About Founder Launches AdKeeper

Launched Sunday, Oct. 10, AdKeeper is an online advertising service that it said aims to change the way consumers interact with the Internet by allowing them to place, with one button click, ads of their choice into their personal "Keepers," giving them full control of saving, sorting, sharing, ranking, reviewing, printing and buying online from ads of their own selection.

Launched in beta and currently available by invitation, the service is slated to be widely available in the first quarter of 2011. AdKeeper requires no software, no downloads, no browser extensions, no plug-ins and no pre-registration.

Charter advertisers include Allstate Insurance Co., Ally Bank, AT&T, Best Buy, CBS, Ford, Gap, General Mills, InterContinental Hotels Group, JetBlue, Kmart, Kraft Foods, Macy's, McDonald's, Pepsi, Sara Lee, Sears, Showtime, The Advertising Council, Unilever and Warner Bros.

"Without leaving their current page or interrupting their online experience," AdKeep founder, chairman and CEO Scott Kurnit said in a statement, "consumers have the unprecedented ability to click and keep ads of their choice." In the process, he continued, "initial ad impressions are followed up with additional permission-based product information, brand experiences and unique offers."

When consumers see a "K" button on an ad that interests them, they click the button, and continue their reading or viewing uninterrupted. The ad is copied into their Keeper, where it can be viewed at the consumer's convenience. Ads in the Keeper can be organized, clicked for more information, used to make a purchase or print a coupon. They also can be reviewed and shared with friends.

The live consumer interface is private and personalized. Its "click to keep" function will not trigger another ad. Ads will be held confidentially in each consumer's Keeper.

Comparing Web advertising to date to television ads that periodically interrupt its programming, Kurnit stresses the Web as a dynamic environment with consumers in control. "It's time for the advertising experience to catch up with the rest of the Web experience," he says, calling AdKeeper clients "brands that respect their consumers."

Filmmaker, television director, inventor and marketer, Kurnit founded and served as chairman and CEO of About Inc., which invented the forerunner to Google's AdSense in Sprinks, purchased by Google in 2003. Kurnit sold About in 2001 to Primedia for $724 million. About is now owned by the New York Times Co., which also is among AdKeeper's investors.

Adkeeper's advisory board includes New York Times Co. President and CEO Janet Robinson, who before moving into top management positions at the company was group senior vice president for the advertising sales and marketing unit of its Women's Magazine Group. She earlier held sales management positions with Golf Digest and Tennis Magazine when they were owned by the Times Co.