online weekly, 17.6 hours watching TV and 7.5 hours listening to the radio. The general population, on the other hand, spends about twice as much time weekly with TV and radio – 34 hours and 16 hours, respectively – and just 21.7 hours on the Internet.

“Affluents have long been one of the hardest to reach and most important consumer groups,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President of Industry Services, IAB. “They’re now more important than ever – not only do they control most consumer spending power, but they may be the key to leading our economy out of the recession. And the new research shows that when it comes to digital media, the old paradigm has been superseded: the wealthiest Americans use digital media far more than their less affluent counterparts.”

According to the survey, affluents overall currently comprise 21 percent of U.S. households, have 70 percent of all consumer wealth, and spend 3.2 times more than other Americans on purchases.

This sought-after segment, using the Internet to a greater extent than other Americans, tends to recall more ads – and to be more aware of advertised brands, products and services. Eighty-eight percent of affluent consumers recalled being exposed to one or more digital ads during the previous week, compared with 84 percent of non-affluent Internet users. Within these groups, affluents recalled 21.1 ads on average, versus 20.2 for non-affluents.

Compared with non-affluent consumers, affluent consumers are also somewhat more likely to be aware of new products (55% vs. 49%), new companies (51% vs. 49%), and new websites (46% vs. 44%) after viewing digital ads.

In addition, 59 percent of affluent consumers reported taking action based on a digital ad during the preceding six months. “While that number doesn’t differ significantly from other Internet users, it is of great significance to advertisers seeking to reach this elusive, yet important, market segment,” said Mane. “The combined reach, exposure and influence of digital as an ad vehicle to affluent households is simply unprecedented.”

The receptivity of affluent Americans to digital advertising is underscored by their greater understanding of the ad-supported web model and the benefits of ad targeting, as compared with non-affluent consumers:

- 32 percent of affluents vs. 23 percent of non-affluents said they’d be willing to share information about themselves in order to “get a more customized online experience.”
- 72 percent (vs. 61%) agreed with the statement, “Most websites are free because they are supported by advertising.”
- 57 percent (vs. 51%) said they would “prefer to see ad-supported online content that is free, rather than paying for content that is ad-free.
Part of what affluent consumers want (37% vs. 32% for non-affluents) from that customized experience are ads relevant to their current shopping interests – ie., auto ads if they’re ready for a new car, airline ads if they’re planning a trip – wherever they may be on the Internet.

“Affluent consumers have increasingly come to desire relevant and customized experiences, in part because they are living technology-infused lifestyles,” said Bob Shullman, President of Ipsos Mendelsohn. “Virtually all the affluent are online. Their ownership of tablets and e-readers has increased by 50 percent over the past six months, and shows every indication of continued growth. They have come to expect the benefits of digital media, even if it doesn’t alleviate all work-life pressures.”

Affluent Americans are twice as likely as the general population to own smartphones (33% vs. 17%), and seventy-nine percent of the affluent say their lives have become “intertwined with technology” over the past decade. However, they are more likely to say that their lives have become “more complicated” (59%) and “more stressful” (58%), as opposed to “more fun” (47%) or “easier” (33%).

The study was conducted online in the period February 22-28, 2011. Respondents consisted of a national sample of 2,088 online adults 18+, with 1,025 from households with $100,000 or more annual incomes, and 1,063 from households under $100,000.

For a full summary of the study, please go to www.iab.net/AffluentConsumers .

About Ipsos Mendelsohn

Ipsos Mendelsohn, a division of Ipsos OTX MediaCT, specializes in providing media and marketing insights to clients interested in better understanding the upscale segments of the American consumer marketplace. Conducting high-quality media and marketing research, Ipsos Mendelsohn has been reporting on the demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal characteristics of the American affluent population for the past 34 years in its syndicated offering, The Mendelsohn Affluent Survey. Because of its accumulated expertise in delivering insights into the passions, behavior, and attitudes of this highly valued marketplace, Ipsos Mendelsohn is recognized internationally as the definitive research source for the media habits and lifestyles of the affluent marketplace in the United States.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

New York, NY – To rally the marketing and media industry in a creative movement across smartphones, tablets and other connected devices, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) launched a formal call-for-entries to its new Rising Stars Mobile contest. Announced at the IAB “Mobile in the Mainstream…and as the New Main Screen” in New York City, the competition encourages agencies, marketers and publishers to effectively delve deeper into the mobile arena. The winning submissions – which will be named the first-ever IAB-endorsed mobile ad formats – will be selected based on their potential to propel brand creativity on mobile devices at scale.

“We call upon experts across the marketing and media landscape to submit their most innovative ideas for the next wave of mobile ad formats,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “Smartphones and connected devices are everywhere and if we are to tap into mobile’s full potential, we must deliver engaging experiences that serve marketers and resonate with consumers – all within the palm of their hands.”

This contest is part of the IAB’s larger Rising Stars initiative aimed at broadening the creative canvas across the interactive advertising spectrum. It kicked off in September 2010 with the launch of the Rising Stars Display competition. After a months-long review phase, the IAB announced the six winners in February 2011. By June 36 top-tier advertisers – including GM, Home Depot, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Universal Pictures – had already implemented one or more of the six new display ad formats to tell their brand stories.

“If the success of Rising Stars Display is any indication, Rising Stars Mobile is likely to be a real motivating factor in revving up mobile interactive advertising with blue-chip brands and publishers,” said Peter Minnium, IAB Consulting Director and head of the Rising Stars program. “These prospective ad formats are sure to be great enhancements to already established mobile advertising guidelines from other organizations like the MMA.”

A cross-disciplinary panel of judges that will include agency creative directors, media executives and adoperations specialists will lead the IAB Rising Stars Mobile selection process. The mobile ad unit submissions will be evaluated on the following criteria:

User Experience – How well does the ad format positively impact the user experience?
Branding – How well does the ad format provide a canvas for brand creativity?
Functionality – How does the ad format take advantage of mobile user behaviors and technologies?
Page Integration – How does the ad format enhance the relationship between the ad and the mobile publisher content?
Adoption – How easily could the ad format be widely adopted across the mobile ecosystem?

“With brand marketers saying they plan on increasing their mobile ad buys over the next two years, there is no better time to develop the first IAB-endorsed mobile ad units to help advertisers better integrate this rapidly developing platform with their traditional ad campaign strategies,” said Anna Bager, Vice President and General Manager of the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. “This initiative is part of the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence’s core objectives and we are thrilled to start the submission process.”

Submissions for the new mobile ad units will be accepted until October 15 and the selection process will span the remainder of 2011. In 2012, a set of Rising Stars Mobile ad units will be chosen and subsequently evaluated in-market based upon consumer and business adoption, with new IAB-endorsed mobile ad units named by the end of the year.

To submit prospective mobile ad units and to learn more about the criteria, please go to: http://www.iab.net/risingstarsmobile

To find out more about the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, please go to: http://www.iab.net/mmcoe

Study Finds Nearly Three-Quarters of Top Marketing Executives Look to Increase Their Mobile Spend Over Next Two Years

New York, NY — Though mobile interactive advertising platforms are still considered a complex landscape of constant innovation by many brands and agencies, they are nonetheless being adopted at increasing speed, according to results from a new survey by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). “Marketer Perspectives on Mobile Advertising” found that 63 percent of respondents stated that their companies’ mobile advertising spend over the past two years has increased to some degree, with 29 percent reporting an increase of over 50 percent. The outlook for an uptick in the next two years is even more striking, with most of these key ad spend decision-makers (72%) saying that they are looking to increase their mobile advertising budget; 35 percent of respondents expect to increase spend by over 50 percent.

The study of 300 top-level brand marketing executives currently using mobile in their media mix was commissioned by the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence and conducted by Ovum, and unveiled during the IAB “Mobile in the Mainstream…and as the New Main Screen” in New York City.

“Given the current economic climate, these overwhelmingly positive ad spend numbers are telling. They truly underscore what those of us working in the mobile space have always recognized – that the remarkable evolution and progression of mobile interactive advertising has only begun to deliver on its extraordinary promise,” said Anna Bager, Vice President and General Manager of the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence

Additional results revealed that half (51%) of the brand marketers surveyed already treat mobile platforms as an integral element of their overall advertising strategy. The other half of the survey’s respondents are also intrigued by mobile advertising’s benefits, but are currently exploring how best to leverage mobile platforms within their marketing plans: more than a third (35%) stated they are “experimenting” with mobile, while another 14 percent are tapping into mobile on an ad hoc basis.

Several of mobile advertising’s benefits received strong endorsements from respondents:
Immediacy (considered of high importance by 57% of respondents)
- Cost-effectiveness (54%)
- Increased engagement (52%)

The research study also asked marketers about which types of mobile devices they are presently reaching with their mobile ad campaigns. Ranked in order of highest priority, they are:
- Smartphones (a high priority for 60% of respondents)
- Tablets (31%)
- Feature phones (22%)
- Ebooks (10%)
- Connected games consoles (3%)

Beyond being asked about interest and engagement in the mobile space, respondents were also queried about challenges. They cited several key hurdles in deciding whether to make larger mobile ad buys:
- Device fragmentation (cited by 72% of respondents as a challenge of medium or high importance)
- Privacy issues (70%)
- Lack of standardized metrics (69%)

A significant number (60%) also ranked a limited opportunity for creative as a mobile challenge, which could in part be a reflection that most of those surveyed (62%) do not use creative agencies for mobile advertising. However, a majority (85%) of those marketers who are working with a creative agency on their mobile advertising objectives said that these partnerships produced good results.

“Mobile advertising is advancing rapidly and many of the issues that slowed progress in earlier years have been overcome, for example constraints imposed by networks and mobile phone limitations have radically improved through developments in, respectively, mobile broadband and smartphones,” said Eden Zoller, Principal Analyst with Ovum and author of the report. “I am confident that the industry and the IAB will successfully address the newer challenges marketers identified.”

UK-based Ovum Consulting (www.ovumkc.com) conducted the survey (April-June 2011) on behalf of IAB, consulting U.S. organizations currently engaged in mobile advertising, from seven distinct verticals (travel, financial services, FMCG, retail, media and entertainment, hospitality & restaurants and automotive) across four size-of-business bands (revenue less than $100m annual revenues, $100m-$500m annual revenues, $500m-$2 billion, and over $2 billion annual revenues) with local, regional and national advertising focus. Interviews were conducted with key marketer decision makers and budget holders (Executive Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents and Vice Presidents in Marketing).

To review the entire “Marketer Perspectives on Mobile Advertising” study, visit: www.iab.net/CMO_Mobile

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) (www.iab.net) marked the opening of its new online advertising community center, the IAB Ad Lab, by hosting the first of several national privacy roundtables organized by U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). The roundtable series, which is focused on discussing the interactive advertising industry’s self-regulatory efforts to protect consumer privacy, was attended by Representative Blackburn, IAB leadership and 15 of its member companies and partner trade associations.

Designed as a new community hub for the entire marketing-media ecosystem, the IAB Ad Lab, located directly above the IAB’s 7th floor headquarters at 116 East 27th Street in New York City, is a venue where thought leaders can address some of the industry’s most pressing needs and exciting opportunities, from creating new ad formats, to building brands online, to anticipating the future of mobile advertising.

“The IAB Ad Lab is the physical embodiment of the IAB, where the digital world comes together live and in real time for innovation, collaboration, and learning,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “We’re honored that the IAB Ad Lab was selected by Representative Blackburn to host this key public policy discussion and we applaud her leadership. This is the first of many groundbreaking events we plan for our new center, where we hope to see marketing and media leaders come together to network and help power the continued growth of the digital advertising and media industry.”

The IAB Ad Lab features a modular space that can accommodate presentation-style gatherings for as few as five and as many as 74 participants. In addition to thought leadership conversations and presentations by industry leaders on compelling topics of interest to marketers, agencies, publishers, technology companies and service providers, the IAB Ad Lab will host IAB board and committee meetings, product demos, press and award events, networking receptions, and meet-ups. The Ad Lab will also be open to members and other companies in the marketing-media ecosystem for meetings and sponsored events.

“Representative Blackburn’s decision to launch her privacy roundtable series at the IAB Ad Lab further cements our leadership position on the privacy policy front,” said Mike Zaneis, Senior Vice President, Public Policy and General Counsel, IAB. “The Ad Lab was created precisely to facilitate conversations about what the interactive advertising industry is doing, where the industry is going and what we’re doing to maximize the experience for both the provider and the consumer.”

“Data driven advertising is the lifeblood of our most dynamic economic sector. It is also the crux of growing consumer privacy concerns,” said Blackburn. “I am grateful to IAB for hosting a session where we began to explore this vital issue. The Ad Lab is an excellent space from which IAB can highlight the work advertisers are doing to keep the Internet free, promote economic expansion, and protect the consumer.”

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

Display advertising is back! That’s according to figures just released by IAB Europe that show a revival in digital Display in 2010. With an average growth rate of 21.3%, Display overtook Search advertising as the fastest growing online ad format in Europe. Search, which has been the catalyst of online advertising growth in recent years, increased 15.1% in the same period across the 25 markets measured. Video, mobile and social media all contributed to the powerful performance of Display.

IAB Europe’s annual AdEx survey is the definitive guide to the state of the European advertising market. Released at IAB Europe’s Interact Congress in Barcelona, it shows the online advertising market accelerating at a growth rate of 15.3% in 2010 – outperforming the overall European advertising market which grew 5.0% in the same period. Total online adspend was €17.7bn in 2010, compared to €15.3bn in 2009. Market growth ranged from 37% in Russia and 24% in the Czech Republic, to 14% in Denmark and 7% in France.

Compiled by IHS Screen Digest, the research covers the entire European region, from the mature markets of Western and Northern Europe to the emerging markets in Eastern and Southern Europe for the calendar year 2010. New to the report is the Czech Republic.

The markets with the highest online adspend in the report are UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy and Spain (in that order). Together they account for almost three quarters (74%) of the total online advertising market. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) markets now represent almost a tenth (9.8%) of the total.

Display’s Brand Boost

Display* advertising enjoyed growth rates of 20% or more in many markets – both emerging and mature – during 2010.  Above average growth rates were experienced in Ireland (31%), Spain (30%) and Russia (27%).

The continued growth of online TV inventory, and long-form video consumption, pushed up spend while simultaneously maintaining high CPM (cost per thousand). Online video adspend has doubled in most markets. In Spain online video grew 125% to a value of €13m; growth in the UK was 90%, to a market value of €63m.

Super Search

Paid search continued to grow double-digit at an average of 15.1%. It remains the biggest category in online advertising, with 45% of total advertising spend compared with 33% for Display and 22% for Classifieds and Directories. Whilst some of the more established markets experienced smaller increases (UK +8% like-for-like, France +10%) many saw explosive growth (Hungary +44%, Poland +31%).

Mobile Advertising Gets Carried Away

Mobile search and mobile display are included in the AdEx survey for the first time this year. Although mobile adspend figures are available for only 12 of the 25 markets, they confirm that the long-awaited take-off of mobile advertising has been realised thanks to the advent of the smartphone/3G/apps ecosystem. In those markets, mobile adspend already accounts for 2% to 3% of total online adspend.

The Big Picture

With €17.7bn of adspend last year, online now accounts for 18% of the entire European advertising market. It is now beyond 20% in some markets (UK 29%, Denmark 28%) whilst it’s only 5% in Greece and 4% in Romania. European market value is smaller than the US which also experienced a 15% growth rate last year and is now worth $26bn/€19.6bn.

According to Vincent Létang, Senior Analyst at IHS Screen Digest says “Back in 2009, video was the only growth engine in an otherwise flat Display market. In 2010 by contrast, three pillars – mobile, video and social – attracted new advertising investment. On top of fast-growing new formats, let’s not forget that traditional PC-based, banner-style formats have retained their appeal thanks to innovations in design and targeting and a rise in mainstream brands using Display for branding campaigns.”

Alain Heureux, President and CEO of IAB Europe, concludes “The IAB network has worked tirelessly to showcase how effective online Display advertising can be at supporting brand advertising campaigns. I am delighted to see that message has been getting through and the innovative ways brands are incorporating online in their advertising campaigns.  At IAB Europe’s Interact Congress this week we’ll be recognising the best of online advertising creative at with the MIXX Awards. We will also be celebrating with the winners of the Research Awards – without this valuable insight, we would not be able to prove the contribution online makes to advertising campaigns.”

Note:

*Display includes PC-based and mobile banners, rich media and video formats

The data has been compiled by IAB Europe based on information provided by the national IAB offices around Europe. It is then processed and analyzed by IHS Screen Digest. The report includes market size and value information for the full membership of the IAB Europe in 2010 including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Russia, Spain, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The data represents the calendar year 2010 January-December. This is the fifth edition of AdEx which began in the calendar year 2006

About IAB Europe

IAB Europe is a federation of national Interactive Advertising Bureaux (IAB) across Europe. Its mission is to promote the growth of the interactive advertising markets on behalf of its clients and national members. Supported by every major media group, advertisers, agency, portal, technology and service provider, its voice represents the interest of more than 5000 company members. IAB Europe coordinates activities across the region including public affairs, benchmarking, research, setting standards and best practices. The member countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the UK. Our corporate members include Adconion, Adobe, ADTECH, Alcatel-Lucent, Aol, AudienceScience, BBC, CNN, comScore Europe, CPX Interactive, Criteo, e-Bay, Ernst & Young, Expedia Inc, Fox Interactive Media, Gemius, Goldbach Media Group, Google, GroupM, Hi-media, InSites Consulting, Koan, Microsoft Europe, Millward Brown, MTV, Netlog, News Corporation, nugg.ad, Nielsen Online, Orange Advertising Network, Prisa, Publicitas Europe, Sanoma Digital, Selligent, Specific Media, The Walt Disney Company, Tradedoubler, Truvo, United Internet Media, ValueClick, White&Case, Yahoo! and zanox.

About IHS Screen Digest

IHS Screen Digest is the pre-eminent firm of industry analysts covering global media markets. Headquartered in London, with offices in the US and Australia, we employ a team of 50 specialist analysts covering film, television, broadband media, mobile media, cinema, home entertainment, gaming and advertising. Our online services and reports provide the information and analysis that hundreds of media companies worldwide base their decisions on. Screen Digest was acquired by iSuppli Corporation in November 2010 and the combined entity was acquired immediately after by IHS. Screen Digest and iSuppli will together be the base around which IHS builds out its coverage of the TMT sector. To find out more, contact Screen Digest sales@screendigest.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 7424 2820. www.screendigest.com

Explanatory note on IAB Europe/IHS Screen Digest AdEx figures

Each national IAB in Europe runs its own annual online advertising spending study and the IAB Europe AdEx figures are based on these results. As the methodology of the studies varies country by country, IAB Europe and IHS Screen Digest have defined methodology rules to represent the figures in such a way as to make them realistically comparable. This involves:

·         Readjusting local figures to allow for harmonised representation. Readjustment rates are supplied by groups of local market experts
·         Estimating/harmonising adspend data for certain formats or segments in certain countries where local IAB studies do not include data or the definition or scope of a format is substantially different from IAB Europe standardised segments
·         Where local data is collected in a currency other than euros, the average exchange rate in 2010 has been used to convert this to euros. To provide data for prior year growth rates, the prior year figures have also been re-calculated using the 2010 exchange rate in order to give transparency over the growth rate
·         AdEx focuses on four normalised segments: ‘Display’ (including mobile Display, rich media and video), ‘classifieds and directories’, ‘paid search’ and ‘other’ (including email but excluding email marketing).
·         Figures quoted are gross figures (i.e. net invoiced value of the media, plus agency commission if any).

NEW YORK – Kontera, the leading provider of context-driven advertising solutions, announced that it has partnered with AppNexus, the real-time ad platform used by global ad networks, demand-side platforms (DSPs), and other leading online advertising companies, in order to advance quality, reach and efficiency for marquee brand advertisers. This relationship was unveiled at the “IAB Innovation Days – The Future of Display” conference.

Kontera provides unique solutions that span In-Text and premier display placement, and use deep semantic context, predicted consumer intent, and publisher’s editorial and relevant social content within display ads. Kontera’s Synapse engine performs real-time editorial analysis, is used exclusively by more than 15,000 publishers, reaches more than 170 Million unique users, and delivers five times the brand lift of traditional display (comScore, July 2010).

“Large marquee brands count on Kontera for superior editorial placement to reach the right user in the right context,” said Brian O’Kelley, CEO of AppNexus. “We are delighted to be working with their team to bring their power, sophistication, and unique display offerings to the broader ecosystem.”

Led by the pioneers of the Web’s original ad exchanges at Yahoo!’s Right Media and Google’s DoubleClick, AppNexus offers a comprehensive suite of core infrastructure and ad technology capabilities including data management, optimization, APIs, financial clearing and support for directly negotiated media campaigns.

“AppNexus is widely used by the industry’s leading providers because it has great pathways into the display ecosystems, superior scalability, and best-in-class functionality,” said Yoav Shaham, CEO of Kontera. “We are excited to team with them to add their real-time bidding and campaign management capabilities to our display solutions for marquee brands and publishers.”

About Kontera

Kontera’s real-time Synapse Platform uses sophisticated semantic and web trend analysis to predict intent and to instantly react to user’s interests with relevant information and Ads. With Kontera advertisers gain greater targeting precision across the entire web, users find information that is relevant to their interests, and publishers increase interaction with their content. Kontera’s delivery platforms and solutions encompass the PC web, Mobile devices, and major social platforms. Kontera delivers its context and interest capabilities to the market through multiple partners. It is the exclusive in-content analysis and engagement platform for more than 15,000 web publishers. Kontera’s real-time Synapse platform is also being used within major display advertising platforms. The company works with top brand advertisers such as Toyota, Microsoft, AT&T, Samsung and L’Oreal to identify context and interest, and to provide unique brand experiences to more than 170 million users each month.

Kontera is backed by Sequoia Capital, Carmel Ventures, and Tanaya Capital. To learn more about Kontera, Kontera’s Social Boost, Related Content solutions, Mobile Advertising, Semantic Advertising or Contextual Advertising visit: www.kontera.com follow: facebook.com/Kontera, twitter.com/kontera.

About AppNexus

AppNexus is the real-time ad platform used by global ad networks, demand-side platforms (DSPs), ad exchanges, and other leading online advertising companies. Led by the pioneers of the Web’s original ad exchanges at Yahoo!’s Right Media and Google’s DoubleClick, AppNexus offers a comprehensive suite of core infrastructure and ad technology capabilities that empowers sophisticated companies to build, manage and optimize their entire display advertising businesses and provides single-point integration to the largest buyers and sellers of online advertising, including major aggregators and exchanges.

Based in New York City, AppNexus is backed by an outstanding group of investors; including Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, First Round Capital, Venrock, Kodiak Venture Partners, Ron Conway, Khosla Ventures, and Microsoft. For more information, visit www.appnexus.com.

23% Year-Over-Year Increase Demonstrates Growing Importance of Digital Marketing & Advertising

NEW YORK -Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. hit $7.3 billion for the first quarter of 2011, representing a 23 percent increase over the same period in 2010, according to figures released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). This marks the highest first-quarter revenue level ever for the industry and a significant increase over last year’s first-quarter revenue level, which had been the highest on record to date.

“The consistent and considerable year-over-year growth we’re seeing demonstrates that digital media is an increasingly popular destination for ad dollars, and for good reason,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “As Americans spend more time online for information and entertainment purposes, digital advertising and marketing has emerged as one of the most effective tools businesses have to attract and retain customers.”

“The year-on-year 23 percent increase in first quarter revenues is not just impressive in its own right, but especially so when you take into account the fact that 2010 was a record-breaking year itself for Internet advertising revenue,” said David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. “These numbers indicate that the interactive advertising field hasn’t simply bounced back since the recession; it’s growing with dynamic energy.”

The IAB sponsors the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which is conducted independently by the New Media Group of PwC. The results are considered the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues because the data is compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, free e-mail providers, and all other companies selling online advertising.

The full report is issued twice yearly for full and half-year data, and top-line quarterly estimates are issued for the first and third quarters. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information. Past reports are available at www.iab.net/AdRevenueReport.

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

About the PwC Network:

PwC firms provide industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to enhance value for their clients. More than 161,000 people in 154 countries in firms across the PwC network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice. See www.pwc.com for more information.

WASHINGTON – Fifty-six small ad-supported Internet “Long Tail” publishers from 22 states from across the country, plus one from the District of Columbia, joined the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) this past Monday and Tuesday for the Third Annual Long Tail Alliance Washington, D.C. “Fly-In.” The attendees spent a day on Capitol Hill meeting with representatives from 37 House Districts and 12 Senate Offices, including members of the Senate Commerce Committee, to raise awareness about how interactive advertising regulation affects not just the big players in the industry, but also the livelihoods of small Internet publishers.

“Small businesses are a vital part of the American economy and the Internet economy. This annual gathering of the IAB’s Long Tail Alliance members has become a critical touchpoint for legislators and regulators, giving them the opportunity to learn first-hand about the concerns and challenges facing ‘mom and pop’ entrepreneurs who are struggling to survive and thrive online,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB.

“The new media landscape is not just about the larger players in the marketplace, but also a diversity of smaller voices seeking success on their own terms and scale,” said Mike Zaneis, Senior Vice President, Public Policy and General Counsel, IAB. “This annual trip to Washington with the Long Tail publishers is part of the IAB’s commitment to make sure that Capitol Hill does not overlook this crucial base of small businesses that are powered by interactive advertising.”

In addition to meetings with Congressional leaders, the Long Tail publishers attended workshops to learn strategies and best practices for growing their businesses.

For a list of the Long Tail publishers who participated as well as a detailed agenda of the two-day event, please go to: www.iab.net/flyin

The IAB Long Tail Alliance is a special member category for publishers who sell online advertising opportunities indirectly, through ad networks, or directly and have revenues under $1 million per year. To learn more about the Long Tail Alliance and to find out how to qualify for membership, please go to: http://www.iab.net/longtailalliance

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

NEW YORK – “An Inside Look at Demand-Side Perceptions of Digital Video Advertising,” a comprehensive survey examining the views of marketers and agencies, reaffirms that the shift in ad dollar allotment has solidified. The study, released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and conducted by Advertiser Perceptions, shows that 69% of marketers and 55% of agencies plan to increase their Digital Video Advertising (DVA), with a 22% growth predicted in the next 12 months. Those surveyed project they will spend 17% of their total online display advertising budget on DVA in the next 12 months. The results of the study were announced at the IAB Digital Video Marketplace where almost 400 industry executives gathered to address the most pressing issues across the digital video platform.

Some of the other key findings of the study include:

- Advertisers are finding that their audiences respond better to DVA, with consumers showing a higher engagement rate with online video.
- DVA is more trackable and targetable and DVA production is less expensive, making it more cost efficient.
- Marketers will migrate TV ad dollars to digital video based on the belief it will deliver better ROI; agencies and television decision makers will shift ad dollars in an attempt to follow their target audiences.
- Among the different available DVA formats (pre-roll, in-banner, expandable banner, mobile video, rich media overlay and post-roll), agencies primarily use pre-roll while marketers are not committed to any specific format. Most respondents believe the appropriate length is 15 seconds.
- The preferred pricing model is CPM.
- A majority of marketers and a majority of agencies believe they should each be responsible for deciding whether to use DVA and how much budget to allocate to it.

There are still several opportunities for increasing the growth of DVA including:

- Improved ROI measurement
- Better standardized metrics
- Demonstrated audience shift to digital

“The study substantiates the buy-side appeal of digital video advertising – the power of sight, sound and motion paired with interactivity,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP Industry Services, IAB. “This bodes exceptionally well for the future revenue growth.”

“There was strong consensus that demand for digital video advertising was strengthening,” according to Randy Cohen, President of Advertiser Perceptions. “It was described best by a senior agency buyer who stated that ‘Digital video is becoming an ever-more common way that our target is consuming what was traditionally broadcast content – and our target is spending more time online, and video is another way to reach and engage the target.’”

All interviews for this study were completed online between November 17- December 6, 2010 in a blind survey. The sample was digital and/or television media decision makers with the intent to spend $1 million or more in the next 12 months. There were 500 respondents total, 148 marketers and 352 agencies, with 44% percent holding higher level titles. Sixty-two percent of respondents were involved in television decision making and 85% were involved in digital decision making.

The summary findings can be found at www.iab.net/digital_video_perceptions.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

SES New York 2011
NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)’s Local Committee and Ad Networks and Exchanges Committee are programming a forum and track at SES New York, which takes place March 21-25, 2011 at the Hilton New York. SES New York, which is expected to attract more than 5,000 industry professionals, is the industry’s leading search and social marketing conference and expo. To attend SES New York and the IAB forum and session track, register before March 21 and receive the pre-show discount of up to $200.

The IAB Forum, scheduled for Monday, March 21, is a full day of sessions on Local Advertising, including a keynote speech by Warren Webster, President of Patch by AOL. The forum is a perfect guide for brands and agencies who are building a local advertising program.

Scheduled for Tuesday, March 22, the IAB track features the leading voices in the advertising industry who will be examining the latest trends and opportunities in ad networks and ad exchanges.

“We love partnering with the IAB’s industry gurus to present the latest developments and best practices to our attendees,” said Matthew McGowan, Managing Director of Americas for Incisive Media. “There are so many critical changes taking place in the advertising industry that it’s hard to keep up. The specialized networks and exchanges track will save anyone working in this arena a lot of time and effort, and the forum is perfect for local advertising professionals.”

“We’re particularly interested in participating in SES New York at this juncture of our committee because we will only be days away from certification against the new IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines,” said Jay Sears, General Manager of CONTEXTWEB, Inc. and co-chair of the IAB Networks and Exchanges Committee. “It will give us a great opportunity to hear from our constituents in the ad networks and exchanges community.”

Following the Webster keynote, the five sessions of the IAB Forum are:

“Geofences make good customers: Mobile targeting and local results” presents ideas on how to drive the right local audience to commercial opportunities.
“When it rains, it pours: Using apps to drive mobile and iPad engagement” lets attendees in on the first industry-wide study on the intersection between mobile and tablet devices and user engagement in the away-from-home market.
“Back at the wheel: How big auto drives sales” delivers information about how to use display, local and onsite-search to drive local sales.
“Clip and save: Group buying, digital couponing and content that works” addresses the group-buying craze and how marketers can incorporate it into their marketing campaigns.
“In El Barrio: Reaching US Hispanics where they live and shop” presents ideas for going after the $1 trillion purchasing power of the US Hispanic market.

The four sessions within the IAB Ad Networks and Exchanges Track focus are:

“Meet the Buyers: Defining Quality in the Buying Experience”
Chuck Moran, CMO of BURST Media, will moderate a discussion among leading New York City digital buyers about what they are looking for in an ad network or ad exchange.
“The QAGies Are Coming: The Movement for Quality in Display Advertising”
Rob Rasko, President and COO of CPX Interactive and co-chair of the Quality Assurance Guidelines Go-To-Market Working Group, will moderate a discussion about what it will mean to certify against the IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines starting in April 2011.
“The AAAA Digital Committee Speaks About Quality”
David Jacobs, Senior VP of Publisher Services, Advertising.com and Jay Sears, co-chairs of the IAB Networks and Exchanges Committee, will moderate a discussion among representatives from the 4As Digital Committee: Agency.com, Digitas, Kirshenbaum, MEC, MediaSmith, Moxie, Neo, OMD, and Starcom about the relative importance of transparency, control and simplicity in partnering with ad networks and exchanges.
“RTB, DSP, ATD, WTF: Finding Quality in a Sea of Solutions”
Jay Sears will moderate a discussion with demand side platform leaders about the role demand side platforms play in the digital media supply chain.

Through March 21, marketers can register to receive the SES New York pre-show discount of up to $200. For the first time at SES New York, Incisive Media has designed an attractively-priced All Access Passport, which includes access to all conference sessions, keynotes, the expo hall, training sessions and partnered events.

About SES

Incisive Media’s SES is a leading global conference and training series focused on search and social media marketing. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include ClickZ for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch, which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, Post, Risk, and SES Conference and Expo. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – A new study reveals a significant gap between the level of sophistication of interactive advertising platforms and how comfortable industry executives are in articulating the value of those platforms to media buyers and marketers. Released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the 2011 “Interactive Ad IQ Survey” was conducted by Ernst & Young LLP’s Media & Entertainment Advisory Services practice. It is the first installment in what is planned to be an annual benchmark of how well industry executives are able to communicate the opportunities associated with the rapid transition of digital and social media, which has accelerated over the past 18 to 24 months. The announcement was made during IAB’s fourth Annual Leadership Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: The People vs. Data, at La Quinta Resort & Club, where leaders across the digital media landscape have converged to address the most critical issues facing the industry.

More than 640 digital publishers, advertisers, agency executives and researchers from across the U.S. responded to the survey. The gaps it identifies may contribute to what many industry insiders believe is the undervaluing of interactive advertising relative to traditional ad platforms, such as television and print media. For example, roughly 75% of these executives work directly with social media and mobile ad platforms, but roughly one-quarter of them are uncomfortable explaining the value of these platforms in the context of buying or selling ads. Approximately 85% of respondents said online video is important to their businesses, but a full 20% were uncomfortable demonstrating the benefits of this interactive ad vehicle.

“The diversity of interactive advertising presents tremendous opportunities, and challenges, for explaining why our clients should spend with us,” said Patrick Dolan, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, IAB. “If we can’t communicate the unprecedented value of interactive, it just might be far easier for advertisers to allocate dollars to more traditional platforms.”

Respondents were also asked to rate their comfort level with using common tools and data. Close to 35% of survey respondents indicated they were uncomfortable using third-party audience and sales data to optimize ad performance and 20% expressed unease interpreting syndicated audience research. Additionally, 22% are unclear as to how to utilize server-side web analytics.

“We anticipated some of the discomfort, particularly on the newest platforms, such as social media. But what was refreshing was the industry’s recognition that training is not only necessary, but desired,” said Howard Bass, who led this initiative for Ernst & Young LLP, referring to a result indicating that more than 60% of respondents want training for themselves or their colleagues.

“We will act on these results by developing an industry training programs so buyers and sellers of interactive advertising can gain the requisite knowledge and skills to make the most of every dollar invested in these emerging platforms,” said Michael Theodore, Vice President, IAB Member Services, and leader of the organization’s Professional Development efforts. “The IAB plans to establish a certification program that should help hiring managers identify qualified talent and maintain top-quality skills as part of their personnel development practices.”

The IAB is making the survey available to individual member companies who want to test their Ad IQ, and then will be available to work with those companies to develop custom training programs for those looking to increase their Ad IQ.

For more information about the Interactive Ad IQ survey, please visit www.iab.net/adIQ

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 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.

About Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. Worldwide, our 141,000 people are united by our shared values and an unwavering commitment to quality. We make a difference by helping our people, our clients and our wider communities achieve their potential.

Ernst & Young refers to the global organization of member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity.

This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a client-serving member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited located in the US.

About Ernst & Young’s Global Media & Entertainment Center

Whether it’s the traditional press and broadcast media, or the multitude of digital media, audiences now have more choice than ever before. For media and entertainment companies, integration and adaptability are becoming critical success factors. Ernst & Young’s Global Media & Entertainment Center brings together worldwide teams of professionals to help our clients achieve their potential — teams with deep technical experience in providing assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The Center works to anticipate market trends, identify the implications and develop points of view on relevant industry issues. Ultimately it enables us to help our clients meet their goals and compete more effectively. It’s how Ernst & Young makes a difference.

“We’re excited that Randall is taking the helm again at IAB,” said Bob Carrigan, Chairman of IAB Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer, IDG Communications, Inc. “During his four-year tenure, IAB became the central trade association for marketing and media. With our industry at a critical point, we are pleased that Randall’s coming back to advance the work he’s done to date.”

“I am thrilled to be returning to IAB, to this superb team, and to a membership I feel honored to serve,” Rothenberg said. “As we prepare to convene IAB’s largest Annual Leadership Meeting ever, there couldn’t be a more exciting time to lead this association. I’m particularly energized by the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, the plans for an IAB Ad Lab, a groundbreaking cross-industry measurement standardization initiative, and our efforts to assure that data usage and control are negotiated fairly and transparently among trading partners, with consumer rights squarely in the forefront. This will be a great year for IAB and its members.”

Rothenberg served with distinction as IAB’s leader from 2007 through 2010. During that period, IAB’s membership increased by more than 50 percent and its revenues more than doubled. More important, IAB’s service to its member companies grew and broadened. During his tenure:

- IAB opened a public policy office that became the leading voice for industry self-regulation and consumer privacy protection in digital media
- The association launched a groundbreaking campaign to promote creative excellence in interactive brand advertising
- IAB released vital research on brand-building, advertising pricing, and metrics
- IAB’s effort to standardize online measurement gained support from leading agencies, marketers, media, and their association partners
- IAB’s events became the central gathering place for the digital industry.
For the past month, Rothenberg has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Time Inc., the largest magazine media company in the United States.

Time Inc. reaffirmed its commitment to IAB today, announcing that it will continue to be represented on the IAB Board of Directors. It also announced it will continue its Board-level sponsorship of IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. In addition, the company’s leadership has agreed to contribute funding to an upcoming cross-industry measurement initiative and will become a charter sponsor of our impending IAB Ad Lab.

“Time Inc. is a valued member of IAB, and I am pleased about the graciousness of the organization and the fact that its senior executives have reaffirmed their commitment to the association,” Rothenberg said. “Time Inc. is a great partner for IAB, and I thank them for their digital leadership.”

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.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced that its Board of Directors has elected a new Chairman, Bob Carrigan, Chief Executive Officer, IDG Communications, Inc. Carrigan has served on the Board of Directors for five years and has been a member of the Executive Committee since last year.

Carrigan assumes the role of Chairman from David J. Moore, Chairman and Founder of 24/7 Real Media. Moore will continue to remain active in IAB, and will be heading the Search Committee to find a new CEO for the organization. The Board of Directors plans to vote on the rest of the board appointments and additions at its Annual Leadership Meeting Ecosystem 2.0: The People vs. Data, scheduled for February 27-March 1 at La Quinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs, CA.

“After 18 months as Chairman of IAB, six months longer than the expected term, I am pleased to pass the torch to Bob Carrigan. Bob is a recognized leader, with a firm commitment to the IAB, and I am confident he will bring a strong vision to the organization as it continues to be a force of change in our industry,” said David J. Moore.

“I’m energized to be taking on this position at such a crucial, transformational time for media, just when more marketers are shifting their attention to building brands online and engaging with their consumers in creative, new ways,” said Carrigan. “In the coming months, the IAB will be focused on leading the industry on some challenging and exciting issues – from mobile to local to privacy. I look forward to playing an integral role building and expanding on IAB’s legacy of outstanding accomplishment and guiding the interactive landscape of tomorrow.”

As Chairman, Carrigan will lead the IAB in its pursuit of six strategic objectives of the organization in 2011 – Making Measurement Make Sense, Building Brands Online, Protecting Privacy, Data Demystification, the launch of the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, and Supply Chain Simplification.

Bob Carrigan oversees IDG’s media operations, including online, print, and events in 90 countries around the world. Prior to assuming his worldwide CEO role in 2008, Carrigan was responsible for IDG Communications media business units in the U.S. Carrigan has also held senior executive positions at AOL and Spinner.com.

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.

IRVINE, Calif. – Specific Media, a next generation media platform company, announced it will be the first Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) member to begin integrating the Advertising Option Icon across all online display ads distributed by the organization, effective immediately. The Advertising Option Icon is a straightforward, easy-to-use tool that empowers consumers to make informed choices about online privacy while working to enrich their Internet experience. Specific Media is currently working with PreferenceCentral, a consumer privacy and empowerment solution company, to deploy the Advertising Option Icon.

“Transparency is essential to our clients and their customers. Incorporating the Advertising Option Icon across all of the display ads we distribute marks a proactive step in helping consumers gain a better understanding of how data is collected and used for online behavioral advertising purposes,” said Tim Vanderhook, CEO of Specific Media. “By implementing consumer-friendly principles and standards, we are enabling consumers to make more informed choices on the web, and helping to strengthen relationships between brands and their customers.”

The Advertising Option Program was initiated by IAB to provide consumers with a better understanding and more control over ads that are served to them based on their online behavior. By clicking on an icon within or around an ad unit, consumers can link to a disclosure statement regarding the data collection and usage practices associated with that ad; users can also opt to stop receiving behaviorally targeted ads from the company in the future.

Specific Media was recently recognized by DoubleVerify, a pioneer in online media verification, for being one of the highest rated networks in online ad delivery and compliance. In recent months, Specific Media successfully market tested the new Advertising Option Icon on behalf of several industry-leading clients including MasterCard, Zales, Electronic Arts, and high-end watchmaker Breitling.

“Transparency is at the forefront of today’s online advertising landscape, as industry leaders come to understand the significance of giving consumers choice and control over the ads they are served,” said Jeffrey Katz, GM, PreferenceCentral, which enables consumers to manage their advertising preferences across the web. “Specific Media is helping lead the way by implementing the Advertising Option Icon across its platform and setting a precedent for other media companies.”

About Specific Media

Specific Media is a next generation media platform company that enables brands to seamlessly connect with consumers no matter where they are. Working across formats and screens, Specific Media makes addressable advertising a reality. Specific Media’s suite of products inspire brands to think differently about their marketing initiatives – combining formats such as video and display and incorporating creative original programming to drive deep engagement and loyalty. As consumers discover new ways to consume content in the digital era, Specific Media will make sure your brand reaches them in the ways they desire. Get – and stay – connected at Specific Media.

NEW YORK – Ziff Davis, one of the nation’s leading technology media companies, launched Ziff Davis BuyerBase™, an ad targeting platform that analyzes real-time, anonymous data every month from more than 40 million buyers seeking tech products and services.

BuyerBase is the first ad targeting platform focused entirely on the tech category and among the most ambitious efforts by a publisher to capitalize on audience data. BuyerBase collects, scores and analyzes data from more than 100 tech content and commerce sites, including Ziff Davis’ owned-and-operated properties as well as BuyerBase-partner websites, that buyers regularly consult prior to making a purchase. The platform focuses on product-specific research and shopping activity, as opposed to general browsing behavior.

“As publishers, we and our partners make a significant investment in producing lab-based reviews and buying information, and the audience data we generate as a result is very valuable,” said Vivek Shah, CEO of Ziff Davis. “We believe we can utilize that data to provide greater scale, performance and efficiency to our tech advertising partners.”

To ensure consumer privacy, Ziff Davis is also one of the first publishers to comply with the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising, which is supported by industry groups including the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the 4A’s, the Better Business Bureau and The DMA. Ads delivered using BuyerBase, as well as pages on Ziff Davis’ websites, will include an icon that allows users to learn about the data collection and easily opt out of targeting. Ad and site notice will be powered by Better Advertising, the first DAA-approved provider of the consumer notice and choice program.

“By adopting standards that empower consumers to make informed choices about how their data may be used, Ziff Davis is building the trust consumers want and deserve online,” said Scott Meyer, CEO of Better Advertising. “Ziff Davis is implementing the industry best practice of both in-ad and on-site notice, ensuring that full disclosure and choice are standard.”

BuyerBase processes more than a billion buying signals each month to determine which products buyers are ready to purchase. The data is then applied to target relevant product offers to consumers as they surf the web by running targeted advertising on a range of comScore 500 sites.

BuyerBase can help marketers better understand and meet market demand while guiding consumers through the thicket of product choices in the narrow window of time they typically spend researching their options. Ziff Davis has partnered with Demdex, Inc. to power its audience management platform.

“Web publishers should pay close attention to Ziff Davis’ efforts to unlock the value of their audience data,” said Randy Nicolau, CEO of Demdex. “We believe the opportunity for media companies, advertising agencies and online retailers to harness data is significant.”

About Ziff Davis

Ziff Davis, Inc. is a leading digital media company specializing in the technology market, reaching over 40 million highly engaged in-market buyers and influencers every month. Ziff Davis sites, which feature trusted and comprehensive evaluations of the newest and hottest products, include PCMag.com, ExtremeTech, GearLog and AppScout. Ziff Davis also operates BuyerBase™, the most advanced ad targeting platform focused on tech buyers. More information on Ziff Davis can be found at ziffdavis.com.

About Better Advertising

Selected by the Digital Advertising Alliance to power its interest-based advertising self-regulatory program, Better Advertising enables a more trusted environment for everyone in the online ecosystem. It gives businesses an easy, standard way of providing evidence of compliance with industry guidelines, and consumers more transparency into, and control over how their information is used online. By empowering consumers and earning their trust, businesses build their brands, participate in IBA with confidence and generate better advertising results. For more information, please visit: www.betteradvertising.com.

Notes on the DAA and the Industry Self-Regulatory Program

Launched by the nation’s largest media and marketing trade associations: the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), with support from the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), and he Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising responds to the Federal Trade Commission’s call for more robust and effective self-regulation of online behavioral advertising practices that would foster transparency, knowledge and choice for consumers. The Program promotes the use of the “Advertising Option Icon” and accompanying language, to be displayed where data is collected and used for behavioral advertising. The Advertising Option Icon indicates a company’s use of online behavioral advertising and adherence to the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising, guiding the Program. More information about the DAA and its member associations is available at: http://www.aboutads.info/

NEW YORK – To bolster the digital marketing industry’s interests in Washington, D.C., the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced that it had created an Office of General Counsel and promoted Mike Zaneis to Senior Vice President and General Counsel from Vice President of Public Policy. Zaneis steps into this role having already achieved significant progress in creating a public policy presence for the industry in the nation’s capital and in overseeing successful efforts to bring industry self-regulation to fruition.

In addition, the IAB appointed two others to new senior positions. Patrick Dolan, formerly Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in recognition of his strategic and operations leadership. David Doty, who has been Senior Vice President for Marketing & Thought Leadership, will take on the newly created role of Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, reflecting the organization’s growing focus on outreach and education.

“Public policy has taken center-stage as one of the most critical issues facing the digital marketing industry, and no one is better equipped to represent the IAB and our members than Mike,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “At the same time, Patrick and David have helped fashion the pivotal role IAB now plays in the industry. Their leadership will help guide us through 2011 and beyond. These appointments are another step we’re taking to strengthen our management team as we meet the challenges and opportunities of the continuously evolving digital marketing landscape.”

In his new position, Zaneis will continue to lead the IAB’s public policy office and guide the strategy of the self-regulatory privacy program. Additionally, he will oversee outside counsel and coordinate all IAB legal resources in industry relations, public policy and other critical initiatives. Prior to joining the IAB, Zaneis worked with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, where he served as Executive Director of Technology and E-Commerce. As the chief technology and telecommunications lobbyist, he oversaw issues affecting the business community pertaining to e-commerce, online and consumer privacy, data security, telecommunications and intellectual property.

Patrick Dolan, who joined the IAB in 2007, assumes broader organizational responsibilities at the IAB with the title of Chief Operating Officer. During his tenure, Dolan has strengthened the operational and financial position of the IAB and improved collaboration within the international network of IABs. Appointed by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as a commissioner of the city’s Latin Media and Entertainment Commission, Dolan led the establishment of New York City’s Latin Media and Entertainment Week. Dolan has recently taken on a more active role in the IAB’s Committees and Councils work as well as in its evolving Professional Development program. He marshaled IAB member companies to produce the “Data Usage and Control Primer: Best Practices & Definitions,” the first-ever guide to explain in plain terms what data can be collected online and how that data should be collected. Prior to joining the IAB, Dolan held senior positions at DoubleClick, the Locomotion Channel (a joint venture between Hearst Entertainment and Corus Entertainment), the Early Learning Coalition of South Florida and the Soros Foundations Network.

In the newly created role of Chief Marketing Officer, David Doty will spearhead the communication of interactive marketing’s value to marketers, advertising agencies and other key constituents. In Doty’s time at the IAB, he has repositioned and elevated the IAB brand, taking it beyond the image of traditional trade associations. He has propelled the organization into new areas of expertise. Doty established the IAB Agency Advisory Board comprised of leading creative agency executives, and he launched “Privacy Matters,” the industry’s first PSA campaign focused on educating the broader public about how to manage privacy online. He has also led the transformation of the IAB’s events business unit into the acclaimed conference leader in the digital space. Doty joined the IAB in 2007 after serving as Director of Corporate Branding and Creative Services at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he was responsible for overseeing the firm’s successful global strategic branding initiative. Previously, Doty was President of Flatiron Communications, a company he founded to serve the media industry in strategy and execution. As a writer, consultant and strategic content developer, he worked with Wired Magazine, Hearst Magazines, Departures Magazine, Turner Entertainment Networks, Microsoft and the French government.

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.

NEW YORK – In a move that highlights the growing importance of mobile advertising in the marketing-media ecosystem, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the launch of the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, an independently funded and staffed unit inside the IAB, charged with driving the growth of the mobile marketing, advertising and media marketplace. The IAB also announced the appointment of Anna Bager as Vice President and General Manager of the Mobile Center, a new position in the organization.

Bager joins the IAB from Ericsson, the global telecommunications company, where she was the head of business intelligence for the Multimedia division.

“The IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence will provide the next phase of leadership required for continued growth in the mobile advertising industry,” said Greg McCastle, Senior Vice President for Advanced Ad Solutions at AT&T and a member of the IAB’s Board of Directors. “Consumers want their information and entertainment on-the-go, and this trend is only going to continue, bringing enormous opportunity for advertisers to stay connected to their audiences.”

The IAB’s new Mobile Center will devote resources to market and consumer research, mobile advertising case studies, executive training and education, supply chain standardization, creative showcases and best practice identification in the burgeoning field of mobile media and marketing. “The Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence will serve as the industry-wide resource for innovation in mobile advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, President & CEO of the IAB.

Sixteen IAB member companies have committed financial support to the association’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, marking the first time the industry trade group has directed enhanced resources to a single platform. Eight IAB member companies have provided advanced support and will serve on the Center’s Board of Directors, including AT&T Converged Services, Cars.com, Google, Microsoft, The New York Times, Univision Interactive Media, Weather Channel and Yahoo.

Another eight companies are supporting the Center as research and development sponsors, including 24/7 Real Media, CNN, Disney Interactive Media Group, Federated Media, The Huffington Post, IDG Communications, NBC Universal and Tremor Media.

Up to three more Board sponsorships are available to IAB General Member companies, Rothenberg said. The Mobile Center of Excellence will be based in the IAB’s New York headquarters, at 116 East 27 Street.

“Mobile marketing is clearly one of the fastest-growing segments of interactive advertising and we’re responding to its potential by opening an office that will help to advance technologies and best practices so advertisers can take full advantage of what mobile has to offer,” said David J. Moore, Chairman of the IAB Board and Chairman and CEO of 24/7 Real Media.

“What the mobile marketing ecosystem needs in order to grow is a dedicated force of industry experts working together to promote best practices and solve vital supply chain issues,” said Bager. “That’s exactly what the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence will provide.”

Before heading business intelligence at Ericsson Multimedia, Bager was the head of research and a senior consultant at Ericsson’s Business Consulting unit. Prior to Ericsson, Bager was a European consulting manager at IDC’s Telecommunications and Networking Center. Bager attended Lund University in Lund, Sweden, where she studied business administration and economics.

The formation of the Mobile Center of Excellence is the latest addition to the IAB’s ongoing work to educate the marketing and media ecosystem about mobile advertising. Together, the IAB and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) recently released “Mobile Web Advertising Measurement Guidelines” that provide a framework for governing ad impressions through mobile devices.

This report and others can be reviewed on the IAB website, www.iab.net.

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.

NEW YORK – Lotame Solutions announced that it has closed new funding of $11 million. The marketing technology leader is building a Platform Sales Group to address growing publisher demand for its data.

Emergence Capital led the latest round of funding, Lotame’s Series C round, and all of Lotame’s investors participated, including Hillcrest, Battery Ventures, and Pinnacle Ventures. Lotame has also secured a growth capital line from Pinnacle, to supplement its equity financing. This story was first reported in Advertising Age.

Jason Green, a general partner at Emergence Capital, said, “Lotame’s continued success is a result of their clarity of vision and focus around giving publishers greater insight into their customers and leading brand advertisers access to the specific audiences they want to reach.”

The Crowd Control audience data-management platform gathers first-party data from publisher sites, and enables them to leverage third-party data in a simple user interface. Publishers looking for more effective ways to compete with ad networks and portals say this platform gives them more insight into their most important asset: their audience data.

“When it comes to selecting a platform, big publishers can’t afford to wait, and we believe Crowd Control is perfectly positioned as the premiere audience data-management platform,” said Lotame CEO Andy Monfried. “Bruce Budkofsky, Eric Porres and Andrew Bradway bring the drive and experience needed to help those publishers create, manage and sell audience profiles — enabling those publishers to drive better monetization and intelligence for their organizations.”

Budkofsky opened Fandango’s Eastern Region sales office in 2005, grew ad sales from $500K to $8MM, and became the senior director of national sales at Comcast Interactive Media after the latter company bought the former. He will lead Lotame’s new department as VP of Platform Sales and Services. Current Lotame CMO Porres will also join the department, moving over to lend his talents as VP of Business Development.

After five years managing online video monetization at AOL, Bradway became Regional Sales Manager at Metacafe a year ago, developing strategic partnerships with agencies in NYC, Chicago and San Francisco. Bradway will be Lotame’s Director of Platform Recruitment, working out of the Columbia, MD, office.

Steve Alessi, Vice President of Advertising Sales at AGInteractive, said of the platform earlier, “Working with Lotame has taught us a great deal about our visitors, enabling us to market to them in new ways. We chose to work with Lotame’s solution because it provides our sales team with an intuitive interface to build and sell audiences to our brand advertising clients in additional to our custom content solutions.”

About Lotame

Lotame is a marketing technology company. Its flagship audience data management platform (DMP), Crowd ControlTM, integrates with web publishers to activate audiences and make data-driven display advertising a reality. The company provides advertisers with comprehensive online advertising solutions and publishers with a leading data management platform. Lotame is a member of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), the Interactive Adverting Bureau (IAB), and the Online Publishers Association (OPA). For more information, please visit: www.lotame.com

Adobe MAX 2010
LOS ANGELES – At Adobe MAX, Adobe’s worldwide developer conference, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced it is collaborating with six leading digital advertising companies to define two new full screen ad formats for smart phones that support Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 software and/or HTML5. As mobile advertising becomes an increasingly important medium to drive brand awareness and purchase intent, the new formats will give agencies the ability to retain control over creative design and development, while providing technical requirements to help ensure a consistent and interactive user experience.

The collaboration includes Adobe, EyeWonder, a Limelight Networks business, Greystripe, Medialets, MediaMind, PointRoll and Sprout. The companies will work to promote the ad formats across the online ad ecosystem, including agencies and trade associations, such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

Establishing a Rich Media Standard

By using a common format, agencies and publishers can increase efficiency in ad creation, trafficking, delivery and reporting. In addition, since ads authored in Adobe Flash Professional can be delivered to devices that support Flash Player 10.1 or converted for HTML5 using various automated technologies, existing production workflows are preserved, decreasing the time between ad concept and delivery. The current formats are designed to provide reach across major mobile platforms and will eventually expand to tablets and other new device classes. The new ad formats are:

FS-microsite: Rather than expanding to a static image in a full screen banner, this ad format requires interactive product details and/or lead capture be built into the full screen expansion. It lets users stay in context and not be taken to a Web-browser, delivering more information in a rich, interactive experience, which helps drive brand recognition and awareness.
FS-video: This ad format delivers re-purposed broadcast ads or other high-quality video advertising to the end user, optimizing bandwidth and allowing agencies and publishers to re-use broadcast advertising assets for mobile.
For more details, please go to: advertising.adobe.com

Extending the Digital Advertising Ecosystem

Adobe is working with six rich media advertising companies that created mobile campaigns running in the new ad formats:

EyeWonder – vip.eyewonder.com/demo/mobile/video/index.html
Greystripe – greystripe.com/adstandards
Medialets – medialets.com/blog/2010/10/25/collaborating-with-adobe
MediaMind – demo.mediamind.com/_CREATIVE/mobileDemo/Mobile_Predators.html
PointRoll – demo.pointroll.net/techops/mad/index.html
Sprout – sproutinc.com/advine-adobe-mad-ad/
Quote

John Loiacono, senior vice president and general manager, Adobe Systems

“Our work with the advertising industry will define a new model for ads units and ad measurement in a marketing world being transformed by mobile communications,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president and general manager, Digital Media Solutions, Adobe. “These new ad formats are a first step in establishing an industry example that is cross-platform and expected to become the volume standard on smart phones, reaching across the broadest number of platforms and devices worldwide.”
Helpful Links

Adobe Solutions for Advertising – http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/rmadvertising/
Adobe Creative Suite – www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite
Adobe Flash Platform – http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform/
Adobe Online Marketing Suite – http://www.omniture.com/en/products/online_marketing_suite
About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

NEW YORK – The Better Advertising Project, Inc. (Better Advertising) and the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), a joint project of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau announced that DAA has designated Better Advertising as an Approved Provider. DAA also endorsed Better Advertising’s Assurance Platform as an Approved Technology and a standard method for providing evidence of participating companies’ compliance with the cross-industry self-regulatory program for online behavioral advertising that was announced Monday.

“This is a key example of how we’re working with our partners, advertisers and consumers to ensure strong privacy protections,” said Bob Quinn, Chief Privacy Officer for AT&T. “Protecting consumers’ privacy is a top priority for AT&T. We fully support the efforts of the DAA, and we look forward to continuing our work with Better Advertising.”

Better Advertising is the first company designated as an Approved Provider of compliance services for the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (Principles) of the DAA. This includes the ability to deliver the Advertising Option (or Forward I) icon on behalf of companies who are participating in the self-regulatory program. The company’s Assurance Platform is operating at scale, delivering notice with billions of advertising impressions across the internet for leading brands.

“We’ve been working closely with Better Advertising since its start. We’re especially pleased about this endorsement and we fully support this launch,” said John Montgomery, COO, North America, GroupM Interaction, a WPP company. “Our clients have made it clear that providing consumers more transparency into and control over how interest-based data is collected and used is essential to their online marketing efforts. Better Advertising’s technology delivers the transparency that will keep this ecosystem safe for these brands, and provides our clients with the evidence of compliance with the Self-Regulatory Principles that they need.”

The accountability program is part of the implementation of the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising announced in July, 2009 in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s call for the marketing industry to develop self-regulatory principles and practices for online behavioral (or interest-based) advertising. Separately, The Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association have announced that they intend to use technology from Better Advertising to monitor and report on the industry’s compliance with key provisions of the Principles, including providing consumers with enhanced transparency and control options for online behavioral (or interest-based) advertising.

“We’re extremely pleased to be working with Better Advertising’s team on the implementation of their platform to deliver compliance services to the online behavioral advertising industry,” said Stuart P. Ingis, Executive Director of the DAA and a Partner at Venable, LLP in Washington, who led the crafting of the Self-Regulatory Program. “Crafting meaningful self-regulation has been a long time in development for the companies at the vanguard of the interactive media industry. So, we are especially pleased to be innovating with Better Advertising as we make this program a reality.”

“Our partnership with Better Advertising is in line with VivaKi’s broader mission to collaborate for industry change,” said Grace Liau, VP/Group Director, VivaKi Nerve Center, a division of VivaKi and a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe. “We believe that establishing meaningful self-regulation is in the best interest of every party within the industry ecosystem. Transparency delivered through a platform such as the one Better Advertising has built represents a powerful mechanism to help us achieve this goal faster.”

Launched in July 2009, Better Advertising is working closely with leading agencies, networks and publishers on behalf of their brand clients. These and other companies are already using Better Advertising’s Assurance Platform as a standard method to provide evidence of compliance with the Principles.

“Better Advertising is delighted to receive this endorsement from the DAA,” said Scott Meyer, CEO and founder of Better Advertising. “We look forward to working cooperatively with the DAA and our clients to deliver full industry implementation of these important self-regulatory Principles.”

About DAA

The Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising gives consumers enhanced control over the collection and use of data regarding their Web viewing for online behavioral advertising purposes. Launched by the nation’s largest media and marketing trade associations – the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) – with support from the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), the Program responds to the Federal Trade Commission’s call for more robust and effective self-regulation of online behavioral advertising practices that would foster transparency, knowledge and choice for consumers.

The Program promotes the use of the “Advertising Option Icon” and accompanying language, to be displayed within or near online advertisements or on Web pages where data is collected and used for behavioral advertising. The Advertising Option Icon indicates a company’s use of online behavioral advertising and adherence to the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising, guiding the Program. By clicking on it, consumers will be able to link to a clear disclosure statement regarding the company’s online behavioral advertising data collection and use practices as well as an easy-to-use opt-out option.

More information about the DAA and its member associations is available at: http://www.aboutads.info/

About Better Advertising

Selected by the Digital Advertising Alliance to power its interest-based advertising self-regulatory program, Better Advertising enables a more trusted environment for everyone in the online ecosystem. It gives businesses an easy, standard method to provide evidence of compliance with industry guidelines and provide consumers with more transparency into, and control over the interest-based advertising (IBA) they receive. By empowering consumers and earning their trust, businesses build their brands, participate in IBA with confidence and generate better advertising results. For more information, please visit: www.betteradvertising.com.

MIXX Conference & Expo 2010
NEW YORK – Brand marketing and advertising have been transformed by digital media’s capability to target consumers, nationally and locally, with precise messaging. But many have not yet fully exploited the power of interactive to reach geographic segments. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released “Targeting Local Markets: An IAB Interactive Advertising Guide,” a comprehensive resource designed to help marketers and agencies target local audiences through interactive advertising. The announcement was made at the IAB’s sixth annual MIXX Conference and Expo in New York City where leaders from across the marketing and advertising industry converge for the industry’s largest digital media summit.

“There is a huge, untapped opportunity in local online advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, President & CEO, IAB. “‘Targeting Local Markets’ will provide critical guidance to the industry on localizing advertising efforts which quite simply allows brands to connect with consumers where they are most likely to buy them and that’s a benefit to everyone.”

“Targeting Local Markets” examines methods offered by online publishers and includes:

IP-Based Geo-Targeting
Search Targeting
Explicit Profile Data Targeting
Behavioral Targeting (Implicit Profile Data Targeting)
Mobile/Location-Based Targeting
Contextual Targeting
“There is a large percentage of consumer spend that happens within a few miles of the home, which means there is a real benefit for the online ecosystem to continue to develop better tools to drive local advertising,” said Victor Wong, CEO, Paper G, and co-chair of the IAB Local Committee. “‘Targeting Local Markets: An IAB Interactive Advertising Guide’ is an important first step in providing marketers and agencies with the tools needed to grow those opportunities.”

“In developing ‘Targeting Local Markets’ we provided examples for both national and local advertisers to implement various strategies to reach local audiences,” said Ed Darmanin, VP Sales, The Weather Channel, and co-chair of the IAB Local Committee. “These are illustrations of targeting techniques that marketers can use in their own local efforts that will drive growth and demonstrate how digital media can be deployed in new ways to reach local audiences.”

About the IAB’s Local Committee:

The mission of the IAB Local Committee is to communicate the value of online local interactive advertising to national and local marketers and to provide tools for publishers to effectively monetize their local ad inventory. A full list of Committee member companies can be found at: http://www.iab.net/local_committee

This document can be found on the IAB website at: http://www.iab.net/targeting_local

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.

DENVER – October 4, 2010 – Top-rated online video advertising network, SpotXchange, announced today that it had begun the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) self-certification process for ad networks and exchanges, which will help provide buyers of online advertising with more control, transparency and safety for their brands.

The IAB recently issued “Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines” and SpotXchange will spend the next several months ensuring that all of its internal processes adhere to the new IAB guidelines, and meet or exceed the required levels of detail for advertising source, content and placement.  SpotXchange plans to be fully compliant with these IAB guidelines in early 2011.

SpotXchange is a leading online video advertising network that connects advertisers to websites offering streaming video content via an auction-based marketplace.  Using a large variety of performance metrics and real-time optimization tools, SpotXchange’s technology aggregates ad space supplied by publishers and matches it with advertiser demand, scaling and adapting in-real time as marketers’ campaign needs change.

“Our team at SpotXchange is made up of people that are passionate about performance, and having our clients’ trust and helping them meet their goals are our top priorities,” said Mike Shehan, chief executive officer of SpotXchange.  “The good news is that SpotXchange has already built our network technology to provide detail and transparency to our clients, so we don’t have far to go before we comply with all parts of the IAB guidelines.”

“The IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines require companies to make a significant investment of time and resources,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and chief executive officer of the IAB.  “We applaud SpotXchange and all the companies that are leading the industry by providing their customers transparency in the process of buying interactive advertising.”

The IAB’s “Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines” can be found at:

http://www.iab.net/ne_guidelines

About SpotXchange

SpotXchange is a top-rated online video advertising network, comprised of premium websites offering entertainment, business, finance, news, technology, sports and gaming content.  Tens of thousands of websites rely on SpotXchange to generate revenue from the video content thеу stream to millions of consumers each day. SpotXchange offers advertisers a robust, efficient and measurable way to attract new customers with high-quality online video ads.  The SpotXchange suite of products and services is performance-based and combines advanced targeting and retargeting tools, dynamic ad optimization, flexible pricing models (cost per:  thousand, click, completed view, engagement and acquisition) and verifiable, safe brand protection for companies of all sizes.

Serving highly interactive in-stream and in-banner video ads in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, New Zealand and Australia, among other countries, SpotXchange helps companies efficiently and effectively reach their intended audiences while maximizing their online advertising budgets.  Currently, SpotXchange is a top-three rated online video ad network in the United States, and is the top video ad network in the UK and Australia for potential reach.  SpotXchange is a privately-held company based in Denver, Colorado.

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Undertone® Networks, an online advertising network, announced the addition of PageGrabber™ to its high impact product suite. PageGrabber is an interactive ad unit that takes over the actual web page, using it as the backdrop for the creative in real-time, providing advertisers with a unique and compelling way to engage consumers at scale. This product is available to the United States online ad market for the first time, exclusively with Undertone.

Available through a simple, turnkey execution, PageGrabber is a large, high performance ad unit that increases brand awareness and improves campaign results. The company has a history of serving high impact campaigns that deliver superior results; with Undertone, interaction rates are 88 percent higher and average interaction time is 83 percent higher than the industry standard. Average expanding time is 4X that of the industry standard based on campaign performance benchmarks from DoubleClick1.

Undertone offers PageGrabber in response to strong advertiser and publisher demand for high impact units. Adoption rates for rich media are on the rise, and the online display and rich media advertising market grew 19 percent last year according to eMarketer. Undertone’s high impact advertising revenue grew by more than 156 percent in the last year.

“Bigger ad units drive better performance. Only Undertone can deliver high impact units, like PageGrabber, at scale on some of the web’s best, brand-safe sites,” said Alan Schanzer, Chief Strategy Officer, Undertone. “Most ad networks, exchanges and automated buying technologies, like the demand-side platforms (DSPs), can’t handle rich media expandable units without high default rates. That’s huge,” he added.

PageGrabber is the newest addition to Undertone’s high impact suite. Along with video advertising, other products include half-page ads, full-page ads, synched ads and the homepage channel. The suite combines creative capabilities and quality placements powered by the best technology, all with the reach, targeting and scale of an ad network. The high impact suite is another way that Undertone helps its clients both understand and identify the best online ad strategies in the marketplace.

About Undertone Networks

Undertone Networks, an online advertising network, provides advertisers with quality placements on the web’s best sites. The company carefully selects its media partners and hand-purchases all its inventory, delivering above-the-fold visibility and brand protection for marketers who care where and when their ads run online. The Undertone approach ensures that media buyers and the advertisers they serve can drive successful brand awareness and direct response initiatives with a comprehensive blend of high-impact ad formats, rich media, targeting capabilities and personalized service. The company is based in New York, with fully staffed offices in major U.S. markets.

1 DoubleClick Benchmarks, U.S. DFA Rich Media Campaigns, January 2009 – December 2009

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released “An Evaluation of Methods Used to Assess the Effectiveness of Advertising on the Internet,” which examines the methodology behind site intercept studies, a common form of consumer advertising effectiveness research. It is the first thorough, public assessment undertaken of the state of online ad effectiveness research. The IAB also announced that it would be leading an industry effort to undertake additional research to ensure that brand-effectiveness studies adhere to established principles for the conduct of market and consumer research.

The report was written by Paul Lavrakas, Ph.D., a renowned research methodology expert, former Chief Research Methodologist for the Nielsen Company and author of Telephone Survey Methods: Sampling, Selection, and Supervision (2nd Edition, SAGE, 1993) as well as four other books covering election polling and the news media. Dr. Lavrakas has also authored numerous other publications and conference papers.

Through a detailed review of relevant academic literature and multiple interviews with experts at research vendors and media companies, Dr. Lavrakas concludes that three prevalent flaws in site intercept studies jeopardize their results:

- The validity of Interactive Advertising Effectiveness (IAE) research is “threatened . . .by the extremely low response rates achieved in most IAE studies”
- The research is also “threatened by the near-exclusive use of quasi-experimental research designs rather than classic experimental designs”
- The research is compromised by “a lack of valid empirical evidence that the statistical weighting adjustments… adequately correct for the biasing effects” created by the two preceding issues.

Dr. Lavrakas said his interviews with researchers indicated they are aware of these methodological flaws and their implications, but have not implemented more rigorous methodologies because of the expense.

“If the phrase ‘marketing science’ is to have any meaning, participants in the ecosystem must demand that their vendors employ rigorous, tested research methodologies, even if doing so costs more,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President of Industry Services, IAB. “Ad effectiveness research is an important tool for marketers looking to assess the success of branding campaigns, and Dr. Lavrakas’s report is just the first step in the IAB’s efforts to improve the way brand advertising in digital media is measured.”

The IAB Research Council commissioned Dr. Lavrakas to provide a foundation for a comprehensive initiative that will improve online brand effectiveness research. As next steps, the IAB will:

- Launch a cross-industry task force to help the interactive advertising ecosystem better understand how these studies impact the broader supply chain, and suggest ways to minimize potential inefficiencies they may create
- Create a set of U.S. best practices for online brand impact ad effectiveness studies that will include recommendations for marketers, advertising agencies, research vendors and publishers
- Use Dr. Lavrakas’s report to identify and develop valuable research for understanding and improving online ad effectiveness studies

“Dr Lavrakas’s report reveals important action items for this critical area of online research,” said Stephanie Fried, Director of Strategic Digital Research, NBC Universal, and co-chair of the IAB Research Council. “I am looking forward to working via the IAB to help marketers, agencies and publishers unleash the full potential of online ad effectiveness research to deliver robust, reliable and actionable results.”

“There is an enormous volume of brand impact studies being conducted across online media, and we developed this initiative because we saw a marketplace need to help all industry stakeholders identify the correct execution and best practices around their use,” said Dan Murphy, SVP of Interactive Research and Ad Traffic, Univision, and a member of the IAB Research Council.

“An Evaluation of Methods Used to Assess the Effectiveness of Advertising on the Internet” and more information on the IAB’s action plan for improving online brand impact ad effectiveness and can be found on the IAB website at www.iab.net/interceptstudies

About the IAB’s Research Council

The Research Council provides a forum for interactive research practitioners to share findings that support the growth of the industry; it encourages strong methodologies and best practices for research and measurement, and it works with the IAB to design and field important industry research projects and share these findings with key stakeholders.

A complete list of Research Council member companies can be found at http://www.iab.net/member_center/councils_committees_working_groups/councils/research_council

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.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release of “Prevailing Mobile In-Application Advertising Formats,” the industry’s first benchmark for ad formats being offered in mobile applications. Summarizing the results of a survey of IAB member companies, the document showcases current trends in mobile advertising and covers the seven major mobile/portable application platforms: Android, Blackberry, iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile.

The announcement was made at the IAB Mobile Marketplace, an annual event held in New York City focused on providing expert and actionable insight from brands, agencies and publishers on buying and selling, and solving the challenges of, one of the most rapidly evolving forms of digital advertising.

Some of the key components of “Prevailing Mobile In-Application Advertising Formats” include:

- An overview of the most common ad formats currently being sold by mobile app publishers
- The points of emerging similarities and differences in ad sizes among app providers
- The launch of a resource that the IAB will regularly update to help the advertising marketplace keep abreast of widely available ad formats as well as emerging trends as they develop

“The mobile advertising marketplace is moving at lightning speed as consumers embrace new devices,” said Joe Laszlo, Director of Research, IAB, and manager of the IAB Mobile Committee. “‘Prevailing Mobile In-Application Advertising Formats’ is the beginning of the development of a dynamic toolset to help drive growth in mobile advertising.”

“We know from working with our clients that agencies and marketers do need education on the different types of formats currently being supported by publishers,” said Sharon Knitter, Senior Director, Consumer Products, Cars.com and Co-Chair of the IAB Mobile Committee. “Our goal was to take a close look at which formats publishers were currently offering and to establish an ongoing resource for the industry as mobile continues to play a pivotal role in marketing campaigns.”

“We surveyed some of the most significant mobile publishers to highlight the most common ad formats offered in mobile apps,” said Cameron Clayton, VP Mobile and International, The Weather Channel, and Co-Chair of the IAB Mobile Committee. “This report will continue to evolve as the mobile industry continues to innovate and technology provides even greater opportunities to engage with consumers on their mobile devices.”

“Prevailing Mobile In-Application Advertising Formats” is the latest addition to IAB’s work on educating the ecosystem about mobile advertising. This ongoing initiative has included the release of two previous market-making documents:

Mobile Buyers’ Guide
Mobile Platform Status Report

Both of these documents can be reviewed at http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/mobile_guidance

To review “Prevailing Mobile In-Application Advertising Formats,” please go to http://www.iab.net/mobileadformats

About the IAB’s Mobile Committee

The Mobile Advertising Committee of the IAB is comprised of over 140 member companies dedicated to helping develop and expand the mobile space as a viable advertising platform. The committee works to educate marketers and agencies on the strength of mobile advertising as a marketing vehicle. A full list of Committee member companies can be found at: http://www.iab.net/mobile_advertising_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.

NEW YORK – VINDICO Group, a division of BBE, today announced its video advertising platform has been accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC), the industry association dedicated to establishing audience measurement that is valid, reliable and effective. VINDICO is the first demand-side video ad server to be accredited by the MRC, a process that requires companies to submit technology and processes to rigorous third-party audits to ensure compliance with industry standards.  VINDICO’s accreditation indicates its video advertising platform is compliant with the MRC’s standards for Media Rating Research and the applicable guidelines published by the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Established in 1964, the Media Rating Council was created to audit and accredit audience rating services in an effort to improve the quality of audience measurement and to help ensure accuracy and transparency. More than 115 companies, such as Time Warner, MSNBC and New York Times, are MRC members, representing a broad spectrum of the media industry, from radio and broadcast to print and online publishers. The MRC works with independent CPA firms to audit members’ measurement services and provide accreditation.

“We applaud VINDICO’s efforts and leadership to gain accreditation for its online video ad serving products,” said George Ivie, CEO and executive director of the Media Rating Council. “This accreditation underscores the importance of video advertising and helps prepare online advertisers and agencies for further growth linked with MRC accredited measurement.”

The first ad-serving and tracking platform dedicated exclusively to video, VINDICO Group works with entities such as VivaKi and Universal McCann to provide video ad serving, tracking and analytics for campaigns across all ad networks.  VINDICO offers a suite of planning and buying services that make it easy to buy, serve, track and measure video ad activity. Through VINDICO, online media buyers can work with multiple ad networks and receive standardized ad tracking and reporting for the entire online video industry. This accreditation will benefit dozens of VINDICO Group’s clients, which include The Pool™ participants such as BlackBerry, Denny’s, Disney Pictures, General Mills, General Motors, Kraft, Mars, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless and Walgreens

“VINDICO is solving for the market what DoubleClick solved for the banner ad space, providing an efficient and reliable way to serve video ads across multiple networks,” said Matt Timothy, president of VINDICO Group. “Putting our technology through the rigorous MRC accreditation process demonstrates our continued commitment to making online video as trusted and easy to work with as any other measured media. With accreditation by the MRC, VINDICO aims to give advertisers the confidence to make larger investments in online video.”

“Industry benchmarks such as the MRC put video tracking and measurement on a solid foundation,” said Tracey Scheppach, Founder of The Pool  at VivaKi. “We know that VINDICO’s move will motivate more investment and accelerate the shift of advertising spend to online video. We are thrilled The Pool is working with the first third-party video ad server to receive the MRC’s stamp of approval.”

About VINDICO Group:
As the first ad-serving and tracking platform dedicated exclusively to video, VINDICO Group allows advertisers to buy, serve, track and measure all of their online video ad activity.  Since 2006, VINDICO has been the gold standard in online video platforms, providing standardized reporting and analytics for the online video industry.  The power of online video isn’t just the audiences it reaches and how it reaches them.  Its strength also derives from its ability to track an ad campaign and precisely measure the campaign’s effectiveness. For more information, please visit http://www.vindicogroup.com.

About BBE:
Founded in 2004 by CEO Matt Wasserlauf, BBE is the digital media authority. The company helps advertisers, content producers and content distributors navigate the constantly shifting terrain in the online video space. BBE’s large-scale, online distribution network delivers original and syndicated content in a highly targeted, measurable way, making the online video space safe for advertising dollars. BBE’s online video network of over 2,400 Web channel partners delivers content 24/7. Collectively, these publishers have the capacity to reach an enormous audience, carefully segmented by specific viewer demographics. Please visit http://bbe.com/.
About MRC:
The Media Rating Council (MRC) is a nonprofit industry association whose members consist of the blue chip companies of our industry including television and radio broadcasters, cablecasters, print organizations, advertisers, Internet organizations, advertising agencies and industry trade associations. The MRC charter is to maintain audience research confidence and credibility with the goal of securing for the industry audience measurement services that are valid, reliable and effective.  The MRC was formed in 1964 at the urging of the United States Congress.  Audience measurement services desiring MRC Accreditation are required to disclose to the MRC membership (and all customers) all methodological aspects of their service; comply with the MRC Minimum Standards For Media Rating Research; and submit to MRC designed audits to authenticate and illuminate their procedures.  The membership evaluates these audits and the MRC Board grants Accreditation if deemed warranted.  In addition, the MRC membership actively pursues research issues they consider priorities in an effort to improve the quality of Research in the marketplace.  Further information about MRC’s accreditation and auditing procedures can be obtained from: www.mediaratingcouncil.org.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the second annual IAB Long Tail Alliance Washington Fly-In, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) assembled 46 small publishers to tell their elected representatives about the important role played by the advertising-supported Internet in empowering small business growth in America. The Long Tail web publishers representing 14 states spent yesterday on Capitol Hill meeting with 35 House Districts and 12 Senate Offices including members of the Senate Commerce Committee.

The IAB Long Tail Alliance Washington Fly-In launched in June 2009 with the release of “The Economic Value of the Advertising-Supported Internet Ecosystem,” the first comprehensive analysis of the economic impact of this ever-more important medium. Among its findings: 2.1%, or $300 billion, of the total U.S. GDP is contributed by the ad-supported Internet, which has created 3.1 million jobs, including 20,000 small businesses. At the same time, the IAB also released “I Am the Long Tail,” a seven-minute video that ties together vignettes from Long Tail publishers across the nation and puts a human face on the Long Tail. It is part of a larger, ongoing effort to collect and share the Long Tail story in online videos atiamthelongtail.com.

“Providing an opportunity for IAB Long Tail publishers to speak directly to Congresspeople is the best means to bring to life the very real threat posed by the proposed regulation of interactive advertising,” said Mike Zaneis, Vice President, Public Policy, IAB. “These business owners are the new face of ‘mom and pop’ shops. They represent a diversity of voices that simply could not exist without interactive advertising. This event provides them with a unique forum to be heard.”

This year’s Fly-In also included a full day of training sessions, strategic planning panels and roundtable discussions created specifically to address the business interests of small publishers. Long Tail members and ad network and advertising agency executives shared actionable insights on how the community of small publishers can improve their businesses. The two-day event also served as a unique networking opportunity for small publishers, who, for the most part, work from their homes and have limited opportunities to meet other small business owners like themselves.

For a list of the Long Tail publishers who participated as well as a detailed agenda of the two-day event, please go to:www.iab.net/flyin
The IAB Long Tail Alliance is a special member category for publishers who sell indirectly, through ad networks, or directly and have revenues under $1 million per year. To learn more about the Long Tail Alliance and to find out how to qualify for membership, please go to:http://www.iab.net/longtailalliance

To download a copy of “The Economic Value of the Advertising-Supported Internet Ecosystem,” please go to:
www.iab.net/insights_research/economicvalue

To view “I Am the Long Tail” and nearly 30 videos from Long Tail publishers, or to submit your own Long Tail video, please go toiamthelongtail.com.

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 visitwww.iab.net.

NEW YORK – In an age when ground-breaking technologies and transformative platforms are redefining creativity in marketing and advertising, when consumers’ brand experiences are being refashioned in new ways, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced a stellar panel of judges for the 2010 IAB MIXX Awards. The cross-industry assembly brings together senior agency, marketer and publisher voices to collaboratively evaluate and select the brands and agencies who will win one of advertising’s most sought-after honors. The IAB also announced that it has revised and expanded the MIXX Awards to recognize not only distinguished campaigns but also single executions in such new categories as Experimental and Innovative, Mobile Apps and Viral, reflecting the vibrancy of interactive advertising.

The announcement was made at the IAB’s newly launched symposium, IAB Innovation Days: Content Conquers All, a two-day event that melds together IAB’s interactive and marketing content expertise with Internet Week, the annual weeklong series of events spotlighting New York City’s role as a leader in the digital and media industries.

“In what has been a remarkable year for interactive creativity, the professionals who’ve agreed to judge this year’s MIXX Awards are among the industry’s foremost experts on what differentiates outstanding advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “We are honored to have their involvement in this important industry mark of distinction.”

The winners of the 2010 MIXX Awards, now in its sixth year, will be announced at a gala dinner on September 28, near the start of New York City’s Advertising Week, a gathering of the media and marketing industries that typically draws 10,000 professionals to conferences, seminars and parties celebrating advertising and its evolution.

The 2010 MIXX Awards panel includes:

Mathias Appelblad – Executive Creative Director & Director of Innovation, BBDO New York
Jeff Benjamin – Interactive Creative Director, Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Lincoln Bjorkman – EVP, Executive Creative Director, Digitas New York
Heidi Browning – EVP, Global Digital Officer, UM
Doug Chavez – Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, Del Monte Foods
Erin Clift – SVP, Global Sales Development, AOL
Andreas Combuechen – Chairman/CEO/Chief Creative Officer, Atmosphere Proximity
Marty Cooke – Chief Creative Officer & Partner, SS+K
Mark D’Arcy – President & Chief Creative Officer, Time Warner Global Media Group, and SVP, Time Warner
Maylinn De La Maza – Account Director, Zubi Advertising
Marjorie D. Dufek – Interactive Marketing Director, Brown-Forman Corporation
Marc Fonzetti – Advertising Manager & Internet Specialist, Reckitt Benckiser
Jane Grenier – VP, Executive Director, Creative Services, Condé Nast Digital
Cheryl Guerin – SVP, Group Head, Global Digital Marketing, MasterCard Worldwide
Brian Hunt – Senior Creative Director, Yahoo!
Marc Lucas – Chief Creative Officer, kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners
Wonya Lucas – EVP & CMO, Discovery Communications
Jean-Philippe Maheu – CEO, Publicis Modem
Andy Markowitz – Director, Digital Marketing, GE
Benjamin Palmer – Co-Founder, CEO, Barbarian Group
Suzie Reider – Head of Ad Sales, YouTube & Google Display
David Roman – SVP & CMO, Lenovo
Alan Schulman – Founder & Chief Creative Officer, U . D I G > The Digital Innovations Group
Baba Shetty – EVP, Chief Media Officer, Hill Holliday
Marla Skiko – SVP, Director of Digital Innovation, SMG Multicultural
Rick Song – Senior Director, Eastern U.S. Sales, Microsoft Advertising
Steve Wax – Managing Director, Campfire
Lauren Wiener – SVP, Meredith Interactive Media
Heidi Marie Youngkin – Senior Director, Corporate Communication, Johnson & Johnson

“This year’s MIXX Awards will spotlight the brands and individuals who are driving advertising creativity in new and exciting directions,” said David Doty, SVP, Thought Leadership & Marketing, at the IAB. “The MIXX Awards recognize the diversity of platforms and technologies that have forever changed advertising, and our panel of judges are themselves true experts and innovators in the field.”

The MIXX Awards are open to marketers and advertising agencies that have run any media, marketing or advertising campaign that was carried out during the qualifying period: April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010. Full details are available at www.iab.net.

Founded in 2005 to honor creativity and effectiveness in interactive advertising, the IAB’s MIXX Awards have grown into the premier honor in digital marketing. Last year’s MIXX Award winners included many of the most prominent brand marketers in the United States, including Adobe, American Express, HBO, IBM, Pizza Hut and Proctor & Gamble, as well as leading agencies such as BBDO, Digitas, JWT, Ogilvy, and RAPP. In 2009, the gala’s ultimate honor, Best in Show, went to Tourism Queensland and CumminsNitro Brisbane for “The Best Job in the World.”

To view the complete gallery of the 2009 MIXX finalists, please visit: www.mixx-awards.com/gallery

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.

NEW YORK – Undertone Networks, an online advertising network, announced that it has seen exponential growth in revenue derived from online video advertising in 2010. The amount of revenue the company received from pre-roll grew by more than 200 percent in the first four months of the year, demonstrating a clear desire among brands and media buyers to capitalize on the growing trend of online video advertising as a major source of online ad revenue.

According to findings from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, online video ad spending in 2009 grew by 38 percent, a number that analysts expect will continue to skyrocket in the coming year. A recent report from AccuStream Research predicts that in 2010 revenue from online video ad networks is expected to grow 41 percent from 2009 – up to $377 million. Undertone’s explosive growth in pre-roll revenue during the first four months of 2010 thus far validates and significantly exceeds industry findings that video will continue to expand as a key avenue for delivering visibility in the online ad market.

“Video is clearly becoming a choice ad format for marketers, and our pre-roll revenue so far this year underscores that not only do our clients get results with video, but also that Undertone is helping to lead the charge in this market,” said Eric Franchi, senior vice president, business development for Undertone. “As delivery methods for video to consumers mature, our ability to provide quality video placements will ensure our customers get the best possible visibility for their ads in places where the right audiences are watching.”

Undertone’s online video ad offerings include both in-banner and in-stream solutions for maximum exposure and engagement. The company’s in-banner solution delivers video within banner ad placements, boosting interaction and response rates and allowing consumers to visit companies’ websites without interrupting the video experience. In-stream (pre-roll) ad solutions leverage a combination of video and flash ad units, enabling marketers to take advantage of a flash companion ad located adjacent to the video unit, creating a perfect vehicle for brand and direct-response messaging. All Undertone video ads are 100 percent IAB compliant.

About Undertone Networks

Undertone Networks, an online advertising network, provides advertisers with quality placements on the Web’s best sites. The company carefully selects its media partners and hand-purchases all its inventory, delivering above-the-fold visibility and brand protection for marketers who care where and when their ads run online. The Undertone approach ensures that media buyers and the advertisers they serve can drive successful brand awareness and direct response initiatives with a comprehensive blend of high-impact ad formats, rich media, targeting capabilities and personalized service. The company is based in New York, with fully staffed offices in major U.S. markets. For more information, visit www.undertone.com.

NEW YORK – Consumers’ demand for content, whenever, wherever and however they can get it has intersected with innovations in technology and created limitless opportunities for the Internet. To highlight this dramatic shift, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced that on June 8 and 9, 2010, it will present a new event entitled Innovation Days @ Internet Week themed around “Content Conquers All.” The two-day symposium melds together, for the first time ever, IAB’s interactive and marketing content expertise with the annual weeklong series of events spotlighting New York City’s role as a leader in the digital and media industries. The conference will explore what’s happening right now, and what’s soon to come, in “The Future of TV & Online Video” and “All About Branded Content/Content Brands.” Attendees will also experience hot product demos of the latest technology tools and the marketplace’s best networking.

“We’ve designed IAB Innovation Days @ Internet Week to showcase and acknowledge the evolution of content and the transformative role that technology is playing in media,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “New York City is home base to a large number of our members, many others have a sizable presence here. The city is the capital of media creativity.”

“Internet Week celebrates innovative technology in digital media, and there’s no better place for it than New York City,” said New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “The annual event continues to grow and attract new people, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Innovation Days conference is the latest example of the kind of industry-leading forums Internet Week is spurring.”

IAB Innovation Days @ Internet week takes place at the Metropolitan Pavilion in the North Pavilion and will bring together such influential thought leaders in marketing and advertising as:

Tim Armstrong, Chairman & CEO, AOL
Samir Aurora, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Glam Media
Robert Bowman, President & CEO, Major League Baseball Advanced Media
Lloyd Braun, BermanBraun
Tolman Geffs, Co-President, The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.
Mike Kisseberth, President & CEO, PCWorld | Macworld
Wenda Harris Millard, President & COO, MediaLink LLC
Benjamin Palmer, Co-Founder & CEO, The Barbarian Group
David Payne, CEO & Co-Founder, ShortTail Media
Tina Sharkey, Chairman & Global President, BabyCenter LLC

Tuesday, June 8 – Innovation: The Future of TV & Online Video: Technology and the rapid evolutions in the marketplace have blurred the lines between broadcast, cable and web content. What opportunities does this open for media companies, brands and for content producers? See the hottest new technologies that you should have known about yesterday.

Wednesday, June 9 – Innovation: All About Branded Content/Content Brands: The Internet is everywhere. Consumers are changing the rules as they lay claim to content on-demand across multiple devices in multiple ways. What about the explosive growth of content as inventory? This day will explore how online publishers and media companies are rising to the challenge of the proliferation of content and share the secrets of the brands that have successfully managed to prosper online.

Internet Week is in its third year and is a weeklong series of events and presentations focused on New York City’s role as an innovative leader in digital and new media industries. It is organized with the industry and beyond—in cooperation with the city of New York Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting.

To see the full agenda for IAB Innovation Days @ Internet Week please go to: http://www.iab.net/innovationdays

To learn more about Internet Week please go to: http://www.internetweekny.com/

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.

NEW YORK – Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. hit $5.9 billion for the first quarter of 2010, representing a 7.5 percent increase over the same period in 2009, according to the numbers released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). This marks the highest first-quarter revenue level ever for the industry.

“The year-over-year growth we are seeing reflects marketers’ confidence in the value and effectiveness of interactive advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “The Internet, together with explosive technological innovation in devices and platforms, has transformed consumers’ lives, giving them access to entertainment and information however, whenever, and wherever they want it. That’s why the vibrant interactive advertising and marketing industry lends major fuel to the U.S. economy.”

“We are seeing continued signs of an improved economy and interactive advertising market,” said David Silverman, PwC Assurance partner. “The media industry —like the economy as a whole—saw tremendous challenges this past year, and uncertainty about the recovery remains. However, entering 2010 with such strong Q1 revenues is a sign of the health and vitality of online media, and of marketers’ continuing investment in interactive as a cornerstone of their advertising campaigns.”

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.

About PricewaterhouseCoopers

PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwc.com) provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. More than 163,000 people in 151 countries across our network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice.

The SMAC Board of Directors includes social media industry leaders; with representation from brands, social media publishers as well as digital and advertising agencies.

Current board members are Bonin Bough, Global Director of Digital & Social Media at PepsiCo; Stuart Bogaty, Vice President of Marketing at True Action; Heidi Browning, Chief Digital Officer at Universal McCann and Tom Gerace, CEO at Gather. New board members include:

Stephanie Agresta, Executive Vice President, Global Director of Digital Strategy and Social Media, Porter Novelli
Carter Brokaw, Chief Revenue Officer, Meebo
Gina Garrubbo, Executive Vice President, Blogher
Nichole Goodyear, CEO & Co-Founder, Brickfish
Joe Marchese, President, Socialvibe
Andy Markowitz, Director, Global Digital Strategy Group, GE
Scott Monty, Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager, Ford
Leslie Reiser, Director WW Digital Marketing, IBM
Bryan Rhoades, Director of Social & Emerging Media, Intel Corporation
Ian Schafer, CEO & Founder, Deep Focus
Shiv Singh, Vice President, Global Social Media Lead, Razorfish
Larry Weber, CEO of W2 Group and Eric Wheeler, CEO of 33Across are moving into Board Emeritus roles. Michael Barron, Esq., DLA Piper US LLP has been elected secretary of the board.

The announcement follows accolades for Brickfish including a Red Herring Global 100 Award and the OMMA Award for Best Viral Campaign. As Chair of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Social Media Buyer’s Guide Committee, Brickfish CEO and Co-Founder Nichole Goodyear also led the release of the industry’s first-ever “Social Media Buyer’s Guide” earlier this year.

“Since co-founding Brickfish in 2005, I’ve been dedicated to helping brands, agencies and publishers build viral social media programs that leverage user generated content and improve business performance via measurable social media conversations,” stated Ms. Nichole Goodyear, CEO and Co-Founder of Brickfish. “SMAC is at the forefront of the social media industry, leading the charge to scale, innovate and evolve the entire social media ecosystem with definitive standards, research, and measurement tools. I look forward to being part of the SMAC Board as the organization continues to find new and better ways for companies to increase engagement and grow revenues with social media.”

“We’re delighted to welcome Brickfish CEO and Co-Founder, Nichole Goodyear, to the SMAC Board,” said SMAC Founder and Chairman, Tom Gerace. “As an industry leader who has demonstrated commitment to return on customer engagement, Nichole will share unparalleled insights into social media activation and measurement. Her guidance will be invaluable as we work together to evangelize and develop standards for the industry.”

About Brickfish

Brickfish® is the performance-based Cost Per Engagement® (CPE®) social media solution that has generated 300 million consumer engagements and conversations for advertising agencies and Fortune 1000 marketing leaders like Microsoft and Nike. Its patent pending Viral Map® and Geo View technologies track reach, frequency, and viral activity in real time across the global Web. Brickfish is a Red Herring Global 100 winner and an OMMA Award winner for Best Viral Campaign.

Cost Per Engagement and CPE are registered trademarks of Brickfish.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – A new study of 90 organizations actively engaged in online marketing concludes that in spite of an acknowledged return on investment, hundreds of millions of dollars are being held back from online behavioral advertising (OBA) over concerns that a lack of consumer trust in the practice could damage brand reputation.

The study, Economic Impact of Privacy on Online Behavioral Advertising, conducted independently by the Ponemon Institute, found that although 70 percent of companies agreed that behaviorally targeted advertising substantially increases marketing and sales performance, and in spite of an overall favorable return, most companies surveyed have limited their online advertising budgets over privacy concerns. In fact, extrapolated results suggest that budgets would be as much as four times higher if not for these concerns.

Among the study’s noteworthy results:

98 percent of companies surveyed said they have restricted OBA because of privacy concerns;
63 percent of companies surveyed rated OBA as their most effective form of marketing; and,
Overall, companies surveyed reported under-spending on OBA budgets by 75 percent due to privacy concerns.
For the 90 companies benchmarked, the total amount not spent on OBA was $604.9 million.
“These numbers are disconcerting both in terms of the percentages and the potential economic impact,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute. “These data clearly indicate that, in spite of a belief that behavioral advertising is their most effective marketing channel, companies are holding back hundreds of millions of dollars from online marketing simply because of a lack of confidence that privacy concerns can be overcome”

As a result of the findings, the study concludes that companies are clearly concerned with the protection of consumer privacy and are sensitive to consumer unease with online behavioral advertising. The study recommends that advertisers, regulators, and privacy advocates work together to better address privacy concerns through improved disclosure models, consumer education, effective consent mechanisms and deployment of enabling technologies.

“If you can diminish the privacy concerns, money will flow into online behavioral advertising,” said Michael S. Zaneis, vice president for public policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau in an article that appeared in the New York Times Bits section. “It would be a lift for the entire industry.” That article appears here: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/privacy-concerns-limit-online-ads-study-says/?src=busln

Methodology

The Study, Economic Impact of Privacy on Online Behavioral Advertising, surveyed senior marketing executives from 90 organizations, representing 14 industries and with average annual revenue of $3.14 billion, operating in the United States. For a free copy of the study, please visit: www.ponemon.org.

About Ponemon Institute

The Ponemon Institute© is dedicated to advancing responsible information and privacy management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, the Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a variety of industries.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release of “Data Usage & Control Primer: Best Practices & Definitions,” a guide that explains in plain terms what data can be collected online and how that data should be collected, as well as providing a lexicon of commonly used terms and recommending a set of business-to-business best practices to foster transparency and cohesion throughout the interactive advertising industry.

Developed in conjunction with leaders from branded publisher sites, ad networks and data companies, the Primer:

- Outlines the mechanics of online behavioral advertising and data collection and identifies the parties currently participating in the industry
- Sets out a point of view of the advertising-selling community regarding the use, control and valuation of data
- Proposes business-to-business (B2B) best practices for data usage and control
- Assembles a comprehensive lexicon of interactive advertising data definitions

“This document is an invaluable resource for all areas of the ecosystem and it’s the first time any organization has tackled the task of defining the data landscape,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “Data is what makes interactive advertising work for everyone—marketers, agencies, publishers and most importantly, consumers.”

“‘The Data Usage & Control Primer’ is a collective effort to answer a need in our industry,” said Patrick Dolan, EVP, CAO, and IAB leader on the IAB Data Usage & Control Task Force. “It addresses and helps resolve the contractual and competitive challenges that surround data usage and collection within the interactive advertising industry.”

The Primer is the latest addition to the IAB’s efforts to increase transparency, improve data security and ensure that interactive channels remain open and viable places to do business for the myriad of parties involved in interactive advertising. In July 2009 the IAB joined the nation’s largest media and marketing trade associations in the release of “Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising” the industry’s most comprehensive self-regulatory guidelines on privacy in regards to the collection and use of consumer data. While the Privacy Principles address consumer privacy, the Primer was created with a specific focus on the B2B aspects of the use of data in digital advertising and marketing.

“Data Usage & Control Primer: Principles & Definitions” can be found on the IAB website at: http://iab.net/data_primer

About the IAB’s Data Usage and Control Taskforce:

The Data Taskforce was created to define the data landscape as it exists today and to suggest a set of recommended B2B best practices to guide the collection and use of data by all parties in the marketplace, consistent with the laws and regulations and the self-regulatory standards that apply.

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.

IRVINE, Calif. – WebVisible (www.webvisible.com) announced that online advertising and search veteran Jon Rosen has joined as Chief Revenue Officer, to lead the company’s continued expansion of its revenue channels and partnerships worldwide. Rosen will be responsible for direct and channel sales, and marketing for the company.

Rosen has more than 25 years’ experience driving revenue, business development and marketing teams for leading public and private companies. He was an early pioneer in search marketing when, in 1998, he was the founding president of the leading SEM firm, iProspect. The agency was the first to develop sophisticated, successful search advertising campaigns for Fortune 500 companies. Rosen took the company from inception to become the recognized leader in large-scale search marketing services.

For the past 11 years, Rosen has focused on interactive media, managing Internet advertising and search for companies ranging from successful startups to global media companies including the search division at America Online (NYSE: AOL).

Prior to WebVisible, Rosen was the executive director for strategy and business development at AOL Search, which included AOL local search. He architected several high-value acquisitions and partnerships and developed America Online’s SEM and SEO division. Rosen also served as a corporate officer for Autobytel (Nasdaq: ABTL) – one of the largest automotive search advertisers and online properties – where he led business development, advertising sales and operations, partner acquisition and search marketing. At Spot Runner, a well-known local advertising innovator, Rosen ran the company’s online, search and local business.

Rosen also has served in search advisory and committee roles for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Doubleclick, Market Hardware (acquired by IAC), search software company SearchForce, Vacanza (Purchased by Mountain Reservations) and video search engine MeFeedia.

“WebVisible is experiencing tremendous growth, and we’ve brought on several executives in the last year that have proven scale and innovation resources,” said Kirsten Mangers, WebVisible CEO. “Jon has been at the forefront of search and online marketing since the early days, and he brings to WebVisible a wealth of expertise and market insight. He has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to chart a course and reach the destination, and we’re excited about his vision for how he can help WebVisible continue to grow and enhance the services we provide to local advertisers.”

“This is a very special group of people here at WebVisible – a team of professionals who truly care about helping local businesses achieve success,” said Rosen. “The devotion and years of innovation have led to an undisputed leadership in bringing search and online advertising to the local market and the channel partners that serve them. We’re in the midst of an exciting time for both WebVisible and local interactive advertising.”

About WebVisible, Inc.

WebVisible makes it easy for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) to be found online, where and how customers are looking. The leading provider of local online marketing products and services since 2001, WebVisible was among the first to pioneer the use of search as a reliable, measurable avenue to connect directly with a buyer’s needs. The company has helped more than 100,000 SMB customers from more than 4,000 industries in 14 countries to create innovative and accountable Internet advertising campaigns. SMBs partner with WebVisible directly and through its many partner companies, including Intuit, AT&T, British Telecom and The New York Times Company. WebVisible is based in Irvine, Calif. For more information, visit www.webvisible.com or call 949-255-9677.

NEW YORK – Advancing the self-regulatory efforts of the digital advertising and marketing industry, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) released the CLEAR  Ad Notice Technical Specifications, a set of common technical standards enabling enhanced notice in online ads. These technical specifications will allow advertisers and ad networks to begin offering a clickable icon in or near online ads that directs users to additional information about online behavioral advertising and choices about such ads.

The icon-based approach to enhanced consumer notice was outlined in the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising, which were released in July 2009 by a coalition of associations—American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Direct Marketing Association (DMA), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Council for Better Business Bureaus (BBB).

“Transparency and notice are critical to creating a safe and enjoyable consumer experience,” said Mike Zaneis, Vice President, Public Policy of the IAB. “These specifications will allow third-party ad servers to seamlessly integrate the icon so that consumers have access to more information when they are being served an ad based on their interests and behaviors.”

The CLEAR Ad Notice Technical Specifications detail how third-party media companies, such as advertising networks, can provide enhanced notice to consumers through an industry-standard set of metadata tags that are delivered along with behaviorally targeted advertisements.

Those metadata tags include information on which organization(s) served the ad, where to find their advertising policies and how to opt-out of such targeting in the future.

“The metadata infrastructure proposed in this specification provides a sound technical foundation for informative notice about behavioral advertising, while giving publishers, advertisers and ad networks the flexibility to adopt innovative approaches to consumer disclosure,” said Charles Curran, Executive Director of the NAI. “We look forward to working with the IAB and other leading industry associations to support implementation of enhanced notice to consumers.”

The CLEAR Ad Notice Technical Specifications were developed to:

Meet the third-party requirements set forth in July 2009 as part of the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising released in July 2009 by the cross-industry Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising Working Group
Provide enough flexibility for future expansion as the online advertising industry matures
Be open such that publishers, browser developers, tool developers or any other party can easily take advantage of the information presented to the user and find new ways to communicate this information.
The CLEAR Ad Notice Technical Specifications can be found at: www.iab.net/clear.

It is important to note that these technical specifications are intended for third-party media companies. There are separate requirements set forth in the Self-Regulatory Principles concerning first-party notice on publishers’ own websites, such as an independent link in the footer of a web page (e.g. “About Our Ads”). Publishers should refer to the Principles document for specific first-party guidance.

To view that document, please go to www.iab.net/behavioral-advertisingprinciples.

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.

About the NAI:

The NAI (Network Advertising Initiative) is a coalition of more than 40 leading online marketing companies committed to building consumer awareness and reinforcing responsible business and data management practices and standards, and which includes all ten of the largest online advertising networks in the United States. Its initiatives are piloted by a cooperative of the most significant online advertising companies including Akamai, AOL Advertising, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, AlmondNet, AudienceScience, BlueKai, Media6degrees, SpecificMEDIA and 24/7 Real Media. As increasingly sophisticated online advertising technologies evolve, the NAI works to enhance consumer confidence through effective self-regulatory practices and user choice. To learn more, visit www.networkadvertising.org.

NEW YORK – Online video advertising company ScanScout (www.scanscout.com) announced full support for the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) and Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions (VPAID) video ad standards, providing streamlined delivery and distribution of ad inventory for advertisers and publishers.

ScanScout worked with video ad management platforms FreeWheel and LiveRail during the adoption of the VAST and VPAID standards. This joint effort provides a welcome solution for advertisers to the efficiency challenges of publisher fragmentation, and the difficulty they face tracking metrics across different sites.

“The push within the video ad industry toward VAST and VPAID compliance eases the implementation of video ad campaigns for publishers and advertisers,” said Jason Krebs, executive vice president of ScanScout. “We are happy to report that all of ScanScout’s ad formats are VAST and VPAID compliant as we lead the industry toward adoption of these standards.”

Leading Adoption of Industry Standards

The IAB’s VAST and VPAID standards were devised to ease the distribution of all advertisers’ ad units, simplify delivery of video ad campaigns to publishers and create a universal system of communication between video ads and video players. Until now, every video ad campaign required individual implementations with the ad source. Now, a VPAID ad is easily distributed to any publisher or ad management platform that is VPAID-compliant, removing the need for publishers and platforms to perform special integrations in order to accept ads from difference sources.

In addition to wins seen by publishers and advertisers, compliance with both standards will benefit vendors that provide ad management tools and serve ads sold by internal teams as well as accept ads from other sources.

The IAB standards have been put in place to ensure optimal placement and performance as a result of a more expansive range of video inventory. As the video ad industry continues to grow, publishers and platforms compliant with VAST and VPAID will generate a greater revenue stream, in addition to benefiting from the streamlined delivery process.

“Brand advertisers have embraced digital video as a powerful way to reach attractive audiences,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB.) “VAST and VPAID improve the process of serving digital video ads which will allow for this platform to continue to grow. We’re pleased that as an IAB member, ScanScout has been such an active and vocal advocate of these important developments in digital video ad standards.”

ScanScout’s compliance reinforces the importance of the industry standards that the IAB has brought to video advertising in recent years. As adoption increases, VAST and VPAID implementation challenges that currently exist will be eliminated.

About ScanScout

ScanScout, the leading in-stream video advertising provider, connects advertisers and consumers while maximizing brand impact and delivering unmatched transparency and measurability. Utilizing proprietary technology that ensures precision targeting, real-time optimization and peerless brand protection, ScanScout delivers exceptional brand engagement throughout the entire video-viewing experience. Partners include more than 1,000 premium and niche sites like Warner Brothers, NBC, RealNetworks and Fox News. For more information, please visit: www.scanscout.com.

NEW YORK – ADTECH, a leading provider of ad serving technology and part of AOL Advertising, has announced that its ad serving solution now complies with the IAB’s (Interactive Advertising Bureau) expanded VAST 2.0 video standards. The objective of VAST is to manage, target and report on online video advertising running via a third-party ad server, as is currently being done for banner advertising. ADTECH implemented the VAST 1.0 into its technology in early October 2008. Now that the update to VAST 2.0 is complete, ADTECH’s ad servers support both standards.

ADTECH CEO Dirk Freytag emphasizes his company’s standardization efforts: “For us it is a given that we are involved in the development of standards and that we expeditiously implement them into practical applications once they become available. Video ads already make up over five percent of the ads we deliver globally. We are closing more and more accounts whose video ad impression volume is growing, in keeping with the industry.” He adds: “In this growth market, standards are the best foundation to generate trust, transparency and more technical choices.”

The IAB published the expanded video standards under the name VAST 2.0 in the United States at the end of 2009. This was preceded by several months of discussion of the standards by leading technology providers, such as ADTECH. In the past three months, ADTECH’s video product team has worked hard to adapt the communication and data exchange between ad servers and video players to meet the new standards. ADTECH’s clients are using players such as the Brightcove 3, JW players, flow players and Ooyala.

A detailed description of the VAST standard can be downloaded from the IAB website (www.iab.net).

About ADTECH

ADTECH is an international supplier of digital marketing solutions and is AOL Advertising’s ad serving platform. The company’s flagship product is an integrated ad server solution that enables web publishers, ad networks, agencies and advertisers to manage, serve and evaluate virtually any kind of online advertising campaign including display, video and mobile formats. ADTECH’s solution differentiates itself from the competition through its scalable, enterprise-class infrastructure and user-friendly tools, providing users with increased efficiency, reliability and ROI for their online advertising business. ADTECH customers include major players like BSkyB, Hi-media, Gannett and Fox Networks. ADTECH AG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL Inc.

About AOL

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a leading global Web services company with an extensive suite of brands and offerings and a substantial worldwide audience. AOL’s business spans online content, products and services that the company offers to consumers, publishers and advertisers. AOL is focused on attracting and engaging consumers and providing valuable online advertising services on both AOL’s owned and operated properties and third-party websites. In addition, AOL operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services in the United States, which serves as a valuable distribution channel for AOL’s consumer offerings.

CARLSBAD, Calif. – In a move that standardizes the information networks and exchanges provide to advertisers, enhances buyer control over placement and context, and builds brand safety, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released “Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines” for public comment.

These guidelines provide full understanding of the sources and types of inventory offered, and the context and content surrounding advertising. The IAB announced these guidelines at its third Annual Leadership Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: Revenue the Next Wave, in Carlsbad, California, where leaders across the digital media landscape have converged to address the most critical issues facing the industry.

“Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines” outline concrete measures that will allow for standardizing the buying and selling of advertising inventory in networks and exchanges and provide greater brand safety assurances to marketers and agencies. The guidelines:

- Allow for transparency of inventory sources, publisher relationships, content levels and ad placement details
- Provide universally defined content categories for advertisers
- Require that networks and exchanges rate content for audience segments
- Outline data disclosure terms for off-site behavioral targeting and third-party data
- Provide for mandatory IAB training of appointed compliance officers in each certified network or exchange
- Include a list of terms and definitions for targeting and data that will help eliminate confusion

“These guidelines are the first of their kind in the U.S., and we believe they will go a long way to building more marketplace trust,” said David J. Moore, Chairman and Founder, 24/7 Real Media, and Chairman of the Board of the IAB. “Networks and ad exchanges have transformed how advertisers can deliver targeted messaging to consumers and these guidelines further secure the promise of this extraordinary marketing resource.”

“‘The Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines’ represent a watershed moment in the ability of the marketplace to fully leverage the value of inventory placed on networks and exchanges. For the first time, there are definitions, standards and practices that will yield significant choice and brand safety when buying on networks and exchanges,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP, Industry Services, IAB. “Advertisers will have a high degree of confidence that consumers will get the right messages within the right environments and that’s what interactive media is all about.”

“The IAB is continuing the process of improving transparency and accountability through issuing these Network and Exchange Guidelines,” said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of the Media Rating Council. “The self-certification program outlined in the Guidelines represents a step forward in ensuring an appropriate contextual understanding surrounding network/exchange advertising, patterned after examples of existing processes for similar situations such as the Safe Harbor Program maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The IAB has expanded upon these existing examples by requiring certain self-certification training and periodic testing which will help provide assurance to advertising buyers and their Network and Exchange partners.”

The public comment period for the guidelines will remain open until Friday, March 26, 2010.

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.

“Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines” and public comment survey can be found on the IAB website at: http://www.iab.net/ne_guidelines.

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.