FORT WASHINGTON, Pa., Aug. 9, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- PointRoll Inc., a leader in rich media technology and service, released performance and financial numbers today indicating strong corporate growth through the first half of 2005. Of note and as a point of reference, the number of ad impressions served on behalf of advertisers climbed over +300%, as PointRoll is now delivering close to 100 million impressions per day versus 17 million per day in early 2004. On the financial side, PointRoll is poised to eclipse last year's annual revenues, having already reached that level by June of this year.
"2005 is proving to be a watershed year for PointRoll, and the numbers only tell one side of the story," said Christopher Saridakis, CEO of PointRoll. "Our success stems from an unwavering commitment to helping advertisers and publishers develop highly creative, engaging and consumer-friendly ads. This has been our approach since day one, and while our technology has evolved and our format suites expanded, it is this philosophy that continues to drive our overwhelming success and expansive network of partners."
Through July, 2005, PointRoll has served over 11 billion ad impressions on the year; as compared to 10 billion served during all of 2004. This rate of growth greatly exceeds the projected 27 percent growth rate calculated in a February, 2005 eMarketer report on the rich media category.
"While this is a solid year for the online advertising market in general, PointRoll is seeing growth above and beyond industry expansion," continued Saridakis. "Looking ahead, PointRoll is committed to innovating new products and services that increase brand performance for rich media advertisers, and allow publishers to optimize the user experience."
PointRoll has seen tremendous growth in the area of video advertising in 2005. The company has served over eight times more video ads this year than during all of 2004, and almost 1/3 of its advertising impressions incorporate video elements. Furthermore, PointRoll expanded its video offering in 2005 to include full screen, expandable banners, and interactive video.
During the first half of the year, PointRoll grew from 62 employees to 74 in July to meet increased demand. Key staffing moves include the naming of Christopher Saridakis as CEO in late May, and hiring Vice President of Business Development and Strategy, Jason Tafler. More industry leaders are expected to join PointRoll in the coming months.
In June, 2005, PointRoll upgraded its technology platform, further expanding the compatibility of its ad units to be able to reach 97 percent of all Web users, incorporating browsers such as Firefox, Mozilla, and many Netscape browsers. PointRoll also recently announced an ad sequencing feature that allows online advertisers to control the progression and delivery of multiple ad units within the same campaign, during a specified time period. This latest offering rounds out an already comprehensive repertoire of ad formats and features including streaming video, data collection, polling, and reporting.
PointRoll works with over 500 major advertisers in industries such as automotive, CPG, finance, entertainment, pharmaceutical and travel, including over 50 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. PointRoll technology is accepted on thousands of publisher sites including Yahoo!, AOL and MSN. In 2005, PointRoll significantly expanded its Included(tm) Network, a group of more than 35 leading Web publishers that give advertisers access to PointRoll's technology at no charge, thereby improving the cost performance of ad campaigns running on their sites.
About PointRoll, Inc.
PointRoll, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), powers the most creative, engaging, and consumer-friendly ad campaigns on the Internet. Founded in 2000, the company enables advertisers, agencies, and online publishers to measurably increase conversion opportunity, brand awareness, creative expression, and message content -without disrupting the user's online experience. PointRoll's proprietary technology platform delivers a suite of rich media products including: FatBoy(r) expanding ads, Tomboy(tm) universal 100K+, TowelBoy(r) snap-back units, and BadBoy(tm) floating ads, dramatically enhancing the impact of any Internet ad campaign. PointRoll's rich media experts support every campaign with full service including creative consultation and development, Q/A testing, and trafficking. PointRoll works with more than 500 advertisers and its technology is accepted by thousands of online publishers including Yahoo!, MSN and AOL. For more information, please visit http://www.pointroll.com.