Media Alert: Summit Educates Online Advertising Leaders on the Potenial of Behavioral Targeting

NEW YORK (May 11, 2004) — A recent invitation-only forum on behavioral targeting sponsored by Reuters (NASDAQ: RTRSY, LSE: RTR), the global information company, and Revenue Science, a premier provider of customized audience segments for Web publishers and advertisers, explored the important role of behavioral targeting within the online advertising industry as adoption increases. Topics discussed included the current state of behavioral targeting, growth prospects and results, and future advancements.

Titled 2004 Behavioral Targeting Summit, the forum was held on Monday, April 26 at the Reuters building in Times Square, and was attended by more than 90 online publishers, agencies, advertisers, media and other industry influencers.

Panelists included Randy Kilgore, VP of Advertising Sales, Wall Street Journal Online; Tom Lynch, Head of Online Marketing, ING; Andrea Ching, Partner and Group Planning Director, mOne; Omar Tawakol, VP of Marketing, Revenue Science; and Walker Jacobs, VP of Advertising Sales, Reuters. The moderator for the forum was Kris Oser, Interactive Editor at Advertising Age.

Opportunity to Educate

"Behavioral targeting presents a massive opportunity for revenue growth, but there's still a certain amount of learning that needs to take place within the industry in terms of what is and how it works, which is exactly why we worked with Reuters to organize this Summit," said Bill Gossman, CEO of Revenue Science. "Our goal is to help educate the industry about the value of behavioral targeting, as well as learn about what we can do to improve our level of service to both publishers and advertisers."

Metrics for Audience Relevance

For the first time in the history of advertising, audience segments can be scientifically verified through an empirical Behavioral Relevance™ Score. This score provides a standard, directional measure of audience quality that can be used to compare audience segments within-and even across-campaigns. This comparison is a core aspect of the reach and relevancy tradeoff publishers make to offer targeted campaigns that also build relevant reach and size. "Through the Audience Search service, Revenue Science is providing a fast, simple and powerful way to address the entire marketing funnel-from audiences to clicks," said Omar Tawakol, senior vice president of marketing for Revenue Science. "Our Behavioral Relevance score gives advertisers the insight into audience quality that they need to invest in the Web as a primary advertising channel."