San Diego Union Tribune Chooses ImpactEngine.com To Power Online Display Advertising Growth

SAN DIEGO, CA — Impact Engine, the advertising technology company that pioneered online display ad automation, announces the San Diego Union Tribune has selected Impact Engine to power the display advertising on its premier SignOnSanDiego.com site. The comprehensive customer partnership has already resulted in increased revenue and improved coordination among the ad reps, creative team and operations management.

“We are very excited to partner with Impact Engine to help us streamline our interactive ad creation and drive revenue.” said Mike Hodges, General Manager of SignOnSanDiego.com. “We are already leveraging the platform and Impact Engine’s leading edge display ad formats to help our advertisers drive maximum results and increased ROI.”

The Sign On team has already deployed many of Impact Engine’s exotic ad formats such as the Video Expander and Pencil Pushdown Ads. Each campaign was deployed end to end with ImpactEngine.com, from the ad format to ad creation to integration with the ad server.

“As the marquee San Diego newspaper brand in online and print, the San Diego Union Tribune is clearly moving forward with its agenda for growth and once again demonstrating why it is known as an innovator.” said Neil Greer, CEO and Co-Founder of Impact Engine. “Sign On isn’t just talking about their digital strategy, they are creating growth and delivering value to readers and advertisers alike.”

With its integrated approach to online display advertising automation, Impact Engine is able to bring The San Diego Union Tribune online display ad creation, ad optimization, campaign reporting and ad server integration capabilities in one easy to understand workflow.

About The San Diego Union Tribune
As the oldest business in San Diego County and the oldest newspaper in Southern California, The San Diego Union-Tribune is the product of a merger of The San Diego Union, founded Oct. 10, 1868, and the Evening Tribune, founded Dec. 2, 1895. The organization has won numerous awards over the years, including four Pulitzer Prizes. The Union-Tribune also publishes Enlace, a weekly Spanish-language news publication serving San Diego’s substantial Hispanic population, and operates SignOnSanDiego.com.

About Impact Engine
Impact Engine is the leading display ad automation company for the publishing industry. The company is focused on delivering efficiencies, scalability and increased ROI to Publishers. Impact Engine enables publishers of all sizes to capture revenue and profit opportunities within their online display advertising business.

Challenge:

• The Daily Herald, a Washington Post Company newspaper, was challenged with limited technical resources for creating online display ads.
• With only one in-house designer with Flash expertise, the newspaper was looking for a solution to create dynamic ads in a cost-effective manner.
• The Herald wanted a solution that offered an easy and efficient way to create online ads, make content updates to live ads in a timely manner for the newspaper’s long-term advertisers, and increase new online ad revenue.

Solution:

• The Herald sales team leveraged Impact Engine’s extensive library of ad creative to generate multiple personalized spec ads for each client prior to sales calls.
• Sales representatives, accustomed to selling print ads, were able to think of new potential clients by logging into the Impact Engine gallery featuring hundreds of ads tailored for different industries.
• The Impact Engine advertiser self-service option enabled clients such as Dwayne Lane Automotive Center and Designer Furniture Warehouse to update their own content in real time - without ever having to republish new code into The Herald’s ad server.

Results:

• Impact Engine increased The Herald’s production of spec ads by 400% without the need for additional hiring or training.
• The production of special event sales ads and video ads for advertisers like the Everett Silvertips and Storybook Theater increased by 400%.
• By utilizing Impact Engine, The Herald’s online profits skyrocketed, showing gains of 37% in 3^rd quarter of 2008 and 50% in 4^th quarter of 2008.

In June of 2008, we began an effort to revitalize our Web Site’s display ad program. An element of this project was to provide a new selection of creative ads designed to meet the needs of our retail advertisers. Impact Engine provided many of the templates for those ads and this overall push on display ads had great results!” Kelly Hulin Director of Marketing and Interactive Media, The Daily Herald