New York – DoubleVerify, the pioneer and worldwide leader in online media verification, announced an expansion of its executive team with three key hires of sales and marketing veterans from Yahoo!, NBC Universal and Google. Rose Steinberg joins as senior vice president of sales operations, Jennifer Hyman joins as vice president of marketing and Laura Anderson is now the company’s senior director of account management.

DoubleVerify has shown massive momentum recently, securing key partnerships with the top ad agency holding companies, ad networks and Web portals and increasing its staff to more than 60 employees. The company recently moved into new offices in midtown Manhattan to account for its rapid expansion.

“With the additions of Rose, Jennifer and Laura, we are building a team with vast knowledge of online advertising and digital media, and with experience managing large scale partners and customers,” said Oren Netzer, CEO of DoubleVerify. “As we establish the company as the pioneer in online media verification, we are looking forward to bringing more accountability, transparency and trust into this market.”

Rose Steinberg is a senior digital media executive and veteran of Yahoo! with 14 years of professional management experience. Steinberg was senior director of global business transformation and senior director of global sales operation at Yahoo!. There, Steinberg globalized the sales operations function across Asia-Pacific and Emerging Markets, driving regional and worldwide programs. In addition, she helped launch the Yahoo! Publisher Network in Australia by developing and implementing the first publisher solution in Asia-Pacific, including the Bebo AU, Digital Niche and Walt Disney anchor accounts. Additionally, Steinberg was a critical driver of Yahoo’s Right Media implementation across Asia-Pacific and Emerging Markets.  Steinberg has a Bachelor of Arts in communications studies and a minor in business administration from the University of San Diego.

Jennifer Hyman is a seasoned marketing executive with expertise in online consumer and business technology products. Before joining DoubleVerify, Hyman was the head of YouTube marketing, North America, at Google where she led a team of marketing managers to grow Google’s video and display advertising businesses including YouTube, Google’s Video Network and Google Branded Entertainment. Hyman joined Google in 2003 and worked on Google’s early vertical sales strategy as well as the launch of several core search and syndication products including Google Custom Search, Accessible Search and Google Finance. In addition, Hyman was a senior sales and marketing manager at Jupiter Research/Jupiter Media Metrix. Hyman earned her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Laura Anderson has more than 10 years experience in the Internet advertising industry specializing in sales planning, account management and operations.  Most recently, Anderson was an executive at NBC Universal, where she served as director of sales operations for all network and cable websites and held responsibility for all campaign implementation and sales fulfillment. Prior to NBC, Anderson spent five years at Yahoo! where she managed the East Coast Operations team, which fulfilled the largest book of business in the Yahoo! North America region.  Prior to her operations role, Anderson was one of Yahoo’s strongest account managers, handling $25MM of yearly revenue that included premium entertainment, travel and telco clients such as Warner Brothers Entertainment, NBC Universal, Discovery Networks, Continental and Cingular.  Previous to Yahoo! Anderson worked at iVillage.com as a sales planner. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from UNC Charlotte.

DoubleVerify offers a comprehensive suite of verification products that benefit all entities in the online advertising ecosystem such as buyers, aggregators and sellers. The company is backed by more than $10 million in venture capital funding and is poised for growth in the U.S. and abroad.

About DoubleVerify
DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com) is the worldwide leader in online advertising verification and the top choice of marketers, agencies, ad networks and publishers looking to ensure brand safety, campaign transparency and regulatory compliance. DoubleVerify verifies over 35 billion advertising impressions per month for hundreds of leading Fortune 500 marketers. DoubleVerify is headquartered in New York City, with engineering offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. Investors in DoubleVerify include Blumberg Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, First Round Capital and Genacast Ventures.

SAN DIEGO – SinglePoint, the leading provider of mobile interactivity and advertising solutions, announced that the recently introduced SingleBrand Ad Marketplace, the first web-based mobile advertising marketplace for SMS campaigns, is gaining significant momentum.

In less than a year:

•The total number of unique users reached 11M
•SMS advertising traffic doubled every month

Working with Ad Networks including Movoxx, Mojiva, Millennial Media and Marchex, SinglePoint is helping to connect the dots in a more productive and innovative way. The Ad Marketplace enables each ad network to access available inventory and insert branded messages directly into text message campaigns tied to top TV programs that incorporate viewer participation. Inventory includes popular interactive TV shows seen on all major TV broadcasters.

SinglePoint has also been instrumental in helping non-mobile entities launch mobile advertising campaigns. Software companies, automakers, sports leagues, airlines, department stores and film studios are among the first industries to utilize SingleBrand Ad Marketplace.

“Partnering with mobile ad networks gives our publishers a better spread of advertisers,” said Gowri Shankar, SinglePoint Senior Vice President, Sales and Business Development. “SinglePoint stays focused in offering ad networks and advertisers access to this unique, highly targeted inventory in real-time for an efficient and cost-effective marketplace experience. From January to August, the number of SMS ads served by SingleBrand Ad Marketplace has grown 800 percent.”

This demonstrates SinglePoint’s increasing value to publishers in North America as they seek to leverage assets and provide relevant and effective mobile advertising services.

About SinglePoint

SinglePoint enables brands, agencies and publishers to connect with more than 270 million North American wireless subscribers. SinglePoint’s full suite of products and services enables publishers to monetize their mobile messaging traffic and advertisers to access premium inventory and rapidly launch mobile advertising campaigns. SinglePoint works in partnership with entertainment, media companies, brand managers, advertising agencies and mobile networks. Current publisher partners include NBC Universal (Bravo, Oxygen, SciFi, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, USA Network) and CBS Corp. For more information, visit http://www.singlepoint.com.

LAS VEGAS – SinglePoint, the leading provider of mobile interactivity and advertising, announced two separate deals with MTV Networks and NBC Universal. SinglePoint will be an ad solution provider for MTV Networks and NBC Universal, representing each company’s mobile messaging advertising inventory for multiple campaigns. Campaigns for NBC Universal’s properties include NBC, USA Network, SCI FI, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, NBC News, and NBC Sports, as well as Universal Studios and Universal Studios Theme Parks. MTV Networks’ campaigns include CMT, COMEDY CENTRAL, MTV, MTV Tr3s and VH1.

SinglePoint makes MTV Networks’ and NBC Universal mobile messaging inventory available through recently introduced SingleBrand Ad Marketplace – the first web based mobile advertising marketplace for text messaging campaigns. Advertisers and brands can easily browse available inventory, buy ads, submit creative and monitor campaign results, all via the Web.

“Whether its content delivery or monetization, MTV Networks is always looking to be as innovative as possible in the nascent mobile marketplace,” said Joe Lalley, Director of Product Development at MTV Networks. “SinglePoint’s new solution will help us to enhance monetization of our growing mobile messaging inventory.”

As part of the deal, SinglePoint will continue to manage and execute multiple participation media campaigns such as mobile voting, sweepstakes, contest, “breaking news” text alerts, and the delivery of personalization content for the myriad of NBC Universal and MTV Networks properties.

“Renewing and extending our agreements with MTV Networks and NBC Universal demonstrates our continued commitment to deliver new, innovative mobile messaging products,” said Gowri Shankar, SinglePoint Senior Vice President, Sales and Business Development. “SinglePoint is focused on helping companies like MTV Networks and NBC Universal bring a mobile messaging experience that is fun, easy and personalized and we are pleased that MTV Networks and NBC Universal have again chosen SinglePoint as a strategic business partner.”

About SinglePoint

SinglePoint enables brands, agencies and publishers to connect with more than 270 million North American wireless subscribers. SinglePoint’s full suite of products and services enables publishers to monetize their mobile messaging traffic and advertisers to access premium inventory and rapidly launch mobile advertising campaigns. SinglePoint works in partnership with entertainment, media companies, brand managers, advertising agencies and mobile networks. Current publisher partners include NBC Universal (Bravo, Oxygen, SciFi, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, USA Network) and CBS Corp. For more information, visit http://www.singlepoint.com.

NEW YORK, NY – The Online Publishers Association (OPA) announced a new initiative designed to help stimulate a renaissance of creative advertising on the Internet that meets the needs of marketers by better integrating their messages into the fabric of the Web. As part of the announcement, a broad group of its members will implement new interactive, display advertising units across their sites. Starting in July, these new units will be available only through the publishers’ direct sales teams.

“Members of the OPA are offering a set of new principles and unique display advertising units to continue to foster innovation and leverage an environment that research has proven delivers better results for advertisers,” said Pam Horan, president of OPA. “Agencies are looking for new ways to integrate their clients’ brand experiences with more interactivity on the page, and these new units provide a way for them to accomplish this while capitalizing on the halo effect of the high-quality media brands.”

These new advertising units reflect the publishers’ desire to achieve four key objectives that will guide the evolution of online display advertising into its next phase:

Inspire creativity and high-quality advertising: Develop display units that will inspire a creative renaissance in high-quality advertising by providing a larger canvas for creativity, content and functionality.
Provide a greater share of voice for the advertiser: Increase the relative proportion of advertising space (in a single unit) to editorial content and, where possible, run fewer but more captivating ads on the page.
Introduce a measurement to capture impact: Develop a metric that emphasizes the impact creative advertising can have on Web viewers while preserving the Internet’s well-established ability to engender response.
Enhance interactivity to build user engagement with brands: Offer a broad range of interactivity built into units such as video players, lead capture and advertiser content that will be sharable and have permalinks to spotlight and encourage the best in creativity, while weaving the advertisements deeper into the social fabric of the Web.
The initial participating OPA members are: BabyCenter, Bizjournals, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, CBS Interactive, CNN, Condé Nast Digital, Discovery Communications, ESPN, Forbes.com, FOXNews Digital, IDG, iVillage Network, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Meredith Interactive, msnbc.com, MTV Networks, NBC Universal, New York Media, The New York Times, Reed Business Information, Reuters, Time Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network and Weather.com, with more OPA members to be announced. In January, these publishers had a combined, unduplicated reach of 108.3 million visitors, or 66 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience. This group of sites also represents 8.17 billion total minutes of time spent during the month (according to Nielsen Online).

“As consumers and advertisers increasingly turn to digital media, we must create formats and programs that support and sustain the differentiating aspects of our businesses,” said Martin A. Nisenholtz, founding chairman of the OPA, and senior vice president, digital operations, The New York Times Company. “Agencies must be given the tools to build brands on the Web and publishers must provide the formats for their advertisers to thrive, while balancing the needs of their users.”

The proposed new advertising units are:

The Fixed Panel (recommended dimension is 336 wide x 860 tall), which looks naturally embedded into the page layout and scrolls to the top and bottom of the page as a user scrolls.
The XXL Box (recommended dimension is 468 wide x 648 tall), which has page-turn functionality with video capability.
The Pushdown (recommended dimension is 970 wide x 418 tall), which opens to display the advertisement and then rolls up to the top of the page.
The publishers have committed to offer at least one of the three advertising units by July 1, 2009. Advertisers interested should contact their publishers.

“The Super Bowl is certainly a unique event because of its ability to command nearly national attention at one time, but it also demonstrates the impact that truly integrated advertising initiatives can have,” says Dean DeBiase, CEO of TNS Media. “Marketers work to ensure synergies between their traditional, online and in-store promotional activities, but not to the extent seen in the Super Bowl. The results seen here – from the ability of broadcast advertising to drive traffic to sites, initiate online conversations and have that emotional equity come full circle at retail – should serve as a catalyst to encourage deeper integration across all media platforms year round.”

A complete log of all commercials, their pod positions and actual creatives are available at: www.tns-mi.com/resources/creativeSuperBowl2009.htm.

TNS Media Intelligence Analysis: Advertising clutter, top advertisers and categories

Record-setting Level of Ad Time

Super Bowl XLIII featured a record-tying amount of network commercial time. Between the opening kickoff and the final whistle, NBC aired 45 minutes, 10 seconds of advertising messages. This includes paying sponsors, messages from the NFL and promotional plugs from NBC for its own programming. The past four games now occupy the top four spots in terms of Super Bowl ad clutter.

Top Advertisers

A total of 32 different companies aired in-game spots for a total of 84 commercials. The top four advertisers (excluding program promotions aired by NBC) in terms of total ad time were Pepsico, Anheuser Busch InBev, General Electric and Viacom. This elite group accounted for 40 percent of the total paid ad time.

The softening ad market for 2009 Super Bowl spots led to speculation that General Electric divisions might be required to step in and buy unsold inventory to help out sister-company NBC. The movie studio and theme park divisions of GE have regularly advertised in previous Super Bowls on other networks, so it’s far-fetched to construe their presence in the 2009 game as the outcome of an inventory fire-sale.

What’s a ‘normal’ level of in-house ad activity for the Super Bowl broadcaster? The past four years have seen four different networks air the game. During this cycle, the advertising presence of the network’s owner has ranged from 30 seconds to 4 ½ minutes. GE’s 2009 footprint of 2:30 is larger than either News Corp in 2008 or National Amusements in 2007. However, it lags the 4:30 of air time that Disney-owned entities had in the 2006 telecast on ABC.

Top Categories

Motion pictures continued to be the dominant Super Bowl ad category as Hollywood studios attempted to build awareness for upcoming releases. Nine different movies had in-game ads, a level on par with recent years. However, this year the studios opted for longer-length units as compared to 2008.

Non-alcoholic beverages also had a significant presence in the game but the competitive battlefront was a bit narrower than 2008. Pepsi and Coke again went head-to-head with their soda brands. But unlike a year ago, Coke abstained from promoting its non-soda brand lines and conceded that stage to Pepsi which ran spots for Gatorade and Sobe Life.

Reflecting the current tenor of the auto market, car manufacturers had a reduced presence with Audi, Hyundai and Toyota combining for just 3 minutes of air time. Supplementing this was another 2:30 of ads from auto-related advertisers Bridgestone (tires), Cars.com and Castrol (motor oil) to keep the total category even with last year.

TNS Cymfony Analysis: Movie studios’ TV investment pays off with online buzz

Not only did the movie studios dominate TV ad time, they also dominated the discussion in the first 36 hours following the game: five of the ten most-discussed advertisers were movies. Almost half of the discussion of Super Bowl ads took place on social media sites focused on movies, video games, and entertainment news.

*Volume index represents the amount of discussion for each advertiser, relative to the median amount of discussion for all Super Bowl advertisers. E.g. Transformers received over seven times the amount of discussion of the average advertiser.

While Doritos may have won the Super Bowl ad voting on USAToday, Anheuser-Busch bested all non-movie advertisers in the amount of discussion generated by their ads. Four of their ads generated strong positive discussion: Bud Light “Swedish,” Bud Light “Meeting,” Clydesdale “Stick” and Clydesdale “Circus.”

The advertisers that didn’t make the most-discussed list are also interesting: E-Trade “Talking Baby” and Audi “Chase” among them.

“This year, viewers engaged with ads about entertainment and affordable indulgences,” noted Jim Nail, Chief Marketing Officer of TNS Cymfony. “Financial services and automobiles are not on consumers minds so their ads, which have been popular in past years, didn’t resonate this year.”

TNS Cymfony’s analysis of traditional and social media showed that the volume of pre-game online discussion nearly doubled while media coverage increased 37%. “The spike in pre-game coverage and discussions emphasizes that marketers need to blend social media, traditional media, and buzz around the water cooler to maximize the ROI of expensive Super Bowl ads,” said Nail.

TNS Media Research Analysis: Second-by-second ratings

TNS Media Research analyzed audience viewing behavior during the game and the commercial breaks. The following highlights are based on unique second-by-second clickstream data collected from over 300,000 Households (HH) in the Charter Communications Los Angeles digital cable system:

• On average, 29.8% of HH’s tuned into the game itself. The pre-game show averaged a 22% rating while over 23.4% of homes viewed at least one second of the post-game award presentation.
• 5.3% of HH’s viewed the game on NBC-HD, representing close to 11% of the total audience.
• As expected during the Super Bowl, few viewers tuned away from the commercial breaks during the game with the spot-to-program retention index averaging 100 (CVI). The highest commercial retention score went to the promotional ad marketing various USA network programs, which posted a 121 in the spot just after the game ended. During the post-game as viewing dropped from a rating of 32.l% to 23.4%, the commercial retention remained constant. The last pod, airing prior to The Office, averaged a CVI retention score of 95.
• A second-by-second look at commercial avoidance reveals that about 1% of commercial seconds were avoided by channel changing.
• Interestingly, the NBC-HD audience was even less likely to tune away, with only 0.8% percent of those seconds being lost, perhaps reflecting the fact that almost all of the Super Bowl advertising was presented in high definition.

TNS Compete Analysis: Super Bowl advertisers’ online presence

*Represents the change in daily reach to the Web site from the average during the week preceding the Super Bowl. E.g. Dennys.com reach on the day of the Super Bowl was nearly 17 times higher than during the week leading up to the game.

Super Bowl advertisers ranged from those with strong, established online presences to “up and comers” to digital neophytes.

• Anheuser-Busch – One of the Super Bowl’s top advertisers and most talked about brands came in third in growth in daily reach on Super Bowl Sunday. Budweiser.com, a site which has historically ranked among the top 30,000 US Web sites, saw its reach nearly double on Super Bowl Sunday.
• Hulu – Despite the prominence of entertainment in ad time, this online video service (co-owned by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners) ranked near the bottom. The “Alec in Huluwood” ad, which did not present a clear call to action, can be found on Hulu.com.
• Dennys – Denny’s free Grand Slam Giveaway scored with Super Bowl viewers. Visitors to Dennys.com were rewarded with a reminder of the “Enjoy a Free Grand Slam” on the home page along with a convenient Restaurant Locator.

“It is not surprising that we see some of the most talked about advertisers at the top of the pack in terms of site traffic on Super Bowl Sunday,” according to Matthew Pace, Director of Retail, TNS Compete. “It’s more evidence that a strong call to action alone is not enough to engage consumers, you need to have messaging that resonates with the consumers you are trying to target, like a free breakfast.”

About TNS Media

Established in more than 30 countries, TNS Media explores all media – print, radio, TV, Internet, social media, cinema and outdoor worldwide, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and offers a full range of insights, analyses and audience measurement services.

TNS Media combines the deepest expertise in the industry to provide media and marketing intelligence including advertising expenditure monitoring, advertising creation monitoring, audience measurement, market influence analytics, online consumer behavior tracking, news monitoring, sports sponsorship evaluation and more. The TNS Media companies track more than 3 million brands and provide vital market intelligence to 16,000 customers around the world. For further information, please visit www.tnsmediagroup.com.

About Kantar Group and TNS

The Kantar Group is one of the world’s largest research, insight and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of more than 20 specialist companies – including the recently-acquired TNS – the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and actionable insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 80 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group’s services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies. For further information, please visit www.kantargrouptns.com.

ATLANTA – Nexidia, a leading provider of rich media search and speech analytics solutions, announced that MSNBC.com, the number one news site*, selected Nexidia’s rich media applications to enhance video across MSNBC.com and other affiliated sites.

As the leader in online news, MSNBC.com provides innovative technology that enables its viewers to have a rich and rewarding news experience. In collaboration with Nexidia, MSNBC.com will give end users a larger and more relevant selection of news video to view online. Nexidia’s software integrates with MSNBC.com’s to expand the quantity and enhance the discoverability of video content at MSNBC.com.

Nexidia delivers the fastest, most accurate way to index and search video content in the industry. Content providers, such as MSNBC.com, can use Nexidia’s products to make on-air or archived video content more accessible and searchable by users and editors of their websites. Using Nexidia’s technology, video content is easier to search and navigate. An example of this is the new MSNBC.com inaugural player, featuring inauguration speeches dating back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933.

Nexidia also offers solutions to enable the automation of editing and tagging video content for improved consistency, discovery and syndication. For video content creators, Nexidia’s competitively priced products can extend basic metadata search and enhance video navigation with unique features that can create opportunities for increased revenue and customer satisfaction. Unlike other solutions, Nexidia’s owned and patented search technologies can be integrated into customers’ existing search infrastructure and work flow.

“We are excited about our collaboration with Nexidia and look forward to providing a unique user experience through the integration of their products and technologies into our platform, which will provide additional depth and breadth to our dynamic video experience,” said JoAnne Kennedy, Vice President of Technology for MSNBC.com.

“Nexidia is pleased to be providing the tools that enable MSNBC.com to realize their vision of delivering all on air content through multiple online channels, in a way that is easily discoverable and richly described. We believe this will further extend their leadership position,” says Drew Lanham, Senior Vice President/General Manager of Media for Nexidia.

About Nexidia

Nexidia is the audio and video search company with patented technologies and breakthrough applications that enable customers to quickly gain new insight, build competitive advantage and realize the amazing possibilities now discoverable in audio and video content from call centers, media outlets, government intelligence and legal discovery. For more information, please visit www.nexidia.com.

About MSNBC.com

MSNBC.com delivers a fuller spectrum of news. Drawing on its award-winning original journalism, NBC News heritage, trusted sources and Microsoft’s advanced technologies; the site presents compelling, diverse and visually engaging stories on the consumer’s platform of choice. Based in Redmond, WA, MSNBC.com is a joint venture of Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and NBC Universal (NYSE:GE).

*The MSNBC Digital Network (MSNBC.com) was the number one Current Events and Global News site with more than 37 million unique visitors in June, 2008. Source: Nielsen Online.

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

NEW YORK & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Hallmark Channel and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced a strategic agreement to offer advertisers access to high-quality family-friendly programming through the Google TV Ads program. Advertisers will now be able to reach even more viewers by using Google TV Ads platform to place ads on both Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel.

In November, Hallmark Channel was seen in 86 million homes across the U.S. and over the past year has consistently ranked in the top ten prime time ratings. The network will air in 2009 more than 30 original movies – its largest-ever slate. Hallmark Movie Channel broadcasts a mix of classic theatrical films, presentations from the acclaimed Hallmark Hall of Fame library, Hallmark Channel original movies and special events. Using the Google TV Ads platform, advertisers, starting in early 2009, will be able to access both networks’ national audiences and receive viewership data at an unprecedented scale. Google TV Ads advertisers – many of them new to the television medium – can then better understand what consumers are responding to and make real-time adjustments to their campaigns to maximize return-on-investment.

“Partnering with Google is a milestone for Hallmark Channel’s continued advertising success,” said Bill Abbott, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, Hallmark Channel. “The Google TV Ads platform will allow more advertisers to access the network’s acclaimed roster of family-friendly programming – entertainment that audiences cherish during the holidays.”

Google TV Ads offers greater accountability and relevancy in advertising. With Google’s innovative targeting tools and auction-based pricing system, advertisers can find the right context and audience for their advertising message, only pay for impressions delivered to their ads, and receive digital reporting within 24 hours. Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel join Google TV Ads’ growing list of inventory partners, which also includes six networks from the NBC Universal family — Sci Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth, and Chiller — along with Bloomberg Television and 96 networks through DISH Network.

“Hallmark Channel’s strong family-friendly brand and programming attracts an important viewer demographic that Google TV Ads’ advertisers can now access,” said John Saroff, Manager of Strategic Partner Development for Google TV Ads. “Combined with our platform’s measurement technology, this collaboration signifies an important step towards making television advertising more accountable for advertisers and more relevant for viewers.”

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

About Hallmark Channel

Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 86 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,450 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Prime Time and Total Day household ratings and is the nation’s leading network in providing quality family programming. Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel which plays the greatest family movies of all time, Hallmark Movie Channel, and launched Hallmark Movie Channel HD in April, 2008. For more information, visit http://www.hallmarkchannelpress.com.

Google and Google TV Ads are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

Source: Nielsen Media Research estimates that from October 27 through November 30, 2008, Hallmark Channel was available in over 85 million homes across the U.S. and during the period from December 31, 2007 to November 23, 2008, ranked in the top ten prime time household coverage area ratings.

Halloween and Early Holiday Browsing Boost Traffic to Retail Sites

RESTON, VA, November 20, 2008 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for October 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. The U.S. presidential election, Halloween and the approaching holiday season were significant drivers of Internet traffic for the month.

“The historic presidential race had millions of Americans glued to their computers for the latest news during the final stretch of the campaign,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “Prospective voters were able to get up-to-the minute information on candidates, important issues and the latest poll results as they prepared to check off the box in the voting booth on November 4.”

Politics Category Tops Fastest-Growing List in October

October saw a significant surge in traffic to the politics category, as Americans tuned in closely to the presidential and local congressional races. The category grew 40 percent to 28 million visitors in October, making it the fastest growing category for the month.

BarackObama.com was the most visited site in the category with 8.5 million visitors, up 59 percent versus the previous month, followed by JohnMcCain.com with 3.8 million visitors (up 29 percent). October marked the largest audiences of the season for both of the candidates. Other sites generating substantially higher traffic in the month included: CatholicVote.com (up 410 percent to 1.5 million visitors), GOP.com (up 111 percent to 1.2 million visitors), and Factcheck.org (up 96 percent to 1 million visitors). Voting advocacy sites VoteforChange (up 62 percent to 2.4 million visitors) and RocktheVote.com (up 46 percent to 1.1 million visitors) also saw strong gains.

Saturday Night Live’s election comedy sketches, including Tina Fey’s popular impersonation of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, helped NBC Universal rank as one of the top 10 gaining properties for the month. NBC Universal’s online channel for Saturday Night Live (SNL) content surged 85 percent to 4.4 million visitors in October.

Approaching Holidays and Halloween Cause Traffic Boost at Retail Categories
The combination of Halloween and the looming holiday shopping season resulted in strong traffic increases to several retail categories in October.

Retail – apparel sites grew 13 percent to more than 67 million visitors as people searched for Halloween costumes, early holiday deals and the latest seasonal apparel in October. The category was led by BuyCostumes.com, which witnessed a 107-percent increase to 9.5 million visitors. Several other costume-related sites also experienced gains in October, including CostumeSuperCenter.com (up 110 percent to 2.6 million visitors) and Costumzee.com (up 161 percent to 2.1 million visitors).

In addition to costume retailers, several other apparel retailers experienced strong traffic growth during the month, including Zappos.com (up 18 percent to 5.1 million visitors), Gap Online (up 24 percent to 4.2 million visitors) and AE.com (up 18 percent to 3.3 million visitors).

With the holidays quickly approaching, traffic to the retail – toys category surged 17 percent to more than 25 million visitors as Americans searched early for this year’s top toys. Toysrus sites led the category with 9.3 million visitors, a gain of 28 percent, followed by Barbie with 3.4 million visitors (up 10 percent) and The LEGO Group with 2.7 million visitors (up 22 percent). Several other popular toy brands also experienced double-digit growth in October, including AmericanGirl.com (up 51 percent), Fisher Price (up 43 percent) and LeapFrog.com (up 90 percent).

Top 50 Properties

Google Sites continued to lead as the most visited property in October with 147 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 144.9 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 123.5 million visitors. All of the top ten properties maintained their positions from September. New arrivals to the ranking this month included NBC Universal, which entered at position #33 with nearly 25 million visitors and JPMorgan Chase Property, which rose to position #41 with the addition of Washington Mutual, bringing the property’s combined audience to more than 23 million visitors.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

Platform-A led the October Ad Focus ranking reaching 91 percent of the 190.6 million Americans online. Yahoo! Network followed reaching 86 percent and Google Ad Network captured the third position reaching 83 percent of Americans online. ValueClick Networks moved up one position to #4 reaching 82 percent of online users and Traffic Marketplace rose one position to #8 reaching 74 percent.
____________________________________________________________________
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)

October 2008 vs. September 2008

Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations

Source: comScore Media Metrix

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Sep-08 Oct-08 % Change Rank by

Unique Visitors

Total Internet: Total Audience 189,468 190,616 1 N/A

TheStreet.com Sites 4,135 10,550 155 101

Spencer Gifts, LLC. 2,077 5,058 144 231

HULU.COM 2,850 5,342 87 214

Healthgrades 2,894 5,034 74 234

Everyday Health 14,930 25,781 73 31

BARACKOBAMA.COM 5,350 8,515 59 131

Cablevision 6,049 9,571 58 112

NBC Universal 16,034 24,896 55 33

Kayak.com Network 5,141 7,860 53 144

JPMorgan Chase Property 15,506 23,142 49 41
____________________________________________________________________
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in October 2008

TABLE 2
____________________________________________________________________
comScore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)

October 2008 vs. September 2008

Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations

Source: comScore Media Metrix

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Sep-08 Oct-08 % Change

Total Internet: Total Audience 189,468 190,616 1

Politics 20,081 28,016 40

Retail – Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 33,659 40,358 20

Retail – Toys 21,461 25,195 17

e-cards 28,537 33,377 17

Entertainment – Humor 25,486 29,797 17

Retail – Mall 26,509 30,742 16

Gay/Lesbian 2,771 3,189 15

Retail – Apparel 59,354 67,144 13

Teens 28,765 32,505 13

Auto – Manufacturer 22,154 25,015 13

____________________________________________________________________

Please visit the following link for Tables 3 & 4: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2593

About comScore Media Metrix

comScore Media Metrix provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. comScore Media Metrix reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate

PALO ALTO, Calif. – PubMatic (www.pubmatic.com), which provides more than 5,000 online publishers with real-time ad optimization, will host AdRevenue ’08 this Friday, November 14th, at The Golden Gate Club in San Francisco.

What: AdRevenue ’08 (www.adrevenue08.com) is a one-day summit that brings together leading media executives, analysts, and other innovators in the media and online advertising industry to deliver insight and proven strategies to help publishers, ad networks, and ad exchanges increase ad revenue. Forrester Research analyst Barry Parr jump starts the event with a keynote presentation, “Online Advertising: A Volatile Ecosystem,” which will be immediately followed by the opening panel “The Real Difference between Ad Networks, Ad Exchanges, and Ad Optimizers.”

Who:

* Adam Gerber, CMO, Quantcast
* Anand Subramanian, CEO, ContextWeb
* Barry Parr, Analyst, Forrester Research
* Brian Morrissey, Digital Editor, Adweek
* Chas Edwards, CRO, Federated Media
* Chris Moore, General Partner, Redpoint Ventures
* Dave Zinman, Vice President, Network Management, Yahoo! Inc.
* Geoff Katz, Director of Advertising Services, Razorfish
* Jeff Green, COO, AdECN
* Joe Zawadzki, Founder and CEO, Media Math
* Martin Green, COO, Meebo
* Michael Rubenstein, Director, Ad Exchange, Google, Inc.
* Nick Johnson, VP Digital Media Sales, NBC Universal
* Rajeev Goel, Co-Founder and President, PubMatic
* Russ Fradin, Co-Founder and President, Adify

When:
Friday, November 14; 8:30 AM PT Registration

Where:

The Golden Gate Club, at the Presidio
135 Fisher Loop
San Francisco, CA 94129

For additional venue details and directions click here.

For media inquiries, contact Mandy Kakavas (akakavas@horngroup.com | 415-905-4015)

About PubMatic

PubMatic provides more than 5,000 web publishers real-time ad optimization, which significantly increases revenue while simplifying ad network management. PubMatic works with hundreds of ad networks and has created thousands of new publisher/ad network relationships. PubMatic is a service of Komli and is venture backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Nexus India Capital, and Helion Ventures. Find out more at www.pubmatic.com.

As part of the SingleBrand Advertising Platform, the new Ad Marketplace presents a complete onscreen inventory of scheduled mobile messaging campaigns by each TV show. SinglePoint’s targeting technology offers aggregated viewer data that allows further targeting by demographic, geographic, behavioral, and psychographic criteria. Time and location-sensitive campaigns are also possible. Publishers (networks and show producers) have the added benefit of fully showcasing their mobile ad inventory in one location to maximize their use of inventory and competitive pricing.

Advertisers simply login to the Web-based Ad Marketplace to view available inventory, pricing and demographic reach. Once these selections are made and the advertising is uploaded with associated preferences, this information is transmitted to the publisher in real-time for viewing and approval. Publishers login to the Ad Marketplace to define new inventory or review pending inventory buys, and can accept or reject advertising requests. Once approved, the advertisements are queued for serving into the scheduled campaigns. As the ad campaigns are running, advertisers and publishers can both view real-time performance metrics, such as impressions served, response rates and revenue earned.

“SingleBrand Ad Marketplace represents a milestone in mobile advertising,” said Rich Begert, President and CEO of SinglePoint. “Brands and advertisers can now directly access this unique, highly targeted inventory in real-time for an efficient and cost-effective marketplace experience. Within the month of September alone we served close to 5 million ad eligible text messages.”

By using the SingleBrand Advertising Platform, comprised of the Ad-Insertion Platform and Ad Marketplace, advertisers can easily buy inventory and submit ads for direct insertion into TV-originated mobile messaging campaigns quickly and easily. Ad formats that can be used include text and multimedia messages (SMS and MMS), enabling direct response campaigns such as click-to-call, click-to-link, and click-to-SMS. SingleBrand Ad Marketplace is integrated with the SinglePoint product suite which supports applications such as ticketing/coupons, video streaming and content download, but can also be customized and integrated with third-party campaign creation and advertiser management solutions.

About SinglePoint

SinglePoint provides media interactivity and mobile advertising to a total audience of more than 260 million North American wireless subscribers. Powering 84% of television to mobile interactivity in North America today with over 60 million television-driven iTV transactions processed in the last six months(a), SinglePoint works in partnership with entertainment, media companies, brand managers, advertising agencies and mobile networks. SinglePoint offers a full suite of services that make it fast and easy to create, launch and manage mobile driven interactive TV campaigns and standalone nationwide campaigns. The full suite of offered services include TV/Web/radio voting and polling, text2screen, text and multimedia message ad insertion, advertising video overlay, ticketing/coupons, video streaming and download, billing, reporting and analytics. Investors include Ignition Partners, Intel Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Northwest Venture Associates, Rally Capital LLC, and SeaPoint Ventures. For more information, visit http://www.singlepoint.com.

(a) Refers to percentage of TV transactions in the second half of 2007. Source: Nielsen Mobile, Premium SMS Report, March 2008.

PubMatic (www.pubmatic.com), which provides more than 5,000 online publishers with real-time ad optimization, announced AdRevenue ’08 (www.adrevenue08.com), the first conference dedicated entirely to improving the value of ad inventory for online publishers and ad networks. PubMatic, known for recognizing trends in ad network pricing with its AdPrice Index, identified the need for a forum where the most respected names in the online advertising come together to address strategies to maximize industry-wide ad inventory revenue.

During the one-day summit taking place November 14th in San Francisco at the Golden Gate Club, attendees are invited to meet with leading technology entrepreneurs, executives, established media and industry thought leaders from Adify, Avenue A / Razorfish, ContextWeb, Draper Fischer Jurvetson, Forrester Research, Google / DoubleClick, NBC Universal, Quantcast, and other innovators in the industry.

PubMatic executives, along with some of the online advertising industry’s most prominent thought leaders, will deliver unparalleled insight to online publishers, ad networks and exchanges, online advertising analysts and application developers looking to improve their ad revenue.

Forrester Research analyst Barry Parr will open the event with a keynote presentation, “Online Advertising: A Volatile Ecosystem,” which will be followed by multiple expert panels on digital advertising monetization.
Distinguished speakers at AdRevenue ’08 include:

* Adam Gerber, CMO, Quantcast
* Anand Subramanian, CEO, ContextWeb
* Barry Parr, Analyst, Forrester Research
* Brian Morrissey, Digital Editor, Adweek
* Chris Moore, General Partner, Redpoint Ventures
* Geoff Katz, Director of Advertising Services, Avenue A / Razorfish
* Jeff Green, COO, AdECN
* Joe Zawadzki, Founder and CEO, Media Math
* Martin Green, COO, Meebo
* Michael Rubenstein, Director, Ad Exchange, Google, Inc.
* Nick Johnson, VP Digital Media Sales, NBC Universal
* Rajeev Goel, Co-Founder and President, PubMatic
* Russ Fradin, Co-Founder and President, Adify

“In today’s online environment, 70% of ad inventory goes unsold. With the uncertainty of the economy and its possible impact on the digital advertising industry, companies and independent publishers should re-evaluate their ad monetization strategies to ensure maximum yield,” said Rajeev Goel, Co-Founder and President of PubMatic. “As PubMatic continues to evolve and create solutions that support intelligent ad inventory strategies, we are pleased to take part in such an unprecedented event that finally addresses the needs of the industry.”

As identified in PubMatic’s latest AdPrice Index, online ad prices continue to remain stagnant and reflect a weak economy. Never before has the need been so great to address how the online advertising industry can increase ad pricing levels while other segments continue to decline. Tickets are limited, and this is an event no one in the online advertising industry can afford to miss.

To register and view the full conference agenda, please visit: www.adrevenue08.com

What: AdRevenue 2008 – PubMatic’s Conference Dedicated to Improving Unsold Ad Inventory Strategies
When: Friday, November 14, 2008
Where: The Golden Gate Club 135 Fisher Loop San Francisco, CA 94129
For additional venue details and directions click here

About PubMatic
PubMatic provides more than 5,000 web publishers real-time ad optimization, which significantly increases revenue while simplifying ad network management. PubMatic works with hundreds of ad networks and has created thousands of new publisher/ad network relationships. PubMatic is a service of Komli and is venture backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Nexus India Capital, and Helion Ventures. Find out more at www.pubmatic.com

NEW YORK & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Continuing efforts to make television advertising more relevant, accountable and measurable, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced today that the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION® network will make national cable advertising time in the U.S. available through the Google TV Ads™ platform. By offering self-service buying opportunities through Google TV Ads, the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION network will expand its reach to a wider range of advertisers, including those that are new to the medium.

With the addition of BLOOMBERG TELEVISION inventory, advertisers using the Google TV Ads platform can not only reach the high-net-worth BLOOMBERG TELEVISION U.S. audience but can also gain access to viewership data at an unprecedented scale. Google’s TV Ads platform can report second-by-second data from millions of anonymized set-top-boxes, allowing advertisers to measure viewership of their ads more precisely than ever before. With this data, advertisers can better understand what consumers are responding to and make real-time adjustments to their campaigns to maximize the return on their TV ad investments. Google’s digital platform also makes it easier for advertisers to find relevant programming through its keyword search functionality.

“We’re pleased to be partnering with BLOOMBERG TELEVISION to continue to make TV advertising more relevant and measurable,” said Mike Steib, director of Google TV Ads. “We will now be able to give advertisers, many of whom have never tried TV advertising before, access to the desirable BLOOMBERG TELEVISION demographic.”

“The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION audience is the wealthiest and most powerful in cable television,” said Trevor Fellows, head of advertising sales at Bloomberg. “As high net worth viewers are extremely difficult to quantify using traditional methods, we believe that involvement with Google TV Ads from an early stage will help us and our advertisers learn more about our audience.”

Google TV Ads offers greater accountability in advertising. With Google’s auction-based pricing system, advertisers only pay for impressions delivered to their ads, and they can receive integrated digital reporting within 24 hours. The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION network joins Google TV Ads’ growing list of inventory, which also includes NBC Universal and DISH Network.

“We’re very happy with the progress of Google TV Ads,” said Michael Kelly, executive vice president for DISH Network, Google TV Ads’ current inventory partner. “Google TV Ads has brought more accurate, accessible, and up-to-date viewer measurement to the industry, enhancing value to our advertisers.”

The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION service is the only 24/7 business and financial news television network. BLOOMBERG TELEVISION content is created exclusively by the global BLOOMBERG NEWS® service, with 143 bureaus in 69 countries. BLOOMBERG TELEVISION programming offers viewers a snapshot of the markets with fast, accurate reporting of world indexes, currencies, U.S. Treasuries, commodities futures, agricultural futures, and exchange traded funds, as well as special features, insight and analysis, and proprietary coverage of leading stocks and industry sectors. The worldwide service broadcasts in seven languages.

About Google, Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

SAN FRANCISCO – PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) and leading provider of rich media advertising, and USA TODAY premiered the first expandable, rich media ad units specifically created for the Apple iPhone. The new PointRoll product, initially launching on the USA TODAY mobile site, will feature both the Ford (NYSE: F) campaign for the all-new 2009 Ford Flex; and NBC Universal’s Focus Features campaign for Joel and Ethan Coen’s new movie, the comedy thriller “Burn After Reading,” starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pitt, which opens nationwide this weekend.

During CTIA, held at Moscone West in San Francisco, Calif. on September 10-12, 2008, PointRoll will provide live demos of the iPhone rich media ads and overviews of the technology at The Marriott San Francisco in Suite Salon 4 and on-the-go in the “Demo Limo,” to help members of the media attending the conference reach their destinations while viewing the new interactive ads that will be distributed on the USA TODAY mobile site initially and on the global PointRoll Web-based advertising inventory in the near future.

“The new Ford Flex marketing campaign is all about engaging consumers in the most relevant and technologically advanced way possible. Mobile is the most interactive way of engaging potential and existing customers, and we are excited to provide wireless devices with the same rich media advertising capabilities that we currently use online,” said Ford Communications Manager, Usha Raghavachari. “Our key focus is to give our audiences relevant information to help them choose their next vehicle and this technology helps us take this to the next dimension.”

“The launch of our new iPhone solution is a great opportunity to showcase PointRoll’s innovation, by extending user-initiated rich media advertising to a new environment,” said Max Mead, Vice President, Business Development & Strategy for PointRoll. “We’ve fine tuned our advertising technologies to enable agencies and marketers from leading brands to create personalized and original interactive campaigns on web pages viewed on the iPhone.”

The PointRoll mobile ads are fully expandable upon user initiation and provide many advanced features including video click-to-play, coupon downloads, integrated mapping technology directly linked to Google Maps, user-initiated click-to-call and more. PointRoll also provides its in-depth engagement metrics and analytics, allowing marketers to track interaction rates, brand time, and other key measures of activity. Without requiring users to download any applications or plug-ins to view the ads, PointRoll’s full-service production team enables marketers to extend their current rich media campaigns into the highly-effective mobile environment with ease.

“PointRoll is staying ahead of the industry to offer marketers first-of-a-kind expandable interactive ads on mobile devices,” said Jason Tafler, CEO of PointRoll. “PointRoll’s rich media solutions are all about personalizing the conversation between marketers and their customers through engaging campaigns, and we are proud to be the first to introduce these capabilities into the mobile channel via the iPhone.”

Mobile advertising is growing incredibly quickly. In the fiscal 2008 third quarter, Apple sold 717,000 iPhones and remains on track to reach its target goal of selling 4 million iPhones in 2008, according to RBC Capital Markets. PointRoll leads the rich media industry, serving more than 70 billion rich media impressions each year and calling two-thirds of the Fortune 500 its clients.

The Demo Limo will be provided on September 10th only, during regular CTIA I.T. and Entertainment conference hours.

About PointRoll

PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), is the world’s leading online advertising rich media provider. PointRoll’s superior rich media technologies and services enable brand marketers to connect with consumers by creating interactive online environments. Providing interactive features such as streaming video, polling, instant e-mail and data collection, PointRoll delivers measurable online advertising campaign results. PointRoll serves more than 70 billion rich media impressions each year – and serves two-thirds of the Fortune 500 brands. For more information, please visit www.pointroll.com.

About USA TODAY

USA TODAY is the nation’s top-selling newspaper. It is published via satellite at 34 locations in the USA and at four sites abroad. With a total average daily circulation of 2.3 million, USA TODAY is available worldwide. USA TODAY is published by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI). The USA TODAY brand also includes: USATODAY.com, an award-winning news and information Web site that is updated 24 hours per day; USA TODAY Sports Weekly, a magazine for enthusiasts of college and professional football and baseball; USA TODAY Mobile, offering up-to-the minute news and information on a variety of mobile platforms and devices; and USA TODAY LIVE, the television arm of the USA TODAY brand that brings the spirit and quality of the newspaper to television.

The partnership also includes collaboration on custom research projects to help drive new insights into TV advertising, raising a few question marks:

- will there be any user targeting?
- if so, what would it be based on?
- what metrics are used and how is the data collected?

Get the whole press release after the bump.

NEW YORK & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – As part of its continuing effort to offer innovative advertising solutions to its clients, NBC Universal (NBCU) will join forces with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to form a strategic multi-year advertising, research and technology partnership. The two companies will work together to develop more effective advertising metrics, attract non-traditional advertising partners to NBCU and incorporate self-service buying opportunities through the Google TV Ads™ advertising platform.

The announcement was made today by Mike Pilot, President, NBC Universal Sales and Marketing and Tim Armstrong, Google’s President of Advertising and Commerce, North America.

On the national level, NBCU will offer advertising time from several of its cable networks to Google’s TV Ads platform. Inventory from Sci Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth, and Chiller will be made available to Google in the coming months, with potential to expand onto other NBCU properties in the future. With the addition of NBC Universal inventory, advertisers using the Google TV Ads platform can reach NBCU Cable’s national audience and gain access to viewership data at an unprecedented scale. With this data, advertisers can better understand what consumers are responding to and make real-time adjustments to their campaign to maximize their ROI.

“We’re extremely pleased to join forces with Google on this effort, which will help us develop better accountability and ROI metrics for our advertisers and attract an entirely new group of clients to television advertising,” said Pilot. “This is another step in our commitment to trying innovative advertising approaches and testing new technologies that can help benefit our clients.”

“The Google TV Ads platform is making television advertising more accountable and measurable and we’re pleased with our progress to date,” said Armstrong. “Our partnership with NBCU will help us bring the power of television to a broader set of advertisers as well as give our current advertisers increased reach through our system.”

On the local level, NBCU and Google have also agreed to work jointly on adapting the Google TV Ads platform for local market use.

“This is a great way to reach clients who are interested in buying television advertising but may not have previously had the resources or ability to do so,” said Frank Comerford, President, Platform Development and Commercial Operations, NBC Local Media. “A self-service ad platform will be a great complement to our existing sales efforts and help us further connect our clients to their customers.”

As part of the agreement, NBC Universal will maintain its direct relationships with agencies and advertisers and can set parameters around the purchase of the available ad time. NBCU will also gain access to the large base of advertisers using Google’s AdWords™ online advertising program, many of whom are not currently television advertisers. The two companies will share in all ad revenue and explore innovative ways to expand the partnership in the future, including adapting the platform to add local inventory.

As part of their effort to help drive value for advertisers, NBCU and Google will also collaborate on a series of custom marketing and research projects using the Google TV Ads platform. Through its partnership with DISH Network, the Google TV Ads platform can report second-by-second set top box data allowing advertisers to measure viewership of their ads more precisely than ever before. The two companies will also take advantage of joint research that will help advertisers and agencies better understand their media mix and optimize their ad campaigns.

“We’re pleased that NBCU will make some of its inventory available on Google’s TV Ads platform,” said Laura Desmond, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group. “The partnership will generate real value for our clients by providing us with a more measurable–and actionable–understanding of how consumers engage with content.”

About Google

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

About NBC Universal

NBC Universal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric and 20% owned by Vivendi.

“Internet advertising is currently growing at a compound annual rate of 18.3% and will reach $73 billion in 2011. What is really exciting about mobile advertising is its ability to eclipse Internet advertising,” said Dan Olschwang, President and Chief Executive Officer of JumpTap. “We have seen firsthand that mobile advertising is a viable mass medium – a fact which is reflected by our significant growth and numerous recently announced deals.” Olschwang also commented, “The closing of this round by these prestigious investors during a tight financial credit climate sends a strong and positive message about their confidence in the growth potential of mobile search and advertising and our ability to execute on our long-term vision. We are truly excited as to the value our new investor AllianceBernstein brings to the table.”

The funding will be used to further develop JumpTap’s powerful mobile search and advertising solutions and to continue expansion of its global ad sales and operations divisions to meet increased demand from advertisers. According to eMarketer¹, worldwide spending on mobile advertising topped $2.7 billion last year and is expected to rise to $4.8 billion in 2008 and to $19.1 billion by 2012. More ubiquitous than PCs and with more than 3.3 billion devices in use today, mobile presents an unparalleled opportunity to deliver personalized, relevant messages and to engage users at an unprecedented level of interactivity. These figures indicate a significant growth opportunity for JumpTap.

“JumpTap is uniquely positioned to drive mobile search and advertising innovation and adoption by leveraging its carrier relationships and mobile search legacy to drive targeted advertising. The company’s broad and deep experience and interactions with advertisers, publishers and key stakeholders in the industry have uniquely positioned them not only to succeed but to lead an entire industry and define the way mobile advertising should be delivered,” said Mark Mackenzie, Vice President and Head of Digital Media Venture Capital investing at AllianceBernstein. He adds, “JumpTap has successfully positioned itself as the hub of the mobile advertising ecosystem and demonstrated its ability to attain its goals.”

Founded in 2004, JumpTap has quickly established itself as a driving force in mobile search and advertising innovation. The leadership team was first to recognize the potential disruption mobile devices would have across traditional mass media platforms. In response, fully integrated search and advertising solutions were developed that use insight from search behavior combined with operator data to deliver the most targeted and tailored mobile ad delivery system available. Coupled with comprehensive premium mobile content channels, including communities, entertainment and portals, advertisers can reach the highest quality relevant audience to achieve above average response rates and maximize revenue opportunities.

“It’s an incredibly gratifying experience, being a part of a company from its inception and watching it develop and cross major milestones,” said John Simon, Founder and Chairman of JumpTap and Managing Director at General Catalyst. “We recognize that JumpTap is a true market trailblazer and believe in its future. Having a top tier firm like AllianceBernstein join the fold further strengthens JumpTap’s ability to prepare for future growth and success.”

Publishers and media companies look to JumpTap to streamline sales to brands and agencies and the structure to grow their mobile business on. By building the most relevant mobile experiences for the consumer, JumpTap is capitalizing on the opportunity by enabling advertisers, publishers and carriers alike to ensure a profitable position in the mobile advertising ecosystem. This cutting-edge approach has sparked a wave of recent successes that includes significant deals with leading names such as NBC Universal, Fox Mobile Entertainment, US Cellular and other carriers as well as the recent openings of new offices in Madrid, Stockholm, and New York City. The new offices will help to accommodate JumpTap’s expanded mobile ad sales force, which has grown by 600 percent in 2008 alone.

About JumpTap

Reaching over 150 million mobile subscribers through partnerships with 17 mobile operators and numerous content publishers, JumpTap’s powerful search and advertising solutions benefit the whole mobile Internet ecosystem: JumpTap enables carriers to maintain a strong, sustainable position in the mobile value chain, drives traffic and revenue opportunities to content publishers, and gives advertisers access to targeted customers. Recently awarded the best advertising and marketing search engine award by Visiongain and selected by IDC as one of the 10 emerging mobile players to watch in 2007, JumpTap has developed the most comprehensive search and advertising solutions in the market. For more information, please visit www.jumptap.com.

About AllianceBernstein

AllianceBernstein is a leading global investment management firm that offers high-quality research and diversified investment services to institutional clients, individuals and private clients in major markets around the world. AllianceBernstein employs more than 500 investment professionals with expertise in growth equities, value equities, fixed income securities, blend strategies and alternative investments and, through its subsidiaries and joint ventures, operates in more than 20 countries. AllianceBernstein’s research disciplines include fundamental research, quantitative research, economic research and currency forecasting capabilities. Through its integrated global platform, AllianceBernstein is well-positioned to tailor investment solutions for its clients. AllianceBernstein also offers independent research, portfolio strategy and brokerage-related services to institutional investors.

The new feature doesn’t seem to have propagated in all DFP accounts yet, and the knowledge base doesn’t seem to include any new entries about streaming Silverlight. I’ll let you enjoy the feature announcement in full, below.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (August 05, 2008) –Today, DoubleClick, a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, announced the new capability to serve video ads into Microsoft Silverlight 2 video environments. The move is part of DoubleClick’s ongoing effort to help clients maximize the yield on their advertising inventory as they deliver content into emergent online, video and mobile channels.

With this new feature of DoubleClick In-Stream, DoubleClick clients such as NBC Universal Digital Media are able to monetize video content played within the Silverlight 2 player. NBCOlympics.com, a division of NBC Universal, will be one of the first sites to open Silverlight 2 content up to advertisers with DoubleClick In-Stream. The solution carves out new video inventory across 2,500 hours of video content running as part of NBC’s Olympics coverage.

“Microsoft has always had a strong commitment to working closely with partners and the industry to enable them to leverage our tools and platform to deliver great user experiences. With Silverlight, we’ve extended that commitment to the advertising space,” said Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President, .NET Developer Division. “We’re pleased to see the investment DoubleClick has made to enable customers such as NBCOlympics.com to take advantage of Silverlight to offer compelling packages to their advertisers.”

DoubleClick In-Stream is a video ad serving solution used by online publishers to deliver exciting new advertising experiences into Flash, Real Media, Windows Media and now Silverlight 2 video players. As part of the DoubleClick Revenue Center, the product is completely integrated into DoubleClick’s core ad serving platform, DART for Publishers. The combined DoubleClick solution enables trafficking, targeting forecasting and reporting for video advertising. By working with DoubleClick to serve ads into Silverlight 2, NBCOlympics.com is able to leverage their existing ad operations workflow and staff to package video ads with other opportunities, such as online display and mobile ads. One platform for online display, video and mobile has made it possible for NBC to create compelling cross-channel packages for advertisers who want to reach the Olympics-viewing audience.

“With hundreds of advertisers, multiple platforms and large site traffic spikes, we needed to work with a partner that could provide an integrated, scalable, robust solution,” said Steven Gold, Vice President, Sales Planning and Operations, NBC Universal Digital Media. “Thanks to DoubleClick In-Stream’s new support for Silverlight 2, we are able to monetize our groundbreaking online video coverage on the same platform we already use for display and mobile advertising. This lets our sales and operations teams work together really efficiently.”

“DoubleClick’s vision is to help publishers grow their revenues by creating great user experiences and providing compelling value to advertisers,” said Google Group Product Manager Ari Paparo. “By expanding the capabilities of DoubleClick In-Stream to work with Silverlight 2, we can make it possible for clients to create unique entertainment and advertising experiences without increasing their workload or creating new complex processes.”

For more information on DoubleClick In-Stream, please visit http://www.doubleclick.com/instream

To learn more about the entire DoubleClick Revenue Center, please visit http://www.doubleclick.com/revenuecenter

About DoubleClick
DoubleClick is a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services. The world’s top marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick’s expertise in ad serving, rich media, video, mobile, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium. From its position at the nerve center of digital marketing, DoubleClick provides superior insights and insider knowledge to its customers. DoubleClick is a division of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Learn more at www.doubleclick.com.

Below is an example of an Eyeblaster fullscreen video ad developed for the movie “13th Street”, ad that ran in the Netherlands.

http://creativezone.eyeblaster.com/#ItemName=13th%20Street

It would’ve been nice if the ad stayed in its expanded window and not open a new browser window on its own, without user interaction.

Ad details:

Campaign: SCIFI – NBC Universal – May 07
Creative Agency: Easyconcepts NL
Media Agency: Mediaedge:cia NL
Advertiser: NBC Universal
Ad Format: Full Screen Video
Vertical: Entertainment
Country: Netherlands

ad:tech Chicago, the leading conference for the global marketing community taking place August 5 and 6, 2008 at the Chicago Navy Pier, is the industry event of the season. Celebrating its fourth consecutive year in Chicago, the 2008 ad:tech show will answer the burning questions on the minds of advertisers and marketers today while providing a roadmap for conquering the industry’s next frontier.

The Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA) and William Blair and Company recently surveyed 150 Chicago-area interactive marketing companies to gauge the health of the industry. According to two-thirds of the respondents, the economic turbulence is affecting spending and most predict that online advertising will grow at a rate of only about 16 percent this year compared to a forecast of 19 percent during previous years, which they attribute to the state of the economy.2 As advertising is becoming less efficient, key opinion leaders are turning to their peers to better understand the market and the fast-paced environment in which it is evolving.

“ad:tech Chicago offers an inside look at the industry by professionals experiencing the same hurdles in reaching both broad and niche audiences,” said ad:tech Chairman, Programming & Senior Global Analyst Drew Ianni. “The challenge exists not in knowing who your target is but where and how to engage that person, and understanding the various tools and mediums that help you get there.”

Consistent branding and effective messaging are the key ingredients to a successful brand experience, and one that resonates with consumers and creates advocates out of users. Brad Jakeman, Former Executive VP, Marketing, Federated Department Stores, will expand on this topic further during the second day of the conference through his keynote address titled “The Big Idea Strikes Back”. Jakeman will discuss the importance of creating a big idea and executing it consistently across all the channels available today to marketers.

“Few marketers have a big idea behind their brands that can be expressed across the full gamut of consumer touch-points—advertising (online and offline), in-store environment, employee training, product design etc.,” said Jakeman. “The best brand ideas I’ve seen have been grounded in a deep consumer insight or human truth, are compelling enough to engage and excite consumers, and seize some white space in the category in which the brand operates. They represent a ‘North Star’ toward which all aspects of the consumer experience are relentlessly and obsessively directed.”

ad:tech Chicago will offer attendees access to more than 120 speakers and 23 breakout sessions with the industry’s biggest names, including Amtrak, ConAgra Foods, Dell, Inc., FTD Floral, FOX News, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney and many more. In addition to these brands, the event highlights the local talents of more than 30 Chicago and Midwest-based speakers representing the biggest agencies, publishers and analysts, including the Sun-Times News Group, Carlson Marketing Worldwide, Starcom USA, Cars.com, Leo Burnett North America, HSBC, CBS Digital Media, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune Interactive and many more.

The exhibit hall will showcase key exhibitors from companies such as Casale Media, DoubleClick, Google, Moniker and Yahoo! to name a few. The Navy Pier will also house multiple meeting and business presentation rooms for domestic and international organizations along with ample room for networking. For a list of current exhibitors, please visit www.ad-tech.com/chicago/adtech_chicago_exhibitors.aspx.

Gold Sponsor: AdShuffle Silver Sponsors include: Avenue A | Razorfish; Casale Media Bronze Sponsors include: AdECN; Google; iContact; Leapfrog Online; Singer Direct Premiere Media Partners include: Advertising Age; Fast Company; Forbes.com; iMedia Connection; Revenue Magazine Media Partners include: BtoB; DIRECT; Digital Moses Confidential; DM News; eMarketer; MarketingSherpa; Mobile Marketer; Personal Life Media; PRWeb; Search Marketing Standard; SmartBrief; Target Marketing; Webmaster Radio; Website Magazine Association Partners include: AIMA; CIMA; MMA; OPA; WOMMA

For public information, please visit www.ad-tech.com.

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, Miami, London, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, 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 250 market-leading trade exhibitions, consumer shows and fairs each year and publishes 45 related magazines, newspapers, directories and market reports. dmg world media employs 900 people and maintains a worldwide presence through more than 40 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.

1 Interactive Advertising Bureau, August 2007
2 AdWeek July 8, 2008

IDG TechNetwork Ad Director Dan Shaw explained, “ Today around 30% of UK IT users and buyers visit sites outside the largest 50 (Source : Hitwise April 2008 ) These sites are growing in share and importance and have highly engaged audiences who visit these sites due to a strong sense of loyalty and because they find the content highly relevant and useful. The IDG TechNetwork makes executing campaigns into these sites simple and effective and acts as a complement to the direct relationships marketers they have with the larger sites”

Recent IAB figures show that 40% of all online advertising is channelled through networks (Source: IAB online research July-Dec 2007) but until now these have tended to be broad based and limited in their ability to target vertical niches. Unlike large advertisng networks that aggregate and sell remnant inventory, the vertical ad networks powered by Adify will enable IDG TechNetwork to focus on selling high value, branded and targeted advertising programmes, generating additional revenue across the network.The IDG TechNetwork is the first vertical network delivering extended reach to IT professionals and users and focuses on the ‘long tail’ that has grown in share of the UK audience.

Christian Harris, owner and founder of BIOSMagazine.co.uk highlighted the benefits to his company of the partnership. “We have limited resources to pitch advertising budgets from the big IT clients and agencies but collectively and in partnership with IDG we are able to get onto campaigns without incurring the cost and challenges of running our own sales team. For a small business such as ours it leaves us free to do what we are good at – developing compelling content and at the same time receive ad revenues to enable us to further grow our business.”

At launch The IDG TechNetwork has over 45 sites live which already represents in excess of 5,000,000 UK ad impressions per month. Partner sites already committed include Edugeek, Bios magazine, Financial Sector Technology, Retail Systems, Spiceworks, Technology Bites, System Management News, Data Center Knowledge, and Digital Inspiration.

Mediacom signed the first campaign to go live on the TechNetwork for Dell. Chris Pullon, Media Planner on the account, said: “The IDG TechNetwork has allowed us to take Dell’s message to an untapped audience. The internet has led to a fragmented number of sites, and it is important we explore routes to reach those buyers. Mediacom has always sought new opportunities to allow our clients to gain the broadest reach and the TechNetwork will give us one further option when planning for clients”.

IDG joins Adify’s existing global partners such as Time Warner, NBC Universal, The Guardian and Reuters. Adify is the world’s leading solution for creating, managing and commercialising vertical ad networks used by over 100 network builders and thousands of website publishers worldwide.

Commenting on the IDGTechNetwork Emmet Geaney, Senior Account Manager, Adify said, “We are delighted to have been chosen to enable the creation of the UK’s first technical vertical network. Our platform links selected partner sites into a unique advertising offering which maximises the opportunities presented by an ever fragmenting online audience, whist efficiently managing all back office complexities. The pace of take up that the IDG TechNetwork has already demonstrated from both partner sites and advertisers is extremely impressive – and this network looks to swiftly become an established and highly credible option for both the brand and agency advertising communities.”

IDG has gained a strong reputation for the growth and development their own sites such as pcadvisor.co.uk and Techworld.com and is now sharing its experience in content delivery, site design and sales representation skills with many smaller sites. Qualifying sites are required to successfully pass through rigorous selection criteria. Potential sites are evaluated for quality, originality and objectivity of editorial content as well as meeting design and commercial criteria in order to ensure that the network consists of first class partners who can deliver strong and effective marketing solutions.

Only the IDG TechNetwork specifically concentrates on reaching technology buyers in their favoured media environments. As the premier advertising network operated by an established technology publisher, its expert understanding of optimising enterprise, SMB and consumer technology sites ultimately gives these more focussed web players a distinct competitive advantage.

Partner sites signing up to the TechNetwork will benefit from being part of a high-quality vertical network. With an exclusive focus on the technology market, IDG is well positioned to represent these quality sites to key agencies and clients – all sites will have the IDG seal of approval (checked for content, design and independence), ensuring advertisements appear only on credible sites. Member sites will also gain access to IDG best practices (such as SEO) through regular seminars and briefings

Agencies and advertisers benefit in the same way. Because this is a vertical network that is fully transparent, agencies can now plan campaigns and increase the number of sites included while still dealing with just one point of contact.

Advertisers can target specific sites and channels, concentrate on contextual content and editorial focus, and even eliminate specific sites from their programs.

About International Data Group (IDG)

International Data Group (IDG) is the world’s leading technology media, events, and research company. IDG’s online network includes more than 450 Web sites spanning business technology, consumer technology, digital entertainment, and video games worldwide. IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers in 85 countries including CIO, CSO, Computerworld, GamePro, InfoWorld, Macworld, Network World, and PC Advisor. IDG’s lead-generation service, IDG Connect, matches technology companies with an audience of engaged, high-quality IT professionals, influencers, and decision makers.

IDG is a leading producer of more than 750 technology-related events including Macworld Conference & Expo, LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, Entertainment for All Expo (E for All), DEMO, and IDC Directions. IDC, a subsidiary of IDG, is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events. Over 900 IDC analysts in more than 90 countries provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends.

Additional information about IDG, a privately held company, is available at www.idg.com. Note: All product and company names are trademarks of their respective companies.

About Adify

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

During the 2-day conference, ad:tech Chicago will explore new and emerging technologies on the social media, video and mobile fronts while sharing best practices for audience acquisition, engagement and retention in an age of earned media. The Chicago conference brings together top brands, award-winning agencies and leaders in metrics, publishing and search, offering attendees a great networking opportunity and a chance to explore the trends shaping today’s market.

“ad:tech Chicago provides a multi-faceted platform to learn, listen and understand the opportunities and challenges in the ever evolving branding landscape,” said Drew Ianni, Chairman, Programming & Senior Global Analyst for ad:tech. “The digital space is an uncontrolled environment that requires marketers to interact with consumers rather than just deliver static messaging.”

The conference will kick off with a keynote address by Kevin Kells, CPG Industry Director for Google, titled “Welcome to the Age of Performance Branding,” discussing a new branding technique that encourages open dialogue with consumers to position brands positively and achieve desired results. Day one will close with a keynote address delivered by Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, titled “Here Comes Every Customer: The Former Audience is Talking Around You,” touching on how the former audience, the customer, is now driving user generated content (UGC) on the Internet. And, it’s the advertiser who better be listening.

Social networking and UGC sites have experienced extraordinary growth in recent years. As numbers on these sites have risen, so has user engagement, with 83 million users creating and sharing content on the Internet.1 UGC has changed the rules of the game as the existing lines between advertisement and consumer are often blurred. In 2006, UGC sites attracted 69 million users in the United States alone, and in 2007, UGC generated $1 billion in advertising revenue. By 2011, UGC sites are projected to attract 101 million users nationwide and earn $4.3 billion in ad revenue.2

“Today’s business climate requires more precision in our marketing and advertising than ever before. Leading marketers must be creative and obsessive. Creative in developing consumer experiences that enable connections with our brands and obsessive about choosing the place and time when consumers are most receptive for delivery of experiences,” said Kevin Doohan, Director of Interactive Marketing at ConAgra Foods and speaker at ad:tech Chicago in the Power Panel: Master Class CPG Roundtable — Growing Online Brand Advertising Dollars.

ad:tech Chicago will offer attendees unbridled access to more than 120 speakers and 23 breakout sessions with the industry’s biggest names including Amtrak, ConAgra Foods, Dell, Inc., FTD Floral, FOX News, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney and many more.

The exhibit hall will showcase key exhibitors from companies such as Casale Media, DoubleClick, Google, Hitwise, Moniker and Yahoo! to name a few. The Navy Pier will also house multiple meeting and business presentation rooms for domestic and international organizations along with ample room for networking. For a list of current exhibitors, please visit www.ad-tech.com/chicago/adtech_chicago_exhibitors.aspx.

Gold Sponsor includes: AdShuffle Silver Sponsors include: Avenue A | Razorfish; Casale Media Bronze Sponsors include: AdECN; Google; iContact; Leapfrog Online; Singer Direct Premiere Media Partners include: Advertising Age; Fast Company; Forbes.com; iMedia Connection; Revenue Magazine Media Partners include: BtoB; DIRECT; Digital Moses Confidential; DM News; eMarketer; MarketingSherpa; Mobile Marketer; Personal Life Media; PRWeb; Search Marketing Standard; SmartBrief; Target Marketing; Webmaster Radio; Website Magazine Association Partners include: AIMA; CIMA; MMA; OPA; WOMMA

For public information, please visit www.ad-tech.com.

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, Miami, London, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, 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 250 market-leading trade exhibitions, consumer shows and fairs each year and publishes 45 related magazines, newspapers, directories and market reports. dmg world media employs 900 people and maintains a worldwide presence through more than 40 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.

1 eMarketer, April 2008.
2 eMarketer, “User Generated Content: Will Web 2.0 Pay its Way?” June 2007.

Through the agreement, Operative, a global advertising technology and operations management provider, will provide transparency into NPM’s online sponsorship and underwriting sales with its flagship software, Operative Dashboard™. Operative Dashboard™ will offer a seamless integration with NPM’s sponsorship serving technologies, providing a single process and data set that streamlines workflow for faster digital sales, implementation and execution.

“After a thorough evaluation of the vendors who offer solutions for our needs and opportunities, we chose Operative as the ‘best of breed’ provider of the level of quality technology and service expected by national brands like PBS and NPR,” said Bryan Moffett, Director of Digital Operations, NPM. “Operative’s feature-rich Dashboard will allow NPM to maximize revenue by providing an end-to-end solution to forecast, report and financially manage all our sponsorship and underwriting campaigns on the Web.”

Under the agreement, all NPM’s Web display activities will be managed through Operative Dashboard™, which will help support NPM’s inventory management, available forecasting, product optimization, approval setting, fragmentation alleviation and affiliate delivery reporting. NPM’s representation of online inventory includes:

NPR.org, one of the foremost news and information sites worldwide.

NPR Music, the successful music discovery site aggregating diverse broadcast and original-to-online content from NPR and NPR Member stations.

PBS.org, one of the most popular dot-org sites in the world, which hosts a broad range of content, including companion sites for PBS television programs and substantial Web-only content, podcasts, blogs and real-time learning adventures.

The NPR Podcasts, the most extensive slate of podcasts from any media company.

NPR Mobile, a mobil service offered by NPR and Member stations for cellphone and landline phones featuring NPR news, information and entertainment and local and regional news, as well as streaming and click-to-call audio.

“NPM represents some of the strongest, most trusted brands in digital media and these websites and podcasts continue to enjoy tremendous growth,” said Michael Leo, CEO and President of Operative. “We look forward to helping accelerate that growth by working with NPM to refine its sponsorship workflow management.”

About National Public Media, LLC
National Public Media is the largest representative of media assets in public broadcasting: on television, radio and digital media; locally, nationally and worldwide. It was created in October 2007 when NPR and WGBH acquired National Public Broadcasting, LLC, the company formed in 1997 to represent all the PBS and NPR Member stations in the U.S. Integrating the NPR Sponsorship Division into it, this new organization represents more than 150 weekly hours of NPR programming for Member stations; PBS’ “The News Hour,” on-air and online; and more than 200 public television and radio stations across the country. That inventory, combined with aggressive Web representation, enables national marketers to take advantage of rapidly-expanding cross-media opportunities that offer a comprehensive underwriting and sponsorship approach to multimedia audiences throughout the United States.

About NPR
Since its launch in 1970, NPR has evolved into a leading worldwide media company, award-winning primary news and information provider and dominant force in American life. NPR produces and/or distributes more than 1300 hours of programming weekly, including more than 150 hours of news, information, talk, and entertainment shows for 870 NPR Member stations, attracting more than 26 million listeners weekly. NPR also programs five 24/7 music multicast channels for Member stations’ HD Radio channels, two public radio channels for Sirius satellite radio and nearly 100 NPR Podcasts, making it the biggest podcaster among American media companies. Its NPR Worldwide program stream reaches listeners in more than 100 countries and the comprehensive website www.NPR.org has a global audience for its extensive original content, hourly newscasts and free audio streaming of current and archived NPR programs. NPR Music is a free music discovery website combining original and broadcast interviews, concerts and performances, artist information and other features from NPR and Member stations. NPR’s continuing expansion in digital media includes the recently-launched NPR Mobile, in partnership with public radio stations.

About PBS
PBS, with its 355 member stations, offers all Americans – from every walk of life – the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content. Each week, PBS reaches more than 73 million people and invites them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; hear diverse viewpoints; and take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’ broad array of programs have been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. PBS’ premier children’s TV programming and Web site, pbskids.org, are parents’ and teachers’ most trusted partners in inspiring and nurturing curiosity and love of learning in children. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org Web sites on the Internet.

About Operative, Inc.
Established in 2000, Operative is a global organization that provides its clients with technology and services to improve all aspects of their advertising operations lifecycle, from pre-sale to collections, trafficking to reconciliation. OperativeDashboard™, an ASP software solution, is an end-to-end workflow management platform that enables media publishers to automate contract management, product packaging and pricing, inventory management, campaign reporting and revenue recognition. Operative’s client base includes The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, MSN, Smart Money, iVillage and NBC Universal. More information about Operative can be found at: www.operative.com.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) March 5, 2008 — ad:tech San Francisco, an interactive marketing and technology conference and exhibition, will be held April 15-17 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Attendees will learn how to become masters of two-way conversation in the expanding world of digital marketing.

ad:tech will explore game-changing opportunities such as online video, social networking, mobile advertising, widgets, digital out-of-home advertising and more. One session explores consumers who produce and control their own content using low-cost technology such as a cell phone camera or DVR, forcing advertisers to find new ways to speak to their customers. Failure to engage with these increasingly elusive customers means being left behind.

“Consumers are the new producers, new creative directors and new content creators,” said Drew Ianni, Senior Global Analyst & Programming Chair. “Advertisers must figure out how they fit into the new content landscape.”

Keynote speakers include top marketing experts Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chief Business Development Officer, VP of Eastman Kodak Company and George Kliavkoff, Chief Digital Officer of NBC Universal. Hayzlett will provide valuable insights that help marketing executives responsible for big brands make decisions on new media, and Kliavkoff will share his expertise from developing new business models and markets.

Today’s consumer has found a new sense of power, expecting on-demand content and control over their media consumption. Advertisers are now forced to adapt to this change. “Consumers’ greater control is giving advertisers both an opportunity and a responsibility to deliver the right message to the consumer while continuing to provide a greater depth of engagement,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. “Digital media is unique in its ability to deliver the right message at the right time in an engaging format.” Rothenberg will speak at the State of the Industry Keynote Roundtable on Wednesday, April 16 at 10 a.m.

Speakers participating in key conversations at ad:tech include executives from Coca Cola, Nestlé and Martha Stewart Living. One such discussion, “The Art of Conversation – Building Great Brands in the Digital Age,” examines ways to create a dialogue now that the customer rules of engagement have changed.

“The interruption/disruption model, so long used for television advertising, is dying out. Marketers are realizing that to connect with consumers in any kind of meaningful way, they need to be in the content business — producing messages that are so compelling, entertaining or informative that consumers will actually seek them out, and even share them with others,” said Geoff Ramsey, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of eMarketer. Ramsey will discuss the online video revolution during the Wednesday, April 16, 4 p.m. session titled “The Geoff Ramsey Experience.”

Additional sessions include:

Urban Wallpaper: Digital Signage and the Rise of the Fourth Screen – The era of the “Fourth Screen” is poised to radically alter both advertiser and consumer perception of what digital media is and what purpose it serves in daily life. Discover how increasing prevalence of digital signage, embedded screens, projected interfaces and kiosks presents a range of new considerations and opportunities for both advertisers and consumers.

You Don’t Know Jack! Teens Speak Out – Samantha Skey, EVP Strategic Marketing for Alloy Media + Marketing helps marketers decode teens’ daily dose of media activity and preferences by talking to digitally savvy teens with candid opinions about what’s hot and what’s not on stage.

Making Widgets and Gadgets Work for You – Widgets and gadgets are presenting increasing opportunities for marketers, letting them expand their audience and reach with key influencers. Be sure to tune in to this discussion with major stakeholders representing the popular social platforms, featuring the research, analytics and solutions for building and deploying these mini-applications across the social media ecosystem.

ad:tech San Francisco will once again play host to the annual ad:tech Awards, honoring the 2008 winners in a ceremony at Mezzanine in San Francisco on the first night of the exposition, Tuesday, April 15. ad:tech will recognize more than 30 winners for their creative contributions and honor three marketing veterans with the Industry Achievement Award. For more information about the ceremony, visit: http://www.ad-tech.com/awards/Ceremony.asp.

More than 300 companies at ad:tech San Francisco will provide answers as they help attendees evaluate solutions and stay ahead of the curve. Exhibitors include DoubleClick, Interactive Media, Google, Infobright, LookSmart, Mobile Marketing Association, Motive Interactive, Nielsen Online, Omniture, SeeSaw Networks and ValueClick.

Diamond sponsor: AdShuffle. Platinum sponsors: Casale Media, Ybrant Digital. Gold sponsors: ADRevolution, kowa!bunga. Silver sponsors: AdECN, Advertising.com, BOSSdev, BridgeTrack, GenieKnows.com, Petsky Prunier, Right Media, Ripple, The Useful. Bronze sponsors: AdDrive, Clickbooth, Consumer Direct, EDP, Findology, Leapfrog Online. Premier media partners: Advertising Age, Fast Company, Forbes.com, iMedia Connection, Revenue. Media partners: AdRants, BtoB, blogher, Direct, Digital Moses Confidential, DMNews, eMarketer, MarketingSherpa, pairup, PersonalLife Media, PRWeb, SearchMarketing, SmartBrief, Target Marketing. Association partners: Mobile Marketing Association, Online Publishers Association, BIG, Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

Complete information about the ad:tech San Francisco conference and exposition can be found at: http://www.ad-tech.com/sf/

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, Miami, 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.

New York, NY – March 3, 2008. Operative, a global technology and ad operations services provider, today announced a reseller partnership with ADTECH, provider of integrated ad management.  This alliance will enable digital publishers to leverage best of breed integrated ad management technologies and operational support services through one touch point.

Through the partnership, customers of ADTECH and Operative can tap into Operative’s ad trafficking and campaign management expertise, as well as competitive ad serving rates utilizing ADTECH.   Publishers will benefit from Operative’s robust Managed Services team to help users better understand and maximise the full functionality of the ad server, as well as drive optimal campaign performance from the onset.
“By partnering with Operative we can offer customers additional and optional value added services such as outsourced operations (trafficking) and a sales order processing solution,” said Dirk Freytag, CEO, ADTECH.  “They have a great track record for advising and simplifying ad operations for its customers. This partnership is another step toward advancing widespread adoption of our digital marketing solutions.”

“Operative is excited about working with ADTECH – a company that is adapting and growing in line and ahead of market requirements,” said Mike Leo, CEO and President, Operative.  “We believe partnerships that bring together complementary solutions will enable our customers to scale their business while providing deep advertiser value.”

To learn more about ADTECH’s ad serving technology, please visit www.operative.com or www.adtechus.com.

About ADTECH
ADTECH is an international leader of digital marketing solutions. The company’s flagship product is the Helios IQ ad serving platform. It enables web publishers to manage, serve and evaluate virtually any kind of online advertising campaign including display, video and mobile formats. The Helios IQ ad serving platform differentiates itself via its scalable, enterprise-class infrastructure and publisher-friendly tools, providing publishers with increased efficiency, reliability and ROI for their online advertising business. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, ADTECH is an independent and wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL’s Advertising.com division. Globally, ADTECH AG works with customers in more than 25 countries.

About Operative
Established in 2000, Operative is a global organisation that provides its clients with technology and services to improve all aspects of their advertising operations lifecycle, from pre-sale to collections, trafficking to reconciliation. OperativeDashboard™, an ASP software solution, is an end-to-end workflow management platform that enables media publishers to automate contract management, product packaging and pricing, inventory management, campaign reporting and revenue recognition. Operative’s client base includes The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, MSN, Smart Money, iVillage, NBC Universal, and National Public Broadcasting. More information about Operative can be found at: operative.com.

Full findings of the study, its methodology and results are being presented this afternoon at the iMedia Brand Summit in Coconut Point, Florida.

The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks. While many online media companies use click-through rate as an ad negotiation currency, the study shows that heavy clickers are not representative of the general public. In fact, heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers.

Further preliminary Starcom data suggests no correlation between display ad clicks and brand metrics, and show no connection between measured attitude towards a brand and the number of times an ad for that brand was clicked. The research presentation suggests that when digital campaigns have a branding objective, optimizing for high click rates does not necessarily improve campaign performance.

“There is more and more emphasis by advertisers for greater return-on-objectives in campaigns, particularly in the digital space where the accountability data is so readily available,“ says Starcom USA Director of Connections Research and Analytics Grant Prentice. “Natural Born Clickers shows us that we can’t count on click-through rate as our primary success metric for display ads; Starcom is more reliant on shifts in brand attitude metrics and analytics tying on-line exposure to sales as the true measures of online advertising efficacy.”

“While the click can continue to be a relevant metric for direct response advertising campaigns, this study demonstrates that click performance is the wrong measure for the effectiveness of brand-building campaigns,” said Erin Hunter, executive vice president at comScore. “For many campaigns, the branding effect of the ads is what’s really important and generating clicks is more of an ancillary benefit. Ultimately, judging a campaign’s effectiveness by clicks can be detrimental because it overlooks the importance of branding while simultaneously drawing conclusions from a sub-set of people who may not be representative of the target audience.”

“One of the underlying values of looking at people and not just pages in our business is that we are able to help uncover behavior that is counterintuitive to what much of the media world assumes about online audiences,” says Daniel Jaye, CEO of TACODA.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore analysts apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by nearly 900 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

Starcom USA is a full-service media division of Starcom MediaVest Group (www.smvgroup.com), which is ranked one of the largest media communications agencies in the world and encompasses an integrated network of highly specialized consumer contact companies. Starcom’s organization includes strategic marketing communication architects who are highly specialized in media management, response media, internet and digital communications, as well as multicultural, entertainment, sports sponsorship and event marketing and media. With over 900 employees in the U.S., Starcom delivers brand-building results for many of the world’s leading companies.

TACODA®, Inc. (www.tacoda.com), a wholly owned division of AOL and a Platform A company,runs one of the worlds largest and most advanced behavioral targeting advertising networks. Since 2001, TACODA has provided a comprehensive range of behavioral targeting solutions to thousands of web publihers and brand marketers. Its patent pending technologies power TACODA Audience Networks™, which enables brand advertisers to target relevant messages to specific audience segments. TACODA Audience Networks™ has more than 4,500 sites reaching over 120 million monthly unique users. Major US media partners include Dow Jones, The New York Times Company, NBC Universal, Hoovers, HGTV.com, FoodNetwork.com, KBB.com and USAToday.com.