Brand Affinity Technologies Selected by AlwaysOn as OnMedia 100 Winner

IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc. (BAT), the company reinventing celebrity and endorsement marketing, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the OnMedia Top 100 winners.  Inclusion in the OnMedia 100 signifies leadership amongst its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies that are likely to disrupt existing markets and entrenched players. BAT was specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

"The make-up of the OnMedia 100 presents a poetic picture of the mega-trends AO's editors see driving the transformation of digital media and entertainment, namely the explosive growth in smartphones, social networking and social commerce, as well as the globalization of entrepreneurship," says Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. "We also uncovered a new trend that's creating high-growth company opportunity-the emergence of Web analytics as a powerful tool to help advertisers ascertain the 'wisdom of the crowd' and better target their marketing and branding pitches."

The OnMedia 100 winners were selected from more than a thousand U.S. and international technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists, and digital media industry insiders. The AlwaysOn editorial team and its partners at SAP, the Blackstone Group, KPMG, Silicon Valley Bank, SNR Denton, SecondMarket, and Bridge Bank, as well as industry experts across the globe scoured the entrepreneurial community to identify the top 100 private digital media companies.

This is BAT's second year in a row being honored as one of the OnMedia 100; BAT has also been recognized by AlwaysOn as a Global 250 company. BAT was created and is run by Ryan and Chad Steelberg, who since 1996 have raised more than $150 million in equity financing and created more than $3.0 billion in shareholder value through BAT and their previous ventures. 2010 brought significant growth for BAT, including the launch of Fantapper, which creates new interplay between online editorial content, social media engagement, and advertising.

A full list of all the OnMedia 100 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn website at: http://alwayson.goingon.com/node/67044

"Repeat inclusion in this list is a tremendous validation of our innovation-focused approach," said Ryan Steelberg, President and CEO of BAT. "We created BAT to change the business of celebrity marketing and engagement, and along with a deep roster of advertisers, celebrities, and partners, that's exactly what we've been able to achieve."

Brand Affinity Technologies and the OnMedia 100 companies will be honored at AlwaysOn's fifth annual OnMedia on January 31st, 2011, at The Paley Center for Media, New York. This two-and-a-half-day executive event features high-level debates on how the Internet is disrupting the world of marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations.

About Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc.  (BAT)

Founded in 2007, BAT (http://brandaffinity.net) unlocks the marketing power of celebrity through research, endorsements, and interactive experiences. BAT's Endorsement Platform provides daily analysis of more than 45,000 celebrities and athletes, along with the ability to identify, license, and activate  talent for cross-media advertising campaigns. BAT also leverages its research and technology engine to engage consumers directly through Fantapper (www.fantapper.com), which brings interactive apps to celebrity content across the web. Connect with BAT on Twitter:@BATimpact and Facebook: www.facebook.com/BrandAffinityTech.

About AlwaysOn

AlwaysOn is the leading business media brand networking the Global Silicon Valley. AlwaysOn helped ignite the social media revolution in early 2003 when it launched the AlwaysOn network. In 2004, it became the first media brand to socially network its online readers and event attendees. AlwaysOn's preeminent executive event series includes the Summit at Stanford, OnMedia, OnHollywood, Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic, OnDemand, Venture Summit Silicon Valley, Venture Summit East, GoingGreen Silicon Valley, and GoingGreen East. The AlwaysOn network and live event series continue to lead the industry by empowering its readers, event participants, sponsors, and advertisers like no other media brand to spearhead the global innovation economy.

SOURCE Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc.