LOS ANGELES, NAA MediaXchange – the Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global ad network optimization, reveals specific insights into the huge revenue opportunity for Premium News publishers online with ad networks. This knowledge comes from optimizing more than 150 billion impressions, 18 billion of which have been for 150 Premium News category publishers to date, including 8 of the top 15 newspaper publishers in the U.S.

Inventory opportunities from ad networks are proving a reliable – and growing – source of revenue as newspaper and media companies navigate the bumpy terrain of re-structuring organizations and experimenting with digital ad strategies. The Premium News category is one of the Rubicon Project’s fastest growing, with more than 8 billion ads served already in Q1 2009 (a 20% increase from total category impressions served in Q4 2008). Revenue within the Premium News segment across the Rubicon Project is trending upward even more dramatically – the company’s optimization technology has driven 80% more dollars for Premium News publishers in the first two months of Q1 versus the same portion of Q4.

Highlights from the Premium News segment:
Default Killer™ technology stopped 715 million default ads from reaching premium news publishers in 2008 – boosting the revenue delivered via those ads more than 200%;
One news publisher boosted CPMs 115% since adding ad network optimization to its ad sales channel strategy;
One news customer reaped the benefits of access to SmartMatch™ ad networks in December, when they experienced unexpected traffic swings. Working with the Rubicon Project, this major newspaper site was able to scale revenue with traffic, keep fill rates and ad quality high, resulting in an extra $38,000 in revenue for the month – all without lifting a finger.
For another news publisher, the Rubicon Project is tracking to deliver $2 million in ‘found money’ revenue in 2009.

“Our sites were introduced to 25 additional ad networks through Rubicon’s SmartMatch™ technology with no extra work on our part. This frees up our sales and ad operations team to focus on premium advertising deals,” said John Hoeft, Vice President of Online and Interactive Sales, MediaNews Group Interactive. “Access to new ad networks ensures fill rates and CPMs stay high, an important benefit of on-demand fulfillment of sudden influxes of traffic. We have to make every impression count — the Rubicon Project helps us do that.”

the Rubicon Project is the only company in the industry to bring new relevant buyers to premium publishers. The SmartMatch™ technology powers the process by analyzing each impression based on hundreds of criteria including, demography, geography and content, to determine the ad network that will deliver the optimal money-making opportunity. For one premium news publisher, 74% of their online ad revenue is derived from new opportunities the Rubicon Project brings through its SmartMatch™ technology.

The Web’s largest publishers feel safe working with the Rubicon Project to deliver new revenue because of the company’s Brand Protection measures, ensuring that the transactions that come through the Rubicon Project from ad networks meet premium publishers’ brand safety demands.

“The Rubicon Project is a terrific partner with Freedom Interactive in detecting ads on our ‘block’ lists, which helps us maintain a high standard of ad quality,” said Peter Chang, Director, Analytics and Business Operations at Freedom Interactive. “We also realize significant time savings by utilizing the Rubicon Project’s aggregated reporting, which allows Freedom Interactive to focus on increasing our customer base across our ad networks. In addition this time savings also helps us dedicate more time to our direct sales efforts.”

“Every publisher wants to optimally monetize all of their traffic for maximum revenue but without a proper ad network channel management strategy it’s near impossible, “ said Frank Addante, CEO and Founder of the Rubicon Project. “Working with us helps our customers focus on their core competency — creating engaging content and user experiences — while we focus on building and maintaining a robust ad network channel management program that directly contributes to their bottom line.”

Premium Web publishers who Demand More From Unsold Ad Space should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

About the Rubicon Project
Based in Los Angeles, the Rubicon Project launched in 2007 on a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry. Responding to one of the largest problems plaguing website publishers today – monetizing ad space that goes unsold (as much as 70 – 80 percent) across a fast-growing number of global ad networks – the Rubicon Project pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization (ANO). Backed by $22 million in funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, and IDG Ventures, the Rubicon Project developed its patent-pending Smart Matching™ technology, which uses billions of pieces of proprietary market data to match each publisher ad impression to the best money-making opportunities from ad networks.

The company serves 1300 premium customers (publishers like Gannett, Salon, Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive and American Greetings) by optimizing more than 30 billion ads each month across more than 300 top ad networks. Reaching more than 250 million unique Internet users, the Rubicon Project is one of the largest sources of ad inventory and reach on the Internet and the preferred source of targeted, audience-segmented inventory for ad networks around the world. The unique combination of ad network optimization and Smart Matching™ technology drives revenue lift ranging from 30-300% for the Rubicon Project’s customers.

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

Demand for rich media continues to expand rapidly, with industry analyst Screen Digest projecting that the market will reach $2.79 billion by 2012*. The mobile video market also continues to grow, with The Nielsen Company reporting 24% annual growth in subscriptions to mobile video, increasing to 16.4 million customers in Q3 2008**. Additionally, the growing ubiquity of mobile handsets with multimedia support is central to driving rich media demand. Advertisers, logically, are turning their attention to rich media to reach mobile users in a meaningful and impactful manner.

“As we build on our leadership position as the premier provider of interactive digital advertising, it is essential that we continue to expand the display devices we serve,” said John Vincent, CEO of EyeWonder, Inc. “Integration with Ringleader Digital provides us with a powerful gateway to the untapped mobile rich media advertising market.”

“iPhones and other leading-edge smart phones are enabling users to enjoy the full benefits of rich media, which is creating new avenues to reach mobile consumers,” said Bob Walczak, CEO of Ringleader Digital. “We are excited to partner with EyeWonder, one of the leaders in the space, to offer dynamic and engaging rich media ad solutions for advertisers and publishers. Our third-party On-Demand Network enables rapid integration with technologies from EyeWonder and other industry leaders while also providing the true access to any publisher across any mobile ad environment.”

Ringleader Digital’s third-party ad serving network enables rapid integration with leading-edge technologies and new applications that will continue to enhance mobile advertising which in turn enables brands and agencies to extend their advertisements to mobile while also maintaining a dashboard view of both mobile and online advertising campaigns.

About Ringleader Digital

As the next-generation mobile advertising network, Ringleader Digital brings the online advertising experience to mobile—fulfilling the potential and promise of the mobile Web. Ringleader’s device-agnostic network is the only third-party mobile ad service, and is the first to specifically target ads by device functionality. Ringleader simplifies advertising transactions and delivery by providing brands and publishers the ability to seamlessly and simultaneously distribute ad campaigns across any mobile digital platform. With this unprecedented control, publishers maximize the revenue potential for ad campaigns while brands and advertisers can finally track and audit every element of a campaign’s effectiveness. Ringleader is based in New York City. For more information please visit www.ringleaderdigital.com.

About EyeWonder, Inc.

EyeWonder, Inc., is the pioneering interactive digital advertising provider, extending the reach of online rich media and interactive video ads to digital device displays. Through its superior technology, products and services, EyeWonder empowers advertisers, advertising agencies and content publishers with the ability to create, build, deliver, track and optimize interactive advertising campaigns proven to drive industry-leading results. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., EyeWonder Inc., has domestic offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles and Detroit. International offices are located in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Australia. For more information on the company’s interactive digital advertising solutions or its global office network, please visit http://www.eyewonder.com.

*“Mobile Media Advertising Opportunities: The Market for Advertising on TV, Video, and Games,” Screen Digest, April 2008

**“Tuned into the Phone: Mobile Video Use in the U.S. and Abroad,” The Nielsen Company, January 2009

LOS ANGELES – Break Media, the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men, announced the launch of an innovative Web 2.0 NASCAR enthusiast site, All Left Turns. The new site will offer a fresh spin on the daily news, race analysis, driver interviews and profiles, rumors and cutting-edge commentary, all with an informed opinion and Break’s trademark sense of humor.

All Left Turns was developed by and for NASCAR fans who crave an online community to celebrate the racers, racetracks and the fans themselves. Users will be able to live vicariously through other users as people upload photos from race-day, create fan pages and interact through forums. Break has hired seasoned sports writer Stephen Thomas as Managing Editor to provide in-depth editorial coverage as well. Thomas has covered NASCAR for Sports Illustrated, CNNSI.com, FOXSports.com, and has written numerous articles for both ESPN The Magazine and Sporting News.

“Our proprietary research of men 18-34 clearly indicated that there was a huge endemic audience for NASCAR,” said Keith Richman, CEO of Break Media. “We developed All Left Turns to not only meet that need, but to provide the young NASCAR fan a true interactive community.”

The new Web site provides Break Media additional opportunities to distribute relevant premium content to millions of unique viewers per month while simultaneously opening a new channel for advertisers to reach niche NASCAR fanatics, who worldwide spend about $3 billion on licensed products alone. All Left Turns continues to build Break Media’s network of sports sites that already feature almost 100 entertainment, gaming, lifestyle, humor, music, and technology websites.

For the latest on All Left Turns, please visit http://www.allleftturns.com/ or for information on Break Media properties, please visit http://breakmedia.break.com/.

About Break Media:

Break Media is the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men. Break Media consists of wholly owned branded properties such as Break.com, Cage Potato, Chickipedia, Holy Taco, Wall Street Fighter, Screen Junkies and All Left Turns as well as a publisher network, the Break Media Network, that counts over 100 member sites. Between these two channels, Break Media reaches over 60 million men worldwide on a monthly basis. Founded in 1998, Break Media offers advertisers unique opportunities to market directly to a young, male demographic through innovative ad formats that introduce relevant brands to the audience on a targeted, integrated basis. For more information, please visit http://breakmedia.break.com/.

LOS ANGELES – the Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global ad network optimization, divulges noteworthy market data and industry trends in the Q4 edition of the 2008 Online Advertising Market Report series. From its independent third-party position between ad networks and Website publishers, the Rubicon Project provides a unique and un-biased perspective of the changing Internet advertising landscape.

“The end of 2008 demonstrated, stronger than ever, the need for innovation in Internet advertising. The industry’s long and short-term survival depends on adapting and integrating digital solutions, especially ad strategies,” said Frank Addante, CEO and Founder. “Amidst the screaming headlines of a crashing ad industry, report after report talked of digital media being the one bright spot. We experienced 30% revenue growth in Q4 across our entire publisher base, the majority of the revenue was derived from the Internet’s largest publishers including media and entertainment. There is enormous opportunity ahead for this industry for those who choose to take it and innovate.”

The company, which is optimizing ads for mid-large publishing customers at the current pace of 25 billion per month, based its analysis for the Q4 Report on the 44 billion impressions served (up about 60 percent from Q3) for the Web’s top publishers across 300 ad networks. Q4 Market Report highlights include:

A changing industry

* Despite the overall job slowdown in the advertising industry, the online sector was the one bright spot. Driven by growth at Internet media companies and web-search portals, in December employment reached its highest level since 2002.
* All told, VC firms and private companies invested $134 million in ad network-related deals in Q4, up nearly 18 percent from the previous quarter.
* CPMs remained flat vs. Q3, down less than 3 percent from Q3 rates (these rates were up nearly 38 percent over Q2); and though they fell by almost 40 percent in some verticals, they jumped by more than 50 percent in others.

Internet dominates

* Internet overtook traditional channels for holiday shopping and as a news source as hungry readers turned to the Web for political info – one of the most notable elections in American history – to the benefit of news sites who were able to turn traffic influxes into real revenue (example within report).

News & Reference

* Average CPMs in the News & Reference vertical were up nearly 17 percent from Q3;
* Traffic to online news outlets jumped 27 percent the first week of Election day with page views doubling. Publishers equipped to deal with the traffic saw better performance;
* A Rubicon Project premium news publisher was able to capitalize on a sudden influx of traffic resulting in a 587 percent spike in ad impressions without a drop in fill rate or CPMs (graph 1).

The emerging metric to gauge growth: CPM + Total Revenue

* Traffic to the Rubicon Project’s Entertainment channel grew by more than 75 percent;
* While average CPMs trended downward in Entertainment due to a flood of inventory, publishers didn’t suffer — overall revenue rose by more than 70 percent for the channel;
* Publishers saw 1.9 times the revenue growth of Q3, for 70% revenue growth — that’s considering they had 2.4x, or 78% more, available inventory (graph 2).

To access the full Q4 Online Advertising Market Report, as well as past published reports for free, visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com/product/market-report.

About the Rubicon Project

Based in Los Angeles, the Rubicon Project launched in 2007 on a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry. Responding to one of the largest problems plaguing website publishers today – monetizing ad space that goes unsold (as much as 70 – 80 percent) across a fast-growing number of global ad networks – the Rubicon Project pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization (ANO). Backed by $22 million in funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, and IDG Ventures, the Rubicon Project developed its patent-pending Smart Matching™ technology, which uses billions of pieces of proprietary market data to match each publisher ad impression to the best money-making opportunities from ad networks.

The company serves 1300 premium customers (publishers like Gannett, Salon, Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive and American Greetings) by optimizing more than 15 billion ads each month across more than 300 top ad networks. Reaching more than 250 million unique Internet users, the Rubicon Project is one of the largest sources of ad inventory and reach on the Internet and the preferred source of targeted, audience-segmented inventory for ad networks around the world. The unique combination of ad network optimization and Smart Matching™ technology drives revenue lift ranging from 30-300% for the Rubicon Project’s customers.

Web sites who Demand More From Unsold Ad Space should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank’s blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/

“This is the next stage of growth for our company. We intend to capture a significant share of the market with our strategy, a great product and a better execution of the campaigns. We offer a highly differentiated alternative to the existing large players in the mature markets and are willing to go the extra mile of servicing the clients through managed execution of campaigns to deliver significantly better results at no additional cost,” said Terry Uppal, President and CEO of the company.

ZestADZ has seen tremendous demand in international campaigns in the last few months and this demand has fueled enormous growth in both traffic and revenues.

About mobile-worx:

mobile-worx is a leading mobile 2.0 company and provides innovative mobile advertising and marketing solutions. mobile-worx has offices in Chennai, Mumbai (Bombay), Los Angeles and Kuala Lumpur.

NEW YORK – AOL’s MediaGlow publishing division announced its sites saw record growth1 in January, with page views climbing 47% year-over-year to reach 7 billion and total minutes increasing 39% to 4.9 million.

In addition, the recently reinvented AOL.com, which opened the site to third-party content, e-mail, social networks and more in 2008, grew 5% in page views, 12% in unique visitors, 33% in total minutes — achieving an all-time high2 — and 6% in total visits year-over-year.

AOL announced the formation of MediaGlow in January, centralizing AOL’s publishing efforts with the goal of expanding AOL’s efforts to reach targeted audiences and expanding AOL’s global reach. MediaGlow announced plans to launch 30 targeted sites in 2009.

“MediaGlow has started 2009 by reaching its largest audience to date and building core brands that are at scale. By leaning into the fragmentation of the Web, we are creating valuable brands that are driving engagement and attracting a larger audience,” said Bill Wilson, President, MediaGlow. “Our growth signals that consumers are actively engaging with our original content that focuses on people’s passion points and that we are providing advertisers with unique and valuable solutions and opportunities to reach a highly engaged audience.”

In January, MediaGlow launched its first targeted site of the year, FanHouse, http://www.fanhouse.com, which replaces AOL Sports as the main sports destination for AOL, targeting males 18-34. AOL Sports saw page views grow 33% and total minutes increase 4% year over year, according to January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data.

BlackVoices.com, http://www.blackvoices.com, and AOL News, http://www.news.aol.com, also saw significant growth in January, in part because of expansive coverage of the presidential inauguration. BlackVoices saw page views climb 181%, unique visitors grow 53% and total minutes increase 83% year over year, according to January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data. AOL News saw page views climb 82%, unique visitors grow 16% and total minutes increase 22% year over year.

The AOL Living network, http://www.living.aol.com, which comprises a core group of women’s interest sites, started the year with strong growth. AOL Health, http://www.aolhealth.com, kicked off its 2009 America Takes It Off Campaign and saw page views grow 132% and total minutes increase 53% year over year. StyleList.com, http://www.stylelist.com, grew page views 1,913%, unique visitors 718% and total minutes 1,787% year over year. AOL Home, http://home.aol.com, grew page views 271%, unique visitors 84% and total minutes 139% year over year.

Engadget, the Official Blog of the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in January, also saw record numbers for the month with 75% growth in page views, 105% growth in unique visitors and 156% growth in total minutes, year over year.3

January also marked one full year since the launch of Asylum, http://www.asylum.com, which quickly became the leading men’s site, a custom-built category, and has seen 172% year over year growth in page views, 94% growth in unique visitors and 106% growth in total minutes.

In addition to growth within MediaGlow, AOL experienced growth in its product offerings. For example, AOL’s leading video search engine, Truveo, saw year-over-year increases of 209% in unique visitors and 239% in pages views, according to the January 2009 comScore Media Metrix report, due in part to the January release of an updated version of its free downloadable application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.

Many AOL sites continue to appear in the top five in their categories for unique visitors, according to January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data:

* #1 Music: Music, http://music.aol.com
* #1 Television: Television, http://television.aol.com
* #2 Maps: MapQuest, http://mapquest.com
* #2 IM: AIM, http://www.aim.com
* #2 Business- News/Research: Money & Finance, http://money.aol.com
* #2 Home: AOL Home, http://home.aol.com
* #2 Entertainment-News: TMZ, http://tmz.com
* #2 Email: AOL Email, http://webmail.aol.com
* #3 Technology: AOL Tech, http://switched.com and http://engadget.com
* #3 Movies: Moviefone.com, http://moviefone.com
* #3 Real Estate: Real Estate, http://realestate.aol.com
* #3 Health: Health, http://aolhealth.com
* #3 Lifestyles: AOL Living, http://living.aol.com
* #4 News: News, http://news.aol.com
* #4 Radio: Radio, http://aolradio.com
* #5 Autos: AOL Autos, http://autos.aol.com
* #5 Sports: AOL Sports, http://sports.aol.com
* #5 Search: Search Network, http://search.aol.com
* #5 Food: Food, http://food.aol.com
* #5 Greetings: Greetings, http://greetings.aol.com
* #5 Local: AOL Local, http://cityguide.aol.com
* #5 Weather: AOL Weather, http://weather.aol.com

The following MediaGlow sites also rank in the top five in their AOL custom-built categories for unique visitors, according to January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data:

* #1 African American: BlackVoices, http://blackvoices.com
* #1 Country Music Site: TheBoot, http://theboot.com
* #1 Hip-Hop Music: The BoomBox, http://theboombox.com
* #1 Men: Asylum, http://asylum.com
* #1 Style: StyleList, http://stylelist.com
* #1 Women’s Blogs: Lemondrop, http://www.lemondrop.com
* #1 Rock Music Site: Spinner, http://www.spinner.com
* #2 Horoscopes: Horoscopes, http://horoscopes.aol.com
* #3 Latino: Latino, http://latino.aol.com
* #3 Web Culture: Urlesque, http://www.urlesque.com
* #4 Homepages: AOL Homepages, http://www.aol.com

In addition, MediaGlow brands are increasingly seen as leading authorities on the Web, with 25 MediaGlow sites listed as Technorati’s Top 100 sites ranked by authority for the last six months:

* #2 Engadget, http://www.engadget.com
* #9 BloggingStocks, http://www.bloggingstocks.com
* #11 Gadling, http://www.gadling.com
* #12 ParentDish, http://www.parentdish.com
* #13 WalletPop, http://www.walletpop.com
* #16 Cinematical, http://www.cinematical.com
* #16 TMZ, http://tmz.com
* #17 JoyStiq, http://www.joystiq.com
* #20 TV Squad, http://www.tvsquad.com
* #21 TUAW, http://www.tuaw.com
* #23 Download Squad, http://www.downloadsquad.com
* #24 WOW Insider, http://www.wowinsider.com
* #26 SlashFood, http://www.slashfood.com
* #29 AutoBlog, http://www.autoblog.com
* #30 Stylelist, http://www.stylelist.com/blog
* #30 Switched, http://www.switched.com
* #32 Lemondrop, http://www.lemondrop.com
* #33 Massively, http://www.massively.com
* #36 Luxist, http://www.luxist.com
* #42 Asylum, http://asylum.com
* #57 BlackVoices, http://blackvoices.com/blogs
* #61 Engadget Mobile, http://www.engadgetmobile.com
* #61 Spinner, http://www.spinner.com
* #72 Engadget HD, http://www.engadgethd.com
* #74 AutoBlog Green, http://www.autobloggreen.com

About MediaGlow

MediaGlow, AOL’s publishing business unit formed in early 2009, centralizes AOL’s programming efforts, including AOL.com, AOL’s content verticals and commerce and marketplace channels, dozens of niche sites, and state-of-the-art studios in Los Angeles and New York City. In all, MediaGlow operates more than 70 sites and now attracts more than 70 million unique visitors each month4, according to comScore Media Metrix. It plans to launch more than 30 new sites in 2009. MediaGlow, along with AOL’s advertising business, Platform-A, and its social media business, People Networks, represent the three core businesses for AOL.

1 Record growth is based on comScore Media Metrix data from January 2007 to January 2009.

2 All-time high in minutes for AOL.com is based on comScore Media Metrix data from January 2007 to January 2009.

3 Record numbers for Engadget.com are based on comScore Media Metrix data from January 2007 to January 2009.

4 Since October 2007

LOS ANGELES – PhaseOne Communications, a leading Los Angeles-based research consultancy, defies convention with its unique analytical method that forecasts content effectiveness with pinpoint accuracy to provide improved communications and brand affinity for its clients.

In the U.S., organizations spend more than $150 billion annually on advertising. The advertising spend worldwide is expected to reach $500 billion by 2010, according to recent reports. As consumers become increasingly distracted by a constant barrage of television commercials, print ads and Internet banners, organizations have the growing challenge of reaching their audience with impactful messages amidst a tight economy and shrinking marketing and advertising budgets.

“The current environment has forced advertisers to campaign more wisely, with added pressure on getting their communications right the first time,” said PhaseOne Communications Chairman and CEO Jody Moxham.

“Advertisers are wary of taking risks and need higher assurance that their strategies are effectively and efficiently communicated. Usually, they begin with traditional methods, which involve scoring and feedback to test what elements of an ad best support the brand. Unlike the traditional method of learning ‘after the fact,’ our analysis is really valuable early in the process—prior to a launch—by forecasting consumer behavior and offering actionable communication solutions to resolve messaging issues before they hit the marketplace thereby increasing the odds for success.

“Right now advertisers can’t afford to wait and test a produced ad only to find it has failed to impact the audience and then be forced to start again. We partner with our clients to help them to select the strongest ideas and then work to perfect it,” she added.

While the PhaseOne methodology is based on a deeply-centered understanding of consumer behavior, the firm does not directly consult consumer opinion in its communications diagnosis. For more than 20 years, Moxham and her team of analysts, communications specialists and researchers have been refining and expanding a knowledge base that serves clients in diverse cultural and business markets around the world.

PhaseOne examines 297 different factors that influence the communications’ performance. With the ability to assess clients’ communications messages at various stages ranging from rough concepts to already produced advertising, PhaseOne’s analysts are able to determine which factors in the communications successfully drive performance and which factors are hindrances. The results of this process give the brand actionable steps to improve their communications effectiveness with the target audience.

PhaseOne helped a top brand introduction exceed sales goals. Its client in the consumer-packaged-goods industry introduced a new genre of product under an existing brand name that had a reputation for being non-innovative and dated. The advertisement needed to introduce the new product, overcome/change the reputation of the brand and reshape consumer behavior. The PhaseOne team helped the client and its ad agency to select and refine the advertisements that best aligned with the client’s strategy to introduce the product, create awareness for it, and drive sales. The overall result was that the advertisements’ success contributed to $100 million in sales during the product’s first year. Moreover, the new product was recognized by BrandWeek as a top brand introduction for that year.

About PhaseOne Communications

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, PhaseOne Communications is a specialized research consultancy serving the communications needs of clients worldwide. PhaseOne transcends the conventions of market and communications research by bringing a validated methodology that breaks with tradition to accurately forecast target audience response and understanding across all cultures. In partnership with clients through hands-on collaboration, PhaseOne expertly melds the art and science of persuasion, bringing not only academic rigor, but also artistic sensibilities to its in-depth understanding of communications and targeted messaging for maximum impact. This PhaseOne precision guided communications process enables clients to achieve their business goals by getting their communications right the first time – and every time. More information about PhaseOne Communications is available at www.phaseone.net.

San Mateo, California – February 17, 2009 – Jivox, the online video advertising service that helps small and medium-sized businesses reach local customers, today announced general availability of Jivox 4.0, the next major release of its popular online video advertising platform. Jivox 4.0 delivers click-to-action interactivity features that encourage viewers to take action without leaving a video; a first-of-its-kind Video Engagement Score that assigns a value to those interactions as compared against other ads running on the Jivox Publisher Network; and new in-depth reporting dashboards providing information on campaign performance over time, comparative scoring, trend information and other detailed data on key performance metrics.

“The goal of this release was to give our customers the ability to easily create the most engaging, cost-effective advertising on the Web today, and then give them the tools to measure its true effectiveness,” said Diaz Nesamoney, CEO of Jivox. “Online video advertising has the unique ability to enhance an advertiser’s brand while offering unmatched direct response capabilities. We believe that these new features will take online video advertising to the next level of performance-driven advertising and provide a solid foundation for the continued rapid growth of the medium.”

Key new features of the Jivox video advertising platform include:

Click-to-Action Interactivity:

New interactivity features from Jivox encourage viewers to take immediate action without leaving a video, facilitating direct interaction between consumers and an advertiser. When a viewer clicks the Interactivity icon, the video is paused and the click-to-action features are presented as an overlay to the video.  Interactivity options include:

* Download a coupon: Downloads a coupon or document provided by the advertiser
* Request information via email: Submits a request to the advertiser to respond with product or service information.
* Email to a friend: Shares the video via email by inputting senders email address and recipients’ email addresses.
* Embed this ad on a web site: Displays an embed tag that  enables the video to be embedded in a website or blog.
* Share information via SMS: Advertiser contact information is sent via SMS by entering a mobile phone number.

Video Engagement Score:

The Video Engagement Score is a new approach to measuring the effectiveness of online video campaigns that goes beyond the traditional click-through standard. The Video Engagement Score takes into account for the first time multiple interactions a consumer has with an online video ad and assigns a weighted value to those interactions to provide advertisers deeper insight into an ad’s total performance.  Ads are “scored” by comparing their performance to that of other ads on the Jivox Publisher Network.

The Video Engagement Score is calculated as the total viewer interactions weighted by response priority and divided by the total views. The result is then normalized to fit within a range of 0-100 and adjusted such that the median of Video Engagement Scores across all active Jivox campaigns with more than 15,000 views in the Jivox Publisher Network is 50.

Enhanced Performance Dashboards and Reports:

With the latest release, Jivox now provides a number of dashboards and detailed reports for paid online video advertising campaigns:

* Performance Summary: Presents the most frequently accessed information including video views, click-through rate, coupon downloads and interactions.
* Trends: Presents Performance Summary information over the life of the campaigns with the ability to view over days, weeks, or months.
* Performance Comparison: Compares results of multiple campaigns.
* Detailed Reports: Presents all measured data as whole numbers or as percent of views.

“There are a growing number of competitive offerings in the local online video ad space. The name of the game is differentiation through ad creation tools as well as targeted distribution,” said Michael Boland, Senior Analyst at the Kelsey Group. “Jivox has an edge with distribution through its locally targeted network of publishers. The new release should bolster the other factor: better tools for advertisers to create ads and measure their effectiveness.”

Customer Feedback

One company that has used the new version of Jivox is Hemancipation, a Beverly Hills-based company that provides concierge and design services for men transitioning through divorce. Using stock video footage from the Jivox library, company founder Akilah Kamaria created an ad campaign targeting bachelors and divorced men whose ex-wife took most of the furniture or who needed to create a more comfortable space for entertaining. She also included a coupon for a free initial consultation. The ad was distributed via the Jivox Publisher Network in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Within three days of the ad running, Hemancipation had more hits on their web site than they had had in a year of advertising with another web ad company.  Kamaria also saw that viewers were downloading the coupon, meaning that people were gearing up to call the company for services.

“I’m a big fan of Jivox and love the new interactivity features,” said Akilah Kamaria, founder of Hemancipation.  “It’s great that people can see my ad and be able to text or email it to someone, particularly with my service that relies so much on referrals: it might be the 17-year-old nephew who sees my ad and sends it to his recently divorced uncle.  For people who blog about divorce or starting over, now they can also take my ad and post it on their blog.  Jivox really takes the virtual relationship to another level by allowing viewers to interact with the ad.  This leverages the message and the value even further.”

Online video advertising is one of the fastest-growing forms of online marketing because it commands the highest engagement and ROI of almost any online advertising method. Video ads generate nearly twice the click-through as banner ads and engage customers in an entertaining brand experience. Jivox helps smaller companies tap the power of video advertising, offering a complete, self-service online platform to create, place, and track high-impact video ads at a cost-effective price.

About Jivox
Jivox helps small businesses reach customers with online video advertising. Jivox provides advertisers with an online, self-service tool to create high-impact video ads using stock footage, images, music or their existing video assets. Jivox ensures high-quality placement of customer ads through the Jivox Publisher Network, a locally focused network of premium publishers that includes hundreds of local TV and radio stations, newspapers, weather and other specialty websites, and offers geographic ad targeting at the city level as well as demographic and contextual targeting. Jivox is a privately held company based in San Mateo, Calif. For more information about Jivox, please visit www.jivox.com.

Business Wire is the official news wire for Search Engine Strategies London 2009. Breaking news releases, advisories, photos, and multimedia are available at Tradeshownews.com, Business Wire’s trade show, conference, and event news resource.

Listed below are Search Engine Strategies London 2009 exhibitor profiles.
Company:           ACQUISIO
Stand:         305
Media Contact:         MARC POIRIER
Phone:         450.465.2631 x210
E-mail:         mpoirier@acquisio.com
Web:         www.acquisio.com

Montreal-based Acquisio is a SaaS (software as a service) company that offers a pay-per-click (Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN AdCenter) management software designed specifically for advertising agencies. The tool, Acquisio SEARCH, allows campaign managers to launch, manage, and optimize all of their client’s campaigns from a single interface, without the need to log into Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, or MSN AdCenter. Additionally, it provides integrated reporting for designing and building beautiful client-ready PDF reports to help you save even more time.

Company:         Efficient Frontier
Stand:         Track Sponsor
Media Contact:         Merinda Peppard
Phone:         2071665220
E-mail:         sales-europe@efrontier.com
Web:         www.efrontier.com/uk

Efficient Frontier is the market and technology leader in providing paid search marketing solutions. The company provides the most powerful, most effective search engine marketing technology and comprehensive strategic and tactical services, to ensure that clients with large-scale, complex search marketing campaigns can achieve the highest possible return on investment. The largest advertisers in the most competitive markets use Efficient Frontier to achieve unprecedented levels of search marketing efficiencies, scalability, risk reduction and campaign growth. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, USA with offices in New York, the United Kingdom, France and India and licensing partnerships in Japan and Australia. Please visit www.efrontier.com/uk and blog.efrontier.com.

Company:         The Search Monitor
Media Contact:         Laura Nolte
Phone:         321-206-9705
E-mail:         laura@greentheoryinteractive.com
Web:         www.thesearchmonitor.com

The Search Monitor provides real-time competitor monitoring software. TSM crawls and monitors Google, Yahoo, MSN, social media, and shopping engines daily and can be geo-targeted. Interactive agencies, search marketers, and affiliate marketers use The Search Monitor for several reasons (1) to acquire competitive intelligence on paid and organic search including market share, keyword research, ad copy research, discovery of competitive promotions/offers, rank, and budgeting strategies; (2) to police brand use in ad copy, display urls, and branded keyword sponsors; (3) to identify and measure brand buzz; and (4) to police affiliate marketers for compliance with affiliate programs.

Company:         WebTrends
Stand:         309
Media Contact:         Thomas Flischer
E-mail:         Thomas@octopuscomms.net

About WebTrends Inc.

WebTrends provides web analytics and online marketing solutions to optimise marketing campaigns and customer engagement. WebTrends Marketing Lab delivers the industry’s most recognised analytics, SEM, and visitor intelligence solutions to enable companies to understand their customers, drive customer engagement, and enhance marketing and brand awareness. Thousands of leading global organisations, including HSBC, Microsoft, Reuters, General Mills, and Ticketmaster have chosen WebTrends business solutions and client services expertise to optimise their customers’ online experiences.

For more information, visit: www.webtrends.com

About Business Wire

Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is utilized by tens of thousands of member companies and organizations worldwide to functionally enhance and communicate investor relations and public relations content to target audiences. As a recognized disclosure service in the United States, Canada and a dozen European countries, Business Wire facilitates the simultaneous flow of market-moving press releases from corporations to financial markets and their audiences, including regulatory authorities, media, investors, financial information systems and consumer news services. Business Wire also handles XBRL tagging, document formatting and regulatory filing into EDGAR, SEDAR, FSA and other systems.

Communications professionals turn to Business Wire to optimize and issue press releases, photos and multimedia to news organizations, journalists, trade publications, search engines, and individuals, with full-text posting to web sites, online services and databases. A range of distribution options enables members to target by geography, industry, news theme and audience demographics.

Founded in 1961, Business Wire has dual headquarters in San Francisco and New York, with 30 bureaus in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Paris, Frankfurt, London, Brussels, Tokyo, Toronto and Sydney and reciprocal offices throughout the world. Business Wire’s patented NX data platform supports XML, XHTML and XBRL code that enhances news release interactivity, social media sharing and search engine optimization. More information about Business Wire and its services is located on its website at www.BusinessWire.com.

LOS ANGELES – Break Media, the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men, announced a relationship with Quantcast that will enable the company to provide detailed audience-based demographic insights to its advertising clients and prospects. Specifically, Break Media will be implementing Quantcast Publisher across their video distribution network, a move which will allow marketers and agencies to analyze online video packages in similar fashion to how they evaluate TV ratings data.

“As younger audiences continue the rapid migration from television to online video consumption, advertisers are seeking data that allows them to confidently shift media budgets online at the same pace,” said Keith Richman, CEO of Break Media. “Our partnership with Quantcast will allow us to provide the information marketers need to ensure that their dollars are effectively spent reaching their target audience.”

Break will include Quantcast tags in its proprietary video player, allowing census-level viewership data to be reported. Quantcast’s innovative audience service solves many of the challenges posed by today’s dynamic digital distribution environment by allowing audience profiles to be generated at the individual video, channel, or distribution point level. This granularity of reporting will allow Break Media to deliver enhanced targeting, improved package development, and post-campaign validation for their advertising partners.

“Online video is no different from other forms of advertising – marketers and their agencies want to understand who they have the potential to reach,” said Adam Gerber, CMO of Quantcast. “But ultimately, they want to address advertising to those who have the highest probability of engaging with their brand. Break Media recognizes the opportunity of delivering audience-based solutions to their advertising partners, and we’re thrilled to be working with them to deliver solutions.”

About Break Media:

Break Media is the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men. Break Media consists of wholly owned branded properties such as Break.com, Cage Potato, Chickipedia, Holy Taco, Wall Street Fighter and Screen Junkies as well as a publisher network, the Break Media Network, that counts over 100 member sites. Between these two channels, Break Media reaches over 60 million men worldwide on a monthly basis. Founded in 1998, Break Media offers advertisers unique opportunities to market directly to a young, male demographic through innovative ad formats that introduce relevant brands to the audience on a targeted, integrated basis. For more information, please visit http://breakmedia.break.com/.

NEW YORK – AOL announced Budweiser “Fetch” is the top-ranked Super Bowl XLIII ad in the 7th Annual AOL Super Sunday Ad Poll. The poll lets viewers watch and vote on their favorite ads at FanHouse.com, http://www.fanhouse.com, AOL’s premier sports site. The poll began shortly after Super Bowl XLIII kick-off, and rankings are based on the first 24 hours the ads were streamed.

The top five Annual Super Sunday Commercials are:

1. Budweiser: “Fetch”
2. Heroes: “Football”
3. Budweiser: “Horse Love”
4. Budweiser: “Clydesdale”
5. Coca-Cola: “Picnic”

(Note: AOL poll results are not scientific and reflect the opinions of only those users who choose to participate.)

“The Super Bowl is a wonderful distraction in these economic times and a great way for companies to showcase their products in front of a national audience,” said Marty Moe, Senior Vice President, AOL Money & Finance, FanHouse, News, KOL and Weblogs. “FanHouse.com provides an opportunity for consumers to watch the commercials again, share them with friends and extend the reach beyond the 30 seconds during the game. We congratulate Budweiser on winning the 7th Annual AOL Super Sunday Ad Poll.”

The ads will be available online at FanHouse, http://fanhouse.com, and at http://aol.com/superbowlads for a week following the game. Users can visit the site, watch the ads and still rank their top 10 favorite commercials.

In 2008, Budweiser’s “Rocky” was the AOL Super Sunday Ad Poll winner. A-B InBev, the former Anheuser-Busch, has won five of the previous six polls.

FanHouse.com launched in January, following 12 months of remarkable growth and expansion at AOL Sports, and responds to the changing Web habits of sports fans dominated by the important male 18-54 demographic. Since December 2007, monthly unique visitors to AOL Sports grew 21% (from 9.1 million to 11 million), page views climbed 142% (from 142 million to 345 million) and total time-spent increased by 65%. It is now one of the top-five most-visited sports sites, according to December 2008 comScore Media Metrix data.

FanHouse.com is also the home of the Fantasy Football game Fleaflicker.com, http://fleaflicker.com, and Fantasy Football blog Fantasy Football FanHouse, http://fantasy.fanhouse.com. FanHouse.com is a part of MediaGlow, AOL’s newly created global publishing unit.

About MediaGlow

MediaGlow, AOL’s publishing business unit formed in early 2009, centralizes all of AOL’s programming efforts, including AOL.com, AOL’s content verticals and commerce and marketplace channels, dozens of niche sites, and state-of-the-art studios in Los Angeles and New York City. In all, MediaGlow operates more than 70 sites and now attracts more than 70 million unique visitors each month after two years of steady growth, according to comScore Media Metrix. It plans to launch more than 30 new sites in 2009. MediaGlow, along with AOL’s advertising business, Platform-A, and its social media business, People Networks, represent the three core businesses for AOL.

About AOL

AOL is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.

NEW YORK – MediaGlow announced its extensive coverage plans across its various properties leading up to Valentine’s Day, including interactive content, polls, photo galleries, blog posts and more, to help consumers make the most of the holiday.

“We are using the MediaGlow network to provide varied content that appeals to anyone,” said Bill Wilson, President, MediaGlow. “Celebrating the Valentine’s Day holiday is a way to honor people who mean the most to us, and much of the content we’ll be providing this year looks at cost-effective ways to focus on the holiday in today’s economy. We’ll be providing customized, informative, interactive and entertaining experiences across AOL to give consumers a comprehensive experience.”

Some of the features and stories included this year:

* AOL Personals, http://personals.aol.com: Valentine’s Day countdown and informational articles such as “10 Fun Valentine’s Day Facts” and “Valentine’s Day Dining Etiquette for Men”
* Switched, http://switched.com: Creative ways to use the tech you already own to make inexpensive gifts and technology gift guides for him and her
* AOL Radio, http://www.radio.aol.com: Offers a music genre within the radio player called “Valentine’s Day” focused on Love Songs, Love Stinks, Country Love and Romantic Jazz
* Holidays, http://holidays.aol.com: Featured stories include “Love Scopes: What Love Type are You?”, “The Worst Proposals Ever” and “What Your Flowers Mean”
* AOL Home, http://home.aol.com: “Amazing Bedroom Transformations” and “10 Feng Shui Tips to Improve Love & Romance”
* WalletPop, http://www.walletpop.com: “Valentine’s Day on a Budget”
* AOL Health, http://www.aolhealth.com: Quiz asking “Which Valentine’s Candy Has More Calories?”, plus featured stories “Sex Every Couple Needs” and “Libido Enhancers for Her and for Him”
* ParentDish, http://www.parentdish.com: Includes stories on kids and romance and Valentine’s in the classroom
* Lemondrop, http://www.lemondrop.com: “Most Annoying Couple Behaviors”, “What to Do if You’re Single” and “Worst V-Day Gifts”
* StyleList, http://www.stylelist.com: “21 Things That Make Every Woman Hot” and “Red Lips are HOT for V-day”
* Asylum, http://www.asylum.com: A guy’s gift guide
* Gadling, http://www.gadling.com: Valentine’s vacations, deals, and assorted travel tips
* Luxist, http://luxist.com: High-end chocolates and other gift ideas
* KOL, http://www.kol.com: Printable Valentine’s Day cards and quizzes for kids
* AOL Latino, http://latino.aol.com: “How to Celebrate If You Don’t Have a Partner”, “Recipes for a Romantic Dinner” and “Valentine’s Cool Gift Guide”
* BlackVoices, http://www.blackvoices.com: “The Inspiring Love Story of the Obamas” and “10 Inexpensive Ways to Woo Your Lover”
* Digital City, http://www.digitalcity.com: Information about everything from romantic restaurants and anti-Valentine’s Day spots to the hot spots for singles
* Moviefone, http://www.moviefone.com: Countdown of the top 25 romantic comedies of all time
* AOL Television, http://www.television.aol.com: Countdown of television’s most memorable love triangles of all time
* Spinner, http://www.spinner.com: Countdown of the meanest love songs of all time

About MediaGlow

MediaGlow, AOL’s publishing business unit formed in early 2009, centralizes all of AOL’s programming efforts, including AOL.com, AOL’s content verticals and commerce and marketplace channels, dozens of niche sites, and state-of-the-art studios in Los Angeles and New York City. In all, MediaGlow operates more than 70 sites that have seen steady growth for the past two years and now attract more than 70 million unique visitors each month, according to comScore Media Metrix. It plans to launch more than 30 new sites in 2009. MediaGlow, along with AOL’s advertising business, Platform-A, and its social media business, People Networks, represent the three core businesses for AOL.

About AOL

AOL is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.

LOS ANGELES – Shopit, best known for its ecommerce enabling tools in social networks, has launched a targeted ecommerce ad network, Shopit Media. Currently in private Beta, Shopit Media will allow sellers to advertise products and services in a highly targeted manner to over 350 million users across the internet and specifically within social communities.

Shopit Media is the first social advertising network to bring Peer to Peer, CPA and Brand Advertising for ecommerce purposes under one umbrella. It provides unique Peer to Peer advertising for Shopit sellers to promote their goods and services both inside and outside the Shopit network. Shopit Media allows large brands looking to drive ecommerce transactions to take advantage of customized targeting solutions for their advertising to provide the greatest returns on campaigns. Publishers can expect maximum revenue results for their inventory attributable to the richness in targeting within social communities and ability to bring buyers and sellers together. Shopit Media welcomes publishers from Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Bebo, Hi5 and Ning.

“Shopit Media has enabled us to generate extra revenue on our applications, as well as our clients, providing a steady flow of advertisers to fill our daily demands.” – says Matt Gaffney of Branded Research.

“Shopit Media will give our sellers the chance to become advertisers,” says Matt Hill, CEO of Shopit. “A simple and low cost process to drive transactions for any seller, whether it’s a large brand looking for a specific demographic or someone coming from eBay that wants to reach people in social communities, our ad platform will facilitate their needs.”

Shopit Media is available to both publishers and advertisers today. Publishers that join Shopit Media before February 28th 2009 will receive bonus revenue share opportunities, guaranteed to pay some of the highest rates in the marketplace. Click here for more info www.shopitmedia.com. Shopit Peer to Peer Ad Network is currently in private Beta and will be launched publicly later this year.

About Shopit

Shopit is the leader in free social commerce, allowing users to buy and sell products and services within social networks and beyond for free. The company hosts approximately 1 million merchant sellers across 40 social communities that reach 350 million people and is growing fast. The platform enables efficient sharing and publishing of products and information anywhere online. Products and services can be directly linked from Shopit to any site, including popular destination properties like MySpace, Facebook, AIM, Bebo, Friendster, Blogger, Hi5, Ning and many more. Shopit’s free commerce platform also supports the functionality to import listings from traditional ecommerce sites such as eBay, and Yahoo Stores. Shopit also recently launched its “Shopit Pro” version for expert sellers looking to drive real sales in social communities. Shopit Pro can be found at www.shopit.com/ShopitPRO.

For more information, go to http://www.shopit.com.

“In the past few months, Break Media has generated more than 35,000,000 views for content produced on behalf of our advertiser clients and for the enjoyment of our audience,” said Keith Richman, CEO of Break Media. “We formed the Creative Lab to build upon this momentum. Now, we have the unique ability to create a high volume of premium content and distribute it to a significant online audience of men 18-34.”

In conjunction with the formation of the lab, Break Media has named Jonathan Small Vice-President of Creative Lab and Editorial, and Tara Leone Vice-President, Production and Distribution.

Break Media is also announcing highlights of its record growth in 2008:

Revenue/Advertiser Growth:

* Revenue grew more than 100% from 2007 to 2008, with significant triple digital growth from in-video and branded content advertising.
* Added a significant number of new advertising clients and now partners with top brands across every key vertical.
* Continued innovation of ad campaigns with production of over a dozen original branded entertainment series and introduction of new engaging ad units built for network distribution.

Audience Growth:

* Overall unique visitors to Break Media properties increased 274% from December 2007 to December 2008. (ComScore Media Metrix, December 2008)
* Currently the 14th largest domestic video provider as measured by unique viewers and videos viewed. (ComScore Video Metrix, December 2008)

Site Expansion:

* Started or acquired seven new male-targeted properties in 2008, including audience favorites Chickipedia, Cage Potato, Holy Taco and Screen Junkies.
* New properties already reach close to 7,000,000 cumulative monthly unique visitors.

Premium Content:

* Expanded diverse premium content offerings, adding partners such as Hulu, Sony Pictures, Video Jug, Howcast, Revision 3, Agility Studios, Next New Networks, FEARnet and Collegiate Images.
* Renewed partnership with the NBA, and continues to offer daily NBA highlights and re-caps.
* Launched innovative Movie Trailers Channel, showcasing a comprehensive listing of current and upcoming new releases in high-resolution.
* Continued commitment to intellectual property rights with renewal of Audible Magic agreement and expansion of relationship to include video fingerprinting.

Industry Achievements and Research Initiatives

* Formed the Online Video ROI Council to analyze and discuss the effectiveness of online video advertising – Council includes industry-leading brands, agencies and technology vendors.
* Conducted primary research regarding online video effectiveness with such clients as technical partner Panache.
* Performed proprietary research into attitudinal and behavioral patterns of men 18-34. The research can be downloaded at: http://breakmedia.break.com/file_download/3/breakmedia_kit.pdf

About Break Media:

Break Media is the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men. Break Media consists of wholly owned branded properties such as Break.com, Cage Potato, Chickipedia, Holy Taco, Wall Street Fighter and Screen Junkies as well as a publisher network that counts over 100 member sites. Between these two channels, Break Media reaches over 60 million men worldwide on a monthly basis. Founded in 1998, Break Media offers advertisers unique opportunities to market directly to a young, male demographic through innovative ad formats that introduce relevant brands to the audience on a targeted, integrated basis. For more information, please visit http://breakmedia.break.com/.

LOS ANGELES – CallFire™ announced free 1-hour Call Tracking consultations for companies interested in tracking telephone calls back to the original advertisement. Advertisers using internet, radio, TV, or print can easily purchase hundreds or thousands of unique telephone numbers that are then allocated to individual advertisements. CallFire’s call tracking interface lets advertisers trace and visualize which campaigns are driving the most telephone calls.

Use Call Tracking to get answers to tough questions.

* Which campaigns drive the most phone calls to my sales team?
* Which infomercial resulted in the most telephone inquiries?
* Which campaign resulted in a high-volume of calls, but very few sales?
* What time do most listeners hear my messages?

Track conversions in real-time and pause underperforming campaigns.

Call Routing and tracking campaigns can provide call statistics in real time. This cost-saving data can cut the fat from marketing campaigns by revealing underperforming ads and allowing your company to re-allocate budgets to campaigns with a high impression-to-call ratio.

Buy Toll Free Numbers or local telephone numbers.

* Handle thousands of simultaneous calls and even vanity numbers.
* Display unique numbers for individual Adwords, Yahoo, Radio or TV campaigns.
* Use local telephone numbers for geo-targeted campaigns.

To schedule a free consultation, please submit your contact information here and a representative will get back to you shortly: https://www.callfire.com/dialer/usersignup.do

Developers interested in Call Tracking APIs, please visit: http://www.CallFire.com/CallPeer for a listing of our latest APIs and developer tools.

To learn more about CallFire products and services, please visit: http://www.callfire.com/dialer/cm/info/products_and_services.html

To speak with a CallFire representative, please call 877.897.FIRE.

About CallFire

CallFire provides highly-scalable and affordable cloud telephony solutions, including Voice API, Voice Broadcast, Virtual Call Centers, Hosted IVR, Call Tracking and VoiceXML services. CallFire is a privately-held company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. CallFire’s products enable various industries, including collections, government entities, healthcare, non-profits, political organizations and universities to simply and affordably set up call campaigns or virtual call centers through an on-demand, pay-as-you-go, api-driven platform. CallFire’s Hosted Call Center API enables developers to integrate predictive dialing via web services. For more information on CallFire, please visit www.callfire.com.

LOS ANGELES – Infuse Creative CEO Gregory Markel spoke at the annual MLRC/Southwestern Law School Media and Entertainment Law Conference on Thursday, January 15.

The panel, titled “What Happens When Protected Speech Meets Embedded Promotions? Product Integration, Sponsorship and Ad Linking,” dealt with the current and potential legal issues surrounding television, film, videos games, online gaming, and online video product placement, search engine marketing or PPC, copyright and trademark issues.

Other panel members included: Pratheepan Gulasekaram, an Assistant Professor at Santa Clara University School of Law; Daniel O’Connell Offner from Nixon Peabody, LLP; and Jennifer Dominitz, Vice President of Legal Affairs at NBC Universal Television.

Markel’s experience in the field of search engine marketing, social media, and digital communication strategies and advisement was a powerful and dynamic addition to the legal experts, providing a digital and social media marketing vanguard view on the effects of advertising law, FTC concerns, and trademark and copyright law on SEM/paid search, SEO, social media marketing, and online video.

Recalling the evolution of Pay Per Click advertising lawsuits and FTC rulings that resulted in Google and Yahoo having to display their PPC ads along side the word SPONSORED, Markel asked, “How will it affect the industry if you have to place a disclaimer such as, ‘this blog comment is paid advertising’ as a preface to every blog or bookmark/tagging post? How will these copyright laws affect the sort of community, influence and stealth marketing approach that is currently so popular? These are all important questions to ask,” said Markel.

Gregory Markel has been involved in search engine and online marketing for over 13 years and is an expert on SEM, SEO, video, 2.0 social media marketing and more.

About Infuse Creative: www.infusecreative.com

Infuse Creative, founded by Gregory Markel, has provided search engine optimization and marketing services and technology to a diverse range of clients, including; Mazda, Gibson Musical Instruments, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., Pacificare, The BBC, Ed Hardy, Led Zeppelin, CBS, FOX, The National Geographic Channel, Reality Executives International, Sony, Universal Vivendi and many more.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. – Ping Mobile (http://www.pingmobile.com), a full-service mobile agency, today announced a partnership with impreMedia, the No. 1 Hispanic News and Information Company in the U.S. in Online and Print, to offer unique mobile marketing and advertising options to its media clients using Ping Mobile’s flagship PingRewards platform.

ImpreRewards (http://www.imprerewards.com) will serve as the leading Hispanic targeted online and mobile service providing consumers with discounts and offers. In the current economic climate, impreRewards will provide an essential tool by informing consumers about brands that are making an effort to extend strong coupons and promotions. Providing this information directly to the mobile phone allows users to carry the coupon content and redemption information on-the-go and in certain cases makes the couponing viral. Users can forward the coupons on their mobile device to their friends and family in seconds.

Commenting on the launch, Shira Simmonds, President and Co-Founder of Ping Mobile, stated, “This partnership represents a tremendous opportunity for advertisers interested in reaching the Hispanic consumer and we are excited to partner with impreMedia, given their unparalleled Hispanic audience in both online and print. Because of the current economic climate, consumers are turning to mobile couponing and it’s these consumers who will benefit from the impreRewards portal.”

The new Spanish-language impreRewards aims to be the preferred Hispanic Web and Mobile portal. “Given the heavy mobile usage among Hispanic consumers, impreRewards is the perfect solution for any advertiser looking to target the Hispanic market,” said Arturo Duran, CEO of impreMedia Digital. “The solid technology behind Ping’s platform and the ease of use from both the advertisers’ and consumers’ viewpoint, will allow our users to feel comfortable using this exciting, new and innovative marketing tool in their preferred language.”

ImpreRewards is built upon the same platform and utilizes identical back-end technology as PingRewards. With this innovative platform, Advertisers have full control over campaign details, such as the content and timetable of each promotion. “Using impreRewards brands nationwide will be able to drive traffic directly to the point of sale within minutes,” said Mr. Duran.

Built as a user-friendly mobile coupon site, impreRewards is a free service for users that gives them control over the content they receive and how often they receive it. Users are able to opt-out anytime by replying with the keyword “STOP” and, most importantly, all consumer information remains secure. Ping Mobile’s coupon campaigns average a 56 percent redemption rate. Ping credits high conversion rates to their method of SMS distribution, which facilitates that the right messages are being sent to the right consumers. “We wanted to make sure that consumers weren’t going to be inundated with SPAM messages. The only promotions the user will receive are promotions the user wants and requests,” stressed Ms. Simmonds.

Consumers will be able to choose from a long list of advertisers including Footlocker, ESPN Shop, 1-800 Flowers.com, Ice.com, Mikasa, Diamonds International, and World of Watches.

“WorldofWatches.com is thrilled to be a part of this exciting new venture between impreMedia and Ping Mobile. We anticipate the success of mobile couponing to be of great value to us and look forward to offering customers amazing offers on over 3,500 name brand watches, straight to their mobile phones,” noted Izac Ben-Shmuel, CEO of the SWI Group.

ABOUT PING MOBILE

Ping Mobile is a fresh, young, creative full-service mobile agency, providing a complete range of mobile marketing, offers, promotions and content services, with a specialization in mobile offers and promotions. A strong focus on consumers, both through the unique PingRewards™ offering and vast experience in consumer marketing, combined with industry-leading consultancy, reporting, data analysis and client services packages, makes Ping Mobile the premier mobile marketing agency for clients of all sizes. Ping Mobile is headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, NJ with offices in Los Angeles, CA and Tel Aviv, Israel. For more information please visit www.PingMobile.com or www.PingRewards.com.

ABOUT IMPREMEDIA

ImpreMedia is the No. 1 Hispanic News and Information Company in the U.S. in Online and Print. ImpreMedia’s multi-platform offerings range from Online to Video, Mobile and Print and encompass 28 properties, including the portal http://www.impre.com and its McClatchy partners. 35% of all U.S. Hispanic adults use an impreMedia product. The company is also the nation’s largest Hispanic newspaper publisher with newspapers in the top 7 U.S. Hispanic markets, reaching 17 markets total and representing 64% of the U.S. Hispanic population. Its leading publications include La Opinión in Los Angeles and El Diario La Prensa in New York. York. For more information, visit: http://www.impremedia.com.

ImpreMedia portals and publications websites are: www.impre.com, www.imprerewards.com, www.lavibra.com, www.impreautos.com, www.laopinion.com, www.eldiariony.com, www.hoynyc.com, www.laraza.com, www.laprensafl.com, www.elmensajero.com, www.diariosrumbo.com, www.vistamagazine.com, and www.contigola.com.

“We offer one of the richest and most diverse video experiences on the Web, streaming hundreds of millions of videos to a wide variety of audiences each month,” said Nada Stirratt, Executive Vice President, Digital Advertising, MTVN. “Panache enables us to offer marketers additional tools to reach their consumers through unique and engaging video ad formats.”

“We are thrilled to partner with MTV Networks and provide the platform for them to be even more innovative when it comes to video advertising,” said Steve Robinson, President of Panache. “MTV Networks’ audience represents an engaged segment of digital video users. Partnering with such a pioneering company to help drive revenue with new and exciting ad experiences is as good as it gets.”

MTV Networks is one of the Internet’s top sources of video content. The new ad products MTV Networks has developed with Panache include interactive linear and non-linear formats such as bugs, inlays and overlays. These new ad products are designed for quick and seamless integration into MTVN’s online video player, allowing for maximum consumer engagement and minimum interruption of the user experience.

“Panache’s platform will enable us to deploy the latest and most effective online video ad formats with the speed and accountability that our marketing partners want,” said Brad Herman, Senior Vice President, Digital Advertising Sales Operations, MTVN.

About Panache

Panache is an ad insertion platform providing media and entertainment companies with the infrastructure to increase revenue from their video business. Publishers can create more ad avails for long-form, short-form, HD, on-demand streams and live events – all with the same toolset and no interruption to existing workflows. With Panache, publishers have complete control over their in-video advertising regardless of distribution model, enabling syndication and precise reporting that follows their campaigns anywhere.

Founded in 2006, Panache is a privately held company headquartered in Los Angeles.

About MTV Networks

MTV Networks, a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world’s leading creators of entertainment content, with brands that engage and connect diverse audiences across television, online, mobile, games, virtual worlds and consumer products. The company’s portfolio spans more than 150 television channels and 350 digital media properties worldwide, and includes MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Harmonix, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Noggin, The N, AddictingGames, Neopets, COMEDY CENTRAL, Spike TV, TV Land, Atom, GameTrailers and Xfire.

State-of-the-Art MediaGlow Studios Launches in NYC and LA

Bill Wilson to Lead New Global Publishing Push

NEW YORK – After a year of strong growth for its programming efforts, AOL announced a series of significant developments that will dramatically expand, reposition and monetize its digital publishing business in 2009. Over the past year, AOL’s programming unit has seen page views climb 40% year-over-year, engagement increase 20% year-over-year and its audience grow to 70 million unduplicated users.* Anchoring today’s announcement is the creation of a new AOL business unit, MediaGlow, which will centralize AOL’s entire publishing efforts, with the goal of greatly expanding the unit’s global reach in the coming year.

The announcement also completes AOL’s transformation to an advertising supported business. Over the past 18 months AOL has announced the formation of Platform-A, the largest domestic digital advertising platform, which uniquely maximizes online outreach for advertisers, as well as the creation of People Networks, the company’s social media unit, which leverages the power of community properties such as Bebo, AIM and ICQ to reach an audience of more than 92 million unduplicated users worldwide.* MediaGlow and its publishing assets will now join Platform-A and People Networks as the third core business for AOL.

“Our vision was to rebuild AOL into three core businesses — publishing, advertising and social media. With the launch of MediaGlow, we have completed our goal in less than 18 months,” said Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO of AOL. “AOL now efficiently delivers the most relevant and engaging content and is able to uniquely maximize display advertising opportunities for advertisers and publishers across the Web. MediaGlow provides us with the ability to extend our publishing success and puts AOL in a very strong position for the future.”

“Gone are the days when one general portal or social networking site addressed the needs of all consumers. Today’s fragmented online environment requires programming that targets people’s passion points at scale across a range of unique sites,” said Ron Grant, AOL’s President and COO. “Make no mistake, AOL has become a true digital content company. Over the past year, we have mastered the art of producing high-quality vertical and niche programming at scale. Now by centralizing and investing in this infrastructure, we will ensure that we are maximizing our potential for monetization.”

The creation of MediaGlow comes on the heels of a highly successful 2008 for AOL’s publishing unit, which has been led by Bill Wilson, Executive Vice President of Programming for AOL. Wilson will now lead MediaGlow as President of the new business unit, directing not only the publishing unit, but a new infrastructure that will include global outreach and AOL’s vast array of commerce-related sites.

Under Wilson’s leadership, AOL rebuilt its flagship portal, AOL.com, and its entire network of vertical sites, while at the same time rapidly developing and launching more than a dozen new targeted content sites in the past year. In addition, during this short time period, the Programming team has built a vast infrastructure of world class talent, including editors, content creators and industry experts.

This effort has brought a significant new audience to AOL’s slate of Web brands and has driven record-setting engagement metrics. In 2008, unique visitors to AOL’s programming content sites grew to 70 million unduplicated users, with page views climbing 40% year-over-year and engagement growing 20% year-over-year. In addition, the influx of new consumers and deeper audience engagement levels provided AOL with double-digit increases in vertical content advertising revenue year-over-year in Q3 2008, and has brought in new advertisers such as Chili’s, Wal-Mart, Schick, Old Spice and Motorola.

“2008 has been a truly historic year for AOL Programming because we became brand builders,” said Bill Wilson, President of MediaGlow. “Few people outside of AOL would have believed a year ago that our sites would now be in the top positions in nearly every important programming category, but in a very short time we have created a successful, nimble and valuable business property for AOL. From our reinvented AOL.com to our vertical content sites, we are creating experiences that successfully reach key demographics and provide unique, relevant and valuable content to consumers and solutions for advertisers. As an ad-supported company, this is a huge asset. We are very excited to push our efforts to a whole new level with the establishment of MediaGlow and are now in a position to take our successful formula global.”

In conjunction with today’s announcement, AOL announced two important publishing developments:

* MediaGlow will continue its aggressive momentum in the development of the new AOL.com, and its vertical Web sites focused on passion points, with the goal of creating over 30 editorially curated sites in 2009. A sample of specific categories includes: expanding AOL News and AOL Sports into a variety of newly created niche-oriented news and sports sites; building on the success of its highly successful Asylum site with new, male–oriented, 18-34 year old targeted brands; creating new sites focused on areas such as Reality Television, Soap Operas, Horror Films, Jazz and Heavy Metal; and launching a new pop culture site aimed at kids. In addition to these newly curated sites, MediaGlow will also maximize the technology of acquired companies Relegence and Sphere and begin an unprecedented effort to build thousands of medium and long-tail focused automated sites in 2009 and 2010, which will efficiently continue AOL’s growth position in publishing.

* MediaGlow will add to its infrastructure two state-of-the-art studios, located in AOL Headquarters in New York City and its offices in Los Angeles. MediaGlow Studios will provide new video production capabilities from hi-def video to complete editing and encoding. The studios will also be used to shoot original video productions that will now be distributed globally. Productions to be developed and produced through the MediaGlow Studios include original programming developed by AOL — Moviefone’s Unscripted, AOL Music’s Sessions, AOL Living’s Trade Secrets branded entertainment shows, Spinner’s The Interface and AOL Television’s Outside the Box.

The following lists AOL’s publishing success, based on the November comScore Media Metrix data:**

* #1 Country Music Site: TheBoot, http://theboot.com
* #1 Hip-Hop Music: The BoomBox, http://theboombox.com
* #1 Men: Asylum, http://asylum.com
* #1 Style: StyleList, http://stylelist.com
* #1 Women’s Blogs: Lemondrop, http://lemondrop.com/
* #1 African American: BlackVoices, http://blackvoices.com,
* #1 Music: AOL Music, http://music.aol.com
* #1 Retail- Tickets: Moviefone.com, http://moviefone.com
* #1 Television: AOL Television, http://television.aol.com
* #2 Horoscopes: AOL Horoscopes, http://horoscopes.aol.com
* #2 Latino: AOL Latino, http://latino.aol.com
* #2 Business- News/Research: AOL Money & Finance, http://money.aol.com
* #2 Entertainment-News: TMZ, http://tmz.com
* #2 E-mail: AOL E-mail, http://webmail.aol.com
* #3: Movies: Moviefone.com, http://moviefone.com
* #3 Real Estate: AOL Real Estate, http://realestate.aol.com
* #3 Health: AOL Health, http://aolhealth.com
* #4 News: AOL News, http://news.aol.com/
* #4 Technology: AOL Tech, http://engadget.com
* #4 Women’s: AOL Living, http://living.aol.com
* #5 Search: AOL Search Network, http://search.aol.com
* #5 Weather: AOL Weather, http://weather.aol.com
* #5 Home: AOL Home, http://home.aol.com

* Based on a custom pull of November 2008 comScore Media Metrix data. (Note: the People Networks unduplicated reach figure excludes AIM Mail.)

** Categories for Asylum, BlackVoices, Horoscopes, Latino, Lemondrop, TheBoomBox, TheBoot and StyleList have been custom built by AOL.

About AOL

AOL is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.

TORONTO – YANGAROO Inc., (TSX-V: YOO, OTCBB: YOOIF) the industry’s leading secure digital media distribution company, is pleased to announce that it has received allowance of its United States Patent Application #10/431,854 titled “Content Distribution System and Method” from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The formal Letters Patent grant is expected to follow shortly.

The patent in the U.S. for “Content Distribution System and Method” covers a method of distributing digital content, such as music and advertising, to selected individuals over the Internet, in which the uploading content provider selects the individuals that are entitled to access the content and sets release conditions, like a time and date, and where the identities of the selected individuals are verified at login and are provided with access to the uploaded content if the release conditions are met.

YANGAROO’S Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS) is the only such system available to the North American record, radio and advertising industries today that has U.S. and Canadian patent protection for all of these crucial features.

“The allowance of this broad, industry-defining patent confirms YANGAROO as the foremost innovator in its field,” said John Heaven, President and CEO of YANGAROO. “This patent will provide us with a further significant competitive advantage and will add substantial value to our company. The music and advertising industries understand and respect the value of intellectual property and we will continue to lead our sector through innovation and invention. We will maintain our focus on expanding our patent portfolio and plan to vigorously protect our intellectual property rights.”

This U.S. patent will complement YANGAROO’s Canadian patent number 2,407,774 of the same title that was granted in 2005, providing a North America-wide safeguard for the company’s intellectual property. These “Content Distribution System and Method” patents augment YANGAROO’S intellectual property portfolio which includes U.S. patent No. 7,003,670 titled “Biometric Rights Management System”, which is also pending in Canada as patent application number 2,349,797, and pending U.S. patent application No. 11/854,289 titled “Media File Distribution System and Method”.

About YANGAROO:

YANGAROO’s patented Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS) is a leading secure B2B digital delivery solution for the music and advertising industries. DMDS is a web-based delivery system that pioneers secure digital file distribution by incorporating biometrics, high-value encryption and watermarking. DMDS replaces the physical distribution of musical recordings and advertising to radio, media, retailers and other authorized recipients with more accountable, effective, and far less costly digital delivery of broadcast quality media via the Internet.

YANGAROO’s DMDS has made over six million deliveries of over 12,000 songs from more than 600 record labels to destinations which include radio stations representing over 35 US broadcast chains. U.S. record labels made 1.3 million deliveries of songs via DMDS in the first nine months of 2008. DMDS is the only system that can digitally deliver music across the U.S., Canada and the UK.

YANGAROO has offices in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, and London, UK. YANGAROO trades on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) under the symbol YOO and in the U.S. under OTCBB:YOOIF. For further information, please contact John Heaven at 905-763-3553 or visit www.yangaroo.com.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, announced that Gorilla Nation Media, a diversified online media company, is leveraging Akamai’s solutions to deliver and accelerate more than 55 global sites.

Exclusively representing hundreds of leading websites in various vertical markets, Gorilla Nation Media develops leading consumer destination sites that enable advertisers to reach targeted audience segments and demographics. All of the Gorilla Nation destinations are rich, dynamic sites with ever-changing content – including videos, images, contests, and discussion boards – and require a globally-distributed platform to deliver rich, dynamically-generated content. For rich, interactive websites, like the many in Gorilla Nation’s portfolio, the ability to accelerate page downloads, increase consumption and improve the overall site experience leads to increased and repeat visitors, incremental ad revenue, page view increases and an improved competitive edge.

“Akamai covers all the bases. Akamai sees our vision and provides Gorilla Nation with innovative solutions to support our expanding business model,” said Alex Godelman, Vice President of Technology, at Gorilla Nation Media. “Akamai is a true partner. When Gorilla Nation realized the need for an alternative CDN service provider, there was no need for an exhaustive review. We went straight to Akamai.”

Since leveraging Akamai, Gorilla Nation is experiencing significantly higher download success rates for rich media, compared to the success rates using other CDN providers. Gorilla Nation has quickly realized the effectiveness of Akamai’s services and the resulting benefits: a much faster experience for the end user, and reduced infrastructure and bandwidth costs that are passed along to its publishers by offloading the traffic to Akamai’s globally-distributed platform.

Gorilla Nation is also leveraging Akamai’s advanced services portfolio. Through the use of Akamai’s Stream OS solution, the company has delivered many successful live events, some garnering more than 60,000 concurrent users. When preparing for prior live events, the Gorilla Nation team would spend hours developing custom solutions for each webcast. With Stream OS’ Live Event Manager module, the efficiencies are many, from easy point and click technology to the ability to toggle between different content sources.

“Akamai’s broad set of solutions are a perfect match for the entire Gorilla Nation portfolio. With Akamai in place, Gorilla Nation delivers faster Web site performance for highly interactive content, scales capacity on demand to support peak traffic, and improves the user experience,” said Tim Napoleon, Chief Strategist for Digital Media at Akamai. “Gorilla Nation’s dedication to building targeted sites with dynamic, personalized content is a critical step toward making online advertising a success moving forward. Akamai looks forward to cultivating our relationship with Gorilla Nation as they continue to pioneer innovation in the online publishing and advertising worlds.”

Enterprises have long relied upon content delivery networks (CDNs) to help ensure the scalability, performance, and availability of their static Web sites. Many CDNs, though, have not evolved to meet the delivery challenges posed by today’s sophisticated interactive content. While dynamically-generated content offers an unprecedented opportunity to engage with consumers, it also presents businesses with a new challenge: richer content takes longer to load in a Web page. As site traffic increases, generating pages on-the-fly for thousands of consumers simultaneously can lead to increased delays — and even failures — in delivering content. Akamai’s advanced acceleration solutions are designed to address these challenges.

About Gorilla Nation Media, LLC

Gorilla Nation (www.gorillanation.com) is the world’s largest online ad sales rep firm. The company exclusively represents the online ad inventory of over 500 leading midtail web publishers, and sells integrated media and promotional programs to Fortune 500 brand advertisers. Working closely with its web publisher partners, GN’s expertise within 35 select vertical markets provides advertising clients the ability to build high impact, rich media programs across one or more properties to provide superior audience reach. The company is committed to delivering integrated creative media programs, from concept through execution, and exceptional customer service. Founded in 2001, the company is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and London.

The Akamai Difference

Akamai® provides market-leading managed services for powering rich media, dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai’s services have been adopted by the world’s most recognized brands across diverse industries. The alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai’s global network of tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for businesses to succeed online. Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more viable place to inform, entertain, interact, and collaborate. To experience The Akamai Difference, visit www.akamai.com.

LOS ANGELES – Panache, the ad-insertion platform for major media and entertainment companies, announced that its Media Maps have resulted in nearly one billion online video ads to date. The figure reflects more than an 850 percent increase from 2007, and underscores significant usage from major media and entertainment companies looking to drive ad-driven in-stream revenue. Panache expects its ASP platform, which enables unlimited video ad avails and performance of ad insertions with its patent-pending Media Map technology™, to process its billionth ad in January, 2009.

Panache is now working with more than 15 major publishers to productize their business, dynamically create ad avails, and provide in-stream ad insertion into a wide array of premium video content. Media and entertainment companies with multi-channel in-house ad sales need straightforward solutions that promote profitability from their online video operations. Panache’s open platform provides major networks the infrastructure to create unlimited ad avails, support both live and on-demand video ad insertion, report on video and advertising and drive greater efficiencies for ad operations, ad sales and technology groups.

“Networks and major publishers are struggling with how to drive efficiencies across key areas including ad products, player engineering and ad operations,” said Steve Robinson, president of Panache. “As the online video advertising industry continues to mature, publishers are increasingly looking for ways to productize operations, streamline their efforts and gain better control. Major networks need an ad insertion and reporting solution that provides a comprehensive infrastructure without affecting existing workflows. They also seek quick and sustainable profits for all their video—short form, long form, on-demand and live streams.”

Despite the economic downturn, online video advertising spend is projected to reach close to $1 billion in 2009, as more traditional media companies distribute professional-quality content online (eMarketer). According to Comscore, 77 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed an online video in October, with the projected number of online video advertising viewers expected to reach 174.8 million in 2012 (eMarketer).

In addition to publisher success, Panache has also grown its ecosystem of partners this year. More than a dozen major partnership deals were forged in 2008, including a joint venture with Adobe to insert in-video ads into the Adobe Media Player (AMP). Panache also expanded its reach into rich media by joining with interactive in-video advertising leader PointRoll. Other major relationships include Microsoft, thePlatform and Adify.

The Panache platform reduces the cost and complexity of ad insertion and awards media and entertainment companies total control of ads in any syndication or distribution. As networks move more content online, options expand to make full use of programming. Panache’s agnostic approach gives publishers highly flexible ad product choices and immediate opportunity to monetize video content.

Panache’s proprietary Media Mapping technology orchestrates ad insertion into any number or combination of avails. Dynamic and easily changeable, this technology ensures that every ad insertion, including the video’s entire ad experience, occurs exactly as planned.

For more information, please visit: www.panachetech.com.

About Panache

Panache is an ad insertion platform providing media and entertainment companies with the infrastructure to increase revenue from their video business. Publishers can create more ad avails for long-form, short-form, HD, on-demand streams and live events – all with the same toolset and no interruption to existing workflows. With Panache, publishers have complete control over their in-video advertising regardless of distribution model, enabling syndication and precise reporting that follows their campaigns anywhere.

Founded in 2006, Panache is a privately held company headquartered in Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES – the Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global Ad Network Optimization, extends a thank you to its customers and partners for making 2008 a record-breaking year. the Rubicon Project’s approach to ad network optimization is generating millions of dollars each month in new revenue for the 13,000 sites it serves. Customers include top names from the Comscore 500, many of which are running tens to hundreds of individual sites with the Rubicon Project to make more money from their ad space while protecting their brands and saving time.

2008 Re-Cap Video highlights include:

* Frank Addante, CEO and Founder, discusses the company’s platform servicing of 13,000 websites, and what he sees for 2009;
* Mark Douglas, vice president of engineering, highlights technology-driven product innovations in ad quality and scaling to optimize ads for 290M unique users around the globe;
* JT Batson, vice president of publishers, details how the Rubicon Project helped a large media company shift resources from ad network management to direct sales, adding to the publisher’s bottom line;
* Raleigh Harbour, vice president of ad network development, talks about the Web’s largest virtual ad sales force for publishers;
* Success stories from Salon.com, New York Daily News and more.

Customer Quotes

“The technology offers insightful reporting and data; has not only maintained but improved our overall CPM; saved us real dollars on ad serving costs; and effectively implemented a yield management strategy. the Rubicon Project allows Intellicast to better serve agencies and brands that want to reach our premium audience in more creative ways. Our team is now focused on catering to our highest paying advertisers.” – Josh Iverson, National Sales Director, Intellicast.com

“As a premium publisher that needs to maintain tight control over inventory running through ad networks, being able to manage the context of ads that appear on my site through ad networks is crucial. Working with the Rubicon Project has been a relief. We no longer worry about ad quality affecting our brand or rates, spend hours managing the filtering of new ads or deal with the stress of policing ad networks. We feel safe knowing the Rubicon Project is taking care of it for us and is maximizing revenue without sacrificing any of our standards.” – Andreas Droste, VP Sales & Marketing, Salon.com

“The Rubicon Project’s technology and service operates at such a high level, making Mail.com more money while enabling our team to focus more on serving the needs of direct advertisers, without sacrificing any of our quality standards, that we view them as a true partner as we continue to expand our business.” – Craig Perreault, VP, Products & Monetization, Mail.com

Quote from Frank Addante, CEO of the Rubicon Project

“2008 was our first full year working with web publisher customers and demonstrating the full value of Ad Network Optimization as a complement to internal ad operations efforts. We invested heavily in research and development, building out infrastructure and creating solutions to address our customers’ top concerns around maximizing revenue while protecting their brands. Our unique technology and people-driven approach generated $15 million in new revenue for our customers. In 2009 we’ll continue to innovate and expand the Rubicon Project’s service globally.”

About the Rubicon Project

Based in Los Angeles, the Rubicon Project launched in 2007 on a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry. Responding to one of the largest problems plaguing website publishers today – monetizing ad space that goes unsold (as much as 70-80 percent) across a fast-growing number of global ad networks – the Rubicon Project pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization (ANO). Backed by $22 million in funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, and IDG Ventures, the Rubicon Project developed its patent-pending Smart Matching™ technology, which uses billions of pieces of proprietary market data to match each publisher ad impression to the best money-making opportunities from ad networks.

The company serves more than 1300 premium customers (publishers like Gannett, Salon, Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive and American Greetings) by optimizing more than 15 billion ads each month across more than 300 top ad networks. Reaching more than 290 million unique Internet users, the Rubicon Project is one of the largest sources of ad inventory and reach on the Internet and the preferred source of targeted, audience-segmented inventory for ad networks around the world. The unique combination of ad network optimization and Smart Matching™ technology drives revenue lift ranging from 30-300% for the Rubicon Project’s customers.

Web sites who Demand More From Unsold Ad Space should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

LOS ANGELES – Channel M, the industry’s leading producer of customized in-store TV networks, announced that through its Money Mart branded stores, Dollar Financial Group, Inc, a subsidiary of Dollar Financial Corporation, the leading international financial services company serving under-banked consumers, has launched a custom Channel M in-store TV network. Uniquely developed to reach Money Mart’s core customer base, the network is available to external advertisers seeking to reach the same consumer demographic as Money Mart’s.

Channel M develops custom content and advertisements specifically targeted toward each in-store TV network’s target shopper demographic and maintains an infrastructure capable of handling all aspects of any in-store TV network, including but not limited to technology, content production, network installation, and advertising sales.

“We have partnered with Channel M to enhance the Money Mart customer experience, decrease perceived wait times, and drive sales and awareness of available products and offerings,” said Paul Koulogeorge, vice president of marketing for the Dollar Financial Group. “We are excited about the potential that in-store TV presents to extend beyond sales generation to the creation of additional revenue streams by opening up our customer base for advertisers.”

Dollar Financial Group is rolling out its in-store TV network to 30 Money Mart stores in the first phase, half of which will be in Canada and half in the United States with plans to expand it to all 1,000 of its store locations across the U.S. and Canada. The programming will be divided into three display areas, which include: music videos and custom entertainment feature programming; a scrolling news feed; and space for flash billboards and advertisements. Advertisements can also be cycled through within the main display area programming in :15, :30, or :60 second spots.

“Advertising opportunities on Channel M in-store TV networks provide advertisers with access to a captive audience while they are actively shopping or waiting in line ready to make a purchase decision,” said Dennis Quinn, President of Sales and Marketing of Channel M. “Advertisers can further engage this audience through capitalizing on the flexibility of digital delivery to specifically target advertisements geographically, by time of day, or by display location in each individual store.”

The Money Mart TV network is open to advertisers from across the following industries:
* Money Wire Services * Snacks
* Mobile Phone Companies * Beer and Liquor
* Automotive Parts * Video Games
* Automotive Retail * Movie Studios
* Quick Serve Restaurants * Local Transit Authorities
* Convenience Stores

At September 30, 2008, Dollar Financial Corp consisted of 1,377 stores, including 1,064 company-operated financial services stores and 313 franchised and agent locations in 30 states, Canada, Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. The financial services store network is the largest network of its kind in each of Canada and the United Kingdom and the second-largest network of its kind in the United States. The Company’s customers, many of whom receive income on an irregular basis or from multiple employers, are drawn to the convenient neighborhood locations, extended operating hours and high-quality customer service.

About Dollar Financial Corp

Dollar Financial Corp is a leading international financial services company serving under-banked consumers. Its customers are typically service sector individuals who require basic financial services but, for reasons of convenience and accessibility, purchase some or all of their financial services from the Company rather than from banks and other financial institutions. To meet the needs of these customers, the Company provides a range of consumer financial products and services primarily consisting of check cashing, short-term consumer loans, Western Union money order and money transfer products, currency exchange, reloadable VISA(R) and MasterCard(R)branded debit cards, electronic tax filing, bill payment services, and legal document processing services. The Company’s financial products and services, principally check cashing and short-term consumer loan programs, provide immediate access to cash for living expenses or other needs. For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.dfg.com

About Channel M

Channel M develops customized in-store television networks to drive sales in retail and lifestyle environments. By evaluating each retailer’s goals, consumer dwell times and buyer behaviors, Channel M’s in-house programming team creates content for in-store networks that enhances shopping experiences, increases store sales and generates revenue with entertainment, targeted advertising and sponsored features. The Company’s digital delivery platform offers on-demand updates, as well as localized programming and ad targeting features. Through its 27 retail networks, Channel M offers advertisers access to millions of highly targeted consumers each month while they are actively shopping. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Channel M clients include Macy’s, ecko, Steve Madden, Blockbuster and My Gym children’s fitness facilities. Company investors include Ascend Venture Group, Benedek Investment Group, Intel Capital and Vintage Fund Management. For more information, visit www.channelm.com.

IAB Leadership Forum

LOS ANGELES – Sometrics (http://www.sometrics.com) launched its Virtual Currency Platform – the industry’s first ad server to manage all virtual currency monetization from multiple offer providers.

As the benefits of the incentivized virtual currency revenue model are becoming more apparent, the industry is seeing an influx of providers in the space. Sometrics’ new platform will manage offers from any ad network, including Super Rewards, Offerpal and SocialMedia Networks. Sometrics will measure and report revenue, completion rates and demographic details, to help application developers analyze the effectiveness of each offer network.

Developers are then able to optimize and create new unique offers for all of these networks directly from the Sometrics Virtual Currency Platform.

“Sometrics will optimize existing virtual currency revenue, providing lift with current offer vendors,” said Ian Swanson, Sometrics co-founder and CEO. “Our platform also provides a more transparent and updated dashboard – one place to see all virtual currency revenue, across all apps and offer providers. There’s a host of offer networks available to developers, but most don’t provide much in the way of detailed reporting or transparency of results. Our platform is game-changing as the first solution designed to tackle this problem and give developers a way to optimize revenue streams across the board.”

Developers and publishers of social applications increasingly rely on incentive-based offers to encourage their users to take a particular action – view an ad, for example – ultimately increasing advertising revenue.

More than 1,800 publishers of social applications and communities are now using Sometrics’ social advertising and measurement solutions to increase traffic and boost revenue. Sometrics is the first to tailor its analytics and ad managing solutions to focus on social networking platforms and applications, providing the most relevant and effective audience analysis and social ad targeting available.

For product demos, contact Jennifer or Mickey at demo@sometrics.com.

About Sometrics

Sometrics is pioneering social intelligence – combining deep, relevant social analytics with precision-targeted ad managing/social branding capabilities to help developers and brands monetize the social web. Founded by developers, Sometrics is the first to tailor its analytics and ad managing solutions to focus on social networking platforms and applications. It provides the most relevant and effective audience analysis available, helping developers and brands better understand who’s doing what within the major social networking communities and ultra-targeted niche sites. Sometrics has more than 1,800 developers using its analytics tools across multiple social networks; some have reported 200 percent growth in traffic. Sometrics is the first recipient of capital from The Mail Room Fund, an investment consortium that combines big Hollywood (the William Morris Talent Agency) with Silicon Valley (Accel and Venrock). Its first funding round also included AT&T and Greycroft Partners. Sometrics is based in Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES – Ask a Web publisher about the major challenges of working with ad networks and you’ll undoubtedly hear about “slow ad serving speeds.” the Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global Ad Network Optimization, created the world’s first ad network ad speed monitoring system to proactively and comprehensively protect publishers from slow ads from ad networks.

the Rubicon Project’s approach to eradicating ad-serving headaches is core to its broader mission of protecting publishers’ brands. The company’s Brand Protection Program includes best of breed technology solutions for channel conflict and ad quality. These efforts, unique to the Rubicon Project, prevent web publishers from losing millions in ad revenue from damage to brand reputation, negative user experience and advertiser dissatisfaction.

the Rubicon Project’s unique vantage point between publishers and ad networks enables the company to act as an ad speed “traffic cop.” Specific measures to maximize revenue potential and minimize risk for publishers include:

* Monitoring: the Rubicon Project’s ad performance system checks in with ad network servers more than 86,000 times daily from 18 cities;
* Predictive Measurement: Current monitoring activity generates 2.5+ million measurements per month, used to better predict network performance;
* Alerts: An automatic alert mechanism flags sub-par speed performance and immediately pauses network ad serving tags;
* Protection: Account managers proactively trouble-shoot performance issues with networks until they are solved to the publisher’s satisfaction;
* Geographic Isolation: If Network X has a serving hiccup in Billings, Montana, the Rubicon Project can pause the ads that network is serving to that region while allowing the network to continue serving other areas. For the network, this is an excellent alternative to being turned off completely while the issue is resolved.

“Publishers told us serving speed was an obstacle in their relationships with networks. Ad speed monitoring is integrated into our platform’s DNA. We recognize that slow-serving ads tarnish a user’s experience and result in brand damage and lost revenue,” said Mark Douglas, VP of Engineering at the Rubicon Project. “If a site has delayed tags even 5% of the time that quickly adds up to hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in lost revenue each year. Alleviating this pain for our customers is part of what makes the Rubicon Project a comprehensive solution for ad network optimization.”

Ad networks also gain from the Rubicon Project’s solution. By working closely with the Rubicon Project to rapidly identify and resolve performance issues, ad networks can keep their publisher customers happy, preventing inventory loss and diminished revenue.

To learn more about how the Rubicon Project can protect your brand and optimize ad speed performance, visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com

About the Rubicon Project

Based in Los Angeles, the Rubicon Project launched in 2007 on a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry. Responding to one of the largest problems plaguing website publishers today – monetizing ad space that goes unsold (as much as 70 – 80 percent) across a fast-growing number of global ad networks – the Rubicon Project pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization (ANO). Backed by $22 million in funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund and IDG Ventures, the Rubicon Project developed its patent-pending Smart Matching™ technology, which uses billions of pieces of proprietary market data to match each publisher ad impression to the best money-making opportunities from ad networks.

The company serves 1300 premium customers (publishers like Gannett, Salon, Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive and American Greetings,) optimizing more than 16 billion ads each month across 300+ ad networks. Reaching more than 290 million unique Internet users, the Rubicon Project is one of the largest sources of ad inventory and reach on the Internet and the preferred source of targeted, audience-segmented inventory for ad networks around the world. The unique combination of ad network optimization and Smart Matching™ technology drives revenue lift ranging from 30-300% for the Rubicon Project’s customers.

- Visible Technologies Expands Executive Team to Support Growth in Social Media Management Solutions
Visible Technologies, an industry leading provider of social media monitoring and engagement solutions, today announced it has hired Geoff Farris as senior vice president of sales to drive revenue and build industry partnerships.
Geoff adds experience to Visible Technologies’ executive management ranks and enables the company to create a highly focused sales team, distinct from its marketing and communications efforts. The new sales team supports Visible Technologies’ growth plans and the increased market interest in the company’s flagship product, TruCastTM.

LOS ANGELES – The following is an opinion editorial by Mason Wiley, senior vice president of marketing, Hydra:

“Finish all your dinner,” my mom used to tell me. “Or you can’t be a member of the clean plate club.” Not wasting food earned me not only membership in that private collective, but also the reward that went with it, namely dessert.

Anyone raised by Depression-era-born parents was indoctrinated with the notion that waste is bad. Turns out that was good preparation for business. Executive leadership, like mom, abhors waste of any kind. Unfortunately, online advertisers always find that some amount of waste is always inevitable.

Under the long prevailing cost-per-thousand (CPM) model of buying advertising, online marketers have to pay to reach prospects. The major problem here is: whose numbers do you trust? Evidence has emerged that page views cited by online publishers as a proxy for impressions are overstated, to say the least. And what’s a page view worth, anyway? There is no guarantee that an ad is even seen. Heat map research shows that Web surfers, acting as their own internal TiVo, are pretty darn good at ignoring those online banners you spend your good money to place.

So as an online advertiser you do what advertisers have always done to improve their odds: you target. The Internet allows for not just the classic demographic and psychographic targeting but also behavioral and contextual targeting. Sure, it can help reduce paying for ad impressions that go nowhere. But this hyper targeting is giving consumers the heebie-jeebies and giving law-making bodies around the country a spanking new privacy issue to sink their teeth into. And in the end, even with all those fancy targeting schemes, you still end up paying to reach people not the least bit interested in what you have to sell and who will never become customers. You spend a ton of money on online impressions that aren’t impressive at all.

Fortunately, paying for the chance to maybe find a customer is not the only game in town. Now you have the choice to pay only for those ads that drive a customer to make a purchase, fill out a lead form, watch a video clip, or take some sort of conversion or engagement action. It’s called cost-per-action (CPA).

CPA is risk-free and waste-free by definition. Eliminating clickers who do not convert, CPA delivers incremental new customers with predictable ROI. What’s more, it’s not dependent on targeting. So, consumers don’t get hot and bothered about their privacy being invaded.

In fact, for savvy marketers, CPA can make targeting irrelevant. Using CPA, they can cast a wide net across the Internet universe (IU) and have their best prospects self-identify by responding. At that point, the advertiser can unleash all their best-practice CRM tactics to build prospects’ relationship with the brand and convert them into a lifetime customer.

The fact that I work for a CPA ad network might make you think that I am overly biased and therefore not credible. No way! But you don’t have to listen to just me. Listen to Bill Gates, formerly of Microsoft. Not only is he a proponent of CPA, he has predicted this form will eventually “change the economics of the search advertising market.” Or listen to Google VP of Search Product & User Experience Marissa Mayer’s public pronouncement that “CPA is the holy grail of targeted advertising.” CPA has fans.

Apparently, fans are making waves. More forward-thinking advertisers are adding CPA into the online media mix and getting their feet wet slowly. And with all this new status and attention, CPA means advertisers have premium inventory as well as all the transparency they’ve enjoyed with CPM. Combined with the economic benefits of CPA’s risk-free model, advertisers are more bullish now about testing it.

CPA is — finally — recession proof! With large and small retailers dealing with economic slowdown, CPA keeps products top of mind with consumers without breaking any bank. It’s always true, too, that only one metric in advertising matters: sales. CPA, along with its cousin cost-per-engagement, will be the single driving force of online advertising in the years to come with costs that are tied to results and that deliver full accountability and, best of all, control.

It’s a win-with one more win following it. So give CPA a shot. If nothing else you get guaranteed membership into the clean plate club!

About the author

As senior vice president of marketing, Mason Wiley comes to Hydra (www.hydranetwork.com) with more than 20 years of experience in marketing, brand-building, and sales. His diverse career includes developing a television campaign that repositioned Arnold Schwarzenegger from rich Hollywood movie hero to heroic political outsider.

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

The “Where’s Rogan?” series aired in eight weekly segments on New York Magazine’s Website at www.nymag.com/rogan/ and is a tongue-in-cheek expose of eco-conscious fashion designer Rogan Gregory, who goes missing during New York’s Fashion Week. During the Webisodes, viewers can control the advertising experience by interacting with product placement bugs and tickers from three advertisers involved with the project: Olay, TRESemme and Continental Airlines. During one episode, a ticker advertisement for Continental Airlines runs across the bottom of the screen. When a viewer clicks on it, a separate window opens to the airline’s main booking page, allowing users to book a flight while watching the video. Another episode features an Olay product placement bug which, when clicked, pauses the video to show the viewer a mini commercial. When the ad finishes, the video resumes playing.

“New York Magazine’s use of the Universal In-Stream Ad Framework (UIF) for this campaign highlights EyeWonder’s continued innovation in the video space,” said Chief Information Officer Ricky McClellen. “Viewers benefit because they decide which advertising they want to see and the length of time they want to see it without disrupting the video they’re watching. Advertisers benefit because their ads drive higher interaction rates, creating product awareness in consumers. Publishers are able to monetize their content and create new advertising space.”

EyeWonder integrated its UIF, an open standard platform that enables a “create once, play anywhere” ad solution to drive scale within the in-stream advertising industry, with Akamai’s open source code media player framework. This integration gives New York Magazine’s Silverlight-based video player the ability to deliver interactive in-stream advertising. The video player application impacts the way consumers experience video content and enables business models by controlling how and when ads are delivered. To support this movement, Akamai and industry leaders launched Openvideoplayer.com to facilitate open standards and best practices for video player applications that support a wide range of advertising technologies.

“New York Magazine’s project is a great inaugural example of the power of Akamai’s Media Framework, showcased through Microsoft Silverlight,” said Tim Napoleon, Chief Strategist for Digital Media at Akamai. “The Media Framework enabled EyeWonder to quickly and easily develop a dynamic and interactive advertising experience that lent itself to increasing brand awareness for the companies involved. The ability to deliver a high-quality experience for consumers and brands is the ultimate goal of Akamai’s open Media Framework. We look forward to watching how users interact with the ads interspersed throughout the video as well as giving advertisers a vehicle to monitor how their ads are received.”

“The ‘Where’s Rogan?’ project is another great example of how the robust technology behind Silverlight can create unique online media experiences that engage audiences in a very powerful way,” said Brian Goldfarb, Director of the Developer Platform Group at Microsoft Corp. “This project, in collaboration with Akamai and EyeWonder, opens up new doors for advertisers to present their brands in dynamic and interactive ways.”

Viewers must download the Silverlight player plug-in to watch “Where’s Rogan?” episodes. The first installment aired October 27, and the final aired November 20.

About Akamai
Akamai provides market-leading managed services for powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai’s services have been adopted by the world’s most recognized brands across diverse industries. The alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai’s global network of tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for businesses to succeed online. Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more viable place to inform, entertain, interact and collaborate. To experience The Akamai Difference, visit www.akamai.com.

About EyeWonder, Inc.
EyeWonder, Inc., is the pioneering interactive digital advertising provider, extending the reach of online rich media and interactive video ads to digital device displays. Through its superior technology, products and services, EyeWonder empowers advertisers, advertising agencies and content publishers with the ability to create, build, deliver, track and optimize interactive advertising campaigns proven to drive industry-leading results. EyeWonder’s Universal In-Stream Ad Framework supports Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., EyeWonder, Inc., has domestic offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami. International offices are located in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Australia. For more information on the company’s interactive digital advertising solutions or its global office network, please visit http://www.eyewonder.com.

Silverlight is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation and is used for descriptive purposes only.

The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai Technologies, Inc.’s management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including those relating to future benefits arising from the Akamai Media Framework. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, failure of Akamai technologies to be or remain compatible with offerings of other companies and other factors that are discussed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

LOS ANGELES & PALO ALTO, Calif. – MySpace, the world’s premier social network, and Auditude, a new provider of patented online video advertising technology, today announced that they have partnered with MTV Networks, a division of Viacom (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B), to enable advertising opportunities within audience-uploaded videos across MySpace. Through this relationship, Auditude provides the opportunity for advertising to be inserted across a suite of MTV Networks’ most popular video content uploaded to MySpace, including clips from MTV and COMEDY CENTRAL, among others. This agreement enables all parties – publishers, content owners, advertisers, and fans – to benefit from the organic distribution of premium video on the Web.

“Auditude is opening the floodgates for users to program video on MySpace and ensure copyright holders get paid,” said Jeff Berman, MySpace President of Marketing and Sales. “In one fell swoop, Auditude and its partners are empowering consumers and building a better business model. That’s a good deal all around.”

MySpace is leveraging a patented technology developed by Auditude that pairs automatic identification of virtually any professional video uploaded across the Internet with an ad platform that enables content owners to serve targeted ads within that content. With more than a billion minutes of professional content already indexed — including more than 250 million videos, and 4 years worth of 100 channels of television — Auditude is creating the opportunity for content owners to harness the power of audience-uploaded content and distributed video to activate an otherwise untapped revenue stream.

“Auditude’s mission is to grow the market for premium online video by unifying all aspects of distribution and advertising. We embrace the fact that online video is fundamentally social and created the identification technology and advertising platform to include the power of audience syndication – fans uploading content to the Web – as a form of content distribution. Our partnership with MySpace allows us to help content owners, like MTV Networks, reach their fans where they are most active,” said Adam Cahan, CEO of Auditude. “We hope to grow the market for monetizing online video by simplifying ad targeting and providing scale through audience participation.”

“As one of the leading providers of online video in the world, we give our fans the power not only to consume our content, but also to share and interact with it across the Web,” said Mika Salmi, President of Global Digital Media, MTV Networks. “With Auditude’s solution, we can continue to give users the freedom to take our content wherever they go online, while ensuring that we can monetize it as well.”

As part of the solution, Auditude announces the launch of the ‘Attribution Overlay’ which automatically identifies content informing viewers about details of shows being viewed online. The attribution also enables the content owner to integrate information about the video clip being played and provides an opportunity for the viewer to watch additional relevant content or have access to commerce links – for instance “buy show” – or merchandise related to that content. Video advertisers now have a usable channel to target audiences of premium content across the Web.

About MySpace

MySpace, a unit of Fox Interactive Media Inc., is the premier lifestyle portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world. MySpace has created a connected global community by integrating web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music streaming, music videos, photo galleries, classified listings, events, groups, college communities, and member forums. MySpace’s international network includes more than 30 localized community sites in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Latin America, Mexico, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, India, Japan, and New Zealand. Fox Interactive Media is a division of News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) (NYSE:NWS.A) (ASX:NWS) (ASX:NWSLV).

(1)Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, September 2008. For more information on comScore Networks, please go to www.comscore.com.

About Auditude

Auditude enables content owners, publishers and advertisers to harness the power of online audiences and organic distribution of content for targeted video advertising opportunities. Auditude Connect™ helps content owners scale their premium assets and simplifies video monetization allowing publishers to benefit from significant incremental revenue with little to no effort—regardless of whether the video is syndicated by partners or audiences. Auditude’s technology has been widely validated as highly accurate with no false positives and no false negatives with fingerprint generation speeds of greater than 300x real time. Auditude’s database today reflects the largest index of professional content with over one billion minutes, including more than 250MM user videos, 4 years of 100 channels of television, 10,000’s of films and more than 1.5MM minutes added daily.

Auditude is funded by Greylock Partners is based in Palo Alto with offices in Los Angeles and New York City. For more information, please visit us at: www.auditude.com.

NEW YORK – Amidst overall economic mayhem, the advertising industry is undergoing a massive shake-up. Shrinking traditional media budgets appear to be making way for an increase in online marketing dollars, as Internet advertising is a potent alternative for advertisers seeking clear, measurable return on their ad spend. The influx of dollars and advertisers brings great opportunity to Web sites, but also exacerbates a long-standing problem for top-tier publishers: the risk of inappropriate ads showing up amidst their high-end content. the Rubicon Project, an online advertising technology company, has created the industry’s first comprehensive solution to stop unwanted (e.g. those that contain adult content or promote competitive brands) ads in their tracks – protecting Web publishers and preventing inventory loss for ad networks at a crucial time for the industry.

The Rubicon Project’s Ad Quality Protection Program combines proprietary data-driven technology and unparalleled round-the-clock account support to provide publishers with a deep and proactive security layer that prevents undesirable ads from making it onto websites and in front of consumer eyes. For publishers, the Rubicon Project acts as an extension of an in-house ad-operations team, constantly ensuring ad quality standards aren’t compromised. Specific highlights of the Ad Quality Protection Program include:

* helix, a patent-pending artificial intelligence technology that auto-detects and flags inappropriate ads based on image content. Algorithmically driven, helix becomes smarter with every image it processes;
* Proactive screening of all publishers’ networks to ensure ad quality standards are upheld;
* Pausing of any offending ad tags until the problem is resolved. To date, 20,000 ad creatives have been frozen that, unchecked, would have been viewed by consumers as many as 40 million times;
* Ad Tag Screener, which allows publishers to directly pause offending network tags any time, day or night;
* Certification of every ad network to ensure compliance with each site’s ad quality standards before providing access to premium publishers;
* Pre-screening of all campaigns before they go live, as well as ongoing review of all advertising creatives to ensure ad quality standards are upheld;
* Dedicated account management team committed to meeting publisher’s business goals providing 24/7 operations support.

the Rubicon Project estimates that the absence of an across-the-board solution to filter unwanted ads can put up to 30% of publishers’ ad revenue at risk. The impact of unwanted ads damages a publisher’s brand value and reputation on multiple fronts by creating a negative user experience and driving away site visitors and the revenue they bring; de-valuing ad rates, which handicaps a sales team’s ability to sell at rate card prices; and alienating premium advertisers whose quality creative can be degraded by placement next to an offending ad.

“As a premium publisher that needs to maintain tight control over inventory running through ad networks, being able to manage the context of ads that appear on my site through ad networks is crucial,” said Andreas Droste, VP Sales & Marketing, Salon.com, a Rubicon Project customer. “Working with the Rubicon Project has been a relief. We no longer worry about ad quality affecting our brand or rates, spend hours managing the filtering of new ads or deal with the stress of policing ad networks. We feel safe knowing the Rubicon Project is taking care of it for us and is maximizing revenue without sacrificing any of our standards.”

Ad networks also benefit from the Ad Quality Protection Program. Working with the Rubicon Project prevents them from unintentionally serving undesirable ads, which is often grounds for immediate termination by publisher clients representing crucial revenue and quality inventory.

“Ad quality is the #1 risk top-tier web publishers face. Our goal is to help publishers protect their brand and make sure the user experience isn’t sacrificed or violated by providing technology and service that directly addresses and solves top concerns of ad quality,” said Frank Addante, CEO and co-founder of the Rubicon Project. “We aim to improve the efficiencies between ad networks and publishers to create a more harmonious and lucrative online advertising industry, especially in these trying economic times. No one else is providing the same level of support and innovation for publishers when it comes to ad quality.”

To learn more, visit: www.rubiconproject.com/adquality.

About the Rubicon Project

Based in Los Angeles, the Rubicon Project launched in 2007 on a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry. Responding to one of the largest problems plaguing website publishers today – monetizing ad space that goes unsold (as much as 70 – 80 percent) across a fast-growing number of global ad networks – the Rubicon Project pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization (ANO). Backed by $22 million in funding from Mayfield Fund, Clearstone Ventures and IDG Ventures, the Rubicon Project developed its patent-pending Smart Matching™ technology, which uses billions of pieces of proprietary market data to match each publisher ad impression to the best money-making opportunities from ad networks.

The company serves 1300 premium customers (publishers like Gannett, Salon, Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive and American Greetings) by optimizing more than 15 billion ads each month across 300 ad networks. Reaching more than 240 million unique Internet users, the Rubicon Project is one of the largest sources of ad inventory and reach on the Internet and the preferred source of targeted, audience-segmented inventory for ad networks around the world. The unique combination of ad network optimization and Smart Matching™ technology drives revenue lift ranging from 30-300% for the Rubicon Project’s customers.

Web sites who Demand More From Unsold Ad Space should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank’s blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/.

NEW YORK – The Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global ad network optimization, divulges noteworthy market data and industry trends in the Q3 edition of the 2008 Online Advertising Market Report series. From its independent third-party position between ad networks and Website publishers, the Rubicon Project provides a unique and un-biased perspective of the changing Internet advertising landscape. The company, which is optimizing ads for publishing customers at the pace of 15 billion per month thus far in Q4, based its analysis for the Q3 Report on the 28 billion impressions optimized during that quarter, from more than 270 ad networks.

“We’ve all seen how the economy, in the U.S. and around the globe, is affecting consumer and corporate spending. As marketers look at the challenges ahead, however, online advertising continues to grow, despite the negative dip in most traditional advertising markets,” said Frank Addante, CEO and founder of the Rubicon Project. “With this report we’re happy to deliver a glimmer of hope in uncertain times; based on in-depth market intelligence and informed analysis of data-backed trends, we think online advertising, especially by way of the best ad networks, has the potential to thrive even as Wall Street struggles.”

The Sky Is Not Falling

With the global economy facing stronger headwinds there was much speculation about how online advertising, and the ad industry as a whole, would weather the storm. Still, VC firms and other investors pumped $241 million into ad networks over the course of Q3, according to investment bank Petsky Prunier.

As marketers follow consumers’ lead and seek ways to tighten the belt, they’re shifting hundreds of millions, potentially billions, of dollars away from hard-to-measure traditional media to online advertising. The Internet offers directly measurable return on ad spend, something television, radio and print can’t deliver nearly as effectively, and ad networks are a critical channel through which fewer media buyers can access online media. Based on these market factors, and the trends revealed by the company’s own massive volume of data, the Rubicon Project is confident that online advertising will continue to represent a significant and growing portion of marketing spend. This will drive continued demand for ad networks and platforms like the Rubicon Project’s Ad Network Optimizer, which builds revenue and offers tremendous time and resource efficiencies for website publishers.

Sample Findings:

* Newspapers are struggling with sales and circulation numbers offline, but recent deals they’ve brokered with ad networks and other web-based properties have started to net positive results;
* News & Reference site CPMs outperformed other verticals with an across-the-board CPM increase of 36 percent over Q2 – only Food & Drink sites garnered higher absolute prices during Q3;
* Social Networking sites (and other channels like Young Adults, Music and Entertainment) struggle to match inventory with demand. Already-low CPMs in the Social Networking channel slipped 3 percent in Q3. With more than 150 million consumers spending time on social networking sites, however, advertisers will continue to spend to reach this audience, driving overall revenue upward;
* Network performance in Q3 varied by type – behavioral networks, while still delivering the highest CPMs across all networks, were slightly down, while all-purpose networks saw marked pricing lifts;
* Average CPMs served across thousands of sites and 270 ad networks slipped 11 percent from Q2, but performance varied by network type and channel. Several channels experienced greater than 25 percent lift in CPMs from Q2, while others dropped by almost 20 percent. This fluctuation among verticals appears little different from past quarters’ analysis.

To access a free download of the Q3 Online Advertising Market Report, as well as past published reports, visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

About the Rubicon Project

Based in Los Angeles, the Rubicon Project launched in 2007 on a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry. Responding to one of the largest problems plaguing website publishers today – monetizing ad space that goes unsold (as much as 70-80 percent) across a fast-growing number of global ad networks – the Rubicon Project pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization (ANO). Backed by $22 million in funding from Mayfield Fund, Clearstone Ventures and IDG Ventures, the Rubicon Project developed its patent-pending Smart Matching™ technology, which uses billions of pieces of proprietary market data to match each publisher ad impression to the best money-making opportunities from ad networks.

The company serves 1300 premium customers (publishers like Gannett, Salon, Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive and American Greetings) by optimizing more than 15 billion ads each month across more than 300 top ad networks. Reaching more than 250 million unique Internet users, the Rubicon Project is one of the largest sources of ad inventory and reach on the Internet and the preferred source of targeted, audience-segmented inventory for ad networks around the world. The unique combination of ad network optimization and Smart Matching™ technology drives revenue lift ranging from 30-300% for the Rubicon Project’s customers.

Web sites who Demand More From Unsold Ad Space should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank’s blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/.

NEW YORK – Giving advertisers a cost-effective way to acquire brand intelligence that will help them increase ROI across the board, Sometrics (http://www.sometrics.com) unveiled new rich media ad units for the social web that will measure brand perception and ad effectiveness. The company made the announcement at the ad:tech digital marketing conference in New York.

The move expands the value of the social web for advertisers, by harnessing Sometrics’ targeting and measurement capabilities to turn highly engaging social ads into a resource for gaining insight a company can use to make all of its advertising (TV, print, online) more effective.

Sometrics’ new ad units let advertisers target video and other ads based on user demographics and social interests, within social networking and other community sites. Using incentives designed to appeal to the particular audience – like extra points for someone playing an online game – Sometrics encourages people to view the ad and to answer questions about the ad and the brand, ensuring a high level of engagement with the ad itself.

Those questions will measure brand awareness, attitude, favorability, purchase intent and brand preference. Sometrics will couple that brand perception data with user demographics like age, location and gender, along with interests and social actions – to give advertisers a significant amount of actionable intelligence that will help them better understand their audiences and identify which messages are successful.

“We’re giving advertisers the tools for improving ROI across all advertising at a time when every ad dollar spent must be strategic and achieve results,” said Ian Swanson, Sometrics co-founder and CEO. “There are two characteristics of the social web that make it a rich source of information for advertisers – the depth of demographic data we aggregate, and the level of attention that users already give the medium. We’re combining the power of both – using precision-targeting abilities to reach the right audiences, and using incentives to direct their attention our way to help us give advertisers insight that will help them forge stronger connections with their target audiences.”

The intelligence Sometrics provides includes traffic, demographic, social interest, social action, conversion details and brand perception data. It is custom-packaged in reports designed to make it easy for advertisers to make informed decisions about where, when and how to allocate advertising budgets to more effectively reach target audiences.

For product demos, contact Jennifer or Mickey at demo@sometrics.com.

About Sometrics

Sometrics is pioneering social intelligence – combining deep, relevant social analytics with precision-targeted ad managing/social branding capabilities to help developers and brands monetize the social web. Founded by developers, Sometrics is the first to tailor its analytics and ad managing solutions to focus on social networking platforms and applications. It provides the most relevant and effective audience analysis available, helping developers and brands better understand who’s doing what within the major social networking communities and ultra-targeted niche sites. While still in beta, Sometrics has more than 1,700 developers using its analytics tools across multiple social networks; some beta testers have reported 200 percent growth in traffic. Sometrics is the first recipient of capital from The Mail Room Fund, an investment consortium that combines big Hollywood (the William Morris Talent Agency) with Silicon Valley (Accel and Venrock). Its first funding round also included AT&T and Greycroft Partners. Sometrics is based in Los Angeles.

“Lookery and Adknowledge are pleased to announce that Lookery’s ad serving business has been acquired by Adknowledge / Cubics.com. Lookery has been seeking a company to acquire its ad serving business that is able to both provide you with the same or higher payouts that you are currently receiving and provide the same level of service that you have come to expect from Lookery. We found both of those qualities in Adknowledge / Cubics.

The good news is that the transition does not involve changing ad codes, everything is still working as usual and there was no downtime. The only change required on your part is that your ad statistics are now being reported in a Cubics.com publisher account that has been created for you. Your login details have been e-mailed to your account.

If you are currently operating under a Lookery Guaranteed CPM program, that guarantee will continue under the Cubics system. If the system is not currently displaying your guaranteed value for all traffic, please drop us a line.

Rex is still available to answer your questions and introduce you to the publisher team at Cubics. You can also contact your Cubics publisher representative, Gates, at Adknowledge / Cubics with any questions and to learn more about the company and transition.

Adknowledge / Cubics is the largest social ad network, displaying over 10 billion impressions per month on social networks. They are a 150 person company including brand sales offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London & Sydney. Their advertiser depth and industry experience will undoubtedly provide you with the revenue and service you deserve.”

About Adknowledge

Founded in 2003, Adknowledge is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri with offices in London, Sydney, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Adknowledge benefits advertisers, publishers and consumers alike by delivering ads that are more relevant than typical online advertisements. The company accomplishes this by utilizing its proprietary and leading-edge targeting technologies across a variety of advertising channels.
In addition, Adknowledge provides full-service solutions to a wide spectrum of publishers seeking to monetize their digital assets. Examples include email list owners, Internet Service Providers, Facebook developers, affiliate networks and web site operators.
Adknowledge is a privately held company with more than 140 employees throughout the world. Overall, our culture is highly focused on developing new technologies and product enhancements. In 2006, Technology Crossover Ventures (portfolio includes C|Net, eHarmony, Fandango, Expedia.com, iVillage, Netflix and more) funded Adknowledge for future expansion.

EDebitPay (EDP) will show an enormous presence at this year’s Ad:Tech conference in New York. Featuring a 20-foot booth in the exhibit hall, plus numerous visible sponsorships throughout the venue; EDP is also very pleased to be able to provide sponsorship to several Industry-related events at hot-spots throughout the city.

As a leading performance-based affiliate marketing group, EDebitPay represents the largest financial products in the online direct response market. With some of the highest conversion rates, EDebitPay is able to offer some of the highest commissions in market. EDebitPay also specializes in lead generation, list management services, along with providing its own financial service products providing fully integrated marketing solutions.

EDebitPay has remained in the forefront of the Online Advertising Industry since its inception in 2002 and continues to make strides based upon solid top brand recognition and trust. “Opportunities provided through Ad:Tech participation has been a significant player in the many relationships EDebitPay has built over the years,” said CEO, Dale Paul Cleveland. William Wilson, President, adds “We’re pleased to be a Silver Sponsor at this year’s show and see it as an incredible opportunity to build on existing brand recognition and awareness.” In addition to the sponsorships at Ad:Tech this year, EDebitPay will be sponsoring four industry related events during the show.

EDebitPay values its relationships with other affiliates. The company continues to provide outstanding services with its product development, lead generation, data monetization, interactive marketing, and financial services that are carried throughout their products and services. Starting its product lines with the prepaid debit card, EDebitPay has expanded its product offerings and is consistently looking for ways to better serve consumers. In today’s credit crunch, EDebitPay offers valuable alternative credit opportunities for consumers who are looking for access to funds their traditional banks cannot provide. Its recent recognition as number 28 in the Inc. 5000 as a Top Financial Services company in the U.S. validates its efforts to accomplish this goal.

Ad:Tech attendees are encouraged to come visit EDebitPay at Booth #1405. The show will take place November 3rd-5th at the Hilton Hotel, 1335 Avenue of the Americas, in New York City.

About EDebitPay

EDebitPay (www.EDebitPay.com) was founded in 2002 by CEO, Dale Paul Cleveland and President, William Richard Wilson. The company has leveraged its strengths in the online performance-based marketing and advertising fields to expand into multiple financial service verticals. Additionally, EDebitPay was announced as Number 28 of the Top 100 Financial Services Marketing Companies in the U.S. in 2008. The company was also ranked 27th in the Top 100 Businesses in the Los Angeles region.

Within only three years, EDebitPay saw a 618% growth which positioned the company at number 510 overall in the Inc. 5000 list.

Through its popular Affiliate Network, online marketing, list management services, lead generation, top converting products and vast back end of lead buyers; EDebitPay truly offers everything needed to produce integrated marketing solutions. For more information, contact EDebitPay Corporate headquarters in Sherman Oaks, CA (818) 487-0672, x302 or email to info@edebitpay.com.

About Ad:Tech 2008

For more than ten years, Ad:Tech has provided media, marketing and technology professionals with the tools and techniques they need to succeed in a changing digital world. With 11 shows in 7 countries, Ad:Tech’s globally respected roster of speakers, workshops and exhibitors continues to make it the preferred resource and destination for digital marketers everywhere.

- XTS Global’s Revolutionary Business-Centric Approach to New Media Boosts Return on Investment
New media… it’s the buzz phrase of the decade… an industry that has transformed the internet and marketing and public relations sectors on a global scale. What is it though that keeps new media “new”? This is a question that the New Media Division at Los Angeles-based marketing firm XTS Global evaluates on an ongoing basis. Technology is obviously a major component, but to XTS Global, the implementation of creative business-centric strategies to increase ROI is foundationally essential. By doing so, XTS Global’s New Media Division promotes efficient interactive communication with measurable results.
A number of campaigns at XTS Global’s New Media Division have been built with the “many-to-many” model of mass communication, which enables a specialized audience to customize its online lifestyle with a variety of sources and choices. XTS Global’s New Media Division integrates this philosophy with their business-centric focus, innovative forms of branded entertainment, and cutting-edge technology to turn the “many-to-many” audience into leads and sales opportunities for their clients.

“We’re proud to be partnering with Klickable TV, the leading player that allows users to ‘klick’ on a video to interact with objects, actors and other hotspots overlaid on top of video content,” said Steve Dapper, founder and CEO of hawkeye.

“hawkeye is the leading authority on all that is advanced on the web,” said Roger Wu, co-founder and president of Klickable TV. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with hawkeye and have them provide a Klickable demo on their website.”

Typical uses of Klickable videos include e-commerce, rich value-added information nuggets and game-like contests. The new platform is coming to major TV shows, newscasts, music videos and more.

Online viewers can get deeper information – in real time – about anything they see or hear on a Klickable-adapted video. For instance: Where can I buy the jewelry she is wearing? How much is the shirt he has on? Who sings that theme song?

Want to see for yourself? A free demonstration of this exciting new technology is just a “klick” away. Go to hawkeyeww.com and enter Offer Code: KLI8098.

About hawkeye

hawkeye is a special forces team that uses insight and data intelligence to quickly solve complex challenges for world-class marketers like Capital One, HP, Microsoft and Agilent Technologies. Core practices include B2B, Branding, Interactive, Direct and Sports Marketing, and Entertainment.

hawkeye’s U.S. associates are in Boise, Buffalo, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Lodz, Poland; London, Los Angeles, New York, Rochester, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore and Vail. For more information, go to www.hawkeyeww.com.

About Klickable

Klickable’s interactive video platform harnesses social media to create a comprehensive viewing experience and provides never-before-seen insights into viewer behavior. With a variety of professional and semi-professional users, Klickable is the leading interactive video provider. Founded in 2007, Klickable.tv is based in New York City. For more information, visit www.klickable.tv.

LOS ANGELES – the Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global Ad Network Optimization, proudly welcomes two new and noteworthy executive appointments to the company: Mark Douglas as vice president of engineering and Seizo Welch as vice president of finance. Douglas is responsible for building and managing the Rubicon Project’s engineering, quality assurance and Web operations teams. These teams are vital to building and maintaining the company’s fast-growing Ad Network Optimization platform, integral Smart-Matching™ technology and delivery of billions of ad impressions worldwide. Welch will oversee management of all finance and accounting functions in the company, including support of the company’s rapid expansion.

Douglas’s engineering background spans nineteen years and features some of the most notable names in the technology industry. His career began at Oracle as an early member of the Oracle Application Division team that developed the Application Division Core Platform from scratch. Most recently he served as vice president of technology at another “match-making company,” eHarmony.com, the Internet’s No. 1 trusted relationship services provider in the United States. While at eHarmony, he led the technology charge helping the company become one of the most widely-known Internet dating sites, boasting annual revenue approaching $200 million with more than 20 million registered users.

“When I first looked at the Rubicon Project, I immediately saw a direct parallel between ad monetization and the matchmaking technology I developed at eHarmony,” said Douglas. “To work with an innovative company that is committed and driven to truly automate the business of online advertising for both web publishers and ad networks is an incredible opportunity. I look forward to contributing to the company’s plans to bring this revolutionary technology to large publishers worldwide.”

“Having Mark join the Rubicon Project is a huge win. He brings an impressive amount of engineering experience and excels at translating large technology challenges into executable products and solutions,” said Frank Addante, CEO and founder of the Rubicon Project. “Seizo is a key addition to our team as well. His results overseeing companies from the ‘start-up’ phase to those with global dominance make him the obvious pick to lead our financial charge. His experience and foresight are crucial to executing on our company’s rapid growth plans. With minds like Mark’s and Seizo’s joining our stellar team, we’re even better prepared to achieve our goal of premium ad network optimization for publishers and networks across the globe.”

“I love building start-ups into strong and successful businesses,” said Welch. “By becoming a leader in the space in such a short amount of time, the Rubicon Project has already demonstrated the capacity to deliver on its massive market potential. It’s energizing to work with such a passionate and intelligent team that’s tackling massive industry challenges.”

Welch was formerly vice president of finance at Experian Interactive Media, managing a team that focused on lead-generation companies, including LowerMyBills.com. Prior to Experian he was part of a team that grew LowerMyBills.com, acquired by Experian in 2005, from a small start-up to a more than $200 million per year business.

About the Rubicon Project

In 2007, the Rubicon Project started on a mission to automate the fractured $45 billion global online advertising industry. Responding to one of the largest problems plaguing website publishers today, the team pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization (ANO) to provide publishers with a solution that makes them the most money possible by optimizing unsold ad space across ad networks, eliminating the hassles of ad network management and protecting their brands when selling through these critical channels. Using its $22 million in funding, the company is investing heavily in the development of its patent-pending Smart Matching™ technology. This unique predictive technology takes advantage of billions of pieces of proprietary market data to match every ad impression to the best money-making opportunities from ad networks.

In just one year, the company has built a healthy roster of 1300 active customers, and optimizes more than 12 billion ads each month across 280 of the top ad networks. Currently reaching more than 240 million unique Internet users, the Rubicon Project is one of the largest sources of ad inventory and reach on the Internet and a critical source of intelligent ad space and targeted reach for ad networks across the globe. Based in Los Angeles, the company is backed by Mayfield Fund, Clearstone Venture Partners and IDG Ventures. Demand More from your Unsold Ad Space: www.rubiconproject.com.

LOS ANGELES – Built specifically for search marketers and agencies running Google AdWords campaigns, magnify360 (www.magnify360.com), a leading provider of conversion optimization solutions, today unveiled a new tool, called the Google Cost Optimizer. The new tool provides unmatched visibility into the performance of campaigns, allowing for unprecedented end-to-end performance management and rapid optimization of landing pages. magnify360 will launch comparable tools for other advertising and affiliate networks, all of which will eventually feed into a single interface on the magnify360 Platform.

Google Cost Optimizer synchronizes in real-time to clients’ Adwords accounts and automatically responds to campaign changes, including bids, Ad groups, keywords and more. This synchronization enables the tool to calculate campaign performance metrics in clients’ actual dollar values:

- Individual keyword phrase return on investment (ROI) in real-time

- Cost per click in real-time

- Revenue per click in real-time

- Conversion rate in real-time

- Dollar value lead scoring in real-time

- Campaign ROI in real-time

With this level of granularity into individual keyword and visitor ROI and cost per acquisition (CPA), search marketers can easily manage the performance of their campaigns. magnify360’s Google Cost Optimizer provides the ability for marketers to quickly tie individual leads and/or customers to the exact keyword phrase that generated their click and conversion, indicating which keywords to bolster and which to abandon. This is also possible at the visitor segment or profile level.

“In order for businesses to survive this recession, marketing must be more efficient,” said Olivier Chaine, ceo and founder of magnify360. “We built Google Cost Optimizer so that our search marketing clients can quickly and easily optimize every single penny.”

The data delivered through Google Cost Optimizer’s reporting also communicates the most effective landing page design and content for each keyword and associated visitor segment or profile. Because this information is available in real-time, optimized landing pages for specific keywords and profiles can be deployed much more rapidly.

For clients looking for turn-key landing page optimization, magnify360 offers complete services from creative to html and optimization that rely on the magnify360 Platform and its Google Cost Optimizer tool. Clients can launch optimization with magnify360 in as little as 48 hours. magnify360 plans to launch comparable campaign management tools to the magnify360 Platform for Yahoo!, MSN, Commission Junction (ValueClick), and Atlas this Quarter.

magnify360 brings the reality of 1-to-1 personalization to the online user experience. Based in Los Angeles, CA, magnify360 provides a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, called the magnify360 Platform, that optimizes the performance of websites, microsites and landing pages through dynamic content personalization. The magnify360 Platform combines behavioral targeting, multivariate testing and predictive modeling to maximize the performance of online marketing. Enterprise businesses including Intuit, Citrix Systems, HSBC Bank and 123InkJets trust magnify360 to improve visitor engagement and conversion rates while reducing their customer acquisition costs.

Visit magnify360 at Booth #19 during the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, October 20-23, 2008 in Washington DC.

For more information on magnify360, please visit www.magnify360.com or call 866.861.8878

‘MySpace MyAds’ Enables Any Advertiser to Create, Personalize, and Track Performance of Display Ads within MySpace Ecosystem

LOS ANGELES – MySpace officially announced the domestic beta launch of ‘MySpace MyAds’ (https://advertise.myspace.com), the new advertising platform designed to empower individuals and small businesses – from local retailers to musicians and politicians – to create relevant, targeted promotional business campaigns within the world’s premier social media environment. MySpace MyAds is a new, do-it-yourself advertising platform that democratizes the landscape of online advertising, enabling anyone to create customized banner ads, target to specific audiences using MySpace’s HyperTargeting technology, and analyze campaign performance tracked throughout the MySpace ecosystem.

“With MySpace MyAds, we’re blowing the lid off display advertising solutions for small and medium businesses,” said Jeff Berman, President of Sales and Marketing for MySpace. “MySpace MyAds is a direct marketer’s dream – providing entrepreneurs with the most accessible, personalized, and targeted advertising toolkit in the market. We’re giving businesses better ROI ASAP and in today’s economy, that’s a must-have.”

MySpace MyAds empowers any advertiser to build a customized, targeted, and measurable campaign in a few easy steps:

STEP 1: Visit https://advertise.myspace.com or click the “Advertise” link located at the bottom of any MySpace page

STEP 2: Create a display ad using the MySpace MyAds Builder Tool

STEP 3: Select a variable ad spend anywhere from $25 to $10,000

STEP 4: HyperTarget to customers

STEP 5: Measure ad performance with MySpace MyAds analytics reporting

MySpace’s HyperTargeting ad technology is a key component in the functionality of the MySpace MyAds platform enabling advertisers to serve their ad campaign to the right customers. HyperTargeting enables marketers to connect with specific user groups on a massive scale based on self-expressed interests available on MySpace profiles. The technology allows any MySpace MyAds user access to targeting parameters such as age, sex, and geographical location, all in combination with thousands of user interest categories including specific keywords within each category. For example, within the ‘videogame’ enthusiast category, a further targeting keyword or phrase might include ‘Call of Duty 5’ if relevant to an advertiser’s campaign.

“After spending $100 on MySpace MyAds to advertise, I got a roofing assignment valued at $30,000 all in a matter of eight days,” said Dan Davis, owner of D&D Installation, a Chicago roofing company.

Once the creative, audience and campaign length have been determined by the advertiser, the newly created ad is reviewed through MySpace’s dedicated customer support, safeguarding that the ad does not violate MySpace’s terms of service. Once approved, and depending on the timing the advertiser has chosen, the campaign can go live across the MySpace ecosystem to the audience segments that the campaign creator has chosen. Campaign set-up and results can be completed and tracked in as little as a few hours.

“With MySpace MyAds, I can bring my message to an audience that I normally wouldn’t have access to nor even know where to find,” said Blayne Weaver, an independent filmmaker. “I had previously used MySpace to promote my movie through a general film festival circuit. Now that the film has a nationwide DVD release, it was great to be able to orchestrate my own advertising aimed at the exact audience I wanted to target – people who liked watching movies.”

MySpace MyAds provides all advertisers with a suite of analytic tools and key performance indicators that accompany every campaign including the number of times their ad was shown (impressions), the number of click-throughs, and a running cost on active campaigns. Using the analytics provided by MySpace MyAds, advertisers are able to renew successful campaigns, tweak under-performing campaigns, and edit existing creative. The campaign is charged only when a user clicks on the ad (rather than when the ad is served) and is able to run an unlimited number of campaigns at any time.

MySpace recently hit an all-time high with domestic unique users and engagement in August according to comScore; seeing approximately 76 million users domestically—each averaging more than 4 hours on the site every month—and 122 million worldwide unique users. comScore also reported MySpace surpassed Yahoo! to become the top publisher of online display advertising in the U.S., accounting for 15.9% of all display ads viewed in June.

About MySpace

MySpace, a unit of Fox Interactive Media Inc., is the premier lifestyle portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world. MySpace has created a connected global community by integrating web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music streaming, music videos, photo galleries, classified listings, events, groups, college communities, and member forums. MySpace’s international network includes more than 30 localized community sites in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Latin America, Mexico, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, India, Japan, and New Zealand. Fox Interactive Media is a division of News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) (NYSE:NWS.A) (ASX:NWS) (ASX:NWSLV).

Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, August 2008. For more information on comScore Networks, please go to www.comscore.com.

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

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

Research Highlights

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

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

Men’s Behavior Online

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

How Men Respond to Online Advertising

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

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

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

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

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

Additional Fun Facts

Making time for real women still trumps the Internet:

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

Men 18-34 see themselves as:

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

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

About Break Media

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

- Rambler Media Signs Partnership with Netvibes
Rambler Media Ltd. (“Rambler”), operating one of Russia’s most popular internet brands, today announces that, in line with its strategy to make Rambler.ru Russia’s leading open gateway to the web and favorite homepage, the Company has signed an exclusive multi-year partnership with Netvibes, the leading widget and personalized startpage platform on the web, to power Rambler.ru’s new widget and customization services.

- DiversityInPromotions, LLC and m strategies inc. Forge Strategic Alliance to Offer Clients Marketing, Promotions, Public Relations and Media Strategy
DiversityInPromotions, LLC (DIP), a full-service marketing firm combining general marketing/advertising with sports/entertainment events and diverse suppliers, today announced it has entered into a strategic alliance with m strategies inc. (MSI), a full-service public relations agency specializing in media strategy, media training and messaging.

- blinkx Grows Advertising Sales Team to Meet Growing Online TV Opportunity
blinkx, the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced a number of new additions to its advertising sales team, to be based in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The team has expanded to further support new business development around the globe.
“We’re thrilled to bring some of the industry’s most experienced professionals on board,” said Federico Grosso, senior vice president of business development, blinkx. “We’re confident that our new colleagues will be enormous assets to our team and aid us in taking full advantage of the thriving online video advertising market.”

“There will be no impact whatsoever from the recent allowance of Destiny Media Technologies Inc.’s (OTCBB:DSNY) U.S. patent application on our intellectual property rights. None of our two granted U.S. and Canadian patents, our pending U.S. patents, or our $15 million infringement and $25 million defamation claims against Destiny will be affected,” said John Heaven, President and CEO of YANGAROO. “The content of their patent applications has been reviewed in both the Canadian and the US prosecution of our patent applications and no Examiner has ever considered the content of their applications relevant to the patentability of our claims.”

Destiny had previously abandoned the corresponding application in Canada, and then after several years of inactivity revived and amended the same application in the U.S to narrow the claims. It has no application in Canada or bearing on YANGAROO’s Canadian patent or Canadian $15 infringement claim against Destiny.

The Destiny application for MPE (“Music Protected by Encryption”) narrowly claims a specific key management process for decrypting media delivered in a single file. The single file must have an integral decryption engine embedded in the file with the media content. In other words, every time a user receives a media track, it has an embedded decryption engine with it. The decryption process at the user’s end relies on a decryption key that is itself encrypted with a user key which is bonded to the user’s computing device, e.g. the user key must be based on a serial no. or other characteristic of the user’s computer. The decryption key must be received through a different communication path from the media file, meaning it cannot come from the same source as the media file; there must be a separate key management server (e.g. DRM server) for providing a key to decode the media.

Neither YANGAROO’S Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS), nor YANGAROO’S granted and pending patents fall within the claims contained in Destiny’s application. The contents of this release have been vetted by patent counsel for YANGAROO.

ABOUT YANGAROO

YANGAROO’s patented Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS) is a leading secure B2B digital delivery solution for the music and advertising industries. DMDS is a web-based delivery system that pioneers secure digital file distribution by incorporating biometrics, high-value encryption and watermarking. DMDS replaces the physical distribution of musical recordings and advertising to radio, media, retailers and other authorized recipients with more accountable, effective and far less costly digital delivery of broadcast quality media via the Internet.

YANGAROO’s DMDS has made over five million deliveries of over 11,000 songs from more than 600 record labels to destinations which include radio stations representing over 35 US broadcast chains. DMDS is the only system that can digitally deliver music across the U.S., Canada and the UK. YANGAROO has offices in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, and London, UK. YANGAROO trades on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) under the symbol YOO and in the U.S. under OTCBB:YOOIF. For further information, please contact John Heaven at 905-763-3553 or visit www.yangaroo.com.

NEW YORK, Oct. 9, 2007 — Collective Media, a leading online advertising network, today announced that it successfully leveraged DoubleClick’s DART(R) Adapt automated optimization solution to deliver campaign optimization beyond standard direct marketing metrics. Collective engaged DoubleClick Inc., the premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, seeking to optimize a DoubleClick Rich Media campaign for a leading consumer products client.

DoubleClick’s DART Adapt solution uses a sophisticated algorithm to match ads to the users most likely to respond. By leveraging DART Adapt, Collective Media was able to automatically optimize the Rich Media ad interaction rate of the campaign, resulting in an 87% lift in consumer interactions over a single quarter.

“We’ve worked with Collective on a number of advertising initiatives for our clients, and in each case, DART Adapt has provided significant lift in a variety of key metrics, including interaction-rate,” says Sara Hall, OMD San Francisco. “It’s great to see how optimization tools can make sense for brand advertising, not only direct marketing.”

“Collective and DoubleClick worked together to customize DART Adapt to capitalize on the unique audience and inventory characteristics of the Collective Network,” said Joe Apprendi, chief executive officer of Collective Media. “In addition to the work we did for this particular client, the lift we’ve seen using DART Adapt has been measurable and actionable, giving our customers greater insight on campaign performance beyond click and conversion rates, including the audience engagement metrics that matters most to our brand advertisers.”

Since implementing DoubleClick’s automatic optimization tool, Collective Media has delivered significant lift in all key return on investment (ROI) metrics: click-rate, conversion-rate (post-impression and post-click) and interaction-rate for its advertisers. “In the most recent quarter, DART Adapt drove an average click-through lift of more than 30% with many advertisers experiencing a lift greater than 100%.”

“When we launched DART Adapt a year ago we wanted to enable publishers to improve campaign performance while generating more revenue from their ad inventory,” said Brad Bender, vice president of optimization solutions for DoubleClick. “This particular implementation demonstrates DART Adapt’s flexibility in optimizing against a variety of user actions, enabling clients to partner with advertisers to help drive ROI based on specific campaign objectives.”

About Collective Media
Collective Media is a leading online advertising network specializing in audience targeting and optimization solutions to increase relevancy and yield for both publishers and advertisers, reaching 120 million unique users monthly. Collective is comprised exclusively of high quality, brand-name publishers offering the largest network of online news sites in addition to a wide selection of entertainment, sports and health sites. Collective’s innovative approach enables both brand and direct marketers to achieve superior results through sophisticated audience targeting technology, including context, behavior, geographic and re-targeting. Founded in 2005, Collective Media is headquartered in New York City with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and Detroit. Learn more at http://www.collective-media.com.

About DoubleClick Inc.
DoubleClick is a provider of digital marketing technology and services. The world’s top marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick’s expertise in ad serving, rich media, video, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium. From its position at the nerve center of digital marketing, DoubleClick provides superior insights and insider knowledge to its customers. Headquartered in New York, and with 17 offices and development hubs and 14 data centers worldwide, the company employs more than 1300 people and delivers billions of digital communications every day. Learn more at http://www.doubleclick.com.

LOS ANGELES – the Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company, celebrates a momentous first year pioneering the category of Ad Network Optimization. The company optimizes website publishers’ unsold ad space across ad networks to ensure they make the most money possible, eliminates the hassles of ad network management and protects their brand when selling through these critical channels.

STATISTICS

Each quarter the company has consistently shattered its revenue, impression, reach and publisher revenue lift goals. Highlights from the first 12 months include:

* 55 billion total ad impressions optimized;
* Currently optimizing 12 billion ads monthly;
* Active customer base of 1,300 publishers;
* Healthy roster of Internet’s largest properties including 4 of 5 top newspaper publishers;
* Ties established with more than 280 top ad networks;
* Most major ad networks are working with the Rubicon Project today, including International networks in Asia, Europe, Australia and Latin America;
* Revenue lift ranging from of 30-300% for publishers;
* 250% revenue growth from Q2 to Q3.

TECHNOLOGY & CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT:

To achieve its mission to automate the online advertising industry, the Rubicon Project set out to create a superior technology platform to optimize the relationship between publishers and ad networks. In today’s fragmented market it was a massive undertaking:

* Launched industry-first Smart Matching™ (patent pending) technology platform;
* Created Certified Ad Space™ program, ensuring safety and accuracy for agencies and advertisers when buying media through ad networks;
* Developed Brand Protection solution to address three top issues plaguing large publishers: ad quality, ad network serving speed and channel conflict.

• Channel Conflict: the Rubicon Project developed a program to alleviate the stress of channel conflict by creating qualified anonymous inventory based solely on channel, demography, geography and other premium factors without guaranteeing inventory by brand name.

• Ad Quality Protection for Publishers: Three-fold approach: proprietary technology; dedicated policing team that works with ad networks to match ads top referred quality settings; and a dedicated ad quality protection team led by our Ad Quality Czar that diligently reviews ads.

• Ad Network Ad Serving Speed Monitoring: Slow ad serving speeds cost publishers money, which is why the Rubicon Project system monitors each network for serving speeds. When an ad network experiences slow serving times they are automatically paused until performance improves, minimizing the brand and user experience impact slow ads can have for websites.

CORPORATE MILESTONES

In addition to technology and customer growth the company also experienced many exciting corporate milestones:

* Raised $22 million in capital. In January, the Rubicon Project announced a series B round led by Mayfield Fund, a $15 million follow-on to the $6 million financing led by Clearstone Venture Partners in October 2007. Additional investors include IDG Ventures Asia, Matt Coffin, Founding CEO of LowerMyBills.com and Jarl Mohn.
* Introduced CNET Chairman Jarl Mohn to the company’s Board of Directors;
* Grew team from 8 A++ employees to 65 passionate entrepreneurs in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York;
* Issued the industry’s first ad network optimization market reports.

the Rubicon Project have also won a number of prestigious awards:

* AlwaysOn OnMedia 100 winner, honoring the top private game-changing players in the marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations industries;
* AlwaysOn’s Global 250 winner, honoring top emerging private companies that are creating new business opportunities in the global technology industries;
* Winner of PriceWaterhouseCooper’s Entretech Entrepreneurship Award;
* Finalist for three American Business Awards: Best New Company; Best New Product or Service; and Most Innovative Company;
* #24 on Fast Company’s Fast 50 Top Reader’s favorite list;
* Awarded Favorite Startup at TwiistUp, Los Angeles’ premier emerging technology event.

What’s in store for the Rubicon Project in 2009?

* Primary focus on technology advancements, including:

• Algorithms and math to further improve monetization for publishers and ad networks;
• Global Infrastructure development;
• Intelligent data solutions to help ad networks create more effective campaigns.

* Growth, growth, and growth:

• International expansion;
• Key partnerships to grow the Rubicon Project’s technology platform;
• Strategic acquisitions.

QUOTES

Frank Addante, CEO and Founder of the Rubicon Project

“When we started this company over a year ago, many were predicting that ad networks were going to be a thing of the past. We saw ad networks as an important part of the online advertising ecosystem. They provide increased efficiency for advertisers.” Said Frank Addante, CEO and Founder, “Today, ad networks are critical sales channels for websites. They are here to stay and stronger than ever. We’re here to help website publishers maximize the value of this channel through our Ad Network Optimization service.”

Jarl Mohn, Board member and investor

“I was really impressed by how much the team at the Rubicon Project has accomplished in such a short period of time. The strides that have been made toward solving such a massive industry headache are significant. The combination of Frank Addante’s experience building and running companies, the industry knowledge of the employees and the overwhelming interest in their service by major International brands made it an easy decision to become an investor and get involved. the Rubicon Project is the company that is building the ultimate monetization technology for online advertising.”

Sumant Mandal, Managing Director, Clearstone Venture Partners (Series A investor)

“As a VC that previously invested in prior industry game-changers like Overture and PayPal, among others, I always look for a great team, coupled with real market insight into a massive pain point to determine where to invest next. the Rubicon Project identified an industry pain point that wasn’t being addressed – how to help publishers make more money from their ad inventory without investing more resources and time. This need is even more relevant today than a year ago when the company began taking on customers. As advertising budgets come under increased scrutiny and the economic climate becomes less forgiving, ensuring publishers are able to maximize potential ad inventory revenues has become a ‘must have’ versus a ‘nice to have’. The team at the Rubicon Project has been phenomenal to work with and have built a world-class execution engine. I look forward to seeing what they accomplish the next 12 months.”

Major Newspaper Publisher

“Maximizing revenue streams to support our news business is more important than ever. the Rubicon Project manages all of our network relationships and takes on the responsibility of ensuring every piece of unsold inventory has a paid advertisement in it. This allows us to focus on our direct sales efforts while they focus on working with ad networks, allocating and optimizing ad inventory and flagging potential ad quality issues. These are just a few of the functions that Rubicon performs. Their efforts have saved our team countless hours of time and frustration all while bringing us an increase in yield from new ad network relationships and allowing us to work on other vital components of our business.”

Greg Liberman, President and Chief Operating Officer, Spark Networks®

“Spark Networks® (AMEX:LOV) is a publicly-traded company with more than 30 targeted online singles communities – such as JDate®.com, BlackSingles.com® and ChristianMingle®.com – in our portfolio. Although the vast majority of our revenue is derived from subscription sales, advertising has become an increasingly important component of our strategy. While our in-house ad sales team focuses on making sales and super-serving our direct advertising partners, efficiently monetizing remnant inventory for multiple properties can be a challenge. That is why we turned to the Rubicon Project. the Rubicon Project helps us manage and optimize network advertising for many of our large communities, ensuring the right network ads show in the right places at the right times.”

About the Rubicon Project

In 2007, the Rubicon Project started on a mission to automate the fractured $45 billion global online advertising industry. Responding to one of the largest problems plaguing website publishers today, the team pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization (ANO) to provide publishers with a solution that makes them the most money possible by optimizing unsold ad space across ad networks, eliminating the hassles of ad network management and protecting their brands when selling through these critical channels. Using its $22 million in funding, the company is investing heavily in the development of its patent-pending Smart Matching™ technology. This unique predictive technology takes advantage of billions of pieces of proprietary market data to match every ad impression to the best money-making opportunities from ad networks.

In just one year, the company has built a healthy roster of 1300 active customers, and optimizes more than 12 billion ads each month across 280 of the top ad networks. Currently reaching more than 240 million unique Internet users, the Rubicon Project is one of the largest sources of ad inventory and reach on the Internet and a critical source of intelligent ad space and targeted reach for ad networks across the globe. Based in Los Angeles, the company is backed by Mayfield Fund, Clearstone Venture Partners and IDG Ventures. Demand More from your Unsold Ad Space: www.rubiconproject.com.

Los Angeles and San Mateo, Calif. – October 7, 2008– BlackArrow, the independent provider of multiplatform ad-management systems for viewer-controlled video, today announced it has signed a deal with Kabillion, the Emmy® Award-winning multi-platform kids’ entertainment service. Effective immediately, Kabillion will implement BlackArrow’s video advertising platform within their broadband and video on demand (VOD) programming, enabling Kabillion’s advertisers to most effectively run ad campaigns dynamically targeted to the network’s key demographic of six to 12 year-olds.

Available both as a free VOD channel and a robust, free online broadband site (www.Kabillion.com), Kabillion offers high-quality animated and live-action kids’ series entertainment in addition to games and chat, all wrapped around a virtual world, which creates a groundbreaking, immersive entertainment experience. Kabillion is also COPPA and CARU compliant, offering parents the peace of mind they want when allowing their children to play online.

“BlackArrow’s incredibly innovative technology provides a centralized ad-management environment in which to manage our Web, VOD and display advertising — along with the freedom to support any ad type or combination of ads,” said Deb Pierson, vice president of advertising and marketing for Kabillion. “This is great news for our advertisers, who count on us to effectively reach targeted audiences viewing our programming, whether it’s on VOD or via the Internet.”

Purpose-built for video, the BlackArrow multiplatform advertising system helps content providers and distributors solve the challenges of reaching today’s fragmented audiences who increasingly view video content distributed over broadband, VOD and other platforms outside of linear television. The BlackArrow system dynamically contracts, targets, traffics and reports on advertising inventory to maximize revenues from ad-supported video programming.

BlackArrow’s system enables Kabillion to optimize and enhance their video programming with the ability to dynamically target and reach kids with advertisers’ product and brand messages. Kabillion can now dynamically rotate ad creative targeted against viewing platform, specific programming, time of day viewed, geography and other parameters. In addition, Kabillion is able to package sophisticated, creative ad-type combinations — such as overlays, pre-loads on games, and mid-rolls — in new ways that set them apart from other kids networks.

In addition, BlackArrow’s tight product integration with other leaders in the advertising ecosystem such as thePlatform – the provider of Kabillion’s media player technology – ensures a seamless and rapid deployment of the BlackArrow advertising platform.

“Kabillion has a wealth of entertaining and compelling content for children. By deploying the BlackArrow system, Kabillion can focus on developing great content, while also providing their advertisers with innovative ways to deliver effective, engaging and creative ad campaigns,” said Chris Hock, senior vice president, product management, BlackArrow. “Our multiplatform advertising platform helps Kabillion to not only maximize advertising revenues in the near term, but also grow with them as their content is more broadly distributed over additional playout environments and syndication partner sites.”

Because the BlackArrow system works across any combination of ad types, ad-sales models, distribution or syndication strategies, BlackArrow’s clients can generate new revenue streams from ad-supported video, while preserving critical relationships with their advertisers.

About Kabillion
Kabillion is the multi-platform, kids’ entertainment program service launched in January 2007 and available both as a free video on-demand (VOD) channel and a free online broadband site (www.Kabillion.com). Initially launched on Comcast Cable’s Select On Demand across the US, the VOD platform is now also available to digital cable subscribers nationwide on Charter and Bresnan cable systems, with more to be added soon. Part of The MoonScoop Group, a leading worldwide production, distribution, brand management and entertainment company, Kabillion offers high-quality animated and live-action kids’ series entertainment on both platforms. Kabillion is owned in part by Taffy Entertainment, The MoonScoop Group, REMIX Entertainment Ventures and Belgium-based Studio 100.

About BlackArrow, Inc.
BlackArrow is the independent provider of multiplatform ad management for viewer-controlled video. The company’s ad-management system is designed specifically for video content distributed over any on-demand platform — enabling content providers and distributors to maximize advertising revenues, and improving advertisers’ ability to reach target audiences. BlackArrow is led by an experienced team of executives from the advertising, television and digital media industries, and is backed by Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Comcast Interactive Capital, Intel Capital (NASDAQ: INTC), Mayfield Fund and Polaris Venture Partners. The company is privately held, with offices in New York City and San Mateo, Calif.

LOS ANGELES – The Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global ad network optimization, unveils the latest edition of the 2008 Online Advertising Market Report, the Q2: Ad Network Landscape, Trends and Outlook, detailing the state of the market in the second quarter of 2008 and beyond. Drawing on its unique third-party position between ad networks and website publishers, the Rubicon Project provides an insider perspective of the changing Internet advertising landscape based on a wealth of market data to provide a deeper understanding of the current industry climate and future trends. This market intelligence is based on analysis of 15 billion impressions served during Q2 alone across more than 130 ad networks.

“2008 has been a challenging year for the U.S. and worldwide economy. Fortunately, the online advertising market has been somewhat cushioned from the majority of economic blows,” said Frank Addante, CEO and founder. “The Rubicon Project is committed to helping navigate the tumultuous yet continuous growth and development of this market, in part, through education. Through this report, we are sharing billions of pieces of market intelligence we have combined with informed analysis of current and future trends.”

State of a Dysfunctional Industry

With nearly $370 million invested in ad networks in Q2, the market remained a good buy for private firms and holding companies. This indicates investors’ confidence in networks ability to innovate and increase monetization.

However, not all news was rosy. Big-name publishers such as ESPN, Forbes.com and CBS Sports discontinued their use of third-party networks in the second quarter, generating a slew of bad publicity for the ad network industry.

Sample Findings:

* Despite criticism, ad networks grew during the economic storm in Q2 – eCPMs increased by an average of 7 percent across all networks.
* Publishers and networks dysfunctional relationships are hindering growth – they need each other but don’t trust one other on issues such as inventory pricing, fee payment and collection or the quality of the ads and the sites they run on.
* Big publishers are both entering and navigating the broader network space – with several heavy-hitters becoming ad networks themselves.
* International traffic remains an untapped growth opportunity – some major U.S. Web sites draw more than half their traffic from outside the country but only a small fraction of ad revenue is able being monetized from that traffic.

Sample of Emerging Trends

* The Ad network role in the online advertising ecosystem will continue to grow – both publishers and media buyers need and want third-party support.
* Networks face obstacles to expansion – publishers need to diversify across many ad network channel opportunities to continue growth.
* Online advertising will continue to grow – overall ad spend may decrease but a natural reconciliation will occur to even out the discrepancy between Internet usage (33 percent) and percentage of ad budgets dedicated to online spend (8 percent).
* In a recession, efficient models prevail – online advertising is more efficient than other forms of advertising such as broadcast and print.

The complete 2008 Q2 Online Advertising Market Report is available as a free download at: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

About the Rubicon Project

The Rubicon Project is a group of industry-experienced, aggressive and passionate renegades dedicated to bringing a new level of efficiency to the fragmented Internet advertising space. The founders of the Rubicon Project shook up the online advertising industry in 1998 when they created L90/adMonitor, one of the most successful Internet advertising platforms that served over 3,000 of the web’s most recognized sites, reaching 65 percent of the Internet population before DoubleClick acquired it. $27 billion was spent advertising online in 2007, yet it’s still too hard for Web sites to sell their ad space online. The Rubicon Project’s web-based, self-serve solution gives any size Web site the most complete access to the total available advertising market and its smart matching technology does all the work to perfectly match each ad impression with the optimal money-making opportunity. The Rubicon Project is the new online advertising standard that makes it effortless for Web sites to generate the mad cash they’ve always dreamed of. And, it’s free to join. Web sites looking to make more money while doing less work should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank’s blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/

- Games and Ad Entrepreneurs Launch New Strategic Consulting Firm, Worlds and Games LLC
Video game and advertising serial entrepreneurs today announced the public launch of a new strategy and services firm, Worlds and Games LLC. The company, which has been operating in stealth mode since the Spring, will empower leading entertainment and product brands to connect with highly engaged audiences in video games, virtual worlds, social media and casual games. The company has signed their first four clients and is currently building 2 branded virtual worlds in the US and Asia. The company today announced the Worlds and Games Partner Program and the company invites vendors and service providers who want to collaborate on future projects to contact them.

NEW YORK – The Associated Press today announced that the Mobile News Network received more than 16 million page views for the month of August, with 948 news organizations signed up to provide content. More than one million local stories featured on the Mobile News Network were read — the widest coverage available of breaking news, sports, entertainment and business developments for consumers on the go. The Mobile News Network is the first product released by AP’s Digital Cooperative, an initiative aimed at finding new digital outlets for news and information produced by AP members.

August marked the Mobile News Network’s first full month following the July 10 release of its iPhone client application. The network was optimized first for the iPhone to take advantage of the device’s multimedia capabilities, and currently 95 percent of traffic comes from the iPhone and iTouch.

Forthcoming this quarter are optimized client applications for other smart phones including BlackBerry, which was recently previewed during the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment® show held in San Francisco last week.

(The Mobile News Network can be accessed on any smart phone by visiting its mobile site – www.apnews.com/mobile, which was launched on May 5. With the popularity of the iPhone application, only five percent of total traffic is coming from the mobile site.)

Based on early traffic figures, wireless users are obtaining news from the network consistently throughout the day beginning at 7 a.m., with the number of visits growing steadily until 10 p.m. Users are acquiring news just as much, if not slightly more, during the weekend than any given day of the week (14.9% on Sundays vs. 13.8% on Wednesdays, for example). The Mobile News Network audience member views an average of 37 pages per month.

“The mobile industry has long talked about the huge potential of the mobile phone as a marketing vehicle because users carry it with them at all times. Looking at early statistics — the number of page views and the frequency with which users are accessing news, even during the weekends — really bears this out,” said Jeffrey Litvack, global director, new media markets for AP. “As we move to the next phase of development on the Mobile News Network, we will work closely with publishers, agencies and marketers to match consumers with relevant brands and products based on their location.”

This spring, AP selected Verve Wireless to provide the technology for the Mobile News Network. Verve Wireless’ patent-pending publishing and ad trafficking platform allows content partners to extend their communities and readership onto mobile phones and other network enabled devices.

“The rapid growth in Mobile News Network participation underscores the newspaper industry’s willingness to embrace the changing digital landscape and gives people easy access to the largest source of news from a single mobile application,” said Art Howe, CEO and co-founder of Verve Wireless. “This also demonstrates people’s interest and demand for quality, professional journalism from trusted sources, when and where they want it.”

Other Mobile News Network milestones and key findings:

* AP Members Embrace Mobile: In the first three months, 948 AP members comprised of news publishers and content producers have joined the Mobile News Network – a 786 percent jump since its May 5 launch with 107 participating members. AP member participation covers all of the top 100 designated market areas.
* California Drives 20% of Local Content Traffic: The most viewed stories came from San Francisco/San Jose, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami news providers.
* Where the Mobile News Network Fans Go: The most highly visited content areas are: Top Stories (29 percent); Local News (18 percent); Sports (12 percent); Entertainment (9 percent); and Photos (7 percent).

Launched in May, the award-winning Mobile News Network Web application can be found at www.apnews.com/mobile. The Mobile News Network’s iPhone application is available for free download at the Apple App Store on iPhone and iPod Touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore, with the Mobile News Network’s BlackBerry application expected to be released this quarter.

About The AP

The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the largest and most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world’s population sees news from AP.

About the Mobile News Network

The Mobile News Network is a multimedia news portal providing anytime access to international, national and local news content from an unrivalled network of trusted sources. Powered by The Associated Press, wireless users now have breaking news, sports, entertainment, politics, business and wacky content in the palm of their hand. Additional information on the Mobile News Network can be found at www.ap.org/mobilenews, including our growing list of nearly 950 participating publishers.

About Verve Wireless

Based in Encinitas, CA; Verve Wireless, Inc. and their proprietary Verve Local Content Gateway™ allow local media companies and advertisers to seamlessly extend their reach into mobile devices across all the major carriers. Verve Wireless currently works with leading media companies from across the country including dailies, local broadcasters, alternative newsweeklies, and city magazines. For more information visit www.vervewireless.com.

On the net: www.ap.org.

LOS ANGELES – the Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global Ad Network Optimization, offers solutions for publishers concerned about channel conflict between ad sales conducted by in-house sales teams and those sales made by third-party ad networks. The recent IAB/Bain research report on digital pricing re-enforces the opinion that channel conflict is one of the largest concerns facing large publishers.

“One of our concerns in working with ad networks is channel conflict,” says Greg Liberman, President and Chief Operating Officer of Spark Networks (AMEX:LOV), a leading provider of online personals services in the United States and internationally. “If ad networks are directly pitching our site for lower rates than our direct sales team is, it could hurt our pricing leverage. Working with the team and technology of the Rubicon Project, we are able to reap the benefits of monetizing unsold ad space across ad networks without constantly worrying about the channel conflict risk.”

Ad networks sometimes use a website’s specific name to entice advertisers. A dangerous practice is when a sales representative at an ad network lures the advertiser to buy through them rather than directly from the site by offering it at a lower price. While many ad networks have programs in place to reduce channel conflict, the problem continues to cause publishers pain. Over recent months several notable big-brand publishers have completely severed their ad network relationships, in part, due to concerns around channel conflict driving down CPM’s and the impact on direct sales efforts.

the Rubicon Project pioneered an intensive Ad Space Certification Program to provide independent verification of publisher inventory that ensures safety and accuracy for advertisers buying through ad networks. A key feature of this program, in addition to bringing more ad dollars online, is guarding publishers against channel conflict.

How the Rubicon Project tackles channel conflict:

* Certified Blind Sites: the Rubicon Project rates and classifies sites by quality, prominence and popularity so that a site’s value can be leveraged without specifying a name (e.g. top-tier news site)
* Certified Content Segments: e.g. Entertainment Channel, a selection of more than 300 entertainment sites, rather than a specific one
* Certified Audience & Geographic Channels: ad networks can safely re-sell high quality ad inventory by demographic information such as age, gender or ethnicity without having access to data on specific sites
* Restricted Information: since the publisher’s primary relationship is with the Rubicon Project, ad networks do not need to employ “Chinese walls” with information because they do not directly interact with the publisher

“Channel conflict is a real problem for big publishers,” said Frank Addante, CEO and Founder of the Rubicon Project. “As a result, many publishers have disabled their ad networks from effectively selling their ad inventory by preventing them from using information such as their site name and other critical data such as demography and context. Our job is to help websites become effective ad network channel managers. With this program, we are re-enabling this important channel to generate the highest possible rates for publishers while protecting their direct sales efforts.”

Because the Rubicon Project is addressing channel conflict head on, there’s hope these issues will soon be a thing of the past. Until then, publishers can’t afford to ignore the opportunities ad networks provide – anywhere from 40 to 80 percent of the average publisher’s inventory goes unsold by a publisher’s direct sales team – and ad networks obviously need publishers to place their ads. With the help of the Rubicon Project, both parties can move beyond fear and distrust toward their common goal: making money.

To learn more about channel conflict and other issues affecting online advertising, visit www.rubiconproject.com

About the Rubicon Project

the Rubicon Project is a group of industry-experienced, aggressive and passionate renegades dedicated to bringing a new level of efficiency to the fragmented Internet advertising space. The founders of the Rubicon Project shook up the online advertising industry in 1998 when they created L90/adMonitor, one of the most successful Internet advertising platforms that served over 3,000 of the web’s most recognized sites, reaching 65% of the Internet population before DoubleClick acquired it.

$27 Billion was spent advertising online in 2007, yet it’s still too hard for websites to sell their ad space online. the Rubicon Project’s web-based, self-serve solution gives any size website the most complete access to the total available advertising market and its smart matching technology does all the work to perfectly match each ad impression with the optimal money-making opportunity. the Rubicon Project is the new online advertising standard that makes it effortless for websites to generate the mad cash they’ve always dreamed of. And, it’s free to join. Websites looking to make more money while doing less work should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank’s blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/