Executives from ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange will be attending numerous, upcoming industry events both here in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom - in support of our new UK offices recently opened by ContextWeb’s UK Country Manager Ross Caveille.

May 12-14 - “ThinkTomorrow ~ Today” conference from ThinkPanmure will be held at The Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, CA. From ContextWeb, Anand Subramanian, CEO, and Jay Sears, SVP of Strategic Products and Business Development will attend. Anand presents ContextWeb at 2:15 p.m. on the 13th which is followed by his participation in a 3:15 panel entitled “David vs. GOOGliath: Next Generation Ad Platforms Speak Out,” moderated by ThinkPanmure analyst, Bill Morrison.

ThinkPanmure’s conference attendee list includes key industry figures such as:

• Marc Andreessen (Co-Founder, Ning & Netscape, Founder & Chairman, Opsware)
• Bill Campbell (Chairman, Intuit)
• Steve Chen (Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, YouTube)
• Bob Compton (Executive Producer, 2 Million Minutes)
• Ron Conway (Founder & Managing Partner, Angel Investors)
• John Doerr (Partner, Kleiner Perkins)
• Mike McCue (Founder, Tellme Networks)
• Jonathan Rosenberg (Senior Vice President, Product Marketing, Google)

May 14-16 - OPA ‘08 London: Forum for the Future brings together many of the world’s top web publishers to discuss the latest developments in the world of online media. Shanthi Sarkar, SVP, Operations and Product Management, ContextWeb, will travel to London for the conference to learn from web publishers and discuss the recently-announced Reach Extension Program available through the ADSDAQ Exchange. Attendees include:

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Today, ContextWeb announced the launch of the ADSDAQ Reach Extension Program. This program will enable publishers to access targeted reach on a risk-free, on-demand basis – and most importantly, ContextWeb’s real-time scan of the pages will ensure that this inventory is provided in a brand-safe manner.

The industry trends show that the online user base is getting highly fragmented as users spend more and more of their time on long tail sites. This makes it challenging for marketers since they can no longer access all their potential consumers by going to the lead publishers in their category. Publishers are attempting to solve this problem by building out their own network of sites with content endemic to their brand property (as seen by the launch of Martha’s Circle and Forbes Audience Network). Building their own network is a significant amount of work and effort for publishers and a distraction from their core business of creating great content. To date, companies such as Adify (acquired today by Cox Enterprises) have attempted to meet this need by providing a white-label vertical network infrastructure.

With the ADSDAQ Reach extension program, site publishers now have an out-of-the-box solution to create their own branded network on the Exchange, without all the cost and effort of building and maintaining their own network.

Read More: MediaPost -”ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange Adds Reach Extension Program”

When it comes to the effectiveness of online advertising, most people just think that if an ad for a product or service runs on a page of content directly related to that ad, it will be noticed, read and/or acted upon more than the same ad run in unrelated content, out-of-context; pudding if you will. But how do you prove it?

We started by working with some pros - OTX, a leading global consumer research and consulting firm (http://home.otxresearch.com/) that specializes in measuring and testing the impact of advertising messages on brands. In fact, we have done two, separate industry category studies on the effectiveness of contextual advertising with the folks at OTX; one with a leading personal consumer electronics advertiser and have just completed a second with a leading consumer packaged goods advertiser (Download the PDF).

The results prove what many have thought, but very few have ever tested: context works.

Our study tested the same skin care ad for three separate placements; on a general news page, on a page of content from a general news site specifically about skin care, and finally on a website specifically about skin care. 600 women between the ages of 18-65 saw each ad. The results conclusively show that the ads seen on pages of content directly related to the product produced significantly higher brand recognition for both the product and the advertiser than the ad seen in out-of-context content. (Read the press release here.).

Sometimes some of the most effective solutions in advertising are right in front of us. There certainly are a number of targeting options available for advertisers and their agencies. Geographic, demographic, behavioral, time-of-day are just some of everyone’s favorites. But as audiences continue to pursue their interests out beyond the portals, on the millions of vertical content sites (we like to call that the “Passion Tail“), smart brands will do well to start “in context,” before heading to the pudding.

Read more in Ad Age: “Contextual Targeting Boosts Loyal Following“

Yesterday, Jay Sears of ContextWeb, creators of the ADSDAQ Exchange, and Steve Ustaris of Carat Fusion, participated in a morning conference at Hotel Nine Zero offered through the Boston Interactive Marketing Association (BIMA).

Attendees from BIMA, and Boston-area agencies such as Media Contacts, caratm Hill Holliday, Holland Mark, Partners + Simons, Mullen, Fulgent and direct advertisers such as TJX, Staples, Fidelity and more discussed the rapidly fragmenting online advertising marketplace and the possible solutions ahead for advertisers in the conference entitled, “Wandering Audience and What Advertisers Can Do About It.”

It was an apropos topic considering the recent discussions in the news media about ad exchanges and networks, brand publishers and advertisers, and the evolution of online media which was covered again yesterday by Jon Fine of BusinessWeek. Mr. Fine paraphrased ContextWeb Board Member, Wenda Harris Millard:

“In an appearance earlier this year she warned traditional media players that if they allow ad networks to mediate the buying of their Web sites’ ads, they run the risk of commoditizing these ads’ value as if they were the media equivalent of “pork bellies.”

If you would like to download a PDF of the presentation, click here.

To view photos of the event, visit our Flickr site here.

The full presentations made by Jay and Steve as well as the Q&A are available here in three parts in video format below: (with MP3 audio-only at the bottom of the page):

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On Monday, executives from ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange presented to advertisers, publishers and other interested members of the online advertising community at the highly anticipated, “IAB Marketplace: Ad Networks & Xchanges” at New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel.

Michael J. Kelly, our just-announced Senior Advisor to the ContextWeb board, gave a compelling closing keynote entitled, “One view: What’s next?” where he discussed the ongoing fragmentation of the online marketplace.

William Morrison and Robert Coolbrith of ThinkEquity provided a thorough overview of the challenges and opportunities in online advertising as a whole and with advertising exchanges and ad networks, in particular. They closed their presentation with important questions for the marketer. We have those questions available for download here.

As pointed out by the Media Two Interactive blog, the speed dating format was another important part of the day’s activities.

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Last night, John Pavley, CTO of ContextWeb, and Derek Brinkman, VP of Product Development, presented the ADSDAQ Exchange self-service publisher portal at Scott Heiferman’s New York Tech Meetup.

With the able coordination of Dawn Barber from the NY Tech Meetup, John and Derek were pleased to be a part of the jam-packed agenda which included the following exciting, New York-area technology companies and technologists - check ‘em out!

1. Steve Rosenbaum: http://magnify.net
2. Oliver Hurst-Hiller: http://DonorsChoose.org
3. John and Derek: http://exchange.contextweb.com
4. Mark Ghuneim: http://www.trendrr.com
5. Ben Kaufman: http://kluster.com
6. Ben Satterfield: http://twiddla.com
7. Justin Ouellette: http://muxtape.com
8. Nate Westheimer: http://bricabox.com

To view the video of John and Derek’s complete presentation at the New York Tech Meetup at the IAC building, 555 West 18th Street, please click below:

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Jay Sears, SVP of Strategic Products and Business Development at ContextWeb, is this week’s guest on the Advertising Show with hosts Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe.

Jay discusses the ADSDAQ online ad exchange and the fragmenting online advertising industry among other topics.

Click here to download the entire show in MP3 format.

Tonight, John Pavley and Derek Brinkman will be presenting at Scott Heiferman’s New York Tech Meetup where area technology companies demo their new technology. John and Derek will demonstrate the new self-service publisher portal for the ADSDAQ Exchange.

On Thursday, April 3, Jay Sears will be presenting to the Boston Interactive Marketing Association on Media Fragmentation.

Event details are here:

BIMA, Roundtable Breakfast Event

• Hotel Nine Zero, 90 Tremont Street
• Boston, MA 02108
• April 3, 2008, 8:00-10:00AM
• http://www.bima.org/

It keeps getting better.

This morning we announce that Michael J. Kelly has joined ContextWeb as a Senior Advisor to the Board of Directors. Mike is the former president of AOL Media Networks and the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eyeblaster.

The news comes on the heels of Wenda Harris Millard joining our board in February and the announcement of our new advisory board members Ira Carlin, Robin Cooper and Scot McLernon.

As President of AOL Media Networks from February 2004 until September 2007, Mike was responsible for AOL’s global advertising business, including revenues, product and platform development, and media strategy for all of AOL’s properties, as well as its Advertising.com network. During Mike’s tenure, revenues grew from $600 million in 2003 to over $2.1 Billion in just 3 years.

He also oversaw the acquisition of Advertising.com in 2004, the negotiation of a multi-year, multi-billion dollar contract with Google in 2005, the development of AOL’s network strategy and other acquisitions (such as TACODA, Lightningcast and Third Screen Media) as well as the global expansion of Advertising.com to 11 countries.

If you happen to be at the IAB Conference today on ad exchanges and ad networks, be sure to attend the “learn from the Experts” sessions from ContextWeb and our ADSDAQ Exchange in the morning and Mike’s closing keynote speech at 5pm:

One View: What’s Next?

The past several years have brought a dramatic shift in the buying and selling of online media. Platforms, publishers and even agencies are acquiring, creating and partnering with ad networks and exchanges to secure their presence in the new industry space.

At the forefront of this revolution is Michael J. Kelly, who in 2004 orchestrated AOL’s acquisition of Advertising.com while serving as the President of AOL Media Networks.

What’s next for ad networks and exchanges? Will media ever become a commodity? Will networks and exchanges remain relegated to non-premium inventory? Will they move out of the interactive space into TV, print and radio? And, amidst all the change, how do you, the marketer, agency or publisher, stay in control?

Michael will address these questions as well as reveal other underlying forces that will no doubt impact your business as this revolution continues.

Michael J. Kelly, Digital Media Advisor, Investor and Chairman of the Board, Eyeblaster

Yesterday, Search Engine Strategies brought together the three main players in the world of online advertising exchanges - ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange, Yahoo!’s RightMedia and Google/DoubleClick’s AdX - for a lively discussion on the origins, current state and future of advertising exchanges.

The “Ad Exchanges Are Changing Everything” panel was moderated by Rebecca Lieb, Vice President & Editor-In-Chief of The ClickZ Network, and she was joined by:

• Ramsey McGrory, Vice President of Exchange Development, Yahoo!
• Jay Sears, Senior Vice President Strategic Products and Business Development, ADSDAQ by ContextWeb
• Scott Spencer, Vice President, Product Management & Strategy, DoubleClick Ad Exchange

The panel came fresh on the heels of ContextWeb’s announcement regarding the ADSDAQ Exchange Agency Trading Desk as detailed in the Wall Street Journal (PDF here) which Jay touches upon in his presentation at SES.

If you would like to download Jay Sears presentation at SES, please click here.

To view the complete video, click the “Play” button on any video below.

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What has a parent that is seven years old, siblings all across the US and lives in Covent Garden, London?

As of today, ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange has a footprint in the UK online marketplace. The initial murmurings about the introduction of a highly intuitive, page-level targeting solution that was soon to enter the UK market could be heard in and around St. Albans at the first UK iMedia seminar. One week on and the ripple of activity created at iMedia, and covered by Alan Moore here, now has a physical presence in the form of a UK footprint, the first European office – no doubt with additional markets on the horizon.

I am happy to say that I am enjoying first-hand the experience of this grand opening, albeit a relatively quiet and lonely one given that the office comprises of one . . . for now. With regard to new recruits I hope to be able to double the UK staff level by the end of April, or at least have the new hire and start date in place. What with over 800 contacts from 80+ agencies in the UK, we are hoping to build the team relatively quickly so we can gain a good foothold in the market and provide first-class service to go along with our first-class marketing solution.

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