Leading American advertising firms such as Saatchi & Saatchi and Group M are two of 2,500 companies looking to Israel's Eyeblaster to help them reach, monitor and manage their advertising campaign targets.

Now that the Internet has leapt into the world of traditional media, and traditional media has done a back flip onto the Internet, agencies need new and creative ways for delivering their clients' message. Pop-ups are passé.

On behalf of brands such as Nike, Coca Cola, and major TV channels and movie studios, Eyeblaster, which is now headquartered in New York, brings online campaign management to the next level, without one needing an engineering or computer degree.

The company can help with technical aspects such as automatic detection of a user's bandwidth for smooth multi-media delivery. But what media, creative agencies, and advertisers like best are the tools that let them manage campaigns across the digital divide.

How do viewers interact with video and full-screen components? Are the right viewers finding your content? Do they enjoy it and send it to their friends? Eyeblaster can help answer these questions with a range of tools.

Founded in 1999, today Eyeblaster operates in over 40 countries. This month, analysts report that Eyeblaster will provide some stiff competition to online advertising giants such as Microsoft and Google.

Digital advertising is becoming mainstream. The market in the US, Eyeblaster reports, is projected to grow from $23 billion in 2007 to $62 billion by 2012.

To grow the business, the company has announced its plans to file for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ stock exchange, joining a list of about 90 other Israeli companies on the New York-based exchange.

Eyeblaster plans on raising about $100 million. And although unable to discuss the IPO details, Eyeblaster's VP of Marketing Amit Rahav talks with ISRAEL21c.

"We are in a field called campaign management," he says. "Ours is a platform designed for running and building advertising campaigns, used by anyone on the buying side of media."

Originating from the area of rich media advertising, in 2005 Eyeblaster enhanced its portfolio to integrate a number of types of online advertising, says Rahav: "With Eyeblaster one can launch, measure and manage an advertising campaign holistically. Our value would be to bring video, banners, and mobile together and provide a whole solution."

Treating every client like a VIP, Rahav says that Eyeblaster has become an essential advertising enabler for American TV and movie production companies.

"Ratings are critical the first night a TV show is aired. We help create that buzz, so that everybody will be anticipating the launch of the show," he explains.

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