double POSITIVE Marketing Group, Inc.

Should banks be let off the hook while the taxpayers get hit with the subprime bill?

We’ve been talking a lot lately in the halls of DoublePositive about “mobile.” We talk about the emerging opportunities in mobile advertising, what this means for lead generation, the VC activity in this space, and how companies like Mobile Posse, Millennial Media and AdMob are leading the charge.

It’s easy to be skeptical about mobile. Among the questions people ask – ”How many people really browse the Internet on their phones?” Well, a surprising answer to this question can be found in this article, “More Football Fans Hit ESPN’s Mobile Site Than Its PC Pages.”

About 32 million people in the U.S. access the mobile Web on a monthly basis, and ESPN has 9 million of them, [Ed] Erhardt said. “We’re seeing better than 200% growth year over year for our mobile usage,” he said, although it’s off a lower base. By comparison, ESPN.com’s NFL content is up an average of 36% year over year, with 47.3 million page views, or 41% of all traffic, coming in the 24 hours beginning Mondays at noon. Game-time NFL content is up 43%, and fantasy football up 48%, the network said. According to ComScore, ESPN had 22.2 million unique visitors in November.

Those are some statistics that almost anyone can easily recignize as significant — they speak volumes. ESPN.com has been one of the Internet’s most popular sites for a decade. No doubt, the traffic is there.

And so are the ad impressions, with AdMob, for example, boasting of more than 2 billion ads served each month. Millennial Media provides very specific targeting options including demographic, contnet channels, carriers, geography, and even behavioral. And Mobile Posse provides one of the slickest delivery methods and actually makes mobile ads cool and useful (think mobile coupons, for example).

So, still have doubts?

DoublePositive Marketing Group, the industry leader in LIVE Hot Transfer Leads, announced today it will exhibit at The Association of Settlement Companies “Kick-Off  Conference” on February 5-6 at Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel. DoublePositive has been a member of The Association of Settlement Companies (TASC) since 2007.

Conference attendees will learn about DoublePositive’s LIVE Hot Transfer Debt Settlement Leads, a marketing solution that provides call transfers of consumers who have expressed a genuine interest in debt settlement services.

DoublePositive’s LIVE Hot Transfers go through a DOUBLEconfirm™ process, adding a layer of qualification, verification, and screening. Only consumers who make it through this rigorous screening process are offered the opportunity to speak to a live debt settlement specialist. LIVE Hot Transfer Debt Settlement Leads carry a 100% contact ratio, guaranteed.

Founded in 2004, DoublePositive has been awarded a Business Process Patent for “Hot Transfers” and its DOUBLEconfirm ™ process. DoublePositive has been named to PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Entrepreneur magazine’s list of Top 100 fastest growing small businesses in the US.

Here at DoublePositive, we’re big fans of LinkedIn. Every person in our organization, no matter what their function, has a LinkedIn profile. We use it to generate sales leads, network with partner companies, to rectuit potential employees, to interact with a larger community — we even use it to promote the blog you are reading right now.

While we are all very active users, we try not to be LinkedIn “whores.” In other words, just because I’ve met someone once, swapped business cards at a trade show, or know someone through some random connection — that doesn’t mean I will accept your LinkedIn invitation to connect. I’ve got a good network, and I don’t want to dilute it.

We’ve also noticed how targeted the advertising on LinkedIn is, and why shouldn’t it be? LinkedIn knows everything important about me — my age, my sex, where I live, my job, my address, where I went to college.  Combine all of that information I’ve provided with some behavioral targeting, and LinkedIn knows me better than I know myself. I would say that I click on more ads on LinkedIn than any other website I’ve ever visited.

So LinkedIn is HOT, helped in large part to the $15 billion valuation Facebook recently received. So I wasn’t surprised to read that News Corp. is considering acquiring LinkedIn, perhaps for $1 billion. Is LinkedIn worth $1 billion? Who knows — after all, they are doing no more than $100 million in annual revenue. But, what I do know is that this guy is a freaking idiot:

“It’s all bulls*%t,” says Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry. “The market has to come to some realization that LinkedIn just has a bunch of email addresses. I don’t think News Corp. is a sophisticated buyer. The company should be worth 1.5 times revenue and that’s it.”

Wow… Here is a guy who just doesn’t get it. LinkedIn “just has a bunch of email addresses.” And Google is just a bunch of links. And YouTube is just a bunch of videos. And Ebay a bunch of junk.

While newspaper publishers continue to see shrinking revenue from classified advertising, News Corp. sees LinkedIn as a critical component of its recent acquisition of the WSJ and other publications around the world.

Question the valuation, but don’t make yourself look like a fool by suggesting that LinkedIn is nothing more than an email list.

Yesterday DoublePositive announced we closed on an additional $4 Million in venture funding. The news has received a good amount of attention on the wire, in various news publications/websites, and in the blogosphere:

Online Marketer DoublePositive Nabs $4M in Latest Funding Round 
Baltimore Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2007/11/26/story16.html?ana=from_rss

DoublePositive Raises More Money – Bright Future For Lead Generation?
Leads360
http://www.coffeeforclosers.org/?p=24

DoublePositive Raises $4 Million
LeadCritic
http://blog.leadcritic.com/live-transfer-leads/doublepositive-raises-4-million

DoublePositive Closes on $4 Million in Venture Funding
Yahoo!
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/071119/0330511.html

DoublePositive Raises $4 Million
Private Equity Hub
http://www.pehub.com/article/articledetail.php?articlepostid=8960

DoublePositive Closes on $4 Million in Venture Funding
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21885915/

Southern Capitol Ventures Invests in Maryland Sales Lead Firm
WRAL / LocalTechWire.com
http://www.localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/venture/story/2068619/

DoublePositive Adds $4M Round To Live Sales Lead Business
TechJournalSouth
http://www.techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=4308

DoublePositive Marketing Group Inc. Raises $4 Million
AmericanVentureMagazine.com
http://www.americanventuremagazine.com/news.php?newsid=3808

Raleigh VC invests in Baltimore Company
Triangle Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2007/11/19/daily11.html?ana=from_rss

Congrats to Sean and Team at DoublePositive
johndemayo.com
http://www.johndemayo.com/johndemayocom/2007/11/congrats-to-sea.html

DoublePositive Closes on $4 Million in Venture Funding
StreetInsider.com
http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/…

Southern Capitol Ventures Explores New Territory in Latest Deal
LocalTechWire.com
http://www.localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/venture/story/2074681/

Leads Firm DoublePositive Raises $4M 
Alarm Clock
http://www.thealarmclock.com/mt/archives/2007/11/leads_firm_doub.html

HAMILTON INVESTMENT PARTNERS, SOUTHERN CAPITOL VENTURES AND EXISTING DOUBLEPOSITIVE INVESTORS PARTICIPATE IN ROUND

November 15, 2007 – BALTIMORE, MD – DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc. (www.doublepositive.com), the industry leader in LIVE Hot Transfer Leads for sales organizations, announced today that it has closed an additional $4 Million in venture funding. The financing will help fuel DoublePositive’s growth by increasing sales and marketing efforts and expand the business into new vertical markets and offerings.

Several new investors, as well as all of DoublePositive’s previous investors, participated in the round. New institutional investors participating in the round include Hamilton Investment Partners, Southern Capitol Ventures and Slate Venture Group.

Frank Bonsal, co-founder of New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and former General Partner at Alex Brown, and Dave Willey, former Chief Financial Officer of Capital One, also participated in the round as individual investors.

“We are very excited to be a part of the impressive growth story at DoublePositive. We believe DoublePositive will continue to be the leader in the live lead generation space, and we see tremendous opportunities for DoublePositive to diversify into new Internet lead-buying markets,” said Marc A. Cole, Partner at Hamilton Investment Partners. “We think DoublePositive is positioned very well to build on the great success they’ve had and capitalize on the tremendous opportunities that exist in industries such as Education, Insurance, and Consumer Debt/Credit.”

All of DoublePositive’s previous investors also participated in the fundraise including The Grosvenor Funds, WWC Capital Group, John Ferber (co-founder of Advertising.com) and Stein Kretsinger (former CEO of TheLoanPage.com).

“We’ve witnessed DoublePositive’s growth first hand over the last year. Grosvenor Funds and the Board both know that this new investment is well-deserved given the success this company and this management team have shown to date,” said Oak Strawbridge, a Grosvenor Funds Principal and DoublePositive Director.

“This fundraising will help solidify our position as the leading LIVE lead generation company by allowing us to focus on diversification into new markets,” said Sean Fenlon, DoublePositive’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer.  “We’re absolutely thrilled about what our new investors will bring to the table with their experience and knowledge in building strong companies with dominant position.”

A leader in the live leads space, DoublePositive continues to provide a cost-effective and time-saving marketing solution for companies seeking the highest ROI from their marketing and advertising dollars. 

October 29, 2007 – BALTIMORE, MD – DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc. (www.doublepositive.com), the industry leader in LIVE Hot Transfer Leads for sales professionals and sales organizations, has introduced “Verified-by-Voice” as another DOUBLEconfirmed™ solution for lead buyers.

DoublePositive’s Verified-by-Voice Leads start with a consumer’s proactive expression of interest via an online form submission or phone call. DoublePositive then speaks with each potential borrower and verifies the consumer’s information and interest in speaking with a mortgage specialist. Only once a consumer’s information and interest has been confirmed is that lead considered “Verified-by-Voice.”

In addition to providing the lead data for its clients to review, DoublePositive also provides a recording of the entire verification phone call with the consumer.  Lead buyers can review both the lead data and listen to the recording to determine if it is a lead they would like to purchase.

“Verified-by-Voice Leads provide a great value for lead buyers who are looking for something more than what a traditional data lead has to offer,” explained Joey Liner, DoublePositive’s Executive Vice President of Sales. “We know that making live contact with a consumer is often the most challenging part of purchasing Internet leads. Verified-by-Voice Leads provide lead buyers assurance that not only is the lead data accurate, but also that the consumer wants to speak with a sales professional.”

When purchased with DoublePositive’s LIVE Hot Transfer Leads, Verified-by-Voice Leads help keep an organization’s sales funnel full with consumers who have the highest probability of converting to a sale. Both lead solutions pass through our DOUBLEconfirm™ process, adding a layer of qualification, verification, and screening. Only consumers who make it through this rigorous screening process are offered the opportunity to speak with a live sales professional.

About DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc.

DoublePositive was founded on the belief that the traditional method of buying “leads” as a marketing solution had become costly and inefficient.  Both DoublePositive’s LIVE Hot Transfers and Voice Verified Leads are better solutions, with every DoublePositive lead passing through a DOUBLEconfirm™ process, which delivers live consumers who have the highest probability of converting into a sale. DoublePositive specializes in LIVE mortgage leads, debt leads, education leads, insurance leads, automotive leads and real estate leads. DoublePositive is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland’s high tech waterfront office complex, Tide Point. For more information, please visit www.doublepositive.com.

Contact: Chris Beauchamp, Vice President of Marketing, DoublePositive Marketing Group, 410-332-0464, http://www.doublepositive.com.

It’s been a rough year for lead generators. Lead volume is down. Lead quality is down. Lead revenue is down. And it’s harder and harder to sell your leads in every available sales slot.

Not to worry… DoublePositive can help.

We feel the industry has turned the corner. Demand for our LIVE Hot Transfers is growing… and growing fast.  To meet that growing demand, we’ve increased our call center capacity, and we’re dialing on more leads every day. Here’s how you can cash in:

1. If you’re NOT sending us leads…
   Start today! What are you waiting for?
2. If you ARE sending us some leads…
   Send more! We can take everything you’ve got. We’ve got hundreds of clients across the country ready to take LIVE Hot Transfers generated from your leads.
3. If you’re sending us BATCH leads…
   Start sending real-time leads! We’ve made it easy for you to post your leads in real time. Real time leads transfer at much higher ratios than batch leads, which means you make more money per lead.
4. If you KNOW SOMEONE who’s not sending us leads…
   Hook us up! Ask about our Supplier Referral Program and you can make money with a simple introduction.

Jump over to our Contact Us page and we’ll get right back to you about our Lead Supplier program.