Technological Innovation and Accelerated Adoption By Brand Advertisers Drive Strong 2009 Performance
SAN FRANCISCO – Kontera, the leading provider of relevant In-Text Advertising and Information Solutions, announced strong 2009 growth that spoke to its continuous technological innovation and a strong uptake from brand advertisers.
The company’s In-Text technology delivered superior related content for publishers and consumers, while delivering strong advertiser results. Kontera was able to significantly grow from both the publisher and advertiser perspectives. The company’s exclusive In-Text network finished the year with more than 120 Million monthly unique users. Traditional brand advertisers took note of the momentum, and as a result Kontera saw acceleration in brand awareness and brand building campaigns. Kontera’s direct advertiser spending had more than doubled in 2009 compared to 2008.
Technological Leadership:
Kontera’s advanced semantic analysis capabilities and technological advancements propelled the company’s expansion throughout 2009.
In May 2009 the company was named the 5th fastest growing advertising network by ComScore.
In August the company introduced its Story-Level Targeting technology, an advanced capability that understands articles at a very granular level, and is able to dynamically identify the key-words that will best resonate with readers.
In July Kontera’s core technologies for connecting the web received an impressive vote of confidence from the investment community. Having achieved profitability the company announced a significant injection of growth capital led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Carmel Ventures and Tenaya Capital.
Sequoia Capital’s Mike Moritz observed that “Kontera has opened up the vast, uncharted territory of the internet – the detailed content of web pages. Thanks to Kontera’s semantic analysis of contents and meaning of a web page, users can now find information that previously lay buried and advertisements can be positioned with far greater precision. Kontera has shaped and now leads this new market.”
Kontera’s technology and ad unit innovations were noted by several advertising industry observers and thought leaders.
“Kontera’s fewer links, delivered semantically, are outperforming the other in-text models these days,” noted Tanya Irwin in a July 2009 article in OMMA Magazine.
Underscore Marketing President Tom Hespos, commenting on the topic of Brand Safety, noted that “technologies from ad network companies like Ad Pepper and Kontera do a good job of determining article topics, sub-topics, and sentiments. Their semantic technologies differentiate them from other offerings.”
Accelerated Adoption by Brand Advertisers:
Throughout the year Kontera was able to increase the number of large brand advertisers that used its solutions for expanding market awareness and brand engagement. The company’s unique creative execution, and ability to attain performance metrics for brand lift campaigns, helped it grow significantly, despite an overall difficult year for advertising.
Traditional Brand advertisers in such verticals as Apparel & Beauty, Consumer Electronics and Telecommunications, and Consumer Packaged Goods increased their spending with Kontera.
By Q4 twice as many beauty and apparel advertising campaigns had signed with Kontera’s service, when compared to the prior year. Prominent beauty and apparel brands advertising with Kontera included Kohl’s, H&M, JCPenney, Zappos, L’Oreal and Maybelline-Garnier.
Similarly, in the fourth quarter Kontera had reported more than 80% growth in brand advertisers in the Consumer Electronics sector over the fourth quarter of 2008, including major brands like Canon, HP, LG, Samsung and Epson.
Just after the close of 2009, Kontera reported that advertiser spending from the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sector had more than doubled and is now pacing at more than 2.5 times the prior year’s spending. Advertisers in this sector include prominent CPG brands such as Arm & Hammer, Dove, Rice Krispies, Snapple and Welch’s.
Kontera’s consistent ability to meet media planners’ brand campaign objectives was recently noted by expert planner Hollis Thomases, President of WebAdvantage.net. In a recent ClickZ article she noted that “Although every media planner has their bias, some networks and sites we’ve found that tend to consistently step up to the plate are Yahoo, Google, Kontera, Orbitz, About.com, Disney Online, Discovery, iVillage, and WebMD. To them and those like them, we say thank you!”
“I’m very proud that our team was able to deliver consistently strong results and solid growth throughout the year,” said Kontera CEO and Cofounder Yoav Shoham.
About Kontera
Kontera delivers the most relevant In-Text Advertising & Related Information solutions online. Kontera’s patented technology performs real-time semantic analysis of content and other information to dynamically hyper-link the terms that most accurately represent and predict user-intent and engagement. Kontera enhances consumer experience through superior phrase relevance, driving increased user interaction, unparalleled campaign performance for advertisers, and substantial revenue for publishers. Reaching more than 100 million unique users per month, Kontera’s exclusive network features over 15,000 vetted premium and niche publishers and represents a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach their target audiences through innovative text, rich media and video advertising units. Founded in 2003, Kontera is backed by Sequoia Capital, Carmel Ventures and Tenaya Capital and has offices in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta and Tel Aviv. To learn more about Kontera, Kontera’s Related Information and Content solutions, Semantic Advertising or Contextual Advertising visit: www.kontera.com.
