Our CEO Jesse Chenard, chilling on Mount Kilimanjaro.

Last week we interviewed Image Space Media co-founders Kevin Tung and Raymond Chan and posting Friday Photos that featured the ISM team hard at work preparing for SXSW Interactive. Have you enjoyed getting to know us better? Want to learn more about the ISM team? You're in luck! This week we have a very special interview with ISM CEO Jesse Chenard.

First off, tell us about yourself. What's your sign?

Cancer. My birthday is July 19. I don't really follow astrology enough to know whether or not I'm a typical Cancer. Maybe I am. I'm introverted. You know, affected by the moon.

Awesome. Can you tell us a little about your professional history?

I've spent the last 11 years working on internet stuff. Always start-ups. Every company I've ever worked at has been sold, except for my last one Tremor. Up until recently I've been more focused on streaming video and audio. Now it's advertising.

How did you meet Ray and Kevin?

At TechCrunch in San Fransisco. They were in the demo pit. Kevin grabbed me and said, "Hey, want to see something cool?" And I thought that his idea was pretty interesting - to use the image space to advertise.

At one point I asked him something like, "How will you guys integrate with 3rd-party ad systems like DoubleClick," and he looked at me and said, "What's DoubleClick?" So at that point I suggested that we grab coffee when we were both back in New York, because we were both from here. And then we got together.

Editor's Note: Kevin is now fully aware of what DoubleClick is.

You started off as their advisor and then joined formally as CEO. What made you decide to man the helm at Image Space Media?

So they were just figuring out what to focus on and where to take the technology and how to get things going. So I gave them advice about how to go about building an ad network. During the later stages, I helped them with the financial plan. It's been pretty good! We get along really well.

What are your expectations for the company?

We'll there's the standard - We want to make sure that investors get money back and make a handsome profit. And that everyone who's putting their hard work in sees something for that.

If you look at it in broader strokes, we're helping with this shift in media dollars from the traditional broadcast models or outdoor print to interactive and online. So I think the attention that's given the image space is going to be a huge component of that - providing that scale. We're going to be a big help in that process.

Also, of course, I'd like for everyone to have fun. If you're not working with good people, it's not worth it.

How does ISM compare with other companies you've worked for?

Sometimes it's less about the company itself. Usually it's about the timing. So, when you've just taken a first round of investment, there's this exuberance, everything you're doing is really interesting, and people love coming into work. There's no politics. It's fun to be at work and everyday accomplish something new.

Now that you've climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and accomplished this awesome feat, what other childhood goals do you hope to fulfill?

Most of the childhood goals are done. So now it's time to make a new list! I think I want to keep climbing stuff. Maybe the Seven Summits. Everest is kind of the big sketchy one, but everything is kind of of achievable... So maybe I'll get to the Six Summits and the Everest base camp. Besides that, I'm interested in maintaining good physical fitness. Going on a good adventure every year.

What was the highlight of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro?

Getting to the top.

Editor's Note: Perhaps that was an obvious question.

Unfortunately it was cloudy at the top so we couldn't really see much. I could see the sign, though. That's what really counts. The whole day I was laser-focused. Like, "I'm going... to see... the sign."

What type of camera did you take with you on Mount Kilimanjaro?

I had the Canon PowerShot D10. It's waterproof, weatherproof, everything-proof . Which was a good idea, it turned out, because I dropped it right on the lens at one point. I also brought three replacement batteries, which also ended up being a good idea.

Rumor has it that once the weather warms up to 45 degrees... you'll be wearing shorts everyday to work. Can you confirm or deny this?

No, not 45 degrees. That's too hot. As soon as it's sunny all the time, you'll see me in shorts.

Editor's Note: Jesse is Canadian, which explains everything.

We asked Kevin and Ray this question so we have to ask you, too. Favorite New York restaurant?

Wogie's cheesesteaks. Definitely.

What about your favorite images or photographers?

I usually don't have favorite photographers, but every trip I go on I'll usually take a few photos that become my favorites. So I guess I'm my favorite photographer? Or my wife, taking pictures of our kids.

Editor's Note: Awwwww.

Thank you, Jesse, for chatting with us! Keep checking back here for more insider scoops about Image Space Media... especially as we prepare for SXSW Interactive!

The office has been buzzing with excitement for our launch and show stopping (in-my-humble-opinion) trade show booth. If you are attending, don't be a stranger! Say hi, grab some grub (hot dogs and veggie frito pies, anyone?) and some Shiner Bock beer. If that's not enough to tempt you, we will also have a photobooth with funky costumes on the premise!

Check out our awesome staffers get ready for SXSW Interactive!

One of our fantastic interns!

Marketing team preparing for SXSW. w00t!

A few of us love collecting analog cameras. (Left: Brownie Hawkeye, Right: Holga)

Our Publisher Manager reviewing new sites for approval

This time next week we will be in sunny Austin and live blogging from SXSW Interactive! Stay tuned for more updates!

Are you a WordPress-based publisher? Perhaps, you've been wondering why we haven’t built a plugin for WordPress users.

We have been thinking about how to make things easier for you. Things in the pipeline include a shiny new publisher panel and you guessed it, a brand spankin’ new plugin just for the WordPress community.

Before, implementing our technology was a bit on the technical side for average users. Now setting up our in-image advertising solution through WordPress is simple and easy.

Just install a snippet of our code via our WordPress plugin in your pages. Our system matches relevant ads with your images based on your metadata. Once you’ve activated the plugin you’re ready to start earning money!

Download the plugin here and spread the word!

This Week, Image Space Media would like to recognize Concept Cars as Publisher of the Week. Do sexy, high-concept cars keep you up all night? Concept Cars is for auto aficionados need the inside scoop on futuristic designs and prototypes. Be sure to check this site often for sneak previews on new hybrid models, concept car reviews, and scoops on the big auto shows!

From L-R: Raymond Chan and Kevin Tung, ISM's visionaries.

Kevin Tung, Image Space Media's Chief Operating Officer, and Raymond Chan, the Chief Technology Officer, are long-time friends and ISM's co-founders. We caught up with them to chat about the vision behind Image Space Media, their favorite photographers, and AOL screennames.

First off, tell us a little bit about yourselves. How did you guys meet?

Ray: Do you want the funny story? Back when Kevin and I were seniors in high school, in the AOL days, everyone had AOL account. And Kevin was a cyber-stalker.

Kevin: That's not exactly true.

Ray: Senior year of high school, he started searching through AOL profiles to find incoming freshman at Columbia - the class of 2001. So, fast forward to the first week of school, I was sitting in John Jay cafeteria with a group of friends, and this guy walks up to us and says, "Hey! I'm wisepanda." That was his AOL screen name. Mine was asnchaos.

From there, we hit it off! It helps that Kevin is super laid-back. Fast-forward 10 years and we're working together at Image Space Media!

What were both of you doing before starting Image Space Media? Where did you get the inspiration to start this venture?

Ray: When I graduated I started in Global Engineering at Citigroup. We worked with software testing, software engineering... stuff like that.

I worked there for a few years and then was bit by the entrepreneurial bug. A classmate of mine from Bronx Science tipped me off to Inform Technologies, Inc. and I decided to jump ship and join Inform. I worked there for about two and a half years.

Kevin: After graduating, I started as an investment banker for Robertson Stephens - which is a firm with a tech focus. I moved to Banc of America Securities after the first tech bubble collapse.

While I was in banking, my wife's younger sister, who was in high school at the time, had the idea to start an educational products company... And that's where TILCO comes in.

Ray: SAT words on shower curtains.

Kevin: Yup. And that took off while I was finishing up banking. My wife's sister was featured on the Today Show and TILCO products are now sold through Target, Amazon, Overstock, Urban Outfitters, and more.

In conjunction with that, I started an two investment funds for Chinese contemporary art, around 2005. The idea behind it was to take advantage in the spike in the luxury market related to Chinese art. It was a great one time arbitrage opportunity and we yielded fantastic returns to our investors.

And then, in 2007, Ray and I first started emailing about the idea that would become Image Space Media.

Ray: Kevin was like, "Hey, I have this funky idea."

Kevin: By September 2008, we had a prototype ready and debuted at the TechCrunch conference in San Fransisco. That's where we met Jesse [Chenard, now Image Space Media's CEO].

What was your inspiration for Image Space Media? Why the focus on images?

Kevin: It was a combination of two things. First, I took inspiration from Asian publications and websites. They use a lot of images and mix a lot of commercial ads and product placements into their content. You can see the best evidence of that in certain Asian magazines.

Secondly, looking at websites in English, the image space appeared to me to be a huge chunk of real estate that hadn't been monetized.

Ray: We're also both huge photography fans. We both love Gregory Crewdson.

Also, one of the first publishers to sign up with Image Space Media was photographer Trey Ratcliffe's site Stuck in Customs. It's a fantastic travel photography blog.

What were your expectations? Did you have any?

Ray: I don't think we have a grand plan. I guess just try to make it a fun place to work. Also, of course, we'd like to be successful and have a large publisher base who share the same vision that image real estate is valuable.

Kevin: My standpoint is that I'd like to make us the owner of the image space. If we're the pioneers, we should take advantage of that position, especially in terms of collecting data from images. We can use the internet as a medium to extract data about internet users.

What is it like collaborating with a close friend?

Ray: It's been a pretty easy transition. Personality-wise we mix pretty well.

Are your wives BFFs now?

Ray: Kevin went to high school with my wife. Our weddings were within a month of one another!

Since you two founded Image Space Media in 2008, what have been the moments you've been most proud of?

Kevin: So, there have been three 'big wow' moments for us: First, when we had our first publishers signing up! Secondly, when we got Jesse on board.

Ray: Yeah, that was great. It was like, "Someone believes in us!"

Kevin: And third - when we hired super cool interns!

Editor's Note: Woooo super cool interns!

Ray: I get a kick out the fact that we started from scratch. Building it up and seeing the business evolve has been great. You know, bringing in the interns, marketing guy, developers, engineers, and getting everyone focused on the same path. As you grow, that's pretty important because unless everyone has the same vision, people start to stray.

Kevin: We do pride ourselves on open communication. We'll try to stay that way even as we grow. We'll have initiatives, like taking someone to lunch that you seldom talk to.

What's the size of the Image Space Media office?

Kevin: Let's see... We have 13 full time, four interns, and two consultants.

Alright, let's get down to the most important question: What are some of your favorite restaurants in New York?

Ray: My favorite contemporary American place is 11 Madison Park. My favorite Japanese place is Sugiyama, because I took Irene there for our first Valentine's Day. My favorite bumming-around-drinking place is Kenka on St. Marks Place. Lastly, my favorite place to get a lobster roll is Luke's Lobster on East 7th Street between 1st and Avenue A.

Kevin: I'm the Mayor of Village Yokocho on foursquare.

Editor's Note: The entire Image Space Media office is obsessed with foursquare

Thank you to Kevin and Ray for the awesome interview! Check back with our blog on Thursday for an interview with Jesse Chenard, our CEO!

We figured, however, that it was time to back up our words with evidence. Thus, Friday Photos was born. Every Friday we'll be featuring photos from our team, for many reasons. First, to showcase some photographic talent. Secondly, to show you how awesome the Image Space Media team is.

Our first edition of Friday Photos will probably be the most exotic. Our CEO/resident adventurer Jesse Chenard just returned from a 10-day trip, fulfilling his childhood goal of hiking Mount Kilimanjaro! AWESOME. Let's see the world through Jesse's eyes:

Jesse at Africa's Highest Point!!

Don't you wish this was the view out your window?

Sigh.

A Tanzanian butterfly

MEANWHILE, back in dreary New York, we had our own fun that involved no hiking, beautiful vistas, or exercise. But we have fun, nonetheless! Take a little peek into ISM Headquarters:

Snowy New York. Beautiful in theory, slushy in practice.

Our lucky cat and his USB companion.

Founders either hard at work or playing D&D.

Jealous? Looking to join our team of dedicated, ground breaking, inspiring individuals? We're hiring!

Stay tuned to this blog for next week's exciting roster of blog posts as we get ready for SXSW! We'll be featuring more photos, interviews with ISM Management, and, as always, we'll keep you updated on what's happening around the web.

This week, Image Space Media would like to recognize DCODE MAGAZINE as Publisher of the Week. DCODE is a hip webzine that features articles on almost anything you can think of...books, DVD's, music, movies, global shopper, global trends, design, health & beauty, style, sex & relationships, and tech stuff!

Click here to visit DCODE MAGAZINE & follow DCODE on twitter here

via Jakob Nielsen for Useit.com

At Image Space Media headquarters, we're all pretty big proponents of online advertising (Cash Rules Everything Around Us, after all). We think it's a great way for publishers to financially support their passions and their expressiveness. And, of course, we believe we provide a unique and game-changing way for publishers to use their unique images to get paid.

But not all online advertising is effective online advertising. And it's not just you, getting sick of seeing the same banner ads above the sites you visit every day - it's a proven phenomenon called Banner Burnout, and it has very real implications for publishers and advertisers.

Let the stats do the talking: A study by DoubleClick found that after the fourth impression, CTR rates for banner ads go from 2.7 percent to less than 1 percent. That's pretty abysmal!

Photo via Flickr user jamescastle3

But before you can even worry about click through rates, there is the critical problem of Banner Blindness to deal with. As you can see from the amazing eyetracking studies shown above, created by Jakob Nielsen, the eye is automatically drawn to areas not dominated by ads. As Nielsen writes, "If users are looking for a quick fact, they want to get done and aren't diverted by banners; and if users are engrossed in a story, they're not going to look away from the content."

To combat the Banner B-problems, advertising experts suggest placing banners with animation, flashing bright colors, and cryptic messages at the top of your site. But what if that's not exactly the style you have in mind for your site? Remember, banner ads are not the only ad solution. These are many great advertising strategies to generate revenue - banner ads, Google AdSense and AdWords, in-text ads, Image Space media ads... Given the number of options in your arsenal, it's important to be tactical about your advertising solutions. How do you want your site to appear visually? Check out our online advertising tag for all of our past coverage of the various ways you can make ads work for your site.

This week, Image Space Media would like to recognize Something Picasso as Publisher of the Week. Something Picasso looks and feels like a diary, providing readers with a glimpse into the everyday interests of its author. We particularly enjoyed her post about tea.

Click here to follow Something Picasso on Twitter!

In just a few short weeks we'll be heading down to the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. If you're unfamiliar with the event, the annual festival brings together the technology glitterati for five days of panels, showcases, meetups, and parties. Its a great place to connect with industry leaders, learn about new trends in the digital community, and hear about spunky startups -- like us!

We are thrilled to be launching our technology at SXSW! We will exhibiting at the trade show (word on the street we'll have a photobooth on the premise) so if you're attending, be sure to block off time in your schedule to grab a beer and a hot dog at our booth!

We'll also be live tweeting @imagespacemedia and updating our blog during the event. See you there!