TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov. 5, 2013) - Index, a division of ad technology leader Casale Media, today released the findings of its first Quarterly Cookie Report covering Q1 and Q2, 2013. The data offers the strongest proof to date that cookies increase the value of impressions for brand advertisers. When cookies are matched with third party data, it results in the highest market CPMs, nearly double the Average Winning Bid price achieved by impressions with no cookies. The good news for publishers is that nearly half of all impressions that were filled (47%) matched cookies with third party data, followed by cookies matched with no third party data (36%) and impressions with no cookies at all (17%). The report also shows which browsers were used to serve ads, and sadly for publishers, Safari served a whopping 67% of impressions without cookies, with Internet Explorer serving just 15% of impressions without cookies, followed by Firefox (12%) and Chrome (5%).

"The data shows how Apple product users on Safari, iPad and iPhone are driving publishers' RTB revenues down, as they fuel cookie-less impressions that advertisers don't value as highly," said Andrew Casale, VP of Strategy for Casale Media. "This is a possible glimpse into what's to come, as other web browsing platforms mull changes to cookie support and underscore the importance of an industry wide solution to our reliance on 3^rd party cookies in display - similar to the AdId initiative in mobile."

In terms of impressions not tied to cookies, Index found that the largest share takes place on mobile devices. Just over 10% of impressions from desktop platforms are not cookie enabled, while more than 60% of mobile impressions are not tied to cookies. Overall, mobile devices accounted for 41% of all impressions without cookies. The mobile devices that deviate the most from this trend were on the Android OS, as those devices had the large majority (79%) of mobile impressions with cookies, compared to iPad (12%) and iPhone (8%), which made up just 20% of that pool combined.

Diving deeper into the origin of mobile impressions, the distribution was evenly spread across iPad (35%), iPhone (31%), and Android devices (31%), as they each roughly contributed to one-third of the impression pool.

Other key findings include:

• Internet Explorer users accounted for the largest share of impressions cleared through Index during Q2 at 38%, followed by Chrome and Firefox/Mozilla who contributed 26% and 18% of impressions respectively
• Windows users accounted for more than 75% of all impressions cleared through Index during Q2 2013, followed by those tied to a Mac OS
• Three operating systems accounted for nearly 80% of all impressions without cookies, led by Mac, which contributed 31% of the total
• iPad was the largest contributing mobile OS, coming in with a 20% share, followed closely by iPhone at 19%

This issue of the Index Quarterly Cookie Report discloses hard data collected from Q1 and Q2 of 2013 across marketplaces powered by Index. The data is based on marketplace activity in the United States only.

About Index

Index provides a neutral, transparent exchange layer that enables leading publishers and suppliers to sell their ad impressions in real time. A division of online media technology veteran, Casale Media, Index equips enterprise level sellers with custom architected solutions, fully transparent sell side management technology, and access to programmatic demand that is organized and certified by humans into an ever evolving taxonomy.

About Casale Media

Casale Media is redefining the standard for online media quality, ad delivery management and media optimization technologies. Its premium advertising network is a brand-safe media environment that is used by 8 of the top 10 U.S. online display advertisers and seamlessly integrates survey, panel and actual product consumption data from leading market research firms to make it easy to reach the best customers quickly and at scale. Casale Media obtains quality inventory from 3,000 actively monitored premium publishers, across which it reaches nearly 70% of the U.S. online audience. Generating measurable success for all stakeholders in media and marketing, Casale Media is guided by its dedication to needs based development and its quality focused culture. More information is available at www.casalemedia.com.