Yandex and VivaKi Launch New Targeting Tool for Banner Ads

Moscow, June 8, 2012. Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX), Russia’s leading search engine and most visited website, together with digital communications group VivaKi, has rolled out a new tool for targeting display ads – Digital Eye. The new advertising method enables advertisers to differentiate specific segments of the web user audience depending on the amount of time they spend in front of their television sets. The new targeted advertising product is based on Yandex’s proprietary Crypta technology and is available exclusively to clients of VivaKi group agencies in Russia.

According to TNS Russia, monthly television viewership in Russia totals 99%, while ОМI and TNS polls show that 30% of the Russian internet audience watches television less than one hour per day. Digital Eye gives advertisers an opportunity to specifically target the part of the internet audience that would have been missed through television ads. Moreover, Yandex’s new advertising method makes it possible to display ads to viewers based on their television and online experience. Those web users who are likely to have already seen the ads on TV will be happy to only be reminded of the product, while those who are more likely to spend their time online rather than watching TV might benefit from more product information. The new display ad targeting product helps advertisers to increase their campaign ROIs and optimize their advertising budgets.

“Digital Eye is our first product created together with VivaKi,” says Lev Gleizer, Director of Display Advertising Development at Yandex. “It is based on our behaviour analytics technology, Crypta, that can single out virtually any demographic as long as they display distinctive behavior online. This technology will surely keep developing, and we welcome new partners wishing to expand advertising opportunities for their clients with new, refined, technologically advanced tools.”

“With Digital Eye, our clients will be able to boost the efficiency of their ads and optimize their budgets, especially for those campaigns whose audiences are hard to reach on TV,” says Aleksey Vasilenko, Non-TV Buying Director at VivaKi. “This project is part of VivaKi Russia’s strategic program for developing new media planning and advertising tools in online marketing.”

The Crypta technology was initially implemented last August in Yandex’s demographic targeting tool.

About Vivaki

VivaKi Russia is a communications group that unites operationally independent media agencies MediaVest, Starcom, Zenith and Optimedia. The group includes specialist media planning, media buying and media counseling agencies. VivaKi is the largest media buying group in Russia, according to Russian daily newspaper Kommersant and industry website Adindex. VivaKi leverages the opportunities in digital and media that the group’s agencies can offer to develop new services and implement innovative advertising tools for the benefit of their clients.

About Yandex

Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX) is the leading internet company in Russia, operating the country’s most popular search engine and most visited website. Yandex also operates in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey. Yandex’s mission is to answer any question internet users may have.

Contact:
Media Relations
Vladimir Isaev, Ochir Mandzhikov
Phone: +7 495 739-7000
E-mail: pr@yandex-team.com