Tags: advertising service, avenue a razorfish, avenuea, banner ads, consumer participation, customer comments, digital marketing, heidi johnson, interactive advertising bureau, lamkin, marketing companies, media contacts, media features, media technology, pluck, shiv, social influence, standard advertising, today announced that, user generated content,
Media Contacts:
Katie Lamkin
Avenue A | Razorfish
katie.lamkin@avenuea-razorfish.com
Office: (312) 696-5241
Mobile: (773) 308-3425
Heidi Johnson
heidi.johnson@virtualprdirector.com
(512) 493-0909
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Avenue A | Razorfish and Pluck Agree to Develop
New Social Media Offering
CHICAGO, August 6, 2008 Avenue A | Razorfish, one of the world's largest digital marketing
companies, and Pluck Corp., a recognized leader in social media technology, today announced
that the two companies have signed an agreement to develop and market the industry's first
offering to inject social media features like customer comments and user-generated content into
mainstream digital advertisements.
The social advertising service, code-named AdLife, will make it possible for marketers to embed
social media technology directly into Interactive Advertising Bureau-standard advertising units
that are distributed wherever consumers live in the digital world.
Shiv Singh, vice president and global social media lead for Avenue A | Razorfish, said, "It's clear
that consumers want a stronger voice in the conversation with the marketer. When developed,
AdLife will enable consumer participation and social influence inside the billions of impressions
received by traditional digital ad units like banner ads."
Singh explained that AdLife could apply to virtually any industry. For instance, a film studio might
announce a new movie through a banner advertisement that enables consumers to review the
movie by clicking on the ad, as well as reading feedback from other movie goers without ever
leaving the point of display for the advertisement.
"With AdLife, marketers will be able to bring a social experience into the world of mainstream
digital advertising," Singh said.
Dave Panos, CEO of Pluck, said, "AdLife will take digital marketing one step forward through
more pervasive and contextual consumer participation. We look forward to partnering with
-more -
Avenue A | Razorfish and Pluck Page 2
Avenue A | Razorfish to expand and deepen its Social Influence Marketing practice and bring
entirely new social advertising capabilities to digital marketers."
As an AdLife co-development partner, Avenue A | Razorfish provides expertise in Social
Influence Marketing, digital advertising, media planning and buying, user experience design, and
analytics. Pluck provides the scalable technology platform behind AdLife and deep expertise in
community building. Powering more than 2.5 billion monthly interactions, Pluck's technology
platform offers comprehensive social media capabilities broadly deployed on more than 250
leading digital destinations, including USA Today, Circuit City, The Dallas Cowboys, Scotts, The
Washington Post and Discovery.
The two companies indicated that the next steps in the development of AdLife are to conduct
extensive beta testing with digital marketers prior to making the offering available.
About Avenue A | Razorfish
Avenue A | Razorfish is one of the largest interactive marketing and technology companies in the
world. With a demonstrated commitment to innovation, Avenue A | Razorfish counsels its clients
on how to leverage digital channels such as the Web, mobile devices, in-store technologies and
other emerging media to engage people, build brand loyalty and provide excellent customer
service. The company is increasingly advising marketers on Social Influence MarketingTM, its
approach for employing social media and social influencers to achieve the marketing and
business needs of an organization. Its award-winning client teams provide solutions through their
strategic counsel, digital advertising and content creation, media buying, analytics, technology
and user experience. Avenue A | Razorfish has offices in markets across the United States, and
in Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Clients--many of them
served in multiple markets--include Carnival Cruise Lines, Coors Brewing Company, Kraft, Levi's,
McDonald's and Starwood Hotels. Visit http://www.avenuea-razorfish.com for more information.
About Pluck Corporation
Pluck Corporation, a Demand Media company, provides social media solutions that empower
leading media companies, brands, and retailers to integrate open content, community and social
networking into their web properties to drive audience traffic and revenue. Pluck customers
include more than 200 premium properties from market leaders like USA Today, Circuit City,
Discovery, Condé Nast, Real Networks, Scotts and The Guardian. Pluck is based in Austin,
Texas. More information on Pluck offerings can be found at http://www.pluck.com.
###
Pluck is a registered trademark and AdLife, BlogBurst and SiteLife are trademarks of Pluck Corp. All other company
and product names mentioned are used only for identification and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies.