Hyper-Relevant and Content-Rich: Vibrant CEO Makes Online Advertising Predictions for 2011

NEW YORK, December 17, 2010 —As the "digital decade" rounds to a close, Doug Stevenson, co-founder and CEO of Vibrant (www.vibrantmedia.com), the global leader in contextual advertising, looks ahead to 2011 with his annual Online Advertising Predictions.

Mirroring the decade itself, Vibrant began in 2000 as a contextual advertising technology start-up and has evolved to become a $100+ million worldwide advertising technology leader aligning billions of words across the Internet with relevant video, information, tools, and advertising. With over 6,000 premium publishers, reaching 207 million unique users per month (comScore), Vibrant gives top brand marketers the opportunity to deliver highly targeted advertisements within premium Web content and offers publishers premium editorial tools to re-circulate users throughout their websites.

Now a marketing mainstay for major brands like HP, Microsoft, GM, and Unilever, and publishers like MSNBC, Warner Bros. and Gannett, Vibrant in-text advertising uses sponsored hyperlinks to deliver information, relevance, convenience and user control to audiences across the world.

With eMarketer projecting a 10.5% increase in US online ad spending next year, followed by double-digit growth every year through 2014 when online spending will reach $40.5 billion, following are Stevenson's own Online Advertising Predictions for the top trends of 2011:

1. CONTEXTUAL RELEVANCE: New contextual capabilities for display advertising will enhance the power and popularity of banner ads, rich media, and video. After all, display is already second only to search in terms of spend. Marketers will push for new "hyper-relevant" dynamic advertising options that serve "customized" content-based ads that change based on the content of a page.


2. ADVERTISING AS CONTENT: Online advertising will increasingly incorporate branded utilities such as listings, live sports scores, weather, search results, Twitter, etc. Live video feeds and longer form branded video entertainment will continue to drive user engagement as the tolerance for full-length video programs continues to take hold.


3. DO NOT TRACK: 2011 will see increased concerns over privacy issues specifically pertaining to cookies. Government intervention or increased self-regulation will lead marketers to new, safe alternatives with broader public acceptance. Brands will engage consumers through clear, opt-in group-purchasing technologies leveraged for direct marketing. There will be an obvious surge in all forms of contextual targeting as advertisers look beyond behavioral, but still need precise targeting at scale.


4. CONSOLIDATION/M&A: 2011 will see the consolidation of networks and ad exchanges, making buying and selling easier. The industry needs to simplify and become more coherent for marketers. Wall Street will take a vigorous interest in ad technology companies as the industry matures.


5. SOCIAL – "Like" buttons in everything from advertising to content. Applications for the iPad and other devices will drive new platforms for interactions between consumers, publishers and advertisers. New approaches are also seeing the integration of social-sharing and social recommendation functionality, adding value to content through utilities such as toolbars, which are beginning to take off for publishers.

About Vibrant

Vibrant (www.vibrantmedia.com) is the world leader in premium contextual technology aligning billions of words across the Internet with relevant video, information, tools, and advertising. With over 6,000 premium publishers, reaching 207 million unique users per month (comScore, October 2010), Vibrant gives top brand marketers the opportunity to deliver highly targeted advertisements within premium Web content and offers publishers premium editorial tools to re-circulate users throughout their websites. Vibrant works with top brand advertisers such as Microsoft, Unilever, Warner Bros and AT&T. The company was founded in 2000 and has offices in London, New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf. Vibrant's rapid growth has been recognized by the Inc. 500 and Deloitte Fast 50 lists. In 2010, the company was named by Advertising Age as one of the "Best Places to Work in Marketing & Media." Vibrant Co-founder and CEO Doug Stevenson was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 for Metro New York. For more information, visit: www.vibrantmedia.com or www.hyperlinkevolved.com or www.facebook.com/vibrantmedia or http://twitter.com/vibrantmedia.