San Francisco, CA and Los Angeles, CA March 12, 2010 -- Adgregate Markets, the leading provider of transactional advertising and distributed commerce technology, today announced a strategic alliance with IPG Emerging Media Lab, a unit of IPG's Mediabrands, dedicated to keeping Interpublic Group's clients ahead of the latest technology trends. Under this deal, Adgregate will provide preferential terms to Interpublic agencies and clients and IPG will promote Adgregate products and services to the Interpublic agency network. IPG's clients now have access to the most secure suite of advertising and distributed commerce products: ShopAdsTM, ShopFansTM, & SecureAdsTM. Adgregate's technology enables advertisers to bring secure ecommerce capabilities into the world of brand, mobile, and social media advertising.
Adgregate is currently developing a revolutionary social commerce solution, dubbed ShopFans, to be launched soon on Facebook, and will be working exclusively with IPG retail clients to solicit feedback and testing during the initial launch phase. Adgregate and IPG will initially target retail clients with these "first to market" distributed commerce solutions in online and mobile commerce advertising thru ShopAds, as well as distributed commerce solutions within social networks thru ShopFans.
Interpublic had previously announced a major push into the retail media space through its Mediabrands agency, dubbing its initiative "Retail 3.0," and hired former Home Depot CMO John Ross as President of its retail practice. IPG's Retail 3.0 initiative is setting the stage for the next generation of consumer purchasing trends and the role that media technology - from mobile to social media - is having on marketing strategy. Through this partnership, a new set of rich data will be available to IPG advertisers, including secure product catalog and cart interactions, dwell times and rates, add-to-cart and abandonment rates, and actual sales conversions within rich media display ads, social network apps, mobile ads and apps, and web widgets. This opportunity will allow its agencies to understand what drives purchase intent and the triggers required for purchase conversions through Retail 3.0.
"Adgregate's leading distributed commerce solutions fits perfectly into IPG's broader Retail 3.0 agenda," said John Ross, President, IPG Emerging Media Lab. "We look forward to working closely with Adgregate on the launch of its new social commerce solutions and promoting it to the IPG ecosystem."
IPG Emerging Media Lab's recently released 2010 Trends report outlines 10 emerging trends set to revolutionize digital media and retail, including a central thesis around the explosive growth of social commerce. Central to its social shopping theme is the ability for consumers to shop 'anywhere, anytime,' including within social networks. Adgregate's ability to conduct secure transactions on these traditionally 'unsecure' networks lays the necessary infrastructure for true social shopping to occur.
"Mediabrands and IPG Lab are blazing a trail that will define the next generation of retail media technology for years to come," said Henry Wong, CEO, Adgregate Markets. "We are excited at this opportunity to work with them and present IPG clients with the best solution available for distributed commerce."
Adgregate products are now available through Adgregate's advertising and ecommerce partners, including DoubleClick, PointRoll, EyeWonder, Eyeblaster, Linkstorm, Collective Media, Millennial Media, JumpTap, Demandware, ATG, IBM Websphere Commerce, Escalate Retail, and many more. Adgregate Markets has teamed with companies which account for over 99% of the rich media online and mobile ads distributed in the US and 80% of the ecommerce fulfillment solutions for the Top 500 Internet Retailers. As a result, Adgregate's technology is the dominant rich media commerce solution for advertisers and has cemented its position as the market leader for distributed commerce.
About Interpublic
Interpublic is one of the world's leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services companies. Major global brands include Draftfcb, FutureBrand, GolinHarris International, Initiative, Jack Morton Worldwide, Lowe Worldwide, Magna, McCann Erickson, Momentum, MRM Worldwide, Octagon, Universal McCann and Weber Shandwick. Leading domestic brands include Campbell-Ewald; Campbell Mithun; Carmichael Lynch; Deutsch, a Lowe & Partners Company; Hill Holliday; Mullen; The Martin Agency and R/GA. For more information, please visit www.interpublic.com.
About Mediabrands
Created by IPG to manage all of its global media-related assets, Mediabrands employs 6,500 communications specialists operating in 90 countries and manages $32B in global media billings. It is a proven entity in helping clients maximize the impact of their marketing investment to deliver explosive business results. Mediabrands enhances the communications offering and performance across its network of media agencies including Initiative, UM, MAGNA and a roster of specialty service groups. Mediabrands is part of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), one of the world's leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services companies. For more information, please visit www.mediabrands.com.
About Adgregate Markets
Adgregate Markets is the leading provider of secure advertising and distributed commerce solutions. ShopAdsTM guide prospective customers from the point of discovery to the point of purchase entirely within innovative online and mobile ads. ShopFansTM takes social shopping on Facebook and micro-sites to a new level. SecureAdsTM are the world's most secure ads for customer engagement. Adgregate is a privately held company based in the San Francisco Bay Area and is venture-backed by leading investors. Adgregate has received numerous industry awards for its innovative advertising technology, including Techcrunch50 Finalist and AlwaysOn OnMedia 100 Winner, recognizing the top private companies in digital media and advertising. For additional information, please visit www.adgregate.com.
Adgregate Media Contact:
Jessie Morgan
(408) 838-0143
