The company name change was approved by shareholders, with over 99% of voted shares in support of the name change. The new name will be in effect on January 1, 2008. Enliven will launch a fully integrated marketing plan in Q1 2008 including a new corporate website to support the new brand name and positioning.

As part of its growth strategy, in 2007 the company completed the build phase of its evolution which involved enhancing its technology platform and growing the company’s internet technologies through organic as well as strategic acquisitions. The most recent corporate acquisition was Springbox, an interactive creative marketing firm with expertise in digital Web marketing and content management technology.

Patrick Vogt, CEO of Viewpoint stated in the release that, “Over the past two years, we have fine tuned our technology and transformed our business model to successfully meet the needs of customers in this high growth industry. As we continue to increase our capabilities in the Premium Rich Media space, we are now at a critical inflection point in our growth which makes this the ideal time to relaunch the company with a new brand name. We have all the technology, products, tools and service solutions in place to experience significant growth in the near future. Our new corporate structure will also provide a competitive edge to develop and retain customers by cross-selling and up-selling all of the digital products and solutions we offer.”

The entertainment company will work with DG FastChannel and Unicast to promote DVD releases for both traditional and online media channels. Warner Bros. will leverage the proprietary Unicast 3D Video Cube ad format to create a rich media ad campaign for new DVDs coming out for the holiday season.

Unicast’s rich media team will take movie trailers digitized by DG FastChannel to create interactive ads which will feature movie clips, sweepstakes, as well as an option to click to buy the DVD. Tom DeLuca, VP of Worldwide Interactive Marketing Warner Home Video said “Unicast was the best choice for us because of their cutting edge advertising technology. With DG FastChannel’s digital media services, we can promote our products efficiently through both traditional and online media.”

Chairman and CEO of DG FastChannel Scott Ginsberg said “DG FastChannel, has taken a number of initiatives to become a full service ad solutions company, and Warner Bros. selection of our technology for such an important advertising campaign is a validation of our strategy.”

Patrick Vogt, CEO of Viewpoint stated “Our successful partnership with DG FastChannel enables customers to better engage their audience on the Web with rich interactive features, and also provides valuable cost efficiencies as we repurpose creative content.”

MAKOS will work to serve Viewpoint’s clients better with cross-platform advertising support that includes broadcast video. Furthermore, MAKOS will provide Viewpoint with the opportunity to offer strategic marketing and creative services, campaign concepting and execution, broadcast production, and in-house digital advertising production services. Viewpoint in turn stands to gain more than 25 new marketer direct customers, while MAKOS will now additionally offer Unicast advertising and Studio 3D solutions.

Mark Turner, founder and CEO of MAKOS, states, “This acquisition will combine Viewpoint’s heritage in visualization and online premium rich media marketing with MAKOS’ creative expertise and broadcast video experience. As more marketers look to develop integrated strategies to reach their target audience through multiple mediums, we embrace the opportunity to join a company with a leadership position in the growing Internet marketing technology space.”

From the Viewpoint perspective, company CEO Patrick Vogt offers, “A key part of our strategy is to target local creative agencies that add value to our customers at every step of the interactive advertising supply chain. MAKOS provides us with new functional capabilities that we do not currently have, it accelerates our marketer direct strategy, and it presents us with local brand exposure and local reach.”

“With the explosive growth of opt-in online video programming, InStream video advertising offers a very effective means to build brand awareness for highly targeted audiences,” said Viewpoint CEO Patrick Vogt in a statement. “As a pioneer of pre-roll, Unicast understands the importance of providing publishers, agencies and marketers with a broad range of advertising solutions that leverage the latest in internet marketing technology, while retaining the flexibility to accommodate the unique needs of advertisers.”

The new InStream complements the custom pre-roll advertising already offered by Unicast, which plays advertising, but in its own separate player. InStream ads will appear as part of the publisher’s chosen video player.

Additionally, InStream will use Unicast’s Business Intelligence system to measure impressions, click-throughs and other user interactions.

The One toolbar uses Viewpoint technology to send users alerts and news about global poverty, conduct user surveys, and send news video clips. Part of the campaign involves Viewpoint-served, Radical Media-produced rich media ads distributed on partner sites like Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and CBS.com. The campaign aimed to generate more than two-billion impressions in 2006.

“The ONE campaign is a perfect example of the evolution of marketing online, moving from a pure awareness-building effort to an initiative that uses the Web to inspire people to act,” said Viewpoint CEO Patrick Vogt in a statement. “ONE has been a tremendous partner in recognizing the importance technology plays in getting your message across online, and we are proud to be associated with the organization’s success in becoming the single most effective online advocacy group.”

The front page of most websites is packed to the gills with information. There are title graphics, menus, and navigation systems. If it’s a news site, there also are headlines and feature stories. If it’s a portal, there are links and featured items from all different content sections like news, music, and video that all converge on a single page. All that clutter can easily overwhelm a lonely banner ad vying for the user’s attention amidst all that content. That’s why a good creative can not only catch the user’s attention, but also communicate a message that may only be seen for a split-second as a user scans the sea of information.

It all starts with the message. PBS chose Viewpoint Creative, not the online marketing firm, but the creative agency that’s built campaigns for folks like HBO, the Sci Fi Channel, and Discovery, to develop rich media creatives for a campaign to promote the new show Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures. “What we first and foremost want to know is what the message is trying to convey for that particular show, the audience that they’re trying to reach,” says Viewpoint Creative Director Michael Middeleer. PBS’s message was clear: Cousteau is back. Visit the website, and tune in to the show.

The Cousteau name has been familiar to PBS viewers since 1977 when Jean Michel’s father, Jacques Cousteau, began exposing the mysteries of the world’s oceans to TV sets everywhere through the program Cousteau Odyssey. “I think PBS feels the Cousteau name would resonate,” says Middeleer. “They believe they have two generations of viewers who really knew that name, and so they were quite confident that that alone would speak volumes to their viewers.” Ocean Adventures follows ocean explorer Jean Michel Cousteau and his science team around the world as they examine some of the great mysteries of the ocean.

To emphasize the Cousteau name, Viewpoint designers placed the ‘Cousteau’ front and center. They also placed both the Cousteau name and all the rest of the important text against a deep ocean blue background to create the kind of eye-popping contrast that can get people’s attention.

Because most of the campaign consisted of rich media, the ads were able to move and expand, further drawing attention to themselves. “The challenge for any online advertising is to get the viewer’s eye to glaze over your ad and discover some sort of interest,” says Joseph Kiely, also a Viewpoint Creative Director and Designer. “With rich media and video playing, there’s a higher ratio of people interacting with those banners. More than likely, it’s all of the movement that’s going through the banners.”

The Cousteau rich media ads move and pulsate, and have a fluctuating waterline that drives the viewer’s attention. “The idea was first of all to get the messaging out there right away, but to do it with movement. And the contrast between the dark blue and then going to the bright white also is a wonderful way of grabbing attention,” adds Kiely.

The Unicast Advergaming product allows marketers to connect with and entertain customers through the creation of custom branded online games. Additionally, Viewpoint states that the technology allows branded games to be deployed as either site-side applications, or served as online rich media ad units.

With advergaming revenue estimated to grow from $200 million in 2004 to $1 billion by 2008, according to Gateway Reports and Wall Street Transcript, the timing seems to be right for a technology Viewpoint. In 2005, Pew Internet & American Life Project survey also reported that 81 percent of Web-connected teens played online games.

“Given our heritage for creating visually compelling, interactive online applications that educate and entertain, this new advergaming product rounds out our product offerings perfectly,” said Unicast VP/GM Jason McKayin a statement. “Once again we will leverage our core technologies to provide marketers with new ways to reach their target audiences on the Web.”

Unicast will offer three levels of advergames at three different price points based on game complexity and interactivity. The list includes Casual Online games, Custom Branded games, and the more complex Site-Side Advergames.

“Our focus on technology enables us to stay ahead of emerging market trends such as Advergaming,” adds Patrick Vogt, CEO of Viewpoint. “What’s more, gaming is a way to deliver a more immersive brand experience that can draw in users who ordinarily might skip over online ads. Viewpoint will continue to expand our lineup of IMT Product Series offerings as we see new opportunities emerge which truly add value for our customers.”

“Brand and direct response advertising have begun to converge on the web,” said Viewpoint VP Jason McKay in a statement. “This creates a challenge for marketers as they try to optimize their brand, expand their reach, and increase conversion on the Internet. These Holiday packages provide a full service solution which helps marketers leverage the web for both branding and sales during the critical Holiday selling season. What’s more, the Holiday package integrates seamlessly into their year round marketing plans.”

The new Holiday package is part of Viewpoint’s new Internet Marketing Technology product series that combines the Unicast Ad Platform with the Unicast Ad Platform and browser-based applications.

“We knew that an online presence was a critical element of our campaign strategy, but we didn’t have extensive experience in this space to do it on our own,” said Dan Brady, McGavick’s campaign manager. “Unicast has helped us to leverage the power of web to reach Washington voters. Unicast has played a key role in enhancing our outreach efforts not only by developing a compelling ad for online audiences but also by helping us to effectively target voters on the web.”

McGavick’s rich media ads are currently running on local Washington media web sites affiliated with local and network TV stations and newspapers. Ads are also running on national sites like FoxNews.com and DrudgeReport.com on a geo-targeted basis.

In addition to static information, the index measures interactions like roll-overs, hovers, clicks, and “email to a friend.” Eventually Viewpoint plans to add playback time measurements for rich media video ads. Ratings for the different interactions are combined together and presented as a single score on the index. “If an ad rates lower than 100 on the Index, marketers are either reaching the wrong audience or employing the wrong creative,” said Unicast VP Jason McKay in a statement. “This forces marketers to take a hard look at the media plan and the creative components to see what’s not working. Conversely, if an ad scores higher than 100 on the Index, then our customers know they are delivering advertising that is truly engaging their target audience.”

Viewpoint will make the User Engagement Index publicly available later this year. Indexes will be organized according to vertical industries. Index reporting services will be available to Unicast customers.