Innovator e-channel online has recruited veteran online media strategist Philip Alexander as chairman in a move that opens doors among major publishers for its search engine advertising system.

Mr. Alexander, a former regional corporate development director for Yahoo! in South Asia, intends to play a hands-on role with e-channel by identifying business opportunities within Australian enterprises and using his extensive network to expand the company, both locally and in international markets.

With search engine advertising the fastest growing sector of Australia’s $1 billion online advertising market, e-channel’s Dynamic Creative software boosts productivity for online advertisers by as much as 500 per cent by automating the repetitive, exhaustive and labour-intensive process of creating online search ads.

Dynamic Creative enables large, database-rich websites to automate keyword list creation and optimise the performance of ad campaigns. The software interrogates large content databases to create accurate keywords which are published as compelling content-rich ads in search engines such as Google.

Mr. Alexander, a former chairman, and current director, of the Internet Industry Association in Australia, recently invested in e-channel online alongside Playford Capital and a group of other investors.

Mr. Alexander said he was attracted because “e-channel has the management team, the strategy and the product, in Dynamic Creative, to improve online search advertising results for clients in Australia and internationally”.

“There is a rapid and major transition of advertising and marketing dollars from traditional media to targeted results in online search. This is changing the way advertisers and consumers interact.
“The Dynamic Creative software developed by Frank Grasso and his team is already making a revolutionary impact on a large number of advertisers and publishers in Australia. The product can deliver immediate benefits to organisations that run travel, classifieds, auction and retail websites.”

Mr. Alexander is CEO of online media strategy consultancy OrderPoint Australia. Previous roles include Yahoo!, President and CEO of iBEAM Broadcasting Asia in Hong Kong and founding managing director of Chello Broadband Australia & New Zealand. He also held senior roles with major media company VNU in Asia and Europe.

e-channel online has recruited another experienced director in Doug Adamson, an Investment Manager for Playford Capital. Mr. Adamson is an experienced entrepreneur who has built media and technology businesses in Australia, and Europe. He is also an active angel investor.

Mr. Adamson said a board gave a fast-growing company access to experience and expertise. “It’s critical for a founder or CEO to have access to senior people who have done it before,” he said.
e-channel online CEO Frank Grasso said the board put together by Playford Capital was as important as the money it had invested. “The board contains senior people with extensive industry and business experience who will accelerate the growth of e-channel,” he said.

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