LOS ANGELES - DECEMBER 16, 2008 - Traffic Marketplace today announced an exclusive partnership with Virtual Iris, developer of an H™L-based rich media platform for interactive ad creation. The deal combines patented Virtual Iris rich media creation tools with proprietary Traffic Marketplace ad delivery technology to create eyengage™, the next generation in online advertising rich media solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Both companies are privately held.

For Traffic Marketplace, the Virtual Iris partnership is the latest in a string of acquisitions/partnerships with new technology providers, as Traffic Marketplace continues to invest in technologies that allow businesses to connect with audiences in more relevant, effective and engaging ways

Virtual Iris rich media technology employs RML™, a unique, patented form of H™L for rich media. The eyengage™ ads contain all the functionality of standard rich media, such as rollover, video and animation, but without the need for Flash Players or other browser plug-ins. Without complicated action scripts or other time-intensive work, eyengage™ ads reach all consumers regardless of their browser software, and can be created in minutes rather than hours.

Art Shaw, CEO of Traffic Marketplace parent company Connexus Corporation, explains that "this unique and groundbreaking partnership is another example of our leadership and commitment to delivering relevance in online advertising."

"Relevancy in advertising means more than just targeting—it also means engagement. In addition to our recent acquisition of Livemarkets to provide innovative click-to-chat technology, our partnership with Virtual Iris allows us to offer clients powerful new ways to interact and engage with their target audience," said Jim Waltz, President, Traffic Marketplace. "Through eyengage™, advertisers that don't have the time or resources to create rich media ads using Flash can now add rollover, zoom, rotate, form fields, and even video functionality into their ads, all in just a few minutes."

"We believe that by showing more, with no loading times, businesses are able to sell more," said Gary Kramer, CEO, Virtual Iris. "Traffic Marketplace has the scale, client relationships and expertise to really bring this technology to the forefront of online advertising and revolutionize the quality of ads being displayed on the web today. We are confident eyengage™ will be a hit in the online ad marketplace."

About Virtual Iris
Founded in December 2003 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, privately-held Virtual Iris enables businesses for the first time to automate the volume production and deployment of Rich Media, instantly transforming static digital images into dynamic, multi-dimensional product displays that stimulate increased sales, streamline the buying process and provide a visceral "in store" experience online. To learn more about Virtual Iris, please visit www.virtualiris.com.

About Traffic Marketplace
As the premiere B2A™ (Business-to-Audience) online ad network, Traffic Marketplace delivers relevance in online advertising by connecting advertisers with their target audience. Reaching more than 127MM unique users monthly, Traffic Marketplace generates in excess of 30 billion advertising impressions each month, delivering more than 20 million leads and customers a year through its targeted display advertising, lead generation, co-registration, email and custom hosted solutions.

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Dear Adotas readers

We live in turbulent times, fraught with negative news. Global economic recession, bailouts, layoffs, the credit crunch, the housing crisis - these events have come to cast a black shadow over the landscape. Allow me, however, to suggest an alternate point of view with regards to 2009.

You all remember the early part of this decade with the "dot-com bust", 9/11 and corporate accounting scandals. Some of you remember the early 90's when we experienced a dip in the global economy as industrial production decreased. Some may even remember the recession of the late 70's and early 80's, along with the energy crisis, the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis, and the subsequent struggles with inflation.

In each instance above - and in every period of crisis the industrialized world has faced - we rebounded. Indeed, we have always rebounded, in large part because of our collective resourcefulness, skill, adaptability and intelligence. And it is these very traits that I believe will help us weather this new storm; the very traits that characterize a successful business in good times and bad, that we have honed in our own businesses as we have built them. We will all need to work hard to get to the far side of this crisis, but that is a good thing: it is easy to prosper when the rising tide lifts all boats higher. It is times like these that separate the well run companies from the chaff, and allow them to position themselves to substantially grow (and grow the industry) when the economy improves.

Moreover, we happen to be in an industry where hope is very much alive, and with it, a real chance to lend our resourcefulness to other sectors that may be struggling. Will our ability to generate hyper-growth again be easy? No. Is there still plenty of uncertainty out there? Of course. A now-infamous presentation given by a notable venture capital firm was entitled "RIP: Good Times". Even if you or your company had positive operating results, it would be the mark of extreme foolishness or perhaps insanity to declare your business recession-proof, or to not plan for more uncertain times ahead. But … there is opportunity, too.

Amid the bleak reports, positive signs remain for our industry. Most pundits think online advertising will continue to grow, even if at a slower pace. The shift towards performance marketing, as the need to make ad dollars work harder, will accelerate - and after all, that is what really separates online marketing from its offline counterparts. Search remains relatively strong, due to its measurable ROI. Emerging forms of distribution, such as social media applications, are proliferating and earning revenue. Even display advertising, as has been noted by several publications, has the potential for a comeback of sorts in 2009 despite some bad press (and declining CPM rates) in 2008. While everyone reading this will have a different opinion and a different market position, I hope that we can collectively agree that the opportunity to grow the entire interactive marketing industry in 2009 still exists … and there are very few industries right now that can legitimately claim this. We are indeed fortunate.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our publishing, advertising and agency partners for a great year at Epic in 2008, our best since our founding in 2000. We were truly humbled throughout the year to have had the good fortune to work with, and partner with, so many bright and innovative people and companies. We look towards next year with confidence and enthusiasm, knowing that the challenges will be great, but the opportunities greater. And we look forward to that journey in this amazing industry, where we have the opportunity to work with and around so many extraordinarily talented people.

I wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season and great success in 2009!

Sincerely,

Don Mathis

CEO, Epic Advertising

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NEW YORK, NY - December 12, 2008 - Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York-based online marketing leader, announced today that the Bazaar Advertising name, business unit and assets have been formally retired. Bazaar Advertising, the former San Francisco-based business unit that offered agency-like Search Engine Marketing services, had a portfolio of a handful of international advertisers which were phased out several months ago.

Epic Advertising continues to hold a strong presence in the Bay Area, with no staff reductions or changes to the current employee base associated with this announcement.

About Epic Advertising: Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending technologies, and the over 38,000 publishers in AzoogleAds, its highly-acclaimed performance ad network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, search engine marketing, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reac

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent Display and Search consumer web traffic. Epic scales its solutions through enormous internet reach, proprietary and patent-pending technology and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus) and a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco, Toronto and London. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group

Contact:
Cherilyn Earl
Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Cherilyn.Earl@EpicAdvertising.com

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ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE - Mike Sprouse - Effective management can be the catalyst towards business growth, and ineffective management can lead companies down a path towards despair. We are seeing a lot of this with the rash of layoffs that has been occurring as of late, not just in this industry but across many others. This is not to suggest that all the recent layoffs are due solely to ineffective management.

But some companies have a mindset that human resources are expendable. No company is immune to this reactive thinking at a time of cutbacks. How can we collectively change this mindset, manage the people we do have, work to grow their careers all the while getting our companies back on the right track?

This topic is fresh on my mind, as our company is preparing to initiate an internal Management Training program, which will be the first of its kind. It highlights that as much as executives perceive our time as valuable, we feel management training is towards the top of the list of "time well spent" in building a sustainable enterprise that can withstand macroeconomic hardship. Recessionary times actually are the best times to undertake this sort of program.

I've developed my own "4 C's" for management. Some of them are probably nothing new. However, they have served me fairly well and perhaps you can adapt some of these. In tough economic times, a rock solid management organization across all levels of the company holds even greater importance. You can tell more about people, and companies, when they are faced with challenges rather than when the sun always shines upon them.

Before I get to the list, managers and high-level executives need to understand that it is a privilege to be in a position to manage - and lead - people. The act of managing is not for everybody; managers at any level of an organization are expected to be leaders in their own way. I've studied successful leaders throughout history and analyzed what makes them tick. A caveat, of course, is that some of the greatest thinkers or entrepreneurs don't necessarily make good leaders or managers, and that is okay too. We can learn from failures as much as success stories.

Competence (leads to Respect)
Managers at any level have to be highly competent and highly skilled at their job. I'm sure we've all had at least one manager who we felt was "clueless about the business" or "didn't know what to do" or worse "didn't have any insight into our daily tasks". In other words, before you can be a good manager or executive, you have to do your job better than anyone. If you don't know the marketplace or can't set strategy for your own division or group, how do you expect to grow and develop other competent people? Take care of your business first so that you can be the role model that others depend on for insight and direction. Know the marketplace. Know key internal resources and pressure points. All of this will lead to creating an environment of respect for you with your employees. An extra note here: I've long lived by the doctrine of hiring and fostering people who were better than me in their day to day jobs. (Astute observers might say that's not hard to do!) Hiring and mentoring the best people does not mean you get to be lazy or incompetent. In fact, it means you as a manager need to raise your game more.

Clarity (leads to Achievement)
In some informal research, I found the best managers communicate and lead, and set employee's expectations, very clearly. Some of the managers I've known who reportedly have gotten bad marks are ones who do not communicate or articulate the groups, or individual employee's, short-term and long-term goals. As we get towards the time when most companies do year-end performance reviews, make sure you are clear and concise with feedback, a "vision" for the team, and importantly a vision for each individual. This is especially important in today's climate. High-level executives typically drive performance evaluations; it should be understood that everyone else depends on them and depends on an open and honest form of praise, constructive criticism, and understanding of how their role affects the division or company's overall strategy - and how that might change over time. Take the extra effort to provide the right amount of clarity to your people. This means more work for you, since basic human nature is to simply assume that people know what to do themselves, but the extra work is well worth it and your employees will thank you for it by being able to perform better. Clarity feeds into a manager's true job, which is to act as an "enabler" for people. In other words, enable people to better do their jobs by eliminating fuzziness.

Confidence (leads to Decision-Making)
If you've successfully checked off the first two items, focus on confidence. Managers need to be confident in their decisions and actions every day. However, what I'm referring to is more about instilling that same confidence you have, in your workers' day-to-day business decisions. If you've prepared people properly, and communicated clearly what their goals are, then the table is set for great things to be achieved by pushing decision-making "down" and providing the necessary level of support for employees to make their own decisions. Time and again, otherwise great companies have gotten stuck because the decision-making authority resided in only one or just a few people's offices. This is poison, and some highly-regarded companies are getting pinched now because of it. For a company of any size, centralizing every decision is not only ineffective but paralyzing. It is also not healthy for a business in any kind of dynamic or creative industry which relies on thought leadership to thrive. Instead, the goal should be to instill confidence in people's ability to make their own decisions quickly and decisively. This does not mean encouraging half-baked decisions. But it does recognize good people who know their goals and the organization's goals perfectly and that sometimes they can probably make the same decisions you would have made anyway.

Courtesy (leads to Trust)
For some, this might be the one that conjures up a spirited debate. Courtesy, for managers, does not mean getting walked on, does not mean kissing behinds, and does not mean allowing things outside the normal course of people's job responsibilities. Rather, it refers to being a true professional and understanding that the beauty, and challenge, of being a manager and leader is that every single person is different. People act differently under different situations. Personalities need to be dealt with in a wide variety of ways. The common thread in all of these situations is the need to be courteous. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is ages old, but highly applicable. Who wants to work in an environment with people who aren't courteous or who communicate in a snippy, unprofessional manner? Not me.

Books have been written about what management style is most effective: the iron fist or the laissez-faire. I've found that a centrist mentality is even more effective. Rulers with an iron fist, in my experience at least, tend to act this way to cover up inefficiencies in the company or as a way of expressing frustration sometimes for their own inadequacy. High-stress economic times typically exacerbate inefficiency. However, if you can check off the first three items above, it reduces your own emotional burden and allows you to deal with people in a courteous, transparent and professional manner. The single most important trait between manager and employee is trust, and courtesy leads to trust. If you act in your employees own best interests, and truly do seek success for them, there will be a level of trust built over time that is powerful to shake, even in the worst climate. Companies challenged by the economy, and most every one of us is, will only get through this rough period by utilizing all of its resources to the fullest - and the most valuable resources are people.

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NEW YORK, NY - October 27, 2008 - Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the privately held, New York-based online marketing leader, today announced strong September results, posting seven percent and 14 percent gains, respectively, in revenue and profit over last September. In an environment marked by tightening budgets and consolidation, the performance marketing company's publisher and advertiser bases experienced robust growth.

Epic also announced its participation in ad:tech New York, from November 3-4, at the Hilton New York. The annual gathering is the industry's premiere digital marketing event, providing brand advertisers, agencies, portals, online publishers and technology providers a forum to exchange ideas. Epic (Booth #804) will showcase its industry-leading performance ad network business, and demonstrate its new iMobilePublisher, the first iPhone application enabling publishers to monitor critical performance data like cost per click, total clicks and payment history, in real time, wherever they are.

CEO Don Mathis and other key Epic personnel will be on hand both days to discuss the new platform and the company's recently announced London expansion, and to give their take on interactive marketing's prospects in a tight-money environment.

"We are working hard to continue our growth with calculated, responsible investment that our clients have grown accustomed to from us during these tighter times," Mathis said. "In a tough economic environment, performance marketing should get a closer look by advertisers needing to make every dollar work harder and looking for true accountability and transparency. Our leading targeting and technical infrastructure, as well as our global scale and reach, help advertisers achieve precisely that."

The company will thank its clients and partners at an ad-tech-timed party at Marquee Night Club. The November 3 event will benefit the Thomas Blake, Sr. Memorial Cancer Research Fund and is invitation-only until midnight.

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending technologies, and the over 38,000 publishers in AzoogleAds, its highly-acclaimed performance ad network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus) and being named a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco, Toronto and London. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Cherilyn Earl
Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Cherilyn.Earl@EpicAdvertising.com

Contact:
Laura Dempsey
The Dowd Agency
212.686.7777
Laura@dowdagency.com

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NEW YORK, NY - October 23, 2008 - The Azoogle Ad Network (www.AzoogleAds.com), a division of the New York-based online marketing leader Epic Advertising, announced today the successful beta launch of its new iPhone Publisher Reporting Platform, iMobilePublisher. The beta launch represents the latest in a string of successes stemming from the company's Product and Technology teams, and will initially include a small number of trusted publishers.

"We have found that our publishers increasingly use iPhones, and so this product was born out of marketplace opportunity," says Greg Bayer, Senior Director of Product Management for Epic Advertising. "We wanted to build something that makes life even easier for the publishers that work with us, and we strive to deliver innovative tools to them which set us apart from other networks."

iMobilePublisher provides publishers in the Azoogle performance ad network the ability to check all facets of marketing campaigns including payment history, leads, stats, clicks and effective CPCs. The easy-to-use interface also allows the publisher to sort by offers and a variety of date ranges, with a well-designed presentation and user-interface that can display data in graphical format. The platform also works on the iTouch with a wireless internet connection.

The platform is free to Azoogle publishers and will be downloadable at iTunes shortly. Rollout and expansion to Azoogle's publisher base is expected in early 2009 with enhanced functionality. Product demos and promotional giveaways will take place at Affiliate Summit West (http://www.affiliatesummit.com/09w_conference.php) beginning January 11, 2009, where the Azoogle Ad Network is also the Platinum Sponsor.

"From a technology standpoint, our team is committed to supporting the ever-changing needs of our worldwide publisher base," says Rick Okin, Chief Information Officer for Epic Advertising. "Our world-class technology team takes pride in staying a step ahead of our closest competitors in terms of product innovation and first-mover status, and we look forward to getting feedback from beta publishers prior to rollout and adding a whole new set of cool features."

About the Azoogle Ad Network:
The Azoogle Ad Network (www.AzoogleAds.com) is a division of Epic Advertising, the global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 38,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed network, the Azoogle Ad Network provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing ROI and worldwide online reach via transparent display and search consumer traffic.

The parent company of Azoogle, Epic Advertising, has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus, July 2008) and being named a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

The Azoogle Ad Network and Epic Advertising are headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Cherilyn Earl
Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Cherilyn.Earl@EpicAdvertising.com

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London, England - September 22, 2008 - Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York-based online marketing leader, announced today that it has appointed international online marketing veteran Rob Wilson to the position of Senior Vice President and General Manager, Europe. Mr. Wilson will be based in London, England, and will start his new post on October 16, 2008.

In his position at Epic Advertising, Mr. Wilson is responsible for the further development and general strategic oversight of the company's European-based businesses. He will also oversee all operational facets of the European-based division, including office expansion and staffing, as well as strategic oversight and P&L.

Prior to joining Epic Advertising, Mr. Wilson served as Regional Director for the US and UK markets for Zanox, a performance marketing company headquartered in Berlin. During his tenure at Zanox, Mr. Wilson maintained full P&L responsibility for the company's English-speaking markets, and was critical in growing the UK market dramatically within a year. Additionally, Mr. Wilson championed several operational improvements including implementation of a revised set of Key Performance Indicators and a management restructure, while also leading a project team for the company's Search Engine Marketing business.

Prior to Zanox, Mr. Wilson held several notable posts during his career. Most recently, he was the Managing Director, Europe for 24/7 Real Media, possessing full P&L responsibility over its European businesses. Previously, Mr. Wilson was the Director of Editorial & Customer Operations, Europe, for Yahoo! Search Marketing, where he was responsible for the creation, growth and continuous management of YSM's European operations center. His impressive career also includes positions with Lexmark, One Direct and Guardian Direct Insurance. Mr. Wilson graduated with Honors from the University of Teesside in the United Kingdom, with a BA in International Business IT.

"Rob brings over a decade of experience in international business, sales, marketing and operations to our company," said Don Mathis, CEO of Epic Advertising. "He has effectively combined strategic management skills with a proven track record of innovation and the rapid development of online and media businesses. He is a perfect fit for our company as we build upon our European presence and continue our journey towards being a dominant global player in the online marketing industry. We are fully confident Rob will help to lead this area of our company's expansion and we're excited to have him on our team."

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 35,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed Azoogle Ad Network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus, July 2008) and being named a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Cherilyn Earl
Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Cherilyn.Earl@EpicAdvertising.com

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New York, NY - September 16, 2008 - Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York-based online marketing leader, announced today that the Board of Directors has appointed Don Mathis to be Chief Executive Officer. Mathis is based at the company's headquarters in New York, NY. As CEO, he is responsible for the strategic vision and overall management of the enterprise.

"We are pleased and extremely excited to name Don Mathis as CEO," said Brian Conway, a director of the company and a Managing Director with TA Associates, a global private equity firm with a significant investment in Epic Advertising. "Based on his outstanding leadership and extensive industry knowledge, we believe Don is the ideal choice to continue to grow Epic Advertising well into the future."

Prior to being elevated to the company's top leadership role, Mathis was the President and Chief Operating Officer. During his tenure as President, Epic Advertising rapidly established an impressive trend of highly profitable business growth and expansion, evolving quickly into a recognized worldwide leader in online performance marketing. Mathis was originally hired in 2005 as the company's Senior Vice President of Operations and Technology.

A seasoned executive, Mr. Mathis has a wide range of experience in online media and technology, as well as the offline sector. His prior experience includes having served as COO of the first online fantasy sports company, Small World Sports, helping build that company into one of the top destination sites on the Internet and ultimately selling it to Vulcan Ventures and merging it with The Sporting News. His experience also includes serving as an operational restructuring advisor for the turnaround firm AlixPartners and as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company. Mathis began his career as a programmer and technology consultant with Accenture, and graduated with honors from Harvard Business School and Vassar College.

In addition to his civilian experience, Mathis also served as a Naval Officer, most recently as a mobilized reservist following the 9/11 attacks, when he served as the Executive Officer of an anti-terrorism joint task force. He was later designated Deputy Group Commander for all Navy expeditionary logistics forces in Central Command (the Middle East). Mathis began his Navy career as a P-3 anti-submarine patrol aircraft Flight Communications Officer, and he served with the United Nations in Cambodia and Bosnia.

"I'm incredibly honored, and humbled, to have been appointed CEO," said Mathis. "The company has come so far in such a short period of time in 2008, recording sizable growth and tangible results in the face of a broader economic slowdown. It is a real testament to our talented Executive Team and entire staff. From my perspective, it has been energizing to be a part of our transformation this year into a well-recognized, worldwide marketing powerhouse. I'm thrilled to be CEO, and look forward to our continuing achievements this year and beyond."

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 35,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed Azoogle Ad Network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus, July 2008) and being named a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Cherilyn Earl
Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Cherilyn.Earl@EpicAdvertising.com

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LOS ANGELES - SEPTEMBER 3, 2008 - Traffic Marketplace today announced it has completed the acquisition of Livemarkets, the developer of proprietary click-to-chat technology that enables consumers to launch a chat session via any banner ad and provides advertisers with the ability to interact directly with consumers without any additional software or applications. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Both companies are privately held.

With its purchase of Livemarkets, Traffic Marketplace continues its investment in innovative and proprietary technologies that allow businesses to connect with audiences in more relevant, effective and engaging ways.

"Livemarkets chat-enabled ads allow consumers to interact with brands wherever they view ad content on the web," said Jim Waltz, President, Traffic Marketplace. "Our advertisers are now able to communicate one-to-one with potential customers directly through their advertisements, even when they are not visiting the advertiser's website. By leveraging the portability of online advertising, a marketer can interact with 10,000 times more prospects than conventional website-based chat systems."

Founded in 2007, Livemarkets developed the click-to-chat functionality to work in conjunction with any type of Internet ad unit, in a fully-portable, no-download necessary environment. Chat routing is fully automated and is only delivered to chat associates that are verified as available. Livemarkets also engages call centers to accept roll over from high-volume campaigns, ensuring no chat is left unanswered.

"Our vision has been to bring advertisers and customers together to create mutually beneficial, real-time conversations," said Baden Gilmore, CEO of Livemarkets, who will join the Traffic Marketplace team along with Justin Kirby, CTO of Livemarkets. "By partnering with an ad network as ubiquitous and established as Traffic Marketplace, we hope to make this technology not only visible, but invaluable, to some of the world's biggest and best brands."

About LiveMarkets
Livemarkets is a banner ad and chat window ad serving company using powerful technology to connect advertisers with their online customers. For more information, visit www.livemarkets.com.

About Traffic Marketplace
As the premiere B2A™ (Business-to-Audience) online ad network, Traffic Marketplace delivers relevance in online advertising by connecting advertisers with their target audience. Reaching more than 127MM unique users monthly, Traffic Marketplace generates in excess of 30 billion advertising impressions each month, delivering more than 20 million leads and customers a year through its targeted display advertising, lead generation, co-registration, email and custom hosted solutions.

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Traffic Marketplace has picked up Livemarkets, an online advertising technology firm that specializes in click-to-chat banner ads. The Los Angeles-based ad network will add Livemarkets' chat-enabled banners to the roster of ad units it currently offers, including behaviorally targeted ads, lead-generation microsites and email.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Livemarkets CEO Baden Gilmore and CTO Justin Kirby will take on leadership roles within Traffic Marketplace's rich media strategy and technology divisions, respectively. According to Jim Waltz, president of Traffic Marketplace, the deal had been in the works for about six months, and the network has been testing the click-to-chat banners over the past three.

Livemarkets' chat-based banners allow site visitors to ask questions about products or services featured in the ad, and Waltz said that publishers like them because users don't have to click away to another site. Meanwhile, brands shilling big-ticket items like automobiles or intricate products like mobile phones get to pull consumers further down the purchase pathway by answering their questions almost immediately.

The technology also ensures that "no chat will go unchatted," Waltz said, as the chat-enabled units will not be served unless there is a customer service or sales rep ready to join the conversation. "The system can sense dynamically whether there's a person on the other end or not," Waltz said. "It can be someone in the brand's call center, in the local office, or even a third party." He added that the average CPMs for such units were comparable to the going rates for rich media ads.

The click-to-chat also complements Traffic Marketplace's lead-generation and affiliate business. "Someone could be reluctant to fill out all the info in a lead form," Waltz said. "But if there's someone right there able to chat with them and get the information, then you have a much more qualified lead. It opens up a lot of possibilities."

When asked why Traffic Marketplace chose to acquire Livemarkets as opposed to a more temporary partnership, Waltz said the deal was driven by synergy between the two companies' teams and their technologies. "We saw it as a much better long-term fit, and now we have the potential to take the technology beyond our own display network," he said. Traffic Marketplace boasts access to more than 250,000 sites (and their aggregated user data) through sister company Firstlook, and Waltz said that network had plans to expand its reach in the coming months.

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New York, NY - September 2, 2008 - Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York-based online marketing leader, has appointed Keith Duncan to the position of Senior Director of Agency Sales. Duncan will be based at the company's headquarters in New York, NY.

In his position at Epic Advertising, Duncan is responsible for overseeing agency sales efforts and forging key strategic partnerships with agencies of all sizes. He will manage current relationships with key agency contacts, as well as the development of new agency business partnerships.

Prior to joining Epic Advertising, Mr. Duncan served as Account Director for the Consumer Products Category at Yahoo! During his tenure at Yahoo!, Mr. Duncan was responsible for maintaining a regional territory for Global Fortune 500 brands and strategizing with senior executives from digital agencies to drive more revenue and effectiveness to their online businesses. Under his direction, the business portfolio increased 50% year over year and included work on such prominent brands like Subway, Heineken and Pizza Hut. In 2007, he was named "MVP" at the Yahoo! National Sales Conference.

Prior to Yahoo!, Mr. Duncan was the Regional Sales Manager and Major Account Executive at HotJobs.com. He holds a Biology Degree from the University of Delaware.

"Attracting someone with Keith's expertise from an online powerhouse such as Yahoo! and proven success with large accounts and agencies is a perfect strategic fit for us," said Brett Lofgren, Senior Vice President of Global Advertising Sales. "Our largest growth opportunities have recently been, and will continue to be, through Fortune 500 brands. We can deliver our uniquely effective marketing solutions and broad range of competencies, which our competitors don't have, to these types of partners. Keith will ensure agency partners are serviced even more efficiently, rapidly and effectively than today. We're incredibly excited at our impressive growth trend in 2008 and are confident this trajectory will soar even higher with Keith handling the Agency business."

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 35,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed Azoogle Ad Network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus, July 2008) and being named a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Cherilyn Earl
Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Cherilyn.Earl@EpicAdvertising.com

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Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York-based industry leader in online performance marketing, has been named to the annual Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. Epic Advertising joins a select group of companies identified by Inc. for this award. Epic has realized a four-year growth rate of 118% on a high revenue base (in the nine figure range in 2007). With revenues significantly higher than all but eight other companies in the "Advertising and Marketing" sector of the Inc. 5000, that growth rate is all the more significant.

"We are thrilled to be named to this prestigious list for the first time in our company's eight year history", said Don Mathis, President of Epic Advertising. "For Epic, this milestone acknowledges that while growing rapidly as a small company is admirable, the real challenge is maintaining a high growth rate after passing $100 million in revenue, which we did last year. We have achieved this by focusing on building a world-class enterprise, honing and expanding our core business model, and maintaining consistent, year-over-year growth. Our selection to the Inc. 5000 list affirms the success we have achieved on behalf of our top-tier advertisers and our 35,000-plus publishers."

Epic Advertising's ongoing success has positioned it as a dominant, global performance marketing company, connecting advertisers from all over the world to highly targeted online consumers through display advertising, via the Azoogle Ad Network, its award-winning performance-based ad network; and through its performance search agency business. Epic's distribution comes from its vast display "reach" and through high-performance search marketing.

"This recognition resulted from years of focused commitment to providing online marketing solutions to our advertisers and publishers that are second to none," said Michael Sprouse, Chief Marketing Officer of Epic Advertising. "We have the 9th highest 2007 revenue base out of the 362 companies ranked in the 'Advertising and Marketing' sector of the Inc. 5000 competition. We have received numerous accolades this year including this most recent one, and they all emphasize the strong, sustainable growth driving our robust business."

The 5,000 companies that made the list reported aggregate revenue of $185 billion and median three-year growth of 147 percent. Most important, the 2008 Inc. 5000 companies were engines of job growth, having created more than 826,033 jobs since those companies were founded. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and a list of the fastest-growing companies that can be sorted by industry and region can be found at www.inc5000.com.

"Our second annual Inc. 5000 continues the most ambitious project in business journalism," said Inc. 5000 Project Manager Jim Melloan. "The Inc. 5000 gives an unrivalled portrait of young, underreported companies across all industries doing fascinating things with cutting-edge business models, as well as older companies that are still showing impressive growth."

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 35,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed Azoogle Ad Network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus, July 2008) and being named a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

About Inc.com:
Inc.com, the daily resource for entrepreneurs, delivers how-to guides, advice, tools, breaking news, and rich multi-media to help business owners and CEOs start, run, and grow their businesses. Inc.com offers dynamic marketing solutions to help advertisers effectively reach Inc.com's audience of business leaders. Visit http://www.inc.com.

About Inc. 500 | Inc. 5000 Conference:
Each year, Inc. magazine and Inc.com celebrate the remarkable achievements of today's entrepreneurial superstars — the privately held small businesses that drive our economy. The Inc. 500|Inc. 5000 Conference brings together members of the Inc. 5000 community—both a new class of Inc. 5000 honorees and the list's alumni—for three days of powerful networking, inspired learning, and momentous celebration. For the first time ever, this powerful networking event is open to all. Please join us September 18-20, 2008 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington, D.C. For more information or to register, visit www.Inc500Conference.com or call us at 877-211-0489.

Contact:
Cherilyn Earl
Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Cherilyn.Earl@EpicAdvertising.com

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New York, NY - August 18, 2008 - Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York-based online performance marketing company, announced today that its performance display ad network division, the Azoogle Ad Network, has been ranked the 28th largest ad network domestically (48th largest web property overall in the "Ad Focus" report) for July 2008 by comScore, Inc., the industry leader in online audience measurement. This placement ranks Epic among the very top for specialty or niche ad network players, and within range of the largest horizontal ad networks - while only counting a portion of Epic's overall traffic, with the rest coming from search via its performance search business. The company's monthly reach through the Azoogle Ad Display Network now spans more than 40 million unique visitors a month. July marks the first time the company or any of its business units have been publicly ranked by comScore, Inc.

Epic Advertising is a dominant, global performance marketing company, connecting advertisers from all over the world to highly targeted online consumers through display advertising, via the Azoogle Ad Display Network, its award-winning performance-based ad network, and through its performance search business. Epic's traffic comes from its vast display "reach" - as counted in the comScore report -- and through high-performing search marketing.

"These results are very positive for us and highlight an important piece of our compelling overall growth story in 2008," said Michael Sprouse, Chief Marketing Officer of Epic Advertising. "Our reach via display advertising in the U.S., as these rankings indicate, coupled with the reach numbers we track internally through Search, show a position of strength in the global online marketing ecosystem to the tune of over 22 billion ad impressions served per month worldwide. We are becoming a growing force in providing advertisers and agencies with a wide range of effective marketing solutions, whether through display, search, social network monetization, text ads, video advertising, pCPM and more. We don't just buy impressions; rather, we ensure our marketing and targeting efforts across all platforms are tailored to each client individually."

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 35,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed Azoogle Ad Network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning and a targeted, worldwide reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Cherilyn Earl
Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Cherilyn.Earl@EpicAdvertising.com

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New York, NY - July 31, 2008 – Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York-based online performance marketing company, has appointed Marc Porcelli to the position of Vice President, Advertising Sales. Porcelli will be based in the company's Toronto, Ontario offices.

In his position at Epic Advertising, Porcelli is responsible for overseeing advertiser sales efforts and forging key strategic partnerships for CPA-focused, North American advertisers of all sizes. He will manage the retention of key accounts as well as the development of new advertising relationships.

Prior to joining Epic Advertising, Mr. Porcelli served as Chief Marketing Officer for Singlesnet, a leading online dating site. During his tenure at Singlesnet, Mr. Porcelli was responsible for defining and executing the company's marketing strategy, as well as leading online customer acquisition. Under his direction, Singlesnet became a leader in market share, a position they still hold. He also instituted an internal affiliate program, and closed several strategic multi-million dollar contracts with high-profile web properties. Prior to Singlesnet, Mr. Porcelli was the Director of Toronto Advertising Sales for AzoogleAds, now a division of Epic Advertising.

Mr. Porcelli holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from the American InterContinental University as well as several post-graduate certificates.

"We are incredibly excited at Marc's return to the team," said Brett Lofgren, Senior Vice President of Global Advertising Sales. "We have experienced accelerated business growth in the face of broader economic challenges, and it sends a positive signal to the industry about our company's strength that we were able to attract someone of his caliber back to the company. Marc brings to us a tremendous track record, deep industry expertise across a wide variety of marketing disciplines and a solid reputation. He will be critical to our group's success and in continuing the company's impressive growth pattern."

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 35,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed Azoogle Ad Network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning and a targeted, worldwide reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Cherilyn Earl
Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Cherilyn.Earl@EpicAdvertising.com

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New York, NY - July 22, 2008 – Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York online performance marketing company, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the AO Global 250 Winners. Inclusion in the AO Global 250 signifies major developments in the creation of new business opportunities in the global technology industries. Epic Advertising was specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and other industry experts spanning the globe, based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

Epic Advertising and the AlwaysOn Global 250 Top Private Companies will be honored at the AlwaysOn & STVP Summit at Stanford scheduled to occur on July 22-24, 2008 at Stanford University. This two-and-a-half day executive event highlights the significant economic, political and commercial trends disrupting the global technology industries and features the most innovative companies, eminent technologists, influential investors and journalists in keynote presentations and panel debates. Additionally, fifty of the top CEOs from the AO Global 250, including Epic Advertising's President Don Mathis, will present their market strategies to a panel of industry experts in a "CEO Showcase."

"The AO Global 250 winners have excelled in key strategic areas in the global technology markets," said Tony Perkins, founder and CEO of AlwaysOn. "We congratulate them for their success in introducing new tools, services, and platforms that are driving the next phase of innovation and creating real value at an economically uncertain time."

The AO Global 250 was selected from over hundreds of companies, nominated by a panel of industry experts in the online technology, media, entertainment, enterprise and greentech sectors from around the world.

As a leading, global online performance marketing company, Epic Advertising provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 35,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed Azoogle Ad Network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning and a targeted, worldwide reach.

A full list of all the AO Global 250 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn Web site at http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/27959.

"We are incredibly honored to be one of the winners along with other game-changing, and market-leading, private companies," said Rick Okin, CIO of Epic Advertising. "Selection in the Global 250 illustrates our achievement in providing effective marketing solutions to our partners. It underscores the commitment we have towards constant innovation, technology and the relentless pursuit of market leadership. We truly believe Epic Advertising is, and will continue to be, a global market leader in online advertising and are proud to have been recognized as such."

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 35,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed Azoogle Ad Network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning and a targeted, worldwide reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

About AlwaysOn:
AlwaysOn ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 by being the first media brand to launch a community blog network. In 2004, AlwaysOn continued to lead the industry in innovation by engaging its bloggers in a social network. AlwaysOn is also revolutionizing the media business by applying its open-media principles to its executive event series (Stanford Summit, OnHollywood, OnMedia, GoingGreen, NordicGreen, and Venture Summit East and West) and quarterly print "blogozine". No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction with its readers and event participants..

Contact:
Cherilyn Earl
Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Cherilyn.Earl@EpicAdvertising.com

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July 10, 2008 – New York, NY - Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York online performance marketing company, announced today that Don Mathis, the company's President, will present as part of the CEO Showcase at The AlwaysOn and STVP Summit at Stanford. The summit is being held at the Arrillaga Alumni Center at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA from July 22 through July 24, 2008.

The AlwaysOn and STVP Summit at Stanford is a two-and-a-half-day executive gathering that highlights the significant economic, political and commercial trends disrupting the global technology industries. The AlwaysOn & STVP Summit at Stanford features the most innovative companies, eminent technologists, influential investors and journalists in keynote presentations, panel debates and private company CEO showcases. The AlwaysOn & STVP Summit at Stanford's goal is to identify the most promising entrepreneurial opportunities and investments in the global tech industry.

Fifty top chief executives will pitch their market strategies to a panel of industry experts in the "CEO Showcase." Mr. Mathis will make his CEO Showcase presentation at 3PM on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 in McCaw Hall, and will be available for one-on-one meetings throughout the afternoon.

In Mr. Mathis' role as President, he is responsible for the strategic vision and overall management of the enterprise. Prior to becoming President, Mathis served as the Chief Operating Officer of the company and earlier as SVP of Operations and Technology. Under his leadership, Epic Advertising has established a track record of highly profitable growth and expansion, as well as an industry-leading position in marketing integrity and compliance, propelling the company into its current status as a global leader in online marketing.

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 35,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed Azoogle Ad Network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning and a targeted, worldwide reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

About AlwaysOn:
AlwaysOn ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 as the first media brand to launch an advertising-based blog network. In 2004, AlwaysOn continued to lead the new media industry by introducing the first social network attached to an editorial brand. AlwaysOn also applies its open-media principles to its executive event series (Stanford Summit, OnHollywood, AlwaysOn Media and GoingGreen) and quarterly print "blogozine" by empowering members to influence editorial content and programming. AlwaysOn is committed to a participatory and merit-driven approach to reporting and event programming. No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction between its editors, readers and event participants.

Contact:
Mike Sprouse
Epic Advertising - CMO
212.308.8509, ext. 3297
Michael.sprouse@epicadvertising.com

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New York, NY – AzoogleAds (www.AzoogleAds.com), a division of Epic Advertising, announced today an expanded strategic relationship with TRUE.com, making it the online dating giant's affiliate marketing Agency of Record. This announcement follows an already prosperous relationship between the two companies spanning several years from their work together via the AzoogleAds performance-based ad network.

Under the terms of the strategic relationship, AzoogleAds will now manage all new affiliate applications on behalf of TRUE.com, including hosting its affiliate link, and promoting TRUE.com's quality services to users in a variety of online locations. Notably, by allowing AzoogleAds to manage affiliate applications and relationships on its behalf, TRUE.com now is able to receive targeted customers from a variety of websites and search portals by capitalizing on AzoogleAds' proprietary tracking system, creative services team and network managers.

"We've had a long-standing and successful relationship with AzoogleAds' performance-based ad network," said Ruben Buell, president of TRUE.com. "The logical evolution was to further maximize the relationship and ultimately give AzoogleAds exclusive service rights with our affiliates to help scale our business even more."

"An expanded strategic relationship with TRUE.com is very exciting for us," said Don Mathis, President of AzoogleAds' parent company, Epic Advertising. "We've had an outstanding, multi-year relationship with TRUE.com. With this agreement, we will drive their business to an even higher level, showcasing our broad range of capabilities and the full spectrum of value we bring to our advertising partners."

About AzoogleAds:
AzoogleAds (www.azoogleads.com), founded in 2000, is the industry-leading performance-based ad network division of Epic Advertising, specializing in customer acquisition and conversion. Utilizing its proprietary display optimization/ targeting and search technologies, and leveraging a network of tens of thousands of publishers, AzoogleAds generates the highest volumes of quality traffic for its advertising partners. A pioneer in the online performance marketing industry, AzoogleAds brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield, and scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, its proprietary technologies, and its unparalleled industry expertise.

The group is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. They are members of the IAB, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the American Marketing Association, Shop.Org, the DMA and the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee.

About TRUE.com:
TRUE is the leading scientifically based, online relationship service, whose mission is to help singles find long-lasting and fulfilling relationships. Founded on an advanced, scientifically based compatibility test uniquely endorsed by Psychology Today and independently certified to meet the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, TRUE is the only online relationship service that actively seeks to further protect the safety of its communicating members by conducting criminal background screenings and single-verification screenings. With the help of proprietary research and in conjunction with national and international advisors in the field of relationship and psychology, TRUE's team of experts guides members step-by-step through all stages of the relationship-building process. To find out more about how TRUE helps people around the world Live.Love.Learn® please visit www.true.com.

Contact:
Mike Sprouse
Chief Marketing Officer – Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Michael.sprouse@epicadvertising.com

Rupa Patel – TRUE.com
VOLLMER Public Relations
972.488.4790
rupa@vollmerpr.com

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New York, NY – AzoogleAds (www.AzoogleAds.com), a division of Epic Advertising, announced today that it has been chosen as an Honorable Mention company in the Nollenberger Capital Partners (NCPI) Top 200 leading private company report. The NCPI Top 200 is a power list of exciting, emerging growth companies demonstrating continuing innovation and performance. AzoogleAds was hand-picked out of thousands of companies across many different business models and channels.

"We are excited to receive this prestigious recognition. The roster of winners from 2008 includes many of the most influential companies in digital media and technology today, and we're excited to be mentioned in that very same group," said Don Mathis, President of parent company Epic Advertising. "Getting recognition like this shows our current strength as a company, and gives us tremendous excitement about the business we are continuing to build."

AzoogleAds is the industry-leading, performance-based advertising network division of Epic Advertising. The company works with online advertisers of all sizes across many different channels to generate ROI from direct response marketing campaigns. The company was founded in 2000 and currently is able to scale their business and partnerships leveraging vast amounts of data from their extraordinary internet reach, technology, optimization and unparalleled industry expertise. Late in 2007, the company also boosted its executive team to build a foundation to accommodate growth in 2008 and beyond.

"We examined thousands of private company business models, financials and management teams that are transforming markets and creating new business opportunities," said Rick Juarez, Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking at Nollenberger Capital Partners. "AzoogleAds was one of the companies we think is demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technology. We expect to hear more good things from them and their parent company, Epic Advertising, in the future."

About AzoogleAds:
AzoogleAds (www.azoogleads.com), founded in 2000, is the industry-leading performance-based ad network division of Epic Advertising, specializing in customer acquisition and conversion. Utilizing its proprietary display optimization/ targeting and search technologies, and leveraging a network of tens of thousands of publishers, AzoogleAds generates the highest volumes of quality traffic for its advertising partners. A pioneer in the online performance marketing industry, AzoogleAds brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield, and scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, its proprietary technologies, and its unparalleled industry expertise.

The group is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. They are members of the IAB, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the American Marketing Association, Shop.Org, the DMA and the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee.

About Nollenberger Capital Partners:
At Nollenberger Capital Partners, we believe that success is a shared vision. We are an investment banking and advisory services firm providing investment banking, private client services, public finance, and retirement plan services. Our high-touch approach combines experienced advisors providing insight-driven solutions. We have one goal in mind, our clients' success. For more information about Nollenberger Capital Partners, please visit www.NCPI.com.

Contact:
Mike Sprouse
Chief Marketing Officer – Epic Advertising
212.308.8509
Michael.sprouse@epicadvertising.com

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New York, NY – Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York-based online performance marketing company, today announced the official appointment of Bill Softky as Chief Algorithm Officer. Softky is based in Epic Advertising's San Francisco office.

In this position, Softky is responsible for managing, designing and prototyping the company's ad-serving and retargeting optimization algorithms and architecture. Additionally, his scientific training is helping him to unify many of Epic's disparate business-information streams—such as automated margin-maximization, search engine auto-bidding, real-time fraud and compliance detection, and transparent database optics—into a single coherent, corporate-wide platform.

Already during his tenure at Epic Advertising, Softky conceived the company's recently announced patent-pending statistical metric, Performance CPM (pCPM), which measures "induced visits" and its impact on measuring marketing campaigns. pCPM serves to benchmark online ad campaigns and has shown to increase campaign value by up to 60 percent.

Prior to Epic Advertising, Softky held the position of Principal Investigator at Redwood Neuroscience Institute where he created and implemented architecture for a brain-like hierarchical/predictive processing network. His scientific reputation encompassed groundbreaking work on neural statistics, a field containing key insights for online click-traffic and optimization. His technology accomplishments also include inventing and managing a key innovation in Microsoft's PreFix automatic debugging technology, which nearly eliminated system crashes in Windows 2000 & XP.

"Even beyond the successful release of our new patent-pending measurement, pCPM, Bill has proven to be a valuable member of the Epic Advertising team," says Don Mathis, President of Epic Advertising. "His unique position at our company showcases our commitment to innovation in online advertising, as it is a one-of-a-kind role that Bill fills. He truly represents our inimitable industry position as a mature company that constantly innovates, always marrying art and science."

Softky has a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and a BS in Physics (with Honors, Phi Beta Kappa) from Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania.

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), founded in 2000 as AzoogleAds, is an elite, global performance marketing company, providing advertisers with superior customer acquisition marketing services. Leveraging its industry-leading performance-based ad network under its AzoogleAds subsidiary, and its search engine marketing capabilities under its Bazaar Advertising subsidiary, Epic provides advertisers with direct response marketing services with a world-wide reach that are second to none.

Epic Advertising utilizes proprietary and patent-pending optimization and targeting technology, and leverages a network of tens of thousands of publishers, to generate extremely high volumes of top quality consumer traffic for its advertising partners. A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield, and scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, its proprietary targeting and search technologies, and its unparalleled industry expertise.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Tiffany Guarnaccia / Gina Preoteasa
Trylon SMR
212.725.2295
tiffany@trylonsmr.com / gina@trylonsmr.com

» Article Top

New York, NY – Epic Advertising, the New York-based online performance marketing company, today announced the official launch of Performance CPM (pCPM), a patent-pending metric that allows advertisers to track performance-marketing campaigns by measuring "induced visits." Advertisers can now determine campaign effectiveness utilizing a new, more comprehensive approach.

The premise of pCPM is rooted in induced visits, or visits to an advertiser's site tracked beyond direct clicks. A visit to an advertiser's site is "induced" if it results in any way from an ad, even if there is no immediate response or direct click path from ad to site. This metric goes beyond traditional campaign measurement tactics by employing scientific techniques to discern the broadest types of cause and effect, excluding things like "accidental clicks."

Along with measuring induced visits, the metric encompasses elements from traditional tracking methods - CPC, CPM and CPA - as well as inherent branding impacts to offer a more holistic view of an online advertising campaign's success. Because pCPM involves only statistics, it avoids any retention of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

Prior to its release, Epic Advertising's pCPM was refined internally over a 6-month period and tested in beta on a handful of selected advertising campaigns. Beta test results demonstrated induced visits accounted for a 60% increase on top of clicks. The results also showed that the measurement helped to ascribe value to branding ads seen but not actually clicked.

"pCPM alters the way online advertisers can gauge the true value of their campaigns by allowing them to now measure true effectiveness and influence," says Don Mathis, President of Epic Advertising. "For instance, if you see an ad without clicking but remember the company's URL, and then visit the site later, we would capture and realize that induced visit as part of pCPM."

Added Mathis, "This method lets our advertisers do two new things: they can see the impact of an ad beyond direct clicks, and they can put a solid measure of user-impact on their traditional brand-oriented CPM campaigns. It encompasses the standard metrics used in the marketplace as well, so it is more comprehensive. We believe our method, marrying marketing and technology, is the next step in online marketing campaign tracking and will serve as a model for the industry."

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), founded in 2000 as AzoogleAds, is an elite, global performance marketing company, providing advertisers with superior customer acquisition marketing services. Leveraging its industry-leading performance-based ad network under its AzoogleAds subsidiary, and its search engine marketing capabilities under its Bazaar Advertising subsidiary, Epic provides advertisers with direct response marketing services with a world-wide reach that are second to none.

Epic Advertising utilizes proprietary and patent-pending optimization and targeting technology, and leverages a network of tens of thousands of publishers, to generate extremely high volumes of top quality consumer traffic for its advertising partners. A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield, and scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, its proprietary targeting and search technologies, and its unparalleled industry expertise.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Tiffany Guarnaccia / Gina Preoteasa
Trylon SMR
212.725.2295
tiffany@trylonsmr.com / gina@trylonsmr.com

» Article Top

New York, NY – Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), a leading online performance marketing company, announced today that Don Mathis, the company's President, will present at the Third Annual Needham & Company Internet & Digital Media Conference held at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York on May 8, 2008.

Mathis will present as part of the Online Performance Marketing panel. The panel will cover a number of issues relating to the sector, including a discussion of current trends in online marketing, the impact of the economic slowdown, the competitive landscape, and the impact of recent scrutiny surrounding privacy and other compliance issues.

The Online Performance Marketing panel is scheduled for 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

The Needham & Company Internet & Digital Media Conference brings together several hundred attendees, with participation from 26 public companies and 26 private companies. The full conference agenda includes six thematic panels consisting of executives from leading private companies including Epic Advertising.

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), founded in 2000 as AzoogleAds, is an elite, global performance marketing company, providing advertisers with superior customer acquisition marketing services. Leveraging its industry-leading performance-based ad network under its AzoogleAds subsidiary, and its search engine marketing capabilities under its Bazaar Advertising subsidiary, Epic provides advertisers with direct response marketing services with a world-wide reach that are second to none.

Epic Advertising utilizes proprietary and patent-pending optimization and targeting technology, and leverages a network of tens of thousands of publishers, to generate extremely high volumes of top quality consumer traffic for its advertising partners. A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield, and scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, its proprietary targeting and search technologies, and its unparalleled industry expertise.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Tiffany Guarnaccia / Gina Preoteasa
Trylon SMR
212.725.2295
tiffany@trylonsmr.com / gina@trylonsmr.com

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New York, NY – April 29, 2008 – Epic Advertising, Inc. (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York online performance-based marketing company, announced today that they have hired two new Cyber industry experts, adding to the Company's already robust internal Internet Compliance Group. Jonathan Gillman has been named Manager, Regulatory Affairs and Anwesa Paul has been named Privacy Officer and Associate General Counsel. The two positions will report to David Graff, the company's General Counsel, and they will be based at the company's New York City headquarters.

Previously, Gillman was the lead investigator of the Cyber Fraud Task Force for the Florida Attorney General's Economic Crimes Division. He was instrumental in drafting and implementing the division's strategic plan for the task force and in leading investigations on companies involved in unfair and deceptive business practices including internet fraud, phishing scams, identity theft and other nefarious practices.

Paul previously held the position of Compliance Manager for the Entertainment Software Rating Board and a law clerk for the New York State Office of the Attorney General's Internet Bureau, where she reviewed cases involving consumer fraud, piracy, spam and trademark infringement. In her most recent role, she advised Fortune 500 entertainment software companies on all facets of compliance including adherence to regulations, best practices and privacy program requirements.

"By adding these two very talented legal professionals to our team, we are sending a powerful message that Epic Advertising has the highest standards of compliance and the most robust integrity assurance programs in the online marketing industry," said Don Mathis, President of Epic Advertising. "With Jonathan and Anwesa, we plan to take our robust integrity assurance programs and enforcement capability to the next level in ensuring our marketing compliance track record remains industry-leading and frankly, the best in the world."

"I am very excited to join a team that I know from experience is committed to nothing but responsibility, internet marketing integrity and wide scale enforcement of consumers' rights," said Gillman.

Gillman is a graduate of Florida State University with a degree in Criminology. Paul is a graduate of Cornell University and Brooklyn Law School, where she was a Dean's Merit Scholar.

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), founded in 2000 as AzoogleAds, is an elite, global performance marketing company, providing advertisers with superior customer acquisition marketing services. Leveraging its industry-leading performance-based ad network under its AzoogleAds subsidiary, and its search engine marketing capabilities under its Bazaar Advertising subsidiary, Epic provides advertisers with direct response marketing services with a world-wide reach that are second to none.

Epic Advertising utilizes proprietary and patent-pending optimization and targeting technology, and leverages a network of tens of thousands of publishers, to generate extremely high volumes of top quality consumer traffic for its advertising partners. A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield, and scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, its proprietary targeting and search technologies, and its unparalleled industry expertise.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Tiffany Guarnaccia / Gina Preoteasa
Trylon SMR
212.725.2295
tiffany@trylonsmr.com / gina@trylonsmr.com

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New York, NY &andash; April 8, 2008 – Azoogle.com, Inc., the New York online performance-based advertising network, announced today that the company will change its corporate name to Epic Advertising, creating a single brand for its now fully integrated performance marketing businesses and services. The company will retain the AzoogleAds name as a unit of Epic Advertising, maintaining continuity as an industry-leading, performance-based ad network.

The re-branding will unify the company's services under one name, strategy and vision for its performance marketing business, both in North America and globally. It also signals the completion of the integration of Bazaar Advertising, the search marketing firm acquired by the company and announced in October, 2007.

Epic Advertising encompasses two main units focused on online consumer traffic acquisition: AzoogleAds and Bazaar Advertising. AzoogleAds continues to provide broad-based traffic acquisition services leveraging the company's leading performance-based ad network business. Bazaar Advertising continues to provide search engine management and marketing services, specializing in keyword discovery, purchase and optimization of online search campaigns. Epic Advertising will market both units as an integrated suite of services to its advertisers, with a focus on direct response customer acquisition and performance marketing.

The Epic Advertising brand will also include the Epic Ad Center (EAC), a do-it-yourself tool-kit for small- to medium-sized businesses that automatically creates display, search and coupon ads on a performance basis. Advertisers are able to target their campaigns geographically, demographically and behaviorally using the ads.

Recently, the company announced its international expansion throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, and it expects the name change to facilitate that drive. The company plans to continue this expansion throughout 2008.

"This symbolizes an exciting evolution for our company," says Don Mathis, President of Epic Advertising. "Until now we were known primarily for our performance-based ad services in North America via our AzoogleAds brand. Our new corporate name will help to showcase all of our services as a seamless offering to advertisers, highlighting our multi-channel approach to performance marketing. As our company moves forward as a global enterprise, we're working to take performance marketing to the next level."

About Epic Advertising:
Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), founded in 2000 as AzoogleAds, is an elite, global performance marketing company, providing advertisers with superior customer acquisition marketing services. Leveraging its industry-leading performance-based ad network under its AzoogleAds subsidiary, and its search engine marketing capabilities under its Bazaar Advertising subsidiary, Epic provides advertisers with direct response marketing services with a world-wide reach that are second to none.

Epic Advertising utilizes proprietary and patent-pending optimization and targeting technology, and leverages a network of tens of thousands of publishers, to generate extremely high volumes of top quality consumer traffic for its advertising partners. A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield, and scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, its proprietary targeting and search technologies, and its unparalleled industry expertise.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Contact:
Tiffany Guarnaccia / Gina Preoteasa
Trylon SMR
212.725.2295
tiffany@trylonsmr.com / gina@trylonsmr.com

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New York, NY – April 1, 2008 – AzoogleAds, a leading online performance-based ad network, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the Northeast 100 Top Private Companies. The first-annual Northeast 100 list was compiled by the AlwaysOn editorial panel. In order to be eligible for the list, companies in the Northeastern United States had to be creating new business opportunities in high-growth markets, demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technology in a key sector. AlwaysOn received hundreds of nominations for this year's list.

AzoogleAds and the Northeast 100 Top Companies for 2008 will be honored at the AlwaysOn Venture Summit East to be held April 7 – April 9, 2008, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, MA. Venture Summit East is a two-day gathering that highlights the significant economic, political and technology trends impacting the global growth investor. Venture Summit East features the most influential institutional investors, venture capitalists, corporate buyers, investment bankers and research analysts in the Eastern US in keynote presentations and panel debates. The idea behind the Northeast 100 companies list is to identify the most promising entrepreneurial opportunities and investments in the Northeast region's technology industry.

"For the first annual elite Northeast 100 list we surveyed more than 500 venture investors, investment bankers, and technology insiders, who nominated hundreds of companies to determine the Northeast 100 winners,” said Tony Perkins, Founder and Editor, AlwaysOn Network. “Each of the Northeast 100 winners had to demonstrate leadership among their peers in the following areas: innovation, market opportunity, commercialization, media buzz, and stakeholder value creation. We congratulate them all on this great honor!”

As a leading performance-based ad network, AzoogleAds specializes in customer acquisition and conversion. Utilizing its proprietary display optimization/ targeting and search technologies, and leveraging a network of tens of thousands of publishing partners, AzoogleAds generates the highest volumes of quality traffic for its advertisers.

“We are incredibly honored to have been selected as part of this truly elite list,” said Don Mathis, President of AzoogleAds. “Our selection in the Northeast 100 underscores the amount of hard work put forth by our entire company on behalf of our advertisers and publishers, and demonstrates the results we have achieved to date. We truly believe AzoogleAds is, and will continue to be, a global market leader in performance-based advertising through our proprietary technology, industry-leading marketing practices and compliance, vast reach and targeted direct response campaigns.”

About The AlwaysOn Venture Summit East:
Venture Summit East is a two-day gathering that highlights the significant economic, political and technology trends impacting the global growth investor. Venture Summit East features the most influential institutional investors, venture capitalists, corporate buyers, investment bankers and research analysts in the Eastern US in keynote presentations and panel debates. The goal of Venture Summit East is to match growth-company buyers and sellers and identify the most promising innovation-driven, growth investment opportunities.

About AzoogleAds:
AzoogleAds (www.AzoogleAds.com), founded in 2000, is a leading Performance-based Ad Network, specializing in customer acquisition and conversion. Utilizing its proprietary display optimization/ targeting and search technologies, and leveraging a network of tens of thousands of publishers, AzoogleAds generates the highest volumes of quality traffic for its advertising partners. A pioneer in the online performance marketing industry, AzoogleAds brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield, and scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, its proprietary technologies, and its unparalleled industry expertise.

AzoogleAds is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. They are members of the IAB, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the American Marketing Association, Shop.Org, the DMA and the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

About AlwaysOn:
ALWAYSON ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 by being the first media brand to launch a global blog network. In 2004, ALWAYSON continued to lead the media industry in innovation by introducing a social network where members can connect and engage. ALWAYSON is also revolutionizing the media business by applying its open-media principles to its executive event series (STANFORD SUMMIT, ALWAYSON HOLLYWOOD, ALWAYSON MEDIA and GOINGGREEN) and quarterly print "blogozine" by empowering its members to post and share their ideas and meet each other online. As our loyal readers know, ALWAYSON is committed to the free-market, merit-driven approach to reporting and event programming. No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction with its readers and event participants.

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NEW YORK, NY, -- Azoogle.com, Inc. (www.AzoogleAds.com),the New York-based online performance-based advertising network, continued its aggressive international expansion by announcing an agreement with AdsMarket, a leading online performance media company that serves Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

The partnership with AdsMarket allows AzoogleAds to significantly expand its international publisher base and distribution by leveraging AdsMarket's reach and unrivaled expertise in the international marketplace. Notably, the AdsMarket partnership will provide significant distribution for AzoogleAds existing European advertisers as well as new advertisers, and will target several key emerging markets. Distribution will be garnered via publishers in a variety of key sectors as financial services, retail, media, and travel and leisure.

"AdsMarket is focused on the international markets and we see great value in partnering with a leading US-based company that can enrich our US and international offerings to our Publishers by introducing our services to their leading Advertisers," said Ofer Druker, CEO of AdsMarket. "The cooperative agreement with AzoogleAds will also enable our International advertisers to reach significantly broader audiences in the International markets and in the US through AzoogleAds's robust publisher base."

"Partnering with AdsMarket shows our continued commitment and expansion plans towards our international business, as we recognize the importance of growing outside North America," says Don Mathis, President of AzoogleAds, "Our goal is to provide quality, targeted distribution for our advertisers from all over the world and AdsMarket is the company to help us do just that."

About AzoogleAds:
AzoogleAds (www.AzoogleAds.com), founded in 2000, is a leading Performance-based Ad Network, specializing in customer acquisition and conversion. Utilizing its proprietary display optimization/ targeting and search technologies, and leveraging a network of tens of thousands of publishers, AzoogleAds generates the highest volumes of quality traffic for its advertising partners. A pioneer in the online performance marketing industry, AzoogleAds brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield, and scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, its proprietary technologies, and its unparalleled industry expertise.

AzoogleAds is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. They are members of the IAB, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the American Marketing Association, Shop.Org, the DMA and the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

About AdsMarket:
AdsMarket ,founded in 2005, is a leading online global performance media company based in Israel, and working in strategic partnership with McCann Erickson since 2007. AdsMarket provides global performance solutions for a vast customer base throughout Europe, the US, Latin-America and Asia-Pacific, using its own proprietary technology. Its media reach and targeting capabilities enable AdsMarket to generate outstanding results based on CPA, CPL, and Revenue-Share business models – resulting in peak client satisfaction levels at all times. AdsMarket's business advantages include an experienced team, sophisticated technological capabilities and exceptional service – qualities that are paramount to the creation of sustainable partnerships. Based on their preferred business models, AdsMarket Advertisers benefit from an array of media avenues that prominently display their offers across the globe. AdsMarket Publishers are continuously provided with new opportunities to smartly and automatically monetize all of their media assets across various platforms.

Contact:
Tiffany Guarnaccia / Peter Engel
Trylon SMR
212.725.2295
tiffany@trylonsmr.com / peter@trylonsmr.com

Contact AdsMarket:
Keren Somech
Keren.s@adsmarket.com

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NEW YORK, NY, -- Azoogle.com, Inc. (www.AzoogleAds.com), an online performance-based advertising network, announced its expansion into the European marketplace through a charter agreement with 77Agency, a leading independent New Media Marketing agency based in London.

The partnership allows AzoogleAds to significantly expand its reach into the European marketplace and increase the number of non-US advertisers in its current Network. By leveraging 77Agency's advertiser relationships, AzoogleAds' publishers will now have access to international advertising inventory in such key sectors as the financial services, retail, media, travel and leisure markets.

This partnership will enable AzoogleAds' current publishers to opt-in to receive international Web advertising inventory that provides them with increased monetization abilities. In addition, AzoogleAds' online tracking, analytics and fraud protection will continue to ensure strong results for new and current advertisers.

"AzoogleAds is uniquely capable of providing our advertisers with targeted distribution," said Marco Corsaro of 77Agency. "They have a publisher base with breadth and depth, and a commitment to the highest possible industry standards. In addition, this agreement allows 77Agency to establish a presence in North America. For these reasons, we are very enthusiastic about this partnership."

"Partnering with 77Agency represents a new phase in our expansion plans both in North America and abroad," says Don Mathis, President of AzoogleAds. "As we look to grow the business, there will be a strong focus on providing publishers with additional monetization capabilities and advertisers with highly targeted, high-quality traffic."

About AzoogleAds:
AzoogleAds (www.AzoogleAds.com), founded in 2000, is a leading Performance-based Ad Network, specializing in customer acquisition and conversion. Utilizing its proprietary display optimization/ targeting and search technologies, and leveraging a network of tens of thousands of publishers, AzoogleAds generates the highest volumes of quality traffic for its advertising partners. A pioneer in the online performance marketing industry, AzoogleAds brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield, and scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, its proprietary technologies, and its unparalleled industry expertise.

AzoogleAds is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. They are members of the IAB, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the American Marketing Association, Shop.Org, the DMA and the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

About 77Agency:
77Agency, established in 2003, with offices in London, Milan, Madrid, Riga and Kievis a leading and independent, pan-European New Media Marketing agency supplying specialist services to the on-line marketplace. 77Agency's clients include American Express, Disney and Estee Lauder.

Contact:
Tiffany Guarnaccia / Peter Engel
Trylon SMR
212.725.2295
tiffany@trylonsmr.com / peter@trylonsmr.com

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Michael Sprouse AzoogleAds (www.azoogleads.com) Chief Marketing Officer, speaks out about the state of mobile content marketing, details what recent announcements mean to marketers and gives ten do's and don'ts of mobile content marketing. Also contributing is Alex Krylov, AzoogleAds' Compliance Manager, who plays a leading role in the company's Integrity Assurance Program.

There has been much written lately regarding the online marketing of ringtones and other mobile content. Various settlements and cooperative agreements have been reached between government agencies and companies. What can marketers, publishers and networks do, and equally importantly, not do if they market mobile content to consumers?

Let me first provide some pertinent background information: at AzoogleAds, in mid-2005, we commenced a broad effort to establish clear best practices on integrity assurance issues, initially around the email marketing of ringtones, and later, effectively banning adware in early 2006. In late summer of 2006, on our own volition, we became the first company in the sector to adopt a Mobile Acceptable Use Policy and to ban the use of the term "Free" in cases where the offer was not, in fact, free. When the Florida Attorney General (FLAG) commenced a broad-based investigation into mobile content marketing in 2007 – an ongoing investigation, focusing on nearly every mobile content marketer in the business – the FLAG relied heavily on our existing policies, which had been in place for well over a year, when we jointly drafted our Assurance of Voluntary Compliance. The idea was to create a Code of Conduct for the industry overall – a Code of Conduct with the teeth of the FLAG to back it up. Why is this all important? One, it illustrates that mobile content marketing and marketing-related compliance issues are not "new" despite the recent rash of announcements. Two, it illustrates the comprehensive knowledge we have uniquely built up for over 3 years relating to mobile content marketing.

To be clear, this article applies to mobile content marketing, and not to incentive marketing. Certain industry observers have incorrectly tied these two together because they may sometimes be used in tandem. However, Mobile content marketing refers specifically to selling some type of mobile device content – e.g., a ringtone, a text service, etc. Incentive marketing is generally a process whereby a consumer is offered something of value – say, an iPod – in exchange for completing a number of offers which are displayed on a series of web pages referred to as an incentive order path or a "Co-Reg" path.

Now, numerous other companies and ad networks are carefully examining their own marketing practices in this sector, as well they should. However, there remains significant confusion around what companies can and cannot do when marketing mobile content. Despite the wave of regulatory action, there are still plenty of players that fail – through ignorance, laziness or willful neglect – to embrace legitimate marketing practices. As a result, consumers remain at risk and suspicion will continue to hang over the sector (ironically, the neglectful players are quite well-known and easy to find, and sometimes stoop to trying to poke holes in the truly "above board" players to mask their own malfeasance).

Hence, we've compiled a list of marketing guidelines for publishers and ad networks that can benefit you in many ways. Heeding these guidelines will keep costs associated with chargebacks and fraud down, help to protect your business legally (and avoid regulatory risk), and allow you to maintain a profitable, and more importantly, sustainable relationship with advertisers and consumers.

"Top 10 list" for Online Publishers and Ad Networks

10. DON'T mislead consumers with deceptive language
Restrict the use of FREE and FREE-like language in ad-copy. Displaying FREE and its derivatives ("Bonus", "Complimentary", "Gift", etc) are allowed so long as these keywords are not being deceptively applied. What does this mean? Publishers may not imply that ringtone offers carry no monetary obligations on the part of the consumer when in fact they do. The intent and spirit of this position remains in sync with that of the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") - marketers may not use language that a reasonable consumer would interpret to mean "no charge whatsoever". Moreover, if a marketer uses the term FREE or FREE-like language, when the program DOES contain a cost, that language must be modified adjacent to the FREE claim with the relevant material terms of the offer (price and billing period) – i.e., if you use FREE in a search title, the search description must provide the disclaimer, "with 9.99 per month subscription".

9. DON'T promote content that is not offered by the Service Provider (Advertiser)
Not all artists, shows, albums and songs are licensed by Advertisers. Not all Advertisers carry the same content and publishers shouldn't assume so. Check the Advertiser's sites for new content, subscribe to their RSS feeds, and take advantage of content catalogues when they are made available to you.

8. DON'T use artist & album images without consent from the Advertiser
Even though Advertisers may offer hundreds of artists and albums as part of their value-added services, it is they who license the rights to use artist likeness, album covers and other intellectual property. Although publishers and ad networks are given the ability to market this content through some programs, the licenses themselves do not extend automatically. All publishers and networks should obtain special written permission from Advertisers to use copyrighted content. This is not an arbitrary requirement, it is the law.

7. DON'T spam users on social networks
Restrict the use of social and community sites for the distribution of your marketing. This includes blogs, forums, social networks and any other virtual environment not meant for commercial use. Yes, it's a good idea to do legitimate media buys with these types of sites in order to market, but it is not a good idea to use profiles, comments and internal messaging for the distribution of ads. Why? Because the social networks literally say so in their Terms of Use, and will use all legal means to enforce their policies. Remember, all unsolicited electronic messages violate applicable anti-spam and resource abuse laws.

6. DON'T use high risk or prohibited distribution methods
Incentivized, "limited time" and other bait & switch tactics are not sustainable in the marketing of off-deck mobile content like ringtones. Forced clicks, referrer obfuscation, and domain targeting are also examples of nefarious practices. If an ad network, vendor or traffic broker has a reputation for running spyware-generated traffic, think twice before partnering with them.

6a. DO check out http://www.benedelman.org and http://www.affiliatefairplay.com for more information on Adware, Spyware and related commission fraud.

5. DO take care in the choice and placement of your keywords
Normally, bidding on a variety of keywords is fine so long as it meets the requirements of an ad network's T&Cs and applicable search engine-specific guidelines. Trademark restrictions and some other concerns may apply, but there is no general prohibition against bidding on the term "FREE" (though Advertisers may have additional per-program requirements) – as long as it is modified as described above. It is the display that truly matters. Help yourself run compliant campaigns through the use of negative keyword lists, keyword permutation generators, and restrictive match settings. More likely then not, Advertisers will have offer-specific keyword blacklists that you should be mindful of when bidding.

4. DO practice White-Hat SEO techniques when running non-paid search campaigns
Because of their commercial nature, "organic" (non-paid) search results are subject to the same scrutiny as paid results. The messages you convey to consumers through site content (body, headers, titles, etc) influence the perception of the offer. Just as their paid counterparts, organic results can in no way deceive the consumer through false claims. Search engines frown upon keyword stuffing, cloaking, and content spam. Search engine crawlers like "clean" code.

4a. DON'T make mistakes that will bring down your quality score or ban you from an engine.

3. DO familiarize yourself with relevant regulatory guidelines
Despite some opinions to the contrary, ours' is a heavily regulated industry. Government agencies such as the FTC, advocacy groups such as the Mobile Marketing Association ("MMA"), and State Attorney Generals oversee behavior in the online advertising space just as they do in the world of traditional media. Not surprisingly, the FTC's "Guide Concerning the Use of the Term 'Free'" and other special language have been around since 1971. Some links to become familiar with:

3a. FTC on 'FREE': http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/free.htm
3b. MMA Best Practices: http://www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf

2. DO read an ad network's terms and conditions
Why do Terms and Conditions matter? Not only are these T&Cs a legally binding contract signed by you when you join an ad network, they reflect US Law and applicable Best Practices for a particular ad network. The FTC Act's prohibition on "unfair or deceptive acts or practices" encompasses internet advertising, marketing and sales as much as it does to TV and Radio. In addition, many Commission rules and guides are not limited to any particular medium used to disseminate claims or advertising, and therefore, apply to all commercial online activities.

1. DO ask questions and communicate with your ad network staff and account managers
Communication and collaboration is critical. Work closely with partners and professionals at ad networks to understand offer-specific requirements and familiarize yourself with the regulatory aspects of the industry. When in doubt, put yourself in the consumer's shoes and look at your marketing campaigns from the user's perspective. And finally, realize that state and federal agencies have enforced and will continue to enforce relevant consumer protection laws. Offline or online, they will act to ensure that products and services are marketed truthfully.

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David Graff, General Counsel and SVP of Business Development for AzoogleAds (www.azoogleads.com).

The last few months have witnessed an extraordinary amount of regulatory activity in the mobile marketing industry. Numerous mobile content marketers are under active investigation, and a number of settlements have been announced including one involving my own company, AzoogleAds.

Now comes the latest bombshell: the Florida Attorney General's CyberFraud Task Force's landmark settlement with AT&T Mobility over allegedly deceptive ringtones and other mobile content advertisements (see story).

The settlement requires AT&T to contribute $3 million to the CyberFraud Task Force office's investigative and consumer education efforts and refund affected customers' subscription fees – an amount that could reach $45 million.

While there will be much debate about the cumulative effect of these settlements, one thing is absolutely clear: regulators will take action against companies suspected of engaging in deceptive or harmful advertising practices.

At least with respect to the CyberFraud Task Force, companies involved in allegedly misleading marketing practices – Web site publishers, social or advertising networks, or carriers – are potential targets.

Perhaps even more alarming is the prospect of federal regulation. Congress has shown itself willing to act after highly publicized examples of corporate malfeasance (anyone familiar with Sarbanes-Oxley?).

The mobile marketing industry does not need to stand on the sidelines and passively await additional regulatory action, however.

The industry can choose to be proactive by enthusiastically adopting a comprehensive code of conduct that sets forth the highest standards of ethical marketing.

Self-regulation – the development, promotion, adoption and enforcement of a rigorous set of ethical standards – offers the mobile content industry the best chance to communicate to regulators and consumers that the industry is committed to transparency and responsible behavior.

Physician, heal thyself
There are, of course, existing best-practice guides for mobile content marketing. For example, the Mobile Marketing Association has published a Consumer Best Practices Guide for mobile content programs. These guides are useful and essential.

But a code of conduct differs from best-practice guidelines in significant and critical ways. An effective code of conduct articulates a set of values that serves as a moral touchstone for an entire industry. By outlining a set of ethical principles, a code of conduct provides an industry with a fixed yardstick against which to evaluate its behavior.

If it helps, think of the difference between a best-practice guide for running a hospital emergency room (e.g., "make sure there is a clear path from the ambulance bay to the operating room") versus the Hippocratic Oath (e.g., "practice to the best of your ability, and do no harm").

There is a reason why many aspiring doctors recite an ethical code drafted in the fourth century: the code effectively articulates the essence of the medical profession, and provides a moral center around which the medical profession can continuously examine its conduct.

I'd like to effectively challenge the mobile content marketing industry to draft its own version of the Hippocratic Oath.

Imagine the consumer confidence that would be generated if all the industry participants – advertisers, Web site publishers, advertising networks, content providers and mobile carriers – publicly promised to hold themselves to the highest standards of ethical marketing.

Of course, in order to be truly effective, there would also have to be verification of compliance. A Truste-certified mobile marketing seal of approval, perhaps done in conjunction with the Mobile Marketing Association, would work nicely.

There will always be mobile marketers that choose to act unethically. But for the rest of us, if we choose, we can hold ourselves to a higher standard.

As Hippocrates said in his code "[I]f I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come." Works for me.

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Michael Sprouse, CMO -- (212) 308-8509 x3297 -- Azoogle.com, Inc.

I was recently reviewing several reports showing U.S. Online Advertising Revenue by Pricing Model. Every year, with one exception, revenue from purely performance-based pricing models grew at a higher rate than the CPM (cost-per-impression) pricing model or a hybrid of the two. This growth has resulted in almost an equal split between advertising revenue from performance-based models and CPM. This is significant for a few reasons.

First, it shows how an industry can truly "grow-up". As recently as 2001, Performance-based advertising revenue totaled approximately $856 million, or about 12% of overall online advertising revenue. At the end of 2006, it totaled $7.9 billion, or about 47%. This growth signifies the change in how advertisers use the web for their bottom line versus a few years ago. Advertisers no longer view online advertising as a place where money gets placed and then forgotten. They've found that online advertising is measured as part of an ROI calculation tied to campaign performance and overall marketing dollars.

I asked Gregg Coccari, CEO of NetQuote, Inc. to comment on the differences in their online advertising now versus even a year or two ago, weighing CPM advertising goals against Performance Marketing campaign goals. "For our business, it's vital to take a direct marketing approach," Coccari said. "Specifically, we're focused on performance marketing. It's not that we don't see value in testing CPM programs; but it's far more important for us to focus on how much ROI we're getting for the service we provide to our customers and to take a much more analytical approach to our marketing."

The second thing these statistics tell us is how an industry can get over crucial hurdles or stigmas in a short period of time. One of the "slights" against performance marketing historically, mostly relating to CPA (or cost-per-action), was that it did nothing to further an advertiser's brand or name recognition. So a few years ago if you were the head of marketing at a top-tier advertiser who historically bought spots on TV, you would never consider "performance-based" online spend because your marketing dollars were tabbed solely as "brand dollars".

One could argue that this dynamic occurs with far less frequency now, and performance marketing is growing past this. As online advertisers garner more and more customers, and those online leads turn into lifelong users or fanatics, aren't those customers in essence acting as brand-builders? Five or six years ago when performance marketing was less than 10% of overall online ad revenue, more advertisers began to funnel their budgets towards the web, aka "the black hole" at that time. They were concerned with how their brand would "translate" online, often a brand they'd worked incredibly hard to build offline - in some cases over years or even decades. However, what companies are now finding out is that performance marketing does not have to eschew brand-building – the simple act of garnering more traffic or customers, and creating a sustainable relationship with those customers IS brand-building in itself. And that's not even considering the positive effects on brand after conversion and customer acquisition in terms of viral marketing, word-of-mouth, customers posting blogs, writing online reviews – all of which are inherently brand building too.

So what really happens to the brand by not spending CPM dollars but rather focusing on gaining customers and keeping them via CRM tactics in an ultra-competitive online industry? "In our particular industry, we've found that the average consumer chooses 2-3 services at any given time; thereby making the brand name a bit less important in the short-term," says Jason Jacobi, VP of Acquisition Marketing for True.com, a prominent performance marketer in the Online Dating industry. "Performance Marketing for our specific industry, in my opinion, is a core component of an effective online Marketing Strategy for an early product life-cycle with a multi-competitive landscape. CRM efforts are also a very important piece of the Direct Response model. Specifically in a good DR-focused Online Advertising business model, it's a significant amount of Performance marketing, followed by effective CRM all layered onto a simply superior user experience."

A corollary to this is that many advertisers now employ performance-based ad networks because of their size, scale, reach and marketing expertise. These ad networks, of which AzoogleAds is a prominent one, undoubtedly account for a chunk of the impressive growth in the performance marketing channel overall through the past five years.

There was a time when ad networks were very much not en vogue, because they were considered ‘blind'. In other words, an advertiser would market their product via an ad network, pay some level of performance threshold for the network to drive customers, clicks or leads, but not have real insight into where those leads come from. Now, advertisers demand more insight into the origination of their customers and where their brand and ads are being displayed. The onus is increasingly on ad networks to give a proper level of disclosure, smartly media plan for specific clients, and ensure they are policing themselves as well as their network. Credible networks should, and will, do all of this to protect an advertiser's brand. This is why reputable ad networks invest so much in money, time and resources in the area of marketing compliance. Why is this important? The answer is, of course, that online advertising compliance is of utmost importance to the consumer. The secondary, but no less important, answer is that it is the right thing for the advertiser too.

It will be interesting to watch how the performance-based advertising industry continues to grow up and evolve in the coming years. I, for one, think there's no reason the trend towards performance marketing will slow down. If you're an Advertiser currently working with an ad network on performance-based campaigns, make sure your partner is in it for the long haul and committed to your success and safety and not just theirs. If you currently don't use an ad network and manage your own campaigns, think about seeking advice from a reputable network since the industry is only becoming more and more complex. Finally, if you're an Advertiser that does not engage in anything other than CPM advertising, what are you waiting for?

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NEW YORK, NY, -- Azoogle.com, Inc. (www.AzoogleAds.com), the New York-based online marketing solutions provider, officially announced that Mate1.com, Inc. named AzoogleAds as its Search Engine Marketing "Agency of Record." The account is managed under Bazaar Advertising, a division of AzoogleAds.

This announcement from AzoogleAds comes after recent news regarding the expansion and growth of its Search Engine Marketing business and other "Agency of Record" deals. It further illustrates the company's rapidly growing suite of services and the ability to work with leading advertisers from all industry verticals in scaling their business across marketing platforms. The company said that the power and knowledge their network business provides has fueled growth in other critical areas of its business like SEM.

"The cornerstone of AzoogleAds is that we believe we have better optimization, analytics, data mining and marketing than anyone, period. We apply science, not gimmicks or rhetoric, to all parts of our business from network marketing to media buying to SEM. The results so far from this partnership exhibit SEM competency and we are excited to expand our portfolio with a quality client like Mate1", says Michael Sprouse, Chief Marketing Officer of AzoogleAds.

"Both on the affiliate side and in the search sector, we have been consistently impressed by Azoogle's ability to grasp the basics while also thinking outside of the box. We look forward to leveraging their expertise in the field of search to help build our brand and increase quality traffic to our site", says Elizabeth Wasserman, VP of Mate1.com.

AzoogleAds (www.AzoogleAds.com), founded in 2000, is an end-to-end online marketing solutions provider for advertisers, publishers and online affiliates. Initially a pioneer in performance-based marketing, AzoogleAds generates the highest volumes of quality traffic through its affiliate network, its proprietary search technologies and optimization, its in-house CPM/CPA/CPC Media Buying and the company's unparalleled industry expertise. The AzoogleAds team delivers the most comprehensive and cost-effective strategic online marketing campaigns for advertisers and publishers of all sizes and across all industries through innovative technology and unrivaled knowledge in search and performance based marketing and media buying.

AzoogleAds is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. They are members of the IAB, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), Shop.Org, the DMA and the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

Mate1.com, Inc
Consistently ranked a Top Five online dating destination, Mate1.com's forte is to offer an open, global dating environment. Unlike "adult" and other mainstream sites, Mate1 caters to people seeking serious, as well as casual relationships, and doesn't censor all provocative details and images. It's also the only site of its size that is free for women. With live 1-on-1 chat, voice recordings, personal photo galleries and detailed profiles, Mate1.com makes it easy to find the right date. Founded in 2004, Mate1 has over 18 million members, with tens of thousands joining daily.

Contact:
Tiffany Guarnaccia / Beth Schechner
Trylon SMR
212.725.2295
tiffany@trylonsmr.com / beth@trylonsmr.com

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