Local Corporation Launches Rich Media Ad Platform That Enables Ad Creation and Publishing Within Minutes

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Local Corporation (NASDAQ: LOCM), a leading online local media company, today announced the launch and full rollout of its Rovion Ad Management Platform (RAMP), the first automated, cloud-based solution that enables the creation and publishing of original rich media ads for online and mobile environments, without Flash® authoring software or coding. Using local shopping data provided by Krillion’s patented technology, RAMP lets publishers, agencies and brands create, deliver and track customized rich media ads that incorporate pricing information and in-store product availability from brands to maximize relevance for web-influenced shoppers.

“We believe RAMP will significantly impact the online advertising space, changing the expectations of the entire value chain”

“Broadcast Interactive Media (BIM) needed a flexible, rich media platform that is scalable and allows our clients to more effectively monetize their websites,“ said Mike Schuch, BIM’s vice president of local sales. “RAMP will allow us to create rich media campaigns across our vast ad network of TV, radio and newspaper properties. As a result of using RAMP to create and deliver campaigns, we expect to serve up to 500 million impressions per month, which illustrates the platform’s ability to scale.”

Specifically, RAMP:

allows agencies and brands to quickly customize non-template-based ads for local markets or comparison tests
increases ad relevancy through localized national ad campaigns published to the Web or in HTML5 for mobile
benefits retailers and manufacturers by influencing their web and web-to-store sales through CPM-based rich media advertising
enables publishers to drive incremental ad revenue through the creation of rich media ads, which connect online audiences with relevant, local pricing and other information on in-stock product

"We believe RAMP will significantly impact the online advertising space, changing the expectations of the entire value chain,” said Michael Sawtell, chief operating officer, Local Corporation. “Thanks to RAMP, creative professionals can quickly make critical changes to increase ad relevancy. Additionally, the unique inclusion of local product data is a potentially powerful solution for retailers and our work with major retailers demonstrates the platform’s capabilities for this group. Both features provide substantial benefits for brands, agencies and publishers seeking to improve the relevancy of their online campaigns.”

Half of mobile search queries have a local intent and 88 percent of those who look for local information on their smartphones take action within a day.¹ In addition, analyst firm Borrell Associates reports that local rich media display advertising now represents approximately 10 percent of the total local online ad landscape, and predicts that rich media display advertising will grow to $5.1 billion, or 37 percent of all banner advertising by 2016. RAMP’s unique integration of dynamic information on local product pricing and availability may contribute to these trends by empowering brands to engage ready-to-buy local shoppers through distribution of hyper-local information. The inclusion of local shopping data, paired with a technology patent retained by Local Corporation following the company’s acquisition of Krillion in April 2011, adds to the intellectual property Local Corporation has in this space.

RAMP is a non-template-based platform that enables the full, flexible, customized creation of rich media ads that can be viewed online or on mobile devices. For more information, please visit: http://www.rovion.com/.

The company will be giving live demos of the RAMP platform this week at ad:tech NY at the Local Corporation booth (#2018).

About Local Corporation

Local Corporation (NASDAQ:LOCM), a leading online local media company, enables brick-and mortar businesses to connect with online customers using a variety of digital marketing products. The company reaches more than 25 million consumers each month on the flagship Local.com website, approximately 1,600 regional media sites and more than 100,000 geo-category websites. The company distributes daily deals to hundreds of thousands of email subscribers via Spreebird.com, rich media ads via Rovion.com, and real-time product inventory information from more than 70,000 retail locations nationwide via Krillion.com. To advertise, or for more information, visit: http://www.local.com/ or http://corporate.local.com/.

Local Corporation is a registered trade name of Local.com Corporation.

About Broadcast Interactive Media

Broadcast Interactive Media (BIM) is the leading provider of revenue, content and technical solutions for local media and is a trusted resource for hundreds of broadcast and publisher clients. Core products are the BIM Web and Video CMS, YouNews® social media platform, MediaStar suite, BIMLocal Ad Network, local sales initiatives such as Get Active Today, Walkout Video and Green, STELA Compliance Tools and the full range of TitanTV® guide products, including data-services, program guides, mobile guides and TitanTV.com. Customers include ABC, Belo Television Group, Capitol Broadcasting, CBS Television, Fisher Communications, Fox Television, Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst-Argyle, NBC Owned Television Stations, Scripps-Howard and the Telemundo Station Group. BIM is based in Madison, WI with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Austin and Cedar Rapids.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Local.com Corporation’s expected financial performance, as well as Local.com’s strategic and operational plans. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, our advertising partners paying less RPC and revenues to us for our search results; our ability to adapt our business following the shifts in our monetization partners; our ability to monetize the Local.com domain, including at a profit; our ability to retain monetization partners for the Local.com domain and other web properties under our management that allows us to operate profitably; our ability to develop, market and operate our local-search technologies; our ability to market the Local.com domain as a destination for consumers seeking local-search results; our ability to grow our business by enhancing our local-search services, including through businesses we acquire; the future performance of our OCTANE360 business; the integration and future performance of our Spreebird daily deals business, including the recently acquired Screamin Daily Deals business, our Krillion business and our Rovion business, as well as any other businesses we may acquire; our ability to successfully expand our Spreebird business into new markets, including through acquisitions; the possibility that the information and estimates used to predict anticipated revenues and expenses associated with the businesses we acquire are not accurate; difficulties executing integration strategies or achieving planned synergies; the possibility that integration costs and go-forward costs associated with the businesses we acquire will be higher than anticipated; our ability to successfully expand our sales channels for new and existing products and services; our ability to increase the number of businesses that purchase our advertising products; our ability to expand our advertiser and distribution networks; our ability to integrate and effectively utilize our acquisitions' technologies; our ability to develop our products and sales, marketing, finance and administrative functions and successfully integrate our expanded infrastructure; as well as our dependence on major advertisers, competitive factors and pricing pressures; changes in legal and regulatory requirements; and general economic conditions. Any forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this paragraph. Unless otherwise stated, all site traffic and usage statistics are from third-party service providers engaged by the company.

Our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K/A, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Form 10-Q/A, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K and Form 8-K/A, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of the date they are made. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.

¹ http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2011/10/27/webinar-on-oct-27-with-jaguar-what-retailers-can-learn-from-the-intersection-of-hyperlocal-advertising-and-the-auto-sector