Standard Media Index Appoints Leading Innovator Ynon Kreiz to Board of Directors

NEW YORK, May 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard Media Index (SMI), the global media industry's exclusive provider of real advertising expenditure data, today announced it has appointed Ynon Kreiz as a new member to the Company's Board of Directors. This follows an investment by Mr. Kreiz in SMI, alongside Sir Charles Allen, former CEO of ITV and Steven Sher.

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Mr. Kreiz is the former Chairman and CEO of Endemol, the world's largest independent television production company and creators of several hit reality franchises such as Big Brother and Deal or No Deal.  Most recently Mr. Kreiz was appointed as Executive Chairman of Maker Studios, the world's largest multichannel network of online video content. Mr. Kreiz began his groundbreaking media career by launching and transforming FOX Kids Europe into one of the fastest growing pay-TV channels in Europe and the Middle East and has a track record of leading media companies successfully and profitably through all stages of growth.

"Throughout his career, Ynon has been at the forefront of game-changing developments in our industry and his deep insight and experience will bring significant contributions to SMI's board," said David Kirk, SMI Board Chair and Co-founder and current Managing Partner of Bailador Investment Management. "As the industry leverages SMI's timely, accurate data feed for unparalleled insight into the competitive landscape, a growing appetite for actual, dependable data is becoming indispensable. We are very pleased to add the talent and industry knowledge of such a highly-respected media veteran to our board."

SMI sources its library of actual transaction data from the ad bookings of major media-buying groups, including Vivaki, Aegis Media, Havas and IPG Mediabrands. By offering the first-ever empirical view of aggregated transaction data, SMI provides a clear, true picture of market trends and opportunities – not based on rate card or estimates but on pure ad spend numbers.

Over the last five years, under the leadership of Founder and CEO Sue Fennessy, SMI has built a team of experts and technology infrastructure to harness and synchronize global ad spend data. Unifying individual transactions across all media types – Print, Digital and Broadcast – the company empowers subscribers to evaluate and analyze aggregate expenditure data via a single standardized metric, eliminating the need to shop for estimates from various vendors that specialize in specific media types.

"We have been able to attract the industry's leading investors and innovators who have been forceful validators of our vision of better metrics for the global media marketplace," said Ms. Fennessy. "Ynon brings an unrivaled view of the industry's evolution, vision for where it's headed and a successful track record understanding and capitalizing on game-changing trends. His experience helping media companies innovate at varying scale will be a strategic asset for SMI. As we continue to grow, our subscribers are unlocking the transformative power of data to inform their decisions."

Mr. Kreiz joins a formidable roster of SMI investors, which include more than 30 influential media industry pioneers, including Board Chair, David Kirk, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Bailador Investment Management; Naomi Seligman, Board of Directors of Oracle Corporation; Square Peg Ventures (founded by Paul Bassat and Justin Liberman; Sean Hogan, former Managing Director of Goldman Sachs; Sir Charles Allen, Chairman of Global Radio, Virgin Media Inc.  Board Member and former ITV CEO.; Stan Shuman, Managing Director of Allen & Co LLC; Steven Sher; Roger Allen, serial entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist and Ernie Von Simson, Director of BDNA and Optaros, Ostriker von Simson, Inc.

SMI's proprietary data collection methodology captures more than 60 percent of total agency spend across multiple dimensions including upfront and scatter markets. Refreshed 15 business days after the end of each month for all expenditure data from January 2009 through to the current month, SMI's data feed delivers secure access to ad booking data on a monthly basis, enabling subscribers to establish reliable benchmarks on the market and against competitors with far more accuracy and with greater timeliness than ever before.

The SMI pool currently contains ad spend data from the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom and the company is expanding its reach to more than 26 global markets including India, Mexico, Indonesia, China and Spain by the end of 2013.

ABOUT SMI
Standard Media Index is the sole media industry source for timely, accurate, ad expenditure data. Powered by a proprietary technology architecture, SMI delivers secure access to comprehensive real advertising spend data across all media types and vendors, empowering media agencies, media owners, investors and advertisers globally to make informed decisions. SMI's data is sourced directly from the leading global media buying agencies and aggregated to show the combined picture of direct agency ad spend. This data is actual spend – not estimates and not based on rate cards – providing subscribers with the tools to inform their competitive business analysis and fuel analytics engines.

CONTACT: Tola St. Matthew-Daniel, Thatcher+Co., [email protected], 646-616-0117

SOURCE Standard Media Index