YuMe Relevance Engine Introduced for Improved Video Ad Buying

Video ad technology and network YuMe is taking the wraps off its new "YuMe Relevance Engine" this morning, representing another key step forward in realizing online video's potential for ad targeting. The Relevance Engine powers the new 3.0 version of YuMe's ACE for Publishers ad system. Last week, YuMe's Jayant Kadambi, president and co-founder and Ed Haslam, SVP, Marketing briefed me on how they work.

With the Relevance Engine, YuMe is helping empower publishers to attract TV ad dollars by addressing each piece of the relevance equation: advertisers' needs, the publisher context and the target consumer audience.  Advertisers' needs include things like brand safety, targeted devices, reach goals, and context/audience targeting. On the publisher side, criteria include page and video content awareness (based on metadata ingestion), eCPMs, viewing environment (such as which OVP player is used), device and connection speed. Finally, for the consumer profile, this includes demographics, ad viewing history, preferences, targeting data and content interests (based on cookies).

As the Relevance Engine takes in and processes all of these inputs, it derives a profile and then dynamically selects the most appropriate ad, either from the publishers' own ads or from YuMe's network. The results allow the publisher to optimize its eCPMs, use syndication networks more effectively, customize sales and deliver against it, and deliver against specific devices and platforms by transcoding ads appropriately.



Jayant and Ed noted that one of the big transitional issues for TV buyers now looking at online video is that they've traditionally placed ads within 22 or 44-minute TV programs and therefore are accustomed to inserting against a well-understood narrative format. With online, even for desirable premium content, a lot more of it is instead in shorter, clip format. The Relevance Engine's new content awareness capability directly addresses this, helping buyers better understand the context in which their ads are placed and how they can create an effective buy. Publishers that have implemented the Relevance Engine include 4Kids Entertainment and Funny Or Die.  

As the online video medium continues to mature, and TV ad dollars are sought, initiatives like the Relevance Engine are going to be important building blocks.

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Note: At ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit on June 7th, a key theme will be how online video evolves to attract TV dollars. More info coming soon.

Categories: Advertising, Technology

Topics: YuMe