What are your monthly impressions?
4 billion impressions.
How many unique visitors are there within your network in a given month?75 million unique users (Nielsen rated 02/05).
How many sites are in your network?
450 sites.
What kind of targeting do you provide?
Behavioral Targeting: cookie based from web publishers. We capture behavioral data in two fashions: 1) every time we serve an ad on a publisher site, and 2) we have behavioral data deals with web publishers who do not serve our ads but only allow us to cookie their site's users if they match criteria to be included in a behavioral segment. Visit http://www.behavioraltargeting.com/ for more info on how our behavioral targeting works.
Contextual Targeting: For every impression that we serve to a user, our servers pull the URL of the site that user is visiting. Based on the URL, our technology will extrapolate all keywords and define a top level category and the five most relevant keywords that correspond to the top level category.
Our contextual targeting allows us to create more valuable inventory from sites such as news and user-generated content sites by disseminating the content and serving relevant ads to the user.
Demographic Targeting: Our company is planning a press release and official announcement later in Q1 surrounding this targeting technology. Basically, we will be able to predict the gender and age group of every user on the web with a 90 percent plus degree of accuracy. Our demographic targeting will allow us to sell a specific audience to marketers instead of them just buying sites who have a large composition of their target audience. Essentially, this technology will have no waste when delivering an advertisement to a specific gender and age group.
Automatic Optimization: This is an automatic algorithm that optimizes at the user level rather than at the site or placement level. This optimization technology allows and advertiser to pay CPM or CPC and input their back eCPA goal. After a short (three to five day) learning period, the optimization algorithm will only decide to serve an ad impression if it believes it will meet the advertiser's back end eCPA goal.
Miscellaneous Targeting: Geo, Daypart, OS, Browser type, Connection Speed.
How is this targeting achieved?
See above.
Do you accept all forms of rich media?
Yes.
How about video?
Yes, both in page units and :15 pre-roll video ads.
What is a distinguishing feature of your network?
We are the only ad network that specifically caters to the ComScore Media Metrix top 500 web publishers and we are the only ad network to offer Behavioral, Contextual and Demographic Targeting under one ad serving platform.
Do you cater to a particular kind of audience or site?
Our network consists of only top branded web publishers and ComScoreMedia Metrix top 500. Including ABC, ABCnews, ABC broadcast affiliates, CBS, CBSnews, CBS broadcast affiliates, Sportsline, MLB, ESPN, NBC, Bravo, NBC broadcast affiliates, Foxnews, Fox broadcast affiliates, Food Network, Shopping.com, Weather.com, Accuweather, CNET, Boston.com, Belo Interactive, Cars.com, All recipes, WhitePages, USA Today, Cendant Properties, US News & World Report.
Is there anything else you'd like to say about the network or about the online advertising industry in general (prognosis, needs for change, et cetera)?
Over the past six years, we have built a network that is differentiated from the others in both Media and Technology. I definitely think there needs to be more distinction between who the viable ad networks are and their supposed technology offering.
What is your website?
http://www.specificmedia.com/
Next: TACODA
Jim Meskauskas has spent the last ten years working in media at advertising agencies, handling both online and traditional media accounts that ranged from Nestlé Beverage to Amazon.com to Schering-Plough. Most recently he was partner and Chief Strategic Officer with Underscore Marketing. He is also a principal and Vice President of Media with Pericles Consulting, an online political marketing agency, whose clients have included the Bush-Cheney 04 re-election campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Jim is iMedia Connection's Media Strategies Editor.