Transparency, 'Brand Safety' Concerns Inhibiting U.S. Online Display Advertising Spending by as Much as US$2 Billion Annually

Advertisers seeking reliable, independent approach to ensure that online ads appear in "safe" environments, according to new white paper from leading strategic consulting firm

NEW YORK, April 14, 2010 - Concerned that their digital advertising efforts — increasingly
orchestrated through ad networks and other aggregated media-buying platforms
– may be compromised by surrounding page content that doesn't align with
their strategic interests or brand standards, U.S. marketers may be holding
back their investment in online display advertising by as much as US$2
billion annually.

That's the principal finding of a new white paper released this morning
by Winterberry Group, a New York-based strategic consulting firm that serves
the advertising, marketing services and digital media industries. Entitled
Beyond the Grey Areas: Transparency, Brand Safety and the Future of Online
Advertising, the report explores the impact that "brand safety" concerns have
had across the digital marketing landscape, and outlines a set of potential
solutions to the dilemma as identified by a research panel comprised of
agency, marketer and technology community leaders.

The reported was sponsored by AdSafe Media, a leading provider of online
content rating solutions.

"As display advertising grows to assume an increasingly important role in
the marketing mix, it's critical that advertisers and agencies understand the
extent to which certain issues — the possibility that ad will appear next to
content that could potentially undermine its message, for example — continue
to present real threats," said Jonathan Margulies, a director at Winterberry
Group. "Our panelists resoundingly told us these issues persist — and they
bring with them real costs."

In seeking to fully qualify the key issues currently confronting
advertisers, Winterberry Group identified five degrees of brand safety risk
– ranging from "message misalignment" (advertising message appears
out-of-context from surrounding Web page content) to outright "dangerous"
placement (advertising appears on pages that defy baseline societal norms
with respect to taste, respect and basic courtesy).

The report declares: "Anecdotally, marketers tell stories of botched
campaigns, disastrous brand exposures and quick, last-minute media plan
revisions. What they report far less often, though, is the extent to which
they deflect ad dollars from the digital display channel — or hold back from
committing spending in the first place — because of anticipated challenges
with regard to risky placement."

In reviewing the white paper, several senior agency thought leaders
echoed similar sentiments:

    "There is a pent up demand for verification and prevention
     technologies in the digital advertising environment. Many of our
     clients are leery of the environment and are particularly
     concerned about spending more in the non-premium inventory
     sector. If we can give them more confidence that their
     advertising is placed where  they want it and that we can keep
     it away from inappropriate content, it will allow them to
     increase their investment with the confidence that their brand
     reputation is protected."

         -- John Montgomery, COO, North America, GroupM Interaction

    "No brand wants to see themselves associated with questionable
     page- level content online. Transparency is a big issue for
     digital media. Given increased control, safety and transparency
     online, we would expect to see digital spending levels increase
     and become more commensurate with consumers' media consumption
     habits."

         -- Baba Shetty, EVP and Chief Media Officer, Hill Holliday

    "Most savvy marketers know digital marketing is an essential
     element in the media mix to connect and engage with consumers.
     It is the lack of standardization and accountability in the
     online space that compromises their willingness to invest more
     heavily in digital. Marketers want the same types of assurances
     and controls that they get from offline channels. With proper
     protocols in place to protect their brand assets and provide
     adequate transparency, online brand dollars would surely
     increase significantly."

         -- Peter Gardiner, Partner and Chief Media Officer, Deutsch Inc.

The white paper further outlines five trends that define the prevalent
concerns around transparency and brand safety in display advertising. They
include:

    - Advertisers overwhelmingly believe that the "transparency dilemma" --
      that is, concern about where ads ultimately appear across Web
      publishers -- continues to undermine broader investment in display
      advertising, despite the potential economic efficiencies promised by ad
      networks, exchanges and other indirect media buying platforms
    - The rise of indirect (or "non-premium") online media buying has given
      birth to widespread advertiser fear about brand safety -- the notion
      that an advertising message (and its parent brand) may be undermined by
      page-level content that is either objectionable, contradictory or
      contextually inappropriate. Though this issue affects marketers across
      verticals, survey respondents said that advertisers in the healthcare,
      financial services and consumer goods sectors were particular
      susceptible to the threat
    - Though multiple parties within the display advertising ecosystem stand
      to gain from the resolution of the transparency and brand safety
      issues, no single constituency has yet assumed responsibility for
      delivering a "safe" online advertising environment, protected by
      real-time content decisioning mechanisms
    - An independent third-party entity will most likely be necessary to
      bridge the dual challenges of transparency and brand safety, given
      their respective (and sometimes conflicting) economic interests of the
      established online advertising constituencies
    - The economic opportunity inherent in a reliably "safe" online
      advertising environment is enormous. Over 95 percent of survey
      respondents indicated that display ad spending would grow if
      transparency and brand safety issues could be resolved, with a
      preponderance of those panelists pegging the total potential growth at
      10 to 20 percent of current display budgets -- or as much as
      approximately US$2 billion annually.

"Transparency and brand safety are issues which have enormous
implications for the online advertising industry as a whole," concluded
Helene Monat, co-founder and president of AdSafe Media. "We at AdSafe believe
that only through the introduction of an independent and standardized rating
system can digital media begin to command advertising dollars commensurate
with the present levels of online consumer engagement. Our belief in the need
to have all constituents of the ecosystem share their opinions and expertise
on these issues motivated our sponsorship of this study."

Beyond the Grey Areas: Transparency, Brand Safety and the Future of
Online Advertising is available for complimentary download via AdSafe Media's
Web site at www.adsafemedia.com and via the Our Insights page of
Winterberry Group's Web site, located at
www.winterberrygroup.com/ourinsights.

About Winterberry Group

Winterberry Group is a unique, global strategic consulting firm that
helps advertising and marketing companies grow shareholder value. Affiliated
with Petsky Prunier LLC — a leading investment bank providing merger and
acquisition advisory services to companies in the same industries — WG
offers its clients strategic perspective that is unparalleled in the
advertising and marketing sector, while PPLLC maintains exceptional
relationships with industry executives and business owners. In addition to
its core corporate strategy offering, the Firm offers a wide range of
business assessment, market intelligence and M&A due diligence support
offerings.

The Firm's clients include a broad, global range of marketers, service
providers and technology developers, as well as the private capital firms
that invest in these businesses. They include Acxiom Corporation, Alta
Communications, Alterian plc., American Capital Strategies, Apax Partners,
arvato Services (the marketing services division of Bertelsmann AG), Canada
Post Corporation, Capital One Financial Corp., The Carlyle Group, D.E. Shaw &
Co., Eastman Kodak Company, eCircle AG, Epsilon, Experian, Hewlett-Packard
Co., MediMedia USA, Meredith, Onex Corporation, Portrait Software, Quadrangle
Group, Rosetta, Transcontinental, Inc., Visant Corporation, Xerox and Yahoo!.

For more information, visit www.winterberrygroup.com.

About AdSafe Media

AdSafe Media is the rating standard of online media. It uses proprietary
algorithmic modeling and human verification to rate the brand safety of
content on commercially supported Web pages via the AdSafe Content Rating
System. AdSafe's Brand Safety Firewall enables brands, agencies and ad
networks to prevent advertising from appearing on publisher Web pages that do
not conform to brand guidelines. AdSafe's Content Monitoring Platform enables
ad networks and publishers to identify and segment problematic site content,
increasing monetization of display inventory.

AdSafe is headquartered in New York with operations in San Francisco and
London.

For more information, visit www.adsafemedia.com.

    For Winterberry Group: Jonathan Margulies
    +1-212-842-6031
    jonathan@winterberrygroup.com

    For AdSafe Media: Matthew Scott
    +1-646-278-4868
    matt@adsafemedia.com

Jonathan Margulies, For Winterberry Group, +1-212-842-6031, jonathan at winterberrygroup.com; or Matthew Scott, +1-646-278-4868, matt at adsafemedia.com