RTHM.L Regulatory News (RTHM)

25 Jun 2007 07:02

Blinkx Plc25 June 2007 BLINKX LAUNCHES ADHOC, THE FIRST CONTEXTUAL ONLINE VIDEO ADVERTISING PLATFORM AdHoc Delivers Emotive Power of TV Advertising, with Relevance and Utility of Contextual Search Advertising SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - JUNE 25, 2007 - blinkx, the world's largest video searchengine, today unveiled AdHoc, the first contextually relevant video advertisingplatform. Just as Google's AdSense transformed advertising on the Text Web,blinkx's AdHoc platform will revolutionize video advertising by matchingcompelling, customized, TV-style ads to your audience on the Video Web. Search technology performs two useful functions - finding content, and alsomatching that content to meaningful, relevant advertising. blinkx'sdistribution strategy has established it as the de facto standard for videosearch on the Web, so the natural evolution was to apply that proven technologyto the automatic selection of ads. AdHoc leverages blinkx's patentedspeech-to-text transcription and visual analysis technology to understand videocontent more thoroughly and effectively than any other service today, and cantherefore dynamically place the most pertinent advertising against it. Online video presents an extremely attractive opportunity for advertisers andmedia companies: targeted distribution with the potential for immediate action,and the availability of real-time metrics to assess the effectiveness of a givencampaign. blinkx's AdHoc platform offers content partners and advertisers a unique valueproposition -- video advertising which combines the emotive power of TVpromotion, with the relevance and utility of contextual search advertising. Thisis an exciting prospect, not only in terms of enhancing viewer experience, butalso in increasing the effectiveness of campaigns. In addition to its unrivalled relevance, the AdHoc platform offers mediacompanies and advertisers the most flexible solution for customizing the timingand appearance of video ads, with options that include pre-, post- and mid-rollplacement, as well as dynamically-selected banners, in-video mini-banners and aunique, post-roll catalog view. Partners can even select which ad databases toleverage - their own, the blinkx AdHoc platform, or even external ad systems,such as Google's AdWords. "Until now, online video advertising was a kind of Frankenstein's monster - anattempt to cobble together technology that was built for Text Web banneradvertising and apply it to an entirely new medium - the Video Web," saidSuranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. "The AdHoc platform isrevolutionary because it was built from the ground up to address rich media,resulting in higher monetization for media companies, more effective marketingfor advertisers and, most importantly, a useful, non-disruptive experience forusers." "As video choice continues to explode, consumers desperately need tools thathelp them easily find what they're interested in," said Tim Hanlon, Senior VicePresident at Denuo, the media futures unit of ad giant Publicis Groupe, S.A."At the same time, marketers clamor to reach interested, though ever-fragmentingaudiences with judicious and relevant ad messaging. AdHoc's contextual videoapproach deftly bridges those two forces, allowing information and advertisingto flourish in a mutually beneficial way." The AdHoc platform is available to advertisers, media companies and otherpartners effective immediately. About blinkx blinkx (London AIM: BLNX) is the world's most comprehensive video search engine.Today, blinkx has indexed more than 12,000,000 hours of audio, video, viral andTV content, and made it fully searchable and available on demand. blinkx'sfounders set out to solve a significant challenge - as TV and user-generatedcontent on the Web explode, keyword-based search technologies only scratch thesurface. blinkx's patented search technologies listen to - and even see - theWeb, helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not availableelsewhere. In addition, blinkx powers the video search for many of the world'smost frequented sites. blinkx is based in San Francisco and London. Moreinformation is available at www.blinkx.com Media Contact:Tim TurpinOutCast Communications415-392-8282Tim@outcastpr.com Edward Bridges / Haya ChelhotFinancial Dynamics+44 20 7831 3113blinkx@fd.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange