MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
August 9 – August 16, 2007 Edition
CBS Gets Creative
With Mobile Ad
Consortium
NEW YORK, NY/8/2/07–CBS Mobile has forged partnerships with four of the country’s leading mobile advertising-enabling companies – AdMob, Millennial Media, Rhythm NewMedia and Third Screen Media, in an effort to build a full-service approach to mobile advertising for its entertainment, news and sports programming. In line with its focus on innovation, industry firsts and open and non-exclusive partnerships with cutting-edge companies, CBS Mobile is the first major broadcast network to work with AdMob, Millennial Media and Rhythm NewMedia.
Two of the four–Third Screen and AdMob–work closely with the publishing industry. CBS also owns Simon & Schuster, one of America’s largest publishing houses.
“We believe mobile advertising is one the biggest business opportunities in the mobile world, and we want to be at the forefront of it,” said Cyriac Roeding, Executive Vice President, CBS Mobile. “Teaming up with best-in-breed companies in an open and non-exclusive way is the cornerstone of our strategy – and these companies are leading the mobile advertising marketplace in terms of intelligent ad serving and distribution technologies and services. They will enable us to expand our relationship with our Top 200 advertisers while reaching thousands of smaller advertising brands from around the world wanting to place ads around CBS Mobile content.”
CBS also announced that starting immediately, it will provide clients with one of the widest menus of mobile advertising options in the market, ranging from text and banner ads on mobile websites, to commercials in video news and sports alerts, to video ads within mobile video, to commercials on CBS Mobile’s 24/7 television network.
The four companies offer varying areas of expertise in mobile advertising.
AdMob is a leading mobile advertising marketplace. AdMob serves over 1 billion ads per month worldwide and over 350 Million per month in the US alone. AdMob serves banner and text ads on mobile web pages for advertisers and their agencies. Through AdMob’s self serve capabilities and dedicated mobile ad sales force, CBS’s content will be available to thousands of advertisers, allowing them to leverage rich targeting and advanced ad serving capabilities. CBS will initially utilize AdMob’s mobile ads on three of its fast-growing mobile websites: wap.sportsline.com, wap.cbsnews.com, wap.theshowbuzz.com. AdMob was founded in 2006 and is based in Silicon Valley.
“CBS has consistently provided great content and innovative features to its users,” said Omar Hamoui, AdMob CEO. “AdMob is proud that CBS has chosen the AdMob Marketplace to serve and manage its mobile ads based on our scale and advertiser base. The combination of CBS content and AdMob’s sophisticated targeting and optimization technologies will provide advertisers with an important new channel in mobile.”
Millennial Media operates mobile ad networks designed specifically to best meet the diverse needs of agencies, brands, and direct marketers. With Millennial Motion rich media for engaging user experiences, the Millennial Marketplace for targeted audiences on premium content, and Decktrade for large-scale performance campaigns, we help advertisers succeed in meeting their objectives. Millennial Media will provide CBS with both text and banner ads and will sell CBS inventory on the mobile websites and video products.
“We are thrilled to be working with CBS Mobile to provide leading advertisers with innovative and effective solutions to improve their mobile impact,” said Paul Palmieri, CEO of Millennial Media. “CBS’s continued leadership and innovation in mobile is helping to grow the overall mobile advertising market.”
Rhythm NewMedia’s intelligent ad-serving technology enables next-generation mobile video commercials to be attached to mobile video content dynamically and then distributed to targeted audience profiles. CBS will work with Rhythm NewMedia to offer this next-generation service in the United States. In addition, Rhythm’s ad sales team will sell video ads for CBS. Rhythm is funded by The Carlyle Group, Morgenthaler Ventures, LightSpeed Venture Partners and Rembrandt Ventures.
“Rhythm NewMedia has demonstrated that targeted ad-supported video snacking is very attractive to both consumers and advertisers, in multiple countries. Rhythm is pleased to support CBS initiatives in mobile advertising,” said Ujjal Kohli, CEO of Rhythm NewMedia. Third Screen Media, which was recently acquired by AOL, offers a Web-based mobile ad management and delivery platform that quickly and easily connects advertisers, publishers and mobile carriers. With a reach of nearly 50 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers, it also has one of the largest single sources of mobile advertising inventory and the ability to target by specific demographics. A partner of CBS SportsLine.com for several years, Third Screen Media will sell advertising for CBS mobile Web sites.
“Having supported CBS SportsLine.com for the past few years, we’re pleased to grow our CBS partnership to provide innovative campaigns on the mobile handset,” said Tom Burgess, CEO, Third Screen Media. “We view CBS as a first mover in mobile advertising and applaud their efforts to bring relevant, targeted advertising to the mobile consumer.”
About AdMob
AdMob is the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace, having served more than 5 Billion advertisements in 18 months. Founded in 2006, AdMob allows advertisers to reach their customers on the mobile Web and publishers to increase the value of their mobile sites. AdMob offers both advertisers and publishers the ability to target and personalize advertising to their customers in 160 countries. Recent AdMob customers include Coca-Cola, Adidas, Starbucks, MSN, Paramount Pictures, Reuters, MTV and many more. AdMob serves ads for over 2000 mobile web sites including CBS, ESPN, Weather Underground, and Maxim.
About Millennial Media
Millennial Media operates mobile ad networks designed specifically to best meet the diverse needs of agencies, brands, and direct marketers. With Millennial Motion rich media for engaging user experiences, the Millennial Marketplace for targeted audiences on premium content, and Decktrade for large-scale performance campaigns, we help advertisers succeed in meeting their objectives. Millennials are more than today’s youth. With a larger population than the baby boomers and representing more than 70% of mobile media usage, they are the mass market for today and tomorrow, and Millennial Media provides the best solutions to reach them. For more information please visit us at http://www.millennialmedia.com/
About Rhythm NewMedia
Rhythm NewMedia enables ad-supported mobile content with a broad suite of advertising solutions, including video and WAP. The company is currently launched with 3 UK and will be available on four other top tier international mobile operators by the end of this quarter. Rhythm’s technology enables advertising that has broad reach, sharp targeting and precise frequency management. Rhythm automates key business processes and enables reporting to each member of the mobile advertising value chain. Rhythm has a platform for serving content with targeted ADs, sources content, and sells Ads on behalf of its media and operator partners. Rhythm is based in Mountain View, California. Rhythm also has offices in London and Gurgaon (India).
About Third Screen Media
Third Screen Media is a software and services company dedicated to enabling advertising on mobile devices. Its MADX product suite links advertisers, publishers and carriers together on a common platform to increase the efficiency and time-to-market for the buying and selling of mobile advertising in WAP, video, MMS and downloadable applications. MADX goes beyond ad delivery by providing in-depth research, planning and publisher inventory management analytical tools, yielding the highest possible ROI. The company’s TSM|Network is North America’s largest single source of mobile advertising inventory, offering best-in-class content, targeted demographics and broad reach. Customers and partners, including many of the world’s largest marketers, advertising agencies and media companies rely on Third Screen Media’s products and services to deliver, manage and optimize mobile advertising campaigns. Third Screen Media is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL’s Advertising.com.
About CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) is a mass media company with constituent parts that reach back to the beginnings of the broadcast industry, as well as newer businesses that operate on the leading edge of the media industry. The Company, through its many and varied operations, combines broad reach with well-positioned local businesses, all of which provide it with an extensive distribution network by which it serves audiences and advertisers in all 50 states and key international markets. It has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and The CW – a joint venture between CBS
Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), cable television (Showtime and CSTV Networks), local television (CBS Television Stations), television production and syndication (CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on out-of-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), interactive and mobile media (CBS Interactive, CBS Mobile), music (CBS Records), licensing
