Usama Fayyad Joins Adknowledge in Strategic Advisory Role as Chief Scientist to Build Next-Generation Algorithmic Targeting Platform

New Advertising Data Solution, Led by Chief Scientist and Advisor, Usama Fayyad, Will Maximize Advertiser ROI for Search Engine Advertisers as They Expand Marketing Budgets Outside of Search

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire – November 3, 2010) –  ad:tech — Adknowledge, the 4th largest advertiser marketplace, after Google, Bing, and Facebook, today announced that Usama Fayyad — recognized worldwide as a preeminent thought leader in analytics and data mining technology — will join the company in a strategic advisory capacity as Chief Scientist. Dr. Fayyad, former Chief Data Officer and Executive VP at Yahoo! and CEO of Open Insights, will help expand the company’s leadership in advanced analytic solutions for advertiser targeting through, in part, a new report called “The Knowledge Report: Insights for Performance Marketers,” which will debut in early 2011.

A Single “Must-Buy” Marketplace

The announcement further extends Adknowledge’s leadership as a single “must-buy” marketplace for advertisers looking to reach consumers in places where they spend most of their time online (e.g., social networks, online games, email, and affiliate sites). Thousands of advertisers are using www.bidsystem.com each day to augment their Google and Bing campaigns and reach consumers across a variety of media and content types that don’t have a lot of keywords.

“Our auction marketplace at www.bidsystem.com serves as a valuable extension of search by providing an easy, automated way for thousands of advertisers to find and engage consumers on these hard-to-reach channels,” said Scott Lynn, chief executive officer of Adknowledge. “Advertisers bid on a cost-per-click basis just like they do on Google or Bing, but we source their traffic from all over the Web and use advanced analytics to provide a similar ROI. Our team is excited to work with Usama and further strengthen our lead in performance marketing analytics.”

Relevancy Through Powerful Technology

Adknowledge’s predictive analytics technology is the centerpiece that enables advertisers to receive similar ROI from its www.bidsystem.commarketplace, just as advertisers do from the Google or Bing marketplaces. Current estimates show conversion rates from the Adknowledge network to average 82-88% of Google and Bing, at a significantly lower cost-per-click value. By coupling its proprietary technology with its vast and diverse set of over 6,000 ad offers, Adknowledge enables advertisers to quickly reach the right consumers with the right ads at the righttime. The end result is a win-win-win for all: a better experience for consumers, higher ROI for advertisers, and the best possible yields for publishers.

“Adknowledge has a unique network that spans hard-to-reach channels in the online advertising market today, where the reach of traditional search advertising is weak and has low relevance,” said Usama Fayyad. “Adknowledge has a distinct opportunity through advanced analytics and targeting technology to deliver even more relevant ads to audiences using the pay-for- performance model. This will help advertisers secure high quality leads cost-effectively and publishers achieve significantly higher yields while delivering relevant messages to consumers.”

Data Insights
“The Knowledge Report: Insights for Performance Marketers” will deliver metrics that allow advertisers, many of whom also manage their search spend on Google and Bing, to discover and connect with a greater share of their target audiences in those harder-to-reach places on the Web.

Adknowledge technology, which performs billions of calculations each day, is connecting advertisers and consumers in powerful ways. Adknowledge delivers 290 million high quality leads to over 10,000 advertisers annually. For example, each year Adknowledge connects:

  • 1.5 million potential travelers to great travel deals
  • 800,000 car owners to lower insurance rates
  • 200,000 movie lovers to their favorite films
  • And over 1 million tech aficionados to deals on tablet PCs

About Adknowledge
Adknowledge operates the 4th largest marketplace (behind Google, Bing, and Facebook) for advertisers to connect with their target audiences in hard-to-reach places on the Web with similar ROI to search. Since its founding in 2004, Adknowledge has grown organically and through acquisitions (including Miva, Super Rewards and Hydra) to become the largest privately-owned internet advertising network, with over 300 employees and $300 million in revenue. Specializing in performance-based marketing, the company utilizes powerful predictive technology and completely anonymous consumer response patterns to connect advertisers with consumers across multiple channels, including email, search, domains and social networks.

About Usama Fayyad
Dr. Usama Fayyad is CEO of Open Insights, the leading strategic consulting company in data strategy and data analytics technology applications to business. A recognized leader in the fields of Advanced Database Analytics and Data Mining, on both the technical and business fronts, he is one of the founders of the field and has founded major startups in the area, the second of which having been acquired by Yahoo! in 2004. Prior to Open Insights and Adknowledge, Dr. Fayyad was Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President at Yahoo! Inc. where he built up teams that enabled Yahoo! to scale its data and insights technology to operate over 25 Terabytes of data per day and built the systems to dramatically grow targeting revenues and relevance-driven monetization across Yahoo! globally. His teams at Yahoo! also launched some of the new sciences of Search, Social Systems, Microeconomics and Computational Advertising. He co-founded his first startup, Audience Science Inc. in 2000 after leaving Microsoft where he led groups in Research and in the Server Division. Fayyad has published over 100 technical articles in the fields of predictive analytics, data mining, artificial intelligence and database systems, and holds over 20 patents. Dr. Fayyad earned his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1991), and also holds BSE’s in both electrical and computer engineering (1984); MSE in computer science and engineering (1986); and M.Sc. in mathematics (1989). A more detailed biography of Dr. Fayyad can be found at http://www.open-insights.com/en/Home.htm.

Published by: Marketwired (http://www.marketwired.com/)

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