“There is significant opportunity for retailers to increase sales by taking advantage of new technologies,” said Catherine Moellering, executive vice president of Tobe, an international fashion and retail authority. “Understanding that the business opportunities the internet has offered retailers can be overwhelming, Tobe has identified specific strategies that will have the greatest impact on top line growth.”

Here are Tobe’s top ten tips for retailers:

1. Treat the home page like a storefront window. Recognize it is the face of the brand and use it as a selling point, showing all features and enticing consumers to explore deeper into the site.

2. Retailers must have a blogging strategy. Ignoring the blogging community gives anyone the opportunity to become the voice of the brand. Whether penning their own blog or sending product to influential bloggers, retailers need a blogging strategy to ensure their point of view is conveyed.

3. Invest in new technologies to drive sales and marketing initiatives. From streaming video to smart phone apps, a number of new technologies can directly translate to sales. Educate consumers through streaming fashion shows and expert commentary, while marketing new promotions through mobile coupons.

4. Test potential brand extension through Internet exclusive product launches. The internet is a cost-efficient way to test new product lines and gain immediate customer feedback before making the investment in brick-and-mortar stores.

5. Utilize the Internet to take customer service to the next level. Leverage live-chat dialogues, online fit guides and personalized product recommendations to better serve customers and reduce cart abandonment.

6. Build customer loyalty with a unique online selling proposition. A unique offering such as donating a percentage of sales to charity, matching competitor coupons, or providing year-round free shipping drives traffic to your site and makes your brand memorable.

7. Stay connected to your consumer by offering online gift registries and wish lists. Use registries and wish lists to gain lifestyle information about your consumers and the people who care about them. Anniversary reminders sent each year make repeat gift purchases convenient and build loyalty.

8. Reach your customers where they live online. Different consumer groups use the internet in different ways. Push beyond Facebook and Twitter to sites such as PopSugar, Tumblr and Delicious that are gaining traction with niche consumer audiences.

9. Don’t take your eye off the fundamentals of search engines. While social networking sites are important for maintaining a connection to the consumer, purchases are more likely to occur through a search engine. Retailers need to continue investing in SEO and key word searches.

10. Don’t underestimate the power of customer reviews. Consumers are more likely to make a purchase from retail sites that include product reviews. In-fact, sites that include occasional negative reviews are seen as being more credible than those listing only positive feedback.
Tobe, a division of The Doneger Group, is an international fashion and retail consulting service that provides in-depth fashion and retail analysis, trend forecasting, product and brand development, merchandising and strategic planning and market news. Tobe develops strategic thinking on top-level issues to allow for long-term positioning and business development. Best known for the Tobe Report, their team of seasoned editors concentrates on consumer-based trend direction and business shifts. Tobe reviews the retail and wholesale landscape with a focus on store analysis, market direction and the impact of pop culture and media.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. – Harris Connect, the leader in providing innovative affinity marketing solutions for alumni and membership organizations for more than four decades, will preview its newest solution at this year’s CASE Summit in San Francisco, CA. Designed to help organizations engage their alumni and members in a way they prefer, Kurt Worrell, Senior Vice President of Consumer Sales and Marketing, will also host a session focused specifically on how the higher ed marketplace can integrate mobile technologies into their existing communications strategy.

Harris Connect Mobile

Launched in the second quarter of 2009 for the higher ed market, Harris Connect Mobile will soon be available to membership associations and other affinity groups. With this initial release, colleges and universities have the ability to send highly targeted messages and information – on a 100% opt-in basis – to alumni, students and parents via cell phone or other mobile device using a Mobile Content Manager. Constituents subscribe to receive specific types of content by SMS (or text), which can range from sports scores and university news, to event announcements and reminders, to special offers from affinity partners and more. In addition, this solution also allows for downloadable mobile applications to be sourced from existing RSS feeds and admin-generated rich or dynamic content.

According to Worrell, mobile messaging opens up one more powerful communication stream for colleges and universities to use in reaching their constituents. “More than 200 million people in the U.S. today carry a cell phone, and virtually all cell phones are capable of receiving text messages,” he explains. “In fact, with the introduction of smartphones like the iPhone and others, people have begun using their phones for much more than just voice communications – and text messages actually surpassed voice messages in cell phone usage last year.”

While companies and news outlets around the world have been experimenting with mobile marketing strategies for several years, the application has real significance for higher ed and other membership based groups. To begin, the age range for those using text messaging on a daily basis is between 18-49 – making mobile devices a primary communications method for a vast majority of an organization’s constituency. The strategy also has a wide array of applications for colleges and universities. For instance, alumni relations and development offices can push event information to alumni and accept registrations on the spot via click-to-call to increase participation. Plus, the ability to conduct surveys and polls quickly helps keep alumni engaged and provides immediate feedback. The Mobile Content Manager also provides design options using images, text and html – affording colleges and universities the ability to reinforce their core brand by incorporating graphics and audio into messages, such as the school’s seal, mascot or fight song.

All this is combined with in-depth reporting and other backend tools that ultimately help colleges and universities extend their reach and realize higher response rates. CASE Summit attendees can view a demonstration of this next generation marketing tool at Harris Connect’s Product Launch Reception on Thursday, July 9 from 3:45-4:15 Pacific time in the Pacific N Room, as well as at their booth (#28) in the Exhibit Hall. Information can also be accessed by mobile, of course, by texting HARRIS to 258664.

CASE SUMMIT 2009 CONCURRENT SESSION – Friday, July 10

Adopting a Mobile Strategy: Why It’s Important & How to Get Started

In his session at CASE Summit in July, Worrell will discuss the importance of implementing a mobile strategy – looking specifically at how this newest technology can enhance advancement efforts. He’ll do this by examining industry trends and best practices, as well as highlighting cases where alumni and development offices have begun using mobile marketing to build participation and engagement.

In addition to learning about mobile marketing in general, attendees will gain in-depth knowledge of the user experience by walking through a typical mobile campaign – allowing them to opt-in, receive a text message and interact via their mobile devices. A demonstration of how Harris Connect’s mobile platform works to create and distribute content, as well as track results will also be included.

Worrell joined Harris Connect in 1990 and has since held management positions in virtually all areas of the company’s operations. In 2004, he was a driving force in implementing the launch of the Data Services product line having previously worked as a technical consultant teaming with many colleges and universities on projects ranging from data integration to profiling and target marketing. In his current role, Worrell oversees the consumer-facing areas of the operation focused on Consumer Sales and Marketing and Business Development. In 2009, he partnered with Acuity Mobile to create and launch a mobile platform. Worrell received his bachelor’s degree in business communications from Bentley University.

About Harris Connect

Founded in 1963, Harris Connect is the leading provider of affinity marketing solutions including alumni and member publications that range from directories to coffee-table editions to commemorative books; research services to update email, phone and mailing address information; online communities and applications built on the Facebook platform; and now mobile marketing strategies, as well as programs designed to produce non-dues revenue for their clients. Today, Harris Connect serves more than 4,000 clients worldwide. The company is headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia with offices in New York and Texas.

For more information about Harris Connect Mobile in particular, simply text HARRIS at 258664 or go to harriconnect.com/mobile. For general inquiries, send an email to moreinfo@harrisconnect.com or call 1.800.326.6600.

AUSTIN, Texas – Pluck® Corporation, the leading provider of integrated social media solutions to top digital destinations, announced its new analytics tools for the Pluck® SiteLife® platform. Available immediately, SiteLife Analytics helps Pluck customers make better business decisions by having access to actionable intelligence about their Web site’s users, content and interactions. With this information, organizations can allocate resources more effectively and uncover new monetization opportunities through social media.

“As social media has exploded on Web sites all over the world, Pluck has fueled market adoption by providing the leading enterprise platform to over 400 global customers,” said Steve Semelsberger, senior vice president and general manager of Pluck, a subsidiary of Demand Media. “From this leadership position, we have partnered with our customers to develop a new suite of tools that provides critical insight to a variety of key business stakeholders, including executives, marketers, editors, site administrators and community managers.”

As publishers, brands and retailers continue to experience adoption and acceptance of their online communities, an additional level of sophistication is required to better understand and manage that growth. SiteLife Analytics makes it possible for management to discover popular content, track and measure community growth, identify valuable users and community hotspots. This information is delivered via core activity reports in an intuitive, graphical dashboard with a flexible range of additional output formats. In conjunction with Pluck’s highly experienced Account Services teams, SiteLife Analytics is the basis for taking measurement, analysis and action-ability even further with detailed engagement mapping and dollar-level ROI modeling.

“Our feedback to the Pluck team has resulted in new features and functionality in SiteLife,” said Jordan Gold, vice president of products and content for Freedom Interactive. “SiteLife Analytics is an important step forward in enabling organizations to measure ROI. We expect that SiteLife Analytics will help us identify hotspots of activity that could become new opportunities for sponsorship and advertising.”

SiteLife Analytics also provides publishers with multiple Web sites with the option to aggregate social media intelligence from various properties into one centralized analysis platform. An integrated reports archive powers an unlimited scope of analysis with a lifetime of community data available for customized segmentation and data mining.

Pluck SiteLife offers comprehensive social media capabilities and is broadly deployed on more than 400 leading digital destinations. Pluck capabilities are seamlessly integrated via easy-to-deploy widgets and a robust set of platform-level APIs that allow site publishers to tailor social media experiences to the needs of their distinct audiences.

About Demand Media

As the leader in distributed social media, Demand Media™ makes possible more than 3 billion conversations every month. Demand Media’s Pluck enterprise group delivers world-class platform technology and services for integrated social media and currently powers community for leading digital destinations including BSkyB, Condé Nast, Discovery Communications, Kraft, the NFL, RealNetworks, Whole Foods Market, and The Washington Post. The privately held company was founded in May 2006 and is based in Santa Monica, CA, with offices in Bellevue, WA, Austin, TX, New York, NY and London, UK.

LOS ANGELES – Buzznet, which operates the web’s largest community of pop culture web sites with an audience of 40 million unique monthly users, announced that it has changed its name to Buzz Media, Inc. The newly-named company will focus on the continued growth of its socially programmed web sites, including Celebuzz, Buzznet, the Superficial, SocialiteLife, What Would Tyler Durden Do, Stereogum, Idolator, Just Jared and Absolute Punk.

In addition, Buzz Media announced that it has secured a new round of financing totaling $12.5 million. Focus Ventures, a Palo Alto, California based venture firm with more than $830 million under management, joined the latest round. Existing investors, including Anthem Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Redpoint Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures, also participated in the round.

Buzz Media’s unique social programming platform enables its professional editorial teams to leverage the programming contributions from its audience of millions of passionate and knowledgeable members. This approach allows the company to cost-effectively program thousands of topics in a deep and dynamic manner, driving a large, engaged, influential and loyal audience across its leading pop culture branded properties.

“This latest round of financing further validates our strategy of using social programming to build the most authentic and authoritative pop culture brands on the web,” said Tyler Goldman, CEO, Buzz Media. “In these challenging economic times, it’s also extremely efficient.”

Buzz Media will use the funds for the continued growth of its portfolio of leading pop culture properties. More than 40 million people worldwide visit Buzz Media properties every month. The company’s pop culture focused portfolio includes leading online music and celebrity destinations.

“Buzz Media’s unique publishing approach has not only allowed it to build the leading pop culture brands on the web, it has also enabled the company to produce highly programmed campaigns within its portfolio of leading branded properties for advertisers to engage its large and influential audience,” said Steve Bird at Focus Ventures. “We believe that these types of highly targeted and content-rich experiences are a major part of the future of advertising on the web, and are pleased to lead this new round of funding.”

Focus Ventures, Buzz Media’s newest backer, specializes in privately held, expansion stage technology companies. Other investments have included EqualLogic, acquired by Dell, Pure Digital, and Six Apart.

About Buzz Media Inc.

Buzz Media Inc. is the web’s largest pop culture community. By utilizing its proprietary social media platform, the Buzz Media team brings together professional news content, respected voices in the industry, and user-generated input to create the most up-to-the-minute, deep and dynamic content on the web, allowing passionate members the ability to consume, create, and connect. Celebuzz is a pop culture and community destination presenting the most comprehensive and colorful coverage on celebrity. Buzznet is one of the fastest growing online music communities providing fans the platform to create in-depth music experiences surrounding artists and bands they love.

For more information, please visit: buzz-media.com.

“Livemercial revolutionized the direct response industry by introducing innovative video and online technologies that generated and converted leads better than anyone in the industry,” said Johnny Mathis, Jr., CEO, Livemercial. “Today, we have changed the industry again by introducing the first direct response platform that integrates the next wave of online engagement – social media marketing.”

The Social Response Pack offers Livemercial clients a turn-key solution for creating branded channels on popular social media sites, including YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Blogger. In addition to establishing brands’ presence on these social media sites, Livemercial will offer clients on-demand support to help cultivate an online community around their products.

“Many of the products our clients offer are perfectly suited for social media,” said Peter Altieri, Livemercial COO. “Products like Spacebags, Alteril and Zorbeez often develop phenomenally passionate fans who want to share their stories with like-minded people. With SRP, we are offering an easy, low-risk way for our clients to connect these fans to online communities that grow organically through user-generated content.”

Research continues to prove the powerful influence of social media content on buying behavior and conversion, such as:

* According to Jupiter Research, social network users are three times more likely to trust peer opinions over advertising when making purchasing decisions
* According to BuzzAgent, one word-of-mouth conversation has the impact of 200 TV ads
* According to Marketing Sherpa, 87 percent of people trust a friend’s recommendation over a review by a critic

“With SRP, we can help our clients connect with the power of social media as part of an integrated marketing solution,” says Altieri. “As such, clients can leverage Livemercial analytics and performance tracking across all online channels, enabling the adjustment of marketing focus and messages in real-time – as well as tracking the return on investment for each online channel.”

The SRP platform is the latest addition to Livemercial’s online direct response marketing tools, which are used by the leading product marketers, innovators and brands. Other Livemercial innovations include a high-performance research and development solution called LiveLabs, which provides industry-leading campaign analysis models to design and deliver high-conversion direct response campaigns. LiveEye offers the industry’s first complete fraud and trademark protection service.

“We are extremely excited to introduce SRP, and believe that social media marketing is a perfect complement to our direct response services,” said Mathis. “We founded Livemercial with a mission to help inventors, entrepreneurs and companies bring new products to market as quickly, and as cost-effectively, as possible. Six years later, we have successfully combined the best direct marketing techniques with the latest online technologies. I expect that SRP will extend our success, and our lead in the industry, for many years to come.”

About Livemercial

Founded in 2002, Livemercial pioneered and is the largest provider of “instant on” streaming video for email, pop-ups, banners and direct response websites. The company leads the direct response industry in single product sales, utilizing cutting-edge technologies, social media and e-commerce solutions to design, deploy and manage strategic online marketing campaigns including email procurement, banner and pop-up placement, search engine optimization and contextual marketing.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – 1105 Government Information Group, the leading provider of integrated information and media for the government information technology (IT) market, announced that it is promoting FOSE 2009 and the GovSec, U.S. Law Conference and Exhibition via social networking initiatives. Utilizing Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as other blogs and Web forums, FOSE and GovSec, U.S. Law are reaching federal IT managers, creating excitement about the events, and educating previous/prospective attendees about educational opportunities and featured exhibits.

FOSE – the largest trade show for government technology professionals – is co-located this year with GovSec, U.S. Law. The events are scheduled for March 10-12, 2009 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.

“Social networking initiatives are changing the communications landscape and redefining how citizens interact with government,” said Christina Condos, Vice President of Events for 1105 Government Information Group. “We are connecting with hundreds of new and existing show attendees through online communities. Once there, attendees are not only sharing information about the scheduled events, but are also understanding new ways to use social networking initiatives to improve their relationships with taxpayers, vendors, and customers.”

Below are a list of social networking sites with links to information about FOSE and GovSec, U.S. Law:

* LinkedIn http://tinyurl.com/clxkz5

* Twitter http://www.twitter.com/FOSE2009

* Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-DC/FOSE-2009/50718708094

“Social networking sites meet customers where they live and work – on the Internet,” said Mitch Arnowitz, Managing Director, Tuvel Communications. “1105 Government Information Group is truly an early adopter of this technology, helping federal IT managers to understand the benefits of social networking through practical application.”

Since 1976, FOSE has been in the forefront of the government technology revolution, contributing to many technological and creative developments that have helped shape public and private sector initiatives. FOSE remains the premier meeting and solutions marketplace for government technology and program management professionals. Featuring groundbreaking education, smart solutions, and unparalleled networking events and programs, FOSE brings together an audience that shares a passion for computing and technology.

For information on all the conference program and exhibitors participating at FOSE 2009, please visit: http://www.fose.com or for information about GovSec, U.S. Law, please visit http://www.govsecinfo.com/. To register as press for both events, contact A.J. Guenther at 571-323-2585, ext. 2130 or aj@connellyworks.com.

About GovSec (March 11-12, 2009 www.govsecinfo.com)

GovSec is the premier conference and exposition for government security. Established in 2002, GovSec features tools, systems, and products that meet the comprehensive security needs of federal, state, and local governments and the U.S. military, including: asset protection; cyber and information protection; and the integration of these critical functions. The 2009 theme, “convergence of physical and logical security” will optimize the event’s co-location with FOSE and explore how physical and IT security can be enhanced by collaboration.

About U.S. Law (March 11-12, 2009 www.govsecinfo.com)

The U.S. Law Enforcement Conference and Exposition provides an unparalleled forum that drives federal, state, and local interaction within the law enforcement communities and offers products and solutions that meet the ever-changing needs and roles of today’s law enforcement agencies. U.S. Law addresses the needs of federal law enforcement and promotes collaboration and coordination between those officers and state and local police. Additionally, this year’s program will focus on public safety IT and how agencies across the nation can better coordinate and collaborate through advancements in IT, information sharing, and interoperable communications. The event also provides state and local officers with insight on how homeland security concerns will affect local jurisdictions and offers them valuable tools to meet these challenges.

About 1105 Government Information Group

1105 Government Information Group is the leading provider of integrated information and media for the government information technology market. Our comprehensive portfolio of print, online, event, custom media and research products distinctively serves the information needs of the government IT buying team—agency executives, program managers, IT managers and systems integrators—across all segments of federal, state and local government. Flagship news and information brands include Defense Systems, Federal Computer Week, FEND, GCN, and Washington Technology. Flagship events include the Federal 100, FOSE, GCN Awards, Government Leadership Summit, GovSec, U.S. Law, Washington Technology Top 100 and a series of conferences focused on collaboration, networking and education. www.1105govinfo.com

EMERYVILLE, Calif. – Lithium Technologies, the leading provider of on-demand customer community solutions for the enterprise, announced the launch of Lithium Insights, the first and only set of analytic solutions available to accurately measure and benchmark the health of online communities. Lithium Insights includes the Community Health Index and the Lifecycle Benchmark Service enabling customers to proactively monitor six key dimensions of community health, compare their communities’ performance to benchmarks and, most importantly, receive step-by-step recommendations to help improve performance. The Community Health Index is designed as an open standard, available for use by all in the customer community industry as a common way to measure community health.

“Lithium’s strength in reporting and metrics has helped us drive success with our customer community,” said Mark Hopkins, project manager for social media at Lenovo. “Having access to the Community Health Index and Lithium’s ability to benchmark our community against peers in size, tenure, and type provides us with insights that guide and optimize our growth and help us achieve our business objectives.”

In the October 2008 Forrester Report, Metrics for Social Applications in a Downturn, Josh Bernoff wrote, “Your social application should be aimed at a specific objective. Unless you measure progress toward that objective, you have no idea whether you’re accomplishing anything valuable.”

The challenge is that with so many possible characteristics to measure, it has been unclear to community managers which metrics should be used. What is more, many community managers are unclear about how to use those metrics to determine how to improve the health of their community. With Lithium Insights, the company has pioneered the science of community measurement and has developed two separate, but complementary solutions to address these needs for community managers:

* Lithium’s Community Health Index allows businesses to easily and accurately measure the six key characteristics of a healthy community: growth, usefulness of content, level of traffic, degree of responsiveness, interactivity, and liveliness. In combination, these characteristics allow companies to quantitatively measure and compare the progress of their community initiatives in a unified way. Lithium has developed this methodology based on scientific research from hundreds of customer communities and 10 years of experience. Controlling for differences in communities’ function and focus, Lithium has identified a set of qualities that unites healthy online communities of all kinds. Lithium customers will receive their Health Index on a weekly basis along with recommendations to address opportunity areas. In addition, the methodology will be available for anyone to use to identify their own health index rating.
* The Lifecycle Benchmark Service builds on the Community Health Index and offers the ability to benchmark the success and health of an online community from the very first hours of the community launch and throughout the communities’ life. In fact, within the first 4 hours of launch, Lithium begins sending the customer reports about the health of its community that can help predict the long-term success of a community. Additionally, if supporting data indicates that a community isn’t heading in the right direction, corrective action can be taken proactively to correct course.

“Through its Benchmark Service, Lithium is taking advantage of the predictive power of the Community Health Index. By mapping a community’s health index against appropriate benchmarks, the company can point out which levers to pull to attain the desired outcomes. As a result, community managers can be more effective in their jobs, and the community as a whole will be healthier, and therefore more effective in meeting business goals,” said Matthew Lees, vice president and analyst at the Patricia Seybold Group.

Lithium Insights is part of the company’s next generation platform release which includes numerous new capabilities dedicated to customer success. The new platform includes enhancements to drive engagement such as search-engine friendly mark-up, video, rich-media capabilities, and a widget-based interface that allows for rapid tailoring to customer needs. These new innovations enable customers to react to new insights quickly and take action to meet their business objectives without the need for a large staff or IT investments.

“At a recent industry roundtable, brands, vendors, and partners agreed that it was an imperative for all of us to develop a common way to measure the health of communities,” said Lyle Fong, CEO of Lithium Technologies. “We developed the Community Health Index based on our research and experience in the industry as a way to jump start this imperative. As an open methodology that can be used by all community managers, regardless of whether they are a Lithium customer, our hope is that this is the beginning of an industry-wide discussion about a common metric and look forward to the broader community’s feedback.”

“We applaud Lithium for sharing its Community Health Index with the industry. Lithium’s massive data set and years of experience put it in a near-unique leadership role to start the dialogue on benchmarking standards,” said Lees.

About Lithium Technologies

Lithium is the leading provider of customer-centric social networking solutions for the enterprise. Working with market leaders such as Best Buy, Sony, AT&T, Research In Motion Limited (RIM), Univision, and PayPal, Lithium delivers online customer communities that work. Lithium solutions inspire customers to share knowledge, connect with each other, and connect with the enterprise, thus providing a unique method for companies to identify, engage, and understand customers. As a result, businesses measurably improve their marketing and sales, accelerate innovation, and increase customer satisfaction. Lithium’s platform is proven in high-volume, growth environments and provides the security, analytics, APIs, and multi-language support that enterprises demand. Founded in 2001, Lithium is privately held with headquarters in Emeryville, California. For more information, visit www.lithium.com.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=5904093&lang=en

EMERYVILLE, Calif. – Lyris, Inc., the online marketing expert, announced that executives Blaine Mathieu, CMO, and Erick Mott, communications director, will present at the 2009 Email Evolution Conference. Mathieu will join industry leaders from Kaiser Permanente and Convince & Convert to deliver a presentation titled “Search & Email: The Yin & Yang of Online Marketing,” and discuss how leading companies are optimizing the intersection of search and email.

WHEN: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 3:30 p.m. MT

WHERE: Westin Kierland, Scottsdale, AZ

Erick Mott will moderate a discussion on the case study, “Lessons Learned from a Cool, Cause-Marketing Initiative,” led in partnership with the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which Lyris supports, and a volunteer-team of Email Experience Council members from many different organizations. He will also present how social media and online communities can help cause-marketing initiatives.

WHEN: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 10:15 a.m. MT

WHERE: Westin Kierland, Scottsdale, AZ

Lyris will be exhibiting in the Experience Hall at Booth #204. Conference attendees and those unable to join can connect with Lyris presenters and discuss related topics on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Jointly organized by the DMA and The Email Experience Council, the 2009 Email Evolution Conference is organized by and for email marketers. For more information, visit: http://www.the-dma.org/conferences/emailevolution/index.shtml.

About Lyris, Inc.

Lyris, Inc. (OTCBB:LYRI) is the online marketing expert delivering the right mix of software technology and industry knowledge to help its customers simplify their marketing efforts and optimize campaign ROI. Through the delivery of the industry’s first on-demand integrated marketing suite, Lyris HQ, and knowledge-sharing community, www.lyrishq.com, to secure and reliable on-premise solutions, including Lyris ListManager, Lyris provides customers the right tools to optimize the management, collaboration and execution of their online and mobile marketing initiatives. These sophisticated, yet easy-to-use tools provide marketers a suite of best-of-breed applications for managing email marketing campaigns, publishing and managing Web site content, creating landing pages, optimizing Web sites and search engine marketing. Clients include ACCESS Systems Americas, Adobe, American Apparel, Body Glove, Johns Hopkins University, JupiterMedia and Nokia. For more information, please visit www.lyris.com. The company is based in Emeryville, Calif.

CAMBRIDGE, MA AND SALT LAKE CITY, UT – December 10, 2008 – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, and Vehix, a multi-platform digital automotive network, today announced that Akamai’s Dynamic Site Accelerator service is accelerating its automotive web site. More than 2 million unique visitors each month visit www.vehix.com. Vehix is also using Akamai’s Media Delivery solution to deliver rich, online video content, such as video buying guides on Vehix’s Video Center. Powered by Akamai, Vehix delivers informative, easy-to-use, and interactive online video buying guides, allowing consumers to conduct automotive research that makes their car-buying experience easier and more enjoyable.

E-commerce web sites are becoming richer – offering more dynamic content, applications, and video. To engage shoppers, these features must load quickly and perform as expected. Vehix is leveraging the globally-distributed Akamai Platform to improve performance across its site, including image delivery, dynamic elements – such as search inventory, research pages, ratings and forums – and video assets, creating a complete high-quality online experience and user engagement for consumers and car dealers through its online community.

“From comparing information on resale values to researching for a new car model, our site is an active marketplace where consumers and dealers gather the latest car information,” said Michael van Thiel, chief technology officer, Vehix. “And as online communities become more sophisticated, consumers seek far more innovative, personalized features as part of their web experiences. Therefore, we’ve added more dynamic content, video and applications to our site that ensure an engaging, interactive experience for our users and dealers in which they can search, preview and watch video reliably and quickly when looking for car information. We have seen improvement in speed double in certain parts of the country and expect more as we fully optimize Akamai’s offering. Akamai is the clear choice for us to deliver such an engaging online user experience.”

Leveraging Akamai’s Media Delivery solution, e-commerce customers such as Vehix can deliver and deploy video quickly and effectively, allowing customers to view rich media without the typical loading, buffering and playback issues that often plagues streaming video. Akamai’s Dynamic Site Accelerator solution is designed to speed up and accelerate the delivery of dynamic and interactive content and transactions. As a result, e-commerce customers have indicated that Akamai’s solutions help them meet today’s consumer expectations for a fast-loading, always available site, regardless of the number of interactive elements, dynamically-generated content, or variance in Internet conditions.

“The trend to leverage online video, user forums and reviews, as well as other social media and interactive features on e-commerce sites, is expected to continue as retailers discover the real value of rich media and Internet applications. Akamai is key to ensuring this multi-platform approach via our broad solution set,” said Brad Rinklin, vice president, global marketing, Akamai. “We believe that by leveraging Akamai’s Dynamic Site Accelerator and Media Delivery solutions, our customers can not only accelerate the delivery and performance of their dynamic content and applications online, but can also provide the best possible online shopping environment for end-users who expect an engaging and interactive site.”

About Vehix
Vehix is a multi-platform digital automotive network designed to provide consumers with a truly one-stop automotive shopping experience. Vehix, through its unique content, inventory and advertising network, offers superior written and video content, objective third-party information and best-in-class research tools. All of Vehix’s car research and purchase tools are available on multiple platforms, including the Internet, cable television, video-on-demand, and on mobile devices. Vehix launched in 1996 as an online automotive portal designed to facilitate the research and purchase processes for consumers. Vehix is owned by Comcast Spotlight, a division of Comcast Cable. For more information, visit www.vehix.com.

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

SAN FRANCISCO – LookSmart, Ltd. (NASDAQ:LOOK), a pay-per-click (PPC) search advertising network and technology solutions provider, today announced the launch of its Thought Leadership Series, a blog featuring online advertising industry visionaries such as John Battelle, Danny Sullivan, Charles Knight and Anita Campbell.

“We are proud to sponsor this educational series in the hopes that the insights provided will help advertisers make smarter choices in online advertising,” said Ted West, chief executive officer and president of LookSmart. “Providing value to advertisers is our top priority and doing that through great service and lower cost-per-click on a quality network isn’t enough – we need to provide them with the best insights in the business.”

The Thought Leadership Series will feature some of the most influential voices in the online advertising industry covering a diverse range of topics including search advertising, search engine optimization, alternative search engines, small business trends and the conversion of media and online communities. Among the contributors are:

- John Battelle, founder/chairman/CEO of Federated Media Publishing, Inc.
- Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land
- Charles Knight, editor of AltSearchEngines
- Anita Campbell, editor-in-chief of Small Business Trends

You can follow LookSmart’s Thought Leadership Series at: http://blogs.looksmart.com/thought_leadership.

About LookSmart

LookSmart (NASDAQ:LOOK) is the premier search advertising network and management company. A trusted provider of quality search advertising products and services to text advertisers, LookSmart offers targeted pay-per-click search and contextual advertising via its proven Search Advertising Network. For publishers seeking to create their own vertical advertising networks, LookSmart licenses and manages its award-winning AdCenter platform to companies such as Ask.com. Dedicated to the quality of text advertising, LookSmart is one of the five founding members of the IAB click measurement panel. For more information, visit www.LookSmart.com or call 415-348-7500

- Inwindow Outdoor Vaults into Shopping Malls, Will Transform Space into Memorable Advertising Displays Called Mallways™
Inwindow Outdoor, the leader in storefront-based outdoor advertising, announced today the formal launch of its shopping mall initiative, called Mallways™, where the company will transform vacant retail and empty wall space inside malls into eye-catching advertising displays. As an initial step, Inwindow has inked partnerships with prestigious shopping center developers Westfield Group, General Growth Properties and Developers Diversified Realty to manage displays at over 200 of their most desirable locations across the United States.

- Jerry Remy Joins TruMedia Networks’ Lineup
TruMedia Networks, a fast growing social media technology company that builds regional online communities for passionate sports fans, today announced a strategic marketing and content distribution partnership with Boston Red Sox television analyst Jerry Remy. As part of the agreement, Remy will blog exclusively for TruMedia’s Red Sox fan community www.sawxheads.com. Remy’s website, www.theremyreport.com, will become part of the TruMedia advertising network. Remy will also join the TruMedia Networks board of directors.

Check out Ferguson’s interview below – he makes some interesting remarks worth chewing on!

SAN FRANCISCO, CA. Feb. 20, 2008 – VideoEgg Inc., the leading video advertising network for online communities, is launching the AdFramesSM Brand Response Network, an innovative program that provides advertisers a more measurable way to reach highly engaged consumers using video and rich media.

To date, advertisers buy online inventory based on impression, spending a set amount per thousand delivered views, what’s known as CPM. While CPM provides reach and potential, it lacks accountability and forces a high level of risk onto advertisers to determine ad effectiveness. AdFrames allows advertisers to negotiate a price for engagement, a more valuable indicator of consumer interest, and an approach that will help reframe the focus of the industry from quantity to quality.

“Advertisers need to move beyond the metrics of eyeballs and evolve from ‘how many’ to ‘how good,’” said Troy Young, CMO of VideoEgg, the company that pioneered the video ad overlay. “AdFrames leverages our keen understanding of how to drive engagement with innovative ad units and takes risk away from the advertiser. It offers advertisers a predictable approach to distributing highly targeted video and rich media content.”

Microsoft will be one of the first companies to use AdFrames and to benefit from VideoEgg’s accountable brand advertising model. The company plans to use AdFrames to distribute video content promoting Microsoft Office. The product is a natural fit for the marketing program, offering a systematic solution to push out Microsoft’s long-form, entertaining brand content featuring comedian Amy Sedaris. The ads will run across the Eggnetwork which includes hundreds of social sites and applications.

“VideoEgg’s AdFrames approach allows us to deliver high-impact video messaging to an engaged audience, helping us to reach our media objectives, effectively and efficiently,” said Jamie Conner, Media Manager with Microsoft.

The AdFrames solution distributes video or rich media through an innovative, expandable ad unit that can be dynamically formatted to fit any size on a page, widget or online game. This flexibility will enable publishers to better integrate the ad message into their environment. Importantly, Adframes will align incentives across the delivery network by compensating publishers on user engagement. Engagement doesn’t begin until a user rolls over the ad, and the AdFrame Invitation has expanded into an overlay. AdFrames includes a countdown during the roll-over to ensure the user is not engaging with the ad inadvertently.

“Our goal is to bring rich media advertising into the meebo platform and maintain flexibility—the flexibility to deliver a variety of ad experiences,” said Martin Green, Vice President, Business for meebo, the Web’s live interaction platform with a monthly reach of 24 million users. “VideoEgg will help us create ad experiences that work for our users, and we get paid when consumers engage. It makes a lot of sense for everyone.”

Additionally, because VideoEgg manages the entire process, advertisers avoid paying further money to third-party rich media companies that traditionally format the advertising assets—a transaction that can account for 10-20 percent or more of the advertiser’s cost.

“We see tremendous opportunity to use pages, games and widgets to deliver video experiences inside of a brand-focused performance-based ad solution,” said Matt Sanchez, CEO of VideoEgg. “Video is the richest, most effective way to deliver brand messages.”

AdFrames is the latest innovation from the EggnetworkSM, which provides rich media cross leading social networking environments, video sites and gaming applications. Publishers get great brands and dynamic ad sizes, while the consumer has the opportunity, through VideoEgg’s respectful, invitation-based approach, to interact with powerful brand messages. VideoEgg will also continue to provide the classic Eggnetwork model, which is based on targeted CPM-based media buys.

For a demo of the product, go to www.videoegg.com/adframes