Pica9 Launches TV Ad-Building Solution for Major Brand Advertisers.

With video, brand logistics provider delivers comprehensive suite of tools to drive localized ad and marketing campaigns

NEW YORK -- Pica9, the leader in brand logistics, today announced the availability of its TV broadcast ad-building solution, rounding out the company's comprehensive suite of Web-based production tools for marketing and advertising campaigns.

Pica9's ad-building solution allows the local marketing teams of major brand advertisers to generate broadcast-quality spots for their markets in less than 90 seconds, bringing closer to reality the concept of integrated media campaigns, driven and customized by marketers in the field. Spots, which are based on existing creative, can be delivered to stations in any format: beta tape, digital or satellite.

"With the new video solution, Pica9 offers a real single-source solution for major brands to manage and produce their media mix," said Kevin Groome, president and CEO of Pica9. "The ad-building tool we offer for television is unique, in that it allows local marketing staff to customize the advertising developed by corporate marketing staff. Based on our experience, major advertisers don't want generic creative. They want to place their own ads, and put more control in the hands of people in the field makes for a more relevant, efficient marketing effort."

With the addition of TV ad customization, Pica9 rounds out a toolset that lets local users customize and generate brand-consistent materials of all kinds--from business cards to print ads to online banner ads to email campaigns. In a matter of minutes, companies can produce all of their advertising and marketing materials from a single online interface, without the need for costly software implementations or intensive user training. The system also helps streamline the corporate approval process with multiple levels of single sign-on access control, offering only pre-approved assets and allowing the user to send completed work directly to those who are designated to sign off on materials.

Currently, Pica9 is working with a major financial services firm to use the new video application to create more than 30 spots that will launch a localized broadcast campaign. The campaign will actively target two major markets with the spots running in dozens of communities.

Preserving Brand Integrity

Pica9's Web-based brand deployment system is designed to allow any company, but especially FORTUNE 500 brands, to localize their marketing and advertising materials. With Pica9, major brands can produce integrated campaigns of print, broadcast and online media using pre-approved brand assets. In addition, the system solves the long-standing challenge of determining local media buys by automating the media planning and buying process for marketers in the field. The Pica9 system automatically identifies media according to the marketers' region or target demographic.

"Pica9 is focused on what we see as one of the primary challenges of major brands, which is getting corporate and field marketing teams working together to mount effective campaigns," said Groome. "We designed the system for non-techie marketing staff to quickly and easily make branded materials available for local, grassroots deployment. It doesn't matter whether those materials are billboards, newspaper ads or email campaigns."

The Pica9 brand deployment system stores core creative that can be assembled in any variety of formats. It ensures that corporate marketing maintains control over materials and that they remain consistent with corporate guidelines. For marketers in the field, the system offers a fast and cost-effective way to produce collateral, such as brochures, or manage a local ad campaign.

As a Web-based solution, the Pica9 system is highly scalable and easy to implement on the enterprise level. Pica9 develops and maintains its own core technology platform. And because the system is hosted, companies are not faced with the need for costly integration, investment in software or continuous upgrades.

Added Groome, "We offer a scalable solution that produces materials in real time and, from everyone's perspective, is easy to adopt and use."

About Pica9

Pica9 is the leader in Web-based brand logistics solutions. With a client base of 40 major brands that include more than 80,000 branches and locations, Pica9 has developed a depth of expertise in meeting the brand deployment needs of major companies. Since its founding in 1999, the company has focused on the central marketing challenge of maintaining the integrity of corporate brands while empowering field offices with the ability to easily generate cost-effective and customized campaigns. Pica9's clients include Fortune 500 companies in a variety of industries, including hospitality, travel, financial services and healthcare. For more information about Pica9, please visit www.pica9.com.