SOURCE: VisualDNA
November 02, 2010 11:00 ET
Audience Targeting Technology Pioneer VisualDNA Announces Plans to Empower U.S. Online Publishers and Advertisers; Appoints New Regional Leadership
Former Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), 20th Century Fox Executive Leighton Webb to Lead U.S. Operations; Expansion Driven by Growing Demand for Deeper Customer Engagement
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - November 2, 2010) - The VisualDNA audience network today announced its expansion to the U.S. to accommodate the continued demand for its audience platform solutions by publishers and advertisers. To spearhead this initiative, the company named digital media industry veteran Leighton Webb as Senior Vice President and Managing Director, United States. Additionally, Robert Tercek, one of the world's most prolific creators of interactive content, has joined the company's Board as a non-executive Director.
From its London headquarters, VisualDNA (formerly known as Imagini) has established itself as an innovator and emerging provider of online advertising technology solutions that allow publishers to increase revenues and advertisers to pinpoint and meaningfully engage with multiple audience groups.
"Most publishers are under assault right now. For years advertising networks have been siphoning away their audiences. VisualDNA returns the power to publishers by providing unprecedented access to their audience," said Alex Willcock, CEO and founder, VisualDNA. "Content is no longer the sole product. Audiences deliver revenue and publishers' knowledge of its audiences will determine how long they remain competitive. Our technology platform has been developed to help turn a content company into an audience provider and it delivers this capability with opt-in data, providing users with real value through more relevant content and experiences.
"The need for our VisualDNA platform is increasingly global and our operational expansion is the logical next step in our company's evolution," added Willcock. "Publishers are realizing significant campaign results with VisualDNA and this is generating increasing interest from advertisers, publishers and agencies in the United States. Under Leighton's leadership, we are planning an aggressive launch in the U.S., where we will partner with prominent publishers and their advertising customers and leading agencies to help them increase monetization through more highly-targeted digital marketing campaigns."
Leighton Webb To Lead U.S. Operations
Webb is an accomplished digital media executive with extensive experience in cross-platform digital media who has held senior level roles with major media companies in both the U.S. and Europe, including 20th Century Fox and AOL. Webb has worked on all major digital media platforms including mobile, digital entertainment, online games and social media during his career. He also has extensive expertise launching early-stage startups in new, international markets. Webb joins VisualDNA from the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), where he helped build OWN's digital media group in preparation for the launch of OWN in early 2011.
"I was first introduced to VisualDNA while working for OWN and I was immediately struck by its ability to deliver more margin with minimal effort. Publishers are constantly demanding the return on effort to be 'guaranteed' and VisualDNA provides instant returns," said Webb. "VisualDNA helps publishers to better understand their audience and to tell a better story to their advertisers. It is also simple to deploy, easy to integrate and it is extremely valuable to advertisers because it aggregates multiple online and offline, non-personally identifiable, first-party publisher data. I look forward to building on the success VisualDNA has attained to date in Europe."
Robert Tercek Named As VisualDNA Board Director
Tercek, who most recently served as President of Digital Media at OWN, joins the VisualDNA Board of Directors and will play a key advisory role for the company. Prior to OWN, Tercek served as President of PacketVideo Corporation and Senior Vice President of Digital Media at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Tercek has been acknowledged by Digital Media Wire and Variety as among the most influential executives in new media. He has also advised blue chip brands such as Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Computer Entertainment, and successful startups, including BrightCove, Sulake Labs/Habbo Hotel, M.Metrics, MediaCode and NevenVision.
About VisualDNA
VIsualDNA is an advanced, end-to-end audience network technology comprising more than 60 million anonymous user profiles across 120 audience groups. Through the VisualDNA platform, the company has delivered highly effective, targeted digital marketing campaigns for blue-chip publishers, advertisers, online retailers and award-winning digital media agencies including the Los Angeles Times, Mirror Group, Adconion, Hotels.com, Match.com, House of Fraser, Acer, Lastminute.com, NBA, Tom.com, Pepsi, eHarmony, Tequila and the British Army. Headquartered in London with U.S. operations in New York, VisualDNA is backed by Horizons Ventures, NorthZone Ventures, Atomico and eGarden Ventures. For more information, please visit www.visualdna.com.