Adify Empowers Global Entrepreneurs to Create First African Vertical Ad Network

Pamoja Media Targets Highly Fragmented African Market

ATLANTA, Georgia – October 7, 2008 — Joshua Wanyama, founder of African Path and Benin Brown, editor of Cheetah Index, today launched Pamoja Media (www.pamojamedia.com), the first vertical ad network focused exclusively on the fragmented African market within Africa and the global Diaspora. Pamoja Media has partnered with Adify (www.adify.com), the premier vertical ad network management company, to harness the power of one of the fastest growing Internet markets worldwide and enable marketers to reach this underserved audience. The network encompasses some of the leading media houses and top-of-the-line niche Web sites in the African market.

The name “Pamoja” comes directly from the Swahili word for “togetherness,” which captures the mission of the network’s founders. Wanyama and Brown came together to create the ad network after realizing that there is no simple way to connect publishers and advertisers in Africa. The network is geared towards the worldwide African market and currently supports English language websites, with support for French, Arabic and Portuguese in the coming months.

“The growth of computer access in Africa, coupled with the high demand for mobile technology, has put Africa on the map in terms of Internet accessibility,” said Joshua Wanyama. “With these factors coming into play we knew a vertical ad network would be the perfect opportunity to pave the way for advertisers to successfully reach this underserved market.”

Adify is providing Pamoja Media with the key network management services required to execute successful advertising campaigns, including ad management, tracking, reporting, billing, payment and technical support functions. This infrastructure is capable of delivering content sponsorships, video, image and rich media advertising for its various network partners. Entrepreneurs who work with Adify can ramp up their networks within days.

Pamoja Media is launching with 12 publishers and will add to this throughout the year. The network gives advertisers access to 1.2 million unique users and 20 million ad impressions per month. Current advertisers include Accents Telecom, Global Leaders Africa and Mega Solar Tec.

“Pamoja Media has relationships with both publishers and advertisers, so all it needs is a platform that can easily ramp up as fast as Pamoja can sign up partners,” said Russ Fradin, president of Adify. “Adify’s platform empowers entrepreneurs to create networks all over the globe. Beyond the technology to serve brand advertising to highly-targeted audiences, we offer the services that make it easy for businesses to manage multiple partners that span a whole continent.”

About Adify

Adify Corporation is the premier vertical ad network management company and an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Cox TMI Inc., part of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, one of the nation's leading media companies and providers of automotive services.

Contact

Anthony Loredo

Horn Group, Inc.

aloredo@horngroup.com

(646) 202-9770

Pamoja Media has a Facebook page. If you would like to see it and become a fan, please click here

Pamoja Media, Inc. is a Bar Camp Africa 2008 sponsor and both Joshua Wanyama, as well as Benin Brown plan on attending the event on October 11, 2008. In summary Bar Camp Africa aims to do the following:

BarCamp Africa/Silicon Valley brings people, institutions and enterprises interested in Africa - as a topic, an opportunity, or a place of action - together in one location to exchange ideas, build connections, re-frame perceptions and catalyze action that leads to positive involvement and mutual benefit between Silicon Valley and the continent of Africa.

Company Profile Pamoja Media is an online ad network that makes it easier for marketers to reach the highly fragmented African market within the continent and in the Diaspora. Pamoja Media is the first company to ever do this and is experiencing growing demand for its expertise as a result. As Pamoja Media expands its international market presence, the company seeks experienced outside sales representatives to augment the company's growth strategy. The company offers an agressive compensation plan as well as career advancement opportunities for the right candidate. Job Title Business Development Director Department Business Development Reporting This an outside sales consultant position. The position reports to Benin Brown, Co-Founder and VP of Business Development, remotely via weekly teleconference and regular email updates. Position Objective We seek sales professionals who are client-focused and are able to produce results both with generating new clients and also in maintaining ongoing client relationships. Responsibilities for this position include, but are not limited to the following: * Selling online advertising space to clients in the form of sponsorships, CPM, & CPC * Aggressive prospecting from within consultant's own personal Rolodex * Develop, and maintain long-term relationships with existing and new clients and agencies * Build and maintain advertising sales through prospecting activities * Create and make sales presentations to clients * Ensure that ad deadlines are met by coordinating non-sales functions with the appropriate departments of Pamoja Media. Job Requirements It is imperative that the candidate already has a large Rolodex of potential advertisers. A mix of US and overseas contacts is a plus. Three (3) or more years experience in online advertising sales. Prefer direct and agency experience. Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills and be a team player. Must be able to remotely attend weekly sales meetings. Definite Pluses BA or BS degree in a related field (i.e. Marketing, Advertising, Business) Experience with high level sales and sales of complex product offerings. Consistently achieved and increased revenue goals through closing new business and growing existing business. Top publisher/portal or Ad Network experience. For consideration submit resume to benin@pamojamedia.com. EOE.

Adify writes, "Over the last twelve months, there’s been a lot of attention on a new category in the online advertising ecosystem – the ad exchange. Acquisitions by Microsoft (ADECN) and Yahoo! (Right Media) and new offerings from Doubleclick reinforce that there is a real role for ad exchanges. It is a mistake to overstate this role, especially in reference to other parts of the advertising ecosystem. Historical analogy demonstrates exactly what the strengths and weaknesses of exchanges will be – can drive prices lower but require very knowledgeable buyers staying informed about all the factors influencing “asset” value. Vertical Ad Networks seem to be launching daily and the reason is that a quality vertical ad network is like buying into a mutual fund, rather than directly on an exchange. The vertical ad network builder is the mutual fund manager and drives value for themselves and their advertisers by tracking all the details and complexity in managing the publishers to deliver a high performing publishing community that efficiently and expertly reaches your target audience. "

Jim Larrison writes an insightful post highlighting both the misconceptions that publishers have about Adsense, as well as the limitations of the Adsense model. Here is an excerpt:

"Many bigger publishers or broad network entrepreneurs come into the planning around their network with one big mistaken assumption. This assumption has existed in the market now for many years, and when people are presented with the truth they are usually shocked. The problem with this ongoing myth is it is getting more and more off base from reality and has a real risk of having your business models for your networks far off of reality. Over the past few years this misconception has had ripple effects on sites and on network operators and in many cases has had a dramatic impact on their business plans and financial models. What is the misconception you might say? Okay, enough of the drama! The biggest misconception in the market today has to do with Google AdSense. Most people in big sites or with limited multi-category experience with AdSense have strong beliefs that the effective CPM paid by Google is extremely low and way below the market rate would be for the similar ad spaces on an open market."

The Pamoja Media Blog has added a publisher page, as well as sub pages giving site demographics for each publisher. We will be updating this page regularly. However, here are a few of the names on that list. Click on the links below for profiles of Pamoja Media’s Publishers. Nation Media Group (Kenya) - www.nation.co.ke Mail & Guardian (South Africa) - www.mg.co.za Kick Off Soccer Sites Kick Off (South Africa) - www.kickoff.com Kick Off Nigeria - www.kickoffnigeria.com Kick Off Ghana - www.kickoffghana.com Kick Off East Africa - www.kickoffeastafrica.com African Path (African Continent) - www.africanpath.com Stock Market Nigeria (Nigeria) - www.stockmarketnigeria.com Modern Ghana (Ghana) - www.modernghana.com Afrigator (African Continent) - www.afrigator.com Juju Nation (African Continent) - www.jujunation.com Mmegi (Botswana) - www.mmegi.com Bankelele (Kenya) - http://bankelele.blogspot.com Nu World Africa (African Continent) - www.nuworldafrica.com

Here are two posts that reference Hash's post on White African, announcing the launch of Pamoja Media. Ndesanjo Macha at Global Voices writes:

White African writes about Pamoja Media, an ad network created to serve advertisers looking for a one-stop-shop for publishers in Africa, or that reach Africans in the diaspora.

Emeka Okafor writes:

White African profiles Pamoja a new Advertising network...

Pamoja Media: An African Ad Network

Erik Hersman of White African has just published an article on a new vertical ad network geared towards the African market. Pamoja Media makes it easier for marketers to reach the highly fragmented African market within the continent and in the Diaspora. This is achieved by partnering with the largest African media houses and premium niche sites that carry unique content and a faithful audience. By advertising on these online properties, advertisers access highly appropriate and targeted consumers for their products within any geographic region in the world.

Started by Joshua Wanyama and Benin “Mwangi” Brown of African Path, the network will serve African publishers by offering their inventory to marketers world wide. This will include large global brands and smaller companies within specific geographic regions.

White African writes:

Publishers

Pamoja is brand new, and just starting to get going. That hasn’t stopped them from gathering an impressive list of publishers with a total of 10 million impressions dedicated and another 10 million more confirmed impressions if ad inventory is filled. That’s impressive, but more interesting is to see some of the names on their list of publishers, including: Mail & Guardian (South Africa), the Daily Nation (Kenya), Modern Ghana and Stock Market Nigeria.

Other publishers are welcome to apply, as long as they meet the following requirements:

· Be focused on Africa, or the African diaspora

· An Alexa ranking of 250,000 or better

· Have a minimum of 2000 pageviews per day

· Be aesthetically pleasing (or at least not embarassing)

Advertisers

as whoever has been involved in this knows, getting publishers on board is the easy part. Everyone of them is happy to go with the media outfit that will provide them with a solid amount of advertising income. Getting advertisers is the hard part, and that’s where Pamoja Media is focusing their work now that they have the initial 20 million impressions. Current advertisers include Pingo, PoaPay, Accents Telecom and Zain.

Advertisers joining so far have come in because they’ve seen the brand name portals available through the network. Pamoja can get them on board at a better rate for a smaller advertiser than if they go to the Nation or M&G themselves, because they do a bulk buy with multiple advertisers. As the network grows with other large portals giving up excess inventory, Pamoja will become even more attractive than it already is.

A qualifying publisher can join the network from here

An advertiser can inquire and place ads on the network through this link