LONDON, July 24, 2008 — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Vibrant Media, the world leader in contextual advertising, has announced the expansion of its London office to accommodate its growing business in Europe, Russia and Asia. Top-tier talent join the company as its business continues to accelerate and contextual advertising based on keywords increasingly becomes a significant piece of the marketing mix. Vibrant, which was founded in 2000, currently reaches 125 million users* each month and has doubled its revenue every year for the last five. New hires include:
Jonathan Baron joins Vibrant as the new Vice President of International Sales where he will lead pan-European sales as well as new territories including Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia. Before coming to Vibrant, Baron served as Microsoft Advertising’s Asia Regional Sales Director and then led the Multinational Sales force for the U.S., EMEA and Asia. Prior to that, he headed pan -regional sales in Asia for MSN. Jonathan got his start in the publishing business at United News Media, EMAP and IPC.
Naomi Ferguson brings extensive knowledge and experience to Vibrant as Head of Technology Client Sales. Previously, Naomi managed the technology, telecoms and gambling categories at AOL. Prior to that, Naomi worked at the Financial Times where she was Group Head of Technology Client Sales.
Carl Jordan comes to Vibrant as Director of Publisher Solutions Europe. He will lead the relationship with publishers and extend Vibrant’s reach by solidifying its position as the partner of choice for publishers across Europe. Carl comes from Google where he was responsible for providing discovery, monetisation and commerce solutions to media and publishers within the EMEA region. The portfolio of products included Google Websearch, Adwords, News, Maps, AdSense and Checkout. Before that, Carl was Head of Agency Sales UK for Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and prior to that he was the Agency Sales Manager for Emap Metro Online.
Sheila Williams, Vibrant’s new Publisher Solutions Director UK, comes from Associated Northcliffe Digital where she served as Head of Digital Partnerships. Sheila has worked in publishing for over 14 years, most of that online. Her broad experience includes selling display advertising on some of EMAP’s leading consumer magazines, agency sales across The Times and Sunday Times, sponsorship and promotions across IPC brands.
Says Craig Gooding, Vibrant COO and Co-founder, “We have nearly doubled our staff in London over the last six months in order to grow our existing European businesses and break into new markets in Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia. These high powered hires will, on the one hand, help grow our premium publisher network to deliver significant incremental revenues for our publisher partners and, on the other hand, deepen and expand our relationships with advertisers to deliver a suite of solutions based on our proprietary contextual technology.
Other new hires in the London office include: Matt Boak as Senior Account Manager, Alex Davies as Account Manager, Emmy Lacey as Account Manager, Tom Pepper as Account Manager, Fiona Salmon as Account Director, Fola Sullivan as Account Director and Anna Tracey, who returns to head the UK Sales team.
About Vibrant Media
Headquartered in New York, Vibrant Media is a world leading video and contextual advertising network, giving marketers the opportunity to deliver highly targeted, user-initiated advertisements within the text of premium Web content. The company works closely with advertisers, agencies and Web publishers to plan, buy, deliver and optimize Vibrant In-Text Advertising campaigns across thousands of websites. Vibrant Video provides measurable brand engagement through the largest pay per click video advertising network. Reaching more than 120 million unique users per month, Vibrant Media manages more than five billion words per month for top advertisers such as Sony, Intel, New Line Cinema, Microsoft and Toyota. The company was founded in 2000 and has offices in New York, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, London, Paris and Hamburg, with more than 200 employees. The Company’s rapid growth has been recognized by both the Inc. 500 and Deloitte Fast 50 list for two consecutive years. For more information, visit www.vibrantmedia.com.
