Millennial Media

Company: Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD
Company Description: Millennial Media is the proven leader in mobile advertising. The company is committed to growing the mobile advertising marketplace by becoming the preferred partner to all advertisers seeking to reach mobile consumers, all publishers seeking to maximize ad revenue, and all mobile operators seeking to further monetize their networks.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories / Innovation Awards
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Company of the Year - Up to 100 Employees

Nomination Title: Millennial Media – Breaking Ground for Mobile Advertising in 2010: Most Innovative Company of the Year

1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Entrants into the emerging platform of mobile advertising are innate
evangelizers and as they have been attempting to create a paradigm shift in the
media ecosystem since their entrance. In order for this shift to be successful,
they must convince marketers to allocate budgets from traditional advertising to
the less known medium of mobile – all during the recession of 2009. One company
in particular – Millennial Media – has not only significantly increased brand
awareness on the effectiveness of mobile, but has successfully showcased the
company’s, and the industry’s, ability to outperform alternate mediums.

Millennial Media launched the first monthly brand-advertiser focused mobile ad
program: the Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (S.M.A.R.T.)™
report to push a broad range of proven mobile-specific brand metrics and mobile
consumer behavior into the marketplace. Celebrating its one year anniversary
this April 2010, the S.M.A.R.T. ™ report uniquely features strategic insight, in
accompaniment to network data and special reports from third-party experts, such
as InsightExpress, to help advertisers and brands make informed mobile media and
campaign planning decisions. With over 3,000 active subscribers from top
brands, advertisers, developers and publishers, Millennial Media has driven well
over 5,000 downloads proving mobile is the innovative medium that drives brand
awareness. With twelve consecutive months of placement with top publications
such as Mobile Marketer, the S.M.A.R.T.™ program has become, “required monthly
reading” for top agencies such as Ogilvy.

Certainly, in 2009 and through the start of 2010, mobile advertising platforms
such as Millennial Media have benefited from the gain in visibility of mobile.
A competing mobile advertising network, was bought by Google for $750 million in
November 2009. In January 2010, a smaller competitor was acquired by Apple for
$250 million, cementing Millennial Media as the largest independent advertising
network in the industry. As the attention on mobile advertising continues to
grow, leaders face increased pressure to accelerate development, including
sophisticated targeting technology, to scale and attract developer programs, and
continue innovation of emerging devices and platforms at break-neck speeds.
Millennial Media has been the strong leader in all categories.

In November 2009, Millennial Media closed a $16M C round of growing financing,
and named Michael Avon as Chief Financial Officer, gaining his expertise in high
growth companies. Avon aided Millennial Media in its acquisition of TapMetrics,
a mobile analytics firm focused on application usage and behavior in February of
2010. TapMetrics has since been integrated with Millennial Media’s developer
community (mmdev™).

Staying on the cusp of innovation, Millennial has attracted a world-class team
(growing 51% YoY in 2009) including developers, engineers and
industry-thought-leaders to put forth first-to-market creatives and mobile
specific targeting and engagement technology for diverse emerging platforms and
devices. These investments have had a direct correlation on elevated campaign
results (behavioral audience campaigns experienced a 153% CTR lift in ’09), the
number of clients investing in mobile (number of advertisers increased 54% YoY
in ’09), and the proportion of budget allocated to mobile (average deal size
increased 353% YoY in December).

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

• Anniversary S.M.A.R.T.™ Report: http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/smart
• S.M.A.R.T.™ YEAR IN REVIEW:
http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/smart/smart-year-in-review/
• Millennial Media monthly S.M.A.R.T. ™ reports & Additional Research Reports:
http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/
• “Startup Story” (Baltimore Sun):
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/technology/2010/03/startup_story_millennial_media.html
• “Mobile Mad Men” (Baltimore Sun):
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.millennial07mar07,0,5175203.story
• “IPad to Launch with Payload of Ads” (WSJ): Brian to provide link to PDF
• “Millennial Media Acquires TapMetrics” (Press Release):
http://www.millennialmedia.com/2010/02/millennial-media-acquires-tapmetrics/
• “Millennial Media Adds Michael Avon as Chief Financial Officer” (Press
Release):
http://www.millennialmedia.com/2009/11/millennial-media-adds-michael-avon-as-chief-financial-officer/
• “Millennial Media Wins Stevie Award in 7th Annual American Business Awards”
(Press Release):
http://www.millennialmedia.com/2009/06/millennial-media-wins-steve-award-in-7th-annual-american-business-awards/
• “Advertising Industry Pioneer Wenda Harris Millard Joins Millennial Media’s
Board of Directors”(Press Release):
http://www.millennialmedia.com/2009/05/advertising-industry-pioneer-wenda-harris-millard-joins-millennial-media%C2%B4s-board-of-directors/

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

Paul Palmieri’s laser-focus on brand advertisers has driven innovation,
visibility, and rapid growth in the mobile media industry, which has grown 42%
year-over-year according to eMarketer. Building on the success of his key
management roles with mobile and media companies including Verizon Wireless,
Advertising.com, Palmieri was one of the first to break ground through the fold
of traditional media with the idea of serving advertisements to the mobile
phone. Named the “Mobile Mad Man,” (Baltimore Sun, 3/2010) and the “Content
Guru” (Wireless Week), Paul Palmieri has built the largest, most successful
independent mobile advertising company worldwide.

http://www.millennialmedia.com/wp-content/images/exec/PaulPalmieri.pdf