Vibes Media Predicts Record Growth In 2010

CHICAGO, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Vibes Media, the mobile marketing leader, today revealed that record 2009 sales bookings in combination with a recently expanded leadership team and technological investments, poise the company for a record year of profitable growth, despite one of the worst economic environments of the past 80 years.    

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Vibes reached the eight figure revenue level in 2007 and has continued to grow every year. In 2009, Vibes invested in growth and increased its focus on leveraging the company's connectivity, award-winning client service and core technology platforms to market and sell a robust self-service platform for publishers, while maintaining its leadership as the premier full service partner for dozens of marketers and agencies.  This investment and commitment to innovation and revenue growth in a very harsh economic environment in 2009 has provided an incredible foundation for 2010. Among the company's key clients are Univision, Emmis, Entercom, CBS, Tribune, Best Buy, RIM, Diageo, Red Box, AT&T, Versus, MSG Interactive, Verizon, BET, T-Mobile, Accuweather and Gray Television, who is leveraging Vibes' new enterprise content alerts module within the publisher platform.

"We chose Vibes because of their extensive experience and track record working with leading publishers" said Lisa Bishop, vice president, Internet Operations and New Media at Gray Television. "Vibes has a lengthy history of innovation and we look forward to leveraging their unique combination of platform, service and connectivity to drive business results."  

Vibes also hired Rishi Bhatia as head of engineering, formerly a head of engineering at AOL's Third Screen Media, along with two additional members of the Third Screen team.  Bhatia has more than 15 years of experience in leading the strategic direction for technology groups in multinational enterprises and will be a key component in expanding the Vibes Media technology capabilities to serve the constantly evolving mobile marketing space.

Jack Philbin, Vibes' president and co-founder says, "Despite the recession, we made the strategic decision in 2009 to continue to hire great people and invest heavily in our growth because we believe there are serious indications that the future of mobile advertising and marketing is upon us.  Given the acquisition of AdMob by Google, and more recently Quattro by Apple, the category is receiving great validation of its endless potential.  Innovation is likely to move faster, and there'll be a corresponding impact on mobile advertising business models for companies like Vibes and the marketers and publishers we serve."  

Highlights from 2009 include:

• Revenue grew year over year in 2009 despite an incredibly challenging macro environment
• Booked 2010 revenue already exceeds 2009 revenue
• Booked 2010 revenue for the publisher segment was more than 100 percent higher entering 2010 vs. 2009
  • Hundreds of self-serve clients are leveraging Vibes' publisher platform, mobile expertise and connectivity to engage their audiences and distribute content.
• Vibes' full-serve marketer platform revenue increased more than 70 percent in 2009
  • Vibes' client service teams serve hundreds of campaigns per month on a full serve basis for leading brands and agencies through its marketer platform
• The average campaign value tripled in the second half of 2009 compared to the first half of 2009
• Many of the Vibes 2009 publisher and marketer clients signed long-term exclusive commitments allowing for increased investment in Vibes' technology assets

Despite the company's achievements in 2009, Vibes' Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Drew Green understands that the opportunity in mobile continues to evolve rapidly, "We've got an incredible leadership team that believes success comes through a commitment to people, product and profit. Our planned success in 2009 was executed by an incredible group of people at Vibes who are devoted to meeting the objectives of a deep roster of clients. Our clients are delighted with our approach to mobile marketing and benefit from a platform in which we continue to invest in order to capture more and more of the mobile budget.  Our team understands that no other device is as personal, interactive and constantly within reach as a mobile phone, and that new developments in 2010 will let advertisers target whole new parameters, such as location and context.  There is a tremendous opportunity to continue the momentum in 2010 and extend our leadership position."

About Vibes

As one of North America's largest mobile marketing companies, Vibes delivers hundreds of millions of mobile messages for a wide range of clients in the marketer and publisher categories.   Vibes offers a combination of technology, connectivity, strategy and account services that helps marketers create highly relevant, timely and targeted mobile marketing programs and provides publishers with the ability to effectively extend their assets to the mobile device.  Incorporated in 1998, Vibes has been recognized as one of the most innovative and fastest growing companies by the Inc 500, Deloitte, MMA, CTIA, Crain's, Promo, and the Chicago Innovation Awards.  The company's clients include Verizon, Diageo, Best Buy, AT&T, Sprint, Red Box, Miller Coors, T-Mobile, Accuweather, Tribune, Gannett, Emmis, CBS, Gray Broadcast, BET, MTV, MSG, Entercom, and dozens of NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB teams.   To learn more about Vibes, visit www.vibes.com.

SOURCE Vibes Media