Hydra Improves CPA Market Quality Standard

Refines Publisher and Advertiser Base

Beverly Hills, CA -- March 10, 2010 - Hydra, operator of the largest performance based multichannel digital advertising platform, today announced its transition of the Hydra Network portion of its business to an exclusive, invitation-only network, part of an ongoing series of moves designed to win broader adoption of cost-per-action (CPA) advertising among mass market brands and agencies.

Following the introduction of new more stringent membership guidelines on March 1, the company has decreased Hydra Network's base of active publishers from 17,000 to less than 2,000 of its best performing, highest quality marketing partners in a bid to increase quality control without sacrificing its capability for delivering high volume distribution with mass online reach.

"While performance-based CPA advertising networks have always paid lip service to quality concerns, they generally have been rather permissive in admitting publishers in order to pump up distribution. But the reality is that it's impossible to maintain quality control monitoring on tens of thousands of active publishers. We've made the strategic decision to only rely on publishers with proven capability to deliver high volumes of high quality results for our advertisers. Enabling us to offer far greater compliance and quality control than has traditionally been the case in CPA advertising, with this move we hope to win over more mass marketers and their agencies who are attracted by the no-risk performance pricing model, but who have been hesitant due to quality concerns," stated Zac Brandenberg, CEO of Hydra.

In its ongoing efforts to raise the bar on CPA advertising, Hydra has also established higher quality and compliance standards that advertisers must meet in order to gain access to Hydra's distribution platform and suite of services. Recent advertisers that have taken advantage of the Hydra platform include AT&T, Aegon, Hotwire and other well-known brands. This move sets Hydra even further apart from the bulk of ad networks peddling nutraceutical diet remedies, cash grant opportunities, tooth whiteners and other non-branded campaigns of low consumer value.

Hydra's announcement that it is refining its network base of publishing partners comes on the heels of the Hydra Network-wide introduction of its next-generation campaign tracking platform, HN 2.0. Designed to better serve the brand protection and performance reporting needs of premium advertisers, HN 2.0 introduced tools designed to eliminate fraud and enable Hydra clients to better understand and evaluate their online campaigns.

"As a result of our recent evolution of Hydra Network to an exclusive network and the addition of our HN 2.0 platform, we believe Hydra is poised to take advantage of the increasing number of advertisers looking to achieve mass reach with performance-based pricing," notes Mason Wiley, SVP of Marketing for Hydra. "The fact that our network now only relies on a limited number of top performance publishers with whom we have deep, long-term relationships has actually become a major selling point for us as it lessens risk without diminishing results. Major mainstream brands can now feel safe to take advantage of the benefits of CPA advertising."

Source: Hydra Group