Fast Growing Firms Combine Strengths in Online Display, Video and Mobile Ad Solutions
AUSTIN, Texas – Q1Media announced the completion of its merger with AdExcite. Founded in 2004, Q1Media is a market-leading display advertising network with a reach of over 150 million monthly U.S. unique visitors (comScore). AdExcite, formed in 2009, is a comScore top 5 video ad network. Q1Media will now be able to provide comprehensive solutions to advertising agencies and major brands looking to connect with consumers online regardless of what device they are using through display, video and mobile web advertising. The newly formed company will operate as Q1Media, Inc. with AdExcite remaining as the brand name for Q1Media’s video and mobile video product lines. AdExcite co-founder Phil Banfield will serve as Q1Media’s CEO. Bill Wiemann, Q1Media’s founder and CEO, will serve as President and COO.
“Adding AdExcite’s proprietary online and mobile video advertising technology to the real time bidding and ad targeting platforms we’ve built at Q1Media allows us to offer broader and more immersive digital advertising solutions,” stated Wiemann. “Phil and his team have done a remarkable job growing AdExcite’s video advertising network. I welcome his leadership as we become a single entity with the power to rapidly create greenfield online advertising inventory while building better value for web publishers.”
AdExcite’s proprietary ad units – the vSlider and vPlayer – allow any web publisher to enhance its site with video advertising. The vSlider and vPlayer’s design produces a high-impact, high-performing ad unit that is always in-view and does not block primary content on the webpage. The success of the vSlider unit with publishers and advertisers resulted in massive growth for AdExcite in 2012, making it a comScore top 5 Video Metrix property. AdExcite currently controls about one third of the video advertising reach in the US.
Prior to the merger, AdExcite’s inventory was sold through a partnership with Q1Media, and Q1Media used its access to AdExcite’s video capabilities in order to scale its premium direct sales business. “With the merger, Q1Media will be able to accelerate its growth by offering publishers and advertisers a unified technology platform for buying and selling display and multi-platform video advertising,” said Phil Banfield, CEO of Q1Media, Inc.
Q1Media will maintain its headquarters in Austin. The company currently employs 30 full time team members and expects to add up to 25 employees in Austin, Los Angeles and New York in 2013. In 2012, Q1Media was named as one of Texas’ 100 Best Places to Work by the Best Companies Group and its partners, the Texas Association of Business and the Society for Human Resource Management—Texas State Council.
About Q1Media
Q1Media, Inc. is a digital advertising and technology company formed by the February 2013 merger of Q1Media, a market-leading display advertising network with a reach of over 150 million monthly U.S. unique visitors (comScore), and AdExcite, a comScore top 5 video ad network. Q1Media sells display, video and mobile device advertising through a direct sales force as well as a real-time-bidding platform available to ad agencies, major brands and advertising trading desks. For sales inquiries, visit www.q1media.com or www.adexcite.com.
