This is important news. Should help drive Real server sales:
RealNetworks Announces a Rich Media Advertising Application for RealSystem G2
PR Newswire - May 05, 1999 11:16
Bloomberg, CNN Interactive, DoubleClick, Engage, HGTV.com, MatchLogic,
NetGravity, and Real Media Announce Supporting Products, Services, Usage
And Integration Offerings
SAN FRANCISCO, RealNetworks Conference & Exhibition '99, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- RealNetworks(R), Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK), the recognized leader in streaming media, today announced support from leading Web sites, advertising software vendors and advertising service providers for its new rich media advertising capabilities. The RealSystem(TM) G2 Advertising Application seamlessly integrates RealServer(TM) G2 with leading advertising software solutions from companies such as NetGravity and Engage, and ad management services companies such as DoubleClick, MatchLogic, and Real Media, Inc., to enable delivery of a wide range of rich media and traditional banner ads within any RealServer G2 streaming media presentation. The Advertising Application is being offered in conjunction with an update to RealServer G2. Both RealServer G2 Update 1, beta version, and the Advertising Application beta version are available today from www.real.com.
"The ability for advertisers to deliver more engaging audio and video messaging to the consumer via streaming media is the next logical step in the evolution of Internet advertising as we extend to the broadband market," said Len Jordan, senior vice president, Media Systems, RealNetworks, Inc. "The RealSystem G2 Advertising Application combines the best attributes of Web-based rich media advertising with the compelling nature of broadcast media."
"We are pleased to be working with RealNetworks to enable the delivery of targeted rich media ads to Web sites. RealSystem G2 Advertising Application combined with DoubleClick's DART Technology offers Internet broadcasters and advertisers the ability to deliver more memorable and interactive messages," said Kevin O'Connor, CEO DoubleClick. "The system that RealNetworks has built seamlessly integrates with our existing measurement and tracking capabilities."
"For the first time, we're now delivering the power of targeted ads into the streaming media world," said Russ Yanda, co-founder and director of rich media for MatchLogic, the Colorado-based leader in digital marketing solutions. "We are very excited to be working with RealNetworks to offer advertisers the opportunity to deliver rich media ads with the RealPlayer G2. The integrated advertising solution of MatchLogic and RealSystem G2 is simple and easy to deploy, allowing advertisers and publishers to include targeted ads in their streaming media content."
Powerful New Classes of Web Advertising
The RealSystem G2 Advertising Application supports a vast array of advertising alternatives, which are supported directly in RealPlayer(R) G2, allowing a much more compelling message to be delivered to the consumer. Additionally, streaming media advertising can now deliver a more complete advertising impression, measured by both placement as well as the duration of the advertising, providing advertisers for the first time, with the quality of exposure associated with broadcast advertising.
Advertisers can now place and rotate ads shown with a streaming media presentation. These ads, presented within the RealPlayer G2, can appear prior to the start of programming, between programming segments or alongside the main content presentation. This solution supports traditional banners, audio enhanced banners, animation, audio and full motion video ads.
Integration With Existing Solutions, Enhanced Standards Support
With no modifications to a site's advertising serving and tracking systems, RealSystem G2 Advertising Application allows advertisers and broadcasters the ability to easily deliver a wide range of compelling advertising formats, ranging from GIFs through audio and video, all from their existing ad serving and monitoring solutions. Through native support for SMIL-based ad presentation, the RealSystem G2 Advertising Application offers seamless integration with popular advertising solutions, from leading providers such as DoubleClick, MatchLogic, NetGravity, Real Media, Inc., and Engage. Additionally, these providers can now offer native support for an increasing range of ad types through SMIL-based import/exchange. RealSystem G2 Advertising Application allows broadcasters to stream their content with their ad inventories easily, using familiar ad tags in dynamically generated SMIL presentations. This new application provides a seamless communications interface between popular ad serving solutions and RealPlayer G2 to schedule, target, manage and report the delivery of streaming media-based ads.
"CNN Interactive, as the leading online news video provider, already successfully attracts online video advertisers, and we are excited by the enhanced ad targeting opportunities that the RealServer G2 now offers," said Jeff Garrard, Executive Editor, CNN Interactive. "We are pleased that the RealSystem G2 is designed to work seamlessly with our existing NetGravity ad serving solution."
Enabling New Revenue Opportunities for Internet Broadcasters
By offering seamless integration with existing Web site advertising systems, the RealSystem G2 Advertising Application expands the reach of campaigns, increasing brand awareness and improving advertising revenue opportunities and effectiveness. Broadcasters now have the opportunity to target online consumers directly, with rich media such as audio, full motion video, images or animation, and to easily link advertising inventory to specific content genres and user profiles. This solution enables broadcasters to increase the quantity and type of ad avails and sponsorship opportunities to advertisers. With this solution, the advertisements are tied directly to the media and not the Web page hosting the media.
A Powerful Branding and Response Vehicle
RealSystem G2 Advertising Application provides online advertisers a simple yet powerful means to deliver streaming media-based advertising with the same ease of integration, targeting and monitoring they enjoy with traditional banner ads. Online advertisers are realizing significantly higher click-through rates with the adoption of RealNetworks' streaming media technology. Moreover, a recent study conducted by Millward Brown Interactive research found that streaming media advertising substantially increased brand recall, brand awareness, and positive brand perception. For a full copy of the Millward Brown Interactive streaming media brand impact study visit: www.real.com/ads.
HGTV.com is working with home improvement retailers Benjamin Moore & Co. and Furniturepoint.com to deliver streaming media-based advertising to reach a media savvy consumer.
"The new RealSystem G2 Ad Serving Application allows our traditional advertisers to reach targeted Web viewers around the world," said Channing Dawson, Senior Vice President, New Media, HGTV.com. "We have already received enthusiastic response from several home improvement retailers."
"We are excited about extending the reach of our marketing messages to our target consumer worldwide by leveraging our television advertising assets on the Internet for the first time," said Michael McGowan, Corporate Advertising Manager, Benjamin Moore & Co.
Additional New Products Also Released for Serving Streaming Media
In addition to the RealSystem G2 Advertising Application, RealNetworks also introduced an update to the RealServer G2 with new features and performance improvements, a new ISP Hosting application to allow ISPs to create smaller virtual servers out of a single RealServer for their hosted communities, and a media caching system, RealProxy, to enable efficient distribution of streaming media. |
