Collective Audience and Insticator Launch Strategic Partnership, Integrating AudienceCloud™ with Insticator's Reach to 350 Million Consumers Monthly

• Platform integration to empower publishers and advertisers with AudienceDesk conversational ad units, audience data, and direct connections between supply & demand partners.
• Anticipated to significantly enhance revenue and EBITDA generation from Collective Audience's previously announced planned acquisitions of DSL Digital and BeOp.
• Further build Collective Audience's first-party audience data assets.
• Increase customer ROI on ad inventory and campaign performance.

NEW YORK, April 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- -- Collective Audience, Inc. CAUD, a leading innovator of audience-based performance advertising and media solutions, has launched a strategic technology partnership with Insticator, a premier supply-side platform (SSP) and global leader in engagement solutions for online publishers and brands.

The alliance also taps Insticator's diverse portfolio of companies that include OKO, a Google Certified Publishing Partner for Connected TV; and Balihoo, a leader in multi-location marketing.

Insticator reaches over 350 million consumers monthly across its global network of premium publishers and advertisers that includes Kohler, Suzuki, Acer, Pearle Vision, Trek, Brita, Viking Cruises, MLB, Playmaker, Blitz, Evolve Media, and more.

To reach this global audience, Insticator's 100+ team members and nearly 2,000+ independent publishers utilize the company's unique Demand Marketplace, along with its suite of monetization solutions that include content engagement units (CEUs), commenting technology (Commenting 2.0), comprehensive ad management, and video advertising.

"Our new collaboration with Insticator, Balihoo and OKO Digital unlocks many new avenues for growth, and represents another primary ecosystem building block and validation of our vision, mission and technology roadmap," stated Collective Audience CEO, Peter Bordes. "This groundbreaking partnership makes Insticator's state-of-the art publisher network and monetization capabilities accessible to our customers and partners."

The integration with Collective Audience's AudienceDesk™ powered by AudienceCloud™, an innovative new AdTech infrastructure platform officially unveiled last month, will unite Insticator's vast publisher supply and brand and agency demand with AudienceDesk's unique performance-based marketing and audience data capabilities and further expand the Collective Audience ecosystem.

Publishers and advertisers tapping Insticator's Demand Marketplace and Supply Side Platform (SSP) can expect enhanced revenue streams generated by robust strategies and a wide range of demand sources. The Demand Marketplace seamlessly accommodates all ad formats across various screens, ensuring platform compatibility and user-friendliness.

Insticator utilizes advanced bidding strategies to optimize win-rates and performance. Demand Marketplace boasts high fill rates and CPM, integrating first-party data into the bidstream to activate addressable demand. This enables retargeting strategies and inventory throttling, making publishers more visible to demand partners and effectively managing inventory.

"The integration will also enable Insticator's partners to access our publishers' inventory," added Bordes. "It provides yet another core use case for how we are building our ecosystem with deep bidirectional integrations and empowering our partners with our unique ad units, data capabilities and more."

Insticator founder and CEO, Zack Dugow, stated: "We've long admired the teams who have been building the Collective Audience and BeOp platforms, and have been impressed with how Peter has been bringing these two platforms together in new and more powerful ways. We're excited to deploy our premium brand advertising capabilities across the entire Collective Audience network."

Insticator will also gain new capabilities from Collective Audience, such as for managing quizzes, surveys, and contests. "We anticipate these additional capabilities will not only enhance our customer engagement efforts, but also enable us to engage more advertisers with increased efficiency and effectiveness," continued Dugow. "Moreover, it will empower our customers to generate additional valuable first-party data for our platform and partners."

Collective Audience built AudienceDesk and AudienceCloud infrastructure to empower brands, agencies and publishers with audience-based performance advertising and media solutions in a way that unlocks unrealized value and introduces a new level of integrated collaboration with partners like Insticator. Its modular infrastructure and APIs enable rapid integration with third-party AdTech platforms and applications.

The new strategic technology partnership will involve a deep integration of the collective supply and demand of the joint venture partners' brand and publishing customers, while leveraging Collective Audience's own unique ad units and data capabilities. The collaboration is anticipated to expand Insticator's U.S. market share and facilitate a significant ramp up in revenue generation for Collective Audience and its planned complementary acquisitions.

The structure of the joint venture will support a revenue-share model by granting Collective Audience and Insticator access to each other's platform capabilities and data using API integrations. The partners are also exploring possibilities for shared ownership through an equity exchange.

Dugow, who is also the founder and CEO of Balihoo and OKO Digital, will be joining Collective Audience's Advisor Collective. A noted industry thought leader and visionary, he has been recognized on the DMN Top 40 Under 40 list and was named to Crain's New York's 40 Under Forty list.

Following Collective Audience's integration with Reset Digital that was announced last month, Insticator will gain more information about its audience attention, engagement and intent behavior, which in turn will help in targeting the right message for the highest result. This is expected to bring a great benefit to Insticator's product offering and revenue strategy.

Insticator is also expected to benefit from Collective Audience's recently announced exclusive interim license and joint venture agreement with BeOp, an award-winning, Europe-based MarTech and AdTech industry-leading innovator. Through Collective Audience's platform, Insticator will gain access to BeOp's conversational advertising technology in North America.

Earlier this month, Collective Audience announced an agreement to acquire the marketing-as-a-service provider, DSL Digital. The acquisition would strengthen AudienceCloud with a premiere B2B customer base and an international services team, along with proprietary AI-powered AdTech tools that have been generating positive EBITDA on annualized revenue of more than $5 million.

About Insticator

Insticator holds three key beliefs: the future of social media is distributed, not siloed in the walled gardens of today; publishers deserve a one-stop shop for maximizing ad revenue; and local brick-and-mortar businesses thrive with digital media automation.

Insticator's diverse company portfolio includes OKO, a Google Certified Publishing Partner for Connected TV, and Balihoo, a leader in multi-location marketing. Augmenting these offerings are Insticator-branded products designed to empower publishers in boosting engagement within their ecosystems, fostering active user interactions with site content and each other. This commitment extends globally with the expansion of Insticator into Australia, positioning it as a premier provider of managed-service media solutions.

Insticator is a proud 6x recipient of the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies, a 2x recipient of Deloitte's Fast 500, recognized on Crain's New York Fast 50 list, recognized by Digiday's Digiday Media Awards as a company working to modernize digital media, and awarded as one of AdWeek's Top 10 Fastest Growing Solution Providers globally.

For more information, go to insticator.com.

About Collective Audience

Collective Audience provides an innovative audience-based performance advertising and media platform for brands, agencies and publishers. The company has introduced a new open, interconnected, data driven, digital advertising and media ecosystem that will uniquely eliminate many inefficiencies in the digital ad buyer and seller process for brands, agencies and publishers. It will deliver long sought-after visibility, complementary technology, and unique audience data that drives focus on performance, brand reach, traffic and transactions.

For the AdTech providers and media buyers who come onto Collective Audience's platform, they will be able to leverage audience data as a new asset class, powered by AI as an intelligence layer to guide decision-making.

To learn more, visit collectiveaudience.co.

Important Cautions Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes certain statements that are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," "plan," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "outlook" and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, regarding the company's future financial performance, as well as the company's strategy, future operations, estimated financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of the management of Collective Audience and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Collective Audience. Potential risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political and legal conditions; unanticipated conditions that could adversely affect the company; the overall level of consumer demand for Collective Audience's products/services; general economic conditions and other factors affecting consumer confidence, preferences, and behavior; disruption and volatility in the global currency, capital, and credit markets; the financial strength of Collective Audience's customers; Collective Audience's ability to implement its business strategy; changes in governmental regulation, Collective Audience's exposure to litigation claims and other loss contingencies; disruptions and other impacts to Collective Audience's business, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and government actions and restrictive measures implemented in response; stability of Collective Audience's suppliers, as well as consumer demand for its products, in light of disease epidemics and health-related concerns such as the COVID-19 pandemic; the impact that global climate change trends may have on Collective Audience and its suppliers and customers; Collective Audience's ability to protect patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights; any breaches of, or interruptions in, Collective Audience's information systems; changes in tax laws and liabilities, legal, regulatory, political and economic risks. More information on potential factors that could affect Collective Audience's financial results is included from time to time in Collective Audience's public reports filed with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or Collective Audience's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that Collective Audience presently knows, or that Collective Audience currently believes are immaterial, that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Collective Audience's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. Nothing in this press release should be regarded as a representation by any person that the forward-looking statements set forth herein will be achieved or that any of the contemplated results of such forward-looking statements will be achieved. Collective Audience anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause their assessments to change. However, while Collective Audience may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Collective Audience specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Collective Audience's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

Company Contact:

Peter Bordes, CEO

Collective Audience, Inc.

Email contact

Investor Contact:

Ron Both

CMA Investor Relations

Tel (949) 432-7566

Email contact

Media Contact:

Tim Randall

CMA Media Relations

Tel (949) 432-7572

Email contact

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