Datran Media, who recently launched EO.com, the first exchange online for cost-per-acquisition media, announced that Microsoft has selected its StormPost solution to deliver email newsletters and marketing communications worldwide. Microsoft selected StormPost for its ability to be customized to their needs, its unmatched scalability and to benefit from Datran Media’s deliverability and compliance expertise. Microsoft’s technology team recently accepted the StormPost .NET-based platform, a collaboration of the two companies, as a component of Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions.
In collaboration with Microsoft, Datran Media also developed a first-of-its-kind email inventory management system that allows Microsoft’s advertising sales staff to keep track of sold and available email media inventory, much like it does when managing its banner inventory.
"After surveying the marketplace, it was clear that StormPost was prepared to meet our needs for advanced functionality, customization and scalability," said Erik Zigman, general manager within the ad platform team at Microsoft Corp. "It was more than just technology that influenced our decision. We also selected Datran Media because of its leadership in the email industry and deep knowledge of deliverability and compliance."
About StormPost and Inventory Management
Available as a hosted software service (ASP) or as a license, StormPost is a premier email marketing and delivery platform that helps companies reach the right customers at the right time. Microsoft joins a StormPost client base that includes hundreds of innovative companies, including Boston.com, eDiets, Q-Interactive and Turner Broadcasting System properties GameTap, PGATour.com and NASCAR.com. Customers and analysts have endorsed StormPost for its ease-of-use, flexible architecture and scalability.
StormPost’s Inventory Management is a unique capability not offered by any other email service provider, which allows salespeople to select, reserve and manage their email inventory like never before. Users can quickly query the total number of email addresses that are available for any number of criteria at extremely fast speeds using proprietary technology developed in collaboration with Microsoft.
StormPost Inventory Management generates reports when email media inventory is unsold and allows users to make their inventory available in Datran Media’s Exchange Online (EO.com), the first real-time market exchange that enables advertisers to bid for email and cost-per-acquisition (CPA) display media distribution. Launched in April 2007, Datran Media President Matt Keiser describes EO.com as "a bid driven marketplace that provides advertisers with the same type of tool set they use to manage paid search campaigns, which they can now use to manage their email and banner campaigns."
According to a 2006 Forrester Research study, more than 25 percent of online advertising inventory is never sold, left "remnant" or undersold. Datran Media Chief Technology Officer Joshua Baer saw the opportunity for remnant inventory to connect StormPost ESP customers with the EO media exchange. "Most email marketers I talk to have no way of managing their email inventory and consequently large amounts go unsold or get bundled with other products without driving revenue," said Baer. "StormPost’s Inventory Management gives the advertising sales staff the ability to view and track what has been sold and automates the process of releasing unsold inventory into the EO.com media exchange based on pre-defined business rules and frequency caps."
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