MEMPHIS, Tenn., March 3, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Limelight Media Group, Inc. (OTCBB:LMMG ) announces today that it is creating a Mobile Media Division and has hired Stewart Layton to serve as President of the division. The Division has been formed to take advantage of recent significant business opportunities in the outdoor mobile advertising space. Upon the anticipated closing of the agreement with OTR Media for the acquisition of the majority interest in OTR Media, Mr. Layton will assume the President position of OTR Media.
Mr. Layton has created dynamic business growth through challenging marketing environments for 25+ years. Layton is an accomplished media sales and marketing executive specializing in key account development, highly innovative at building competitive advantage, and consistently effective at achieving sales revenue expectations. He has received much recognition for his results oriented leadership ability in team-based selling, as well as his personal performance in highly competitive selling environments.
Mr. Layton has recently served in executive management positions aggressively developing the alternative transit outdoor advertising media forms of truck side advertising and fleet marketing. In sequential order these companies were Media Vehicles (a GE Capital company), Epic Media Group (Los Angeles) and Tiger Media. Competing on a broad national level, Mr. Layton identified early opportunities toward the development of local, regional and national marketing and capitalized on those opportunities producing break-through key account development and strong sales results at each step of operation.
As Vice President / National Sales for GE Capital Company Media Vehicles, Mr. Layton led the company in sales and hired, trained and saw to the establishment of branch business operations in key markets throughout the United States. Through these efforts sales revenue rose significantly, new profit centers were established and the new medium quickly gained credibility as a viable option. GE Capital later decided to sell many portfolio companies including Media Vehicles. Mr. Layton assumed Executive Vice President / Sales and Marketing of Epic Media Group with the purpose of moving this company to national prominence through direct sales to key national accounts. Within 2 years Epic industry position moved from a "rep" driven business to the national leader in the Fleet Marking, graphic frame and printing business. At Tiger Media, Layton recognized a need to embrace technology and introduce new sales tools to validate schedule performance and increase sales revenue. As a direct result of his adding capability, business revenue tripled in only one year.
Upon beginning service, Mr. Layton will be working with the senior management of Limelight Media Group, Inc. to expand the Mobile Media Division into several profit centers while simultaneously tapping industry resources to begin generating revenue for the company. These profit centers will include fleet asset management, fleet marking and media sales. Mr. Layton will immediately focus on several marketing opportunities in media sales.
Digital Signage and Truck Side Advertising are the fastest-growing sectors in the out-of-home media industry. The OTH industry represents over $7 billion in advertising revenue per year and has experienced a predictable growth exceeding 8% per year. Over the last 20 years, the industry experienced only one down year in 1992. Fixed expenses are growing only at 3%-4% per year, which allows for increasing bottom line revenue recognition. Profit margins are nearing 60% with an expected growth rate of 12%-14% and an after tax revenue growth of 15%-18% per year. Considering that the number of vehicles on the road has doubled over the 20 years, this media option is attractive to advertisers, for it is a low-cost alternative for the number of impressions reached. With the fragmentation of audiences in traditional television media, the industry is expected to continue on its profitable growth cycle. The Company forecasts that revenue recognition in this sector will be about $700,000 during 2005 and $5 million in 2006 as the infrastructure is developed to generate sales.
"We are very excited to have someone of Mr. Layton's caliber and experience on staff to manage and develop our Mobile Media Division. There are a number of opportunities in the market place that we feel need to be addressed and closed on while we are working to conclude the OTR Media transaction. With Mr. Layton on board, we can immediately focus on those opportunities. He has a strong proven history in this industry and a real passion for developing it further," stated David V. Lott, President of Limelight Media Group, Inc.
This release includes projections of future results and "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended (the "Securities Act"), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended (the "Exchange Act"). All statements that are included in this release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Although the management of Limelight believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations are disclosed in this release, including, without limitation, in conjunction with those forward-looking statements contained in this release.