NEW YORK, March 6, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- ContextWeb, Inc., a leading contextual advertising company, today announced the establishment of the ContextWeb Advisory Board. Joining the new board are Ira Carlin, former Chairman-International of Interpublic's MAGNA Global Worldwide and former Chairman of Universal McCann; Robin Cooper, Vice President of Advertising and Business Development for auto publisher Kelley Blue Book; and Scot McLernon, President of the Upstream Group, Inc. and former head of sales for CBS Digital.
Anand Subramanian, CEO, ContextWeb, Inc. said, "We are pleased to add these advertising innovators to our new Advisory Board. The insight and expertise provided by Ira, Scot and Robin will assist us in bringing additional product and operational excellence to our ADSDAQ Ad Exchange platform, and across our management team. We are looking forward to working with each new advisory board member."
The mission of ContextWeb's advisory board is to provide ongoing strategic advice to the company's management team as it continues to grow the ADSDAQ Advertising Exchange (http://www.ADSDAQ.com), the leading independent platform for online advertisers and publishers, as well as the company's overall business model. The ADSDAQ Exchange already serves 9 of the top 10 marketing organizations in the United States.
"The lack of advertiser solutions to the audience fragmentation issue continues to result in misplaced ad dollars and lopsided media spend," said Ira Carlin, former Chairman-International of Interpublic's MAGNA Global Worldwide. "ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange effectively aggregates audience across the Long Tail while still providing control for the brand advertiser."
"ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange offers a unique and brand safe solution to the audience fragmentation challenge faced by Fortune 1,000 and brand advertisers," said Robin Cooper. "I know that Ira, Scot and I will be able to effectively assist the ContextWeb management team in understanding the needs of online advertisers and publishers so the ADSDAQ Exchange will continue to become increasingly relevant to the leading market players."
"The ADSDAQ ad exchange's premium and brand-safe approach to the marketplace is a clear winner and sets it apart from other marketplaces," said Scot McLernon.
The advisory board announcement closely follows the appointment of Wenda Harris Millard, President, Media, of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to ContextWeb's Board of Directors.
Ira Carlin; Ira Carlin has 36 years of top-level media and new media management and strategic thinking experience with some of the world's largest agencies and clients. Most recently, he was Chairman-International of Interpublic's MAGNA Global Worldwide, a groundbreaking operation designed to focus and enhance the marketplace leverage of the Interpublic media operations, 'Initiative' and 'Universal McCann.' Earlier, Carlin was Chairman and CEO of Universal McCann and EVP and Worldwide Media Director prior to the establishment of UM, which was the $15 billion media arm of McCann-Erickson Worldwide, a leading multinational advertising agency network spanning over 130 countries around the world. He was also Chairman of Thunderhouse, IPG's first effort in Global online advertising and media operations. Carlin was a primary architect of McCann-Erickson's 1987 sponsorship of the MIT Media Lab, and served as a member of the Lab's News in the Future executive committee during the '90's.
Robin Cooper: Robin Cooper is Vice President, Advertising and Business Development for Kelley Blue Book, where she is responsible for all OEM business relationships with the leading auto publisher, including all national and regional advertising, lead generation and business development. Since the beginning of Cooper's tenure in 2001, Kelley's ad revenue has increased over five-fold. Before Kelley, Cooper was with DoubleClick, joining the company as director of business development, responsible for developing strategic partnerships with high-profile, highly-branded sites. She was then named publisher of automotive, and ultimately group publisher of four categories -- Automotive, Women, Health and Ecommerce -- where she was responsible for all advertising and business development in these key areas.
Scot McLernon: Scot McLernon is President of the Upstream Group, a consultancy he co-founded in 2007. Over the last 12 years, McLernon has built and led three different and very successful web advertising sales teams, including CBS Interactive. His sales teams have frequently been cited by Forrester for highest revenue per salesperson, and for four years in a row his CBS MarketWatch team won "best business and finance site to advertise with" and have won the acclaimed ASPY award as Best Overall Sales Team on the web. McLernon entered the business in 1995, selling some of the web's initial banners and interactive "booths" for the web's first online and offline trade show titled "Web Innovation." He's been branded a pioneer, an innovator, and, from time to time, a maverick. He's an active board member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a founding member of the Online Publishers Association (OPA), a founding Director of the Bay Area Interactive Group (BIG) and a founder of the Seller's Forum, where twice a year over 30 of the top brands sales VPs share and work out industry issues for a day in an open, moderated forum.
ContextWeb's ADSDAQ ad exchange (http://exchange.contextweb.com) is the only online exchange where both advertisers and publishers have complete control. The exchange's patent-pending, page-level contextual technology offers advertisers efficient pricing and extensive reach, making inventory on the exchange comparable to a site specific buy.
As of January 2008, ADSDAQ by ContextWeb ranks among the top 20 ad supported properties, according to comScore Media Metrix, and reaches +88 million monthly unique visitors. The exchange serves impressions from more than 350 advertisers, including 9 out of the top 10 marketing organizations, and more than 2,500 publishers. Also in 2007, Deloitte's New York Region Technology Fast 50 recognized ADSDAQ by ContextWeb as the 17th fastest growing company in the New York area. The company's investors include leading venture capital firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson ("DFJ"), DFJ Gotham Ventures and Updata Partners.
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