Archive for the ‘Press Release’ Category

 

DSPs, SSPs, DMPs, Ad Exchanges Help Inspire New, IAB Data-Driven Ads Site Says Exec Dolan

February 28th, 2012
 

 

Today, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the launch of the organization’s new “Data-Driven Advertising” site. See it now at iab.net/data. And,read the release.

Patrick Dolan, EVP & COO of Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), discussed the announcement with AdExchanger.

-ShareThis, Inc.

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ShareThis Names Paul Lentz SVP of Publisher Platform

February 9th, 2012
 

 

Lentz to Drive Initiatives Enabling Publishers to Derive Greater Value From Their Social Audiences

 

PALO ALTO, CA, Feb 09, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — ShareThis, one of the largest platforms for sharing across the Web, today announced the appointment of Paul Lentz as Senior Vice President of Publisher Platform. ShareThis reaches more than 80 percent of the US population online(1) across more than 1.3 million websites, and has built its business around the content that inspires sharing and the audiences that socialize it. The company’s platform drives economic value for the entire online content ecosystem with innovative products such as the Social Quality Index, a new methodology to measure the social quality of sites across the Web.

“We look at our publishers as strong partners, and enabling the proliferation of premium, quality content is central to our business,” said Kurt Abrahamson, CEO of ShareThis. “Paul has had his feet firmly planted in the interactive publishing space for years. He brings an incredibly valuable perspective that will enable us to align product development with publishers’ needs.”

Lentz comes to ShareThis from CBS Interactive, where he led business development and strategy for the CBSNews.com and CNET divisions. Prior to that, he held several senior management positions within CBS Interactive, most recently leading strategic partnerships, planning and metrics, and overseeing content licensing and e-commerce initiatives.

“ShareThis has the opportunity to transform the way digital media is sold beyond click-throughs and CPMs,” Lentz said. “We have a trove of social and sharing data around content that will be a boon to premium publishers as they seek ways to continue creating quality content, monetize, and maintain their value in the marketplace.”

Lentz joins the company as it creates new ways to provide publishers with tools and analytics that measure content performance, competitive intelligence to benchmark that performance among their peers, and the ability to more effectively monetize. ShareThis recently unveiled Social Quality Index (SQI) is a lynchpin of this initiative.

SQI is the first measure of Web-wide sharing activity, providing advertisers and publishers with site rankings across 27 different site categories. The standard places a quantifiable value on the social activity that occurs around content, enabling advertisers to reach more engaged audiences and publishers to extract a premium from the social quality of their content.

ShareThis was recently named one of America’s 100 Most Promising Companies by Forbes magazine and was included in AlwaysON’s Top 100 Private Companies in Digital Media for the third year running. The company is the number one ranked distributed content entity — ahead of Google, Facebook and Yahoo! — and reaches more than 180 million US uniques monthly (comScore Media Metrix Key Measures Report Ad-Focus Category with duplication and excluding Custom Entities and Advertising Networks, December 2011).

About ShareThis ShareThis is one of the largest and most innovative platforms for sharing across the Web. Designed around social media — both the content that inspires sharing and the audiences that socialize it — the company’s platform allows for direct relationships with the key players in the advertising ecosystem: publishers, advertisers, and consumers. ShareThis enables publishers to offer popular content sharing features which foster increased usage and engagement while providing advertisers effective ad targeting capabilities and analytics derived from sharing activity. Based in Palo Alto, CA, with offices in New York and Cincinnati, ShareThis is privately held with funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ Mercury, Illinois Ventures, Matthew Pritzker Company, Queen City Angels, RPM Ventures and Reservoir Partners.

(1) comScore Media Metrix Key Measures Report, December 2011

        Aly Brady or Kei Hoshino Quigley
        LaunchSquad
        415-625-8555
        sharethis (at) launchsquad (dot) com

SOURCE: ShareThis

Copyright 2012 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

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ShareThis Named One Of America’s Most Promising Companies By Forbes

December 1st, 2011
 

 

PALO ALTO, CA–(Marketwire – Dec 1, 2011) – ShareThis, the world’s largest platform for sharing and influence, today was named one of America’s 100 Most Promising Companies by Forbes. ShareThis reaches nearly 85 percent of the US population online across more than one million Web sites, and creates powerful insights based on Web-wide sharing activity used by both publishers and advertisers. The company’s platform, an industry standard for sharing, drives economic value for the entire online ecosystem with innovative products such as the Social Quality Index, a new methodology to measure the social quality of sites across the Web. ShareThis was chosen from thousands of applicants for the Forbes list, giving further validation to its vision and the value it provides its customers.

“This is a huge honor that lends credence to the amazing growth we’ve experienced over the course of this year,” said Kurt Abrahamson, CEO of ShareThis. “We’ve created a platform that turns sharing behavior into true value for publishers and advertisers, through active contact with consumers. We pride ourselves on the strength of our technology platform and our expansive reach that delivers proven results to our partners. We look forward to taking our offerings to even greater heights in the years to come.”

Forbes’ list of America’s Most Promising Companies features 100 privately held up-and-comers with compelling business models, strong management teams, notable customers, strategic partners and precious investment capital.

“Sizing up younger, privately held companies is hard: Their fortunes can change very quickly and there’s a dearth of public data,” says Forbes Executive Editor Brett Nelson. “We took a more comprehensive approach to evaluate their health and potential.”

To sharpen its search, Forbes teamed up with CB Insights, a Manhattan-based data firm that tracks investment in high-growth private companies. With $650,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation, CB has developed complex software called Mosaic that mines myriad online sources (from press releases and social networks to job boards and court filings) to come up with one, algorithmically derived score that measures a private company’s health. Forbes married Mosaic’s data-crunching with old-fashioned reporting to assemble a list of rising stars with bright growth prospects. To view the complete the list, please visit www.forbes.com/ampc.

About ShareThis
ShareThis is the largest market for sharing and influence across the Web, reaching nearly 85% of the US population online across more than 1 million sites. The ShareThis platform turns proprietary sharing data into powerful insights that allow publishers and advertisers to create deeper relationships between consumers, content and brands. Based in Palo Alto, CA, with offices in New York and Cincinnati, the company is privately held with funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ Mercury, Illinois Ventures, Matthew Pritzker Company, Queen City Angels, RPM Ventures and Reservoir Partners.

Contact Information:

Aly Brady, or Sara Suddes

Launchsquad

415-625-8555

ShareThis@Launchsquad.com

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ShareThis Creates New Social Measurement To Transform Media Buying Model, Starcom MediaVest Group to Test Methodology

November 17th, 2011
 
 

New Index Empowers Publishers to Derive Greater Value from the Strength of Their Social Audiences

 

PALO ALTO, CA – November 17, 2011 – ShareThis, the world’s largest platform for sharing and influence, today announced a new methodology to measure the social quality of sites across the Web. This new standard, the Social Quality Index, is the first measure of Web-wide sharing activity and will provide publishers and advertisers with site rankings across 27 key content categories. Sharing, as an inherently social activity, provides powerful insights on how valuable content is to consumers. As part of Starcom MediaVest Group’s ongoing partnership with ShareThis, the agency is assessing the standard’s ability to enhance their planning approach for a cross-section of their media buys.

The ShareThis standard derives a raw social traffic score by taking a combined measure of a site’s outbound share and inbound clickback traffic, and comparing it to page views. The resulting figure can then be benchmarked against the broader measure of social quality spanning the more than 1 million sites and more than 10 billion monthly sharing signals that make up the ShareThis network. This new measurement brings the value of sharing into consideration, adding more dimension to media buying models that rely more heavily on traffic and audience size. The measure:

-Favors rich content and audience interaction over broad reach

-Identifies users with higher purchase intent

-Identifies audiences who are more likely to disseminate content widely

This new standard is being validated across the ShareThis network of publishers in partnership with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG). SMG will examine the efficacy of the standard as an additional metric to evaluate across its network of brands and publishers.

“Right now, advertisers depend on audience size, engagement and traffic to determine their media buying strategy,” said Kate Sirkin, Global Research Director, Starcom MediaVest Group. “ShareThis’ standard enables advertisers to also take social sharing into account. We look forward to testing the Social Quality Index as an additional way to reach audiences in a more targeted fashion without losing the scale we’re accustomed to.”

Publishers currently lack the benchmarking tools they need to develop their digital strategies and monetize their content. Correspondingly, advertisers are overly dependent on hinging their media buys on measurements such as site traffic and reach. This new standard addresses both of these problems with a unique, Web-scale measurement that examines sharing across 120+ social channels and truly defines the value of content.

“ShareThis is on the publishers’ side. We recognize that their content and audiences are their own, and they should be able to derive value from creating great content and engaged readers, regardless of their traffic or reach,” said Kurt Abrahamson, CEO, ShareThis. “Our social quality standard empowers publishers, allowing them to take advantage of additional social audience monetization opportunities that are available. We’re the first to rank based on sharing, we’re providing competitive intelligence, and we’re helping to clearly identify ways to monetize social activity.”

 

About ShareThis

ShareThis is the largest market for sharing and influence across the Web, reaching more than 85% of the US population online across more than 1 million sites. ShareThis makes content more engaging for publishers and advertising more impactful for brands by tapping into its true influence and value. Based in Palo Alto, CA, with offices in New York and Cincinnati, the company is privately held with funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ Mercury, Illinois Ventures, Matthew Pritzker Company, Queen City Angels, RPM Ventures and Reservoir Partners.

About Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG)

Starcom MediaVest Group is the Human Experience Company. Our dream is to grow our clients’ business by transforming human behavior through uplifting, meaningful human experiences. These brand ‘experiences’ are brought to life by distinct, strategic point-of- views—Truth and Design and Space for Ideas—created and owned by SMG’s two global agency brands: MediaVest and Starcom, respectively. Ranked one of the largest brand communications groups in the world, Starcom MediaVest Group (www.smvgroup.com) encompasses an integrated network of human experience strategists, investment specialists, content creators and digital experts and part of the Publicis Groupe [listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange - FR0000130577 - and part of the CAC 40 index]. With nearly 6,700 employees in 110 offices worldwide, SMG is the #1 ranked Global Media Agency (AdAge) and 2011 Media Network of the Year at the Global Festival of Media as well as the most celebrated global media network at the 2010 and 2009 Cannes International Advertising Festival.

 

Contact Information

Aly Brady or Kei Hoshino Quigley

LaunchSquad

415-625-8555

sharethis@launchsquad.com

 

Lena Petersen

Starcom MediaVest Group

312-0220-4169

lena.Petersen@smvgroup.com

 

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ShareThis Names Former Google AdSense Executive Kurt Abrahamson as New CEO

July 26th, 2011
 


 Abrahamson to Focus on Scaling the ShareThis Platform for Massive Growth, Expansion and Leadership in Online Content and Advertising Economy

 PALO ALTO, CA – July 26, 2011 –ShareThis Founder Tim Schigel today announced the appointment of Kurt Abrahamson as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. ShareThis is the world’s largest sharing marketplace, built for advertisers and publishers to tap into the economic value of sharing and influence across the Web. Abrahamson will be charged with scaling the ShareThis platform to become an industry standard by driving new economic value for the entire online economy of publishers, consumers and advertisers. Schigel will remain Chairman of the Board and will continue to participate in the daily operations of the business, working closely with Abrahamson as ShareThis enters this new phase of growth.

 “We chose Kurt not only because of his incredible reputation and stellar track record in growing companies in this space, but because he has the vision and experience to lead ShareThis as it transforms the economics of online advertising across the Web,” said Schigel, ShareThis founder. “He brings both operational expertise and market vision that will be critical as we enter this pivotal stage in the company’s growth.”

 Abrahamson most recently served as CEO of SocialMedia.com, a leader in online display advertising, which was recently acquired by LivingSocial. Abrahamson came to SocialMedia.com from Google, where he first served as Director of the Content Media Group. In this position, he helped lead the global launch of Google AdSense, managed the direct sales channel for publishers, and secured long-term deals with five of the top 10 Web properties. Abrahamson also served as the Director of Global Sales & Operations Strategy and as Director of Sales Operations for North America. Prior to working at Google, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Jupiter Communications and as President of Jupiter Media Metrix, where he helped build their business from a small 12-person group to 520 employees worldwide, establishing Jupiter as one of the leading Internet research organizations.

 “Sharing is the Web’s most explicit indicator of consumer influence and economic value of online content,” said Abrahamson, CEO. “Yet brands and publishers are still searching for a way to understand and realize the potential of sharing in driving value for the entire economy of publishers, advertisers and consumers. ShareThis is arguably the only company in the world with the scale, depth and vision to transform the industry by taking advantage of this fundamental human behavior and delivering on the value of sharing. I couldn’t be more excited at the opportunity to shape the strategic vision and execution of its next phase of growth.”

 About ShareThis
ShareThis is the largest market for sharing and influence across the web, reaching more than 400 million users across nearly 1 million sites. ShareThis makes content more engaging for publishers and marketing more impactful for brands by tapping into its true influence and value. Based in Palo Alto, CA, with offices in New York and Cincinnati, the company is privately held with funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ Mercury, Illinois Ventures, Matthew Pritzker Company, Queen City Angels and RPM Ventures and Reservoir Partners.

 

Contact Information

Aly Brady

LaunchSquad

415.625.8555

sharethis@launchsquad.com

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ShareThis and Starcom MediaVest Group Collaborate to Release First Comprehensive Study on Sharing

June 6th, 2011
 

 

Over 7 Billion Sharing Signals, 300 Million Monthly Users and 1,000 Publishers Analyzed to Uncover Sharing Truths for Marketers

 

PALO ALTO, CA–(Marketwire – Jun 6, 2011) – ShareThis, the world’s largest platform for sharing and influence, today announced that it is releasing, in collaboration with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), the most comprehensive study of online social sharing to date. Conducted by former ARF Chief Research Officer, Joel Rubinson, the study paints a picture of an online behavior that, while still unexplored and untapped by many publishers and advertisers, is shaping the way users interact with each other and with content online. This study is the first in a series of studies as part of an ongoing partnership between ShareThis and SMG.

The study focuses on ShareThis’ database of sharing activity for the month of March 2011 and includes a detailed analysis of more than 7 billion sharing signals across all major sharing channels, specifically looking at the sharing patterns of more than 300 million monthly users across the top 1,000 publisher websites of ShareThis.

The study highlights how sharing stacks up compared to search when it comes to generating traffic for websites and brands, how people share different types of content across different types of social channels, and how sharing gives all users the ability to be influential. Specifically, the study findings include a number of takeaways important to marketers and advertisers as they explore ways to better serve, reach and engage their audiences. Some highlights include:

  • Sharing is bigger than fans, friends and followers. Sharing generates almost half of the traffic for websites and brands that is created by search — 10 percent of website visits come from sharing. Sharing also accounts for 31 percent of referral traffic.
  • Sharing is about scale, not virality. Shared links are, on average, across all sharing channels, clicked on 4.9 times each, so content shared by large groups of people reach a wider audience than content passed along from others.
  • Everyone who shares is an influencer if the subject is important to him or her. Instead of one person being universally influential on a wide range of topics, the study found that many people are influential on only one or two topics.
  • Sharing is about moments of opportunity and relevance. The study proves that sharing is a viable marketing solution for reaching audiences when they are most receptive to a particular category of advertising, such as CPG, Business & Financial Services, or Consumer Electronics.

According to Jeff Flemings, SMG’s SVP/Human Experience Centers, “Sharing is a critical aspect of creating meaningful human experiences today. Getting large groups of people to share content, reactions, and updates with others in their social network at scale is a marketing must, but people only share what’s important to them, so it’s essential to have a deep understanding of what people are sharing and why. This joint research project with ShareThis helps us understand people’s sharing behavior in unprecedented depth and granularity. We will use this understanding to help brands enable sharing behavior and integrate it into human experiences.”

“Sharing is core to what we do at ShareThis and we’ve always believed that it is one of the most important behaviors online, one that has the potential to power the larger Internet economy,” said Tim Schigel, CEO of ShareThis. “We’re thrilled to have conducted this first-of-its-kind study with such an influential and well respected company as SMG to provide publishers, advertisers and marketers with a deeper look at this online behavior and concretely show just how important sharing is.”

“This collaboration between SMG and ShareThis produced a study that was not only the first of its kind, but the most comprehensive to date,” said Joel Rubinson. “We’re honored to be involved in a study of this importance that will undoubtedly provide valuable information to marketers, advertisers and publishers.”

About ShareThis
ShareThis is the largest market for sharing and influence across the web, reaching more than 400 million users across nearly 1 million sites. ShareThis makes content more engaging for publishers and marketing more impactful for brands by tapping into its true influence and value. Based in Palo Alto, CA with offices in New York and Cincinnati, the company is privately held with funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ Mercury, Illinois Ventures, Matthew Pritzker Company, Queen City Angels and RPM Ventures and Reservoir Partners.

About Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG)
Starcom MediaVest Group is the Human Experience Company. Our dream is to grow our clients’ business by transforming human behavior through uplifting, meaningful human experiences. These brand ‘experiences’ are brought to life by distinct, strategic point-of-views — Truth and Design and Space for Ideas — created and owned by SMG’s two global agency brands: MediaVest and Starcom, respectively. Ranked one of the largest brand communications groups in the world, Starcom MediaVest Group encompasses an integrated network of human experience strategists, investment specialists, content creators and digital experts and part of the Publicis Groupe [listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange -- FR0000130577 -- and part of the CAC 40 index]. With nearly 6,700 employees in 110 offices worldwide, SMG is the #1 ranked Global Media Agency (AdAge) and 2011 Media Network of the Year at the Global Festival of Media as well as the most celebrated global media network at the 2010 and 2009 Cannes International Advertising Festival.

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ShareThis Ranked by ComScore as Largest U.S. Distributed Content Media Network

April 18th, 2011
 

 

Company Responds to Increasing Demand, Announces Hire of Chief Scientist, Chief Architect of Advertising Systems

PALO ALTO, CA–(Marketwire – April 18, 2011) – According to March 2011 ComScore data, ShareThis was the largest distributed content media network in the United States, reaching nearly 172 million unique visitors. ComScore defines distributed content as “widgets, gadgets or applications, is any content that is viewed by the end user on a webpage not owned by the content publisher.” The ShareThis suite of tools, including the popular sharing widget, is distributed across nearly 1 million websites and reach more than 400 million people per month worldwide.

During the past year, ShareThis has nearly doubled its publisher base while releasing a number of new products aimed at increasing ease of sharing for consumers as well as allowing publishers to take advantage of cutting-edge sharing technologies. The latest release of the company’s ShareWidget incorporates OAuth, an open protocol that allows secure API authorization in a simple and standard method, into the sharing experience. This enhancement allows people to share directly from a publisher’s site rather than taking them off the site. According to ComScore, ShareThis widgets were also viewed more in March than tools made by several other competing technology and media companies, making the ShareThis platform an even more compelling proposition for content owners.

The company also announced the expansion of its executive team with the addition of two key hires: Yan Qu, Ph.D., as chief scientist and Prasanta Behera as chief architect, advertising systems.

Qu brings more than a decade of research experience to the ShareThis team, most recently with AOL Advertising Inc. where she served as technology director of research and development. Behera also brings years of experience to the team, specializing in display ad targeting, data architecture and identity management. He comes to ShareThis from Yahoo!, where he was director and senior architect of display ad targeting. Additional recent hires include Andy Stevens, director of sales development and strategy, Karen Weber, director of marketing communications, Robb Sala, director of publisher services, and Tom Spano, social media manager.

“Growth has been our singular focus at ShareThis. From growing our publisher base and the number of people who interact with and use our tools every day to growing our team to meet the incredible demand from advertisers and publishers, expansion in each and every market has been key for us,” said ShareThis CEO Tim Schigel. “The ComScore numbers put this in to real terms for us and validated our hard work and position in the industry. As we move forward, Yan Qu and Prasanta Behera are going to be invaluable in helping the company scale to keep meeting demand as well as helping to create new and better ways to help publishers, advertisers and consumers take advantage of what online sharing has to offer.”

About ShareThis
ShareThis is the largest market for sharing and influence across the web, reaching more than 400 million users across nearly 1 million sites. ShareThis makes content more engaging for publishers and marketing more impactful for brands by tapping into its true influence and value. Based in Palo Alto, CA with offices in New York and Cincinnati, the company is privately held with funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ Mercury, Reservoir Partners, Illinois Ventures, Queen City Angels and RPM Ventures.

For the official press release, click here.

by Kristen Fergason, CMO, ShareThis, Inc. Kristen@sharethis.com and Corey Lewis, LaunchSquad

Contact:
Corey Lewis or Victoria Whitney
LaunchSquad
sharethis@launchsquad.com
415.625.8555

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