Vibrant Media, the global leader in premium contextual advertising, today announced the launch of Vibrant Lightbox Video, connecting brands and audiences in a cinematic way that is user-initiated. A recent study, which Vibrant conducted with Dynamic Logic, found that 81% of consumers prefer online video advertising they can initiate, as opposed to the forced view of pre-roll ads.
Vibrant Lightbox Video brings together sight, sound, and motion for a relevant video experience that captures 100% share of voice for brands. It delivers contextually targeted ads in a brand-safe environment.
Lightbox aligns with Vibrant’s strategic vision to expand its existing suite of contextual solutions with innovative placements that deliver high performance for top brands and new revenue opportunities for quality publishers. Unlike pre-roll, which has a limited supply of content inventory, Lightbox can reach audiences wherever relevant content exists and the video can be triggered by users through Vibrant in-text hyperlinks in content or from Vibrant Image in-image ads. As a result, Lightbox extends the reach of video advertising beyond the confines of pre-existing video content.
Read more: PRWeb

Rocket Fuel Packages Up CPG Booster
REDWOOD SHORES, CA–(Marketwire – May 2, 2012) – Rocket Fuel, the leading provider of artificial-intelligence advertising solutions for digital marketers, today released CPG Booster, an integrated solution to help CPG brands reach the right audience, drive lift in brand metrics, boost coupon downloads, measure offline sales, and maximize campaign ROI.
Key Facts:•Rocket Fuel’s new CPG Booster helps brands optimize digital campaigns — display, video, mobile, and social — to dramatically increase sales, online and off. Already in use by some of the world’s leading CPG companies, including Pinnacle Foods, CPG Booster drives results in every phase of the consumer purchase cycle — from boosting brand awareness, to increasing consideration, to stimulating purchase.

•Based on Rocket Fuel’s flagship advertising management platform that leverages artificial intelligence and predictive data analytics technology to automatically improve campaigns in real-time, CPG Booster enables brands to easily optimize digital campaigns across channels. Campaigns use AI technology to “learn” from each other, automatically adjusting placement, creative, and targeting across billions of advertising opportunities in online display, video, mobile, and social media to reach the right audiences with the right messages at the right point in the purchase process.

•Rocket Fuel and Forrester Research CPG analyst Tracy Stokes will cohost a webinar on the digital challenges CPG marketers face and the impact CPG Booster can provide on 5/30 at 2pm ET. Register here.
Read more: marketwire

comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for April 2011

Earth Day Accelerates Growth at Green Sites
Royal Wedding Drives Interest in Entertainment News Sites

RESTON, Va., May 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. web activity at the top online properties for April 2011 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Green sites saw their second consecutive month of strong growth as Americans looked for ways to celebrate Earth Day (April 22) and cut back on fuel costs. Incentive sites were also popular in April, helping Americans stretch their dollars with promotions, daily deals and free samples, and the Royal Wedding drove gains at Entertainment News sites.

“More than 26 million Americans celebrated Earth Day this year by visiting green websites,” said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “With gas prices climbing past $4.00 a gallon, Americans have a greater incentive to be thinking green to provide some economic relief.”

Green Sites Sprout for Earth Day
The Green category held on to the #1 spot in April, posting an even stronger gain of 32 percent. More than 26 million Americans visited the category during the month, with Shine Green taking the top spot with 7.9 million visitors (up 364 percent). Planet Green Sites came in second with 3.3 million visitors (up 15 percent), followed by Care2.com with 2.0 million (up 11 percent) and Mother Nature Network with 1.8 million (up 24 percent). EnergyGuide.com grew 6 percent to 918,000 visitors, while EPA.gov saw 916,000 (up 10 percent).

Read More: comScore

Ad Choices Update

For the past several months, Media6Degrees has been rolling out the Ad Choices icon in support of the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self Regulatory program. At this point, we’re pleased to announce that the icon is being used on over 90% of our campaigns.

Given our wide adoption, we wanted to share some details on how users are responding to this new message:

• To date, we’ve served almost a billion impressions that included the icon.
• People who see the icon click through to expand the overlay at a rate of less than 0.005%.
• The overall opt-out rate is 0.0001%.
• Of the people who clicked on the icon to expand it, 3% eventually choose to opt-out.

These numbers tell us a couple of things. First, marketers are lining up behind the program. Our customers are top brands that recognize the value of informing users of their choices regarding advertising. They should be commended for supporting this initiative.

Second, despite some sensationalism in the press and attention from Washington, actual users don’t appear to be that concerned about targeted advertising based on behavior. Perhaps after years of getting targeted direct mail at their homes, which often contains very personal information, people have come to understand that targeted marketing is generally benign, and occasionally quite beneficial. Or perhaps they truly appreciate the value of receiving customized ads. Whichever it is, users are overwhelmingly forgoing the opportunity to opt out.

Read More: Media6Degrees

Lifecycle Management Becoming Ad Industry Focus

AudienceScience will officially release a lifecycle management and brand impact feature Wednesday for its data management platform created for media planners and buyers. The latest version of the AudienceScience Gateway DMP provides a better ability to collect and aggregate huge volumes of data from disparate sources, while maintaining privacy standards, according to the company.

The feature supports a fundamental shift in online target marketing, notes AudienceScience CEO Jeff Hirsch. Until now marketers used data management platforms per transaction or campaign, rather than to develop a long-term relationship with customers. It’s a shift in how data is being used, he says.

The lifecycle of a campaign spans from the consumer’s first interest in a product or service through the purchase process. Previously, AudienceScience had stored information for 12 weeks because the focus remained on immediate purchase intent items. Now brand marketers want a longer view of consumer activities.

Read More: MediaPost

Martini Media, NetSeer Team to Target Richest Audience Online

Deal paves road to personalized advertising to the most affluent consumers where they devote their time, energy and money

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Martini Media (www.martinimediainc.com), the digital platform that engages the $100K+ audience where they work and play most, will now target ads according to reader/viewer intent. The capability comes from a combination of in-house site data and a licensing deal with NetSeer (www.netseer.com), whose technology now lets publishers and advertisers see all the content on a Web page and understand the advertising environment it creates.

“This is a quantum leap for marketing,” said Skip Brand, CEO (http://bit.ly/dWT1FH) of Martini Media. “We can now target ads to the richest, hardest to reach people online the way they actually view media. And we can do it through the enthusiast sites proven to generate the greatest impact on brand awareness, preference and purchase.”

For example, Martini now will be able to distinguish contextually whether an individual page is the right environment for a yacht or auto or travel ad. NetSeer makes this possible through algorithms that determine a reader’s intent. “Bass” can mean music, fishing, or cooking; NetSeer technology spots the difference in context of surrounding content, so the opportunity is classified correctly. What’s more, the consistent classification assures that brand ads will be placed only in the most relevant environments.

Read More: BusinessWire