Q2 2008 Advertising Market Report Highlights Evidence Of Continued Growth For Online Ad Networks; Ma

the Rubicon Project Provides Analysis Based on Data from 15 Billion Impressions in Q2 across more than 130 Ad Networks

Los Angeles — September 22, 2008 — the Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global ad network optimization, unveils the latest edition of the 2008 Online Advertising Market Report, the Q2: Ad Network Landscape, Trends and Outlook, detailing the state of the market in the second quarter of 2008 and beyond. Drawing on its unique third-party position between ad networks and website publishers, the Rubicon Project provides an insider perspective of the changing Internet advertising landscape based on a wealth of market data to provide a deeper understanding of the current industry climate and future trends. This market intelligence is based on analysis of 15 billion impressions served during Q2 alone across more than 130 ad networks.

“2008 has been a challenging year for the U.S. and worldwide economy. Fortunately, the online advertising market has been somewhat cushioned from the majority of economic blows,” said Frank Addante, CEO and founder. “the Rubicon Project is committed to helping navigate the tumultuous yet continuous growth and development of this market, in part, through education. Through this report, we are sharing billions of pieces of market intelligence we have combined with informed analysis of current and future trends.”

State of a Dysfunctional Industry

With nearly $370 million invested in ad networks in Q2, the market remained a good buy for private firms and holding companies. This indicates investors’ confidence in networks ability to innovate and increase monetization

However, not all news was rosy. Big-name publishers such as ESPN, Forbes.com and CBS Sports discontinued their use of third-party networks in the second quarter, generating a slew of bad publicity for the ad network industry.

Sample Findings:

• Despite criticism, ad networks grew during the economic storm in Q2 – eCPMs increased by an average of 7 percent across all networks.
• Publishers and networks dysfunctional relationships are hindering growth – they need each other but don’t trust one other on issues such as inventory pricing, fee payment and collection or the quality of the ads and the sites they run on.
• Big publishers are both entering and navigating the broader network space – with several heavy-hitters becoming ad networks themselves.
• International traffic remains an untapped growth opportunity –some major U.S. Web sites draw more than half their traffic from outside the country but only a small fraction of ad revenue is able being monetized from that traffic.

Sample of Emerging Trends

• The Ad network role in the online advertising ecosystem will continue to grow – both publishers and media buyers need and want third-party support.
• Networks face obstacles to expansion –Publishers need to diversify across many ad network channel opportunities to continue growth.
• Online advertising will continue to grow – overall ad spend may decrease but a natural reconciliation will occur to even out the discrepancy between Internet usage (33 percent) and percentage of ad budgets dedicated to online spend (8 percent).
• In a recession, efficient models prevail – online advertising is more efficient than other forms of advertising such as broadcast and print.

The complete 2008 Q2 Online Advertising Market Report is available as a free download at: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

About the Rubicon Project
The Rubicon Project is a group of industry-experienced, aggressive and passionate renegades dedicated to bringing a new level of efficiency to the fragmented Internet advertising space. The founders of the Rubicon Project shook up the online advertising industry in 1998 when they created L90/adMonitor, one of the most successful Internet advertising platforms that served over 3,000 of the web’s most recognized sites, reaching 65 percent of the Internet population before DoubleClick acquired it.

$27 billion was spent advertising online in 2007, yet it’s still too hard for Web sites to sell their ad space online. The Rubicon Project’s web-based, self-serve solution gives any size Web site the most complete access to the total available advertising market and its smart matching technology does all the work to perfectly match each ad impression with the optimal money-making opportunity. The Rubicon Project is the new online advertising standard that makes it effortless for Web sites to generate the mad cash they’ve always dreamed of. And, it’s free to join. Web sites looking to make more money while doing less work should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank’s blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/

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