Jivox Launches New Version of Service Making Video Ads More Engaging and Measurable

Ad Operations OnlineJivox 4.0 takes online video advertising to the next level with new performance-driven features, including click-to-action interactivity, sophisticated campaign management dashboards and industry’s first “Engagement Score

San Mateo, California – February 17, 2009 – Jivox, the online video advertising service that helps small and medium-sized businesses reach local customers, today announced general availability of Jivox 4.0, the next major release of its popular online video advertising platform. Jivox 4.0 delivers click-to-action interactivity features that encourage viewers to take action without leaving a video; a first-of-its-kind Video Engagement Score that assigns a value to those interactions as compared against other ads running on the Jivox Publisher Network; and new in-depth reporting dashboards providing information on campaign performance over time, comparative scoring, trend information and other detailed data on key performance metrics.



“The goal of this release was to give our customers the ability to easily create the most engaging, cost-effective advertising on the Web today, and then give them the tools to measure its true effectiveness,” said Diaz Nesamoney, CEO of Jivox. “Online video advertising has the unique ability to enhance an advertiser’s brand while offering unmatched direct response capabilities. We believe that these new features will take online video advertising to the next level of performance-driven advertising and provide a solid foundation for the continued rapid growth of the medium.”

Key new features of the Jivox video advertising platform include:

Click-to-Action Interactivity:

New interactivity features from Jivox encourage viewers to take immediate action without leaving a video, facilitating direct interaction between consumers and an advertiser. When a viewer clicks the Interactivity icon, the video is paused and the click-to-action features are presented as an overlay to the video.  Interactivity options include:

* Download a coupon: Downloads a coupon or document provided by the advertiser
* Request information via email: Submits a request to the advertiser to respond with product or service information.
* Email to a friend: Shares the video via email by inputting senders email address and recipients’ email addresses.
* Embed this ad on a web site: Displays an embed tag that  enables the video to be embedded in a website or blog.
* Share information via SMS: Advertiser contact information is sent via SMS by entering a mobile phone number.

Video Engagement Score:

The Video Engagement Score is a new approach to measuring the effectiveness of online video campaigns that goes beyond the traditional click-through standard. The Video Engagement Score takes into account for the first time multiple interactions a consumer has with an online video ad and assigns a weighted value to those interactions to provide advertisers deeper insight into an ad’s total performance.  Ads are “scored” by comparing their performance to that of other ads on the Jivox Publisher Network.

The Video Engagement Score is calculated as the total viewer interactions weighted by response priority and divided by the total views. The result is then normalized to fit within a range of 0-100 and adjusted such that the median of Video Engagement Scores across all active Jivox campaigns with more than 15,000 views in the Jivox Publisher Network is 50.

Enhanced Performance Dashboards and Reports:

With the latest release, Jivox now provides a number of dashboards and detailed reports for paid online video advertising campaigns:

* Performance Summary: Presents the most frequently accessed information including video views, click-through rate, coupon downloads and interactions.
* Trends: Presents Performance Summary information over the life of the campaigns with the ability to view over days, weeks, or months.
* Performance Comparison: Compares results of multiple campaigns.
* Detailed Reports: Presents all measured data as whole numbers or as percent of views.

“There are a growing number of competitive offerings in the local online video ad space. The name of the game is differentiation through ad creation tools as well as targeted distribution,” said Michael Boland, Senior Analyst at the Kelsey Group. “Jivox has an edge with distribution through its locally targeted network of publishers. The new release should bolster the other factor: better tools for advertisers to create ads and measure their effectiveness.”

Customer Feedback

One company that has used the new version of Jivox is Hemancipation, a Beverly Hills-based company that provides concierge and design services for men transitioning through divorce. Using stock video footage from the Jivox library, company founder Akilah Kamaria created an ad campaign targeting bachelors and divorced men whose ex-wife took most of the furniture or who needed to create a more comfortable space for entertaining. She also included a coupon for a free initial consultation. The ad was distributed via the Jivox Publisher Network in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Within three days of the ad running, Hemancipation had more hits on their web site than they had had in a year of advertising with another web ad company.  Kamaria also saw that viewers were downloading the coupon, meaning that people were gearing up to call the company for services.

“I’m a big fan of Jivox and love the new interactivity features,” said Akilah Kamaria, founder of Hemancipation.  “It’s great that people can see my ad and be able to text or email it to someone, particularly with my service that relies so much on referrals: it might be the 17-year-old nephew who sees my ad and sends it to his recently divorced uncle.  For people who blog about divorce or starting over, now they can also take my ad and post it on their blog.  Jivox really takes the virtual relationship to another level by allowing viewers to interact with the ad.  This leverages the message and the value even further.”

Online video advertising is one of the fastest-growing forms of online marketing because it commands the highest engagement and ROI of almost any online advertising method. Video ads generate nearly twice the click-through as banner ads and engage customers in an entertaining brand experience. Jivox helps smaller companies tap the power of video advertising, offering a complete, self-service online platform to create, place, and track high-impact video ads at a cost-effective price.

About Jivox
Jivox helps small businesses reach customers with online video advertising. Jivox provides advertisers with an online, self-service tool to create high-impact video ads using stock footage, images, music or their existing video assets. Jivox ensures high-quality placement of customer ads through the Jivox Publisher Network, a locally focused network of premium publishers that includes hundreds of local TV and radio stations, newspapers, weather and other specialty websites, and offers geographic ad targeting at the city level as well as demographic and contextual targeting. Jivox is a privately held company based in San Mateo, Calif. For more information about Jivox, please visit www.jivox.com.