MirriAd Limited, the market leader in digital product placement, is pleased to announce that it has signed an exclusive contract with Australia’s number one television network, the Seven Network, to stream content including shows like Home and Away and Packed to the Rafters which will telecast next year.

Seven will be deploying a MirriAd Hub in Sydney. This will allow Seven to manage the creation of sales inventory, digital placement and local reporting whilst connected to the global MirriAd network. The arrangement allows Seven to offer client brands lifelike digital placement within mainstream shows with never seen before management controls and reporting.

MirriAd partners with broadcasters and brand owners to place branded products, signage and video digitally into existing media content. The company has developed ZoneSense, an IP protected and highly scalable software-based solution to integrate lifelike brand images directly into video content, post production. MirriAd’s proprietary system also solves the management of the sales process, facilitates online approvals by all stakeholders as well as measurement of the brand exposure. (For examples of MirriAd’s services and digital placements visit: http://www.mirriad.com/gallery/showreel/

Product placement is a rapidly expanding market worldwide. In 2009, the Global product placement spending – including North America, Europe, Asia and other regions was $6.25 billion. The US sector alone has been growing by more than 25% a year between 2004 – 2009(source: PQ Media). TV product placement is now legal in all European media markets with the remaining final codes of conduct set to be issued shortly. The European market is poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18.2% in the 2009-2014 period (source: PQ Media.)

Brand owners are seeking new ways to reach consumers and to integrate more with content as technology drives changes in how we consume our media. MirriAd is working with other major broadcasters across three continents, for whom its service has already been successfully tested

Mark Popkiewicz, MirriAd’s CEO, said:

“Product placement is about to be transformed into a new scalable advertising medium which delivers the right balance of audience enjoyment and guaranteed brand exposure with empirical measurement and all proven through extensive research. With this vision and knowledge we are thrilled to have won the confidence and backing of the Seven Network in Australia. They have a terrific track record of serving their viewers and being able to create new revenues to spend on new programming.”

James Warburton Seven Media Group Chief Sales and Digital Officer, said:

“Seven is recognised for its innovation in developing compelling marketing solutions for its clients. Our cross-platform and integration business, SMG Red, continues to be a powerhouse and our agreement with MirriAd allows to build on that success. We’re pleased to be working with MirriAd.”

Enquiries:

College Hill

James Hogan
Jamie Ramsay

T: 020 7457 2020

About MirriAd Limited

Chaired by Peter Bazalgette and launched in September 2007 by CEO, Mark Popkiewicz, previously a director of BBC Ventures, MirriAd aims to revolutionize product placement for the digital era. MirriAd has developed an end to end solution able to digitally place brand imagery into any video on demand and at scale. MirriAd’s digital placements have been extensively researched and proven to achieve excellent results for brands whilst positively impacting production values and the viewer experience on line and on TV.

Headquartered in London with offices in New York and Mumbai, MirriAd is privately owned with institutional investors including Oxford Technology Management, Oxford Capital Partners, STV Group PLC, Seraphim Capital and South East Growth Fund and notable angel investors Bruce Smith and Stephen Bullock.

About Seven Media Group

Seven Media Group is a multi-faceted media company, bringing together a market-leading presence in broadcast television, magazines publishing and online and expanding new platforms. Seven’s broadcast television platform, the Seven Network, reaches 98 per cent of Australians and is Australia’s leading television network in breakfast television, morning television, news and public affairs, and in primetime and overall across the 6:00am-midnight broadcast day. Seven is expanding its presence in multiple channel broadcast television with 7TWO and 7mate complementing Seven’s success in primetime and across the broadcast day. Seven’s magazines publishing business, Pacific Magazines, publishes more than one in five magazines sold in Australia, including three of the biggest selling magazines. Seven’s Yahoo!7 joint venture with Yahoo, Inc combines the strengths of Yahoo’s search and communications capabilities and its global internet network with Seven’s media and entertainment content and marketing capabilities. The joint venture is driving the online, mobile and IPTV businesses of both companies in Australia.