Earlier today, we formally announced the addition of Bill Shaughnessy a longtime Microsoft Sales and Marketing executive to the Mixpo Board of Directors.

According to Anupam Gupta, president and CEO of Mixpo, “We are privileged to add an industry expert and senior executive of Bill’s depth and caliber to our Board. His experience of developing leaders, building organizations that scale and delivering world-class online advertising solutions is unparalleled.” To read today’s press release click here.

Bill joins Anupam, Matt McIlwain of Madrona Venture Group, Jim Charlton of GrowthWorks and Jeff Lanctot, chief strategy officer of Razorfish, as part of the Board directing Mixpo’s mission to make video display advertising – a more effective display add – accessible to local advertisers, large or small, while eliminating the complexity of creating, delivering and optimizing dynamic, geo-targeted VideoAds that fuel more effective display ad campaigns.

Welcome aboard Bill!

According to Wikipedia, “A team comprises a group of people linked in a common purpose. A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize his or her strengths…”

This is a great description of the Mixpo Product and Technology team. Our team last night was honored as the winner of the  “Team of the Year” by the British Columbia Technology Industry Association (BCTIA) and its 2009 Technology Impact Awards (TIAs). The Mixpo team was up against TELUS, a national telecommunications company in Canada, with $9.7 billion of annual revenue. Can you say, “David vs. Goliath?”

The BCTIA’s TIAs, now its 15th year, shine a spotlight on the people and innovation that sets the standard and serve as role models in British Columbia. Mixpo was founded in Victoria and a vast majority of our Product and Technology team is housed in our offices North of the Border.

So, why was the Mixpo team honored? Simply put, over the past couple of years they’ve delivered. According to the BCTIA and based on our submission, they were asked to change “direction mid-stream – one of the most difficult tasks an organization can undertake, and it that requires a solid team to execute.”

The BCTIA went on to write about the Mixpo team, “In the rapidly changing and competitive technology market of digital marketing, Mixpo’s team provided the momentum, savvy, and innovation to drive the company’s future profitability.”

We’re very proud of our Product and Technology team. They are the backbone of Mixpo and our efforts to be the best online video advertising technology company in the world making rich media VideoAds accessible to local advertisers, large or small. Great job team and congrats!

In a recent post (Capturing the value of VideoAds), I talked about capturing the value of VideoAds.  I introduced the thesis that video display ads are different than regular display ads and much more effective both for advertisers and prospects. 

VideoAds running in-banner benefit prospects by:

- Creating a richer presentation that’s highly interactive and more informative

- Bring information TO the viewer rather than forcing them to click away

- Keeping viewers in control and letting them take action when they're ready

And for advertisers by:

- Providing more insight into how receptive viewers are to an advertiser’s message

- Working across the purchase funnel helping advertisers achieve brand awareness and purchase    
   intent goals or conversion related goals, e.g., email inquiries, or, yes, even click to a website when      the viewer is ready

Again, working with our publishing partners, we’re seeing the benefits of VideoAds for advertisers both large and small who focus on the local market. 

One of the world’s most recognized brands goes local

Case in Point: McDonald's wanted to drive awareness of the regional launch of McCafe and their new line of coffee drinks.   They launched a VideoAd campaign in the Detroit area repurposing seven of their television spots.  Viewers watched over 1100 minutes and on average each viewer watched over 80 percent of the VideoAd.

Download Ad-0406-fastfood_core

A local tourism bureau goes big with VideoAds

Case in Point: Sonoma Country Tourism is like a “little piece of Provence” and wanted to drive awareness of that fact by showcasing the epicurean delights on Sonoma.   They also wanted to drive action – clicks, calls, and inquiries.  In three weeks they generated over 1100 clicks with a 0.53 percent CTR.

Download Ad-0403-wl_tourism_core-1

A regional healthcare provider finds the perfect marketing medicine

Case in Point: The University of Washington Medicine and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, serves the northwest community but is more known for its trauma center and university medical school than the world-class specialty practices in areas like Brain Aneurysms and Heart Arrhythmias.  Using existing videos and turning them into VideoAds, they generated over 13,000 minutes of view over the 10-week campaign period.  The average length of each VideoAd was 2 minutes, yet viewers watched over 50 percent.

Download Ad-0422-uw_core

A Performing Arts Center has a command performance online

Case in Point: The Orange County Performing Arts Center (OCPAC) wanted to promote a series of events in rapid succession, get people excited, and drive ticket sales.  With events ranging from Stomp to CATs, OCPAC achieved an engagement rate that was 7X that of the click through rates regular display ads achieve.  The top performing event, Backyardigans, achieved an ER of almost 1.70 percent.

Download Ad-0403-performing_arts_core-1

Conclusion: These local advertisers understand that the display ad can do so much more than provide a click.  With video, display ads can drive brand awareness, purchase intent and lead customers down the purchase funnel to a sale but it all starts with getting viewers to engage with your message and become prospects.   The click isn’t dead in display ads,steve it just has lots more company.

Display ads have needed an overhaul for quite some time. The sole benefit of "the click" and associated clickthrough rate is under siege now that video is being incorporated into banner ad real estate.  It's high time to advance the regular display ad. 

Video enabled display ads offer so much more capability than their ancestral cousin.  VideoAds offer the ability to engage viewers and turn them into prospects no matter where they are in the purchase funnel and that includes BUT not limited to driving direct response (or clicks). 

For more on the topic, I invite you to check out the featured article, "Video kills the display ad...metrics" just released on Adotas.

We were just announced as winner of the OnMedia 100 Award given to private, emerging technology companies in the advertising, publishing, marketing, branding and public relations spaces.  The award, selected by AlwaysOn's editorial team is based on its market opportunity, level of innovation, growth and customer traction.  The selection to this prestigious award is based on disruption in the marketplace.  In the words of Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn, "This is the list of the top 100 emerging companies that are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities in the marketing, branding, advertising, and publishing industries."

Dissuption comes in many ways.  In today's tough economic times, there are lots of companies whose business models are eroding and facing disruption, namely, traditional media companies and the advertiisng industry as a whole.  For Mixpo, we like to think our technology is disruptive BUT in a way that helps traditonal media companies - in newspaper, broadcast television, and radio TRANSFORM themselves online and compete.

As AlwaysOn put it: "The winners from this year's list will likely look back on this time as their formative—albeit challenging—adolescence; a time when even though they had to sharpen their game to win deals, they were also met with a market hungry for their efficiencies and insights."  We're honored to be recognized as winner of the OnMedia 100 award but even more excited for the reasons behind it.

The AlwaysOn OnMedia 100 Award Winners

The OnMedia 100 winners will be recognized at the OnMedia 100 Conference at the Ritz Carlton, New York City, on February 2-4. This two-and-a-half day executive conference is co-presented by Forbes and will feature presentations and high-level debates from CEOs, journalists, industry experts, investors and publishing and advertising executives.

Much has been written the past few months about the tough economic times we're in.  I recently wrote an article for Media Post entitled, Online Video Ads Ride High During Tough Economic Times
that talked about how businesses responded to tough times in the past with many pulling back their advertising efforts and hunkering down - hoping for better days.  A few gutsy advertisers, however, took a different approach and saw it as an opportunity to advance their business in spite of what others where doing and in spite of good (navigational) data to help them steer through these rough waters.

Today's advertisers can be thankful that they can navigate through tough times by being smarter about where they spend their marketing dollars.  In today's world, advertisers don't have to rely on sheer guts for success.   Performance data and the ability to change direction (optimize) based on information is the fuel that will power many advertisers through these tough times.  We're seeing this with many of our publishers who serve small and medium sized businesses.  Their clients are not laying anchored in some harbor or simply adrift, waiting for the tides to change.  They are staying the course and relying on performance data (not guts) for their success.   Yes. there is still much for advertisers to be thankful for.