Seeking to further educate the market about the benefits of outstream video advertising, ad tech provider Teads has unveiled a first-of-its-kind programmatic outstream accreditation program for ad agencies and trading desks.

Teads was a pioneer in outstream ads, which are video ads that play against non-video inventory. Given the high expense of creating premium video content and its scarcity, outstream ads have become a hugely popular way for premium publishers to monetize their content.

The accreditation program is a half-day training session that explores “how outstream fits into the overall media mix, how to read and evaluate outstream metrics compared to other video formats, step by step instructions on how to buy outstream programmatically via your DSP and the latest video insights and case studies.” At the conclusion of the program, participants receive an outstream video certificate.

Teads said its outstream marketplace now reaches 1.2 billion unique users. The program makes a lot of sense, because while outstream is a clever approach for lots of reasons, it is implemented in many different ways, not all of which are viewer-friendly, in my experience. No doubt many of you have also encountered this as well. This suggests there’s a lot of learning yet to be done about how to optimize outstream for viewers, advertisers and publishers.