BrightLine Names Michael Finn President

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - May 2, 2011) - Jacqueline Corbelli, CEO and co-founder of BrightLine (http://www.brightlineitv.com) -- the leading innovator in advanced television advertising -- announced today that Michael Finn will join the company as President, effective immediately. As the first to hold the title since the company's initial formation in April 2003, Finn will join BrightLine co-founder and Chief Experience Design Officer, Robert Aksman, and report directly to Ms. Corbelli. Finn will be responsible for BrightLine's market and business development, with a specific focus on several strategic initiatives to be launched by the company later this year.

BrightLine, the dominant leader in the Interactive TV advertising space, develops and executes advanced TV marketing strategies for global blue chip brands including Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, Jim Beam, Cisco and Kellogg's. "We are committed to adding key members to our executive team who can help fortify and facilitate our growth," said Corbelli. "We're very proud and excited to bring Michael aboard. His arrival comes at a dynamic time for our company -- we have incredible momentum and Michael's appointment is the latest example of our commitment to getting the best and brightest on our team."

An early advocate for the power of advanced TV advertising, Michael Finn comes to BrightLine from Dish Network, where he served as Vice President of Media Sales since 2007. Finn was charged with building Dish's first in-house ad sales team. During his tenure there the Ad Sales revenues doubled, as Finn grew the Dish sales team to 80 strong across four offices. He also built multiple partnerships with several leading companies, including Rentrak, Google, Comcast Spotlight, and DirecTV. Under Finn's leadership, Dish built a significant focus on Interactive Television, Set Top Box data, and Addressable Advertising utilizing Dish's DVRs. Prior to Dish, Finn worked at MTV Networks, where he was Director of Ad Sales and helped launch VH1 Classic and VH1 Soul to the advertising market.

"During my time at Dish, I have witnessed the changing state of TV advertising firsthand. I have seen Interactive TV, Set Top Box data, and Addressable Advertising become a much more prominent part of the evolving TV landscape," said Finn. "BrightLine is the one company that consistently stands out and leads on behalf of advertisers in this space. I look forward to bringing my experience and perspective in distribution and content to BrightLine as they continue on their exceptional growth path."

Finn's appointment to President comes on the heels of additional senior leadership hires at BrightLine, including Susan Kravitz, who joined the company earlier this year as Senior Vice President, Client Development. Last summer, BrightLine hired award-winning veteran of Omnicom media agencies and former North American CEO of PHD Steve Grubbs as Strategic Advisor.

"We've made major investments in talent recently to help us keep delivering exceptional results for our clients and continue to set the pace -- and standard -- for the evolution of television advertising," said Robert Aksman, BrightLine's co-founder and Chief Experience Design Officer. "Bringing highly experienced and exception leaders like Michael Finn onboard not only reflects BrightLine's continued growth, but also the industry's growing interest and belief in advanced TV advertising. BrightLine's success proves that advanced TV advertising is no longer a 'potential future opportunity,' but a real, viable, and successful advertising platform."

About BrightLine
BrightLine (http://brightlineitv.com/) is the leading innovator in the strategic application of interactive TV advertising. The company creates and implements customized, measurable interactive television ad experiences in ways that achieve instant mass scale and effectiveness, is most organic for TV viewers and feeds their observed remote control behavior. BrightLine transforms passive TV advertising, like the traditional 30 second spot, into an effective customer-driven interaction -- the end result is superior overall viewer involvement that leads to deeper engagement with higher levels of brand recall, purchase intent, and product sales.

www.brightlineitv.com | Twitter: @brightlineiTV