We’re very pleased to announce the public launch of our widget distribution network, which connects advertisers, content providers and social media users, to deliver and track results-driven widget advertising campaigns. Kimberly-Clark, Jive Records, 360i, and Avenue A | Razorfish, who is running multiple campaigns, are some of the charter advertisers achieving thousands of widget installs per day through the Gigya network. The full press release is below.
Eyal Magen, CEO, Gigya, Inc.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GIGYA LAUNCHES AD NETWORK FOR ACCELERATED WIDGET DISTRIBUTION
Kimberly-Clark, Jive Records, 360i and Avenue A | Razorfish use Ad Network to Rapidly Deliver and Track Hundreds of Thousands of Widgets
PALO ALTO, CA – January 14, 2008 – Gigya, the leading provider of tools for tracking and boosting widget distribution, today announced the public launch of its widget distribution network, which connects advertisers, content providers and social media users, to deliver and track results-driven widget advertising campaigns. Kimberly-Clark, Jive Records, 360i, and Avenue A | Razorfish, who is running multiple campaigns, are some of the charter advertisers achieving thousands of widget installs per day through the Gigya network.
Advertisers find that once they create a widget to promote their brand or product, there are no reliable options for ensuring that their widget is installed by a large and relevant audience over the limited weeks or months of a campaign. Advertisers also lack tools for tracking and measuring the unique interactions and sharing patterns their widgets can generate. According to the recent IBM study “The End of Advertising as We Know It,” advertisers are now demanding more individual-specific and involvement-based measurements, and more than two-thirds of the global advertising industry executives interviewed expect advertising revenue to shift to impact-based models within three years.
The Gigya Widget Advertising & Distribution Network meets these demands today by connecting advertisers with a large audience of active widget and social media users — charging only when someone actively endorses a branded widget by choosing to install it on their profile page, blog or desktop — and by providing visibility into all of the ways individuals are interacting with a widget’s features and functionality.
With its Wildfire technology tracking more than two billion widget impressions per month, and installing hundreds of thousands of widgets per day from more than 400 widget sites to the top social networks and blogs, Gigya is uniquely positioned to now bring its widget distribution expertise to advertisers.
“Our main value proposition is our ability to effectively deliver a user-endorsed ad unit,” states Ben Pashman, Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Gigya, Inc. “Mainstream advertisers from entertainment to CPG companies to retailers can either slap their widgets on a site and cross their fingers or work with Gigya to ensure that their widgets are actually installed by a targeted group of users in a timeframe that aligns with an overarching campaign.”
“Our Kimberly-Clark Room-A-Day Giveaway widget achieved thousands of installs to top Social Networking sites through the Gigya Ad Network, and we were able to coordinate those installs with the launch of the sweepstakes and cross-media campaign.” said Joanna Peña-Bickley, Vice President Interactive, TracyLocke, a division of Omnicom. “With such a huge investment in our widget creative and TV and web promotional campaign, we were delighted to have a partner like Gigya to help us execute flawlessly. Now that we can buy widget installs like any other interactive ad inventory, specifying both flighting and budget, we plan on using Gigya as a way to effectively leverage social media in all our innovative campaigns.”
“The pay for performance approach is very attractive, and the Gigya Ad Network delivered the promised number of widget installs in our agreed-upon timeframe,” said David Bell, Director Digital Marketing, Jive Records, a division of Sony BMG. “Creating a compelling widget is important, but knowing how well the end user receives and interacts with it determines your success. Gigya’s reporting is fantastic in that it provides this required deep view into the performance of my widgets.”
In addition to its solutions for widget distribution and tracking, Gigya makes a full suite of widget services available to its advertising clients through its Social Media Marketing Platform, including widget design, development, hosting, viral promotion and tracking. Gigya’s Wildfire technology allows advertisers to centralize the tracking of all their widget initiatives in a single dashboard, and compare viral distribution patterns by creative execution and source. The technology promotes viral distribution by allowing users to quickly and easily grab and share the widgets they want through social networks, blogs, email and bookmarking sites.
About Gigya
Gigya is a social marketing solutions company delivering scale and results to publishers and advertisers. Gigya’s infrastructure connects brand advertisers, content publishers and an enormous audience of active social media users. Gigya serves the world’s largest brands with a full-service widget advertising model covering design, development, hosting, distribution, viral promotion and tracking. Gigya’s partners include EyeWonder, RockYou!, Webshots, Snapvine and many others. The company is funded by Benchmark Capital and First Round Capital. To learn more or to get started, go to: www.gigya.com
About Wildfire
Gigya’s free Wildfire technology gives content publishers easy-to-use tools for boosting and tracking widget distribution. Its unique Wildfire on Page and Wildfire in Widget quick-post interface gives people the power to quickly and easily grab and share the widgets they want. Currently, Wildfire installs hundreds of thousands of widgets per day from over 400 widget sites to the top social networks and blogs, and tracks more than two billion widget impressions per month. To learn more about Wildfire go to www.gigya.com
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