• by Phil Leggiere , December 29, 2005

The selling point of ad networks has always been their ability to offer online advertisers a way to target the universe of Internet sites beyond the big portals. Until recently, they've offered mostly blind reach. In order to achieve finely calibrated targeting, advertisers execute buys at high premiums from specialized technology firms.

Now ad network Vendare Media has introduced a suite of four targeting products designed to bring client campaigns beyond blind reach. Vendare's "InFocus" is designed to enable clients to target messages across its network of more than 2,000 sites. Using a tool called "InReach," advertisers can control how they target reach and frequency and also segment campaigns by connection speed or time of day. "InZone" automates targeting by geography, using either zip code, state, or city.

Another offering, "InContext," is designed to allow advertisers to target their messages to relevant content, drilling down into more than 100 subject categories and sub-categories.