365 Digital is one of South Africa’s leading digital sales houses, representing the likes of iafrica.com, Associated Magazines (cosmopolitan.co.za), sterkinekor.com, computicket.com, eyewitnessnews.co.za, sharenet.co.za and techsmart.co.za. It offers a complete online publishing and advertising solution, from advertising sales management to ad serving and campaign management — and it has just signed a partnership deal with premier entertainment website www.eonline.com to provide a full online advertising solution for South African clients.

www.eonline.com is a wholly owned subsidiary of E! Entertainment Television, Inc. (“E!”), the world’s largest producer and distributor of entertainment news and lifestyle-related programming. It was launched in 1996, as the comprehensive entertainment and celebrity news website and today boasts an archive of over 16,000 searchable entertainment news stories, making it a one-stop shop for anything and everything to do with the glamorous world of entertainment. It has been voted the “Best Entertainment Website” by Mediapost’s OMMA Magazine, as well as “One of the Five Best Entertainment News Websites” by Teen People and “One of the Five Best Gossip Sites on the Web” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The site currently logs over 1.5 million page impressions, from 100 000 unique users each month — in South Africa alone. It has a 61/39 female/male split, with almost 60% of its users hailing from the economically-active 15 to 34 age demographic. A whopping 76% of users are ranked in ABC1, the upper middle class to lower middle class socio-economic grouping.

www.eonline.com provides the latest daily news and celebrity inside information in a fun, irreverent tone, through a selection of entertainment news, original features, gossip, music and movie reviews, live-event coverage and even E!-branded merchandise for film, TV and music enthusiasts. It also boasts a host of recognized columnists, including gossip guru Ted Casablanca, who is among the most-viewed gossip columnists on the web, and TV diva Kristin Veitch, who is frequently called upon by news outlets like CNN and XM Radio for her television and Emmy Awards expertise.

365 Digital is offering potential advertisers a wide selection of online advertising opportunities, bolstered by premium positions ranging from road blocks and custom skins, photo and video galleries, to competitions, quizzes and polls.

“We couldn’t be more excited about offering South African advertisers the opportunity to interact with this highly entertaining site, and its voracious audience who — quite literally — can’t tear their eyeballs away from the screen!” says 365 Digital CEO Nikki Cockcroft.

“iPad owners have a high technical affinity and are a sophisticated target group,” says ADTECH CEO Dirk Freytag. He lists the rejection of flash by Apple devices as yet another reason for the concise identification of iPad users: “Much of the content available on the net is flash based, consequently it is an advantage for our customers if they use the targeting to deliver only flash free ads to iPads,” explains Freytag. More and more display ads now contain flash elements. The iPad targeting solution by ADTECH warrants that agencies, ad networks and publishers can now count on the receipt of their advertising messages by the user and on the proper presentation of the ads.

iPads are identified through the browser ID. To allow users to access the Internet, Apple has preinstalled an extra version of its Safari browser on the device. When they book campaigns, advertisers can now choose the iPhone, xBox, Playstation as well as the iPad as a browser. ADTECH customers have the option to book advertising specifically for the iPad on the adserver.

“Our iPad targeting is browser recognition based. We are also working on other options to identify mobile devices, so that they can be reached by advertising,” concludes Freytag, giving users a preview of things to come in the next few months.

Geo-load balancing is made possible through Ultra DNS servers. This revolutionary technology cleverly uses an address database for more effective route planning. The load balancer geographically distributes the ads, via ultra DNS servers, which then find the shortest way from the users browser back to the ad server.

According to Jade McDade, Head of Online Ad Operations at 365 Digital, This new development will ensure that our local online properties are able to better communicate with the users browser, sending the requested ad back more rapidly.

The benefit to our clients is really very simple, but hugely important; faster delivery and loading of ads served through ADTECH onto their sites, ensuring the site as a whole will load faster for users concluded McDade.

Geo-load balancing is just another way ADTECHs continual investment into its ad-serving technology is ensuring local clients of a competitive advantage.

More on 365 Digital
365 Digital offers a complete Online Publisher and Advertiser Solution and are the exclusive representative and partner for ADTECH in Southern Africa.

Their holistic offering includes all ad serving and traffic management for both local and international clients as well as an advertising sales management solution.

For more information on 365 Digital and the ADTECH platform, please call Jade McDade on 021 6571926, or log onto http://www.365digital.co.za

Dirk Freytag, CEO of ADTECH, sums up the sales prospects for the new product: “The need for information and customised reporting for online advertising has risen dramatically in recent months. ADTECH is one of the first providers worldwide to have an analysis product ready for launch.  At the same time, it demonstrates the transformation of our technology from a simple adserver to an advanced business intelligence tool.”

During the now-completed six-month test phase, ADTECH collaborated with six international customers. German ad network Hi-Media Deutschland was one of the first ADTECH customers to have the chance to extensively test the new product. Frank Erdmann, International Head of Ad Operations summarises his test experiences: “The ADTECH Analytics solution provides us with new options for measurement and reporting.  The graphic representations, models etc., enable us to gain more insight into our existing data.  Subsequently we are able to significantly increase the efficiency of our daily ad operations.”

Freytag continued: “We’ve invested heavily in this solution to make sure that we got it right – the result is a market leading analysis tool which looks beyond the results of a single online ad campaign and shows detailed reports, views and long-term trends. It’s exactly what our customers and the market is crying out for.”

ADTECH Analytics marks the launch of a separate suite of analytics products for adservers at ADTECH.  Erhard Neumann, product director at ADTECH, looks ahead to the future of Analytics:  “Our next step will be to offer simulations and forecasts.  Marketing effectiveness can be checked with a few clicks or decisions on the level of CPTs can be played through based on alternative scenarios. This has very little in common with the original image of an adserving provider. The feedback from our trade show appearance and test customers is very good. The tenor is always ‘make more from all the data’!”

MRC accreditation involves an audit of ad serving systems to assure they’re compliant with both the MRC Minimum Standards for Media Ratings Research, and applicable IAB Guidelines. ADTECH was judged as in compliance with MRC’s criteria, as well as the IAB’s Display Ad Impression Guidelines and the IAB’s Broadband Video Ad Impression Guidelines.

“This seal confirms ADTECH’s quality performance in the delivery and reporting of digital advertising,” says CEO Dirk Freytag. “Only those systems that deliver banners in compliance with MRC and IAB standards receive accreditation. This is an important building block that will strengthen the credibility of online advertising. It will reassure our clients and it guarantees professionalism and trustworthiness in a very technical trade.”

MRC Executive Director and CEO George Ivie stated, “ADTECH’s commitment to the MRC accreditation process is a sign of its commitment to quality measurement, and we’re very pleased that ADTECH is now among the industry leaders who have the distinction of achieving MRC accreditation.”

ADTECH will now serve all online display advertisements across the full portfolio of Ramsay Media’s websites, including: www.carmag.com; www.compleatgolfer.co.za; www.getaway.co.za; www.hotelandrestaurant.co.za; www.popularmechanics.co.za; www.leisurewheels.com; www.wiel.co.za; and www.winemag.co.za.

ADTECH is the leading international supplier of digital marketing solutions and offers an integrated ad serving solution for display; video; and mobile formats. ADTECH’s extensive and intuitive automation saves campaign managers significant amounts of time, allowing them to manage their digital marketing more effectively. 365 Digital, the exclusive representative and partner for ADTECH in South Africa has entrenched itself in the market, and is known for its fast turnaround time and high levels of service.

Nikki Cockcroft, CEO of 365 Digital, comments: ‘Ramsay Media is a significant acquisition for ADTECH, and we are very proud to be associated with this prestigious publisher. It has invested significantly into the re-design and re-launch of its sites, and required an ad serving platform which could optimise its offering, hence the migration to ADTECH.

Some of the new ad serving benefits ADTECH’s Helios IQ offers Ramsay Media include:
• LIVE Test feature which enables campaign managers to preview redirects in the live environment of their site in the browser of their choice to ensure a rich media ad won’t break the site before it goes live.
• Flash. Automatic correction within the Flash code and easy customisation. You can quickly and easily correct errors made by designers and Flash programmers such as incorrect positioning and hard coded links with a simple edit.