Rapt Expands Client And Partner List And Extends Technology And Services Footprint

Recent Moves Cement Company’s Position as the Industry Standard in Advertising Yield Management

San Francisco, CA and New York, NY — December 6, 2007 — Rapt Inc., the industry standard in advertising yield management, today announced further penetration into the digital media market and an expansion of its services and technology footprint. Rapt’s market traction is a reflection of the immediate and significant ROI it delivers to all of its clients. Through a unique combination of technology and advisory services, Rapt drives incremental revenue gains of up to 20% for media companies employing its solutions.

“Rapt’s business will continue to benefit from two deeply rooted trends,” asserts Tom Chavez, Rapt’s Founder and CEO. “First, as the basis of competition in media becomes more data-driven, publishers and advertisers need algorithmic intelligence to manage complexity and seize fast-moving opportunity. Second, as companies with web presences think about how to turn their traffic into revenue, they need a strong, independent partner like Rapt to help them create new processes and systems for monetization. Our overarching goal is to equip ad-supported businesses of all kinds with the insight, technology, and strategic guidance required to survive and thrive in today’s market.”

Rapt delivers critical yield management technology to many digital media leaders, including Dow Jones & Company, Microsoft, MTV Networks, and Yahoo!; the most recent additions include Expedia, Fox Interactive Media, New York Times, Reuters, and USA TODAY. “Rapt’s media monetization platform will help MTV Networks capture maximum value for its online advertising assets,” said Nada Stirratt, Executive Vice President, Digital Advertising, MTV Networks. “With Rapt, we’ve been more effective than ever in building and pricing products as we continue to sell horizontally across our vast online portfolio.”

To further enhance and expand its support of the digital media marketplace, Rapt recently announced two key initiatives. The first of these, Rapt Advisory, fills a critical intelligence gap in the market today. Rapt Advisory is for publishers and networks what an advertising agency is for marketers: a partner focused exclusively on helping its clients optimize media sales performance. Rapt Advisory offers media sales organizations access to industry-leading analytic techniques and Rapt’s considerable domain expertise to inform company-wide monetization strategies. The second significant launch is Rapt On Demand, a service-based software deployment model. By lowering total cost of ownership and streamlining activation, Rapt On Demand lets advertising-supported businesses of all sizes leverage the same yield management technology relied upon by digital media leaders.

Additionally, Rapt is developing a number of alliances with leading technology and service providers. The efforts are focused on ensuring better system integration and faster customer time-to-value. These include the recently announced partnership with Operative (www.operative.com), a provider of enterprise workflow software and service solutions for online media companies. Further, Rapt and DoubleClick (www.doubleclick.com), a provider of digital marketing technology and services, have been in discussions about a potential partnership focused on the integration of their respective solutions to improve operational efficiency and advertising yield for web publishers.

Looking to 2008, Rapt will extend its reach, building on its history of value creation and ROI in digital media. Rapt will expand across market verticals, delivering to traditional and cross-media players the same types of analytics and expertise that have fueled such remarkable growth in the online space. Further, Rapt will bring to market new products and services that begin to address some of the inefficiencies inherent to the way in which media is bought and sold today.

"As the classic boundaries of linear media melt in the face of greater consumer control and multi-touchpoint consumption, marketers and agencies need to radically adjust their advertising investments," said Tim Hanlon, EVP/Ventures at Denuo. "Holistic, cross-media campaigns will become the norm, and advanced tools will be essential to help analyze media expenditure. Rapt's unparalleled success in the calculus of digital advertising positions them exquisitely for use in broader media environments as everything, effectively, goes digital."

 

About Rapt

Rapt Inc. is the industry standard provider of advertising yield management solutions. These solutions help companies achieve and sustain profit and revenue growth objectives through the deployment of intellectual property-rich technology and advisory services. Rapt's technology enables companies to price, predict and provision their advertising assets, while Rapt's advisory services help companies design and implement best-practice revenue management processes across their organization.  Rapt's client base includes CNET Networks, Dow Jones & Company, Expedia, Fox Interactive Media, Microsoft, MTV Networks, NBC Universal, The New York Times Company, Reuters, USA TODAY, The Weather Channel Interactive, Yahoo!, and others. More information about Rapt can be found at: www.rapt.com.

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Contacts

Rapt Inc.
Chris Dale
Atomic PR
415.402.0230
chris@atomicpr.com