Online Data Pioneer Dr. Usama Fayyad Joins Martini Media Board of Directors.

Data analytics scientist, serial entrepreneur, investor, and architect of Yahoo! Big Data and targeting systems, Fayyad will help Martini Media develop a next-generation targeting technology to deliver effective branded response for advertisers.

NEW YORK -- Usama Fayyad, Ph.D. has joined the Martini Media Board of Directors to spearhead the development of proprietary targeting technology aimed at branded response, the marketing ideal that has been beyond reach for digital marketers. As co-founder of Audience Science Inc., creator of Yahoo!'s ad targeting and Big Data systems, and founder of Yahoo! Research Labs, Fayyad joins a growing list of digital media pioneers who have helped Martini Media grow by more than 500% in the past year.

Data pioneer and investor Usama Fayyad has joined the Board of Martini Media to build a data platform that introduces response standards to brand marketing online. (Photo: Business Wire)

Fayyad will work to cement the gaps between audience targeting methodologies--contextual, demographic, behavioral, psychographic, and social graph targeting--and help the Company develop a closed-loop system that creates a direct pipeline to the most affluent audience online. Called mInstinct, the new targeting platform will allow marketers to insert relevant brand ads and content into Martini's premium online publications and the extended social media conversations they fuel.

"We're unlocking the most important audience with the most sophisticated yet most direct targeting technology," said Skip Brand, CEO of Martini Media. "We are already beginning to do this on a custom basis. Usama is taking this capability to systemization at scale. It will be nearly impossible for our ads not to work, because we're getting personal with the biggest spenders online.

"This is the next frontier for online advertising performance," Brand added. "If it works with the hardest-to-find and hardest-to-engage audience, imagine how it will work with the mass audiences that are most accessible."

Fayyad ranks as one of the true authorities in online data and Big Data processing. He built several award-winning data mining and predictive analytics systems for NASA JPL that changed the way NASA's Big Data sets were used for scientific analysis. He also led the development of data mining products for Microsoft's Server Division, co-founded and led Audience Science Inc (then digiMine Inc.), co-founded and led the DMX Group, which re-engineered predictive applications from Big Data for the automotive, financial services, telecommunications, and technology industries before being acquired by Yahoo! in 2004--and grew Yahoo! Research Labs into the premier research institution in digital media. At Yahoo! Fayyad built the largest data processing and ad targeting systems, processing more than 25 terabytes of data per day; the systems enabled Yahoo! to increase revenues from behavioral targeting by more than 25 times from 2004 to 2008.

"Targeting a specific, high-value audience with focus and relevance is the future of online marketing," said Fayyad. "Martini Media represents an excellent leading example of what is to come with the power of focused audiences. With this new platform, we will deliver new levels of performance not only for direct marketers seeking the affluent online, but for all forms of brand marketing, from display ads to video to custom content."

Fayyad is the second Internet business luminary to join the Martini Media Board of Directors, which has enabled significant gains for Martini over the past year--a 40% uptick in audience and 12 month growth of 500% in revenues. Other advisors include Greg Coleman, who built the sales organizations for The Huffington Post and Yahoo!, Kevin Brown, a Reed Elsevier Ventures principal who spearheaded the acquisitions of iPhrase and AllBusiness, Chris McKay, a managing director at Granite Ventures who has led multiple software investments to market, and Brian Asher, a VenRock partner, who has led several successful investments in ad technology such as Adify's acquisition by Cox Communications.

About Martini Media

Martini Media is the digital media platform for reaching American consumers with household incomes over $100,000: 25% of the Internet population with 70% of the spending power. Martini operates a publisher network of 1,000 lifestyle and business sites where this audience is most engaged. For publishers, Martini provides revenue support across banner, video, mobile, email, social, local, and data solutions. For more than 300 premium, luxury, and B2B advertisers, Martini leverages proprietary audience data and provides a variety of custom programs and rich media solutions to meet both direct response and branding needs. Martini was founded in late 2008 and is funded by Venrock, Reed Elsevier Ventures and Granite Ventures, along with a number of prominent angel investors. For more information, visit www.martinimediainc.com.

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