Atlas Study Finds Best Advertising Creative Four Times More Effective than the Least Creative in Digital Video Medium.

SEATTLE -- First Research Study to Hold Television Ad Medium Accountable, Defining Right Metric for Measuring Effectiveness of Digital Video Creative

Atlas (www.atlassolutions.com), a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise, and an operating unit of aQuantive, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQNT), today released the first research study to measure the effectiveness of digital video by defining the "brand exposure duration" metric for advertising effectiveness. The new research study by the Atlas Institute, "On Demand Digital Video Duration," found that the best performing video creative was four times more effective than the least effective. This study also uncovered the critical role of video advertising length in driving Brand Exposure Duration (BXD) -- a key measure of engagement.

"In the world of marketing, no topic is hotter than the digitization of traditional media and the new metrics that are available as the effectiveness of television advertising becomes more measurable," said Atlas Senior Analyst John Chandler-Pepelnjak, author of the study. Today, he presented the findings of the Atlas Institute at the Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) Audience Measurement Symposium in New York.

For 13 months, Atlas' research analysts studied digital video campaigns with segments ranging in length from 60 to 150 seconds, and found that advertisers can determine the effectiveness of the creative by measuring how much of the commercial was watched. Contrary to conventional wisdom, many viewers watched longer video in their entirety. They also found that the longest video advertising actually showed the greatest viewing duration, indicating that many viewers watched this video multiple times through rewinding. "Because our campaign was directed toward a very narrow target audience, it was important for us to really study how viewers were consuming our video. Atlas On Demand allowed us to not only see that viewers watched the great majority of the piece, but also that they went back to watch it multiple times," said Starla West, Group Planning Manager for Bernstein-Rein Advertising, an Atlas client.

"Marketers now have the right metric for optimizing advertising video creative," said Chandler-Pepelnjak. He advised, "Evaluate the effectiveness of your video advertising creative by tracking what percent of your ads are watched." He added, "We saw huge variability in the performance of video advertising, even within the same advertiser."

The study was made possible with emerging technology that separates TV ad reporting from program reporting. "The technology and expertise of Atlas On Demand enable leading agencies and advertisers to plan, manage, track and optimize their digital video campaigns," said Atlas On Demand Senior Vice President Scott Ferris. He continued, "Often today commercials are encoded with programs, and it is not clear if the ad itself was viewed. Several organizations, including Atlas, are working to create industry standards for separation of ads and programs. Such technology enables separate reporting for video ads and allows timelier creative optimization." Ferris added, "We are pleased to see the great efforts we have made in the VOD and web video space beginning to bear fruit." According to Ferris and Chandler-Pepelnjak, marketers should request the use of this technology from their buy-side partners.

The Atlas Institute study also revealed the following results and insights that marketers should take into account when planning or managing a digital video advertising campaign:

--Because brand exposure duration hinges on asset length, when creating commercials, push for 30-second spots over 15s, 60s over 30s. The number of people who will drop-off because of the greater length will be outweighed by the increased time that most spend with the segment. In stand-alone advertising on VOD or webisodes, marketers should strive to lengthen shorter segments with relevant content or even repurpose longer productions into long-form ads.

--There is great deal of variability in creative BXD performance even for video of roughly the same length, thus it is critical for marketers to measure performance to improve campaigns.

Brand Exposure Duration (BXD) takes into account the total time viewers have spent with the video content of a campaign, and is derived from the simpler metrics of total views, percent of segment viewed and segment length. By measuring the amount of time that viewers spend with an advertiser's brand, advertisers are able to gain insight into a number of effectiveness measures for the campaign: the acceptability of the message and format; the quality of the creative; the receptivity of the audience; and the level of engagement with the message versus the interruption it has caused.

Atlas tracked data on 25 different segments from five advertisers running video on demand campaigns garnering over 40,000 hours of viewership. To view the complete Atlas Institute Digital Marketing Insight study "On Demand Digital Video Duration" view, go to: http://atlassolutions.com/institute/insights.aspx.

About the Atlas Institute

The Atlas Institute is the research and education arm of Atlas, a provider of accountable marketing tools and expertise for agencies, marketers, and publishers. The Institute publishes Digital Marketing Insights, a series of publications by Atlas senior marketing analysts and digital marketing experts that help our customers improve their digital marketing effectiveness. Many of these findings are also made available to the digital marketing industry at large. Each Digital Marketing Insight report is designed to help marketers more successfully build value with their customers, throughout the customer lifecycle: from awareness to acquisition and from retention to growth. The Atlas Institute also provides education in digital marketing to Atlas customers and partners. To view a full listing of the Atlas Institute's Digital Marketing Insights, please visit www.AtlasSolutions.com/insights .

About Atlas

Atlas (www.AtlasSolutions.com) is a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise. Atlas offers agencies and marketers integrated solutions for Video On Demand, online campaign management, rich media, search marketing, landing page optimization, reporting, and analysis to maximize their online ROI, and provides a highly scalable ad-serving platform to help online publishers increase revenue. Atlas delivers the industry's most complete service and support, serving its clients from offices in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Denver and London. Atlas is an operating unit of aQuantive, Inc (NASDAQ: AQNT) and is a member of the NAI, adhering to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC.