Kontera is proud to announce the launch of Kontera Synapse – our new In-Text relevance engine, which brings the next generation of ad relevancy and audience engagement to our advertisers, publishers, and end users.

Kontera Synapse makes the most relevant associations for end-users, by identifying their topics of interest and predicting intent. For advertisers, Kontera Synapse massively aggregates and engages the most qualified audience from across the web. The technology has been shown by comScore, to deliver five times greater advertiser performance than traditional display advertising.

The Breakthrough Innovations of Kontera Synapse:

• Topical Targeting: Rather than just use a fixed keyword list like In-Text technologies relied on in the past, Kontera Synapse is able to identify 1000’s of concepts and expanded phrases that are relevant to the topics of interest of any advertiser’s target audience. This provides advertisers with greater campaign scale and selection of phrases and keywords that are more engaging to consumers and deliver a more qualified audience. End users also benefit from ad content that mirrors their intent.
• Dynamic ‘A/B’ optimization: Kontera Synapse tests different topics and monitors how users interact with each page on the Kontera’s network in real-time. The In-Text phrases with which end users interact more represent users’ interests. In this way intent is determined through “the voice of the users”.
• Phrase Discovery and Exploration: Kontera Synapse automatically identifies and tracks the trending of new phrases, as they appear across the network. Those phrases are cross linked to relevant topics and entities (people, places, etc.).
• Comprehensive brand safety controls: Kontera Synapse includes a full suite of brand safety capabilities. Advertisers benefit from Kontera’s knowledge of sensitive topics and keywords within each category. In addition, specific ‘avoid’ lists can be defined for an advertiser or specific campaigns. These controls ensure that advertisers are not proximate to content that is harmful to their brand.

comScore, the leading internet marketing research firm, recently completed a three month comprehensive study confirming the effectiveness of Kontera In-Text ads.

When comparing the behavior of consumers exposed to Kontera In-Text ads to those that were not exposed to them — and to the comScore norms for display advertising — comScore’s findings prove that:

• Kontera In-Text ads delivers 5 Times greater Brand Awareness lift than Traditional Display Ads
• Consumers are 5 times more likely to search online for the promoted products after viewing the ad on the Kontera network, and 2.5 times more likely to visit the product’s website.
• Kontera In-Text ads increase Product Purchase Intent by 68%
• Exceptional message recall – 2.5 times the norm.

In addition, comScore also found that Kontera was a favorite among end users. With the Synapse engine ensuring relevancy and tight linkage to the user intent, consumers view Kontera In-Text ads as one of the cleaner, less cluttering and more relevant ad-formats.

To learn more about the comprehensive comScore study, please visit our comScore results page.

Kontera Synapse is the culmination of an intensive R&D investment throughout the past two years. We’re very excited to see the extraordinary results this new engine provides, and view  the comScore  research as a powerful validation – a testament to Kontera’s In-Text solutions and their effectiveness for both advertisers, publishers and end-users alike.

Just wanted to share with our readers that in their August issue, Website Magazine ranks Kontera Top 50 Ad Networks,and the #1 among the In-Text ad networks.

This is yet another testament to the continued growth of the Kontera network – now over 140 million unique users per month– and to the vote of confidence from our advertisers and publishers partners worldwide.

Check out the Website Magazine article (Download PDF)

Kontera’s publisher network already operates at significant scale within the European market. Our European Publishers and advertisers are taking advantage of Kontera analyzing web pages and offering advertising in all major European languages.

During the past year, European demand for Kontera, both by brand advertisers, ad agencies and publishers, has been through the roof, as an entirely new continent is becoming exposed to Kontera’s unique semantic technology and brand engagement solutions.

Throughout the second quarter of 2010 we rapidly expanded the Kontera European team and our U.K. office to meet the market demand that we are seeing in the region. Our London office, led by Nitzan Yaniv, Kontera’s Europe’s Commercial Director, grew, with recent hires including Peter White to lead Agency Relations and multiple new Account Managers.

We want to thank our European advertisers and publishers for welcoming us into the market so enthusiastically. We’re seeing a genuine excitement around Kontera’s solutions and the audience the Kontera Network delivers – and we are eager to expand those even further!

Kontera’s Eastern Region’s flagship New York office has recently packed up and moved to its brand new spacious location on 22 West 19^th Street.

Now located on one of the best and most colorful neighborhoods in the buzzing metropolis, in the heart of the Chelsea neighborhood, the new office is just a few blocks north of Union Square, south of Midtown, and within walking distance to the world famous Washington Square Park … not to mention down the street from former Cheers’ star Ted Danson who lives nearby (but even Danson knows that the In-Text leader is the true New York Celebrity ).

The team’s response to our new space has been outstanding. Enjoying everything from the luxuries of newly built offices and multiple  conference rooms to choose from, to simple niceties such as boutiques on every corner, the trendiest night life spots, and a cupcake truck around the corner, the team has blossomed in the new location.

With a 40 seat wide open trading floor-like layout, the new office space encourages colorful dialogue, shouting matches and the occasional game of catch between ADs AM and Sales.  We are also in the midst of planning a welcome to Union Square party, open to our agency clients – so be on the lookout for your invite!

While business continues to develop, and the company’s growth is reaching new levels, our other offices worldwide are also upgrading their work environment- as our San Francisco office literally brought the walls down as they expanded their office space, and our Israeli office will be moving to a new, larger, office next month!

To celebrate the big move, several visitors joined the rest of the office in a night out at a local tapas bar for cocktails and appetizers.

Already hard at work in the new office.

And now, the best In-Text network has gotten even better: As of May 3, 2010, Kontera is lowering the minimum payout threshold for publishers from $100 to $50! This literally cuts in half the time it takes our publishers to take home their revenue share.

The lowered $50 payout minimum is applicable across all payment methods, including Check, PayPal, Wire Transfer or ACH.

New publishers enjoy the $50 payout minimum by default. Existing publishers who wish to take advantage of the new payment threshold can update their payout minimum to $50 by visiting the Payout Method page in their Publisher Center.

Payment terms are Net 30, so if you reach at least $50 in your April account balance you would be paid that amount come June 1st. If you want these changes to take effect for the June 1st billing cycle, you should update your Payment threshold by May 15th. Any updates made after the 15th to an account’s payment details will take effect two billing cycles later.

This $50 payment threshold initiative is just the first in a series of exciting changes  Kontera  is unveiling in the next couple of months to show our publishers just how much we value their partnership.

Stay tuned for more good things to come!

We are endorsing UNICEF and the American Red Cross which are two organizations central to worldwide efforts matching resources with need.  Both organizations are active at the epicenter of the recent disaster that has left a mass of destruction and a country unfathomably changed forever.

We are running a focused campaign across our network of more than 15,000 publishers. The Haiti assistance campaign will be shown on pages that relate and discuss the Haiti disaster, and will target phrases and concepts having to do with aid, assistance, and relief for the people of Haiti.

If you’d like, you can make a direct donation right now:

In the words and spirit of Harace Mann, a 19th century US educator, “To pity distress is but human; [but] to relieve it is angelic.”

Mèsi (thank you in Haitian-Creole) for your support and we’ll be sure to keep you posted on our efforts.

It’s no secret that the holidays were in full force, with words like recipe, meal plan, menu, filling our dinner tables, bellies, and manifesting themselves right on our computer monitors.  With Rachel Ray, surpassing all other big names, it seems we even like our celebs to be all about the food.

Fitness, running , and workout plans are on the top of the list to try to cancel out the excessive eating.  And as we all know, drinking water and watching your nutrition intake will help jump start your diet.

In addition to eating and exercising, we can clearly see that people were traveling in style this holiday season with our travel segment of keywords getting quite a bit of attention.  Looks like chartered yachts, planes, trains, and trails were popular means to arrive at your dream destination–anything from the beach, national parks, campgrounds, hotels, hiking, and luxury cruises.

We will keep you posted on 2010’s top keywords, but with everyone back to their full productivity, be sure to focus on blackberry, iphone, and applications as these are winner keywords from what we’ve seen so far this month.

We are gearing up for 2010 with exciting new projects and developments in store.  We hope that you enjoy a beautiful and peaceful holiday season together with close family and friends, however you may choose to celebrate.

We hope that if you haven’t already, you’ll check out our latest publisher promotion and of course follow our social networking profiles to stay up to date on the latest.

From all of us at Kontera, we wish you the best.

Yoav, you have been pioneering this space for almost 10 years, has your vision for the technology and the company changed throughout this time?  And if so, how has it changed?

The original mission that we set for ourselves, to serve users by connecting the web’s information through an understanding of the true meaning of content and identifying user’s interests on any page, has not changed.

The technological approach and the algorithms that we use have gone through several major evolutions including growing from client to server solutions, and from business rules to more statistical analysis approaches to prediction of user intent.

Kontera has been profitable for some time, and growing very rapidly, why raise money now?

Yes, we’ve been asked this question a few times in recent weeks.  We certainly did not need the additional funds for survival. Not only were we profitable, we also had a nice amount of cash in the bank. However, we identified some significant emerging opportunities in the market, and we want to ensure that Kontera is a dominant player.  We believe that an injection of cash now allows us to make quicker and bigger moves in the marketplace, while maintaining our track-record of fiscally responsible operations.

Why did Sequoia Capital invest and lead such a large late-stage financing?

First of all I’m not exactly the best person to answer this question…  What I can say is that this is a great testimonial for us, from one of the best Venture Capital investors in the world. They happen to know the search and advertising space very well, and they are very familiar with Kontera.  Sequoia had a major stake in our company previously, but their recent investment is a clear indication of their confidence in how large this company can become. They did not need to lead this round, nor participate to the extent that they did. There were several external investors that wanted to come in, but Sequoia wanted to lead this round and to increase their stake, and we are honored by that validation.

What is your vision for growing the company? Do you anticipate any structural or organizational changes?

Growth always requisites some changes with it, it’s a function of maturity. In our case we’ve successfully managed transitions from 25 to 50 people, from 50 to 100, and from 100 to our current size. We are currently laying the foundational infrastructure required to run an organization of 250 and more people. I do not want to get into specifics, but can share that one of our highest priorities is to pursue excellence for the entire company.  We are investing significantly in our people, their growth, and in our management.  Historically we’ve been technologically, and engineering focused, with a smaller investment in market facing activities. Going forward we intend to increase our R&D ranks, and to significantly increase the sales, marketing, and services functions.

What are the implications to end users, and the more than 100 Million consumers who view Kontera’s technology in action each month?

As I mentioned earlier, our vision is to connect the Internet’s information dynamically to satisfy users’ current needs. Throughout the years we’ve continually improved the user experience, and the relevancy that we’re able to attain and deliver to consumers, today, is second to none.  Looking ahead, users will see even greater utility as we increase that ad relevancy, as we increase the number of formats of in-text advertising offerings, and as we grow the breadth of information that we are able to bring to each pageview.

Our related-content and Hybrid offerings deliver beneficial consumer information, and we intend to do more in the area of In-Text related content.  Also, within the advertising domain, we find that in many cases  consumers prefer In-text advertising to much of the” loud” advertising that currently dominates sites and often occupies more that 30% of publishers’ page real-estate.  Good in-text advertising can help users to better enjoy their internet experience.  With this funding we will be able to more quickly provide users with a better experience at each of our publishers’ sites, and a better internet experience overall.

What does this funding mean for Kontera’s Publishers and overall network?

The user benefits I just discussed will also accrue to our publishers, whose core mission is to create and maintain their user communities. More engaged and satisfied users equate to healthier operations for our publishers.  In addition, over time, Kontera’s publishers will be seeing new forms of engagement and related information for their audiences, and greater monetization opportunities for their content.

What does this funding mean for Kontera’s Advertisers?

Advertisers are looking for good return on investment for their advertising dollars. This may translate into more effective branding campaigns for some, or more effective direct-response campaigns for others. In either case, we’ll be able to deliver greater returns and greater performance for advertisers. The ways that this happens is first through our work on greater relevancy and user experience as discussed above, and second through greater engagement within our existing ad units and through creation of new innovative advertising units.

Where do you foresee taking the technology and products from here?

I don’t want to discuss our plans in too much detail, but there are a few headlines that I can probably share. The first is our on-going refinements to the relevancy engine. This is an analog to the R&D work that you see the search-engine vendors perform. This type of low-level algorithmic work does not produce many bells and whistles because the work is largely done on the back end. However, this is really the heart of the solution and improvements here create greater satisfaction for users and much greater financial results for advertisers and publishers.  In addition you will see us offer greater flexibility and configurability, and customization ability for the various publishers and advertisers with whom we work. The last area to mention is the ever-growing set of tools that we provide to advertisers and publishers for utilizing our In-Text advertising and related content solutions.

We already offer multiple payment methods to suit your preference.  Now, we’re glad to announce that if you’re using Domestic ACH as your payment method, pay-day will come even sooner. You can receive payment at $75 and cash-in on your Kontera earnings quicker and more often!

The change recently went into effect and can be utilized by publishers who qualify for Domestic ACH payment.

If you are a current Kontera publisher who meets these criteria, we invite you to benefit from this new $75 payout:

1. Login to your Kontera Publisher Center account.
2. Select the “My Account” tab and then follow the “Payment Method” Link.
3. Select the “Domestic ACH” option from the payment method dropdown menu and hit the “Update” button.
4. Please submit all updates to your account’s tax and payout info by the 15th of the month for changes to take effect on  the upcoming payout cycle. Any updates submitted after that date will only be applicable during the next payout cycle.

This change is just one of many to come as we continue to bring you the best  In-Text advertising experience.