NEWARK, NJ - May 2, 2001 (INB) -- adReady, an innovative provider of next-generation Internet advertising and marketing solutions has teamed with Real Media, a provider of marketing solutions to the digital advertising industry, to offer advertisers the first truly user-responsive, interactive advertising delivery platform.

adPointer, the first in adReady's stable of Internet advertising products designed to counter banner burnout, puts advertising messages at user's fingertips when they're most likely to respond to such offers. The adPointer unit designed to encorporate most rich media formats launches at users' fingertips only after their cursors have idled for a period of time. "In contrast to the propensity of most advertisers to increase the size of their banners and the animation they contain, we found this approach as smooth for users as a second skin," said Brian J. Quinn, Real Media Vice President of Advertising Sales. "It's one of the best new ad units to hit the Internet in a long while and we plan to offer it to all our clients."

The union of adReady and Real Media with their world wide networks plan to offer marketers an extensive audience for their new adPointer campaigns. Because adPointer is format-agnostic, and requires no user plug-in, advertisers can ad an element of polite surprise to their current creative campaigns, or design new messages for a highly receptive audience. adPointer has been used effectively by such ad industry savants as ICONOCAST to promote their new marketing research product. The technology launched in Europe with Real Media client BTopenworld on The Times newspaper's Web site. In just several days BTopenworld's adPointer invitation drew a 1.5% click-through response.

"What's new about adPointer is that it creates a genuinely interactive marketing environment that is responsive to natural breaks in the action for users browsing the Web," said Riaz Karim, adReady's sales director. Publishers may also employ this "idle time" to offer suggestions of related pages that might interest browsers, making adPointer a welcome addition to users' experience. Because adPointer's commercial messages take up no fixed space on a Web page, publishers could choose to eliminate some of the commercial clutter on their sites, lending greater impact to the remaining advertising.

Of the Real Media relationship, Karim said, "We looked carefully for a leading online ad sales company that understands the value and effectiveness of advanced targeted advertising and that has the infrastructure and skills to sell it. Real Media has both a proven track record for selling advanced advertising capabilities, and a trusted brand that encourages the spread of technology that effectively incorporates rich media."

Rich media advertising is expected to make up 29% of online advertising by 2005. Tools like adPointer make it possible to anchor a host of rich media messages to Web sites today.
 

About adReady
U.S., New Jersey-based adReady is a leading edge Internet advertising technology company dedicated to addressing the ever-increasing need of marketers and brand managers to break through the Web's cluttered commercial environment with offers targeted to users when they are most receptive to them. adPointer is the first of several products in development that mine the Web's Virtual SpaceTM to maximize user interest.
 

About Real Media
Real Media is a PubliGroupe company - the largest and oldest media services organization in the world. Real Media provides marketing solutions to the digital advertising industry through state of the art technology, maximizing brand value by protecting audience information. Real Media's customers include Bloomberg, Weather.com, New York Times Digital, U.S. News & World Report, GOLFONLINE, Investors.com, Forbes, USA Today and mp3. For more information please visit https://www.realmedia.com.