• by Tameka Kee , April 24, 2008

Exponential Interactive, parent company of the Tribal Fusion ad network, launched Expo9, a free ad-serving platform, in June 2007--and EchoTopic, an in-text contextual ad product, in September. And now Experts-Exchange, an online community for IT professionals, has inked an exclusive advertising partnership with Exponential--one that leverages all three of those solutions.

San Mateo-based Experts-Exchange has been a Tribal Fusion publisher for roughly six years, but the company recently shifted its text-based ad business from Vibrant Media over to Exponential's EchoTopic. The deal made Exponential the exclusive seller of all advertising for the site.

"The reason we ended up going with Exponential had nothing to do with Vibrant's performance--they were fantastic," said Jonathan Hoekman, marketing manager for Experts-Exchange. "It was more about the unique alliance between EchoTopic and Tribal Fusion. It becomes a more complete package for the Tribal sales reps so we can get more ad dollars."

And though the partnership is on a revenue-share basis, Hoekman said that Experts-Exchange can keep an eye on metrics like page views and CPMs on a daily basis because the company uses Exponential's Expo9 ad-serving platform.

"Experts-Exchange is an excellent example of an anchor site in our tech vertical on Tribal Fusion," said Alistair Goodman, vice president of strategic marketing at Exponential. "But they're an even better example of our long-term commitment to figuring out how to best monetize a publisher's audience. They use our ad-serving technology, and with the addition of EchoTopic, our sales team can do custom things like text, banner and sponsorship or editorial packages."