Reinforcing his Message to Marketers, CEO Justin Choi Named Finalist For SEMA
Street Performance Council's `Person of the Year` Award
LONG BEACH, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
As magazine circulation declines and online forum registrations increase, one
often-neglected way to reach Gen Y is by providing useful content to enthusiast
audiences online, according to Cie Studios CEO Justin Choi.
Cie Studios, developer of PostRelease forum advertising solution
(www.PostRelease.com), today announced that Choi has been invited to participate
in a youth marketing panel at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA)
Show, the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world, held
in Las Vegas through Friday.
Justin Choi is also one of four nominees for the SEMA Street Performance
Council's "Person of the Year" Award. The council, which represents 175
companies, honors individuals whose creativity, integrity, industriousness and
accomplishments have made a substantial contribution to the street-performance
industry. The council will present the award at a reception on Wednesday night.
He is participating in the SEMA session titled, "Marketing to the Gen Y
Customer," to be held Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 1 p.m. Leading brands in and out of
the specialty equipment market will share their knowledge and experience
courting the coveted Gen Y demographic. They will cover how typical Gen Y
customers prefer to learn about a product, their buying patterns and what
technology they like to use to get answers about products and services.
Choi will offer insights on online tools that companies can use to find, engage
and measure the results of their Gen Y audience marketing. The panel will also
include experts from J.D. Power and Associates, The ID Agency, PowerTV Media and
Armory Marketing.
Earlier this week, PostRelease announced a new partnership with Forum Foundry,
Inc. (www.ForumFoundry.com), which added 27 of its forums to the PostRelease
forum network.
"Young people can be extremely enthusiastic about their favorite brands and
products, and they`re hungry for content related to their passions," said Choi.
"As the circulation in top niche automotive publications has declined, user
registrations in targeted online forums has skyrocketed. The same is true for
many industries. The new place for niche, enthusiast content is online.
"Advertisers can participate in communities by contributing useful and relevant
content in a way that`s transparent." he said. "Transparency is an important
part of PostRelease because it works - it`s proven that consumers respond to
messages that are properly identified and informative, and that include
actionable content."
Digg and a handful of blogs have started to allow ad-sponsored content that is
clearly labeled as advertising but otherwise blends in with the non-advertising
content. For its part, Cie Studios offers PostRelease, a solution that enables
companies to insert clearly labeled sponsored posts into targeted online forum
discussions.
During testing in 2008, PostRelease addressed a single category - automotive
forums. More than 50 PostRelease campaigns have since been executed in that
space, for companies such as Pioneer Electronics, Toyota/Scion, Nitto Tire North
America, American Tire Distributors and more. PostRelease click-through rates
have averaged 33 percent, with highs reaching nearly 90 percent.
The effectiveness of individual PostRelease posts increases over time - with
response rates growing as much as 70 percent six months later, because people
can discover those posts directly from search engines.
Justin Choi founded Cie Studios in 1998 as an interactive services firm. Today,
Cie Studios has evolved into an interactive applications company with a special
ability to apply technology/software to solve business problems and create
business opportunities. The firm`s digital products include large multiplayer
social games, online advertising software, B2B social media applications, and
online 3D visualization tools.
About PostRelease
PostRelease (www.PostRelease.com) is the first effective solution for online
forum advertising and influencing word-of-mouth forum discussions. It enables
companies to insert sponsored posts into targeted online forum discussions.
PostRelease empowers marketers to become part of the conversation in forums, at
a time when opinions are being formed and purchase decisions are being made.
PostRelease was created by Cie Studios, a digital media lab based in Long Beach,
Calif.
Edge Communications, Inc.
Ken Greenberg, 818-990-5001
ken@edgecommunicationsinc.com
Copyright Business Wire 2009
