NEW YORK, July 17, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Vibrant, the world leader in in-text advertising, announced the winners of its second annual Vibrant Awards today (July 17, 2009) which recognizes the best of in-text advertising in the U.S. and the EU After evaluating hundreds of entries from agencies and marketers, top honors go to IBM in the U.S. and Volkswagen in Germany for their creative and dynamic use of in-text.

According to Vibrant Co-founder/CEO Doug Stevenson, “We congratulate the winners of the Vibrant Awards for their ability to fully leverage the power of hyperlinks to deliver user-controlled and relevant advertising. This year, the increased use of online video, search utilities, geotargeting and content distribution signal a dramatic evolution in in-text. We look forward to seeing brands continue to innovate by accessing Vibrant's network of 4,000 premium publishers and reaching over 135 million users.”

Each entry was evaluated by a panel of industry experts in the U.S. and EU along with members of the advertising industry. Winners were selected based on three criteria: the creativity of the campaign concept and its ability to align with words within web content; how well in-text advertising contributed to the online campaign overall; and whether in-text advertising effectively communicated the brand message.

Top Honors

Vibrant’s 2009 Gold Awards go to IBM in the US and its agency Neo@Ogilvy for the “Smarter Planet” campaign and Volkswagen in Germany and its agency Mediacom Interaction for its campaign, “Wertigkeit,” or “Value” Volkswagen.

Silver Honors

Vibrant’s Silver Medal finishers were both local search campaigns: AT&T YELLOWPAGES.COM in the U.S. with agency Mediaedge: cia for its campaign, “YPC Momentum”, and Yell.com in the UK and its agency PHD for its campaign “Local Search”.

Bronze Kudos

The 2009 Bronze Vibrant Awards went to Nintendo DS in the U.S. and its agency Starcom Worldwide/SMG Search for its “DS Women” campaign and Microsoft Xbox 360 in the UK with agency Universal McCann for the “Gears of War 2” campaign.

US

• Chris Campbell, Executive Creative Director, Interbrand
• Lee Doyle, CEO, Mediaedge:cia
• Jonathan Hsia, Digital Director, Starcom MediaVest Group
• Rebecca Lieb, Vice President, eConsultancy
• David Rittenhouse, Senior Partner, Media Director, neo@Ogilvy
• Josh Stinchcomb, Executive Director, Condé Nast Digital Business Group

EU

• Rick Corteville, Head of Digital Media, EMEA at Universal McCann
• Dominik Grollman, Editor in Chief, Internet World Business Magazine
• Dave Hompe, Digital Director, Starcom
• Colwyn Munro, Executive Vice President, IDG Digital Solutions
• Adam Pace, Head of Digital Buying, Opera
• Guy Phillipson, CEO, IAB
• Julia Smith, Sr. Manager, IASH
• Tim Webb, Online Publisher, Business Technology Group @ Incisive Media
• Louisa Wong, Head of Network Advertising, Sky Digital Media

About Vibrant

Vibrant is a world leader in contextual technology, aligning billions of words across the internet with relevant video, information, tools, and advertising. With over 4,000 premium publishers, reaching more than 135 million unique users per month (comScore, May 2009), Vibrant gives top brand marketers the opportunity to deliver highly targeted advertisements within premium Web content and offers publishers premium editorial tools to re-circulate users throughout their websites. The company, founded in 2000, has offices in London, New York, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris and Hamburg. For more information, visit: www.vibrantmedia.com, www.vibrantmedia.co.uk, www.vibrantmedia.de, www.vibrantmedia.fr.