Posts for 'Advertising'

A reminder that early bird discounted registration is available for the 8th annual VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit on Tuesday, June 12th at the Westin Times Square in NYC. By registering early you save $100 and also double your chances* of winning a 55-inch Roku TV, generously provided by Roku.

The Video Ad Summit is the premier event of the year for anyone in the industry seeking insights and data about online video advertising and how it’s converging with traditional TV advertising, mobile and connected TV advertising and the broader digital landscape. The program includes a compelling mix of keynotes, panel discussions and research presentations covering the hottest topics in the industry. Detailed program info will be posted soon.

Last year's Video Ad Summit drew over 400 attendees and 50+ executive speakers. The 2018 Video Ad Summit will once again be a must-attend event.

I'm excited to have 8 industry-leading companies on board as initial sponsors, including Premier Partners Extreme Reach and Verizon Digital Media Services; Headline Partners AppNexus, Beachfront Media and Operative, and Branding Partners Brightcove, Cedato and Roku. I’ll have other sponsors to share soon.

If you'd like to learn more about speaking and sponsorship opportunities, please contact me.

Learn more and register now!

(*Early bird registrants get 2 entries for the Roku TV drawing.)

Viewers are watching TV on more devices than ever. While this makes viewers’ lives more convenient and enjoyable, for advertisers, it has created massive new challenges to keep up. The good news however, is that with the rise of digital delivery, the ability to get ever closer to the advertiser’s nirvana of one-to-one, highly targeted ads, is becoming more realistic.

To help advertisers understand the range of advanced TV ad options, Videology released a handy primer late last week.

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In his keynote interview at New Bay’s Advanced Advertising conference yesterday, I was impressed with how Hulu’s SVP of Ad Sales Peter Naylor continually said that viewers are now in charge and have vastly higher expectations of their TV experiences. Nothing could be truer in the online video era and by putting viewers first, Hulu has hit on a winning formula.

One great example of Hulu being viewer-first is how it provides subscribers with the choice of “Limited Commercials” for $7.99/mo or “No Commercials” for $11.99/mo. Naylor reiterated what Hulu has said many times before, that the majority take the ad-supported plan, which on the surface seems incongruous given Netflix’s and Amazon’s success with ad-free services.

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I recently caught up with Walt Horstman, SVP and GM of TiVo’s Advanced Media and Advertising business unit. TiVo, which was known for its DVRs, was acquired in the Fall of 2016 by data provider Rovi, and the combined company was renamed TiVo. It is pursuing an ambitious vision of using data to increase the value of relationships among viewers, content providers and advertisers. An edited transcript follows. 

VideoNuze: What is TiVo doing with advanced advertising?

Walt Horstman: There is a lot going on at TiVo in terms of advanced media and advertising and data.  I’m nearing on my one-year anniversary at the company, and we’ve been really heads down looking at the number of assets that we’ve got across the company, through a lot of acquisitions over the years, that we’ve now consolidated under this business unit, Advanced Media and Advertising, and it’s coming together very nicely with a very impressive set of capabilities. We really are focusing on two key objectives within the media ecosystem. We call these our two Virtual Cycles.

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Video ad tech provider Extreme Reach has released its 2017 Video Advertising Benchmark Report, which shows improvements in key video ad metrics. Importantly, ad fraud is decreasing, as filtered bot traffic decreased 31% across all content publishers and 40% for aggregators in 2017. Extreme Reach attributed this to advertisers’ demands for better accountability and improved vigilance by ad tech providers.

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Video supply-side platform Beachfront is expanding its partnership with cybersecurity provider WhiteOps to also ensure fraud-free connected TV video ad inventory. WhiteOps specializes in bot detection and human verification. The new CTV collaboration is focused in particular on mid-tail and long-tail video. Beachfront said last November that CTV ad requests jumped to over 2 billion in Q3 '17, with a completion rate of 97% and viewability of 100%.

Connected TVs are one of the hottest areas of online video, as consumers rapidly adopt the devices and smart TVs to be able to access OTT video. While CTVs were initially used mainly to access ad-free SVOD services, ad-supported services have gained share recently. eMarketer estimates there were 168 million connected TV users in the U.S. at the end of 2017, which will rise to 194.4 million by 2021.

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Israel-based AnyClip has launched its Content Platform, enabling its library of brand safe premium video to be contextually targeted across publishers’ web sites. As Ari Applbaum, AnyClip’s VP of Marketing explained to me in a briefing, this results in video embedded in a “walled garden of safe, secure web sites, which is compelling to advertisers.”

AnyClip has traditionally pursued a syndicated video business model, inserting video clips into publishers’ sites. What’s being launched today is a new underlying technology platform called Luminous, which uses AI to more deeply analyze video and create metadata. Luminous can filter out objectionable content such as nudity, violence, profanity, guns, etc. Luminous can also screen for celebrity, brand identification and sentiment as well as IAB categories (see below).

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Early bird discounted registration is now open for the 8th annual VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit on Tuesday, June 12th at the Westin Times Square in NYC. By registering early you save $100 and also double your chances* of winning a 55-inch Roku TV, generously provided by Roku.

The Video Ad Summit is the premier event of the year for anyone in the industry seeking insights and data about online video advertising and how it’s converging with traditional TV advertising, mobile and connected TV advertising and the broader digital landscape. The program includes a compelling mix of keynotes, panel discussions and research presentations covering the hottest topics in the industry. Detailed program info will be posted soon.

Last year's Video Ad Summit drew over 400 attendees and 50+ executive speakers. The 2018 Video Ad Summit will once again be a must-attend event.

I'm excited to have 7 industry-leading companies on board as initial sponsors, including Premier Partners Extreme Reach and Verizon Digital Media Services; Headline Partners Beachfront Media and Operative, and Branding Partners Brightcove, Cedato and Roku. I’ll have other sponsors to share soon.

If you'd like to learn more about speaking and sponsorship opportunities, please contact me.

Learn more and register now!

(*Early bird registrants get 2 entries for the Roku TV drawing.)

I’m pleased to present the 409th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

On this week’s podcast we dig into NBCUniversal’s decision to reduce the number of ads in commercial pods by 20% and ad time by 10% across all its networks in prime time. Colin and I agree that it’s a clear recognition that the traditional TV ad experience isn’t sustainable for viewers or advertisers.

But how the move will ultimately work out for NBCUniversal isn’t clear. Colin is skeptical that the math is going to add up, citing larger industry headwinds, such as Netflix’s massive content investments, that will keep depleting TV audiences. While the challenges are steep, TV does have certain inherent advantages and the move is a start in the right direction. It will be fascinating to see how things unfold.

Listen in to learn more!

 
Click here to listen to the podcast (24 minutes, 6 seconds)

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Yesterday, NBCUniversal announced plans to reduce the number of ads in commercial pods by 20% and reduce ad time by 10% across all its networks in prime time. The move will almost certainly meet its goals of creating a better viewer and advertiser experience. But an overarching question is whether it will ultimately benefit NBCUniversal and the broader TV industry? The answer to these questions lie in whether NBCUniversal can make the math work on fewer ads and less ad time.

Obviously it’s a risky move for any business to reduce the quantity of what it sells, betting that customers will be willing to pay more for a scarcer resource. But basic laws of supply and demand are in NBCUniversal’s favor: when supply is reduced, then even at constant demand, prices should rise.

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Pixability has launched a self-service platform for buying video ads across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. As Pixability’s CTO Andreas Goeldi and Chief Product Officer Alan Beiagi told me in a briefing, the move means that all of the company’s buying tools which have been available only as a managed service to date, will now be available for self-service.

Pixability believes this is the first time ad buyers have had self-service access to buying tools across these major social networks. The initiative comes in response to major agencies being under pressure to provide more value for clients and take more control over the video ad buying process. Pixability unifies buying and reporting across social networks that have their own disparate ways of targeting users.

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JW Player and SpotX recently announced a new header bidding solution to drive improved video ad monetization across JW’s huge base of content publishers. Dubbed “Video Player Bidding,” the solution is meant to radically simplify and accelerate JW publishers’ implementation of header bidding, while exposing their inventory to SpotX’s deep pool of demand sources. I caught up with JW’s co-founder and SVP, Strategic Partnerships Brian Rifkin and SpotX’s CRO Sean Buckley, to learn more.

For those not familiar, header bidding is a way for publishers to increase yield on their ad inventory, by simultaneously accepting bids from various demand sources, with the highest bid winning. The approach contrasts with the traditional “waterfall” model, whereby bids are sequentially evaluated. As programmatic buying has gained in display ads, header bidding has become widely used.

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I’m pleased to present the 408th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Roku reported a strong Q4 ’17 holiday quarter this week as it continues to transition to an ad-based business model driven off its 19 million+ active users. Roku is in the middle of all of the industry key trends and Colin and I discuss the company’s results and how we see the business going forward.

We then turn to how HBO and Showtime have been revitalized by OTT delivery. 2017 results show how both traditional networks are using direct-to-consumer and new online distribution models to make their programming more easily accessible to viewers and achieve record subscribership. Their success is a textbook example of how OTT is shaking up longstanding industry norms.

Listen in to learn more!

 
Click here to listen to the podcast (24 minutes, 2 seconds)

Click here for previous podcasts

Click here to add the podcast feed to your RSS reader.

The VideoNuze podcast is also available in iTunes...subscribe today!
 

A couple of weeks ago, RhythmOne closed its acquisition of YuMe, one of the original leaders in video advertising. The deal was announced last September and was valued at approximately $185 million. The deal is the latest in a series of mergers and acquisitions consolidating the fragmented video ad tech landscape. To learn more about the deal and RhythmOne’s plans, I interviewed Dan Slivjanovski, ‎Chief Operating Officer.

VideoNuze: Explain what RhythmOne does and why it acquired YuMe

Dan Slivjanovski: RhythmOne connects advertisers to audiences through a combination of differentiated supply, innovative technology and data-driven insights. Our end-to-end platform, called RhythmMax, offers direct, efficient and effective connections, driving ROI for advertisers and publishers. We were founded in 2004, focused primarily on internet video search. In 2007, we became a public company, and are traded on the AIM exchange, or the LSE, in London.

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Roku reported a very strong holiday Q4 ’17 yesterday, with revenue increasing 28% to $188.3 million from $147.3 million in Q4 ’16. Roku turned in its most profitable quarter ever, with net income of $9.5 million, up from $3.4 million a year ago. Active accounts increased 44% to 19.3 million, with streaming hours up 55% to 4.3 billion hours in Q4.

Digging deeper, it’s clear that Roku is continuing its transition to an OTT ad business, built on its installed base of Roku players and Roku TVs. The company’s “Platform revenue” which includes both content distribution and advertising, accounted for $85.4 million, or 45% of total Q4 ’17 revenue, as compared with Q4 ’16 when it was $37.3 million, or 25.3% of revenue. Within Platform revenue, advertising generated 75% of the total, compared to less than two thirds a year ago.

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I’m pleased to present the 407th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

First up this week, Colin explains a very interesting analysis he has done indicating that Netflix viewership may be erasing up to $6 billion in TV ad inventory annually, which could be up to 8% of the market. Colin explains how all the binge-viewing that’s going on is taking time away from ad-supported TV, a trend that is only accelerating.

Part of the TV industry’s solution to this problem is to make ad-supported TV available more inexpensively through so-called “skinny bundles” or “vMVPDs.” One of these, YouTube TV, this week announced it added the Turner networks and plans to raise its rate by $5 per month. We discuss how YouTube TV appears to be gaining momentum and what Google’s long game likely is.

Listen in to learn more!

 
Click here to listen to the podcast (24 minutes, 5 seconds)


Click here for previous podcasts

Click here to add the podcast feed to your RSS reader.

The VideoNuze podcast is also available in iTunes...subscribe today!

Video ad tech provider Pixability has announced a new brand safety solution guaranteeing that 100% of an advertiser’s YouTube campaign will be in brand-safe placements. There are two options, DependAbility Premium and DependAbility At Scale, which are both available as part of Pixability’s overall video ad suite. Pixability is providing refunds on any views that happen in non-brand-safe context.

Brand safety has emerged as a huge industry issue over the past year, with YouTube in particular coming under scrutiny. Advertisers are justifiably focused on making sure their ads don’t show up adjacent to controversial content. But managing this has turned into a major challenge.

To learn more about Pixability’s new solution, I interviewed Andreas Goeldi, the company’s chief technology officer. A transcript follows.

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New research from SpotX reveals an expected shift in advertising spending from TV to OTT over the next 2 years. The research was conducted by Kagan among 41 U.S. pay-TV operators, OTT providers, content owner and advertisers. Just 11% of advertisers reported spending 21%-40% of their budgets on OTT today, but that’s expected to rise to 67% doing so in 2 years. Meanwhile, 33% said they currently spend 21%-40% on TV, but that’s expected to drop to 22% in the same time frame.

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Last week, ad tech provider AppNexus shared several examples of customers which are having success with Prebid Video, the company’s video header bidding solution. I caught up with Eric Hoffert, AppNexus's SVP, Video Technology, to learn more about Prebid Video and also what’s ahead for the year in video advertising. (If you want a good primer on header bidding, a few months ago AppNexus released a helpful white paper.)

VideoNuze: AppNexus announced customer momentum with its Prebid Video solution for header bidding. What news did you share?

Eric Hoffert: AppNexus has shared metrics of client success with Prebid Video, built on Prebid.js, the industry’s most widely adopted open source header bidding technology. Premium publishers, including Ranker, FANDOM, and Diply reported increased share of revenue through video header bidding, including eCPMs up to 100% higher than tag-based integrations; ease of integration and extensibility with different video players; advantages of customization with different video ad servers; and optimized national and international video yield. These publishers are all Top 100 web sites in the US (based on Alexa and Quantcast data).

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