PointRoll Strengthens Channel Team Offerings to Better Serve Publishers and Announces New Partners

NEW YORK, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ — PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) and leading provider of rich media advertising, today announced expanded publisher services with new custom solutions and the addition of publisher partners including Discovery, iVillage, Univision, quadrantONE and Undertone Networks.

Recognizing the publishing community’s increasing need for more creative, high-impact ads and custom programs, PointRoll’s Channel Team developed new tools to help publishers differentiate their offerings and create new revenue opportunities. The new tools introduced by PointRoll’s Channel Team include the PointRoll Dig@torial, updated video and interactive offerings, viral and mobile solutions, and expanded dynamic messaging that allows content to be updated in real time to reflect behavioral, demographic, or geographic changes. These offerings will promote time and cost savings for publishers, while opening new revenue channels.

“PointRoll is helping publishers provide the most engaging ads possible, find new ways to elevate content, and ultimately increase revenue,” said Jason Tafler, CEO of PointRoll. “The tools from our Publisher Customer Solution Suite will enable more custom programs that help publishers achieve creative, impactful ads, protect CPM’s and stand out from the competition.”

The Channel Team’s Publisher Customer Solution Suite offers a variety of services such as page manipulation and behavioral targeting integration. In addition, the Publisher Customer Solution Suite includes:

• PointRoll Dig@torial – Allows publishers to dynamically pull editorial content into rich media ad units sponsored by relevant advertisers. This enables publishers to maximize revenue and provide new opportunities to leverage existing content for key clients.
• Video Solutions – Includes both the Netstream product for enabling mass video distribution in any ad space with only one video spot and the User-Initiated Video Wall which helps brands launch a video wall in existing editorial modules.
• Dynamic Messaging – Allows brands to deliver messaging within an ad unit based on any data input such as behavioral, demographic, or geographic. Dynamic Messaging includes relevant weather information, time of day, news feeds, promotions, air fare prices and other options displayed with an appropriate product.
• Viral & Mobile Solutions - Enables marketers to send personalized or pre-recorded messages via SMS, text show times and tickets, send ringtones, and offer opportunities to share content with send-to-a-friend, Facebook Connect, Twitter, and other social networking capabilities.
  

New customers to the PointRoll Included Program, which provides opportunities to build revenue and receive discounted pricing, include quadrantONE and Discovery.

“By becoming one of PointRoll’s distinguished publisher partners, Discovery Communications is able to provide more customized offerings for marketers and highly creative, engaging experiences for consumers,” said Kathleen Kayse, EVP, Discovery Communications Digital Media Advertising Sales. “PointRoll’s Channel Team provides strong support for our programs and helps Discovery continue to drive innovation.”

Customers such as Univision and iVillage have returned to PointRoll’s Included Program to leverage these custom technologies and a team dedicated to servicing publishers.

“PointRoll’s rich media products enable the advertising real estate on our pages to work harder for our advertising partners,” said Peter Naylor, Senior Vice President, NBC Universal Digital Media Sales. “Their top-of-the-line technology and staff help us deliver a better experience to the highly engaged iVillage community of users.”

Undertone(TM) Networks has also partnered with PointRoll to offer rich media campaigns that enhance interactivity and ROI.

“We are excited to continue working with PointRoll to drive greater adoption of rich media and help advertisers maximize campaign performance,” said Michael Cassidy, chief executive officer of Undertone Networks. “Our joint clients achieve a higher click-through rate, interaction time and interaction rate when compared with other ad networks.”

In 2009, PointRoll experienced a 27% increase in custom solutions requests from its over 300 publisher partners. PointRoll has expanded the Channel Team focus to provide greater advertiser support and drive client specific ideas and solutions that can be executed at scale. In the last year, 710 new publisher sites have started running PointRoll rich media ads.

“In today’s marketplace, publishers are looking for ways to differentiate themselves. PointRoll leads the way in providing custom solutions for publishers to generate new revenue opportunities,” said Michael Aronowitz, Vice President of Channel Development at PointRoll. “PointRoll is consistently developing solutions for publishers and networks that assist them in providing robust tracking and data to support advertiser’s efforts.”

PointRoll is the leader in the rich media industry, serving more than 85 billion rich media impressions each year and calling two-thirds of the Fortune 500 and their agency partners its clients.

About PointRoll:

PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), is the world’s leading online advertising rich media provider. PointRoll’s superior rich media technologies and services enable brand marketers to connect with consumers by creating interactive online environments. Providing interactive features such as streaming video, polling, instant e-mail and data collection, PointRoll delivers measurable online advertising campaign results. PointRoll serves more than 85 billion rich media impressions each year – and serves two-thirds of the Fortune 500 brands. For more information, please visit www.pointroll.com.

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SOURCE PointRoll