Sony Pictures Television Ad Sales Latin America and SocialVibe Launch New Digital Advertising Partnership

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sony Pictures Television Ad Sales (SPT Ad Sales) Latin America and SocialVibe today announced a partnership to bring SocialVibe’s value-exchange engagement ads to the Latin American market for the first time, allowing marketers to deeply engage with a targeted audience to drive brand visibility and purchase intent. The new partnership will enable brands to interact with socially-connected consumers and garner valuable attention for brand messages within online environments, such as Zynga’s social games like Farmville and CityVille, as well as Facebook, Pandora, IMVU, Causes.com and others.

“Along with our turnkey solutions, the partnership enables us to deliver brands a robust and complete advertising solution on all screens and reach more than 75 million people throughout Latin America.”

Value exchange advertising, pioneered by SocialVibe, allows advertisers to offer consumers something they value – such as virtual currency for a social game, access to premium content or a donation to charity – in exchange for interacting with an engagement ad. According to a recent KN Dimestore research study*, giving consumers something of value in exchange for their attention creates significant impact on brand perception and purchase behavior—more than 90 percent of people pay active attention to a brand message when interacting with value-exchange ads, and brand perception rises an average of 38 percent after completing the engagement.

SocialVibe’s value-exchange engagement ads incorporate a variety of interactive features—such as video, polls and games—designed to capture users’ active attention and encourage them to share the brand experience with their friends. The solution, which has proven to be a highly successful advertising vehicle for hundreds of premium U.S. brands, garners up to a 40 percent share rate and works on a cost-per-engagement model so that brands are increasing earned media and decreasing media spend.

"Value-exchange engagements are a powerful new advertising option that will guarantee consumer engagement with a brand, and we’re pleased to make the technology available in the Latin American region through our partnership with SocialVibe," said Irving Plonskier, senior vice president and general manager of Sony Pictures Television Ad Sales Latin America. "Along with our turnkey solutions, the partnership enables us to deliver brands a robust and complete advertising solution on all screens and reach more than 75 million people throughout Latin America."

"More than 114 million consumers in Latin America have visited a social platform in 2011, proving that they find value in the entertainment and camaraderie social media provides," said Jay Samit, CEO of SocialVibe. "We see this as an opportunity to help brands engage with real people in the places where consumer attention lives. Together with SPT Ad Sales Latin America, we’re bringing value-exchange advertising to a new market and providing brands who want to engage consumers in Latin America with an innovative and highly effective ad model that connects them with the right audience at the right time.”

SocialVibe’s value-exchange advertising is currently available via SPT Ad Sales Latin America for pan-regional customers and will be rolled out in Brazil, Mexico, and Central America soon. To see examples of value-exchange engagements from dozens of leading global brands, please visit: http://advertising.socialvibe.com/gallery

About Sony Pictures Television

Sony Pictures Television Ad Sales Latin America is a division of Sony Pictures Television Latin America. Headquartered in Miami, this group oversees all advertising sales in Latin America on behalf of Sony Pictures Television’s branded television networks – SET, AXN and Sony Spin, as well as some of the region’s other premiere networks A&E, BIO, Casa Club, E!, MGM and The History Channel. SPT Ad Sales Latin America, led by Irving Plonskier, has operations in Brazil, Mexico, Panama and Miami (Pan Regional).

Sony Pictures Television is one of the television industry’s leading content providers, producing and distributing programming in every genre, including series, telefilms, theatrical releases and family entertainment around the world and for every platform: broadcast and cable television, first-run and off-network syndication and digital distribution. SPT is a leader in local language productions around the world, some of which are co-produced with local partners, and sells SPE-owned formats in approximately 70 countries. SPT's worldwide television networks portfolio is a key strategy in SPE's long-range commitment to the global marketplace, with 120 channel feeds, which are available in more than 159 countries reaching almost 543 million households worldwide. Additionally, SPT owns premium video website, Crackle.com; Dutch entertainment company 2waytraffic; production company Embassy Row; the Sony Movie Channel; and is a part owner of cable channel GSN; 3net,a new 3D channel; FEARnet, the premier horror/thriller multiplatform network; and national media sales company ITN Networks, Inc.

About SocialVibe

SocialVibe is a digital advertising technology company that provides the most effective form of brand advertising for some of the world’s top brands. Unlike ad networks that simply deliver impressions through display advertising, SocialVibe provides opt-in engagements that consumers can share across their social graph. SocialVibe enables advertisers to engage at a time when consumers are most motivated to participate in brand experiences, such as while playing a social game, donating to charity or accessing premium content. SocialVibe enables engagements on the Web and on mobile, reaching a universe of more than 600 million socially-connected global consumers. Visit www.socialvibe.com or check out twitter.com/socialvibeads.

*SocialVibe and market research company KN Dimestore issued a report in Sept. 2011 showing that value-exchange advertising works to drive active attention to a brand message and significantly increases brand perception and purchase intent.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50079800&lang=en