Cie Studios Founder to Share Insights on Youth Marketing With Automotive Specialty Industry at SEMA

LONG BEACH, Calif.--As magazine circulation declines and online forum registrations increase, one often-neglected way to reach Gen Y is by providing useful content to enthusiast audiences online, according to Cie Studios CEO Justin Choi.

Cie Studios, developer of PostRelease® forum advertising solution (www.PostRelease.com), today announced that Choi has been invited to participate in a youth marketing panel at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show, the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world, held in Las Vegas through Friday.

Justin Choi is also one of four nominees for the SEMA Street Performance Council's "Person of the Year" Award. The council, which represents 175 companies, honors individuals whose creativity, integrity, industriousness and accomplishments have made a substantial contribution to the street-performance industry. The council will present the award at a reception on Wednesday night.

He is participating in the SEMA session titled, “Marketing to the Gen Y Customer,” to be held Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 1 p.m. Leading brands in and out of the specialty equipment market will share their knowledge and experience courting the coveted Gen Y demographic. They will cover how typical Gen Y customers prefer to learn about a product, their buying patterns and what technology they like to use to get answers about products and services.

Choi will offer insights on online tools that companies can use to find, engage and measure the results of their Gen Y audience marketing. The panel will also include experts from J.D. Power and Associates, The ID Agency, PowerTV Media and Armory Marketing.

Earlier this week, PostRelease announced a new partnership with Forum Foundry, Inc. (www.ForumFoundry.com), which added 27 of its forums to the PostRelease forum network.

“Young people can be extremely enthusiastic about their favorite brands and products, and they’re hungry for content related to their passions,” said Choi. “As the circulation in top niche automotive publications has declined, user registrations in targeted online forums has skyrocketed. The same is true for many industries. The new place for niche, enthusiast content is online.

“Advertisers can participate in communities by contributing useful and relevant content in a way that’s transparent.” he said. “Transparency is an important part of PostRelease because it works – it’s proven that consumers respond to messages that are properly identified and informative, and that include actionable content.”

Digg and a handful of blogs have started to allow ad-sponsored content that is clearly labeled as advertising but otherwise blends in with the non-advertising content. For its part, Cie Studios offers PostRelease, a solution that enables companies to insert clearly labeled sponsored posts into targeted online forum discussions.

During testing in 2008, PostRelease addressed a single category – automotive forums. More than 50 PostRelease campaigns have since been executed in that space, for companies such as Pioneer Electronics, Toyota/Scion, Nitto Tire North America, American Tire Distributors and more. PostRelease click-through rates have averaged 33 percent, with highs reaching nearly 90 percent.

The effectiveness of individual PostRelease posts increases over time — with response rates growing as much as 70 percent six months later, because people can discover those posts directly from search engines.

Justin Choi founded Cie Studios in 1998 as an interactive services firm. Today, Cie Studios has evolved into an interactive applications company with a special ability to apply technology/software to solve business problems and create business opportunities. The firm’s digital products include large multiplayer social games, online advertising software, B2B social media applications, and online 3D visualization tools.

About PostRelease

PostRelease® (www.PostRelease.com) is the first effective solution for online forum advertising and influencing word-of-mouth forum discussions. It enables companies to insert sponsored posts into targeted online forum discussions. PostRelease empowers marketers to become part of the conversation in forums, at a time when opinions are being formed and purchase decisions are being made. PostRelease was created by Cie Studios, a digital media lab based in Long Beach, Calif.