Livonia, Mich. - Valassis, one of the nation's leading media and marketing services companies,announced today that it has been named to this year's InformationWeek 500 list, an annual listing of the nation's most innovative users of business technology. Valassis' submission focused on the innovation of our patent-pending Integrated Media Optimization (IMO) engine, the first and only product of its kind in this industry. IMO uses advanced mathematical models to calculate and analyze objectives, budgets, targeting criteria and media scores to produce media recommendations, complete with detailed maps and charts. In its inaugural listing, Valassis ranked in the upper half at 197 out of 500 companies on the list.

"Valassis began as an entrepreneurial enterprise 40 years ago based on innovation and it remains the foundation of our business strategy," said Steve Carrington, Valassis Vice President, Chief Information Officer. "To be recognized among industry leaders for our advances in technology and eye toward innovation speaks to our continual commitment to grow technologically to serve our clients seamlessly and provide excellent customer service. IMO has reduced the time to deliver optimized media plans and options to our clients and has delivered significant value to both our clients and our business."

In its 23rd year, the InformationWeek 500 tracks the Information Technology (IT) practices of the nation's most innovative IT organizations, examining the business practices of firms across areas of operations including technology deployment, IT budgets, business-technology infrastructure and IT strategies. InformationWeek identifies and honors the nation's most innovative users of information technology with its annual 500 listing and also tracks the technology, strategies, investments and administrative practices of America's best-known companies.

The InformationWeek 500 is by invitation only, and to make the list, a company must demonstrate a pattern of technological, procedural and organizational innovation. Organizations with $250 million or more in annual revenue are invited to participate in the study. The list examines the technology strategies and initiatives of companies across 21 industries (excluding government and education).