New York, NY – March 10, 2009 – AdMeld (www.admeld.com), the leader in ad network optimization for premium publishers, today announced the release of FireMeld, the first web browser extension built exclusively for ad operations professionals. FireMeld integrates seamlessly with AdMeld’s ad network optimization technology to give publishers a new level of transparency and control over their discretionary ad inventory. The announcement was made today at the AdMonsters Publisher Forum in New Orleans.

FireMeld helps publishers identify the source of every network ad on their sites, including those ads that may cause channel conflict, are slow to load, inappropriate, or blank. Before FireMeld, diagnosing these kinds of problems required publishers to search through web page source code, a manual and painstaking process. FireMeld solves this problem by overlaying critical information about each ad directly on the publisher’s site and enabling ad ops personnel to turn off the offending ad or send an alert to AdMeld’s support team to take the appropriate action.

Ross Cohen, VP of Business Development at WorldNow said, “FireMeld is an extremely useful tool. It not only saves our ad operations team a great deal of time investigating and solving potential problems like channel conflict and blank ads, but it also gives us greater, real-time insight into all the creative units running on our sites.”

“As a team of ad operations and publishing veterans ourselves, we built FireMeld to give premium publishers a more complete view of their discretionary inventory than they’ve ever had,” said Benjamin Barokas, AdMeld’s co-founder. “FireMeld is the first tool of its kind and the latest in AdMeld’s suite of ad network management and reporting features. The response from our partners has been overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to continuing to deliver world-class products and services, like FireMeld, that help our partners get the most value possible from their discretionary ad inventory.”

About AdMeld
AdMeld (www.admeld.com) helps premium online publishers maximize their revenue from ad networks and minimize the risks and complexities of working with them.  AdMeld’s optimization technology generates the highest possible yield from each impression, and its suite of management and reporting tools deliver publishers a high level of transparency and control. Founded in 2007 by Benjamin Barokas and Brian Adams, AdMeld is led by Michael Barrett, an experienced leader of premier new media companies. Major investors include Spark Capital and The Foundry Group.

“Zad Mobile is excited to be working with an innovative operator like Indosat. By developing and offering appealing advertising programs, such as their GSM prepaid card, IM3, for both subscribers and advertisers, Indosat is showing their commitment to growing this new line of business and new revenue streams,” Zad Mobile’s President, Igor Neyman, explained. The companies’ collaboration allows advertisers to use Zad Mobile’s sophisticated behavioral targeting capabilities, which draws from available subscriber data to deliver spot on, non-intrusive, targeted ads. By gathering and tracking customer supplied data through interactive campaigns ZMAP enhances both Operator and Advertiser initiatives and results in increased ad relevance over time. This ultimately allows the system and advertisers to grow with young subscribers and evolve to meet their changing tastes and up-to-date needs.

Aside from ZMAP’s enhanced targeting capabilities, the platform is able to support ad delivery on multiple channels, mobile and non-mobile. In doing so, it provides all participants in the mobile advertising ecosystem with one point of access where they can manage their mobile advertising business. Zad Mobile’s sensitivity to mobile operators’ needs, from protecting the privacy of subscribers to incorporating new lines of business, is apparent in their product design. Operators are able to manage their relationships with numerous advertisers and third party content providers, while ensuring that their subscribers receive the high-quality material to which they are accustomed, from one application. Similarly, Advertisers are able to execute campaigns, with media planning, buying, and reporting functions, across channels from one point to supporting more advanced mobile marketing initiatives.

For more information on Zad Mobile’s offerings please contact Killian Roach (pr@zadmobile.com).

About Zad Mobile

Zad Mobile (www.zadmobile.com) makes mobile advertising happen. Mobile advertising offers much promise for operators, media companies and brands by targeting the broadest and fastest growing medium the world has ever known. The Zad Mobile Advertising Platform allows mobile operators to generate mobile advertising revenue and, for the first time, run it as a new line of business. This starts with marketing and sales of ad inventory to buyers and the enablement of business processes that facilitate the creation and flawless execution of effective ad campaigns. Our innovative and proprietary technologies provide unprecedented insight into consumer behavior, resulting in the delivery of relevant ads at precisely the right time.

Zad Mobile is headquartered in San Francisco, California with offices in China and Russia. For more information about Zad Mobile, please visit www.zadmobile.com.

About Indosat

Indosat (www.indosat.com) is the telecommunication and information provider in Indonesia that provides cellular services (Mentari, Matrix and IM3), fixed telecommunication services or fixed voice service (namely SLI 001 SLI, 008 SLI and FlatCall 01016, fixed wireless services such as StarOne and Indosat Phone). Indosat service providers, together with their subsidiaries, Indosat Mega Media (IM2) and Lintasarta, also provide data (MIDI) services. Indosat is a pioneer provider of mobile 3.5 G services with HSDPA technology for post-pay and prepay. Indosat shares are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (idx:ISAT) and shareholders in the form of American Depositary Shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:IIT).

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release of the final version of its Audience Reach Measurement Guidelines at its Annual Leadership Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: Brands Battle Back, in Orlando, Florida. These guidelines provide clear, consistent definitions of key metrics and create a single standard for measuring Web audience sizes. The guidelines are the result of a major industry-wide initiative led by the IAB and included the participation of publishers, agencies and auditing organizations.

These new guidelines:

* Define key industry metrics such as unique users, unique cookies, unique browsers, visits and time spent.
* Establish a framework for all measurement providers to have their methodologies audited, providing greater certainty for the industry.
* Foster greater accuracy and reliability of all forms of online audience measurement, whether based on server data, online panels or user registration.

Marketers, agencies and online publishers rely on audience metrics reported by vendors that use a variety of methodologies. Transparency into these methodologies and clear definitions of commonly used terms are critical to the ongoing growth of interactive media as marketers increase their investment in interactive media.

“Establishing a broad industry consensus in favor of these guidelines is critical to ensuring that they gain traction in the marketplace,” said Joe Laszlo, Director of Research at the IAB. “As providers of measurement data adopt the guidelines, marketers can be increasingly confident they are planning their campaigns based on sound, reliable data.”

“Effective interactive advertising campaigns rely on accurate audience measurement,” said Kate Downey, director of audience analytics and insights, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. “These guidelines provide accountability in audience measurement for marketers, agencies and other industry stakeholders.”

“By issuing these guidelines, the IAB has given measurement organizations across the industry a set of rigorous and consistent guidelines to help ensure standardized measurements of unique cookies, unique devices, or unique users,” said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of the Media Rating Council (MRC). “This is an important and commendable step towards full accountability.”

To review the complete guidelines, please go to www.iab.net/audiencemeasurement.

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 400 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

ATLANTA – Media Commerce Systems launched StandBuyMedia for Radio last month and is adding more stations and agencies daily. The web-based platform streamlines the entire remnant advertising process making it possible for agencies to handle a larger volume of business and enabling radio stations to sell more of their unsold inventory without disrupting or compromising their current business practices.

StandBuyMedia is a turn-key platform that will enable radio stations to increase revenue as they market and sell more of their advertising inventory with greater efficiency. Stations simply register, enter their rate card information and begin receiving e-mail notifications when offers to buy their inventory have been posted. Once offers are accepted, StandBuyMedia automatically delivers them to the stations’ traffic and billing systems.

Registered agencies can quickly search for remnant avails, make offers, upload ads and pay for the campaigns right from their desktop. Through a single application, the platform also enables agencies to evaluate and manage their direct response remnant buys with powerful tools such as ROI graphing, mapping and reporting, as well as invoice management.

“StandBuyMedia is a complete platform that directly connects agencies and stations and it is very different from all the other electronic services that have emerged over the last few years,” said Joe Fabiano, Chairman of Media Commerce Systems. “The benefits of StandBuyMedia are that agencies can search for stations meeting the specific demographic requirements of their advertisers and stations don’t have to surrender control of their inventory or rates to a radio automation system or an online auction.”

Media Commerce Systems designs products to fit the media business – not the other way around. StandBuyMedia for Radio is the first of the Media Commerce Systems products to launch. Additional platforms and applications in both remnant and traditional ad sales will be coming soon. Stations and agencies can register at: www.standbuymedia.com to begin using the platform.

Media Commerce Systems will be showing its StandBuyMedia platform at the upcoming RAB Conference, March 16-18 in Orlando

About Media Commerce Systems

Media Commerce Systems (www.mediacommerce.com) provides efficient, dynamic and easy-to-use Internet applications for the entire ad sales process including; the purchase, sale, management and distribution of advertising media inventory. Its platforms interface with existing systems and enable media outlets to market their inventory more efficiently and sell more advertising while allowing agencies to quickly access, evaluate and purchase advertising space. Its specialized applications for media outlets and advertising buyers enable them to conduct business electronically, saving time and increasing their cash flow. Media Commerce Systems is a Bright Sky Holdings (www.brightskyholdings.com) company.

NEW YORK – Epic Advertising (www.epicadvertising.com), the privately-held, New York-based online performance marketing firm, announced two key appointments within its executive suite. The announcement comes on the heels of a wave of recent positive news for the company, including the opening of its London office and strong 2008 revenue growth and business expansion.

The first appointment is the naming of Charles Nowaczek to the position of Chief Operating Officer. In this role, Mr. Nowaczek is responsible for Epic Advertising’s global business operations, including product development, program management, Sales support, facilities and administration, and oversight of the organization’s strategic and tactical initiatives. Additionally, he has successfully led the company’s first-ever Management Training Program, which has resulted in other key employee promotions internally. Previously, Mr. Nowaczek was the Senior Vice President of Operations for the company, and has been with Epic since March 2006. He is based in the New York City headquarters.

The second appointment was the naming of Young Kim to the position of Senior Vice President of Finance. In this role, Mr. Kim is responsible for all aspects of the company’s accounting and finances. Under his direction, he has overseen the group’s improvements in operational, budget and process efficiencies, the implementation of new projects and the support of the company’s international expansion. Previously, Mr. Kim was the Vice President of Finance for the company, and has been with Epic since 2005. He is based in the Toronto, Canada office.

The two appointments further solidify Epic’s senior executive team following a successful 2008, and will provide further momentum to its prospects for further growth in 2009. The company sees the appointment of Mr. Nowaczek and Mr. Kim as crucial in its ability to maintain flawless organizational execution and commitment to its product growth and corporate strategy roadmap.

“We are extremely proud of both Charlie and Young for their dedication, commitment, and achievement,” said Don Mathis, CEO of Epic Advertising. “They have each earned deep goodwill and respect from their peers, and solidifying these two well-deserved appointments was important overall for our company, covering its most important functions. We wish Charlie and Young well in their roles and have the utmost confidence in their contributions going forward.”

About Epic Advertising

Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 38,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed network AzoogleAds, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus) and being named a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in London, San Francisco, and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies(4A’s) announced agreement on actions that will reduce the costs and complexity of buying and selling interactive advertising. The announcement was made at the IAB’s Annual Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: Brands Battle Back.

The two industry associations joined forces to create the 4A’s/IAB Reinvention Task Force to focus on the following three areas:

* Standardization in business document formats. The recent E- Business Interactive Standards, a beta release of an XML-based solution for automating the transfer of business documents, standardizes order information including requests for proposals, insertion orders, and invoices between advertising agencies and media companies. Beta testing partners will be implementing and refining this solution throughout 2009. www.iab.net/ebiz
* Updating the 4A’s/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions. As interactive has grown and changed, so have the contractual requirements. The IAB and 4A’s are committed to updating the current standard Terms and Conditions language in 2009 to reflect the current operational and marketplace environment.
* Improving automated exchange of impression and other metric data for discrepancy resolution and billing. Solving the discrepancy problem is a top priority for both agencies and publishers, and a method for detecting discrepancies during a campaign is essential.

“The timing of these initiatives could not be more important for our industry,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “We must re-double our focus on costs as we continue to revolutionize the business of marketing. These efforts will only enhance the value of interactive for all stakeholders and consumers.”

“At a time when agencies and media companies are evolving the nature of their relationships and their businesses, the Reinvention Task Force is a critical step in improving the most fundamental elements of how we operate,” said Nancy Hill, President and CEO of the 4A’s. “These solutions will help drive revenue and allow all partners to more effectively scale operations.”

Though publishers and agencies have been developing sophisticated media buying and selling tools for years in the interactive space, they have often been difficult to integrate. The E- Business Interactive Standards will provide immediate operational efficiencies, enable scalability for all partners, and, by eliminating a large part of multiple entry, will reduce communication errors between publishers and agencies.

“The collaboration between publishers and agencies on the Reinvention Task Force has enabled us to accelerate the process by which these standards are implemented across the digital ecosystem,” said Zack Rogers, VP of Revenue Operations, CBS Interactive and the Publisher Lead of the Reinvention Task Force.

“We are pleased at the progress we have made to date on the Reinvention initiative,” said David Cohen, Executive Vice President, US Director of Digital Communications for Universal McCann, Chairperson of the 4A’s Digital Marketing Committee, and the agency lead of the Reinvention Task Force. “Through an impression exchange solution and consistent nomenclature for RFPs, insertion orders and invoices we believe that we have taken an important first step towards achieving that goal. Our attention will now turn to widespread adoption of these standards and working through the next iteration of industry standard Terms & Conditions.”

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

About the 4A’s

The American Association of Advertising Agencies is the national trade association of the advertising agency business. The 1,196 member agency offices it serves in the United States employ 65,000 people, offer a wide range of marketing communications services, and place 80 percent of all national advertising. The management-oriented association helps its members build their businesses, and acts as the industry’s spokesman with government, media, and the public sector. For more information visit our Web site at www.aaaa.org.

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced that it has launched task forces comprised of industry leaders to address two of the biggest issues facing the interactive advertising industry—data ownership and media contracts between buyers and sellers of interactive advertising. These task forces represent a cross section of interactive industry stakeholders from web publishers, portals, search engines and networks and exchanges. Their objective is to find answers to the issues of data ownership and to create a model contract that includes commonly used terms and conditions (Ts&Cs) that are mutually beneficial solutions for publishers, agencies and marketers, thereby improving relationships between the three groups, fostering business growth and facilitating industry partnerships. The announcement was made at the IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: Brands Battle Back, in Orlando, Florida.

“Our industry is absolutely committed to marshalling interactive media leadership to move forward on these important fronts,” said Randall Rothenberg, President & CEO of the IAB. “We recognize that our members have truly revolutionized marketing with their products and services, and they are the ones who will be most adept at driving the change needed for resolution.”

The Interactive Ts&Cs Task Force’s discussions with the 4A’s are slated to begin in March. The following IAB member companies will serve on this task force:
Cars.com
CBS Interactive
CNN.com
Disney Interactive Media Group
Facebook
Forbes.com
Fox Interactive Media
Google
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Microsoft Advertising
NBC Universal
New York Times
Platform-A
Time Inc
Valueclick Media
Yahoo!, Inc

The IAB has long taken a leadership role in improving supply chain operations in an effort to reduce the complexities that marketers and agencies face when buying interactive advertising. One of the steps the IAB has taken was the formation with the 4A’s of the Interactive Reinvention Task Force in 2008, a collaborative publisher-agency effort that also announced today a set of ground-breaking agreements on voluntary business process standards which, if adopted by agencies and publishers, will significantly reduce cost and complexity in the planning and buying of interactive advertising. In addition, the newly created Networks and Exchanges Committee has taken on an initiative to define and map out the types of data that can be collected and developed by ad networks. The IAB also announced today the launch of the Data Task Force that will tackle the challenges associated with data ownership.

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 400 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release of Click Measurement Guidelines, a document that will establish parameters for the accurate buying and selling of cost-per-click advertising, an important and growing category of interactive advertising. Marketers will now have a standard for consistently and reliably measuring their performance-based marketing efforts. The guidelines also provide a strong framework for filtering fraudulent clicks, giving buyers and sellers confidence that only legitimate clicks are being counted.

The Click Measurement Guidelines will:

* Provide a detailed definition of a “click” and outline standard methodologies by which clicks should be measured and counted, including the identification of invalid and/or fraudulent clicks.
* Define standard terms that will help streamline the buying and selling of click-based media.
* Increase transparency and consistency in click measurements for media companies, ad-serving organizations, advertisers, and third-party click auditors.

“These guidelines demonstrate our continued commitment to being the most accountable advertising medium and providing marketers with the highest possible level of transparency,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Industry Services of the IAB. “It is critical that the advertising industry agree upon the precise definition and measurement of a click and establish procedures for weeding out fraudulent clicks. The IAB is proud to have organized our members around this effort.”

The guidelines are the latest addition to the IAB’s ongoing work to harmonize interactive measurement. They complement IAB guidelines for general ad impressions, digital video commercials and audience reach measurement.

“I applaud the IAB for taking a leadership role in bringing the Click Measurement Guidelines to fruition,” said George Ivie, Executive Director and CEO, of the Media Rating Council (MRC). “The interactive industry has consistently met the marketplace need for increased reliability in measurement, and this is yet another example of how the IAB has mobilized its members on behalf of both agencies and marketers.”

“Helping the interactive industry define a click and the standard for measuring one has been an extraordinary effort on the part of the IAB and its members,” said Shuman Ghosemajumder, Business Product Manager for Trust & Safety, Google, and a leading member of the IAB’s Click Measurement Working Group. “It is an important step that continues to reinforce interactive media’s role as the most accountable and measurable form of advertising.”

“IAB’s guidelines will provide users, advertisers and partners with further confidence that the industry, including Yahoo!, is taking click fraud issues seriously,” said Reggie Davis, VP of Network Quality at Yahoo! “Yahoo! worked on the IAB’s Click Measurement Working Group to develop these guidelines for identifying and filtering potential invalid or fraudulent clicks as part of its commitment to a transparent process for the measurement of valid clicks.”

Members of the industry—advertising agencies, advertisers, online publishers and technology vendors—are encouraged to read the proposed guidelines and submit comments on the IAB site at: www.iab.net/clickmeasurementguidelines. After the comment period closes on Friday March 27, 2009, the feedback will be reviewed and the guidelines will be finalized and released.

About the IAB’s Click Measurement Working Group:

The Click Measurement Working Group includes representatives from 38 IAB member companies, including sellers, measurers, and auditors of online media. Initiated in late 2005, the working group, together with the Media Rating Council, has spent the last three years developing these important guidelines and achieving consensus around them.

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 400 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

“Hearst’s major operating groups have all made substantial progress towards our corporate objective of fully participating in the digital transformation,” Bennack said. “The creation of this new position is designed to accelerate the progress through greater cooperation and synergy across divisional lines. Neeraj is uniquely equipped to help me and my colleagues realize that goal.”

Khemlani was formerly vice president and general manager of Yahoo! News & Information as well as Yahoo! Originals. In this position, he managed the business and products of Yahoo! News, Tech, Weather and Education, and the editorial programming for Yahoo! Finance, as executive editor. He also directed original content programming, including product design, content production and sponsorship, across all Yahoo! channels; and initiated and oversaw strategic business development content deals with major media companies.

From 1998 to 2006, Khemlani was a producer for CBS News’ 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II, and a creative consultant to Imagine Entertainment, ABC Entertainment, from 2000 to 2001, where he advised scriptwriters. His television experience also includes producer positions with Crile Communications and ABC News, where he produced segments for Nightline, Good Morning America, Peter Jennings Reporting and ABC News Specials. Khemlani began his career as a newspaper reporter, stringing for The New York Times and The Post-Standard in Syracuse, N.Y.

“I am delighted to join Hearst Corporation,” Khemlani said. “We are witnessing the reemergence of content and media driving value in the new world and Hearst is uniquely positioned to realize that value across multiple digital platforms and distribution points. Remember, we’re only in the second inning of the Internet. Hearst, with all its assets and investments, expects to take a commanding lead by the seventh-inning stretch.”

Khemlani holds a master’s of science in journalism from Columbia University, where he graduated with honors, and a bachelor’s in communications from Cornell University, where he was the editor-in-chief of The Cornell Daily Sun.

Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com) is one of the nation’s largest diversified media companies. Its major interests include ownership of 16 daily and 49 weekly newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Times Union; as well as interests in an additional 43 daily and 72 non-daily newspapers owned by MediaNews Group, which include the Denver Post and Salt Lake Tribune; nearly 200 magazines around the world, including Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan and O, The Oprah Magazine; 29 television stations through Hearst-Argyle Television (NYSE:HTV) which reach a combined 18% of U.S. viewers; ownership in leading cable networks, including Lifetime, A&E, History and ESPN; as well as business publishing, including a minority joint venture interest in Fitch Ratings; Internet businesses, television production, newspaper features distribution and real estate.

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the winners of its 2008 Sales and Service Excellence Awards during its Annual Leadership Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: Brands Battle Back, in Orlando, Florida. The Sales Awards honor IAB members for outstanding performance and leadership in interactive advertising sales. IAB Service Excellence awards honor outstanding member contributions to IAB industry-related initiatives.

“These awards recognize individuals and organizations that exemplified outstanding leadership and performance over the past year and helped drive growth in our industry. Each of the winners made exceptional contributions to their organizations and to the interactive advertising industry as a whole,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP Industry Services for the IAB.

Sales Excellence Awards

The Sales Excellence Awards, given by the IAB and developed under the auspices of the IAB’s Sales Executive Council in conjunction with The Myers Annual Survey of Advertising Executives, honors outstanding interactive sales organizations and individual account executives. The survey has been asking marketers, agency planners and buyers to evaluate the performance of interactive sales organizations since 2004. The IAB Sales Excellence Awards are based on proprietary questions and analyses of Myers’ database.

2008 Sales Excellence Award Winners include:

* Long term Achievement: Washington Post Digital
* Most Innovative: Nickelodeon Online Sales
* Best Newcomer: Hulu
* Account Executive of the Year: Josh Thau, Microsoft Advertising
* Account Executive of the Year Finalists:
o Paul Chenier, IGN Entertainment
o Dan Bonert, Yahoo!
o Stacey Pear, Yahoo!

Service Excellence Awards

Across the IAB’s nearly 400 member companies, 14 IAB councils and committees, and dozens of working groups, hundreds of IAB members participate in shaping the interactive advertising business and driving educational outreach to the marketplace. The IAB Service Excellence Awards honor individual members who have demonstrated strong leadership and provided an exceptional contribution to one or more significant, completed IAB initiatives over the past year.

2008 Service Excellence Award Winners include:

* Lon Pilot, Senior Architect, Platform A; and Geoff Petkus, Senior Product Director, Operative, for their dedication and leadership during the development of the Interactive E-Business Standards.
* Steve Sullivan, Lead PM Data Integrity, Microsoft Advertising, for his contributions and support for numerous IAB Ad Operations Council initiatives throughout 2008 including the Impression Exchange solution.
* Zack Rogers, VP Revenue Operations, CBS Interactive, for his dedication to and leadership of the 4A’s/IAB Reinvention Task Force.
* Tim Avila, Marketing Director, Online Video Monetization, Yahoo!, for his dedication to and leadership of the Digital Video Ad Format Guidelines and the IAB Digital Video Committee.
* Mike Hurt, Senior Vice President, comScore, for his dedication to the Digital Video Committee while co-chair in 2008 and his contributions to the market-making IAB Digital Video Overview document.
* Christie Lay, Senior Credit Manager, Microsoft, for her dedication and leadership of the Revenue Cycle Best Practices Working Group and other important CFO Council initiatives.
* Leslie Dunlap, Senior Director, Government Relations. Yahoo!, and Lisa Anderson, VP Global Public Policy, Time Warner, for their service on the Public Policy Council and dedication and leadership in creating the IAB’s Privacy Principles.

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 400 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the formation of an Advertising Agency Advisory Board comprised of 12 senior executives from the nation’s leading creative, digital and media agencies. The new board’s objective is to spark dialogue among agencies, publishers and marketers, and even between media agencies and creative agencies. The IAB also intends to use the board to infuse the agency point of view more fully in its guidelines work and to drive forward the importance of premium online experiences, with audience as the first priority. The IAB has also signaled its intention to recapture for online campaigns the emotionally resonant and culturally significant creativity that has long characterized great advertising in other media. The announcement was made at the IAB’s Annual Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: Brands Battle Back in Orlando, Florida.

2009 Ad Agency Advisory Board includes:

* Brad Brinegar, Chairman and CEO of McKinney, and Chair of the Agency Advisory Board
* Tom Bedecarré, CEO, AKQA
* Jeff Benjamin, Interactive Creative Director, Crispin Porter + Bogusky Advertising
* Alan Cohen, CEO of OMD USA, OMD Los Angeles.
* Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Digital Officer, TBWA Worldwide
* Brian DiLorenzo, Director of Integrated Production and Executive Director of Content, BBDO
* David Droga, Founder and Chairman, Droga5
* Sarah Fay, CEO, Carat North America
* Maria Luisa Francoli, Global CEO, MPG
* Jean-Philippe Maheu, Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide
* Benjamin Palmer, Co-Founder, CEO, Barbarian Group
* Steve Wax, Partner and Chief Narratologist and Co-Founder, Campfire

“This group represents a powerhouse of creative talent that will help lead the interactive industry to the next level by showing us how to harness the potential of the first truly interactive advertising medium—to engage consumers and build brands and communities in new and exciting ways,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “Our interest in forming this advisory board is to enhance the partnership opportunities with agencies that will hasten and smooth the ongoing digital transformation of the full media ecosystem. And a lot of that will happen through creativity, relationships, and implementation.” Rothenberg has been an outspoken advocate for deeper more collaborative relationships between agencies, publishers, marketers and technology. He recently wrote a “Creative Manifesto” on interactive advertising creativity where he named the four enemies of online branding and the new skill sets creative agencies today must possess to attract, engage, and influence consumers. The complete manifesto can be viewed in its entirety at http://www.randallrothenberg.com/2009/02/heartbeats-and-mouseclicks-manifesto-on.html.

“Interactive media opens new doors for creative expression. Unlike predecessor media, we can engage people in an ongoing dialogue that creates a bond between the consumer, the advertiser and the medium that brought them together. The goal of the Advertising Agency Advisory Board is to share the interactive insights and experience of the nation’s top creative agencies with the marketplace in order to maximize the interactive advertising experience for all participants,” said Brad Brinegar, Chairman and CEO of McKinney, and Chair of the Agency Advisory Board.

The group held its inaugural meeting in early February, and its creation was formally announced today at the IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: Brands Battle Back, in Orlando, Florida.

In the coming months, the board’s intention is to help find ways to arm agencies for more success with clients and to field qualitative studies that confirm and highlight case studies of successful agency-publisher collaboration.

In conjunction with the formation of the IAB Advertising Agency Advisory Board, the IAB announced its plans to debut the IAB Creative Agency Boot Camp next month For more information, please go to http://www.iab.net/events_training/690217.

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 400 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

WHAT: Leaders of the digital advertising world will gather at the premier interactive advertising newsmaking event of 2009 to grapple with the biggest issues facing the marketing-media value chain. At the top of the agenda: Controversial debate about how brands—agency brands, consumer brands and publisher brands—are battling back against commoditization in these challenging economic times.

Hear About:

* Marketing 2.0: The New Affiliates
* The Agency of the Future Just Happened. How’d They Do It?
* Recession 2.0: Where Are Advertisers Going? Where Are Investors Going?
* Makin’ Bacon: The Premium Inside the Pork Bellies
* Death of Display—Just Exaggerated Rumors?
* Just Publish and You’ll Perish: The New Imperative for Publishing Brands
* Debate!: Brand Marketers Don’t Need Agencies. Interactive Publishers Provide Everything They Need
* Yes, Social Media Can Brand: Discuss
* How Regulation Could Shut Down the Internet

From Experts Including:

* Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB
* Michael Mendenhall, SVP and CMO, Hewlett-Packard Company
* Wenda Harris Millard, President, Media and Co-CEO, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Chair, IAB Board of Directors
* Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO, Interpublic Group
* David Rosenblatt, President, Display Advertising, Google
* Scott Howe, Corporate VP, Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group, Microsoft
* Joanne Bradford, SVP, U.S. Revenue and Market Development, Yahoo!
* Bob Carrigan, CEO, IDG Communications Worldwide
* Mark Mahaney, Director, Internet Sector, Citigroup Investment Research
* Sarah Chubb, President, CondeNet
* Jean-Philippe Maheu, Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy North America

WHEN: February 22-24

WHERE: Orlando, FL

MORE: A year ago, commoditization was the hot topic at the inaugural offsite annual meeting of the IAB. A sell-out crowd of 400 top digital marketers, agencies and publishers discussed and argued about Chairperson Wenda Millard Harris’s now-famous admonition to the industry to avoid trading ad space like pork bellies.

How times have changed. This year, interactive advertising is the sole bright spot in the advertising world. Embattled marketers are reducing overall ad budgets, while shifting more advertising dollars to hard-working, measurable interactive advertising. A challenging economy has slowed the industry’s growth, but has created opportunities as brands, their agencies and publishers explore new ways to harness the power of interactive advertising to build brands and ROI.

Also front and center in 2009 is the continuing—and escalating—threat of regulation that would unnecessarily stunt the interactive industry’s ability to tailor advertising to consumers’ preferences. All this and more will be hot topics of conversation at IAB’s second annual meeting.

For a complete agenda of this newsmaking event, go to: www.iab.net

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

The joint industry task force supports the FTC’s goal of a comprehensive and effective self-regulatory program that protects both consumers and businesses engaged in interactive advertising. The group will continue its engagement with policymakers, a broad cross section of businesses, consumers, and other important stakeholders as it evaluates important public policy issues that have been raised regarding online behavioral advertising. The associations look forward to reviewing the current FTC principles released today, having already launched proactive efforts in areas of self-regulation set forth in the FTC’s initial self-regulatory principles issued in December 2007, including education and transparency, consumer notification and choice, data security, and self-regulatory enforcement.

The members of these associations, along with other participants of the group, together represent thousands of advertisers, agencies, marketers, publishers, media companies, ad networks, and other service providers, including the major participants in the online advertising marketplace. The associations have come together to address concerns about the use of online consumer data for behavioral advertising purposes while preserving the innovative and robust advertising that supports the vast array of free online content available to consumers, and what has become an important and growing industry for the U.S. economy. The group collectively recognizes the importance and responsibility of effective self-regulation in the evolving area of online and behavioral marketing and applauds the FTC’s continued commitment to industry self regulation.

The 2009 edition of the EPpy™ Awards honors the best media Web sites, including newspapers, TV-Cable, and magazines. Awards will be given in 35 categories, including a new competition for Best Consumer Technology Blog. In addition to the 35 category awards, the EPpy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement is expected to be given again this year.

The EPpy Awards will be presented at an awards luncheon at the Interactive Media Conference and Trade Show at the Astor Crowne Plaza in New Orleans on Thursday, May 7, 2009. The conference and trade show is also sponsored by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek.

The 2009 EPpy Awards consist of 35 awards for media Web sites. There are three awards for best overall media-affiliated Web sites: for newspapers, magazines, and TV-Cable concerns. Each of these categories has two competitions, for large and small company Web sites. In the newspaper category, the cutoff between large and small Web sites is one million unique monthly users. The TV-Cable category is split between network and local affiliate Web sites. The magazine category is split between national magazines and regional/local magazines. An EPpy™ will also be awarded to the best Community/Suburban Newspaper Web site.

Contest fees are $150 per entry except in the College category, where each entry is $50. There is no entry fee to nominate an individual for the Individual Achievement Award.

EPpy™ Awards entries are only accepted via the Web site www.eppyawards.com, which can also be accessed from the Web sites its two sponsors: Editor & Publisher, www.editorandpublisher.com, and Mediaweek, www.mediaweek.com.

The 2008 EPpy™ Awards drew close to 500 nominations from nearly 100 U.S. and international media outlets, Web-only services providers, college and universities.

For the twelfth consecutive year, the awards program is being produced and marketed by Interactive Media Associates, Inc., of Parsippany, NJ (http://www.imediainc.com). Questions about the competition can be directed to Len Muscarella at len@imediainc.com.

About Editor & Publisher

For 125 years, Editor & Publisher has been committed to covering the production, news and business areas of the newspaper industry. Editor & Publisher has a reputation for thorough, honest reporting of industry news, as well as reliable, well-researched, industry directories and guides – and for years has had one of the most popular and influential Web sites in the media field. Editor & Publisher is seen as the authority on the newspaper business, often being called the “bible” of the industry. In the past five years, it has won 11 Jesse H. Neal Awards, the top prize for trade publications. Editor & Publisher is published by Nielsen Business Media, a part of The Nielsen Company, a global information and media company.

LONDON – Epic Advertising (www.epicadvertising.com), the privately-held, New York-based online performance marketing firm, announced the official opening of its London office. The announcement follows recent news of the company’s successful 2008 performance, impressive revenue growth, and the hiring of Rob Wilson in October 2008 as the SVP and General Manager of the company’s European business.

“The global trend that we are seeing in performance marketing, not just in North America but in Europe, puts us in a very good position to execute in 2009,” said Mr. Wilson. “It was very important for Epic to establish roots here in London, and to be able to hire talented employees to form the foundation of the company’s worldwide growth. To now have our London office fully opened, staffed and operational is critical in our ability to execute right away in the 1st quarter.”

Other key staffers in place in the London office include: Heidi Kinsey (Network Director), Jason Kilby (Director of Gaming Operations) and Anna Mazziotti (Office Manager).

The company said that the expansion into London was an opportunity created out of intense demand, as the UK market is currently the company’s second largest revenue-producing territory, holding a lot of opportunity for advertisers and publishers alike.

“We have seen, even in the early stages of focusing our efforts in Europe, that the opportunity to expand our footprint in the global performance marketing industry in the UK is there,” said Don Mathis, CEO of Epic Advertising. “The important first step of hiring a talented GM like Rob, and then putting key team members in place in a new office is now complete. We look forward to growing our presence in Europe even further under this team’s leadership.”

The address for Epic Advertising’s London office is:
Amadeus House
Floral Street, Covent Garden
London, England WC2E 9DP
Telephone: 0207 812 7012

General Email: epicUK@epicadvertising.com

About Epic Advertising

Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 38,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed network AzoogleAds, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus) and being named a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in London, San Francisco, and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

NEW YORK – TRA (http://www.traglobal.com), developer of the only scalable advertising research system that creates intelligent media data by measuring and reporting true ROI accountability and transparency for advertising spend, announced the appointment of Andrea Mezzasalma to its Advisory Board. Mr. Mezzasalma will be lending his expertise to TRA on strategic corporate initiatives and global partnerships. This further strengthens the company’s Advisory Board and Board of Directors comprised of Media, Advertising, Research and Technology thought leaders.

Mr. Mezzasalma has extensive experience in leading and building global research ventures, with a track record of developing ground-breaking innovations in media measurement, targeting and single-source. He was the Global Sector Head of TNS Media Research and before that Partner and VP of Research Methods and Technologies for Eurisko in Milan, Italy. He also has served as a consultant to major market research agencies and is an entrepreneur.

“Andrea Mezzasalma’s expertise and insight will be a great benefit to TRA, its customers and partners in the industry both domestically and abroad,” said Mark Lieberman, CEO and Chairman of TRA Inc. “His joining TRA’s Advisory Board is another sign of the value proposition that TRA has to offer. We are looking forward to working with him to further grow the company and provide the best ROI solution for our customers.”

”I’m highly impressed by the technical and commercial advancements that TRA has made since its founding,” said Andrea Mezzasalma. “I’m very excited at the opportunity of helping TRA with new business opportunities and potential international partnerships.”

TRA offers the largest resource for U.S. television audience measurement against purchase measurement in history. TRA’s online reporting engine, Media TRAnalytics™, includes anonymous TV tune-in data from 1.5 million households and an overall anonymous single source database of 370,000 households nationwide, which is an aggregation of tune in data from set-top boxes, household purchase data and household demographic data.

About TRA, Inc.

TRA, Inc. (True ROI Accountability for Media — http://www.traglobal.com) is a media and marketing research company whose proprietary patent pending platform, Media TRAnalytics™, cost effectively matches the ads that people actually receive with the products people actually buy, giving advertisers, agencies and media transparency, accountable measurement, media planning and improved return-on-investment for their advertising spend. TRA has 1.5 million households of TV data, 55 million households of purchase data and the largest single source database ever – 370,000 households. Founded by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Lieberman, an experienced entrepreneur, and advertising industry measurement pioneer Bill Harvey, President and Co-Founder, TRA employs proprietary measurement technologies and proven algorithms developed and refined over a 10-year period with 30,000 man-hours invested into developing TRA’s Media TRAnalytics™ platform over the past year. Investors include Kodiak Venture Partners and WPP/Kantar Media Research and angels. MediaVest, a subsidiary of Paris-based Publicis Groupe, is TRA’s first agency to be using Media TRAnalytics™. TRA is ISO 27001 certified, the information security management system standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) designed to ensure security controls to protect information assets.

ATLANTA – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), the local leader in digital, print and direct mail, has introduced AJC Media Solutions, an integrated platform for delivering the AJC’s advertising and marketing capabilities to business clients.

The AJC Media Solutions brand encompasses the products and services the AJC offers to advertisers across its portfolio of digital, print and direct media vehicles, enabling advertisers the flexibility to access, target and measure their audience through a more effective and cost efficient solution.

This unparalleled portfolio is a competitive strength and positions the AJC as the number-one media company in metropolitan Atlanta, reaching 73 percent of the market through print and digital combined and an additional 1.5 million households of coverage through shared mail direct marketing programs. Solo mail programs complete a multi-media solution that offers up to 100 percent coverage of the market to advertisers.

“We have fundamentally changed our organizational structure and go-to market approach based on research and feedback we heard from our advertisers and prospects about their continued challenges,” said W. Michael Clay, AJC Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer. “We’re responding with AJC Media Solutions. We’re more than a newspaper, we’re now a one-point-of contact solution across digital, print and direct marketing platforms that can help businesses navigate their messaging to the audiences and consumers they seek and that will truly help them grow their businesses.”

In conjunction with the launch of AJC Media Solutions, the company also unveiled a Web site – www.YourAudienceDelivered.com – that links advertisers with the information and expertise needed to create custom-targeted, cross-channel advertising campaigns.

The Web site and the AJC Media Solutions brand will be promoted via a market-wide advertising campaign that launched earlier this week. The AJC Marketing department partnered with award-winning agency IQ Interactive to develop an extensive marketing campaign and Web site.

The sales division has been reorganized into a one-point-of contact, multi-media consultancy to allow account executives to sell across all three media platforms and service offerings, and began previewing AJC Media Solutions to clients in mid-October, with excellent results.

“If somebody asked me for advice on what they should advertise,” said Kelly Fink, Regional Marketing Internet Director of Bowen Family Homes, “I would say that you need to have a very well-rounded advertising campaign. And that’s an easy process to work out with AJC Media Solutions.”

AJC Media Solutions brings together Atlanta’s leading digital, print and direct mail advertising vehicles in one effective and cost efficient solution. Clay observed, “It’s the effortless way to reach the right audience and to get more for your ad dollar.”

About The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the leading source — both in print and online — of news, information and advertising for metropolitan Atlanta, reaching a total print and online audience of more than 2.2 million people each week. Every month, nearly 2.5 million unique visitors access the newspaper’s Web sites, including ajc.com and accessAtlanta.com. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is owned by Cox Enterprises, Inc., one of the nation’s leading media companies and providers of automotive services.

An extension of the AJC, AJC Media Solutions is Atlanta’s most complete regional resource for advertising success, with digital, print and direct marketing resources. In addition, AJC Media Solutions offers consultative insights to help advertisers find the right combination of reach, frequency and cost-effectiveness, optimizing media buying and advertising strategy for greater results.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release for public comment of Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions Guidelines (VPAID). The announcement represents another important step in the IAB’s infrastructure initiative that seeks to build a common language for buying, selling, creating and delivering digital video advertising.

The series of definitions in the VPAID Guidelines help the interactive industry:

* Define a standard method for video ads to communicate with video players and enable ad compatibility across all VPAID-compliant players
* Provide specifications that can be implemented by any type of video player
* Cut production costs and improve ROI for advertisers while enabling a less intrusive experience for video content viewers.

Until now, video ads could only be posted on publisher sites that supported the same technology as an agency did when creating the ads. With VPAID, publishers adhering to these standards will be able to render any type of video advertisement from any video ad serving technology that also adheres to the standards. Likewise, advertisers that adopt the standards can be assured that the ads they create are usable by any ad serving technology and publisher.

Over the past year, the IAB has taken a lead role in the industry-wide effort to create a common structure across distinct areas of digital video. In addition to VPAID, the IAB’s efforts have included the release of the following documents as part of this initiative:

* Digital Video Measurement Guidelines
* Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Best Practices
* Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST)
* Digital Video In-Stream Ad Metrics Definitions

All of these documents can be reviewed at: http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/508950

“Interactive advertising is a bright spot in the current advertising environment, and digital video is one of its most promising formats,” said Jeremy Fain, Vice President of Industry Services at IAB. “VPAID is the final piece of the current Digital Video Infrastructure Initiative. All five parts of the initiative help define the digital video ecosystem, reduce costs and increase efficiency for all parties and, most importantly, make it possible for advertisers to more easily reach larger online audiences.”

“Advertisers and agencies today require more interactive formats that go beyond linear TV ad spots, demand more control over how they experience ads, and want the ability to learn more about particular subjects of interest,” said David Ku, SVP of the Advertising Technology Group at Yahoo!, a member company of the IAB’s Digital Video Committee. “VPAID provides a common standard for how video ads will interact with players and serves as an important step forward to deliver on the promise of digital video ad formats.”

Members of the industry (advertising agencies, advertisers, online publishers and technology vendors) are encouraged to read the proposed guidelines and submit comments on the IAB site at: http://www.iab.net/vpaid. After the comment period closes on March 5, 2009 the feedback will be reviewed and the guidelines will be finalized and released.

About the IAB’s Digital Video Committee:

The Digital Video Committee of the IAB is comprised of over 180 member companies actively engaged in the creation and execution of digital video advertising. One of the goals of the committee is to implement a comprehensive set of guidelines, measurement, and creative options for interactive video advertising. The committee works to educate marketers and agencies on the strength of digital video as a marketing vehicle. A full list of Committee member companies can be found at: http://www.iab.net/digital_video_committee

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

- NT Media Announces Launch of New Video Sharing and Social Networking Website NEUROTRASH.tv
NT Media Corp. (http://www.ntmedia.tv) (OTCBB:NTMI) announces the development of NEUROTRASH.tv, the first in a series of websites that will establish the organization as an online entertainment and media provider.
NEUROTRASH.tv is a video-sharing site targeting young adults between the ages of 18 and 35. Users will be able to post and share videos on the site as well as take advantage of NEUROTRASH.tv’s video player to place videos on their own sites, social networking profile pages and blogs. NEUROTRASH.tv will promote the development of both hip content by amateur and professional videographers, and useful information channels. Extensive social networking opportunities exist on the website. The Company also plans to produce exclusive proprietary entertainment content for the site as well as adding licensed content.

PORTLAND, Ore. – The inauguration of President Barack Obama on Tuesday caused an unprecedented number of people to visit media web sites across the globe. WebTrends, a leading provider of web analytics and online marketing solutions, announced that the scalability and reliability of its solutions enabled some of the world’s largest media companies including: NYTimes.com, Reuters, Internet Broadcasting, and China’s largest broadcaster, CCTV to continue to access relevant, timely data despite the massive traffic surges to their sites.

“With the nation and the world riveted on events in Washington, D.C., for a remarkable day in history, Internet Broadcasting delivered record setting results that reinforce our leadership position as a reliable and scalable web publishing solution,” said Jeff Kimball, chief operating officer of Internet Broadcasting. “WebTrends robust solutions consistently provide us with the ability to track and report on key information we need to remain relevant to readers and to provide value to our partners.”

Among WebTrends solutions used by industry leading media companies are:

* WebTrends On Demand. Comprehensive marketing insight in an easy-to-implement hosted (software as a service) solution that leverages WebTrends state-of-the-art hosted operations centers.
* WebTrends Analytics. Comprehensive marketing insight in an on-premise software solution that offers customers maximum control and flexibility.
* WebTrends Marketing Warehouse. Sophisticated data integration and advanced segmentation and targeting capabilities delivered through hosted or software solutions.

“From the beginning of President Obama’s campaign through his election and inauguration, WebTrends customers have seen traffic to their media sites continually increase to record levels,” said Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, vice president of marketing for WebTrends. “These past few months have demonstrated that our solutions are capable of providing consistent and reliable data and analysis without fail, no matter the traffic levels.”

About WebTrends Inc.

WebTrends provides web analytics and online marketing solutions to optimize marketing campaigns and customer engagement. WebTrends Marketing Lab delivers the industry’s most recognized 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 organizations, including Microsoft, Reuters, General Mills and Ticketmaster have chosen WebTrends business solutions and client services expertise to optimize their customers’ online experiences.

For more information, visit: www.webtrends.com

WHAT: Leaders of the digital advertising world will gather at the premier interactive advertising newsmaking event of 2009 to grapple with the biggest issues facing the marketing-media value chain. At the top of the agenda: Controversial debate about how brands—agency brands, consumer brands and publisher brands—are battling back against commoditization in these challenging economic times.

Hear About:

* Marketing 2.0: The New Affiliates
* The Agency of the Future Just Happened. How’d They Do It?
* Recession 2.0: Where Are Advertisers Going? Where Are Investors Going?
* Makin’ Bacon: The Premium Inside the Pork Bellies
* Death of Display—Just Exaggerated Rumors?
* Just Publish and You’ll Perish: The New Imperative for Publishing Brands
* Debate!: Brand Marketers Don’t Need Agencies. Interactive Publishers Provide Everything They Need
* Yes, Social Media Can Brand: Discuss
* How Regulation Could Shut Down the Internet

From Experts Including:

* Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB
* Michael Mendenhall, SVP and CMO, Hewlett-Packard Company
* Wenda Harris Millard, President, Media and Co-CEO, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Chair, IAB Board of Directors
* Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO, Interpublic Group
* David Rosenblatt, President, Display Advertising, Google
* Scott Howe, Corporate VP, Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group, Microsoft
* Joanne Bradford, SVP, U.S. Revenue and Market Development, Yahoo!
* Bob Carrigan, CEO, IDG Communications Worldwide
* Mark Mahaney, Director, Internet Sector, Citigroup Investment Research
* Sarah Chubb, President, CondeNet
* Jean-Philippe Maheu, Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy North America

WHEN: February 22-24

WHERE: Orlando, FL

MORE: A year ago, commoditization was the hot topic at the inaugural offsite annual meeting of the IAB. A sell-out crowd of 400 top digital marketers, agencies and publishers discussed and argued about Chairperson Wenda Millard Harris’s now-famous admonition to the industry to avoid trading ad space like pork bellies.

How times have changed. This year, interactive advertising is the sole bright spot in the advertising world. Embattled marketers are reducing overall ad budgets, while shifting more advertising dollars to hard-working, measurable interactive advertising. A challenging economy has slowed the industry’s growth, but has created opportunities as brands, their agencies and publishers explore new ways to harness the power of interactive advertising to build brands and ROI.

Also front and center in 2009 is the continuing—and escalating—threat of regulation that would unnecessarily stunt the interactive industry’s ability to tailor advertising to consumers’ preferences. All this and more will be hot topics of conversation at IAB’s second annual meeting.

For a complete agenda of this newsmaking event, go to: www.iab.net

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

RESTON, Va. – LucidMedia (www.lucidmedia.com), an online contextual display advertising network and technology platform, announced that it has been selected to the 2009 OnMedia 100 List. The OnMedia 100 Award is given to the top 100 private, emerging technology companies in the advertising, publishing, marketing, branding and public relations spaces. LucidMedia was selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team based on demonstration of growth, market opportunity, quality of innovation and customer traction.

”We are very pleased to be recognized with this honor, as LucidMedia has made many significant strides during the past year, ranging from our introducing the industry’s first Spanish-language contextual advertising platform to distributing our technology across the Yahoo! Right Media Exchange and a growing base of other partners,” said Ajay Sravanapudi, LucidMedia President and CEO. “We are extremely well-positioned for continued progress throughout 2009 and are grateful to the AlwaysOn team for recognizing our efforts to-date.”

LucidMedia and the other OnMedia 100 winners will be recognized at the OnMedia 100 Conference at the Ritz Carlton, New York City, on February 2-4. This two-and-a-half day executive conference is co-presented by Forbes and will feature presentations and high-level debates from CEOs, journalists, industry experts, investors and publishing and advertising executives.

“The 2009 OnMedia 100 companies have demonstrated their tenacity even in the toughest economic conditions that the technology world has ever encountered,” said Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “We applaud their success in pushing the boundaries of innovation, creating market opportunities and transforming the industry even in the earlier stages of their businesses.”

The OnMedia 100 winners were selected from among hundreds of other technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists and industry insiders. The AlwaysOn editorial team conducted a rigorous three-month selection process to finalize the 2009 list.

A full list of all the OnMedia 100 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn website at http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/30893.

About LucidMedia

LucidMedia is an online contextual display advertising network and technology platform focused on optimizing performance at the page-level for advertisers and their agencies. The company’s patented ClickSense® contextual advertising and targeting engine empowers advertisers to reach new levels of performance, insight, safety, and cost-efficiency in their online advertising campaigns. LucidMedia categorizes traffic from many of the Web’s most respected networks and exchanges in both English and Spanish, providing advertisers with a way to more effectively target online advertising inventory and increase their return-on-spend. Today, many of the world’s largest interactive agencies, online advertisers, and ad networks are leveraging LucidMedia’s network and technology platform to drive increased revenue.

About AlwaysOn

AlwaysOn ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 by being the first media brand to launch a global blog network. In 2004, AlwaysOn continued to lead the media industry in innovation by introducing a social network where members can connect and engage. AlwaysOn is also revolutionizing the media business by applying its open-media principles to its executive event series (Stanford Summit, AlwaysOn Hollywood, AlwaysOn Media and GoingGreen) and quarterly print “blogozine” by empowering its members to post and share their ideas and meet each other online. As our loyal readers know, AlwaysOn is committed to the free-market, merit-driven approach to reporting and event programming. No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction with its readers and event participants.

NEW YORK – Time Inc. announced its online network is one of the 20 largest online media properties. This ranking comes from a Nielsen Online December 2008 custom analysis.

According to Nielsen’s figures, Time Inc. network’s unduplicated monthly audience of more than 25.6 million unique visitors, the aggregate audience of its 26 U.S. web sites, makes the company the 18th largest media property online. Time Inc. also ranks among the top 20 based on engagement metrics. These include: time spent per user, (Time Inc. ranked 17th) with 18:37 minutes per user per month; and page views per unique visitor, (Time Inc. ranked 16th) with an average of 29 monthly page views per unique visitor. Other digital properties in this top 20 custom analysis are listed below.

Time Inc. Executive Vice President John Squires explained, “Time Inc. reaches more unique visitors than any other magazine publisher. These latest figures from Nielsen reinforce the fact that Time Inc.’s web sites are competitive with all media companies including social networking sites and web portals, providing consumers the information they want, when and how they want it. An example of this is our success with online video. Last month CNNMoney.com had more than 21 million video streams (Nielsen Online, VideoCensus.), making it the number one site for video in the financial news category. With so much information available online, consumers are gravitating towards Time Inc.’s brands for trusted, edited content.”

Time Inc.’s U.S. digital properties include: CNNMoney.com, SI.COM, People.com, TIME.COM, EW.COM, InStyle.com, SouthernLiving.com, RealSimple.com, CookingLight.com, SIKids.com, Essence.com, Sunset.com, TimeForKids.com, Health.com, LIFE.com, CoastalLiving.com, PeopleenEspanol.com, Golf.com, ThisOldHouse.com, SouthernAccents.com, AllYou.com, Fortune.com, MyRecipes.com , MyHomeIdeas.com , FanNation.com, and Celebrity Baby Blog.

Nielsen Online Unique Visitor Ranking for Selected Media Properties

1     Google
2     Microsoft
3     Yahoo!
4     AOL LLC
5     News Corp. Online
6     InterActiveCorp
7     Facebook
8     Wikimedia Foundation
9     CBS Corporation
10     New York Times Company
11     Walt Disney Internet Group
12     Turner Network (Time Warner)
13     Landmark Communications
14     Scripps Networks Interactive
15     Viacom Digital
16     Time Warner (not inc. Turner Network)
17     General Electric
18     Time Inc. Network
19     Gannett
20     The Hearst Corporation

Source: Nielsen Online, Custom Analysis, December 2008

Notes: The Time Inc. Network is a custom roll-up including sites also represented in the Turner and Time Warner properties.

Ranking excludes properties whose sites are primarily e-commerce driven and those whose sites are primarily not wholly-owned by the parent company.

About Time Inc.

Time Inc., a Time Warner company, is one of the largest content companies in the world. With 23 magazines and 26 web sites in the U.S., it is the country’s largest publisher. Each month, one out of every two American adults reads a Time Inc. magazine, and nearly one out of every six, who are online, visits a company web site (more than 25 million monthly unique visitors). Time Inc.’s popular brands and successful franchises extend to online, television, cable VOD, satellite radio, mobile devices, events and branded products.

NEW YORK – TRAFFIQ® – The Premium Advertising Marketplace announced today that fourth quarter ad rates generated through its platform were found to be significantly higher than average CPMs generated through ad networks.

New data shows that the average rate for display ad inventory sold through some ad networks and 3rd party brokers in the fourth quarter of 2008, across all categories, was $0.26 per thousand impressions (CPM), down 48 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 (TechCrunch, January 13th, 2009). In comparison, display ad inventory sold through the TRAFFIQ Marketplace during the same period has averaged at $4.53 CPM – more than 17 times higher than the CPMs secured through many 3rd party resellers.

“These numbers validate our unique positioning as a marketplace for premium display advertising,” said Mark Kahn, TRAFFIQ’s CEO. “TRAFFIQ’s unique capabilities and complete media transparency provide an added value critical to both buyers and sellers of online media that is not available through remnant ad networks. It helps advertisers secure the best possible media for their campaigns, while maintaining premium pricing for publishers, which is now more important than ever”.

TRAFFIQ enables its publishers to micro-segment and bundle their inventory into its highest perceived value, making it completely transparent, accessible, and extremely attractive to potential buyers. It allows publishers to increase ad yield, at no risk, by replacing remnant ad networks.

Similarly, TRAFFIQ ensures advertisers find and select highly targeted inventory within brand-appropriate sites, so buyers never overpay for inventory, but instead are able to optimize their budgets.

TRAFFIQ has recently launched new Agency Workflow tools, which allow ad agencies to manage multiple clients and campaigns with ease and to execute all media planning and buying steps through one intuitive interface. It has also launched advanced tracking capabilities, featuring full-path conversion tracking and reporting that capture not just the last ad clicked, but all brand touch points and actionable key performance metrics leading to conversion.

About TRAFFIQ

TRAFFIQ (www.traffiq.com) is an efficient, open and value-driven marketplace, directly connecting buyers and sellers of online media through an end-to-end self-service platform. It facilitates the buying and selling of premium display media with ease and efficiency, always providing maximum return on investment. Marketplace members include the leading advertisers, ad agencies and publishers. TRAFFIQ is a member of the IAB advisory board, helping educate interactive advertisers and publishers on best practices for industry growth. TRAFFIQ is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Vienna, VA. For more information, contact us at info@traffiq.com.

Winners to Be Honored at OnMedia NYC Conference February 2-4 in NYC
AlwaysOn OnMedia NYC 2009

NEW YORK – AlwaysOn, the leading open-media blog and event community, announced the winners of the 2009 OnMedia 100 Award. This award recognizes emerging technology companies that are creating new business opportunities in the worlds of media, advertising, marketing, branding, and public relations. Each winner will be acknowledged at the OnMedia Conference in New York City on February 2-4.

OnMedia NYC is where cutting-edge technology CEOs from the back streets of Silicon Valley meet the global advertising and media establishment. This two-and-a-half-day executive event features CEO presentations and high-level debates on which forces are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities through technology and innovation.

“It’s no secret that technology and innovation are vital to bringing our country out of economic recession,” said Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “The companies on this year’s list have not only created innovative technologies that solve real business problems, but have stimulated economic growth through the generation of new jobs. I congratulate every winner selected for this year’s award and wish them all tremendous success in the future.”

The AlwaysOn editorial team selects the top 100 private companies that have demonstrated excellence in five primary categories: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value creation, and media buzz. This year’s winners are listed below:

Community Platforms

– Live Gamer

– SaysMe

– Mall Networks

– Shopflick

– meebo

– ShopIt

– myYearbook (category winner)

– Spiceworks

– Outside.in

– TurnTo

– OwnerIQ

– Watercooler

– Reframe It

– WePlay

Digital Publishers

– 5min

– Gigya

– Buzznet

– NeoEdge Networks

– Ensequence

– Zynga (category winner)

Mobile Marketing and Advertising

– AdMob

– Limbo

– Apptera (category winner)

– Medialets

– Blyk

– MoVoxx

– Greystripe

– Smaato

– IMImobile

– Vibes Media

– Kadoink

Next Generation Search

– Become.com

– Like.com (category winner)

– branchnext

– Searchandise

– Cooliris

– Sense Networks

– Kosmix

– Wize

Online Advertising Service Providers

– Access 360 Media

– OpenX

– Adap.tv (category winner)

– Ozone Media Solutions

– ADISN

– Peer39

– AdMeld

– PlaySpan

– AdNectar

– Pontiflex

– AdReady

– Pubmatic

– Aggregate Knowledge

– Rubicon Project, The (overall winner)

– appssavvy

– SocialMedia

– Brand.net

– Sojern

– BrightRoll

– Sportgenic

– Buddy Media

– Tumri

– Clickable

– Turn

– Glam Media

– Vibrant Media

– Jivox

– Vitrue

– Kontera

– WebVisible

– MediaBank

– YieldBuild

– Mixpo

– YuMe

Technology Enablers

– AvVenta

– Mercent

– BlackArrow

– Offerpal Media (category winner)

– CTS Media

– Perfect Market

– Delivery Agent

– Responsys

– Demandbase

– ShareThis

– Elemental Technologies

– TubeMogul

– FatTail

– Vobile

– Kaltura

– Widgetbucks (newcomer of the year)

– Loomia

– Wildfire Interactive

– LucidMedia

– YouMail

Web and Media Analytics and Research

– Aster Data Systems

– NuConomy

– BlueKai

– Quantcast (category winner)

– Conductor

– Milabra (formerly Sobayli)

– Media6Degrees

About AlwaysOn

ALWAYSON ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 by being the first media brand to launch a global blog network. In 2004, ALWAYSON continued to lead the media industry in innovation by introducing a social network where members can connect and engage. ALWAYSON is also revolutionizing the media business by applying its open-media principles to its executive event series (Summit at Stanford, OnMedia, OnHollywood, GoingGreen East and West, Venture Summit East and West) and quarterly print “blogozine” by empowering its members to post and share their ideas and meet each other online. As our loyal readers know, ALWAYSON is committed to the free-market, merit-driven approach to reporting and event programming. No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction with its readers and event participants.

The joint industry task force plans to engage with policymakers, a broad cross section of business, consumers, and other important stakeholders as it addresses the important public policy issues that have been raised regarding online behavioral advertising. The group is currently discussing the areas for self-regulation set forth in the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed self-regulatory principles issued in December 2007, including education and transparency, consumer notification and choice, data security, and self-regulatory enforcement. The associations look forward to working with the FTC as it continues to review its privacy principles.

The members of these associations, along with other participants of the group, together represent thousands of advertisers, agencies, marketers, publishers, media companies, ad networks, and other service providers, including the major participants in the online advertising marketplace. The initiative will seek to address concerns about the use of online consumer data for behavioral advertising purposes while preserving the innovative and robust advertising that supports the vast array of free online content.

“Advertising agencies are leaders in the innovation that is fueling the Internet economy,” said Nancy Hill, President and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. “The result has been tremendous benefits for all consumers. We are anxious to work with our colleagues in the Internet, advertising, and marketing communities to develop effective self-regulatory practices that apply across all our memberships.”

“Behavioral marketing provides enormous benefits to consumers, but it is our responsibility as marketers to ensure the Web-surfing public’s privacy interests remain protected. Strong and comprehensive self-regulation strikes a balance that both protects the public interest and allows marketers to provide relevant advertising, which is particularly critical during this period of economic downturn,” said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA.

“The BBB has always advocated responsible business practices backed by effective self-regulation. This is especially needed in the evolving area of online and behavioral marketing. We believe that this effort can play a critical role in developing meaningful standards supported by credible enforcement in this increasingly important area,” said Steve Cole, President and CEO of the BBB.

“It is essential that we have consistent standards that reinforce consumer relevance and business responsibility,” said John Greco, President and CEO of the Direct Marketing Association. “We believe this is one of the most important steps we can take to make that a reality.”

“Effective self-regulation of interactive advertising will help ensure that our industry can continue to evolve and innovate, offering consumers what they want when they want it. The value of online advertising to consumers and businesses cannot be understated, particularly in these challenging economic times. We want to be certain that we demonstrate the value exchange to the public that comes from online advertising. Having the support of our colleagues across the business community on these core issues is critical to the IAB and its members,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.

Jeff has a wealth of industry, technology and analyst experience, including product management and marketing, standards development, consulting for major organizations, extensive technology market research reporting, and editorial.

“Jeff brings a wealth of wireless industry experience to ABI Research’s Mobile Content research practice including roles as an industry analyst, product and marketing director and a trade association marketing executive,” says practice director Dan Shey. “Our clients will benefit from this broad experience as Jeff helps them in finding new opportunities, creating new market and product strategies, and managing the competitive environment in the dynamic and growing mobile content market.”

Prior to joining ABI Research Jeff had his own consulting and marketing service with a client list that included industry research firms, semiconductor and equipment manufacturers, publishers, and Fortune 100 media companies. He authored the “Mobile WiMAX Device Guide”, and as Senior Project Engineer for Corporate New Technology, provided expert market knowledge to The Walt Disney Company on emerging broadband wireless technology trends. He also produced a number of market research reports, and organized trade events for Yankee Group and CMP Media.

Previously, Jeff was actively involved in the formation and strategy of WiMAX Forum, holding volunteer director and board member roles in addition to becoming the trade group’s first employee and serving as the Director of Marketing. Earlier posts included that of Director, Worldwide Product Marketing at Proxim Wireless Corporation and Product Line Manager at Diamond Multimedia Systems.

Jeff has also served as the Editor for Mobile Broadband News, and has been widely published in industry journals including WiMax.com, Light Reading, Reuters, Computer Shopper and FierceTelecom. An accomplished speaker, Jeff has moderated events and presented on panels at high-visibility events including Broadband Wireless World, CTIA, IEEE WCNC Conference, Intel Developers Forum, MacWorld, NCTA IOC Wireless and WiMAX World.

He studied Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and has completed a number of certifications in technical, marketing, and management subjects.

He is based near Sacramento, California.

ABI Research is a leading market research firm focused on the impact of emerging technologies on global consumer and business markets. Utilizing a unique blend of market intelligence, primary research, and expert assessment from its worldwide team of industry analysts, ABI Research assists hundreds of clients each year with their strategic growth initiatives. For information, visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.

Mr. Dyer has more than 25 years of experience in the newspaper and online news industry. Mr. Dyer was a classified executive for several media companies, including Gannett Co. Inc., E.W. Scripps Co., and the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. He was a key player in the launch of AutoTrader.com, serving as Regional Sales Director, Advertising Operations Director and General Manager of Non Contract Classified Verticals during his tenure. Most recently, Mr. Dyer was the Eastern Region Vice President of Sales for Digital Media Communications Inc., where he was responsible for the launch of more than 80 video advertising programs across the United States. He also served as an automotive industry consultant for the Company.

“Jim knows the classified newspaper and online advertising market inside and out. He is the ideal person to help leverage the strength of the Sun-Times News Group and navigate this challenging market, and help our advertisers better benefit from the Sun-Times News Group footprint in the Chicago area and Northwest Indiana,” said Barbara Swanson, Group Vice President of Advertising and Marketing of the Sun-Times News Group.

In his new role, Mr. Dyer will lead the classified advertising sales strategy for the Sun-Times News Group Classified Advertising Department, which includes automotive, homebuilder and recruitment advertising and the Company’s newly forming customer contact center.

About Sun-Times Media Group

Sun-Times Media Group is dedicated to being the premier source of local news and information for the greater Chicago area. The Sun-Times News Group is the primary operating subsidiary of Sun-Times Media Group. Its media properties include the Chicago Sun-Times and Suntimes.com as well as newspapers and Web sites serving more than 200 communities across Chicago. Further information can be found at www.thesuntimesgroup.com.

NEW YORK – The New York Times announced that it has begun offering ad placements on its front page below the fold. CBS was the first to appear.

“This high impact placement represents an exciting new opportunity for our advertisers to reach our educated, affluent and influential readers across the country,” said Denise Warren, senior vice president and chief advertising officer for The New York Times Media Group. “In 2006 we began testing ads on some section fronts and received a very positive response from the advertising community. A strip ad on the front page of The New York Times will be highly attractive to advertisers looking for premium real estate for their campaigns.”

“With a weekday readership of 2.8 million and a Sunday readership of 4.2 million*, The New York Times is the largest seven-day newspaper in the United States,” added Ms. Warren.

“It’s exciting that CBS is kicking off The New York Times’s inaugural front page ad,” said George Schweitzer, president, CBS Marketing Group. “America’s most watched network will clearly have one of the most read ads – and we value this new means of prominently showcasing our valuable media properties.”

Another publication of The New York Times Media Group, The International Herald Tribune, also offers front-page advertising placements. To place a front-page ad in either publication, please contact: Alexis Buryk, 212-556-4104, alexb@nytimes.com.

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2007 revenues of $3.2 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 16 other daily newspapers, WQXR-FM and more than 50 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The Company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

CBS Corporation is a mass media company with constituent parts that reach back to the beginnings of the broadcast industry, as well as newer businesses that operate on the leading edge of the media industry. The Company, through its many and varied operations, combines broad reach with well-positioned local businesses, all of which provide it with an extensive distribution network by which it serves audiences and advertisers in all 50 states and key international markets. It has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and The CW – a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), cable television (Showtime Networks and CBS College Sports Network), local television (CBS Television Stations), television production and syndication (CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on out-of-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), interactive media (CBS Interactive), music (CBS Records), licensing and merchandising (CBS Consumer Products), video/DVD (CBS Home Entertainment), in-store media (CBS Outernet) and motion pictures (CBS Films). For more information, log on to www.cbscorporation.com.

*Source: MRI Fall 2008

NEW YORK & TOKYO – 24/7 Real Media, Inc. (“24/7”), the leading digital marketing company, and cyber communications, inc. (“cci”) (4788.T), Japan’s leading media representative company, announced the merger of their subsidiaries DENTSU e-LINK, INC. and K.K. 24-7 Search to form Dentsu Search & Link. Japan’s largest advertising agency Dentsu Inc. (“Dentsu”), currently a shareholder in both subsidiaries, shall remain a shareholder of the newly merged company. Dentsu Search & Link will deliver a full spectrum of search engine marketing (“SEM”) services to the Japanese market. Financial terms were not disclosed.

cci and Dentsu will contribute their extensive Japanese marketing industry knowledge and connections to the venture, and consign to the venture SEM services provided to their clients. 24/7 will license its industry-leading Decide DNA® technology and provide its search engine marketing expertise to Dentsu Search & Link. Takeshi Matsuoka, currently Director and President of KK 24-7 Search, will serve as President and CEO of Dentsu Search & Link.

The merger of DENTSU e-LINK INC. and K.K. 24-7 Search is designed to create a best of breed search engine marketing services’ company in Japan. Dentsu Search & Link will leverage cci’s considerable industry relationships and broad media representative experience in combination with 24/7 Real Media’s industry-leading proprietary search management technology, Decide DNA.

“cci has acquired experience in the SEM field through our subsidiary DENTSU E-LINK. The newly merged company shall play a key role in the SEM field in the Dentsu Group. Dentsu Search & Link shall become a robust and optimum company combined with Dentsu Group’s sales force and experience in the Japanese market and 24/7 Real Media’s most advanced technology,” said Hideyuki Nagasawa, President and CEO of cci. “I am confident that Dentsu Search & Link shall lead the continuously growing new market with high competitiveness.”

“24/7 Real Media looks forward to building a strong relationship with Japan’s leading media representative company cci. cci has embraced digital marketing through its subsidiary DENTSU e-LINK and will continue to lead the Japanese SEM marketplace through its new partnership with 24/7 Real Media. Dentsu Group clients have benefited from cci’s and Dentsu’s progressive view of utilizing technology to provide clients with a competitive advantage,” said David J. Moore, Chairman and Founder of 24/7. “We are confident that the enhanced partnership between cci, Dentsu and 24/7 Real Media will provide even more benefits to cci’s and Dentsu’s clients and help expand 24/7’s technology presence in Japan.”

According to eMarketer*, the Japanese paid search market is on pace to reach approximately 226.5 Billion Yen by 2011. Japan has the second highest number of Internet users after China, and the highest number of broadband Internet users in the Pacific Rim, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Media Outlook 2007.

As the majority owner of Dentsu Search & Link, cci will report consolidated financial results including Dentsu Search & Link. Additional details will be provided during cci’s fourth quarter earnings call in 2009.

*Source: eMarketer; Dentsu, as cited in press release, April 16, 2007

About cyber communications, inc.

cci was established in 1996 in the early period of online advertising market in Japan and has led the market growth as a subsidiary of Dentsu Inc. cci has established the business model whereby, as a media representative, it makes connections between thousands of online media and advertising agencies in Japan. cci describes itself as a total interactive, one-stop marketing service company that provides various services regarding internet advertising such as media planning, ad serving technology, ad creative service and market analysis. For more information, please visit http://www.cci.co.jp/english/.

About 24/7 Real Media, Inc.

24/7 Real Media, Inc. a WPP company, the leading global digital marketing company, empowers advertisers and publishers to engage their target audiences with greater precision, transparency and ROI. Using its award winning ad serving, targeting, tracking and analytics platform, together with its powerful search marketing technology and global network of specialized Web sites, the company has turned the art of reaching audiences across virtually any digital medium into a measurable science. The company is headquartered in New York, with 18 offices in 12 countries throughout North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, please visit www.247realmedia.com.

24/7 Real Media: The Science of Digital Marketing.

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

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.

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – With newspaper companies nationwide launching innovative ways to increase revenue and create new value, Gumiyo, the nation’s leading mobile marketing and technology provider, announced a venture with the Los Angeles Times (www.latimes.com) offering the latest online and mobile technology marketing solutions. The mobile marketing initiative connects consumers with The Times classified print and online automotive (www.latimes.com/cars) and real estate (www.latimes.com/homes) advertising.

The new service lets in-market car shoppers and home buyers use simple text messages and the Mobile Web to access detailed advertiser listings, photos, and videos and view them on almost any modern mobile handset. As an added benefit, the platform also enables car shoppers to access complete, on-demand CARFAX® Vehicle History Reports™.

“This mobile marketing initiative gives consumers a fast and easy way to shop,” said Eric Larson, president of Gumiyo. “It turns traditional classified advertising into truly interactive media by giving consumers a way to directly engage The Times’ dealers, agents, or brokers listings anytime, while also allowing advertisers to reach thousands of busy, motivated buyers.”

The Los Angeles Times and latimes.com reach over 40 percent (1.3 million) of households in its designated marketing area (DMA). latimes.com, and its Internet marketing partner Cars.com, receive more than 3 million unique visitors each month looking to purchase a new or used car.

“With this initiative, we can now offer infinite space for a rich-media, interactive user experience that can be uniquely combined with The Times local, time-sensitive ads,” says Ken Nail, Director of Automotive Advertising for the Los Angeles Times. “Put simply, readers can get the best of both the print and interactive worlds and we see this as a great way of extending our advertisers’ reach to consumers on the go.”

The Los Angeles Times mobile marketing initiative is powered by Gumiyo’s Mobile Ready platform, a turnkey mobile marketing solution that integrates with traditional and online advertising to increase response rates and ROI. Simple text-able keywords, unique to each dealership, agent or brokerage, are incorporated into the auto retailer or broker’s print advertisements, classified and online listings. Consumers use the keywords to quickly and easily send text messages to receive additional vehicle or property information. The system automatically replies to the buyer with a text message that includes basic information and a link to the advertiser’s rich-media Mobile web site.

“Our mobile initiative gives homebuyers instant access to details on homes they are interested in buying, keeping them engaged and stimulating fast leads for the listing agent,” stated Leslie Lindemann Director of Real Estate for the Los Angeles Times. “The Times news coverage and advertising is the first place many homebuyers turn to in their search for a home, and working with Gumiyo greatly enhances that experience for both buyers and sellers.”

Dealers and real estate agents can subscribe to the mobile marketing service for one low monthly fee that includes unique keywords, custom outgoing text messages and a branded mobile Web site. Mobile web pages for properties and vehicles are generated automatically from existing inventory data that include complete descriptions, photos, videos, vehicle and home reviews and CARFAX reports (automotive only). Advertisers can also build custom mobile campaigns for various aspects of their businesses including service specials or open house events. Dealerships and brokers that sign up for the new program can become “mobile ready” and begin driving new business in less than a week.

About the Los Angeles Times

The Pulitzer-prize winning Los Angeles Times (http://latimes.com) is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country with a daily readership of 2 million and 3 million on Sunday. The Times has been covering Southern California for 127 years and reaches a combined print and interactive local weekly audience of 4.5 million. The fast-growing latimes.com now draws 10 million unique visitors monthly.

The Los Angeles Times Media Group portfolio of products also includes LA, Los Angeles Times Magazine; The Envelope (http://theenvelope.com); Metromix (http://losangeles.metromix.com); Times Community Newspapers; Hoy (http://hoyinternet.com) and California Community News, with an overall reach of approximately 5.3 million or 40% of all adults in the Southern California marketplace. It is part of Tribune Company, one of the country’s leading media companies with businesses in publishing, the Internet and broadcasting. Additional information is available at http://latimes.com/mediacenter.

About Gumiyo (www.gumiyo.com)

Gumiyo connects small and medium-sized businesses with consumers in the mobile space and facilitates their real-time conversation. By seamlessly integrating a mobile presence into an overall marketing and merchandising strategy through SMS, MMS, and the Mobile Web; partners and advertisers can dramatically increase the number of interactive touchpoints with their customers anytime and from anywhere. As one of the earliest entrants in the field of mobile classifieds, mobile merchandising, and mobile marketing solutions; Gumiyo has built a reputation for expertise in mobile-based programming and content development.

The Gumiyo Mobile Ready Platform takes advantage of the unique capabilities of today’s mobile handsets with an eye toward future innovations in the industry. Comprised of a flexible suite of tools, the Gumiyo Mobile Ready Platform is a turnkey solution enabling nearly any business to launch a mobile presence, merchandise inventory and listings to mobile phones, and run mobile marketing campaigns.

As a private label solution, the Gumiyo platform powers a number of offerings in the retail automotive, real estate, and printed publications industries.

NEW YORK – Dynamic Logic, a Millward Brown company, announces the most effective online U.S. brand advertising campaigns for the second year. The top campaigns overall were compared to U.S. campaigns that were measured by Dynamic Logic last year. Campaigns are listed in alphabetical order by brand:

Brand Advertised: Kenmore Pro
Parent Company: Sears
Research Commissioned by: NBC Universal/Bravo.com

Brand Advertised: Olay Regenerist
Parent Company: Procter & Gamble
Media Agency: MediaVest
Research Commissioned by: Wild Tangent

Brand Advertised: PLAYSKOOL
Parent Company: Hasbro, Inc.
Media Agency: Beyond Interaction
Research Commissioned by: MTV Networks/NickJr.com

Brand Advertised: Samsung Bordeaux LCD TV
Parent Company: Samsung
Research Commissioned by: Yahoo!

Also among the top 10 campaigns, but not shown here, were campaigns produced by GSD&M Idea City and Publicis Modem.

Note: The criteria for inclusion were campaigns measured by Dynamic Logic in 2007 with the highest Online Ad Awareness scores, which were characterized by statistically significant increases at 90% or above. Additionally, the top-ranked campaigns performed in the top 20th percentile compared to other online campaigns within their industry category in either Brand Favorability or Purchase Intent, the two persuasion metrics measured for each campaign.

“It’s an honor to be included with this group of respected brands who are creating successful online brand advertising campaigns,” said Dan Hamilton, Olay Brand Manager, Procter & Gamble. “The power of online is really starting to shine through — these campaigns help to identify and illustrate some guidelines that other marketers may be able to learn from and apply.”

The top campaigns represented several brand verticals, mostly in the CPG & Technology categories. Similar to the top campaigns in last year’s ranking, many of the most noticed campaigns this year utilized some form of video. “We are often asked about what is working best with online video — optimal video length, re-purposed TV ads versus original content created for viewing on the Web, and in-page versus in-stream,” said Ken Mallon, senior vice president of custom solutions, Dynamic Logic. “What we know so far is that the creative concept is more important than tactical elements and the best answer depends on the product, audience and other factors. Thus, it’s important for these variables to be tested in-market.”

Media usage was another key factor in the success of the best campaigns. They were extremely effective at reaching their target audience and communicating with them at the right time by placing media on contextually relevant sites. Other ads ran in areas where site visitors spend a lot of time engaged on the page such as surrounding an online game, as seen in the Olay Regenerist campaign.

“It’s evident that one creative execution may not appeal to everyone. As marketers are leveraging different media channels to reach their target audience, they are also using a combination of online creative formats to convey their message,” said Mallon. “Many of these top campaigns achieved success by combining engaging and interactive creative executions with relevant media placement.”

Each quarter, Dynamic Logic uploads hundreds of AdIndex® studies, which measure online advertising impact, into their MarketNorms® database, an online planning and benchmarking tool. Using MarketNorms, Dynamic Logic identified the most effective online campaigns in terms of online brand performance as compared to all measured U.S. studies last year. The best campaigns were among the most noticed, with their Online Ad Awareness scores ranging from 12-38 percentage-point increases after exposure to online advertising. The ads were also highly persuasive, ranking in the top 20th percentile compared to other online campaigns within their industry category in either Brand Favorability or Purchase Intent.

To see creative examples of the best U.S. online ad campaigns, please visit:

http://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/research/topcampaigns.

About Dynamic Logic

Dynamic Logic is a leading research company with expertise in measuring marketing effectiveness. Dynamic Logic’s research includes: AdIndex® to test and analyze digital advertising campaigns including online, mobile, and gaming elements; CrossMedia ResearchTM to evaluate multimedia campaigns; MarketNorms®, a syndicated ad effectiveness planning and benchmarking database; and LinkSelect for Digital, an online copy-testing solution developed jointly with Millward Brown. Founded in 1999, the company is headquartered in New York City with offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Providence, London, Paris, Frankfurt and Hong Kong. Clients include leading marketers, advertising agencies and media companies. Dynamic Logic is a Millward Brown company, which is part of The Kantar Group, the information and consultancy arm of WPP. www.dynamiclogic.com

SAN FRANCISCO – 1020 Placecast, the first online advertising solution to target highly sought-after audiences using location-based information across the Web, mobile, Wi-Fi networks and email, announced interactive advertising trends to watch in 2009. Trends to watch include better metrics to understand effectiveness, increased concerns about user privacy and mainstream video adoption by online advertisers.

Looking back, 2008 marked a turning point in online advertising. Despite the slowing of growth in overall advertising spending, online has finally achieved its place at the table in mainstream media plans and continues to prove its value relative to traditional media. It was also a year for increased public scrutiny of industry practices as the medium achieves scale and prominence with advertisers.

“The year ahead will be difficult in many respects, but also very exciting,” said Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman. “We expect marketers who need to do more with less will put pressure on agencies, media providers, publishers and measurement firms to deliver more value. At the same time, tough market conditions always produce new ways of solving old problems. We see big opportunities for advertisers to find new ways to drive better performance for their campaigns.”

Six key trends identified in this release are:

1. The value of user data is questionable.

2009 will mark the year advertisers begin to look for alternatives to collecting and mining user data to improve the performance of campaigns. For several years, online marketers have attempted to incorporate increasingly large amounts of user data into the marketing equation with the goal of improving targeting and performance. Unfortunately, advertiser reviews of this approach are nearly universal: “anticipointed.” We now find ourselves in wave 2.0 of this effort in which firms are undertaking predictive modeling, attempting to analyze even more data in order to predict behaviors. However, these efforts will continue to disappoint and 2009 will mark the year advertisers begin to look for and incorporate new, non-user data sources for improving the performance of campaigns.

2. The Web will be connected to the physical world.

Until recently, the Web was built to ignore physical location. Several recent developments make clear that, beginning in 2009, location will drive the next wave of innovation on the Web. These announcements include: Geode for Firefox, a plug-in that allows the popular browser to determine and share the user’s location; Google’s releases of Android, Chrome and the Gears Location API, all of which incorporate location data; Fire Eagle from Yahoo! for location data management; more than 500 iPhone applications now using GPS location data as a critical component; and the news that Microsoft Windows 7 will include location data at the operating-system level for any application. All of these innovations and others still to come will bring location information into the mainstream Web-browsing experience, providing users with a way to connect their online experience to the real world.

For advertisers, this trend presages a host of new services launching in 2009 using location in various ways. Initial, simple applications from marketers will include couponing and advertising to users in proximity to potential offerings of interest (such as stores, cafés, restaurants, etc.). More advanced approaches will apply this new trove of location data to improve relevance, understand consumer intent and profile audiences. In the long term, we can expect location data to be incorporated into search algorithms as another way of increasing relevance, and also into performance marketing, where better relevance will drive significant improvements in performance.

3. Heightened privacy concerns plant the seed for regulation.

2008 will certainly go down as a year of turmoil for data mining models like NebuAd and Adzilla, and also as a year that brought small victories for privacy advocates. A new administration in Washington will bring new FTC regulators, and a climate that favors more standards and regulation. Despite the proactive efforts of industry organizations like the IAB and the NAI, 2009 will kick off a wave of new discussions about the collection and application of user data, with the balance of power shifting away from the advertising industry and towards the user.

President-Elect Barack Obama’s selection of Tom Wheeler, former head of major wireless organization CTIA, as a technology adviser also indicates we can expect to see a particular emphasis on mobile technology for the new administration.

4. View-through metrics gain traction in the downturn.

Down economies focus more attention and diligence on understanding the drivers of performance for online campaigns. 2009 will see more mainstream adoption of view-through as a complement to traditional metrics like click-through. View-through (also referred to as post-impression measurement) is a method for gauging the impact of an ad that a user sees but does not click on. It works by recording the exposure of a user to a specific display ad, then measures when that user returns to the advertiser’s site in a later session.

View-through gives marketers an ability to attribute value to the many impressions they deliver which do not immediately trigger an action. With average click-through rates on display ads dropping below 0.1% on average, marketers are recognizing that view-through provides a more complete understanding of how campaigns really drive traffic, and how impressions lift brand metrics such as awareness, favorability and intent.

5. The accessibility of display ad inventory will increase dramatically.

The combination of a downturn in the economy and continued automation of media planning and buying tools means that buyers will have easy access to display inventory in 2009. Even as broad networks consolidate or compress, exchanges are providing easy access for buyers to find reach and efficiency. The major players, including Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL, are capturing the largest share of available remnant inventory across their ad network offerings, and exchanges will continue to refine their operational and business models.

With the impressions themselves becoming ever more liquid and accessible through networks and exchanges, inventory value will be driven by services and technology. Next generation targeting approaches, which go beyond content and behavioral methods, will capture the attention of the buying community. Improved efficiency and valuable insights from reporting will give buyers the ability to focus media purchases even more efficiently over time.

6. Online video consumption will continue to grow.

In 2009, we will see significant increases in the online distribution and consumption of professionally-produced video content. This top tier video content will garner a majority of the video advertising spend. CPMs may contract slightly with broader distribution as audiences expect to find the content where they spend their time online. But with consumers in control and watching more video online, overall CPMs will remain quite healthy for video advertising in top content.

Several factors are fueling this trend: first, major advertisers are now thinking about online video at the creative stage and producing purpose-built material for the Web when they develop creative for TV. Secondly, production costs are also coming down, and we are beginning to see critical mass around a standard set of technologies and tools. Lastly, as more dollars migrate away from TV advertising because of the high cost, online video will become the beneficiary as it creates a similar immersive customer experience with TV and Hollywood appeal. Sites like Hulu provide TV-oriented brand advertisers with a captive audience – an example of why video will become a mainstream part of brand marketer advertising budgets in 2009.

About 1020 Placecast, Inc.

1020, Inc. is the developer and owner of Placecast™ Media, the first online advertising solution to target highly sought-after audiences using location-based information across the Web, mobile, and Wi-Fi. 1020’s groundbreaking Placecast service recently earned the company the “OnMedia Top 100” Award, given to game-changing companies in the marketing, branding, advertising, and PR industries. Current advertisers include Microsoft Windows Mobile, FedEx Kinko’s, Avis and Budget Rental Cars and Hyatt Hotels. 1020 is funded by Voyager Capital and Onset Ventures. For more information about Placecast, visit www.placecast.net.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release of Lead Quality Accountability Best Practices, a document designed to create marketplace transparency by improving communication between agencies and publishers in the lead generation industry.

The recommendations outlined in the document address two main areas:

1. Best practices for advertiser sharing of invalid leads with publishers to improve the process of accounting for leads.

2. Communication methodology for advertiser sharing of converted leads with publishers to improve advertiser conversions and ROI.

Twenty leading online lead generation companies came together to develop the document, representing companies across nine major verticals, including automotive, insurance, education, pharmaceutical, continuity clubs, financial services, retail, and CPG.

According to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for 2007, lead generation accounted for $1.6 billion of the total of $21.2 billion total of interactive advertising spend that year. First half figures for 2008 show that lead generation represented 7 per cent or $806 million of overall interactive advertising spend.

Among the key best practices, the document highlights:

* Publishers and advertisers should establish the definition of a valid and invalid lead at the onset of a lead generation campaign.
* Advertisers should return invalid leads to publishers in real-time or a time frame agreed upon up front with detailed reasons.
* Publishers should use returned invalid lead data to optimize traffic, improve creative, and refine targeting.

“These best practices provide a clear and concise roadmap for agencies and publishers to further enhance marketers’ ability to refine and target their best customers— the crux of successful lead generation campaigns,” said Sherrill Mane, senior vice president, Industry Services of the IAB. “Transparency, accountability and good communication between agencies and publishers will allow this platform to continue to flourish.”

“Data sharing between advertisers and publishers is vital to achieving high quality leads and optimizing an online lead generation program, which is especially important in these difficult economic times,” said Gayle Guzzardo, chairperson of the IAB Lead Generation Committee and senior vice president of product management at Q Interactive. “The IAB’s Lead Quality Accountability Best Practices is an indispensable guide for understanding, implementing and benefiting from data sharing for all parties involved.”

To view the best practices please go to www.iab.net/leadquality

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today announced the release for public comment of Audience Reach Measurement Guidelines, a major industry-wide initiative that provides clear, consistent definitions of metrics and sets standards for how to measure unique audience across different methodologies. The guidelines were released at the IAB’s annual Leadership Forum on Audience Measurement in New York City, where leaders of media companies, measurement companies and advertising agencies convened to gain insights on the evolution of audience measurement and where sessions will be devoted to a detailed review of the proposed guidelines.

“These guidelines represent an industry wide endorsement of clarity and transparency of methodologies and metrics, particularly around reach, a core metric used throughout the media world,” said Sherrill Mane, senior vice president, Industry Services of the IAB. “The driving force for marketers’ ongoing embrace of interactive media is the accountability that interactive provides and these guidelines will enhance that clarity and certainty.”

The gathering, reporting, and measurement of audience metrics has a material impact on interactive media buying decisions. Transparency into these methodologies and clear definitions of commonly used terms are critical to the ongoing growth of interactive media as marketers continue to allocate a larger portion of their budget to the platform.

The guidelines will address these key areas of audience measurement:

* Provide definitions of key industry metrics such as unique users, unique cookies, unique browsers, visits and time spent.
* Establish a framework for all measurement providers to have their methodologies audited, providing greater certainty for the industry.
* Foster greater accuracy and reliability of all forms of online audience measurement, whether based on server data, online panels or user registration.

“Audience size and composition are vital to planning interactive advertising campaigns,” said Lynn Gutstadt, Director of Corporate Research, CBS Interactive and a member of the IAB’s Audience Measurement Working Group. “Adoption of these guidelines by the interactive industry will give marketers, agencies and other stakeholders in the digital ecosystem greater certainty in the measurement of our audience.”

“Ongoing Media Rating Council (MRC) audits of several of the syndicated measurement companies represent a commendable step toward accountability,” said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of the MRC. “The completion of the IAB Audience Reach Measurement Guidelines paves the way for other measurement organizations, for example census measurers such as sites, ad-servers or analytics organizations, to have rigorous consistent guidelines to help ensure consistent measurements of unique cookies, devices or in certain circumstances even users.”

Members of the industry (advertising agencies, advertisers, online publishers and technology vendors) are encouraged to read the proposed guidelines and submit comments on the IAB site at www.iab.net/audiencemeasurement. After the comment period closes on January 20, 2009, the feedback will be reviewed and the guidelines will be finalized and released.

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

Denver, Colorado and San Mateo, California (PRWEB) December 17, 2008 – Examiner.com, operator of a network of 60 geographically targeted local insider information websites today announced a white-label licensing agreement with Jivox, the online video advertising service that helps small and medium-sized businesses reach local customers. Examiner.com will offer a co-branded version of the Jivox online video ad service to its advertisers and market the service across its local information sites. The agreement expands the already existing relationship between Jivox and Examiner.com. The local site network is already part of the Jivox Publisher Network. As a result of the reseller agreement, Examiner.com customers will now have the option to run their video ads on Examiner.com sites or the entire Jivox Publisher Network. Jivox will manage the customer service, reporting and web distribution on the Jivox Publisher Network for Examiner.com advertisers.

“Online video advertising is exploding, and the types of advertisers that come to Examiner.com can benefit greatly from affordable and easy-to-use solutions like Jivox,” said Michael Sherrod, CEO of Examiner.com. “Jivox has shown that online video advertising can be very effective for local businesses, and we’re confident our local focus on unique and original local information, contributed by local informed insiders called Examiners and our partnership with Jivox will create new high-engagement, locally focused opportunities for our advertisers.”

Jivox provides advertisers with an online, self-service tool to create high-impact video ads using stock footage, images, music, existing video footage or custom video shoots. Jivox ensures high-quality placement of customer ads through the Jivox Publisher Network, the industry’s only locally focused network of premium publishers that includes over 600 local TV, radio and newspaper websites across the country and reaches more than 60 million unique visitors. The Jivox service also provides geographic ad targeting, contextual and demographic targeting.

“We are pleased to expand our relationship with Examiner.com. As media companies look for new products and services to offer to their advertisers, leading publishers such as Examiner.com are seeing great potential in online video advertising,” said Diaz Nesamoney, founder and CEO of Jivox. “Examiner.com shares our commitment to delivering results for advertisers by taking advantage of the latest technology, and their selection of Jivox as a partner is a win for all advertisers.”

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.

SAN DIEGO – Verve Wireless, the leading provider of mobile publishing technologies to local media companies, today announced that the Chicago Sun-Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Time Out Chicago, Time Out New York and Metro International have partnered with Verve, joining the family of over 140 local media properties including eight of the largest media properties in the U.S. Verve’s local mobile network now covers the top 200 designated market areas across America. Additionally, Verve launched a new mobile couponing application for publishers that utilizes location based technologies, LBS.

Verve is a wireless technology developer that provides applications and services to local media companies and publishers. Using Verve’s proprietary publishing and mobile advertising system, these local content partners can extend their communities and readership onto mobile phones as well as utilize their local ad sales teams’ knowledge and existing relationships with local businesses to offer mobile ad solutions. National brand advertisers can leverage Verve’s ad platform to target mobile consumers based on a variety of targeting parameters ranging from regional down to a hyper-local neighborhood level.

The new mobile couponing application enables local publishers to offer their advertisers another way to reach customers. The application is based off the success of Verve’s SMS push alerts, but incorporates new functionality as well as advance targeting features that use location based technologies. Advertisers can send out coupons based on a variety of options, including time of day, neighborhood radius, user’s present location, and context, among others. And just like a print coupon, users will be able to redeem the coupon at the place of business.

“We have community businesses that have been advertising with us for years, and they are always looking for ways to drive customers into their place of business. They are embracing mobile advertising because it compliments their other advertising efforts, it can be measured and it is comparable to other marketing methods that they are familiar with,” said Tim Repsher, managing director of mobile product & business development for Media General. “They see how a mobile coupon campaign delivered at a precise time, to a specific area and audience generates real store traffic.”

Unlike other mediums, such as print and desktop online access, mobile can leverage a person’s location and the “always-with-you” nature of a mobile phone to provide frequent, consistent and immediate access to news and information. New data from Verve shows users are accessing news from the network consistently throughout the day beginning at 7 a.m. and growing steadily until 10 p.m. Users are accessing news just as much, if not slightly more, during the weekend than any given day of the week.

“Each day people look to any one of the tens of thousands of local media organizations for news, updates and guidance in local affairs,” said Art Howe, chief executive officer of Verve Wireless. “For these local publishers the mobile medium offers an insurmountable opportunity for brand expansion coupled with a new lucrative advertising revenue stream.”

Other Verve Wireless milestones:

* To date, traffic on over 1,000 local mobile sites managed by Verve Wireless is growing at a rate of more than 375% per month.
* Verve Wireless’ network has 1 million average daily page views
* Verve has served over 1.5 million local mobile ads

About Verve Wireless

Based in Encinitas, CA; Verve Wireless, Inc., and their proprietary Verve Local Content Gateway(TM) 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, radio, and local broadcast stations. For more information visit http://www.vervewireless.com.

Created to reach the technology decision makers at mid- and large-size companies worldwide, “The Right Tools. The Right Team.” campaign demonstrates that Microsoft Online Services deliver streamlined communications, simplified management, and business-class security and reliability “right from the start.” Hydrogen conveys this message through a spectrum of Formula One-themed marketing tools and templates, including product data sheets, employee posters, direct mail pieces, online banner ads, a microsite and an HTML email. The campaign is also multi-lingual, translated for French-, German-, Spanish- and Japanese-speaking channel partners and customers.

“The business world, like Formula One racing, is ultra competitive,” said Tom Scherer, vice president and executive creative director, Hydrogen Advertising. “Every second counts and senior IT professionals need a high-performance team, like the MOS team, behind them to give them a winning edge.”

About Microsoft Online Services

The Microsoft Online Services is a set of hosted messaging and collaboration solutions including Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and Microsoft Office Communications Online. These online services are designed to offer businesses streamlined communication with high availability, comprehensive security, and simplified IT management. When a company subscribes to one or more of the services, it connects to the rich interactivity of on-premises client and server applications with the flexibility and scalability of Web-based services. Because Microsoft hosts the services, it reduces a company’s need to maintain IT services on site. Many organizations today are moving to this “software-plus-services” model, because it decreases the need to manage hardware and software.

About Hydrogen Advertising

Founded in 2001 by a group of Seattle’s most seasoned advertising and marketing veterans, Hydrogen Advertising provides a full suite of marketing services – Web marketing, non-traditional, broadcast, print, media planning, PR, DM, campaign measurement, strategic planning – to West Coast companies. The agency’s forte is creating integrated marketing programs that deliver specific outcomes. Among the agency’s clients are CRH Medical Corporation, Precor, Kenworth Truck Company, ÁegisLiving, eBay and Microsoft. www.hydrogenadvertising.com

NEW YORK – AOL’s Platform-A announced the launch of a holiday-themed branding program for Schick Wilkinson-Sword that will integrate into Lemondrop.com, AOL’s new lifestyle destination for women aged 18-34. Lemondrop, http://www.lemondrop.com, is an irreverent, conversational website with content ranging from pop culture to politics. Launched in September, the site attracted nearly 2.6 million unique visitors in October, according to comScore Media Metrix. Lemondrop.com is part of AOL Living, http://living.aol.com, one of the top three women’s sites with more than 16.4 million monthly unique visitors and 477 million monthly page views. The site is one of more than 20 launches over the past year that build upon AOL’s broad publishing initiative to create experiences targeted at specific audiences.

During the one-month “Stocking Stuffers” campaign, Lemondrop.com editors will create original content that integrates Schick’s brand with posts such as “Best & Worst Guy Gifts,” “Dating Survival Tips During the Holidays” and “Genius Gifts from the Drugstore.” In keeping with Lemondrop’s editorial format, the content will refresh regularly and will include interactive, viral and blog-like elements to appeal to the site’s highly engaged audience. The program launched on November 25 and will run through December 26, 2008.

“This is a perfect example of how Platform-A and AOL can leverage highly valuable editorial environments to help deliver key brand messages to targeted audiences. We’re creating a unique platform for Schick that lets them reach a desirable and engaged audience,” says Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “Along with AOL’s leading media properties, Platform-A brings unmatched strengths to the market – our ability to offer brand advertising at scale, performance advertising across multiple media and precisely targeted campaigns at scale. And we’re delighted to have the opportunity to work with a great company like Schick to help them deliver their brand message.”

“This highly tailored campaign will let Schick engage with one of their key demographic groups at a time when they are making gift buying choices,” said Kristin France, Associate Media Director for Mediaedge:cia, Schick’s media agency of record. “By working with Schick to weave their messages into the increasingly popular Lemondrop.com site, Platform-A is helping them reach the right audience at the right time with an effective and engaging message.”

Since Lemondrop launched in September, advertisers such as Kohl’s, JCPenney, and Braun have also developed customized integrated sponsorships.

Over the past two years, AOL has rebuilt all its key branded programming channels and launched over two dozen specialty sites to appeal directly to an increasingly fragmented online audience. As a result, AOL has seen steady growth in its audience and engagement. Unique visitors to AOL’s programming content sites grew 7% year-over-year to 54.3 million, according to the October 2008 comScore Media Metrix Report, and page views more than doubled, up 101% year-over-year to 4.2 billion, while engagement (total minutes) grew 51% year-over-year. In October, total minutes also reached an all-time high on AOL.com, http://aol.com, growing 27% year-over-year as the site opened up many of its features to third-party content providers. In addition, many of AOL’s sites rank No. 1 in their categories, including Asylum, http://asylum.com, Black Voices, http://blackvoices.com, Music, http://music.aol.com, StyleList, http://stylelist.com, and Television, http://television.aol.com.

To date, Platform-A has fully integrated its sales forces and developed one insertion order and other processes to streamline ad buying. In addition, Platform-A has accelerated its product development efforts with recent launches including Spot Marketplace, enabling advertisers to bid on non-reserved inventory across AOL’s Web sites; PubAccess, a self-service interface enabling Web sites to place their inventory for sale in Platform-A’s third party display network; audience targeting across Platform-A; and the creation of a 300 x 600 ad unit across AOL’s homepages and co-branded sites.

About Platform-A

Platform-A, AOL’s advertising business, is the industry’s largest digital advertising platform, offering the most comprehensive suite of marketing solutions, powered by the Web’s best advertising technologies. Platform-A includes AOL’s leading media properties – AOL.com, AIM, MapQuest, and more – and Advertising.com’s third-party networks. Platform-A also includes TACODA’s audience insights and behavioral targeting; Quigo, a site- and content-targeting solution; ADTECH, an international digital ad serving business; Third Screen Media, a mobile ad serving network; and buy.at, an affiliate marketing solution. Platform-A currently has operations in the United States, nine countries across Europe, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK, and in Japan through a joint venture with Mitsui. Learn more at http://www.platform-a.com.

About Mediaedge:cia

Mediaedge:cia (MEC) gets consumers actively engaged with clients’ brands, leading to positive awareness, deeper relationships and stronger sales. Our services include brand and consumer insight and ROI, communications planning, media planning and buying, interaction (digital, direct, search), sport, entertainment and cause partnerships, retail consultancy and Hispanic marketing. Our 4,500 highly talented and motivated people work with local, regional and global clients from our 250 offices in 84 countries. We are a founding partner of GroupM, WPP’s media investment management group. To find out more go to: www.mecglobal.com.

Epic Advertising continues to hold a strong presence in the Bay Area, with no staff reductions or changes to the current employee base associated with this announcement.

About Epic Advertising: Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending technologies, and the over 38,000 publishers in AzoogleAds, its highly-acclaimed performance ad network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, search engine marketing, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reaction.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent Display and Search consumer web traffic. Epic scales its solutions through enormous internet reach, proprietary and patent-pending technology and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus) and a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco, Toronto and London. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., December 8, 2008-Brightcove Inc. today announced the formation of the Brightcove Alliance, a global ecosystem of leading technology and distribution partners who have integrated with the Brightcove online video platform, as well as solution providers building customer websites and video applications using Brightcove. Through the Brightcove Alliance, organizations worldwide have access to a broad range of expert partners, pre-integrated technologies and services to support online video initiatives of any size and scope in every market.

“Video is pervasive on the Web and website producers and operators are faced with an increasingly complex set of requirements and challenges to operate successful online video initiatives,” said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. “Our fast-growing network of Brightcove Alliance partners extends the possibilities of online video for organizations regardless of their size or market. The Brightcove Alliance helps our customers grow their businesses and expand the role of online video on the Web, while empowering our partners to create new innovations in online video.”

Brightcove has attracted a wide range of partners that wish to provide solutions to the hundreds of major media companies and marketers that publish their video through the Brightcove platform. With the launch of Brightcove 3 in October 2008, the company released a rich set of open APIs that partners can use to integrate with and build solutions on top of the Brightcove platform.

The Brightcove Alliance launches with more than 90 partners, spanning a variety of online video needs, including creative and interactive design, advertising networks and server technologies, delivery and distribution, analytics and audience measurement, social media and community building. Through the Alliance, partners have access to training, support, technology and co-marketing opportunities for reaching the Brightcove customer base.

In early 2009, Brightcove will introduce training and certification programs for partners as well as channel reseller opportunities. For more information on the Brightcove Alliance partner program please visit http://www.brightcove.com/partners.

Alliance Partner Support

“Video is a central focus for any brand with a serious presence on the Web. The Brightcove Alliance enables us to easily bundle online video capabilities into our agency services and free up interactive resources to focus on creative execution instead of software development and maintenance.”
Rob Davis, leader of the interactive video practice at OgilvyInteractive

“24/7 Real Media’s Open AdStream seamlessly integrates with Brightcove, allowing our publishers to simply traffic video campaigns. Our clients benefit tremendously from our strong partnership with Brightcove by allowing them to monetize their video content in the most productive, efficient way. In working with Brightcove we are empowering media companies to operate a more successful online video business by pulling together all of the necessary pieces to the puzzle – a proven platform in Brightcove and a market leading ad serving technology in Open AdStream.”
Nicolle Pangis, vice president, product management, global media and technology, 24/7 Real Media

“Brightcove’s open platform and partner program provide exciting new opportunities to accelerate innovation and boost efficiencies for online video campaigns. We’re looking forward to having VivaKi become a part of the Brightcove Alliance and expanding the success we’ve already had with Brightcove at Denuo to other Publicis Groupe agencies.”
Tim Hanlon, executive vice president and managing director of Publicis Groupe’s VivaKi Ventures and advisor to Brightcove

“Nielsen’s VideoCensus provides deep online video measurement and independent accounting of key audience metrics that are critically important to any news or entertainment brand with an online advertising business. The integration of our measurement service with Brightcove’s platform will provide mutual customers with a turn-key opportunity to gauge audience size, demographics and other important indicators associated with their online video programming.”
Charley Shoemaker, director, product management, Nielsen Online

“Platform-A and ADTECH’s integration with Brightcove provides publishers with new ways to enhance productivity by streamlining their online video operations, which in turn helps to drive business growth. Platform-A’s goal is to be a one-stop shop for online advertising, so the Brightcove Alliance will help us to bring more features to media owners and more premium content to advertisers looking to deepen their engagement with audiences, both of which are crucial in today’s economic climate. For Brightcove publishers, ADTECH provides powerful ad serving solutions for the monetization of their video content.”
Dirk Freytag, CEO, ADTECH

Brightcove Platform Customer Support

“As part of our mission to satisfy curiosity across all platforms, Discovery has created a compelling online video experience supported by Brightcove technology. As we continue to expand and enhance our video offerings, we look forward to leveraging new opportunities and partnerships through the Brightcove Alliance.”
Kevin Loftis, senior vice president, interactive technology, Discovery Communications

“Brightcove has allowed FUEL TV to develop our online video offering in ways we could not have accomplished on our own and easily connect with third-party technologies to grow our online audience. We applaud its successes to date and look forward to future innovations to help us further build our online video product and advance our video distribution strategy.”
Gene Pao, FOXs FUEL TV vice president of new media and international development

“TheStreet.com has built a successful online video business with the Brightcove platform. Now, through Alliance partners like Metacafe and Clearspring, we can use the same platform to easily distribute video through a popular portal and across social networks. We’re excited about the possibilities offered by Brightcove’s network of partners and the opportunities to grow our business.”
Bill McCandless, general manager, multimedia, for TheStreet.com

“We continue to see value from the Brightcove platform in helping us build community and drive traffic not only to Channel Sun, but also to www.sun.com and other Sun Web properties. We’ve also been able to rapidly plug in commenting and rating features from best-of-breed technology providers like JS-Kit to further engage our online audience without having to build the features from scratch.”
Karen Galatis, senior director of integrated marketing, Sun Microsystems

“Tremor’s ad network and Acudeo platform adds value to our Brightcove online video operations, helping us maximize ad delivery opportunities. Our ability to leverage Brightcove’s network of partners like Tremor is crucial as we continue to expand our online video operations.”
David Katz, executive director, digital media, Starz Media

“Red Star 18′s use of the Brightcove platform has enabled us to seamlessly integrate streaming video into our entertainment, editorial and Web exclusive site sections. Our initial phase has been very successful in delivering video, and we look forward to further expanding the reach of our Brightcove-powered video by leveraging third party content partnerships and developing additional video channels.”
Paul FitzGerald, account director at Air Canada

Companies participating in Brightcove Alliance launch include:

Advertising and Monetization
24/7 Real Media
Ad Delivery Solutions
Adap.tv
ADTECH
Asterpix
BrightRoll
CheckM8
DoubleClick*
evenhere
Eyeblaster
FreeWheel
Google Adsense for Video
HIRO-Media
InSkin Media
JD Project
LiveRail
Panache
Platform-A
ScanScout
Smart AdServer
Smartclip
SpotRails
SpotXchange
Tremor Media
Utarget.FOX
YuMe

Distribution
AnySource Media
AOL Video
Bebo
Glam Media
Metacafe
Preview Networks
TubeMogul
Veoh Networks
Mobile
AtomiZ
Azuki Systems
Nellymoser
Transpera
vtap
Yospace

Reporting and Analytics
GlanceGuide
Nedstat
Nielsen Online
Omniture
Quantcast
Snoobi
TubeMogul
Visible Measures

Search and Discovery
Blinkx
Cooliris
EveryZing
Lingospot
Loomia
Taboola
Vibrant Media

Social Media
Automattic Inc.
Clearspring
Gigya
IntenseDebate
iWidgets
JS-Kit
Meebo
Pluck
Six Apart
Slide
Sprout
Viewer Experience
Audible Magic
dotSUB
Limelight Networks
PLYmedia
Quova

Solution Partners
Adjust Your Set
Best Before Media
Blonde
Cantos
Code and Theory
Cynergy
HubSales
IDINI Consulting Group
Maverick Television
Method
myvideorights.com
NBTV Studios
Oasis Technology Partners
OgilvyInteractive
Red Star 18
Schematic
Serranetga
Simply Media
Slamcore
StoryWorks Media
StudioNow
Thinkdigital
Twin Technologies
VivaKi
xif
* DoubleClick is a trademark of Google Inc.

About Brightcove
Brightcove is an online video platform. Media companies, businesses and organizations worldwide use Brightcove to publish and distribute video on the Web. Founded in 2004, Brightcove is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business with offices across North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.brightcove.com.

To Provide Brand Advertisers with Measurable Impact

Irvine, Calif. – December 3, 2008 – Specific Media, the world’s largest independent media platform, today unveiled new research that shows display advertising significantly lifts search activity. The study leverages 12 months of proprietary Specific Media Ad Effectiveness data backed by comScore, tracking more than 60+ Specific Media campaigns to draw averages demonstrating the direct correlation between display advertising and search. The benchmark study provides brand advertisers with unique, measurable insights into the effectiveness of their display advertising campaigns.

“Specific Media provides its brand advertisers with unique post-campaign reporting tools that show how their display campaigns impact search, site visitation and engagement,” said Chris Vanderhook, COO, Specific Media. “We’ve always known that display advertising significantly impacts consumer activity, now we provide brand advertisers with the tools and validation to verify and quantify that impact.”

The study demonstrates that consumers exposed to display advertising were more likely to search for brand terms (i.e. automotive manufacturer), and segment terms (i.e. vehicle class), than unexposed consumers. Segmented results include:

Display Advertising Lift on Search Activity

Advertiser Category Search (Brand & Segment)
Automotive 144%
CPG 22%
Health 260%
News & Media 144%
Personal Finance 206%
Property & Real Estate 125%
Retail 69%
Travel & Tourism 274%
Average Lift 155%

Averages based on comScore Ad Effectiveness data for Specific Media display advertising clients over 12-month period ending August 2008.

The study shows that display advertising has a direct impact on both paid and organic searches and clicks. “As advertisers look to control their media spend, measure impact and validate the effectiveness of their marketing efforts, strategies that lift organic traffic are invaluable,” said Vanderhook.

Through a suite of pre- and post-campaign reports, utilizing data from comScore and other leading industry sources, Specific Media is the only advertising network offering online advertisers a truly cumulative view of campaign effectiveness, delivering valuable best practices data for current and future media planning.

About Specific Media (www.specificmedia.com)

Specific Media is uniquely positioned as the world’s largest independent media platform, solving the reach and data problems facing today’s advertisers. Specific Media enables advertisers to target consumers throughout North America and Western Europe based on demographics, behaviors, geographic locations and the contextual relevance of websites visited. Specific Media’s Premium Network reaches more than 150 million US consumers and 225 million consumers globally each month. With a relentless focus on delivering measurable, predictable results in a brand-friendly environment, Specific Media is defining tomorrow’s marketing standards, today.

“Winning with Hispanic beer drinkers is critically important to the success of MillerCoors and that’s why we are ramping up our resources in Hispanic marketing,” Jackie Woodward, MillerCoors vice president of marketing services, said. “The Bromley team demonstrated a great understanding and passion for developing creative media touchpoints with Hispanic beer drinkers. The fact that the agency’s leadership with Hispanic consumers begins at the top, with Hispanic ownership, demonstrates the agency’s unique ability to deliver for our brands.”

Woodward noted that as MillerCoors new Hispanic media agency of record, Bromley, which is partly owned by Publicis Groupe, will plan and buy media focused against the Hispanic market in all media channels, excluding digital, across MillerCoors’ entire brand portfolio. Additionally, Bromley’s role as Hispanic creative agency for Coors Light remains unchanged. Joanne Davis Consulting and Media IQ assisted in the review.

Ernesto Bromley, president of Bromley Communications, said: “As part of MC media, with Draftfcb, Initiative and Kinetic, we look forward to helping MillerCoors increase its relevance to Hispanic consumers. We bring expertise, as well as a thirsty passion for winning in the beer business, and we look forward to a great partnership.”

For more information about MillerCoors, please visit www.millercoors.com.

About MillerCoors

Built on a foundation of great beer brands and more than 288 years of brewing heritage, MillerCoors continues the commitment of its founders to brew the highest quality beers. MillerCoors is the second largest beer company in America, capturing nearly 30 percent of U.S. beer sales. Led by two of the best-selling beers in the industry, MillerCoors has a broad portfolio of highly complementary brands across every major industry segment. Miller Lite is the great tasting beer that established the American light beer category in 1975, and Coors Light is the brand that introduced consumers to refreshment as cold as the Rockies. MillerCoors brews full-calorie beers Coors Banquet and Miller Genuine Draft; and economy brands Miller High Life and Keystone Light. The company also imports Peroni, Pilsner Urquell and Molson Canadian and offers innovative products such as Miller Chill and the Sparks line of caffeinated alcohol beverages. MillerCoors features craft brews from the Jacob Leinenkugel Company, Blue Moon Brewing Company and the Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company. MillerCoors operates eight major breweries in the U.S., as well as the Leinenkugel’s craft brewery in Chippewa Falls, WI and two microbreweries, the Leinenkugel’s 10th Street Brewery in Milwaukee and the Blue Moon Brewing Company at Coors Field in Denver. MillerCoors vision is to become the best beer company in America by driving profitable industry growth. MillerCoors insists on building its brands the right way through brewing quality, responsible marketing and environmental and community impact. MillerCoors is a joint venture of SABMiller plc and Molson Coors Brewing Company.

SAN FRANCISCO – As advertisers and publishers seek ways to improve performance to compensate for shrinking budgets, new technologies like location-based advertising provide a means of improving relevance and response rates. Today, leading real estate site, Trulia.com, and interactive media company, 1020 Placecast, have announced their partnership, using location information to target specific audiences for advertisers and deliver more relevant messages to them on Trulia.com.

Placecast adds a new dimension to audience targeting by using location information as the key to relevance. In Trulia’s case, the starting points are the real estate locations in which users express interest. Placecast’s proprietary targeting algorithms correlate these with dozens of other demographic, psychographic and geographic data points.

“Once we know the place a user is interested in, we can derive a lot of useful insights about what kind of consumer they are, and then serve them a very targeted ad,” said Alistair Goodman, CEO of Placecast.

For publishers in categories such as travel, events, tickets, real estate, weather, classifieds and career search, Placecast uses the location information already present on these sites to target audiences and customize messaging. Improved performance results in a dramatic increase in the value of ad inventory for advertisers, transforming remnant ad space into premium CPM real estate for publishers.

“Turning locations into audiences is one of the biggest challenges facing advertisers today,” said Sean Black, Vice President of Sales at Trulia. “Trulia presents advertisers with multiple opportunities to serve very targeted ads based on location and consumers’ search behavior. Placecast is a cutting edge media company and we are excited to be working with them and their clients to build and deliver successful campaigns.”

One of the first advertisers to take advantage of this approach with Placecast and Trulia is leading car rental brand, Avis-Budget. Approximately halfway through a three-month campaign, Avis has seen its ads on Trulia perform strongly relative to other publishers. The Avis-Budget campaign is just the first of many in the expanded partnership between Trulia and Placecast.

“Agencies and advertisers are really searching for ways to stretch their marketing dollars these days,” observed Goodman. “As an emerging technology capable of driving better performance, Placecast provides an ideal way to effectively target audiences and improve response rates by adding local relevance to national campaigns.”

About 1020 Placecast

1020, Inc. is the developer and owner of Placecast™ Media, the first online advertising network to target highly sought-after audiences using location-based information across the Web, mobile, and Wi-Fi. 1020’s groundbreaking Placecast service recently earned the company the “OnMedia Top 100” Award, given to game-changing companies in the marketing, branding, advertising, and PR industries. Current advertisers include Microsoft Windows Mobile, FedEx Kinko’s and Hyatt Hotels. 1020 is funded by Voyager Capital and Onset Ventures. For more information about Placecast, visit www.placecast.net.

About Trulia

Trulia, Inc. (www.trulia.com) is a residential real estate search engine and the fastest-growing U.S. real estate Web site (comScore), which has revolutionized online home search by offering a rich, intuitive user experience that points consumers directly to listings on agent and broker Web sites. By partnering with the real estate industry, including 93 of the top 100 largest U.S. brokers, Trulia helps approximately 5 million unique visitors per month find information on homes for sale using custom search criteria. The site also provides market trends and neighborhood data at the hyper-local level, as well as a real estate Q&A community that enables consumers and professionals to exchange information about their local markets. For more information about Trulia or to experience the power of a Trulia search, visit http://www.trulia.com/.

About Avis Budget Group

Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NYSE:CAR) is a leading provider of vehicle rental services, with operations in more than 70 countries. Through its Avis and Budget brands, the Company is the largest general-use vehicle rental company in each of North America, Australia, New Zealand and certain other regions based on published airport statistics. Avis Budget Group is headquartered in Parsippany, N.J. and has more than 30,000 employees. For more information about Avis Budget Group, visit www.avisbudgetgroup.com.

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) announced that Internet advertising revenues reached almost $5.9 billion for the third quarter of 2008, representing an 11 percent increase over the same period in 2007. While double-digit annual growth continues, the quarter-to-quarter curve remains relatively flat compared to recent past performance. The Q3 2008 figures, published in the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, are 2 percent higher than the Q2 2008 results. Set against strong economic headwinds in the U.S. economy, Q3 ’08’s $5.9 billion represents nonetheless the second-highest quarter results ever. For the first nine months of 2008, revenues totaled $17.3 billion, up from $15.2 billion in the same period a year ago and surpassing the record set in the first nine months of 2007 by nearly 14 percent.

“The growth of interactive advertising that we’ve been experiencing over the past few years has stabilized due in large part to the difficult current economic climate,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “Interactive advertising continues to be the most measurable and cost-effective way to reach consumers, and we see more and more marketers seeking to harness its power.”

David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, added that, “a weakening economy will continue to be a challenge to all forms of advertising-supported media. However, the Internet should be better poised to withstand the storm given its ability to combine performance-based advertising along with broad-based branding.”

Conducted by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Internet Advertising Revenue Report was launched in 1996 by the IAB and aggregates data from all companies that report meaningful online advertising revenues. The results are considered the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues as the data are compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, ad networks, free e-mail providers, and other companies selling online advertising. First- and third-quarter revenue reports are estimates, with actual figures released with the second- and fourth-quarter data respectively. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information.

About PricewaterhouseCoopers:

PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwc.com) provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. More than 155,000 people in 153 countries across our network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice.

“PricewaterhouseCoopers” refers to the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity.

About the IAB:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

Wilkinson has held senior executive positions in some of the leading advertising and media companies in the U.S. including PVI Virtual Media Services, video ad management company BlackArrow Inc. and Time Warner subsidiary HBO. Prior to joining MirriAd, Wilkinson was CEO at etc.tv, the Canadian advertising on-demand network which has delivered campaigns for major brands including General Motors, Ford Motors of Canada, Unilever, and Procter and Gamble.

Wilkinson will report to MirriAd CEO Mark Popkiewicz who said, “Denny’s wide ranging experience in the content and advertising market has given him huge insight into the potential opportunities for MirriAd. In particular, his U.S. knowledge and expertise that he has developed over 25 years will be invaluable in developing the MirriAd business in one of the key worldwide markets.”

“The advertising and broadcast industries are struggling to make the established advertising models work in this digital age,” commented Wilkinson. “We have to accept that the consumer is increasingly in control of the viewing experience and able to avoid traditional advertising. MirriAd’s technology and solutions take account of the new industry dynamics by placing advertisers back in touch with their audiences while maintaining the uninterrupted viewing experience that the consumer clearly wants. That is a compelling proposition and one I am looking forward to implementing.”

About MirriAd Limited

MirriAd Limited seamlessly embeds advertising into any video content, as if it was always there. The company’s solutions allow content owners to effectively monetize their assets and deliver a means by which brands can capitalize on the worldwide shift from the analog broadcast model to multi-platform, on-demand digital video delivery.

London based MirriAd is the first and only company that has the ability to embed advertising, words, images and interactive hyperlinks cost-effectively, in small and large volume digital content and with high quality on any platform using its proprietary ZoneSense™ technology.

MirriAd is funded by venture capital funds including London Seed Capital, Oxford Technology Management and South East Growth Fund and by private investors led by Seraphim Capital.

For more information: www.mirriad.com

MirriAd was recently named in Library House’s MediaTech top 100 list, which lists Europe’s hottest private media technology companies, likely to have the biggest impact on the industry.

Silicon Valley, CA and New York, NY—November 18, 2008—Glam Media, Inc. (www.GlamMedia.com), recently ranked comScore Media Metrix Top 10 Web property, today announced the launch of the Glam Applications Network. The platform that enables brand ad-enabled applications and widgets to be integrated into web sites and blogs, Glam Apps “Atako”, includes a standardized payment system for developers, publishers and media companies. Apps and widgets will be available in the Glam Apps Store (www.GlamApps.com), which provides a curated set of applications for publishers to add new features, build traffic and create new revenue streams. Today, Glam Apps names more than 50 premier charter developers, including: Sphere (a division of AOL); BuzzFeed; Meebo; PollDaddy; PicApp, JS-Kit and Kwanzoo. GlamTV, a signature application on the Glam Apps platform, features video content from select media partners including Cinelan, Diagonal View and Young Hollywood.

As the largest vertical content network, Glam Media fills a unique position in the marketplace, bringing together publishers, developers, content producers, media companies, agencies and advertisers to create branded, distributed media content and applications. The Glam Applications Network, launching today in beta, is immediately available to the 700+ web sites in the Glam.com and Brash.com vertical networks—and will be open to all professional Web publishers in early 2009. Examples of Glam Apps include: polls; slideshows; video commenting and contests; content feeds & syndication; ratings; recipe search, quizzes and shopping search.

Glam Apps Atako was built with brand advertisers’ needs in mind. Glam Apps’ ad-supported widgets contain IAB standard ad units that can be sold by Glam Media, the media publisher, agency and/or the developer. Today, most widget platforms are designed only to add functionality to social networks with no targeting technology or controls for brand advertisers, like brand proximity and relevance. For example, the main display ad may be a retail client, with widgets on the same page showing non-targeted or even competitive retail ads. Glam Media’s platform is also noteworthy because it solves the challenge of revenue-sharing with a built-in distributed ad payment system. Glam Apps Atako allows a range of monetization and distribution choices for developers building applications: ad-enabled with required IAB-standard ad units, sponsored or advertorial widgets, paid for or subscription based applications and free no-ads utilities.

“Widgets and distributed content are great examples of how interactive media companies are transforming marketing in search of new ways for consumers to engage with brands,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “That these widgets adhere to IAB ad standards, simplifies the interactive ad buying process and will help expand the value and measurement capabilities of widgets.”

Glam Media has already created many successful application campaigns for advertisers. Glam Apps builds on this success with a platform that allows developers to create the apps and for advertisers to sponsor them. With Glam Apps, brand advertisers can develop custom publisher features and share-of-voice branded widgets on targeted sites, resulting in deeply immersive campaigns and advertorials. Agencies can use Glam Apps Atako to create integrated brand applications and widgets that leverage the distribution of the Glam Publisher Network. Application campaigns previously built on the Glam platform include:  a styling video built for Levi’s® brand Luv My Levi’s® campaign; a flirting widget for V05; Glam Re-Skins, which enable a publisher to automatically re-skin their entire site with specific ads; and Glam Spotlight units which allow an advertiser to distribute video in a brand-engaging/skinned module.

Media companies can use Glam Apps Atako to create widgets for content distribution in a “rights-managed” system with monetization or distribution from content networks. Video providers and media networks can use GlamTV and BrashTV applications to distribute protected video content packaged with high-CPM display and video ads.

Glam-developed applications that are part of Glam Apps at launch include:

GlamTV/BrashTV: an innovative video application that allows for the distribution of professionally-produced premium content across the Glam Network, reaching 22 million users with over 50 million views per month three months after its beta launch.

Glam Now:  a vertical content story headlines widget promoting the hottest story links in the Glam Network, reaching 31 million users with over 100 million widgets views per month.

“The Glam Applications Network allows developers and advertisers to easily promote and distribute applications on a wide variety of web sites with a built-in system for monetization,” said Ryan Roslansky, VP of Products & Audience for Glam Media. “Not only are we expanding the app distribution market for developers, we are opening up new opportunities for publishers to add functionality to their sites and for advertisers to reach users with innovative campaigns.”

The charter developers for Glam Apps at launch include: Apture; Bang International; BuzzFeed; CookThink; FoodChannel; Fotoviewr; Grouptivity;  Meebo; Kwanzoo; NearbyNow; Ojingo (Blipback); PicApp; Pixsta; Predictify; Poll Daddy; TheFind; JS-Kit; Sphere; ShareThis; Polyvore, The Astrologer and WeSeed.

“Sphere partnered with Glam Media to build a module for Glam Apps that is distributed content at its best,” said Tony Conrad, CEO of Sphere. “For Glam’s publishers, Sphere’s module connects their articles to contextually relevant content from their archives and also displays related content from around the Glam Publisher Network. Participating publishers will serendipitously see inbound traffic from other Glam sites. The module also integrates a high quality ad unit that provides marketers a new and innovative way to engage with their audience and drives incremental revenue for the publisher.”

“JS-Kit provides ultra-lightweight community services like Comments, Ratings, and Polls for any web site,” said Khris Loux, CEO of JS-Kit.  “Glam Apps gives us a new way to access premium web publishers and advertisers at the same time.”

“PicApp is thrilled to be selected by Glam Media as a developer partner,” said Eyal Gura, PicApp’s CEO. “PicApp gives Glam’s publishers easy access to millions of premium images from sources such as Getty Images, Corbis, Splash News, Newscom, Image Source and others. Our images not only enhance and drive traffic to publishers’ sites, but also encourage viewers to further interact with the content. The partnership with Glam Media, and other partnerships to be announced soon, is a further demonstration of PicApp’s appeal to blog networks.”

Built upon standards including Google Gadget, OpenSocial and OpenID, the application distribution software powering Glam Apps Atako is scheduled for full open source release in Q4 of 2008. Glam’s first open source release underscores the company’s commitment to creating a vibrant community of developers with the common goal of integrating functionality into a wide variety of publishing platforms. Integration with OpenID creates a whole new class of consumer applications in a distributed media environment, where users can use one log-in across the wide Glam Publisher Network or specific vertical networks, enabling social networking and communication applications.

Today, Glam is also launching GlamID, a distributed login and registration platform built off OpenId for use across Glam Media properties. Glam Apps Atako is built on Google’s open source Gadget technology. Glam Apps allows developers to leverage Glam Evolution, Glam’s unique ad services platform with full Brand Sense Accountability and ROI measurement for advertisers. Glam is also one of the first to use the newly announced tracking comScore Extended Web measurement (CXW), to help measure and report reach and advertising for distributed Web content such as Glam Apps. This allows targeting, measurement and reporting of key data to brands and agencies.

For additional information, please visit www.GlamApps.com.

About Glam Media
In creating a new prototype, Vertical Content Networks, the founders of Glam Media have introduced a revolutionary new media model that powerfully brings brand advertisers to targeted vertical audiences online. With more than 700 sites, Glam Media comprises Glam.com, a carefully curated network of popular and influential lifestyle women’s websites, blogs and magazines, and Brash.com, the newly launched network catering exclusively to men. Glam Media’s reach is deep and far-reaching; it is a comScore Top 10 Web property, with a total reach of 52 million unique monthly visitors in the U.S. and 88 million uniques globally, and is also a Top 10 Display Ad Publisher. Glam Media is backed by Hubert Burda Media, GLG Partners, Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Walden Venture Capital and Information Capital.  The company is headquartered in New York City, New York and Silicon Valley, California, with international offices in London, Munich, Berlin and Tokyo.

“Both candidates’ election campaigns redefined the importance of digital marketing and provided excellent real-life examples of how today’s marketing and media professionals can harness the power of social media, video and mobile technologies aimed at the Facebook generation,” said Drew Ianni, chairman of programming for ad:tech North America. “It was a truly remarkable turnout, which confirms our belief that ad:tech is the must-attend event for marketers looking for insights into what is next and new in their field.”

This year’s ad:tech New York drew its standard large crowd of marketing and advertising professionals, just shy of last year’s record-breaking 10,000 attendees, who were eager to gain practical and actionable insights for navigating today’s challenging marketing and advertising landscape. The conference — gathered under the larger theme of how digital is changing ALL media — explored key themes of media convergence, provided new findings on measurement and presented a variety of advice, case studies and insights to provide marketers with the tools for fully engaging consumers at all levels of media interactivity.

Led by keynote addresses from influential industry leaders including CNN/U.S. President Jonathan Klein and Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Chairman and CEO Shelly Lazarus, the conference also unveiled an outlook of continued industry growth and opportunity, even while acknowledging the leaner times ahead. In his keynote address, Geoffrey Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer projected that while traditional media may shrink in the midst of the global economic downturn, online ad spending is likely to grow by 14.5% in 2009.

Another highly anticipated session was the ad:tech Power Panel titled “The Future of Measurement—How Do We Define the New Media Currency.” Featuring for the first time together executives from Quantcast, Nielsen Online, Hitwise, comScore and Microsoft’s Analytics and Atlas Institute, the panel examined the lessons learned so far in measurement, in an effort to elevate the discussion and explore the future possibilities in an ever-changing media landscape. As audience preferences for media consumption change, marketers have a need for more sophisticated metrics and measurement techniques for digital media.

The diverse slate of panel and breakout sessions covered emerging areas for opportunity, such as advertising through widgets and mobile marketing, and debated recent trends. For instance in the session titled “Will the Long-Tail Go Bankrupt?,” panelists questioned whether the popular long-tail marketing concept is a viable money-making model, in light of current economic conditions. The two-day ad:tech exhibition featured more than 300 exhibitors representing the full spectrum of the digital marketing marketplace. Akamai, comScore, Friendster, eMarketer and Rextopia joined the line-up again, as well as industry heavyweights Yahoo! and Google.

“We received great feedback from our attendees and exhibitors, who were pleasantly surprised at the huge turnout again at this year’s event,” said Don Knox, ad:tech Global VP. “We are encouraged by this response and excited to continue developing ad:tech events that provide value for an industry so full of exploration, innovation and opportunity.”

The next national ad:tech event takes place in San Francisco from April 21-23, 2009 at the Moscone Center West.

About ad:tech
ad:tech expositions, LLC is the leading organizer of conferences and exhibitions for the interactive marketing community worldwide. ad:tech produces the world’s largest interactive marketing events held in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney. ad:tech is produced by dmg world media; based out of the company’s headquarters in Larkspur, California. For listings of exhibitors, speakers, events and upcoming conference offerings, visit www.ad-tech.com.

About dmg world media
An international exhibition and publishing company, dmg world media produces over 300 market-leading trade exhibitions, consumer shows and fairs each year and publishes 45 related magazines, newspapers, directories and market reports. dmg world media employs 700 people and maintains a worldwide presence through more than 30 offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, the United Arab Emirates, China, India, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. dmg world media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc (DMGT), one of the largest and most successful media companies in the United Kingdom. Additional information on dmg world media can be found at www.dmgworldmedia.com.

SAN BRUNO, CA–(Marketwire – November 17, 2008) – Adify, the premier vertical ad network management company, today announced enhanced video ad serving functionality with the release of version 3.3 of the Adify platform. Adify Video enables online publishers to implement and monetize video for their contextual portfolio of sites. Adify network operators can now syndicate and generate revenue from video content and easily build an open video ad network for partner sites — expanding the reach of their video while controlling distribution to only quality sites. Network builders and publishers can integrate any video player with the Adify Video platform and reliably deliver pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll and overlay ads within syndicated videos.

According to eMarketer, $505 million will be spent on online video advertising this year. It is an effective revenue driver for publishers because it has higher CPMs, higher click-through rates and longer engagement than traditional online advertising. Furthermore, marketers who buy on Adify-powered networks benefit from quality premium content that video ads are sold against. The Adify Video platform includes measurement capabilities for publishers and advertisers to evaluate the effectiveness of video. Network operators launching with Adify Video include:

– Break Media (http://breakmedia.break.com), the premier online destination for the young male audience, is integrating Adify Video as a component of its own video player, which enables marketers and content owners to showcase and syndicate professional and relevant video content. Break is offering pre-roll and overlay ad units that are trafficked by Adify, which prioritizes ad delivery based on many variables, including CPM, impression goals, and importance. Within two months, Break Media has served more than seven million video ads from a variety of marketers.

– DriverTV (www.drivertv.com), a leading producer and distributor of professionally produced, high-definition, automobile-related video content for consumers, created a new online content and advertising network using Adify Video. The driverTV network gives auto manufacturer advertisers the ability to pair targeted overlay and display advertising with specific video content. Charter advertisers include BMW, GM and Subaru.

“Video offers premier independent publishers increased revenues and audience interest. There is plenty of potential in creativity and effectiveness for both buyer and seller. Prior to Adify Video, standardization was a major roadblock that made it very difficult to integrate the various video players with the various ad serving technologies and video ad feeds,” said Russ Fradin, president of Adify. “Adify Video alleviates this challenge for publishers through our open platform. Additionally, any type of rich media marketing specialist can enhance the targeting and delivery capabilities for the networks on our platform, thereby maximizing their share of the online video ad spend.”

Adify Video is part of the key network management services and ad technology created by Adify for publishers to execute successful distributed advertising campaigns. Adify’s syndicated ad server, tracking, reporting, billing, payment and technical support functions are relied upon by over 140 networks and more than 6,000 independent publishers. This open infrastructure delivers content sponsorships, video, image and rich media advertising to the unique specifications of each network builder. Working with Adify Video, network operators can now ramp up video offerings within days.

“Video content and video advertising have long been key components of our wholly-owned websites. By integrating our video player and content management system with Adify’s ad serving platform, we are now able to deliver video content and ads to the 90+ third-party sites that comprise the Break Media Network. This means that our advertisers can now engage with their core male audience via the Break Media Network using the full power of streaming media and the publishers who are part of our network now have yet another way to monetize their Web properties,” said Huan Le, Vice President of Business Development at Break Media.

About Adify
Adify Corporation is the premier vertical ad network management company and an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Cox TMI Inc., part of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, one of the nation’s leading media companies and providers of automotive services.