• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer, June 17, 2002

BURST! Media (www.burstmedia.com) was founded in 1995 by Jarvis Coffin and Robert Hanna, who have more than 20 years of media experience between them. In five years, the network has gone from one that few people knew about to ranking in the top 15 by monthly impressions. But according to Biff Burns, vp of marketing, BURST! has remained true to their original objective: “To offer specialty content web publishers on the Internet.”

One thing that makes BURST! stand out from other advertising networks (besides having its name in all capital letters with an exclamation point) is its categorization structure: BURST! currently boasts 20 major categories and 477 subcategories. So if you click on BURST!’s Business and Economy category, you will find websites under this main category as well as six subcategories containing more websites to choose from. In some cases, you may even find categories within the subcategories (talk about specific targeting!). This categorization scheme simplifies the targeting process for those looking for a very specific audience. BURST! currently has over 3,000 websites in its network, and its monthly impressions exceed 1 billion. As a network, BURST! reaches one in five unique users monthly on the Internet.

When it comes to advertising on the BURST! Network, advertisers have four options to choose from: Run of Category, Run of Network, Precision-Targeted (advertising on selected websites or selected email lists), and BURST!Mail (a list of opt-in emails). Pricing is done on a CPC or CPM basis.

To gain a better idea of how much content the BURST! Network contains, picture a pyramid. Remove the top tier and the bottom tier and what you have left over are the array of websites contained in the BURST! Network. Coffin, President and CEO, says “BURST! is devoted to the Internet and the armies of new and independent content producers that we represent. The enormous diversity of the Internet gives advertisers a chance to approach consumers when they are actively involved with their most passionate interests.”

The BURST! Network offers many products to the publishers in its network. Last year, BURST! began voluntary data collection to help advertisers target their audiences. Publishers posted a basic demographic survey on their websites (age, gender, salary, etc.), and 1 million surveys have been collected to date. The publishers and BURST! share this information on a monthly basis. Another product exclusively for BURST! publishers is B!Zine, a publication that gives the publisher a heads-up on marketing and advertising on the Internet. — Amy Corr