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Specific Media Achieves 240% Gain in Reach One Year After BBE Deal
Specific Media, which acquired online video ad network and technology provider BBE one year ago, has since achieved an approximately 240% gain
in its video reach, to approximately 80 million viewers in October. Specific, which runs one of the largest display ad networks, has combined both companies' strengths in order to expand its footprint. Matt Wasserlauf, EVP of platforms and services at Specific and formerly head of BBE, explained to me last week that the video ad network has grown significantly by leveraging Specific's thousands of publisher relationships.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: BBE, Specific Media
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Brand Lift Gains Momentum As Online Video Ad Campaign Metric
Traditional ways of measuring the effectiveness of online video campaigns such as click-through and completion rates are being enhanced with brand lift metrics such as awareness and intent that are common in other forms of advertising. The latest indicator is that Adap.tv, an online video advertising marketplace, has integrated Vizu's Ad Catalyst solution, which measures brand lift, to offer this capability to its clients. Yesterday the companies released a case study which speaks to the new insights online video advertisers can gain from studying brand lift as well.
Categories: Advertising
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Research: Heavier Ad Loads Don't Turn Off On-Demand Viewers
Over the past several years, as more networks have begun delivering their TV programs for free online, a pressing question has been how "heavy" an ad load is appropriate to include. Too many unskippable ads and the viewer could be turned off to the new medium; too few and the network would undermine its own P&L as viewing behavior shifts online (see my post quantifying these risks). While it's still too early to know precisely where to strike the balance, new research released yesterday indicates viewers' acceptance of heavier ad loads in on-demand programs is actually quite high.
Categories: Advertising, Video On Demand
Topics: AAMP, BlackArrow
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YuMe Snags $12 Million from Samsung, Translink Capital for Ad-Enabled Connected TVs
YuMe has raised $12 million from Samsung Ventures and Translink Capital to continue integrating its ad technology into connected "Smart TVs." Just two
weeks ago, YuMe announced the first such integration, with LG's Smart TVs. In that deal, YuMe's new Embedded SDK is being integrated into the firmware of the TVs, with access to YuMe's Connected Audience Network and its ACE for Publishers ad platform. The significance of all that is that in-stream video ads can be more effectively delivered to Smart TVs while leveraging the scale already achieved in online video, as they continue to proliferate.
Categories: Advertising, Devices
Topics: Samsung Ventures, Translink Capital, YuMe
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AdoTube Unveils VidLogic Campaign Management Platform
Video ad technology provider AdoTube is introducing VidLogic this morning, a new video campaign management platform for in-stream video advertising.
VidLogic is a single campaign management platform with tools to plan, develop creative, manage, target, optimize and report on ads placed on virtually any ad exchange, network or publisher site. VidLogic is seeking to differentiate from other demand side platforms (DSPs) by leveraging AdoTube's core technologies and being an open platform that will work with any inventory source.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
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Q&A with Bismarck Lepe, president of products at Ooyala - 11/2/11
1. How important is video to a social media strategy and vice versa?
Social media is about sharing and discovering. We login to Facebook or Twitter or FourSquare because we want to share our latest pictures, videos, ideas, or items of interest, such as an article, video or song. We also login to find out what our friends and acquaintances are up to, or discover what they’re reading and watching. Adding social dimensions to video is an effective way to facilitate content discovery. Said another way, it’s an effective way to let your audience become your marketers.
At the same time, watching TV, movies and other video content is an inherently social experience. We go to the movies with friends, sit around the TV with family, and discuss the latest hit show with co-workers. By combining video with social media elements, a publisher can recreate in a digital setting the ways we already engage with content in the offline world. That creates a more engaging and “sticky” social media experience.
Categories: Advertising, Social Media
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LG Smart TVs With Integrated YuMe Ad Platform Are a Significant Milestone
The adage that a "journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" comes to mind when thinking about the significance of news that LG Electronics is integrating YuMe's advertising technology in its "Smart TVs."
Why? Because while the norm will eventually be for high-quality video, apps and interactive ads to be delivered to connected TVs through broadband IP connections, the reality is that it's still very early days in achieving this grand vision. However, the LG-YuMe partnership provides tangible evidence that the foundation is indeed being laid, which portends exciting things for everyone in the ecosystem.
Categories: Advertising, Devices
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Jivox Raises $8.2 Million to Fuel Interactive Video Ads
Interactive video ad technology provider Jivox has raised an $8.2 million second round, led by Fortisure Ventures, with participation from existing investors. Diaz Nesamoney, Jivox's CEO and founder told me yesterday that the funds will be used to expand sales and marketing and further develop its technology platform.
Jivox sees its differentiators as simplifying the process of creating interactive video ad across multiple devices for both in-banner (i.e. rich media) and
in-stream (i.e. pre-roll, mid-roll, etc.) formats. Jivox also distinguishes itself with "BrandGage," its proprietary analytics platform that adds tags to all engagement opportunities in the ad and then maps them into a funnel to deliver higher ROIs. Diaz explained that click-through rates on Jivox ads can range from 2%-8%. He added that brands are demanding more social media integration in their ads, and the ability to serve and track user behavior across platforms and units has become very appealing.
Jivox has raised almost $19 million to date. Campaigns using Jivox currently running include Showtime (for "Gold Rush"), Franklin Templeton and others.Categories: Advertising, Deals & Financings
Topics: Jivox
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Adobe Expands Into Online Video Advertising Through Auditude Acquisition
Adobe is expanding into the surging online video advertising space, announcing that it has acquired video ad manager Auditude, whose Connect platform is used by customers such as Comcast, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Dailymotion and others. Adobe views Auditude as providing the monetization piece of an integrated Adobe solution that already includes video creation, publishing and optimization across all IP-enabled devices. Auditude had raised approximately $40 million to date.
The overall solution is targeted to premium video publishers and distributors where Adobe already has a strong footprint through its Flash Media products and Digital Marketing Suite (i.e. Omniture). The deal seems like a pretty smart move since at a minimum Auditude will benefit from exposure to Adobe's large customer base. Adobe's positioning of the deal as streamlining work flows from creation through monetization/measurement will also resonate with publishers who are swamped trying to keep up with myriad new devices, platforms and social media opportunities.
Categories: Advertising, Deals & Financings
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With New Channels On Deck, YouTube Plays "Strategic Catalyst" Role in Online Video Industry
Yesterday the WSJ reported that YouTube may unveil a batch of new original content "channels" as early as next week. YouTube is reportedly investing $100 million in the initiative, with potential content partners including Electus, ShineReveille, FremantleMedia, Tony Hawk, and CSI's Anthony Zuiker. While it's too early to know exactly how all of this will work, I think it is evidence of YouTube playing an important "strategic catalyst" role for the online video industry.
I initially explained this concept last April, comparing YouTube's investment in online-only programming to how cable operators invested in and nurtured
early cable TV networks several decades ago. It's increasingly difficult to recall these networks' humble origins in the midst of current high-profile original entertainment programming and sports broadcasts, not to mention ratings wins, but the reality is that in their fledgling days, distributors were cable networks' lifeblood. Cable operators provided cable networks with distribution, promotion and importantly a business model (monthly affiliate fees and eventually advertising), all of which would expand in the ensuing years. YouTube is now laying the groundwork to do exactly the same thing for online-only programming.
Categories: Advertising, Indie Video
Topics: YouTube
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Report: Standards, User Experience Are Key Hurdles For Online Video Advertising
Though online video advertising is surging, standardization of ads and the user experience are key barriers to its continued growth. That's according to video ad network BrightRoll's 2nd annual publisher report, released this morning, which contains insights about the current state of the online video advertising market. Since the vast majority of the online video ecosystem is supported by advertising today, understanding how to increase spending and effectiveness are crucial to its ongoing success. BrightRoll surveyed over 100 executives at premium content publishers for its report.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: BrightRoll
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YuMe Adds Social and Interactive Elements to Its Pre-Rolls
Video ad technology provider YuMe is enhancing its traditional pre-roll ad with social media and other interactive elements. The new pre-roll unit will include
hooks to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube as well as special offers and store/dealer locator integration. YuMe SVP of Marketing Ed Haslam and Product Marketing Director Alp Pekkocak told me yesterday that the move is a direct response to brands seeking more social engagement throughout their marketing mix as well as competitor initiatives. The new pre-roll unit doesn't cost extra than the prior one.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: YuMe
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Exclusive: Tremor Video's "Video Hub" Analytics Platform Now Available for 3rd Party Use
Tremor Video is announcing later this morning that its Video Hub in-stream video ad analytics platform is now available for brands and agencies to license for use with any 3rd party ad server, ad network or publisher. Tremor unveiled Video Hub in May and since then over 200 brands and agencies have used it with Tremor's own ad server on its ad network as the company finished up development. Anthony Risicato, Tremor's GM for Video Hub told me last week that reactions from these early users have been positive and they've been eager to expand their use of Video Hub to also track and measure the effectiveness of non-Tremor elements of their video ad campaigns.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: Tremor Video, Video Hub
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Google Rolls Out AdWords for Video, Driving Performance-Based Video Ad Model
Google is announcing AdWords for Video in beta this morning, which radically simplifies the process of creating and running video ad campaigns that reach Google/YouTube's vast audiences. The new initiative also bolsters YouTube's "True View" performance-based approach as Google tries to move the market away from the traditional impressions-based spending.
AdWords for Video creates a dedicated video campaign management capability in the standard AdWords dashboard so that advertisers can efficiently allocate their spending and monitor results. AdWords for Video will benefit from YouTube's status as the biggest video destination, and Google's as the number 1 search engine.
Categories: Advertising
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Vizu Extends Measurement of Video Ads' Brand Lift to VAST/VPAID
Vizu, an online ad technology provider which measures brand lift, announced an upgrade of its platform yesterday which will give brands and agencies greater insight into the effectiveness of in-stream video ad campaigns, an important step to increasing their spending. With the upgrade, Vizu now
supports the VAST/VPAID spec which means Vizu can measure the effectiveness of video ads placed through ad exchanges and real-time bidding platforms as well those bought through direct publisher sales. As Vizu's CEO Dan Beltramo explained to me last week, this is a key step because a significant portion of video ads are already being placed through exchanges and RTB platforms which he expects to grow further.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: Vizu
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New EyeView Research Demonstrates Impact of Personalized Online Video Ads
Video ad technology provider EyeView is unveiling research this morning that demonstrates how personalized online video ads can improve viewers' purchase intent, brand favorability and brand loyalty. The research underscores how online video advertising continues to differentiate itself from traditional TV advertising with real-time, dynamic creative that breaks through. EyeView CEO Oren Harnevo walked me through the research findings last week.
The research was conducted by Knowledge Networks (KN), which queried approximately 400 online users which were divided in half. Both halves were shown the same online video content with adjacent pre-roll video ads, but one half saw standard TV ads from travel provider Kayak and the other half saw these ads with personalized messaging (e.g. specific flight information from their local airport, etc.). Reactions from the two groups were then compared.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: EyeView
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Tubifi Aims to Crack the High Cost of Video Advertising
Startup Tubifi has an ambitious agenda to dramatically reduce the cost of
video advertising, without sacrificing quality. Founded by a group of CLIO and Emmy-winning executives and technology veterans, Tubifi envisions next-generation video advertising capitalizing on the abundance of stock video footage that eliminates the need to do custom video production that drives up cost. Co-founders John Belchers and Ian Brower explained the company's approach.
As John and Ian see it, video advertising is becoming table stakes for all reasonably sophisticated marketers. The problem is that traditional production models for TV spots are only suited to big companies with big budgets. For small-to-medium sized businesses in the $10-150 million revenue range looking to reach online/mobile audiences primarily, spending $300K-$400K on a single spot is prohibitive.
Categories: Advertising, Startups
Topics: Tubifi
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Who Are Video Ad Networks Really Working For?
Following is a guest post from Erik Swain, Vice President of Operations of SpotXchange, a leading online video ad network and marketplace.
Who Are Video Ad Networks Really Working For?
by Erik Swain
According to a recent eMarketer report online video ad spending will grow 52% this year. This $2.2 billion industry has caused a surge of ad networks to sprout up to meet customer demand. But beware. In order to leverage this gold rush of video ad spending, ad networks are striking deals with publishers that may not be in the advertiser’s best interest. And that’s bad for everyone.
How Online Video Advertising Works Today
Buying media for online video ads is similar to display media. Advertisers can purchase impressions from a video ad network to reach their ideal audiences across a variety of publishers. Some of these networks are blind, meaning they provide assurances that the ads are reaching the right audiences but no insight into on which sites the ads appear. Other networks are transparent, meaning they give the advertiser full visibility into the publishers where ads run. And there’s the most common middle ground, often referred to as opaque, where ad networks provide a list of the publishers it works with and sites where ads are likely to run.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: SpotXchange
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Innovid Raises $9.5 Million to Fuel Interactive Video Ads
Innovid, whose iRoll interactive pre-roll ad unit delivers a higher ROI for advertisers and publishers, is announcing a $9.5 million Series B financing led by
Sequoia Capital, with participation from current investors Genesis Capital and T-Venture. The new funds will help fuel global expansion. Innovid is Sequoia's first investment in the video advertising space. Innovid raised a $4 million first round in September, 2010.
Innovid is now integrated with every U.S. video ad network and 2,100 sites are iRoll certified. iRoll allows advertisers to reach viewers with a limitless array of engagement opportunities, far beyond what standard pre-rolls can offer (a gallery of examples is here). These can include social media sharing, shopping opportunities and localized information, among others. Innovid has also introduced DYNAMO, an ad serving and analytics platform that works with all pre-roll ads and can also measure and report all interactions with iRoll ads.
Categories: Advertising, Deals & Financings
Topics: Innovid, Sequoia Capital
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In-Stream Mobile Video Ad Completion Rates Running Strong
In-stream mobile video ad completion rates are running strong according to new data that mobile video ad network Rhythm NewMedia has shared with me. According to their data, completion rates for pre-roll and mid-roll ads in Q2 '11 averaged 87%, consistent with the prior 5 quarters. The ads viewed are mostly 15 seconds in duration.
Rhythm also reported that a total of just over 6 ads are viewed during full length episodes from premium content partners TV.com, The CW, Crackle and others. Typically there is one ad per break. In addition, total content views grew 200% from Q1 '11 to Q2 '11. Mobile devices include iOS and Android, with 60% of views delivered over WiFi networks.
Categories: Advertising, Mobile Video
Topics: Rhythm NewMedia
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