Beet.TV

Videology Aims to Reach Brand Loyalists with Data

2012-02-21T06:51:43-05:00

The next step for online video data platforms will be to tap into better ways to find brand loyalists online, said Mark McKee, General Manager of online video platform firm Videology in an interview with Beet.TV at the ANA conference in NY.

"The metrics don't necessarily equate to a sale...so yes, I can measure things but what does it mean?" he asked. "One thing that is clear is the idea of what digital can do to target and reach consumers who are loyalists to the brand or would soon be or like to be loyalists to the brand...it's the idea of targeting and using audience-based data to connect brands to individual consumers."

Videology recently rebranded after having operated as TidalTV. Under the new name, the ad platform is more focused on working with a range of data providers for more refined advertising buys.

Daisy Whitney

Hiro Media Touts Cookie-Free Video Ad Targeting Solution

2012-02-19T20:04:03-05:00

Online video ad solutions provider Hiro Media has been rolling out a new tool that enables its agency partners to target ad campaigns using URL sniffing rather than cookies, and already media firms such as Universal McCann Digital Israel have signed on.

We recently spoke to Hiro's Rinat Sherzer, director of product marketing, about the company's approach and its new patent-pending targeting tool.

Many in the online ad business are not fond of cookies because they track user behavior, but URL sniffing relies on recognizing the content and then serving up approriately targeted ads.

"It allows us to indicate on which content the user is watching the video so we can target the right ad without any need for cookies at all," Sherzer explained.

Hiro can then match the content with ads for the appropriate demo. "It's the ability to realize in which content the user sees the video so we can recognize who the show is aimed for."

Tel Aviv-based Hiro was founded in 2006 and Sherzer explained that the company's secret sauce lies in its union of TV ad strategies with new media strategies to deliver online video campaigns for both the sell and buy side. In addition to ad serving and optimization, Hiro also provides detailed analytics, Sherzer said. "We make sure the right ad gets into the right content with a high CPM," she said.

In addition to the Universal McCann deal, video-on-demand provider Viewster also recently signed on with Hiro. Hiro expects to announce more buy and sell side deals shortly.

Daisy Whitney

Machinima Hits 1.3 Billion Video Views, Web Drama a Growing Part of Mix

2012-02-19T10:18:37-05:00

Machinima, the highly popular Web portal for videos about video gaming, has reached an 1.3 billion video views, driven in part by Web originals, reports Liz Shannon Miller on GigaOm.

In November at the Monaco Media Forum, we caught up with Allen DeBevoise for chat about his site adn the emergence of "new television networks." We have republished that video today.

Andy Plesser

Big Marketers Flocking to Digital Video in 2012, Forrester's David Cooperstein

2012-02-17T14:42:28-05:00

By the end of 2012, more than half of marketers will likely be experimenting with digital video, up from just 20% in 2011, which will bring a shift in the creative as well.

That's the prediction from Forrester's David Cooperstein, VP and Research Director in an interview with Beet.TV conducted at the ANA conference in NY.

Forrester Research and the ANA just released a joint study on digital video advertising and TV ad effectiveness concluding that marketers are much more bullish both on TV ads and new forms of digital video than they were two years ago, he said. That's a promising finding, suggesting that the budget pullbacks from the recession are in the rearview mirror and that marketers are eager to test and try new ad formats.

Specifically the study found that about 70% of marketers plan to up their spending on Internet advertising this year, with mobile video the top option they'll likely test as an alternative to 30-second spots. Also, nearly half of marketers are planning to test advanced TV ad placements such as connected TVs in the coming year.

They're willing to test over-the-top, targeted TV ads, targeted video ads and other formats. "Experimentation is going to be pretty rampant over the next two years," Cooperstein said.

More on television and marketing in the is report by David Kaplan on TVexchange.

Daisy Whitney

Videoplaza Raises $12 Million to Fund Expansion, Product Relaunch

2012-02-17T07:21:13-05:00

London-based ad management platform Videoplaza earlier this month closed a second round of fundraising for $12 million from Qualcomm Ventures and Innovacom that will be earmarked for international expansion and product development, said Sorosh Tavakoli, founder and CEO of Videoplaza, in this interview with Beet.TV.

The company has grown its ad serving volume five-fold in the last year. Videoplaza is expecting huge growth from non-PC devices this year. Tavakoli explained that back in 2010, it didn't deliver any ads outside of PCs, but by the fourth quarter of 2011 about 8% of its ads were from non-PC platforms, such as mobile phones, Sony Bravia, tablets, gaming consoles and other devices, he said. He predicts non-PC devices will account for more than half Videoplaza's traffic by 2013. As such, Videoplaza is planning a product relaunch next month with a new name to reflect its work selling audiences across all devices.

Videoplaza focuses exclusively on serving the sell-side of the business. "It aligns our incentives with the client base," Tavakoli said.

Daisy Whitney

The "Big Story" is Business News Says Larry Ingrassia, New York Times Biz Editor

2012-02-16T18:28:45-05:00

The domestic and world economy is driving presidential politics and many other major developments, making business and financial news the "big story" -- and the New York Times is ambitiously expanding coverage with several blogs and new business video programming, says Larry Ingrassia in this interview with Beet.TV

Andy Plesser

Booming Online Video Ad Biz Spawns New Trade Pub

2012-02-15T16:02:35-05:00

The fast-paced emergence of electronic exchanges, connected TV's, and mobile video has given birth to TVexchanger, a new publication which covers a range of digital video topics.

The new site is edited by David Kaplan, longtime reporter for paidContent. He joined the publication in December.

In this interview with Beet.TV, Kaplan outlines editorial scope of new publication and share his views on industry trends.

He says the $1 billion exchange business will more than double this year.

TVexchanger is published by John Ebbert, publisher and editor of AdExchanger.

Andy Plesser

Nielsen's Three-Screen Report Shows More Broadband-Only Homes

2012-02-15T06:50:32-05:00

More consumers are relying on broadband-only connections in their homes, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're cutting the cord. Nielsen's latest three-screen report reveals that there are now 5.1 million broadcast only/broadband homes in the United States, up 23% from last year.

Those are homes with Internet connectivity but not cable TV channels. But the growth may be coming from homes that never had broadband in the first place rather than homes cutting back. For more details, check out this week's New Media Minute.

-Daisy Whitney

Editor's Note: Daisy's New Media Minute is sponsored and produced separately from Beet.TV. We are pelased to publish it regularly here. AP

RAMP to Provide Closed Captioning for ABCNews.com and CNBC.com

2012-02-14T21:50:14-05:00

RAMP, the Boston-based pioneer in speech-to-text technology, has been providing automated transcription services to media companies for sometime, is now expanding into closed captioning with ABCNews.com and CNBC.com as customers, the company announced today.

Back in 2009, we spoke with RAMP CEO Tom Wilde about how the technology provides transcripts and hyperlinks to a number of media companies including Thomson Reuters.

We have republished that interview today.

More on today's announcement by Will Richmond of VIdeoNuze.

Andy Plesser

Watching "Big Think" Videos for Credit at Harvard and Yale

2012-02-13T16:47:58-05:00

Big Think, the New York-based publisher and syndicator of short videos of thought leaders in business, academia, politics and the arts, now provides video-centric courses to top universities including Harvard and Yale.

Students watch a 14-part series of one-hour presentations along with supplemental reading material and receive credit.

It is also offering these videos to general public, subscription-based portal called Floating University.

We spoke with Big Think CEO and co-founder Victoria Brown for this explanation of the new academic offering.

Brown says that the company's short, 3-5 minute, thought leadership videos are getting over two million video views per month.

The company launched four years ago.

The business around online video education may get a big boost if President Obama's 3-year $8 billion plan to help community colleges provide online education training is enacted.

Andy Plesser