Visible World Closes $8 Million Second Round Led by RVC; Investment Reflects Confidence in New...

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 2003

Visible World, a technology and media service company that has developed an effective solution for getting consumers to watch TV ads, today announced that it has received $8 million in second round venture capital

Visible World's second round investors decided to participate in the funding because they strongly believe the company has developed a service that the marketplace is in desperate need of - i.e. a way to help advertisers keep viewers from skipping commercials. Called IntelliSpot(R), the system allows advertisers to finely customize TV commercials so they are more relevant to multiple segments of viewers, as opposed to one mass audience.

"The more relevant commercials are, the more powerful the impact and desired response," said Norman Fiore, a Partner at RVC. "Visible World's ability to provide relevancy through customization is a remarkable solution, and I believe it's going to positively effect how viewers react to TV ads."

Developed by Visible World and SeaChange, IntelliSpot lets advertisers create and deliver more meaningful ads for specific markets, zip codes, buying groups, times of day, and in the future, households. Through the IntelliSpot toolkit, commercials are easily broken down into all their individual media elements -- i.e. video, audio, text, and graphics -- and then assembled into a variety of unique ads, based on the advertiser's requirements, at or near the point of delivery. The result is dozens, hundreds or even thousands of commercials.

"The timing couldn't be better for a service like IntelliSpot," said Lance Maerov, Senior Vice President at Grey Ventures. "With media costs increasing, audiences fragmenting and new technologies available for skipping ads, it's clear that the TV advertising industry requires a different approach."

Maerov added that "Clients are demanding we come up with creative ways to keep viewers tuned to their advertising. We believe that Visible World's IntelliSpot can help us do that by allowing us to deliver highly targeted and relevant advertising," he said.