NEW YORK, March 31, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- ContextWeb, Inc., a leading contextual advertising company and operator of the ADSDAQ Ad Exchange, announced today that Michael J. Kelly has joined the company as a Senior Advisor to the Board of Directors. Kelly is the former president of AOL Media Networks and the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eyeblaster, a leading global provider of online campaign management solutions and services to advertisers and ad agencies.
Just last month Wenda Harris Millard, President, Media, of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, another seasoned executive with 30 years of media and advertising experience, joined ContextWeb's Board.
"The ADSDAQ Exchange is unique among ad exchanges; no other exchange delivers page-level, contextual targeting and pricing control to both buyers and sellers of inventory," says Mr. Kelly. "Brands are safe on their exchange and that is more important than ever to advertisers and their agencies."
As Senior Advisor, Mr. Kelly will advise the existing outside board members of ContextWeb, including Ms. Millard, Marshall Cohen, Partner of the Pilot Group and former Sr. VP of AOL Time Warner; John Fisher, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson; Ross Goldstein, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham Ventures; and Conor Mullett, Co-founder and General Partner of Updata Partners. ContextWeb's newly-formed Board of Advisors includes 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 and former Head of Sales for CBS Digital.
"Mike has tremendous strategic, operational and acquisition experience in the online space. His joining our team is additional validation of ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange, and the upside it provides to advertisers and publishers," says Anand Subramanian, CEO, ContextWeb, Inc. "Mike's online and offline experience will be a great addition to our team."
As President of AOL Media Networks from February 2004 until September 2007, Mr. Kelly was responsible for AOL's global advertising business, including revenues, product and platform development, and media strategy for all of AOL's properties, as well as its Advertising.com network. Since creating the Media Networks organization, revenues grew from $600 million in 2003 to over $2.1 Billion in just 3 years. Also notable during Mr. Kelly's tenure was the acquisition of Advertising.Com in 2004, the negotiation of a multi-year, multi-billion dollar contract with Google in 2005, the development of AOL's network strategy and other acquisitions (such as TACODA, Lightningcast and Third Screen Media) as well as the global expansion of Ad.com to 11 countries.
Before that, he was President of Global Marketing at Time Warner and oversaw the company's group working with partners to develop cross-platform marketing solutions to take advantage of Time Warner's businesses. Mr. Kelly was the founder and CEO of American Town Network (ATN), an interactive media company that develops and manages hometown intranets in 90 communities in the Northeast and cited by Brandweek as the most comprehensive community information resource in the United States. Before establishing ATN, he worked in sales at the Chicago Tribune and in 1983 joined Fortune as a sales representative. A member of Entertainment Weekly's launch team, he later became the magazine's Vice President and Publisher. Mr. Kelly serves on the board of Eyeblaster, the American Advertising Federation, as well as Professionals in Advertising PAC and American Town Network.
About ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange
ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange launched in 2005. (http://exchange.contextweb.com) The ADSDAQ Exchange 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.
The ContextWeb, Inc. logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3669
The ADSDAQ logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=4474
As of February 2008, the ADSDAQ Exchange ranks among the top 20 ad supported properties, according to comScore Media Metrix, and reaches +93 million monthly unique visitors. The exchange serves impressions from more than 400 advertisers, including all of the top 10 marketing organizations, and more than 5,000 publishers. Also in 2007, Deloitte's New York Region Technology Fast 50 recognized 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