NextMedium Lands Entertainment Vet Ken Ziffren and His Firm

NextMedium Lands Entertainment Vet Ken Ziffren and His Firm

Ziffren's Law Firm, Which Has Crafted Groundbreaking Deals for Dreamworks, DIRECTV and Starz! to Spearhead Effort to Help Media Companies Understand Revenue Opportunities Made Possible by NextMedium Platform

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- NextMedium, developer and operator of the world's first audited brand integration platform, said today that the prestigious entertainment law firm, Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman, Cook, Johnson, Lande & Wolf LLP, will play a leading role in introducing the world's largest content creators to the company's Embed(TM) marketplace. Ken Ziffren, Matt Johnson and Theane Evangelis will assist in strategic planning and negotiation with production companies, networks and ad agencies to implement the Embed system. Through Embed, content creators can offer marketers new inventory to execute brand integration campaigns across the entire entertainment landscape of television, film, music and videogames.

Ziffren and his firm have a long history of leading negotiations that have altered the entertainment landscape and created new revenue opportunities for industry leaders. His firm played a leading role in helping Microsoft establish MSNBC, and he helped DIRECTV secure long term relationships for its pay-per-view video on demand service with all major studios. And the firm also drove negotiations that allowed the Starz! Entertainment network to proliferate on cable, online and other platforms.

Ziffren's firm, Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman, Cook, Johnson, Lande & Wolf LLP, is a leading Southern California transactional entertainment law firm representing clients in music, motion picture, television and multimedia areas. Attorneys at the firm represent some of the biggest names in entertainment, including Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Sandra Bullock, and Law & Order creator Dick Wolf.

"The entertainment industry is embracing brand integration as a powerful opportunity in a challenging advertising, revenue and growth environment," Ziffren said. "NextMedium's Embed platform is a powerful innovation that can deliver a seamless and open marketplace that will facilitate growth for media buyers and sellers and drive new revenue opportunities."

NextMedium's innovative Audited Brand Integration platform takes product placement to the next level by creating a reliable, scalable, and measurable system for selling targeted exposures to brands. Producers propose integrations, advertisers bid for them, and the director selects the brand, incorporating creative concerns.

"Ken, Matt and Theane have had a seat at the table in negotiating content deals that have revolutionized entertainment for media companies and their consumers," said Hamet Watt, CEO of NextMedium. "The current evolution of brand integration is another inflection point that has major revenue implications for the industry. Their experience, insight and contacts will be critically important in guiding our efforts to build out the Embed network to be a major facilitator in helping the industry capitalize on these new revenue opportunities."

According to Nielsen Media Research, brand integration and product placement activity in 2005 alone was worth $2 billion. NextMedium's Embed(TM) represents the industry's push toward standardization of the buying and selling process. This is accomplished via a new trading marketplace that enables a more streamlined, measurable brand integration model. For entertainment companies, NextMedium's platform will allow them to better respond to the changing needs of their advertiser customers. For advertising companies, NextMedium's innovations allow them to explore more contextually relevant ways to connect with their customers through entertainment.

NextMedium announced recently a $6 million Series B financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Bessemer, whose recent investments have included Skype (acquired by eBay), Flarion (acquired by QUALCOMM), and Blue Nile, is the nation's oldest venture capital practice. Series A investors Ascend Venture Group, LLC and Globespan Capital Partners also participated in the round.

About NextMedium

NextMedium develops and operates Embed, the world's first brand integration platform. Advertising and entertainment companies have been challenged with a need to better understand and utilize brand integration as an alternative or an augmentation to traditional ad forms. NextMedium is working with the industry to provide solutions and a common trading platform for buying, selling, and measuring brand integration through a collaboration with Nielsen Media Research.

Embed facilitates contextually relevant advertising (brand integration) across multiple entertainment vehicles, including television, film, video games, and music. Embed generates new revenue streams for entertainment companies, while allowing advertisers to unobtrusively reach target audiences with measurable results.

NextMedium is based in Los Angeles, CA. www.nextmedium.com.

Source: NextMedium

CONTACT: Corie Pierce of SutherlandGold Group, +1-415-934-9600, x307,
for NextMedium

Web site: http://www.nextmedium.com/

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