Panel Participants Include Microsoft, Spa Finder, Performics, Sempo and ClickZ

NEW YORK, June 13, 2006 - Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, will host the "Search Essentials for Brand Marketers: Revealing Consumer Insights" breakfast seminar on Thursday, June 22 at The Westin, Times Square in New York, NY. The seminar will focus on analyzing Search behavior and how it reveals unprecedented insight into consumers' awareness and preferences for a brand.

Bill Tancer, Hitwise general manager of Worldwide Research will moderate a panel of search and brand marketing industry leaders that includes: James Colburn, Product Manager, Search Strategy and AdCenter Go-To-Market, Microsoft, Daniel Lizio-Katzen, EVP, Technology and Online Marketing, Spa Finder, Cam Balzer, Director of Search Strategy, Performics, Dana Todd, President, SEMPO and Rebecca Lieb, Executive Editor, ClickZ Network.

"SEMPO's recent research supports the assertion that branding is the top concern of search advertisers, so we feel it's important to understand the topic more deeply," said Dana Todd, President, SEMPO. "The more we know about the impact of search in branding and consumer influence, the better we're able to leverage the knowledge into actionable strategy."

"We're delighted to be participating in this event for Hitwise. We feel search is a critical element to any marketing mix as it has the ability to achieve multiple advertising objectives from customer acquisition to brand awareness," said James Colburn, Product Manager, Search Strategy and AdCenter Go-To-Market, Microsoft. "With our advanced research and targeting capabilities in adCenter we felt this seminar series would be the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the importance of understanding your audience to make better search decisions."

"When formulating the strategy for a paid search campaign, it is easy to overlook your own brand's keyword equity; especially given that keywords related to your own brand can be difficult to tie back in to ROI centric campaigns," said Daniel Lizio-Katzen, EVP, Technology and Online Marketing, Spa Finder.

Tancer will also review how Search behavior provides an accurate and unprecedented measure of brand insight and how marketers can look to it to understand the results of the offline as well online branding efforts.

"Search behavior is one of the most important issues for Hitwise and it's important for marketers to spot search branding opportunities for them to capture more online attention to their brand," said Bill Tancer, general manager of Global Research, Hitwise. "Everyone wants to better understand how effectively their brands are received, and this seminar will provide new insights into the vital links between search behavior and brands."

If you are interested in attending please visit: http://www.hitwise.com/other/search-essentials-04.php. Members of the press wanting to attend should contact Matt Tatham at matt.tatham@hitwise.com for registration.

Contact: Matt Tatham at (212) 380 2939 or matt.tatham@hitwise.com

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.

By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites. Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as affiliate programs, search marketing, online advertising, content development and lead generation.

Hitwise collects Internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.

More information about the Hitwise Competitive Intelligence service is available at www.hitwise.com. For up to date analysis on online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst blog at www.ilovedata.com.