Spark Online Joins Mediaplex Inc. to Collaborate on First XML Schema for the Advertising Industry
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8 1999 7:18 AM EST
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 8, 1999 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Industry Leaders Advance a Cost-Reducing Standard that Enables
Complete Automation of Online Advertising Spark Online, a leading supplier of software products that expedite and simplify interactive advertising and marketing, today announced support of the adXML.org open standards initiative.
Founding sponsor, Mediaplex, Inc. (Nasdaq:MPLX), a leading eBusiness marketing and technology company, is the developer of adXML, a self-describing XML-based vocabulary that enables advertisers, agencies and Web publishers to issue and acknowledge a broad range of communications, including media insertion and change orders, on the Internet in real time.
Spark Online joins Mediaplex and a wide range of other industry leaders in adopting the vendor-neutral adXML open standard to significantly reduce the operating costs of online advertising and marketing by improving the speed and accuracy inherent in the full automation of the transaction processes.
"Although software vendors have built applications that automate functional areas, or even the entire value chain, for many other industries," said Ken Kucera, Mediaplex vice president of strategic business development, "there are currently limited information systems and technologies that support the rapidly emerging interactive advertising and e-commerce arenas. The need for cost-reducing standards is becoming crucial."
"Take the time a media planner spends placing traditional print or broadcast, then quadruple it, and you've got the amount of time spent placing online advertising," said Jeff Idso, Spark Online executive vice president.
"Considering the fast growth this Internet sector is experiencing, the ordering process is way too error-prone, slow and costly. Mediaplex's adXML technology is a very flexible vocabulary that will significantly speed up and simplify the final crucial stages of the online media ordering process as well as the acknowledgment of orders on the publisher side."
As an initial step in the Spark Online-Mediaplex collaboration, Spark Online will spearhead the adXML.org Process Control Committee, which will take the lead in establishing adXML communication between agencies and publishers. The adXML.org will hold its launch event in San Francisco on Dec. 9.
For more information on adXML.org or to register for the complimentary one-day event, visit www.adxml.org or call Mediaplex at 415/808-1935.
About Mediaplex, Inc. Mediaplex, Inc. (www.mediaplex.com) is a leading provider of eBusiness marketing and technology solutions that enable companies to optimize Internet advertising for sales, direct marketing, and brand building. The company's proprietary technology platform delivers real-time advertising messaging based on enterprise information. In addition, Mediaplex provides comprehensive online campaign services.
Mediaplex clients include OfficeMax.com, ShopNow.com, Tickets.com, 1800 DAYTRADE.com, and advertising agencies including McCann-Erickson/A&L and Publicis & Hal Riney.
Mediaplex is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, Silicon Valley, and Hamburg, Germany. Mediaplex can be contacted at 877/402-PLEX.
About Spark Online Spark Online develops enterprise software that leverages the Internet to process advertising and e-commerce solutions. Headquartered in San Francisco, Spark Online can be reached at www.spark.com. |
