NEW YORK, October 29 2009 — Buddy Media, the leading social media company for the world’s largest brands and most innovative agencies, today announced that it has appointed Jeff Ragovin as Chief Revenue Officer and hired David Honig as Vice President of Platform Sales.  Both moves address the explosive demand for Buddy Media’s social media solutions for brands and agencies in the wake of its recently launched Buddy Media Platform.  This platform gives advertising and PR agencies scalable tools to easily build, manage and track their clients’ social media campaigns.

Jeff Ragovin was formerly Buddy Media’s Vice President of Sales and Development, a role he held for the last two years.  As CRO, Jeff will oversee all revenue generation efforts and help optimize and balance the company’s customer relationships across the brand and agency verticals.  Prior to Buddy Media, Jeff held business development and sales roles at online advertising and digital marketing firms Acronym Media, Digital Connexxions and Digital Impact.  Prior to that, he managed marketing programs for e-tailer VarsityBooks.com.

“Jeff has long been a tremendous asset to the company, helping us grow from a new media startup into the leading provider of social marketing solutions for some of the world’s largest brands and agencies,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media.  “We’re confident that Jeff’s leadership, track record of sales execution and understanding of the brand and agency landscape will help fuel continued growth for Buddy Media.”

David Honig joins Buddy Media from Media6Degrees, a social technology and online advertising company he co-founded.  As Vice President of Platform Sales, David will be responsible for managing all sales and customer acquisition efforts for Buddy Media’s platform product for agencies.  Prior to Media6Degrees, David held senior management roles at online media and advertising companies Did-it Search Marketing, Admarketplace.net, MaxOnline and DoubleClick.

“Given the tremendous demand we’re already seeing for the Buddy Media Platform for agencies, we needed to bring on someone with experience and relationships in the interactive and online advertising space,” said Lazerow.  “David’s ad and social media expertise will help us meet and grow demand for our agency products.”

Buddy Media’s growing executive team is further supported by a blue-chip advisory team of seasoned digital, ad and social marketing executives and entrepreneurs, including:

• Gary Vaynerchuk, co-Founder of brand consulting company VaynerMedia and Chairman of social wine site Cork’d;
• Greg Stuart, a recognized thought leader in digital media and advertising and former CEO and President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau;
• Sandy Climan, President of Entertainment Media Ventures, Inc. and CEO of  digital 3D entertainment company 3ality Digital, LLC;
• Pam Jordan, Director of Online Marketing & Ecommerce at Furniture Brands International and former Manager of Digital Marketing at Anheuser Busch.

About Buddy Media

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. The Buddy Media Platform gives brands and agencies total control over their social marketing campaigns, allowing them to launch, maintain and measure their brands’ efforts.  Some of the world’s largest brands, including Anheuser Busch, FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. and Microsoft, work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty and social brand advocates.  Based in New York, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank Capital, European Founders Fund, GreyCroft Partners and additional investors. For more information, visit www.buddymedia.com

VivaKi, MDC Partners, theKbuzz and Converseon are Among Charter Partners

NEW YORK, October 20, 2009 – Buddy Media, the leading social media company for the world’s largest brands, today launched the Buddy Media Platform, giving advertising and public relations agencies a scalable set of tools to meet their client’s social marketing needs. The Buddy Media Platform enhances and opens up to agencies the technologies Buddy Media has built over the past two years to create, manage and track social campaigns for more than a hundred national and global brands.

“Until today, agencies had no cost-effective way to scale their social marketing capabilities,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “With the Buddy Media Platform, agencies can now provide a full suite of social marketing capabilities, including Facebook Pages and Twitter management, in a meaningful and measurable way that deepens client engagements.”

Buddy Media announced several charter partners that have selected the Buddy Media Platform as its preferred social marketing production, management and analytics platform. These include: Publicis’ Vivaki, which combines the digital assets of Digitas, Razorfish, Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia and Denuo; and MDC Partners, whose agencies include Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, and Kirschenbaum, Bond, Senecal & Partners.

“Brands turn to us to help them build out their social presences, source and activate audiences and track results,” said VivaKi’s Jeff Flemings, Senior Vice President/Global Head, Social. “Having access to an intuitive, easy-to-use set of social media tools backed by Buddy Media, which has an outstanding track record of customer success, is incredibly valuable.”

“While social media has ushered in a new era of highly innovative digital marketing campaigns, the process of managing a client’s social media efforts has become increasingly complex,” said Brandon G. Berger, Vice President, Digital Innovation of MDC Partners. “To address this, we’ve are leveraging platforms such as Buddy Media’s social technologies, which allow our firms to quickly and effectively deliver tailored social media programs and reduce the complexity and high labor that can be associated with the social web.”

Other partners include the SAMMY Award winner for “Best Social Agency,” Converseon, as well as social marketing pioneer for small businesses, TheKBuzz, which is using the Platform as the basis of its TheFacelift product for small businesses. Additional partners will be announced shortly.

“Converseon’s approach to its clients’ social and digital media programs is based on a philosophy of ensuring these programs map back to a client’s broader business objectives,” said Converseon CEO Rob Key. “The Buddy Media Platform allows us to rapidly roll-out tailored social media programs without taking resources away from delivering results.”

“Our most important job is helping our clients understand how to listen to customers and how to engage in conversation with them via the social web,” said Dave Kerpen, CEO of TheKBuzz, which today announced The Facelift, powered by Buddy Media Platform, a social marketing solution for small businesses. “Having the reassurance that we can rely on a set of trusted social technologies backed by Buddy Media helps us to keep this focus on shaping industry and customer conversation and the millions of small businesses that are trying to figure out social media”.

Buddy Media plans to add a handful of additional charter partners in 2009 before a global roll out in early 2010.

Using the Buddy Media Platform, agencies have the ability to launch, maintain and measure a broad portfolio of social media efforts without knowing FBML or other programming languages. Key features and functionality of the Buddy Media Platform include:

• Facebook Pages: The Platform allows agencies to create, manage and track engaging Facebook Pages to drive and increase user engagement, spread unified brand messaging, publish to Facebook Walls and deploy multiple app-vertisements on Facebook Pages.
• Facebook Connect: The Platform provides agencies with solutions that allow users to “connect” their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site.
• Library of Interactive Apps: The Platform offers agencies a full library of interactive applications out of the box to drive fan engagement, including gifting, quizzes, polls, sweepstakes, coupons, video, slideshow, sharing, refer a friend, HTML and flash integration and more.
• Custom Branded Apps: The Platform allows agencies to build and grow brand fan bases through the dispersal of customized social applications.
• Twitter: The Platform allows agencies to manage multiple client Twitter accounts, track volume and frequency of click-through rates of links posted, as well as monitor and analyze sentiment, share of voice and market share.
• Smart Targeted Media: The Platform helps agencies drive and track social actions — clicks, brand engagement and more — providing deep data that can be used for sophisticated targeted media plans.
• Real-time Analytics: The Platform has both agency and client views to offer robust, unified analytics in one easy-to-use interface, making social campaigns accessible, accountable and results-driven.
• Easy-to-Use Admin Interface: The Platform offers a single, drag-and-drop interface to manage profiles on the largest social networks.

Agencies interested in learning more about the Buddy Media Platform can visit: www.buddymedia.com.

About Buddy Media
In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. The Buddy Media Platform gives brands and agencies total control over their social marketing campaigns, allowing them to launch, maintain and measure their brands’ efforts. Some of the world’s largest brands, including Anheuser Busch, FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. and Microsoft, work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty and social brand advocates. Based in New York, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders Fund and GreyCroft partners and additional investors. For more information, visit www.buddymedia.com.

About VivaKi
VivaKi is the strategic entity created by Publicis Groupe to leverage the combined scale of its media and digital operations, which represent nearly US $50 billion in global adspend and influence. VivaKi aggregates the marketplace influence of four autonomous brands, including two global media agencies: Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia; a leading digital marketing agency: Digitas; and a premiere futures practice: Denuo. On behalf of its agency brands and their clients, VivaKi faces the market to help identify and build technology, message distribution, audience aggregation and content solutions for the future. Sitting at the core of VivaKi is the VivaKi Nerve Center, which serves as a think tank, R&D center and testing ground to activate new pathways for clients to connect with consumers in an increasingly digital world. VivaKi also includes a Talent & Transformation Practice, which leverages the scale of the VivaKi brands to develop and deliver tools and approaches designed to attract, develop, train, motivate and reward the world’s best people. Website: www.vivaki.com

About MDC Partners
MDC Partners is a progressive Marketing and Communications Network, championing the most innovative entrepreneurial talent. MDC Partners provides strategic solutions and services to multinational clients in North America, Europe and Latin America. Our philosophy emphasizes the utilization of Strategy and Creativity to drive growth and measurable impact. “MDC Partners is The Place Where Great Talent Lives.” The company’s Class A shares are publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol “MDCA” and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “MDZ.A”.

About TheKBuzz
theKbuzz is a strategic word of mouth and social media marketing firm. Founded in 2006 by Carrie and Dave Kerpen, theKbuzz helps businesses of all sizes enter the social space using conversation and interaction with brand fans. theKbuzz works with large brands such as IMAX, Verizon FiOS and 1-800flowers.com as well as a variety of small businesses, non profits and government agencies. For more information visit http://theKbuzz.com or http://facebook.com/theKbuzz

About Converseon
Founded in 2001, Converseon is a multiple-award winning full service social consultancy that helps leading brands “join the conversation” to meet business objectives. Recognitions include the SAMMY Award for “Best Social Agency,” a WOMMIE (for Best Word of Mouth Program) and the OMMA Award for Best Use of Virtual Worlds, among many others. Converseon provides the technologies, organizational consulting and “paid” and “earned” engagement solutions to provide brands with a unique end-to-end social solution. Headquartered in New York, Converseon`s team extends to Detroit, San Francisco, UK, Switzerland and Australia. For more information visit http://www.converseon.com

Buddy Media, the leading social media company for the world’s largest brands and agencies, today launched Buddy Media’s Twitter Management System. The new offering enables brand advertisers to harness the Twitter platform as an effective marketing tool. For the first time, brands can identify, analyze and engage based on Twitter trends and conversations versus their competitors. It will compliment Buddy Media’s recently launched offering, the Social Page Management System.

The Twitter Management System will launch with the following features:

• Measure and identify Twitter trends and conversations around your brand and competitors
• Track performance and trends for your brand and industry across Twitter including followers, mentions and re-Tweet data
• Track volume and frequency of click-through rates of links posted on Twitter
• Monitor and analyze sentiment, share of voice and market share compared to competitors
• Scheduling your Tweets in advance of your social marketing campaigns to align with your overall initiatives
• Create profiles for “brand families” for ease of managing multiple twitter profiles

“It’s no secret that I live and breathe social media and I haven’t seen anything on the market that does what Buddy Media’s Twitter Management System can do,” said Gary Vaynerchuck, Wine Library TV Host, partner of VaynerMedia.com and Buddy Media Adviser. “I will be recommending it to all VaynerMedia clients.”

“We reviewed all of the Twitter products on the market on behalf of our 100 clients. While many were great for customer service, none of them meet the needs of our marketers to truly understand how Twitter is helping them sell more of their products and services and how they stack up to competitors. Buddy Media’s Twitter Management System gives marketers powerful analytics and management tools to track Twitter’s impact on their bottom line,” said Mike Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media.

Click on any screenshot thumbnail for details:

Twitter pitch: Buddy Media launches revolutionary Twitter Marketing offering. Take a look.

About Buddy Media

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media, the leading social media company for brands and agencies, offers proprietary technology solutions – including Social Page Management System – to help brands engage their audiences by extending their advertising campaigns into the social world. Some of the world’s largest brands, including FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. & Microsoft work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty and social brand advocates. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders Fund and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.

Buddy Media, the leading media company for social media campaigns and branded app-vertisements, today announced it has experienced record growth and has undergone a significant expansion with several new appointments to its sales team. The company has run programs for more than 100 clients and is on track to post a 300% increase in revenue in 2009 compared to 2008.

The new hires include Andrew Goldberg and Chris Dessi who join the company as Directors of Sales for the East and Mark Sarsha as Director of Sales, West Coast. All three bring relevant media and advertising sales experience to help Buddy Media meet increasing market demand for smart social media strategies and app-vertisements that help bring brands and social networkers together in meaningful ways.

Andrew Goldberg has more than 15 years of experience in media sales and joins Buddy Media from XM Satellite Radio, where he was Director of Advertising Sales and was responsible for building XM’s Northeast ad sales team.

Chris Dessi brings more than a dozen years of experience to Buddy Media, having previously held the positions of Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Miva (NASDAQ:MIVA) and Zanox, Inc., a Berlin, Germany based multinational ad network. Dessi has also served as Director of National Ad Sales for Epic Advertising (formerly AzoogleAds, Inc).

Mark Sarsha joins Buddy Media from OK! Magazine, where he served as Western Sales Director and built a team that grew sales volume by more than $3 million during his tenure. Prior to OK!, Mark was the Western Advertising Sales Director at USA WEEKEND magazine and usaweekend.com.

“We continue to grow by leaps and bounds because brands see the value in engaging the hundreds of millions of people on social networks wherever they exist,” said Buddy Media Chairman and CEO Mike Lazerow. “Chris, Andrew and Mark bring exactly the kind of experience and track records that we look for in Buddy Media employees. All three will be invaluable to driving our success and that of our clients.”

About Buddy Media

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media, the leading media company for social media strategies and branded app-vertisements, offers proprietary technology solutions – including Builder, BuddyBrain and the Social Page Management System – to help brands engage their audiences by extending their advertising campaigns into the social world. Some of the world’s largest brands, including FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. & Microsoft work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty and social brand advocates. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders Fund and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.

Aster Data Systems, a proven leader in high-performance database systems for data warehousing and analytics, today announced that Buddy Media, the leading media company for social media campaigns and branded app-vertisements, has selected the Aster nCluster database to provide deeper insight into consumer behavior on branded social media applications. Buddy Media will use Aster nCluster in the cloud (on Amazon EC2) to add data analysis power (storing, managing and rapidly analyzing massive volumes of data) to their current BuddyBrain measurement system to monitor and optimize branded social applications and social media campaigns’ for their clients.

Buddy Media leverages its unique technology to create and manage social media app-vertisements and campaigns for clients. Users engage with and share Buddy Media-built applications on social networks, thereby becoming brand advocates. Using the proprietary “BuddyBrain” technology, brands can track and optimize social campaigns against plan goals, and review project details, statistics, social news and more.

“Social media affords every brand an opportunity to engage their consumers on many levels,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “We help clients harness all those channels, and by leveraging Aster’s unique ability to quickly capture and analyze the extremely large volumes of user and event data in the cloud, we can provide our customers with comprehensive information and statistics – even down to which sections within an app-vertisement are generating the best results…”

As Buddy Media has experienced significant and growing demand for branded app-vertisements, the company is able to provide customers with a rapidly growing amount of information about user behavior and engagement metrics. Buddy Media selected Aster nCluster for management and mining of this vastly growing data.

“Leading advertising and social media companies continue to turn to Aster for their data warehousing needs,” said Mayank Bawa, CEO of Aster. “Buddy Media’s BuddyBrain collects and analyzes a huge amount of data that makes social app-vertising campaigns accessible, accountable and results driven. By using Aster for their data warehouse in the cloud, Buddy Media can leverage as much computing power as they need to help their customers utilize this insightful data, giving brands the opportunity to truly partner with their end consumers.”

Aster nCluster provides a first in the database world: In-Database MapReduce. Leveraging the MapReduce programming model popularized by Google to process large unstructured data sets across thousands of nodes, In-Database MapReduce enables enterprises to harness the power of MapReduce while managing their data in a highly scalable relational database system. Aster nCluster In-Database MapReduce functions are simple to write and seamlessly integrated within SQL statements, bringing the power of MapReduce to the masses.

About Aster Data Systems

Aster Data Systems is a proven leader in high-performance analytic database systems for data warehousing – leveraging In-Database MapReduce to bring deep insights on data analyzed on clusters of low-cost commodity hardware. The Aster nCluster database cost-effectively powers frontline analytic applications for companies such as MySpace, aCerno (an Akamai company), and ShareThis. Running on low-cost off-the-shelf hardware, and providing ‘hands-free’ administration, Aster enables enterprises to meet their data warehousing needs within their budget. Aster is headquartered in San Carlos, California and is backed by Sequoia Capital, JAFCO Ventures, IVP, Cambrian Ventures, and First Round Capital, as well as industry visionaries including David Cheriton, Rajeev Motwani and Ron Conway. For more information please visithttp://www.asterdata.com, or call 650-232-4400.

Aster Data Systems, Aster nCluster and the Aster logo are registered trademarks of Aster Data Systems. All other brands and trademarks referenced herein are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Buddy Media, the leading media company for social media campaigns and branded app-vertisements, has partnered with the SI Golf Group to develop and launch SI GOLFNation, a new social media application powered by Buddy Media’s cross platform engagement (CPE) approach. Accessible via Facebook© Connect, GOLF.com and iPhone, the social networking application is the first to allow golfers to enter and track their scores for virtually any course in the U.S., calculate their recreational handicap, compare the data and compete with other golfers in their social groups or across the web.

The application provides a way for the SI Golf Group (Golf Magazine, GOLF.com, SI Golf Plus) to connect with golf enthusiasts while also enabling golfers to connect with each other. Created using recently released Facebook Connect for iPhone technology this application allows users to seamlessly connect and interact with the application and other users wherever they are – on GOLF.com or Facebook and, coming soon, on an iPhone.

Specifically, the application includes the following features:

• Cross-platform Leaderboard: See how you stack up against those in your social groups and across the web in more than 15 categories. Share your scores instantaneously and challenge your friends.
• “19th Hole” Social Networking Capability: Upload photos to the Golf Gallery, set status updates, organize your golf buddies into groups, share scores with your social networks, and more.
• Handicap and score tracker: Enter hole-by-hole scores from your computer or right from the course. All rounds are tracked to a golfer’s overall handicap, and all course information is verified by the National Golf Foundation (NGF).
• Game Stats Tracker: Track all of your stats, including greens in regulation, putts per round, fairways hit and average score. Tracking performance over time will help golfers identify weaknesses in their games.
• Course Finder: Find and review courses, book a tee time and plan your next golf vacation.

“Buddy Media is the premier developer for social media applications, and the technological infrastructure they have developed for SI GolfNation will set new standards for the industry,” said Ken Fuchs, vice president, SI Digital. “This application enables us to provide golfers and enthusiasts a completely new way to interact, all while driving deeper engagement with Sports Illustrated, Golf Magazine and GOLF.com.”

“We’re seeing more and more demand for cross-platform apps, and GOLF.com recognized that the golf audience would be particularly well suited for that kind of functionality,” said Mike Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “Golfers are passionate about their sport, and they want to share their scores, brag about their birdies and send pictures of the beautiful golf courses they’ve played. We’ve built an app that brings the social nature of golf into the social media world in a way that’s not restricted by platforms or location.”

View the application and start tracking your scores and competing against friends on Facebook, GOLF.com, or on your iPhone (coming soon).

About the Sports Illustrated Golf Group

GOLF MAGAZINE is at the core of the most powerful media company in the game, the SI GOLF GROUP. The magazine, which delivers a monthly circulation of 1.4 million golf enthusiasts and a readership of 6.1 million, is golf’s most widely read publication and provides the best instruction, equipment reviews and travel coverage in the category. With the combined resources of GOLF, SI Golf Plus (the No. 1 golf weekly publication) and GOLF.com (the highest-trafficked golf website), the SI GOLF GROUP delivers a monthly audience of 12.6 million avid golfers and fans. GOLF MAGAZINE is published by TIME INC., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc.

About Buddy Media

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media, the leading media company for social media strategies and branded app-vertisements, offers proprietary technology solutions – including Builder, BuddyBrain and the Social Page Management System – to help brands engage their audiences by extending their advertising campaigns into the social world. Some of the world’s largest brands, including FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. & Microsoft work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty and social brand advocates. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders Fund and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.

Buddy Media, the leading media company for social media campaigns and branded app-vertisements, today launched Buddy Media’s Builder. Built to respond to growing demand for app-vertisements, the Builder is a proprietary Social Media Development Platform — the industry’s only such platform to standardize and enable rapid deployment of branded social media applications across all social networks. This custom-built technology complements the company’s existing suite of tools – including the BuddyBrain and the Social Page Management System – to better deliver the most effective and efficient social media campaigns.

Two key benefits of the proprietary Builder platform are faster development and deployment of app-vertisements, and the ability to launch branded social applications that deliver cross platform engagement (CPE). CPE means that social networkers can interact with their friends not just on one social network (like MySpace), but anywhere in the social media world. For example, a social networker using a branded application on Facebook will now be able to monitor their MySpace friends’ gaming progress on that same branded application — without leaving Facebook. Brands will now be capable of engaging audience wherever they exist.

“Buddy Media is consistently innovating how brands can connect with social networkers, wherever they are, in a meaningful way that drives social brand loyalty and builds lasting relationships,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “Because Buddy Media’s Brand Advocate Process has been built upon on a solid technology foundation, we can efficiently respond not only to growing demand and shifting client needs, but also to industry and technology changes as they occur. With the development platform we have a robust toolbox that gives brands a full suite of social media tools to reach and engage consumers, measure success, and manage social media campaigns.”

Because app-vertisements have been shown to deliver high rates of engagement at a lower investment than other types of online advertising, Buddy Media has experienced a tremendous increase in demand. To this end, Buddy Media designed Builder’s software and hardware architecture to serve as a foundation to meet and exceed this growing demand. The results of their efforts mean that Buddy Media will now be better able to rapidly build and deploy custom branded social applications for our clients.

In addition to rapid development and cross platform engagement, Builder’s architecture provides additional benefits for Buddy Media’s clients:

• Social platform independence – App-vertisements can be simultaneously launched, and changed (if necessary) on Facebook, MySpace, and Facebook Connect
• Enhanced tracking – Social networking gestures can be more easily tracked and monitored across platforms
• Automatic adjustments for social platform changes – if any social platform makes a change, Buddy Media will make the update on Builder once and the change will be rolled out automatically to all deployed branded applications

By combining Builder with the other technologies in Buddy Media’s suite of tools – BuddyBrain and the Social Page Management System – Buddy Media is the only company able to offer brands a full-service offering for building and managing social media campaigns, from quickly building and deploying branded apps to ongoing management of branded pages and custom research and tracking. Ultimately, the Builder technology enhances Buddy Media’s full-circle approach to developing social media strategies for brands and represents just one more piece of a comprehensive model.

ABOUT BUDDY MEDIA

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media, the leading company for branded app-vertisements and social media strategies, provides the world’s largest, and most trusted brands the ability to extend their advertising campaigns into the social world. Some of the world’s largest brands, including FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. & Microsoft work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders Fund and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.

Launched less than one week after the introduction of Facebook’s revamped Pages, Buddy Media’s Page Management Program allows companies to maximize user engagement, deploy multiple app-vertisements on Facebook Pages, and grow their fan bases with customized branded experiences fully integrated into their Facebook Pages.

“App-vertisements will no longer exist as an island in the social world, but rather be fully integrated into an overall social media strategy on a brand’s Facebook Page,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “This represents an amazing opportunity not only for brands to drive engagement and allow fans to truly become brand advocates, but also for current Facebook advertisers to stretch their social media budget. Buddy Media’s new program helps brands maximize the value of their presence on Facebook, whether they are actively running media campaigns on Facebook or just building out their presence on the social network for the first time.”

The Buddy Media Page Management Program helps brands leverage this new functionality in a cost-effective, safe and scalable way with the following services:

• Strategy & Design: Customize Facebook Pages and optimize them for viral distribution.
• Branded Applications or “App-vertisements:” Provide applications that integrate into Facebook Pages to make them more engaging and viral. These applications, which appear as tabs on the Pages, include video players, coupon and promotions pages, quizzes and polls, games, virtual gifting, sweepstakes, RSS feeds and more.
• Monitoring: Track all user activity via Buddy Media’s Buddy Brain, a comprehensive monitoring tool.
• Community Management: Moderate comments on an enhanced Wall of a brand’s page to help brands engage with fans.
• Maintenance: Ensure brand’s page content remains fresh and engaging.

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on the Facebook blog, “Just as you connect with friends on Facebook, you can now connect and communicate with celebrities, musicians, politicians and organizations.”

StockTwits, co-founded by Buddy Media investor Howard Lindzon, is the company’s first Facebook Page Management client. “Clearly, these recent moves made by Facebook have completely changed the game in terms of how brands connect with social networkers,” Lindzon said. “I have been skeptical of branding on Facebook until now. I love our product and so do our early adopters so it would be crazy not to tap the huge audience and focused targeting that Buddy Media can provide to us on Facebook. We need to move fast to take advantage of these changes, and by partnering with Buddy Media, we ensure our social media strategy will truly engage our audience while delivering social brand loyalty.” The StockTwits new Facebook Page is currently under development.

“Buddy Media supports Facebook’s efforts to add additional features and customization capabilities to companies, options previously only open to users of the site,” further adds Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “And we will continue to help brands maximize their Facebook advertising campaigns.”

About Buddy Media

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media, the leading company for branded app-vertisements and social media strategies, provides the world’s largest, and most trusted brands the ability to extend their advertising campaigns into the social world. Some of the world’s largest brands, including FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. & Microsoft work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders Fund and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.

Key findings of the report include:

• App-vertising campaigns yield 398% more engaged users than social media display advertising campaigns.
• App-vertising clients pay 78% less for each engaged user than social media display advertisers
• App-vertising campaigns deliver six times the number of impressions than traditional banner display campaigns.

While the upfront cost of an app-vertisement campaign might be slightly higher than a display campaign, a brand would have to invest nearly $1 million more ad dollars with a banner-only campaign to reach the same amount of engaged users.

Brands can use the calculator tool to customize these findings to their social media budget and compare the cost of engaged users.

“Engagement will be the key metric used to measure the effectiveness of social media advertising. That’s something that even Facebook seems to endorse through its introduction of engagement ads last year,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “Branded apps are not the only way to advertise in social networks, of course, but we believe they are the most powerful way for leading brands to get high levels of engagement.”

In an effort to understand the economic difference between app-vertising and standard display campaigns, Buddy Media examined aggregate data from more than 80 programs it ran in 2008 for 60+ clients (which include NewBalance, InStyle, Priceline, and other national brands), and compared it to public data on digital display campaigns and data provided by clients, partners, and other publishers, using conservative industry standard metrics.

Branded apps in social networks deliver nearly four times as many engaged consumers to brands at a cost that is 78% less than digital display advertising. Advertisers only pay $1.00 per targeted user that engages with an app-vertisement, as opposed to an estimated $4.62 per user with display campaigns. And because display banners are used as part of the package to drive traffic to the app-vertisement, branded app campaigns deliver more than 600 percent more branded impressions than with banner ads alone.

About Buddy Media

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media develops and promotes social app-vertising campaigns that increase engagement and interaction between people and brands. Some of the world’s largest brands, including FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. & Microsoft work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders Fund and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.

“Our continued growth is reflective of the great demand for branded social media applications,” said Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow. “As the app-vertisement market continues to grow, our company is expanding to meet demand. This Chicago office gives us a presence in the important Midwest territory, and Alicia’s track record and media background are a perfect fit for helping Buddy Media expand in this key market.”

Driskill brings more than a decade of experience in digital media to the company. She was most recently with TVGuide.com, where she also covered the Midwest region. Her career also includes time at Comcast Networks, in addition to agencies OMD and RMG Connect, where she managed online media planning for clients such as United Airlines, Wrigley & the US Marines.

Reporting a 138% revenue increase from Q3 2008 to Q4 2008, Buddy Media has established its position as the leading app-vertisment media company for top advertising agencies and major brands. App-vertisements developed by Buddy Media reinforce companies’ brand messages by allowing people on social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace, to interact with brands in fun and entertaining ways and then share these interactions with others in their network.

About Buddy Media

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media develops and promotes social app-vertising campaigns that increase engagement and interaction between people and brands. Some of the world’s largest brands, including FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. & Microsoft work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.

The application helps Hollywood.com reach and connect with entertainment fans as part of an effort to grow its base of loyal site visitors. Branded social media applications such as this one are an efficient and cost-effective way to engage key audience members in a way that provides entertainment or value to people.

“Hollywood.com fans are a savvy group of young entertainment enthusiasts that spend a lot of time online, specifically on social media sites,” said Ben Spoont, director of community for Hollywood.com. “This application helps us reach beyond our 5 million unique visitors and share our young, fun entertainment vibe with new fans, which in turn, will build social brand loyalty to Hollywood.com.”

Buddy Media’s research shows that social applications or “app-vertisements” can have engagement that is 75 times greater than the time consumers spend interacting with traditional banner ads.

“We have a track record of success in creating app-vertising campaigns that create social brand advocates. For Hollywood.com, a branded social application on MySpace is a natural extension of their offerings and messages, one that will extend the site’s entertainment value exponentially to more entertainment fans,” said Mike Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media.

View the app-vertisement and vote for your favorite top 5 lists on MySpace or on Facebook.

About Hollywood.com

Hollywood.com is the only 100% pure entertainment Web site dedicated to super-serving fans. Our mission is simple – we help users discover what movies to see, what TV shows to watch and what their favorite celebrities are up to. Hollywood.com is a meeting place for fans to connect with peers who share the same passion for all-things Hollywood. A privately-held company, Hollywood.com is based in Los Angeles. Visit us at http://www.Hollywood.com.

About Buddy Media

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media develops and promotes social app-vertising campaigns that increase engagement and interaction between people and brands. Some of the world’s largest brands, including FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. & Microsoft work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.

Buddy Media, the leading media company for branded social applications or “app-vertisements,” today announced that it has been selected to the 2009 OnMedia 100 List. The OnMedia 100 Award is given to private, emerging technology companies in the advertising, publishing, marketing, branding and public relations spaces. Buddy Media was selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team based on demonstration of growth, market opportunity, quality of innovation and customer traction.

“This recognition validates what we have believed since starting Buddy Media just over one year ago – social media will to continue to grow exponentially, and brands need to find new ways to leverage this monumental shift,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “We’ve seen some of the world’s biggest advertisers engage hundreds of thousands of people using well-targeted, smart app-vertisements. Branded social applications will continue to grow as a fundamental component of a smart, integrated media mix for advertisers in 2009.”

Buddy Media and the other OnMedia 100 winners will be recognized at the OnMedia 100 Conference at the Ritz Carlton, New York City, on February 2-4. This two-and-a-half day executive conference is co-presented by Forbes and will feature presentations and high-level debates from CEOs, journalists, industry experts, investors and publishing and advertising executives.

“The 2009 OnMedia 100 companies have demonstrated their tenacity even in the toughest economic conditions that the technology world has ever encountered,” said Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “We applaud their success in pushing the boundaries of innovation, creating market opportunities and transforming the industry even in the earlier stages of their businesses.”

The OnMedia 100 winners were selected from among hundreds of other technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists and industry insiders. The AlwaysOn editorial team conducted a rigorous three-month selection process to finalize the 2009 list.

A full list of all the OnMedia 100 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn website at http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/30893

Buddy Media’s recently released White Paper, “What Advertisers Need to Know about Branded Social Media Apps,” which is available for download.

About AlwaysOn
ALWAYSON ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 by being the first media brand to launch a global blog network. In 2004, ALWAYSON continued to lead the media industry in innovation by introducing a social network where members can connect and engage. ALWAYSON is also revolutionizing the media business by applying its open-media principles to its executive event series (STANFORD SUMMIT, ALWAYSON HOLLYWOOD, ALWAYSON MEDIA and GOINGGREEN) and quarterly print “blogozine” by empowering its members to post and share their ideas and meet each other online. As our loyal readers know, ALWAYSON is committed to the free-market, merit-driven approach to reporting and event programming. No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction with its readers and event participants.

About Buddy Media
In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media develops and promotes social app-vertising campaigns that increase engagement and interaction between people and brands. Some of the world’s largest brands and agencies, including American Express, New Balance and Anheuser Busch, work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders Fund and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.

In addition, when users submit ads that win “battles” their personal Ad Battle ranking (which can range from “Featherweight” to “Heavyweight”) improves. People can also use Ad Battle to compare their ad rankings with others on their social network, securing a perspective on whether their own “ad judgment” is in the mainstream or not.

“Currently, ‘good’ advertising is often determined by an exclusive set of industry insiders in a few expensive competitions,” said Culbertson, who is also creator of the 36,000 member Facebook marketing and advertising community I’m in advertising….hell yeah! “With the Ad Battle Facebook application, we wanted to create a fun way to place this power in the hands of the people, while also promoting a healthy discussion regarding what determines if an ad is good or not.”

“We think Ad Battle is a fun way for people to get a ‘democratic’ opinion on whether an ad is engaging or not,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “Moreover, we feel that the application is a great way for Buddy Media to show the ad community how branded social media applications can be as engaging as print and television advertisements.”

The Ad Battle application also features a Mystery Ad Game, which provides a fun, non-scientific evaluation of someone’s advertising IQ. In the game, people are presented with famous advertising slogans or print ads with the logo removed, and then have to guess which of 4 brands the slogan or ad is for. People can play the game, then invite others in their social network to play as well, and compare their results with those of their friends – a key feature found in many successful social media applications.

About Atmosphere BBDO

Atmosphere BBDO was founded in 1999 and is a full service digital marketing company whose focus is building brand preference through the digital channel. Since its inception, the mandate to be the most creative full service agency in the digital space has never changed. Atmosphere BBDO is focused on creating work that engages the consumer and has the magical ability to change the way they think, feel and act. Atmosphere BBDO is part of BBDO North America and is a member of the Omnicom Group of companies—the world’s largest marketing services organization. Ticker symbol NYSE:OMC

About Buddy Media

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media develops and promotes social app-vertising campaigns that increase engagement and interaction between people and brands. Some of the world’s largest brands, including FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. & Microsoft work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders Fund and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.

Buddy Media, helping the world’s largest and most trusted brands advertise within the social media world, today launched the beta version of the BuddyBrain (www.buddybrain.com). Buddy Media’s BuddyBrain will serve as the social control center for all app-vertising campaigns, including communication and analytic tools, reference materials and cutting edge social media trends and research. Created with clients’ input, the BuddyBrain offers a user-friendly interface, making social app-vertising campaigns accessible, accountable and results-driven.

Initial BuddyBrain Findings:

Buddy Media’s BuddyBrain has compiled aggregate data from 10 of Buddy Media’s most downloaded app-vertisements. Many of the key discoveries are highlighted below:

• The app-vertisements averaged 140,000 installs during the first month of a campaign
• Users spent an average of 2 minutes, 35 seconds interacting with applications
• This engagement is 75x’s greater than the time consumers spend interacting with traditional banner ads and 5x’s greater than the time consumers spend interacting with TV ads
• 85% of users who installed the application(s) returned for multiple interactions
• 56% of users returned 9 or more times during the first month

“Many advertisers and marketers are becoming aware of the value in advertising through social media channels, but have yet to do so because of an inaccurate perception that no methods or tools exist to sufficiently measure the reach and success of a campaign,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “We’ve spent the past few months developing the BuddyBrain to combat these very fears to both entice more brands to make the leap into social advertising and to better service our existing clientele.”
Like the human brain, the BuddyBrain consists of four distinctive lobes that are each responsible for measuring components of a campaign’s Social IQ–allowing for continuous tracking and optimization of social app-vertising campaigns with the ultimate goal of obtaining widespread social brand loyalty.

The lobes of the BuddyBrain include:

• Intelligence Center- Here users will find accountable data allowing them to see in real-time campaign results, including install rates, average time spent and retention—ensuring the ability to optimize campaigns accordingly.
• Project Management- This will act as communication control center for social app-vertising campaigns. Here users will find project updates, creative review, Quality Assurance review and more.
• Social Wire – Here users will find current social media news, articles, blogs, and upcoming events, so that they can see and hear important news and trends related to their campaign.
• Reference Tools- Here users will find archived information and documentation regarding process, forms, definitions and much more.

Launched in 2007, Buddy Media develops and promotes social app-vertising campaigns and communities that support interaction between people and brands. Buddy Media’s unique “Brand Advocate Approach” is the only comprehensive approach to social media advertising which includes strategy, development, promotion and accountable monitoring of its branded apps.

About Buddy Media

In today’s social media world, every brand needs a Buddy. Buddy Media develops and promotes social app-vertising campaigns that increase engagement and interaction between people and brands. Some of world’s largest brands, including FedEx, New Balance, Time Inc. & Microsoft work with Buddy Media to create social brand loyalty. Based in NYC, Buddy Media is a privately held company backed by Softbank, European Founders Fund and GreyCroft partners amongst other investors.