INTERACTIVE: NARROWLINE LAUNCHES AD TRANSACTION SYSTEM: SERVICE HELPS TARGET ONLINE ADS

For those who think the online ad placement process is too complicated, this week's debut of a new service by San Francisco-based Narrowline (www. narrowline.com) may be a welcome addition to the already crowded ad technology market. With its awkwardly named product, Brought To You By, Narrowline aims to streamline the ad buying and selling process into a single automated system.

Brought To You By allows advertisers to research sites with available ad inventory according to target audience criteria and then request an order of impressions down to specific page placement. Once publishers approve the order, Brought To You By automates the insertions, billings, reporting and other tasks of the online ad process.

"The product promises to be an immense help to us," said Kent Valandra, exec VP-director of new media at Western International Media, noting that if Narrowline delivers what it claims, it would mean big savings for his clients.

90 MILLION IMPRESSIONS

More than 75 companies have been testing the system, including ad agencies Ogilvy & Mather, Y&R Advertising, D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, Anderson & Lembke and Western International Media, as well as online publishers McGraw-Hill Technical Publications, Match.

com, Tribune Interactive and search service WhoWhere?. The system already has 90 million available ad impressions on publishers' sites, said Narrowline President Tara Lemmey.

The company's private backers include Dan Lynch and William Melton, co-founders and, respectively, chairman and CEO at CyberCash, as well as El Dorado Partners and Onset Ventures.