StudioNow, which produces custom video through its network of video professionals, has launched a new program dubbed "EXTRACREDIT." As Leslie Darling, StudioNow's SVP of Sales and Marketing explained to me, the program formalizes activities StudioNow has long been involved with, creating custom videos for online ad campaigns and brand marketing. StudioNow estimates it created video to support over $75 million in video campaign buys in 2012.

Now, with EXTRACREDIT, StudioNow is looking to formalize how it works with media companies, agencies and brands. Leslie sees StudioNow helping support campaign buys with its production services gaining a dedicated portion of the campaign's media spend. Leslie believes this can be a differentiator for all parties and creates unique new value in the ecosystem. In other words, to the extent that brands want to create and run different video online than their 15 and 30 second TV spots, StudioNow is there to help.

Charter members of EXTRACREDIT include agencies Ogilvy, Saatchi & Saatchi and MindShare, brands include IBM, Verizon and Toyota, and publishers AOL and Hulu Plus. As one recent example of how StudioNow's video production services support a brand's custom integration into a publisher site, Leslie pointed to Toyota's "Choose Control" campaign running on AOL Autos. StudioNow worked with Saatchi and Saatchi, along with Toyota, to create 350+ different videos for the various user profiles.

StudioNow was spun off from AOL earlier this year with AOL retaining a minority interest. StudioNow was originally acquired by AOL 3 years ago.