“I am excited to take over this responsibility and honored to be selected by the board to fulfill this vision,” said Averbuch, who recently served as the company’s VP of Technology.

Averbuch will be replacing Karl Siebrecht who will maintain his role as a board member. “I have worked closely with Aaron and think he brings the right leadership and vision for the company’s future,” Siebrecht said. “I look forward to continuing to play an important role in the company’s growth as a board member.”

AdReady is profitable on an operating basis and has had more than 8,000 customers run over 560,000 ads across nearly 150,000 sites.

Averbuch is a long-time technology industry veteran, having worked in senior technical roles at Microsoft, Pure Networks and Cisco.

About AdReady
AdReady is the leading turnkey platform for online advertising. Its powerful software encompasses all the latest advantages of digital media including precise micro-targeting, re-targeting, cost-effective ad-exchanges, real time measurement and message optimization. AdReady simplifies the process with an intuitive start-to-finish solution that helps you optimize your media spend to achieve measurable results. AdReady has been recognized for “Best Ad Delivery Platform Innovation” by the Digital Publishing and Advertising Conference.

Media Contact:
Ralph Fascitelli
Resonance Public Relations
Ralph@resonance-pr.com
206-369-2612

Online advertising platform leader AdReady is making a major push in the political advertising world and aggressively stating its case as a superior substitute for direct mail. The company believes its intuitive and easy-to-use turnkey platform will be attractive to regional political campaigns that lack some of the online advertising expertise of the national presidential efforts. The latter is on the leading edge of the digital ad trend as earlier this year, the Obama in 2012 Campaign invested almost half of its marketing dollars in online advertising.

Almost $300 million dollars will be spent on direct mail in the 2012 political season though over 40% of direct mail pieces are immediately thrown out as junk mail according to direct mail industry reports. Significantly, it takes weeks to craft and rollout direct mail, which can seem like an eternity in the closing weeks of competitive, hectic, campaigns. Political consultants have historically relied on direct mail because, in some election years, over half of actual voters are over the age of 50. However, according to Pew Research, 74% of people age 50-64 now use the internet, and some 41% over the age of 65 are digitally savvy as well.

AdReady is priming the political pump with a variety of marketing tactics including local market seminars, dedicated sales outreach as well as public relations.  A recent luncheon seminar in Seattle attracted almost forty members of the Washington State political community who came away
impressed with both the fast pace of the digital advance and the power of the AdReady platform. According to company CMO, Randy Wootton: “The
numbers are on our side on the direct mail debate as over 40% of media is now consumed online and businesses are investing almost three out of every ten
dollars in digital media, while political campaigns are still seeing only a 1% share investment in online advertising. Many regional campaigns are still overly reliant on direct mail which costs as much as 100X more than an online impression with similar response rates.”

Online advertising is invaluable for both fund raising and vote gathering. The average $100K+ household now spends a third more time online
than watching television, and 98% of households with an income of at least $75K are on the internet. New online advertising features such as micro-targeting
and re-targeting provide both a cost effective way to optimize message according to sector and web experience, and to enhance frequency rates.

Use of online advertising in the political world will increase 600% in 2012 versus two years ago but its still a drop in the political ad bucket which will see an estimated $9.8 billion overall ad spend this year. As an easy-to-use, turnkey system that encompasses ad creation, audience profiling and measurement, AdReady believes it is well suited to be the “Pied Piper” to the politicos. According to Wootton: “Over half of political races are decided by 4% or less and we believe many times, smart use of online technology can be a make or break proposition.”  

About AdReady

AdReady
is the leading turnkey platform for online advertising. Its powerful software encompasses all the latest advantages of digital media including precise micro-targeting, re-targeting, cost-effective ad-exchanges, real time measurement and message optimization. AdReady simplifies the process with an intuitive start-to-finish solution that helps you optimize your media spend to achieve measurable results and enable all political causes and campaigns to enjoy the same level of sophistication as presidential campaigns. AdReady is backed by Madrona Venture Capital which also backed Amazon and Razorfish.

And the magic behind the curtain is our Real-Time-Bidding (RTB) capabilities. RTB enables advertisers to bid more effectively on precise inventory and audience targets. It’s very efficient and brings the best of software and scaled data to the digital media world. But, we only get 100 milliseconds to respond to a bid request, and we need to do this tens of thousands of times every second – and even more in the future!

Even at those breakneck speeds, we want to make sure the full value of the Collective Insights science is informing each and every decision – not just for how much to bid, but also on which impressions to bid on, which to take a pass on, and which advertising creative to show on any given page. As it is only when we apply these sorts of smarts that we can provide “Big Results for Small Budgets”

This science, and the big data supporting it, has required some great work across all of our teams here at AdReady, as well as working with some great partners. One of which, the Open Data Group (http://opendatagroup.com), is one of the world’s experts in toolsets for statistical modeling. While the Open Data Group  may not be as well known to folks in the digital advertising industry,they have been a key partner in helping  us take the next step in scaling our RTB capability.

While researching and evaluating myriad options, we found that the open source Augustus toolset was the best fit and then spent a significant amount of time with the Open Data Group working on features and tweaks to get the Augustus toolset and PMML Specification to fit our high demand, high throughput, low latency requirements.

Open Data Group has been a great partner, and has been very excited to see the work we are doing – in fact, ODG’s CEO will be speaking about this unique application/engagement of scaling Big Data in Real Time and our partnership at an upcoming conference– http://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/chicago/2012/  –where the real “rocket scientists” hang out.

Looking forward to seeing some of you there,
Aaron

SEATTLE, WA–(Marketwire - Mar 13, 2012) – AdReady (http://www.adready.com/), creators of powerful software that enables any marketer to master online advertising, today announced it is hosting a special luncheon on March 29 titled, “The New Rules of Political Advertising: How Digital Media Can Save You Money and Help You Win.” The free event, taking place at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle, is expected to draw attendees from the local Seattle political community interested in online marketing.

Seattle, Wa. – Feb. 24, 2012 –The blockbuster movie, “Moneyball,” is up for the big prize as Oscar night fast approaches.  When it comes to online digital advertising, the Moneyball approach offers a similar winning formula for small budget advertisers.  In the same way that small market Oakland A’s general manager, Billy Beane, was able to take advantage of an undervalued metric – in his case, on base percentage versus the more traditional RBI% – AdReady helps small budget marketers compete with larger competitors by focusing on a less obvious and more subtle strategy that draws on proprietary insight and non-obvious data sources to level the playing field.

Online display advertising is an obvious next step for those  small- and medium-sized businesses looking to build on their search strategy to access more reach, drive more leads, and convert more prospects to customers online.  However, relatively high CPCs and low direct conversion rates can lead advertisers to the conclusion that display advertising “just doesn’t work” for them. Much like in “Moneyball,” where one man used a proprietary system (Sabermetrics) to beat the big guys, AdReady helps these small budget marketers compete with the big marketers and drive compelling and measureable results in display advertising.

Today, because of the success of Search Advertising more broadly, specific advertisers –who rely on solely on search marketing — are often facing higher costs for incremental conversions. To continue driving cost effective demand gen, many online marketers are adding new channels, like social and display.  However, multiple channels increase campaign complexity and most advertisers, except those with the biggest budgets, feel they have no choice but to manage the complexity themselves.

Crystal Hadaway, Sr. Media Manager of ZAAZ, uses AdReady to provide such insights for their clients. In one example, they applied AdReady’s keyword optimization technology to build out a broader, more display-focused keyword strategy and drove significant improvement for key metrics. “We were very impressed by how much better both the delivery and performance of our keyword campaigns were when we were able to apply AdReady’s Collective Insights to our client’s campaign,” said Crystal. “We saw a 120 percent increase in impressions and a 200 percent increase in clicks, which was a significant increase.”

“There has been a transformative evolution in online display advertising technology that now allows SMBs to do much more than just value keywords,” said Karl Siebrecht, CEO of AdReady.  “Instead, advertisers can leverage advanced technology that helps them manage display creative, optimization and measurement on their own, regardless of experience level or a big in-house staff – all essential elements of an effective program that helps smaller budget advertisers ‘hit one out of the park’ every time.”

In addition, AdReady’s online advertising technology now allows advertisers to benefit from “Collective Insights”™ drawn from the breadth of campaigns run on the platform and from “non-obvious data” that can be drawn from public, real-time feeds like Twitter.

For more information about AdReady’s Moneyball solutions, please visit: www.adready.com.

About AdReady

AdReady provides powerful software that enables any marketer to master online advertising.  Unlike time-intensive, inefficient approaches that don’t get the job done, AdReady simplifies the process with an intuitive start-to-finish solution that improves advertising ROI by successfully reaching and converting digital consumers where they live.  More than 6,000 customers in the U.S. have run more than 560,000 ads across nearly 150,000 sites through the AdReady solution.  AdReady has been recognized for “Best Ad Delivery Platform Innovation” by the Digital Publishing and Advertising Conference and “Service Provider of the Year” by the Washington Technology Industry Association. To learn more, please visit www.adready.com, follow us on Twitter @AdReady, or find us on Facebook.

About ZAAZ
ZAAZ is a premier digital agency serving some of the world’s most enduring and recognizable brands. Founded in 1998, we are the leader in providing performance-driven digital marketing across all channels and industries. The word “ZAAZ” is defined as “something new.” Whether it’s a new market, idea, or technology, we strive to constantly evolve and change the way our clients see opportunities. Headquartered in Seattle, with offices worldwide, ZAAZ is part of the Wunderman/WPP Network. For more information, visit www.zaaz.com.

Media Contact:

Kathy Wilson

For AdReady

781/652-0499

kwilson@tieronepr.com

In the current economy, agencies are extremely pressed to do more with less, while developing innovative new ways to offer value added services to their clients

Our technology is specifically designed to give agencies the ability to deliver to their clients transparent measurable results all without breaking their budgets or straining limited in-house resources.

We are excited to add David and his years of CMR/Agency experience to our team. For more information CMR’s and agencies can contact David at dbowling@adready.com

–Karl

Seattle, Wa. – Feb. 20, 2012 – AdReady, creators of powerful software that enables any marketer to master online advertising, today announced its CEO, Karl Siebrecht, will be a featured speaker at STAMATS’ Annual Adult Student Integrated Marketing Conference, taking place Feb. 27-29 in Austin.  The STAMATS Conference brings together deans, directors of enrollments, admissions, as well as marketing, recruitment, communication, and brand-related managers for timely discussions around adult prospective student marketing and research.

Siebrecht will share his perspectives during a session entitled, “Making Your Digital Marketing Pay Off,” scheduled for Feb. 28^th at 11:00 am.  The session will focus on how higher-education organizations with limited marketing budgets and staff, and increasingly diverse target audiences, can make digital marketing pay off.  Siebrecht will also share important market dynamics and key best practices for effectively reaching and converting adult student prospects. Joining Siebrecht in his session will be Angela Bostick, Assistant Dean of Marketing and Communications, Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Bostick will provide unique insight and anecdotes regarding Emory’s online advertising and marketing strategies to prospective students.

For more information on the Stamats Adult Student Integrated Marketing Conference, visit www.http://www.stamats.com/events/seminars/SIMAdult2012.asp.

About AdReady

AdReady provides powerful software that enables any marketer to master online advertising.  Unlike time-intensive, inefficient approaches that don’t get the job done, AdReady simplifies the process with an intuitive start-to-finish solution that improves advertising ROI by successfully reaching and converting digital consumers where they live.  More than 6,000 customers in the U.S. have run more than 560,000 ads across nearly 150,000 sites through the AdReady solution.  AdReady has been recognized for “Best Ad Delivery Platform Innovation” by the Digital Publishing and Advertising Conference and “Service Provider of the Year” by the Washington Technology Industry Association. To learn more, please visit www.adready.com, follow us on Twitter @AdReady, or find us on Facebook.

Media Contact:

Kathy Wilson

For AdReady

781/652-0499

kwilson@tieronepr.com

–Karl

I have been in and around e-mail and banner advertising for 12 years. In fact one of my first jobs out of business school was the Group Product Manager for AvenueA’s new media solutions, which included its precision e-mail and mobile products. Yes, even in 2001, we thought it was the “year of mobile.”

You can find a primer on e-mail marketing, how it can be used for both acquisition and retention marketing and some of the classic advantages/disadvantages here. For the sake of this blog article, I will focus on email marketing as a prospecting vehicle and–for which–you would often rent 3rd party lists of e-mail addresses to e-mail against. Your goal is to try to convert a generic “suspect” into a semi-qualified “prospect”. This is in contrast to loyalty/retention e-mails where you are e-mailing your “house list” to share information and perhaps softly up sell current customers on new products/capabilities.

Back in 2001, I was talking to people about how they could use a combination of banner advertising and e-mail to acquire customers at low cost per leads. Although that article is not archived, a very good friend, Brady Brewer, who is now a very senior marketer at Starbucks, built on this point in an article for ClickZ. He wrote:

Rather than relying solely on banner advertisements and third-party email lists to acquire new customers, you can put into play a strategy that integrates the strengths of both banners and retention email marketing: using promotional incentives in banner ads as a low-cost mechanism for luring prospects to an opt-in page, and using subsequent email campaigns to offer greater product details and loyalty programs to close the deal and generate a long-term relationship.

Using the standard rates for banner CPMs, open rates, etc. of the day, he proved that you could reduce your cost/sale by 73% compared to banners alone and 85% compared to e-mail list rentals by using the two together—a match made in heaven.

The math has changed over the years as CPMs and open rates have dropped, but the principle has not. Even today, 11 years later, it surprises me that more people do not use a media-integration strategy that reduces cost of acquisition and cost of sales.

Fast forward to 2012 and I am back talking about e-mail and banner advertising but from a slightly different angle—i.e., using banners as a “lead-nurturing” type activity via e-mail retargeting. Just recently, I had a great conversation with Tim Peterson, a journalist for DM News, and he did a fabulous job capturing the broader strategy in his article here.

In this article, Tim quotes leaders from Responsys, which has been around FOREVER, AdRoll (an AdReady competitor) and Epsilon. While the gentlemen quoted all provide good insights and slightly different strategies to approach e-mail retargeting, we all agreed that it is surprising that there has not been more uptake on this strategy.

I told Tim that I think the major reasons this tactic is not used more often is because of marketing silos. The people, activities and budgets are often not coordinated across a marketing department. In my experience, it is rare that the marketer-at large companies–who controls the outbound “customer” communications is the same person responsible for lead generation communication with “prospects”. Interestingly, I was just reading What Sticks, by Rex Briggs and Greg Staurt last night and they were making a similar point. I.e., one of the main reasons 30% of all marketing dollars go wasted is because of the established hierarchies at large fortune 500 companies and the agencies that support them.

In this environment, e-mail is often relegated to a direct response medium. Display, until recently, has been thought of more as a branding medium. Finally, there is the reality that the set of names on an in-house list is probably small, relative to the number of visitors to one’s site—which are usually the cookies that are re-targeted. However, the value of re-targeting is directly tied to the size of the cookie pool. Thus, it makes sense to use whatever means you can to build the cookie pool.

Here is the best part. Whereas it may have been time consuming and onerous to coordinate the e-mail and retargeting strategies because of the need to integrate multiple platforms, it truly is not much work if you have a system like AdReady’s in which you can load retargeting tags directly into the campaigns.

If you are interested in learning more about how to set up e-mail retargeting today, please contact your Account Manager directly. Otherwise, stay tuned for a case study of one our clients doing this well and the step by step process on how to do it in our platform.

Onwards,
Randy

• Three Predictions for Display Advertising in 2012 from Top CEOs in the Ad Space
• In preparation for the Superbowl, we looked at 12 Ads That Changed Super Bowl Marketing
• Google announces “Search + Your World.” This could greatly influence Google+ posts in your search results and impact SEO.
• Big Data is a popular buzz word. Learn why it’s not about how much data you have, but what you do with it.
• We are entering a New Era in Display Advertising. Here are five reasons why search marketers should care.
• Facebook announced they are rolling out display ads to your news feed.
• Want to get started on a retargeting campaign? These five great tips will help improve your conversion rates.
• Display Advertising 2.0 comprises a number of advancements to the industry. Learn what these are.
• Google is poised to surpass Yahoo in display advertising. And Facebook just overtook Yahoo as well.
• AdReady and Buuteeq partner on online ad service for hotels
• Online Ad Spending to Surpass Print for First Time in 2012
• SOPA bill is removed after much deliberation and public uproar.
• AdReady drives new innovation through the Power of Two: Integrating Social Advertising with Display Platforms
• Love infographics as much as we do? This one highlights How Display Works in the Marketing Mix
• Facebook now takes a 28% share of US display ads

Hope you enjoyed this month’s AdLinks. Have a great week!