John Durham, Curt Viebranz and Mark Walsh
Join Inflection Point Media Board of Advisors
Experienced Team to Guide Growth
of First Vertical Ad Network to Reach Small to Medium Businesses
South Norwalk, CT (February 24 , 2009) Three of the online industry’s best known and respected executives, John Durham, Curt Viebranz and Mark Walsh have formed a Board of Advisors for Inflection Point Media (IPM), the recently launched intent-driven ad network that identifies and reaches pre-qualified B2B audiences at scale.
IPM uses search and behavioral data to identify business buyers and retargets ads related to their proven purchase intent while B2B audiences are still in the active consideration phase of the purchase cycle. Premier web sites such as American City Business Journals’ network of more than 40 sites, SBTV.com, and StartUpNation.com are part of the IPM network of nearly 32 million monthly users. Small and medium sized business owners who visit the IPM network of sites identify themselves as potential buyers through search and navigation behavior. IPM collects this anonymous data and creates vast audience segments of buyers with common interests and enables marketers to retarget them anywhere across AudienceScience’s (formerly Revenue Science) Targeting Marketplace.
“Having John Durham, Curt Viebranz and Mark Walsh on our team is like getting three first round draft picks in a row,” says Chris Hulse IPM’s Founder and CEO. “They know our market; they know the digital ad business. Their advice and direction will be invaluable.”
John Durham is CEO, Managing Partner of Catalyst (www.catalystsf.com) a firm he and Cory Treffiletti launched in September 2007 to help companies of all sizes develop and implement emerging digital media strategies resulting in the most effective, most efficient and most direct means of conveying marketing messages to target audiences. Mr. Durham had been President of Sales & Marketing for Jumpstart Automotive Media (San Francisco) and on the Jumpstart Board of Directors since 2004. Before that, Mr. Durham served as the Executive Vice President, Business Strategy at Carat Fusion, for Carat's offices across the country including New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. He was a founder of Pericles Communication, a political digital firm that helped advocacy and political groups tap into interactive marketing.
“Chris Hulse, Paul Bremer and Tom Grotta have a great business plan to serve a market that is wide open for the taking,” says Mr. Durham. “An estimated $5.3 billion will be spent on online B2B advertising in the U.S. during 2009 according to eMarketer. IPM’s method of using search and behavior to identify business decision makers in the purchase cycle will be very attractive to small business marketers.”
Curt Viebranz was an EVP at AOL and Platform A’s first President. Prior to that he was Chief Executive Officer of TACODA, Inc., the behavioral targeting company AOL acquired in August 2007. Mr. Viebranz joined TACODA as President & Chief Operating Officer in April 2004 after serving for three years as a Board member. Earlier in his career, Mr. Viebranz spent seventeen years at Time Warner and its predecessor company, Time Inc. holding numerous senior management positions with operating responsibility for major businesses both in the United States and abroad. He served as president of HBO International, the international arm of Time Warner's Home Box Office unit. Prior to that, he was the first president of Time Inc. Multimedia, the new media division of Time Inc., Time Warner's book and magazine publishing subsidiary. He also served as president of Time Inc. Europe and President of HBO Video, the home video distribution unit of Home Box Office.
“The IPM solution helps marketers complement their contextual media buys through smart business targeting of quality users,” says Mr. Viebranz. “Content specific adjacencies and sponsorships, while effective, are not the only way for marketers to find good prospects. In fact, some users respond more positively to targeted advertising that is out of context because the ad really jumps off the page.”
Mark Walsh is an Internet/New Media luminary known for leading hyper growth in emerging markets. Mr. Walsh currently serves as CEO of Genius Rocket (www.geniusrocket.com), a mid-Atlantic start-up, and is also founder and managing partner of Ruxton Ventures, LLC, a private equity and investment firm. Notable Ruxton investments include Blackboard Inc. (the publicly traded leader in enterprise software for the education industry), Half.com (acquired by eBay), and Day Corp. Previously, Mr. Walsh served as President , CEO, and Chairman at VerticalNet, the first publicly traded B2B Internet company. Before VerticalNet, he was a senior vice president and corporate officer at America Online, where he founded and managed AOL Enterprise, AOL’s B2B division. Prior to AOL, Mr. Walsh was President of General Electric's GEnie Online Service, Vice President and General Manager of the Interactive Services division of CUC International, and headed HBO’s new business development in New York for the HBO and Cinemax brands.
“The typical ad network doesn’t have the expertise to target within the strata of the B2B buying process. B2B buyers often take longer to buy and need to be marketed to differently depending on the phase of the buying cycle they’re in,” says Mr. Walsh. “IPM is exactly positioned to assure that advertisers reach purchase decision makers as they weigh their options. These are hot leads for any marketer.”
Inflection Point Media (www.InflectionPointMedia.com) is the online industry’s first intent-driven ad network to identify and reach pre-qualified B2B audiences at scale. With nearly 32 million monthly users in its portfolio of sites, IPM uses search data to identify business buyers and retargets ads related to their proven purchase intent while B2B audiences are still in the active consideration phase of the purchase cycle. Inflection Point Media is backed by $2.5 million of seed funding provided by American City Business Journals (www.acbj.com). The privately held company is based in South Norwalk, CT.
