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Tearing Down the Data Walls February 18, 2009

Key to taking advertising targeting beyond its current silos is to pay attention to another, currently poorly followed or completely ignored, component of behavior: how media, all media, is consumed, argues Robert Tas, CEO of Sportgenic.

Tas believes that vertical ad networks need to learn to follow their vertical audience and its behaviors outside and beyond the online space.

Sportgenic™ Receives “Official Honoree” Distinction for the 12th Annual Webby Awards - 04-08-2008
Company recognized for two of its entries in the "Sports" category - San Francisco, Calif. (April 8, 2008)- Sportgenic, a media and technology company dedicated to connecting marketers with sport enthusiasts, announced today that it has been recognized as an Official Honoree by the The Webby Awards. The company earned recognition in the "Sports" category for two entries related to its mobile marketing campaign for the Ford Ironman World Championship last fall: Ironman Mobile Experience-Web Tracking and Ironman Mobile Experience WAP.


Got widgets? Now what? April 08 2008 By Marti Funk
Targeted and disciplined media planning is essential to successfully leverage widgets. Move beyond their novelty by incorporating a few basic strategies.
Call them what you will -- widgets, gadgets, wadgets, minis or whatever else the industry drums up. The bottom line is that these "things" (we'll call them widgets in this article) have created an enormous buzz in online media. And for good reason. Widgets represent a powerful means to connect advertisers with a mass of users, in the spirit of increasing customer loyalty and, ultimately, revenue -- but only when deployed smartly.

Active Athlete acquires GolfBuzz to connect golf enthusiasts - January 4, 2008
GolfBuzz’s technology will bring together people via personal profiles, messaging and other applications
Online media company Active Athlete Inc. has bought GolfBuzz Inc., a golfer-focused developer of publishing tools and technology, with plans to extend into mobile.

Active Athlete, Inc. Selected as Winner of AlwaysOn's OnMedia Top 100 - 01-22-2008
Active Athlete, Inc. selected as winner of AlwaysOn's OnMedia Top 100
San Francisco, Calif -(January 22, 2008) - Active Athlete, Inc., an online media company that connects advertisers with sports enthusiasts, has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the OnMedia 100 Winners for 2008. The company was selected by a panel of experts amidst hundreds of companies for its innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value and media buzz.

Marketers Enlist Mobile Phones as Utility Vehicles - Nov 26, 2007
In a more recent campaign, AT&T tapped the phone as a handy tracking tool for fans at last month's Ironman World Championship triathlon in Hawaii. A mobile campaign gave spectators the chance to receive text message alerts when athletes passed one of 11 checkpoints. For a race that takes competitors anywhere from eight to 20 hours to finish, the service was a perfect fit, said Robert Tas, CEO of Active Athlete Media, which developed the program for AT&T. The athlete tracker attracted more than 15,000 sign-ups and 100,000 brand impressions. "It added value," said Tas. "It wasn't crap. It really made the experience better."

The move to provide branded utilities on mobile devices and elsewhere is unlikely to eliminate media budgets. After all, consumers need to know about the tools before they can use them. MediaVest is buying mobile ads through Third Screen Media. Former AT&T agency GSD&M Idea City promoted the Ironman athlete tracker via Active Athlete's network of endurance athletics sites. Sprite is leaning on the millions of bottles it sells per year (and its Facebook fan page) to raise awareness for The Yard.

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