Glam Media Pioneers First Brand Ad-Enabled Distributed Media App Platform Requiring IAB Standard Ad Units for Ad-Supported Widgets
Silicon Valley, CA and New York, NY—November 18, 2008—Glam Media, Inc. (www.GlamMedia.com), recently ranked comScore Media Metrix Top 10 Web property, today announced the launch of the Glam Applications Network. The platform that enables brand ad-enabled applications and widgets to be integrated into web sites and blogs, Glam Apps “Atako”, includes a standardized payment system for developers, publishers and media companies. Apps and widgets will be available in the Glam Apps Store (www.GlamApps.com), which provides a curated set of applications for publishers to add new features, build traffic and create new revenue streams. Today, Glam Apps names more than 50 premier charter developers, including: Sphere (a division of AOL); BuzzFeed; Meebo; PollDaddy; PicApp, JS-Kit and Kwanzoo. GlamTV, a signature application on the Glam Apps platform, features video content from select media partners including Cinelan, Diagonal View and Young Hollywood.
As the largest vertical content network, Glam Media fills a unique position in the marketplace, bringing together publishers, developers, content producers, media companies, agencies and advertisers to create branded, distributed media content and applications. The Glam Applications Network, launching today in beta, is immediately available to the 700+ web sites in the Glam.com and Brash.com vertical networks—and will be open to all professional Web publishers in early 2009. Examples of Glam Apps include: polls; slideshows; video commenting and contests; content feeds & syndication; ratings; recipe search, quizzes and shopping search.
Glam Apps Atako was built with brand advertisers’ needs in mind. Glam Apps’ ad-supported widgets contain IAB standard ad units that can be sold by Glam Media, the media publisher, agency and/or the developer. Today, most widget platforms are designed only to add functionality to social networks with no targeting technology or controls for brand advertisers, like brand proximity and relevance. For example, the main display ad may be a retail client, with widgets on the same page showing non-targeted or even competitive retail ads. Glam Media’s platform is also noteworthy because it solves the challenge of revenue-sharing with a built-in distributed ad payment system. Glam Apps Atako allows a range of monetization and distribution choices for developers building applications: ad-enabled with required IAB-standard ad units, sponsored or advertorial widgets, paid for or subscription based applications and free no-ads utilities.
“Widgets and distributed content are great examples of how interactive media companies are transforming marketing in search of new ways for consumers to engage with brands,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “That these widgets adhere to IAB ad standards, simplifies the interactive ad buying process and will help expand the value and measurement capabilities of widgets.”
Glam Media has already created many successful application campaigns for advertisers. Glam Apps builds on this success with a platform that allows developers to create the apps and for advertisers to sponsor them. With Glam Apps, brand advertisers can develop custom publisher features and share-of-voice branded widgets on targeted sites, resulting in deeply immersive campaigns and advertorials. Agencies can use Glam Apps Atako to create integrated brand applications and widgets that leverage the distribution of the Glam Publisher Network. Application campaigns previously built on the Glam platform include: a styling video built for Levi’s® brand Luv My Levi’s® campaign; a flirting widget for V05; Glam Re-Skins, which enable a publisher to automatically re-skin their entire site with specific ads; and Glam Spotlight units which allow an advertiser to distribute video in a brand-engaging/skinned module.
Media companies can use Glam Apps Atako to create widgets for content distribution in a “rights-managed” system with monetization or distribution from content networks. Video providers and media networks can use GlamTV and BrashTV applications to distribute protected video content packaged with high-CPM display and video ads.
Glam-developed applications that are part of Glam Apps at launch include:
GlamTV/BrashTV: an innovative video application that allows for the distribution of professionally-produced premium content across the Glam Network, reaching 22 million users with over 50 million views per month three months after its beta launch.
Glam Now: a vertical content story headlines widget promoting the hottest story links in the Glam Network, reaching 31 million users with over 100 million widgets views per month.
“The Glam Applications Network allows developers and advertisers to easily promote and distribute applications on a wide variety of web sites with a built-in system for monetization,” said Ryan Roslansky, VP of Products & Audience for Glam Media. “Not only are we expanding the app distribution market for developers, we are opening up new opportunities for publishers to add functionality to their sites and for advertisers to reach users with innovative campaigns.”
The charter developers for Glam Apps at launch include: Apture; Bang International; BuzzFeed; CookThink; FoodChannel; Fotoviewr; Grouptivity; Meebo; Kwanzoo; NearbyNow; Ojingo (Blipback); PicApp; Pixsta; Predictify; Poll Daddy; TheFind; JS-Kit; Sphere; ShareThis; Polyvore, The Astrologer and WeSeed.
“Sphere partnered with Glam Media to build a module for Glam Apps that is distributed content at its best,” said Tony Conrad, CEO of Sphere. “For Glam’s publishers, Sphere’s module connects their articles to contextually relevant content from their archives and also displays related content from around the Glam Publisher Network. Participating publishers will serendipitously see inbound traffic from other Glam sites. The module also integrates a high quality ad unit that provides marketers a new and innovative way to engage with their audience and drives incremental revenue for the publisher.”
“JS-Kit provides ultra-lightweight community services like Comments, Ratings, and Polls for any web site,” said Khris Loux, CEO of JS-Kit. “Glam Apps gives us a new way to access premium web publishers and advertisers at the same time.”
“PicApp is thrilled to be selected by Glam Media as a developer partner,” said Eyal Gura, PicApp’s CEO. “PicApp gives Glam’s publishers easy access to millions of premium images from sources such as Getty Images, Corbis, Splash News, Newscom, Image Source and others. Our images not only enhance and drive traffic to publishers’ sites, but also encourage viewers to further interact with the content. The partnership with Glam Media, and other partnerships to be announced soon, is a further demonstration of PicApp’s appeal to blog networks.”
Built upon standards including Google Gadget, OpenSocial and OpenID, the application distribution software powering Glam Apps Atako is scheduled for full open source release in Q4 of 2008. Glam’s first open source release underscores the company’s commitment to creating a vibrant community of developers with the common goal of integrating functionality into a wide variety of publishing platforms. Integration with OpenID creates a whole new class of consumer applications in a distributed media environment, where users can use one log-in across the wide Glam Publisher Network or specific vertical networks, enabling social networking and communication applications.
Today, Glam is also launching GlamID, a distributed login and registration platform built off OpenId for use across Glam Media properties. Glam Apps Atako is built on Google’s open source Gadget technology. Glam Apps allows developers to leverage Glam Evolution, Glam’s unique ad services platform with full Brand Sense Accountability and ROI measurement for advertisers. Glam is also one of the first to use the newly announced tracking comScore Extended Web measurement (CXW), to help measure and report reach and advertising for distributed Web content such as Glam Apps. This allows targeting, measurement and reporting of key data to brands and agencies.
For additional information, please visit www.GlamApps.com.
About Glam Media
In creating a new prototype, Vertical Content Networks, the founders of Glam Media have introduced a revolutionary new media model that powerfully brings brand advertisers to targeted vertical audiences online. With more than 700 sites, Glam Media comprises Glam.com, a carefully curated network of popular and influential lifestyle women’s websites, blogs and magazines, and Brash.com, the newly launched network catering exclusively to men. Glam Media’s reach is deep and far-reaching; it is a comScore Top 10 Web property, with a total reach of 52 million unique monthly visitors in the U.S. and 88 million uniques globally, and is also a Top 10 Display Ad Publisher. Glam Media is backed by Hubert Burda Media, GLG Partners, Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Walden Venture Capital and Information Capital. The company is headquartered in New York City, New York and Silicon Valley, California, with international offices in London, Munich, Berlin and Tokyo.
