Broadband Enterprises, ScanScount.
Note: Prior Blockbuster post relatest to StupidVideos.com.
Broadband Enterprises Partners with ScanScout for Video Overlay Ads
April 22, 2008
While video advertising is still rather experimental as many attempt to move away from pre-roll ads and others merely try to monetize online video in the best way possible, it appears to be the interactive overlay ads that are beginning to get the most attention from video ad networks. Broadband Enterprises has a wide array of big name clients that utilize its video network, and has in fact done a great deal in the way of pre-roll ads.
Now, in an effort to add some variety to the mix, BBE has signed an exclusive partnership with ScanScout to provide overlay video ads. ScanScout has been building up its client base and working on alternatives to the pre-roll video ad for some time now, and has created an auto-match technology for optimizing ad placement across videos in its publishers’ networks.
I’m sure we’ll see more of the bigger names in the online video advertising space building on the current appeal of in-stream overlay ads in order to incorporate more interactive options for advertising purposes, which can also be automated to a large degree. VideoClix is an example of how this can be developed out for marketing campaigns within a network environment on the advertisers and publishers ends.
Time Warner Invests in ScanScout
September 9, 2007
Time Warner Investments has joined the Series A round of video advertising startup ScanScout. The amount of the investment was not disclosed, though the round had originally netted $7 million in May from General Catalyst Parters, Ron Conway, and First Round Capital.
We spoke with ScanScout CEO Doug McFarland last week, who said the strategic investment from the media giant would help open up industry connections, paving the way for cooperation with other Time Warner (TWX) video properties such as Truveo. Time Warner has a variety of online video-related investments, including Veoh Networks and Ripe Digital Entertainment.
ScanScout is serving between 25 and 30 video advertising campaigns on some 13 to 15 sites, including blip.tv, Operator11, and Next New Networks, according to McFarland. Remember the company’s strength is contextual targeting, done mostly on a performance basis so advertisers only pay when a viewer clicks on an ad.
The ad units are similar to those used by YouTube and VideoEgg, where a text ad telescopes into an overlaid video ad when a viewer clicks on it. An upcoming feature includes the ability to include ads in embedded video players, which seems like a natural step but could present problems with sites like MySpace, which don’t allow outsiders to make money off their pages.
Interestingly, McFarland admitted that due to the inappropriateness of placing its advertisers’ next to content like porn or bad news, the market for video ads is greatly reduced. “We are finding that for a lot of video — plus-50 percent of the video streams out there — there’s not an appropriate ad to serve,” he said.
ScanScout employs 22 people in offices in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Are Online Video Advertisers the Next Acquisition Targets?
June 04, 2007
Online Advertising has been getting lots of attention, evidenced by Google’s (GOOG) Doubleclick acquisition, Microsoft’s (MSFT) aQuantive (AQNT) acquisition, and Yahoo’s (YHOO) RightMedia acquisition. My earlier post discusses additional potential roll-ups in the world of online advertising agencies.
Online video advertising, a relatively newer concept in Internet marketing, is quickly becoming an important opportunity, evidenced in a study indicating that almost 6 viewers out of 10 watch video clips on the Internet. Google’s acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion clearly authenticated this trend, although monetization of these video viewership is still minimal.
According to eMarketer, online video advertising by 2010 will constitute 10% of all Internet marketing. Another study by Online Publishers Association shows that 44% of those watching an online video ad after watching the advertisement took an action such as visiting a Web site, going to a store or requesting additional product information. According to Adams Media Research, advertisers by 2011 will spend approximately $1.7 billion on Internet video advertising.
I suspect that from now on Microsoft will become more alert about what it needs to acquire, how soon and at what price. Google, most likely, will try to crack this nut via internal R&D and unless a startup comes up with rocket science technology and IP, that is protected by patents, their approach will likely be to challenge the droves of Computer Science Phds to justify their existence by coming up with the technology themselves. Yahoo, on the other hand, also needs to keep up the acquisitions.
So whom would Microsoft, Yahoo and others acquire next to plug the holes in their video ad technology portfolio?
One of the more visible startups in the field is ScanScout. Based in Massachusetts, ScanScout, a new entrant to the race, claims to display relevant video ads based on the clips being viewed, similar to the way Google AdWords functions. It uses tags, metadata, colors, text and audio of a clip to identify video ads to be displayed. The organization demonstrated this by showing the advertisement of a sports car when cars were being discussed. ScanScout technology further allows customers to place additional ads so they appear as a conversation moves from one topic to another.
In addition to displaying keywords based ads, ScanScout offers advertisers to choose categories in which they want to show their ads. ScanScout gets a commission when Web site visitors click on a video ad. With ScanScout advertisers can limit their ads from getting associated with undesirable content.
PureVideo Networks, parent of StupidVideos.com, Blip Networks, parent of blip.tv, and NBC Universal (GE) are some organizations that have so far tried ScanScout and seem to be impressed with the service. Microsoft finds ScanScout’s technology “pretty interesting stuff”.
ScanScout’s key investors include Georges Harik, previously an executive with Google, where he assisted in the development of Google’s search technology. Other investors are General Catalyst Partners, Baseline Ventures, First Round Capital and Ron Conway, the Angel investor with a golden touch.
Scanscout looks like a possibility.
AI
