SAN FRANCISCO – LiveRail for Advertisers Gives Agencies One Platform to Target, Deliver and Track Video Advertising

LiveRail, provider of the world’s largest real-time online video ad platform, today announced the launch of LiveRail For Advertisers, a new ad serving product that makes video campaigns easier to execute, more effective, and more measurable.

LiveRail For Advertisers (LFA) is a brand new platform designed from the ground up for online video and eliminates many of the complexities associated with traditional, legacy technology. LFA streamlines workflows with its video-native tools and interface, dramatically reducing the workload and time associated in trafficking, launching and managing large, multi-publisher video campaigns. Agencies can now leverage LiveRail technology for consistent campaign delivery at scale across their entire media plan; including major broadcasters, portals, ad networks and exchanges.

Advertisers and agencies can also take advantage of LiveRail’s native data integrations (with partners like Affine) to target their video ads to the appropriate audience, content or domain within the publishers they buy from. LFA’s “zero wasted impressions” technology enables agencies to control and pace their campaign’s delivery, reducing wasted spend and ensuring that publishers only deliver within the plan. For the first time, agencies can now dynamically analyze media environments for every impression request, ensuring brand safety and appropriateness of the content/media, and restricting delivery in real-time where needed.

LiveRail for Advertiser’s MRC-accredited reporting and analytics give video ad buyers insight into how their ads are performing through a multitude of filters, dimensions, and video-specific performance metrics. LFA empowers marketers with the data to truly understand the impact and ROI of their video ads, across all the placements, on all publishers, networks and platforms they buy from, helping demonstrate the value of media spend and inform future media purchasing decisions.

“Because we sit at the hub of the online video ad ecosystem, we understand the needs of all parties involved,” said Mark Trefgarne, LiveRail CEO. “Our full- and self-service options let advertisers and agencies select the level of support they need so they can leverage our video expertise. By combining the world’s best video ad technology with the consultative support of industry experts, we believe that LFA will become an indispensible tool for all agencies serious about video.”

LiveRail For Advertisers is a third-party ad server for video. Advertisers and agencies utilizing LFA must maintain their own direct media relationships, as LFA cannot be natively used to access or purchase inventory. For more information about LiveRail For Advertisers, visit http://www.liverail.com/LFAPR.php

About LiveRail

LiveRail is the core technology at the heart of the online video advertising ecosystem. LiveRail solutions enable and enhance the monetization of internet-distributed video and handle over 2 billion video ad impressions per month for many of the world’s largest media and advertising clients. Founded in 2007, LiveRail’s senior team is led by its founders, Mark Trefgarne (CEO) and Andrei Dunca (CTO). LiveRail Inc is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with offices in New York, NY and Cluj-Napoca, Romania. LiveRail is backed by Pond Ventures.

“Earned media” is inconsistent and famously difficult to value. Jun Group (www.jungroup.com), the premier social video platform, has recently announced a study that provides simple metrics for valuing earned media – and clear evidence that social video programs consistently deliver earned media results. We have spoken to Mitchell Reichgut, Founder and CEO of Jun Group, who kindly shared some of his experience and thoughts on earned media measurement.

Otilia Otlacan: Earned media is notoriously difficult to quantify and value, even when digital. Why is that?

Mitchell Reichgut: Earned media is an outgrowth of “viral video,” which has always been a hit-driven phenomenon, not a consistent distribution strategy. Brands would be delighted when their video “went viral,” but little effort went into exploring the reasons why a video took off or the value of the results. Social video picks up where the viral dream left off. Essentially, it’s brand advertising that is targeted and shareable. Social video is paid media that drives consistent and significant earned media activity, all of which is measured and reported in real time.

Otilia Otlacan: Jun Group has recently announced a set of metrics to assist marketers in valuing earned media. Can you share with us what made you look so closely into this topic?

Mitchell Reichgut: As our targeting and sharing technology advanced, the earned media portion of our campaigns rose dramatically. Eventually it go to a level where we were consistently delivering things like recipe and coupon downloads, Facebook visits, clicks to brands’ Web sites, tweets, sharing, etc. We never charge for this activity, but our clients were increasingly asking us about its value. That was the genesis of the study.

Otilia Otlacan: Would you say that video content is more or less likely to generate earned media, by comparison to other content formats? Why?

Mitchell Reichgut: Video is far and away the most effective way to generate earned media – it’s visceral, emotional, and it’s easy to share. The biggest and most popular social advertising programs have all been video-centric.

Otilia Otlacan: In your experience, what makes a piece of video content a likely candidate to go viral?

Mitchell Reichgut: The most important thing to understand about “viral video” is that it is not an organic phenomenon. Videos that reach over 1 million users require a mass media component (i.e., AOL, Boing Boing, MSN, etc.). Even homemade videos that rise to prominence don’t do so on a peer-to-peer basis. They come to the broader public’s attention through a feature on one or more mass media outlets. The brand-sponsored videos that reach millions of people are the products of sophisticated and well-funded online media strategies. They may involve PR companies, media partnerships, or distribution firms like Jun Group. Outstanding creative is a critical component, but 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds, and being creative is by no means a guarantee of success.

Otilia Otlacan: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Mitchell Reichgut: Advertisers covet earned media for good reason – it’s perhaps the most powerful form of marketing available. We have deconstructed the myths around “viral video” and provided advertisers with reliable and consistent tools for driving these results. To us, it’s one of the most promising trends in online media.

About Mitchell Reichgut

Mitchell Reichgut is founder and CEO of Jun Group (www.jungroup.com), the premier social video platform. The company’s distribution technology delivers millions of monthly opt-in video views across social networks, mobile devices, premium content sites and YouTube. Jun Group distributes videos from 15 seconds to 3 minutes-long with exceptionally high completion rates and significant post-view activity, such as web site visits, coupon downloads, and store locator usage. The company’s analytics dashboard, Voyeur, provides real time data about views, shares, likes, tweets, ratings, comments, and geographic dispersal down to the state and town. Founded in 2005, Jun Group’s clients include Fortune 500 brands, major entertainment companies, and media and creative agencies

Prior to founding Jun Group, Mitchell headed up the New York interactive division of Bates Worldwide Advertising. As General Manager/Creative Director, he helped grow Bates Interactive into a 70-person integrated unit, with clients such as Perrier, Moet & Chandon, and Warner-Lambert.

Earlier, as Creative Director of the New York office of Think New Ideas, Mitchell supervised Web development for clients such as Budweiser, Chrysler, Sony, and Continental Airlines.

A graduate of Boston University’s College of Communications, Mitchell began his career as an Art Director at Grey Advertising where he created print and television advertisements for clients such as Procter & Gamble, Parker Brothers, and Stride Rite.

Mitchell wrote and directed The Scene, a 20-episode online drama that was viewed over 8 million times in 90 countries. He has published two national comic book series, and he recently wrote and produced an online drama entitled Stream, starring Whoopi Goldberg.

Jun Group defines earned media as a series of actions that users initiate after watching a social video. These post-view actions include Facebook page visits, brand page visits, store locator usage, coupon and recipe downloads, Tweets, e-mail shares, replays, and clicks to watch more videos – all of which are measured by Jun Group’s Voyeur analytics dashboard.

Jun Group’s study placed a monetary value on each action based on conservative industry data. A visit to a brand’s Facebook page, for instance, is valued at $1.00 in the study, which is on the low end of pricing for cost-per-click advertising.

Once the values were assigned, Jun Group analyzed 7.9 million social video views for brands across a number of vertical categories, such as CPG, health and beauty, sports, technology and luxury goods. Videos ranged from 15 seconds to 3 minutes-long and users opted-in to see them in exchange for virtual goods or currency.

Importantly, all of the earned media activity measured by the study was generated after users received their virtual rewards. “When you respect people, don’t interrupt them, and put them in control, they respond in a positive way,” Reichgut said. “It’s that simple.”

According to the study, Jun Group’s average social video campaign delivered 30.1 percent of additional media value above-and-beyond the media spend. In other words, clients that spent $100,000 with Jun Group in 2011 received over $130,000 of value on average.

Facebook page visits were by far the most popular earned media action, representing 62 percent of all post-view activity in the Jun Group study. Brand-specific actions, such as store locator usage, brand page visits, etc., were the next-most popular actions, accounting for 15 percent of the post-view activity. Surprisingly, Tweets were the least popular action, representing approximately one percent of the post-view activity.

About Jun Group
Jun Group is the premier social video platform. The company’s distribution technology delivers millions of monthly opt-in video views across social networks, mobile devices, premium content sites, and YouTube. Jun Group distributes videos from 15 seconds to 3 minutes-long with exceptionally high completion rates and significant post-view activity,
such as web site visits, coupon downloads, and store locator usage. The company’s analytics dashboard, Voyeur, provides real time data about views, shares, likes, tweets, ratings, comments, and geographic dispersal down to the state and town. Founded in 2005, Jun Group’s clients include Fortune 500 brands, major entertainment companies, and media and creative agencies. For more information, visit www.jungroup.com.

NEW YORK – Tremor Video, the largest independent online video advertising technology company, and TubeMogul, the fastest-growing media buying platform for video advertising, announced that Tremor Video has purchased InPlay, TubeMogul’s industry-leading video analytics for publishers. Tremor Video will integrate InPlay directly into VideoHub, its enterprise video platform, enabling a complete end-to-end video analytics solution for publishers.

InPlay helps publishers understand real-time engagement, viewership and performance data, and is relied on daily by hundreds of top media companies, video platforms and content creators. The transfer of ownership gives Tremor Video an industry-best set of publisher video analytics, allowing the company to give publishers and their partners the ability to measure, track, report and deliver on the signals driving the performance of video content.

TubeMogul, which started as a video measurement company for publishers, shifted its focus in the past year after launching the industry’s first demand side platform for video advertising. Although TubeMogul is divesting its publisher analytics, the real-time reporting tools developed for TubeMogul’s video advertising platform will be unaffected, giving clients uninterrupted access to audience, engagement and brand impact data by site and by ad.

The deal continues to enhance Tremor Video’s VideoHub suite of products, making insights gathered from more than 1 billion video streams available to help publishers understand how their videos are discovered, what drives engagement and much more. InPlay will be available to all publishers as part of VideoHub for Publishers, launching in Q1 2012.

“Publishers are demanding an analytics suite that provides a clear picture of how viewers are interacting with content in order to determine what creates the most value for advertisers,” said Bill Day, CEO of Tremor Video. “InPlay gives us industry-leading technology and a sound product that meets this market demand. By integrating with our existing VideoHub technology, Tremor Video can now offer our partners a view across the entire video landscape.”

“TubeMogul InPlay was built to help publishers better understand their viewers to drive deeper engagement, and it has largely delivered on that promise,” said Brett Wilson, Co-founder and CEO of TubeMogul. “As we shift our focus from publishers to brand advertisers, this deal helps us align our capabilities with the needs of marketers, while ensuring they get the transparency and reporting they have come to expect.”

The InPlay acquisition is the latest in a series of deals for Tremor Video. The company’s other recent purchases include ScanScout in November, 2010 and mobile ad platform Transpera in February of this year. Tremor Video plans to continue to be acquisitive, fueled by $37 million in funding raised earlier this year.

TubeMogul is also seeing tremendous growth, with recent partnerships in the connected TV, mobile and social space as well as new contracts with major agency trading desks worldwide. The company was recently named the seventh-fastest growing independent company in the San Francisco Bay Area, spanning Silicon Valley and beyond.

About Tremor Video

Tremor Video (www.tremorvideo.com) provides in-stream video advertising solutions to Fortune 1000 brand advertisers and top tier publishers. Widely regarded as the leader in online video advertising technology, the company leverages its award-winning decisioning engine, innovative video ad formats and publisher technology to deliver the campaign results and scale advertisers should expect from digital video. Tremor Video is the only video ad platform that can provide 100% brand safety by scanning and categorizing every single video stream before an ad is ever served. In addition, Tremor Video’s award-winning SE2 technology gets smarter at finding and engaging viewers with every ad served, enabling the company to welcome and encourage pay-per-engagement pricing. Founded in 2005, Tremor Video is backed by top-tier investors, including Canaan Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth, General Catalyst, Keating Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, Time Warner Investments, and W Capital Partners.

VideoHub, a division of Tremor Video, is a first of its kind analytics console that helps marketers and agencies monitor the complex video ecosystem to dynamically match ads with content and viewers, deliver upon marketing goals, and maximize brand impact. Unlike traditional video management platforms, VideoHub focuses on effectiveness and delivers real-time analytics for deep transparency across ads, content, viewers, and performance. To request a demo, visit videohub.tv.

About TubeMogul

TubeMogul is the only video marketing company built for branding. As a demand side platform for video, TubeMogul integrates real-time media buying, ad serving, targeting optimization and brand measurement into its PlayTime platform. Over half of the Fortune 500 use TubeMogul to simplify the delivery of video ads in any format, optimize the impact of their brand message and maximize the effect of every dollar they spend.

Founded in 2006, TubeMogul is based in Emeryville, CA with offices in New York, London, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto and Sydney.

NEW YORK – VINDICO, the leading online video ad management platform, announced the renewal of their Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation, which was initially granted in June 2010. Through this MRC accreditation renewal, VINDICO continues to demonstrate its commitment to building trust in online video advertising.  The accreditation will continue to benefit the global brands that work with VINDICO, as well as institute a benchmark for success in the industry.

Established to ensure audience measurement research is valid, reliable and effective, the MRC accreditation process requires companies to undergo rigorous third-party audits to guarantee compliance with industry standards. VINDICO’s accreditation indicates its video advertising platform is compliant with the MRC’s standards for Media Rating Research and the applicable guidelines published by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. MRC members include leading media and technology companies, such as AOL, Microsoft, CBS and FOX, among others.

“VINDICO has taken strides to make online video as trusted and easy to work with as any other measured media,” said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of the Media Rating Council. “Renewal of its MRC accreditation further solidifies VINDICO as a quality leader in the industry.”

VINDICO has deep market penetration, serving almost forty percent of all online video ads in the United States. The company provides video advertising management solutions to over 200 brands through their leading agency groups such as GroupM, Havas, IPG, Publicis and Omnicom. The VINDICO solution reduces complexity for advertisers by providing an efficient and reliable way to serve video ads across multiple networks.

“Video advertising is one of the advertising industry’s fastest growing categories, with eMarketer estimating that online video ad spending in the U.S. will reach more than $7 billion in 2015,” said Matt Timothy, president of VINDICO. “Renewal of MRC accreditation reinforces our commitment of giving advertisers the confidence they need to make larger investments in online video and demonstrates our data remains up to the MRC’s rigorous standards.”

About VINDICO
As the first ad management platform dedicated exclusively to video, VINDICO allows advertisers to serve, track and measure all of their online video ad activity. Since 2006, VINDICO has been the gold standard in online video platforms, providing standardized reporting and analytics for the online video industry. The power of online video isn’t just the audiences it reaches and how it reaches them. Its strength also derives from its ability to track an ad campaign and precisely measure the campaign’s effectiveness. For more information, please visit http://www.vindicogroup.com or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/VINDICO_Group.

About MRC
The MRC is a non-profit Industry association established in 1964 composed of leading television, radio, print and internet companies, as well as advertisers, advertising agencies and trade associations whose goal is to ensure measurement services that are valid, reliable and effective. Measurement services desiring MRC accreditation are required to disclose to their customers all methodological aspects of their service; comply with the MRC Minimum Standards for Media Rating Research; and submit to MRC-designed audits to authenticate and illuminate their procedures. In addition, the MRC membership actively pursues research issues they consider priorities in an effort to improve the quality of research in the marketplace. Currently approximately 70 research products are audited by the MRC. Additional information about MRC can be found at www.mediaratingcouncil.org.

REDWOOD CITY, CA – YuMe, the operating system for TV 2.0, today announced the results of a joint study with Nielsen, which quantifies the true impact of online video when combined with a major CPG TV advertising campaign:  reach, frequency, and recall increase substantially even as the CPM rate decreases. The results offer a compelling look at how brands can effectively and easily reach more viewers with a complementary, TV 2.0 media mix of TV and online video. Planning across both media as part of a single holistic campaign delivers an impact and return on investment which dramatically exceeds that of TV alone.

For this study, YuMe utilized Nielsen TV/Internet Fusion to assess the impact of a $500,000 online video ad buy for a PHD client’s $2.6 million TV flight. The flights ran concurrently throughout September 2011. Results show that a $500,000 spend on the Connected Audience Network, YuMe’s premium, in-stream video ad network, increased reach against the targeted 35–54 age demographic by 7 percentage points. In addition, more than 6 million people in the target demographic were not reached by the TV schedule alone, and were picked up only when online video was added to the schedule.

A high level summary of key findings from the YuMe-Nielsen study highlights the many benefits of a TV 2.0 campaign strategy:

•    Content present on multiple media extends reach:  YuMe online video increased reach for the targeted 35–54 age demographic by 7 percentage points when complemented by a TV flight. In addition, nearly 9 million people were exposed to the campaign on multiple screens.

•    Average frequency across screens increases:  The number of respondents exposed to the PHD campaign three or more times increased by 31 percent, while those exposed to the campaign six or more times rose by 52 percent.

•    Low eCPMs for online video drive substantial cost efficiencies:  Although less than one-sixth the cost of the TV schedule, the $500,000 spend invested in the YuMe Network drove an increase of 34 percent in gross rating points (GRPs) from the original TV schedule. The efficiency of the online video spend was nearly double that of the concurrent TV spend and the cost per point (CPP) was reduced by 11 percent.

•    Brand and message recall improves with YuMe:  Impression-per-impression, YuMe online video outperformed TV in terms of both brand and message recall compared to the campaign TV norm. Results of a Nielsen TV Brand Effect analysis showed an increase of 22 percent for brand recall and 31 percent for message recall one day post-exposure.

•    YuMe outperforms online video ad network norms:  YuMe’s Connected Audience Network outperformed its peers in both brand and message recall, demonstrating an increase of 33 and 50 percent respectively seven days post -exposure.

“We know our consumers are watching multiple screens throughout the day and sometimes watching more than one screen at a time,” said Kelley Train, PHD. “Because of this fact, we are constantly pushing our media to be more about reaching the right audience versus the platform in which the ad is being delivered. Utilizing both TV and YuMe’s video network as complimentary partners, we were able to achieve valuable additional reach, efficiency and effectiveness for our client.”

As consumers diversify their entertainment activities across an array of connected devices, it becomes more difficult for advertisers to maximize reach on a single platform. By complementing a schedule of TV ads with a concurrent online video flight, advertisers can reach consumers whether they are watching TV or online video to increase scale and reinforce the brand’s message.

“TV and digital ad planners can no longer operate in a vacuum in which online video advertising remains a silo apart from TV spend, because it fails to account for the fact that audiences are no longer stationary,” said Ed Haslam, Vice President of Marketing for YuMe. “Dual-platform campaigns offer demonstrable value and greatly outperform a TV-only campaign while improving overall cost efficiency.”

For more information, and to download the full report on the YuMe-Nielsen study, please visit www.yume.com/content/whitepapers.

About YuMe
YuMe is the software infrastructure provider powering digital video and the next generation of television with its operating system for TV 2.0. Its video advertising technology and services seamlessly connect advertisers, app developers, content distributors, consumer electronics manufacturers, and publishers across the globe. YuMe’s patent-pending Relevance Engine powers its premium in-stream video ad network, the YuMe Connected Audience Network, and its industry-leading advertising management solutions, ACE for Publishers and ACE for Advertisers. The YuMe Relevance Engine matches the right ad to the right audience on whatever screen they are viewing—PC, mobile, or connected TV. YuMe is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, CA with its European headquarters in London. The company is backed by Accel Partners, BV Capital, DAG Ventures, Intel Capital, Khosla Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and Translink Capital. For more information, visit www.YuMe.com, follow @YuMevideo on Twitter (www.twitter.com/YuMevideo), or like YuMe on Facebook at www.facebook.com/YuMevideo.

LOS ANGELES – Break Media, a leading creator and publisher of digital video content for men, today announced its Social Video Accelerator, an innovative new advertising technology which combines guaranteed video distribution with a suite of social analytics that maximize viral pass-along of advertiser content. The new unit is designed around the growing trend of Cost per View (CPV) advertising.

While demand for the CPV model increased among advertisers in 2011, thus far, publishers and networks have struggled to match it. YouTube has previously predicted that by 2015, more than 50 percent of online video campaigns will include inventory sold on a CPV. A recent study performed by Break Media and Advertiser Perceptions found that although 40 percent of advertising campaigns now use CPV in some fashion—a two-fold increase over the previous year—17 percent of advertisers stated they would select it as their preferred pricing model for video if more publishers and networks offered it.

The Social Video Accelerator will debut across the Break family of sites, which includes Break.com, the web’s largest comedy video site, and the Break Media network, which now reaches more than 120 million unique viewers each month. The technology is designed to distribute both advertiser assets such as trailers and videos as well as branded entertainment created in partnership with Break Media’s award winning in-house Creative Lab.

“The Cost per View video pricing model made huge strides within the industry this past year, with a number of advertisers citing it as their preferred model,” said Andrew Budkofsky, EVP of sales and partnerships for Break Media. “While this emergence has opened up an entirely new battleground for advertising dollars, advertisers must demand a solution that delivers a guarantee of quality, relevant context and targeting above and beyond simply counting numbers of views in order for their campaigns to be effective.”

“With the amount of competition for attention and eyeballs, we’ve looked for partners who can help us build a quality audience and guarantee our video content will reach it,” said Simone Deocares-Lengyel, media director at KD&E, the agency for Take-Two Interactive which runs multiple trailer release campaigns a year. “Being able to purchase against a guaranteed CPV and track both paid media as well as earned media presents a huge opportunity for us to distribute our content in the most meaningful way possible.”

The Social Video Accelerator is available now. For more information on all Break Media advertising units, visit us online or contact sales@breakmedia.com.

About Break Media:

Break Media is a leading creator, publisher, and distributor of digital entertainment content including video, editorial, and games. The company’s properties include the largest humor site online—Break.com—as well as Made Man, Game Front, Holy Taco, Screen Junkies, Cage Potato, All Left Turns, Chickipedia, and Tu Vez. The Break Media Creative Lab is an in-house production studio creating original videos that range from award-winning branded entertainment to celebrity-driven web shorts to viral one-offs. The Break Media Network represents hundreds of publishers as one of the largest video advertising networks online, reaching more than 120 million visitors each month. For more information, visit www.breakmedia.com.

We’re on it. Last year, we partnered with AdXPose, which was acquired by comScore. Now we can document for our partners when we serve an ad and it is seen. comScore has shared with us numbers that validate our intuition that above and below the fold have become meaningless because of reader habits, and that new ad units can help generate new revenue for publishers.

For example, last year  one in four ads above the fold was never seen, and 32% of  all ads were delivered but never seen. This means ads below the fold, while traditionally less costly, were almost as effective as those in the traditional “best” spots above the fold.

Because we have been serving ads for over a decade, we were in a position to spot this early, and to do something about it.

We’ve come up with some new, best-in-class products that can be used by any publisher, whether they use our ad server or any other. They’re aimed at creating additional revenue for publishers, while assuring brands and advertisers their ads will be seen (we can prove it) in a brand-safe environment. As far as we know, we’re the first to do this.

We started as the infrastructure for our publisher partners when we served the ad. As we evolved, we became more of a full service outsourced ad operations company. This enabled us to learn more about how online advertising technology really works to help marketers, and therefore to help publishers.

This year, we have begun to launch new best-in-class products for all publishers whether they use our ad server or not. The best-in-class InView format, for example, will appear only if we know the user will see it – and that can be measured. This InView product is designed to meet the new ways readers consume publications.

We will also offer other best-in-class products for all publishers (regardless of which ad server they use). “TVAds OnPage” is a best-in-class video ad format. Ad Ops services from ZEDO are also best-in-class because we are a US company with high standards and because as the only ad ops company that builds an ad server we are a true technology expert that can run any ad server perfectly.

During the course of this year, we will roll out three more products for all publishers that are best-in-class.

We continue to move forward in product development, knowing we operate in a very fast-moving environment and we must continue to prove our value.

About ZEDO

ZEDO, Inc. is a digital ad solutions company that offers products and services for a publisher’s premium, self service, and remnant inventory. Products include ad network optimization, innovative rich media formats for publishers’ direct sales teams, full featured ad serving, behavioral targeting data built into the ad server, an exchange-like platform for publishers to sell behavioral and DMA targeted inventory at high CPMs (see: www.zedoadnetwork.com), a self service platform to allow advertisers to buy directly from a publisher, outsourced ad ops and more. These products are integrated into one technology platform for publishers to choose from, or use seamlessly together. ZEDO has been in the internet advertising industry for over 10 years, and is the most successful independent ad server in the US. The company provides innovative solutions that boost revenues for Internet publishers. ZEDO is headquartered in San Francisco and has four development centers in Russia and India.

Reach out to ZEDO at http://www.zedo.com, or follow the company on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/ZEDOadsolutions) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/zedoinc).

NEW YORK – VINDICO, the leading online video ad management platform, has commenced operations in London, Paris and Madrid. VINDICO now offers European advertisers a video ad platform to seamlessly serve, track and measure all of their online video advertising. VINDICO announced the company’s launch into the UK in September and also announced that it had appointed Sonia Fernandez as general manager of European operations at that time.  Since then, VINDICO has launched operations in France and Spain to address the rapidly growing needs of the broader region.

VINDICO’s European expansion comes as IAB Europe’s AdEx reports that digital display, which is inclusive of online video, has recently overtaken search as the fastest growing online ad format in all of Europe, with an average growth rate of 21.3 percent. In the UK specifically, eMarketer predicts video will see the most growth in online advertising, with ad spend forecasted to reach $850 million by 2015, compared with $150 million in 2011. In Spain, the online video market will reach 33 million euros in 2012, accounting for 3.7 percent of total online display ad spending, according to the IAB Europe.

“Demand for online video advertising is surging in many European markets, and we expect this explosive growth to continue in 2012,” says Matt Timothy, president of VINDICO. “The growth that VINDICO is experiencing in both the US and abroad is representative of marketers’ increasing investment in digital video. With operations in the UK, France and Spain, VINDICO is well positioned to meet the needs of advertisers to reach European consumers through the powerful medium of online video.”

VINDICO has deep market penetration, serving almost forty percent of all online video ads in the United States. The company provides video advertising management solutions to over 200 brands through their leading agency groups such as GroupM, Havas, IPG, Publicis and Omnicom.

About VINDICO:
As the first ad management platform dedicated exclusively to video, VINDICO allows advertisers to serve, track and measure all of their online video ad activity. Since 2006, VINDICO has been the gold standard in online video platforms, providing standardized reporting and analytics for the online video industry. The power of online video isn’t just the audiences it reaches and how it reaches them. Its strength also derives from its ability to track an ad campaign and precisely measure the campaign’s effectiveness. For more information, please visit http://www.vindicogroup.com or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/VINDICO_Group.

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 182 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in December for an average of 23.2 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience viewed 43.5 billion videos.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in December with 157.2 million unique viewers, while VEVO ranked second with 53.7 million. Yahoo! Sites ranked third with 53.3 million viewers, followed by Viacom Digital with 45.8 million and Facebook.com with 42 million. More than 43 billion videos views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 21.9 billion. The average viewer watched 23.2 hours of online video content, with Google Sites (7.9 hours) and Hulu (3 hours) demonstrating the highest average engagement among the top ten properties.

*A video is defined as any streamed segment of audiovisual content, including both progressive downloads and live streams. For long-form, segmented content, (e.g. television episodes with ad pods in the middle) each segment of the content is counted as a distinct video stream.

Top 10 Video Ad Properties by Video Ads Viewed

Americans viewed 7.1 billion video ads in December, with Hulu generating the highest number of video ad impressions at nearly 1.5 billion, followed by Adap.tv in second with 1.1 billion. Tremor Video ranked third with 942 million, followed by BrightRoll Video Network with 872 million and Specific Media with 496 million. Time spent watching video ads totaled more than 3 billion minutes during the month, with Adap.tv delivering the highest duration of video ads at 636 million minutes. Video ads reached 51 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 46 times during the month. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 46.

*Video ads include streaming-video advertising only and do not include other types of video monetization, such as overlays, branded players, matching banner ads, homepage ads, etc.
**Indicates video ad network
†Indicates video ad exchange

Top 10 YouTube Partner Channels by Unique Viewers

The December 2011 YouTube partner data revealed that video music channels VEVO (53.5 million viewers) and Warner Music (31.7 million viewers) maintained the top two positions. Gaming channel Machinima ranked third with 22.7 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios with 10.4 million, FullScreen with 9.7 million and Big Frame with 8.3 million. Among the top 10 YouTube partners, VEVO demonstrated the highest engagement (67 minutes per viewer) and highest number of videos viewed (782 million), while Machinima exhibited the second highest engagement (64 minutes per viewer) and number of videos viewed (340 million).

*YouTube Partner Reporting based on online video content viewing and does not include claimed user-generated content

Other notable findings from December 2011 include:

- 85.3 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
- The duration of the average online content video was 5.8 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.
- Video ads accounted for 14.1 percent of all videos viewed and 1.2 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Combining Adap.tv’s RTB technology with Collective’s audience data, Collective’s private exchange will offer pre-roll video advertising space across targeted audiences and premium publishers in real-time auctions. Publishers include IPC, WWE, The Independent, Sony Music and iVillage.

The move will see Collective become the first in the UK to launch an RTB private ad marketplace for premium video programming.

“Our marketplace gives advertisers and agency partners a new way to access premium VoD inventory, but with this inventory being in such demand, we don’t see it as a low cost entry to buy video in the UK,” said Jamie Estrin, Director of Collective Video. “RTB pricing is controlled by supply and demand, and high quality premium video is always in high demand in the UK.”

Adap.tv’s interface will run the exchange that connects buyers with Collective’s pre-roll inventory.

“Our unique partnership with Collective will see the launch of the UK’s first RTB private marketplace for video,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, MD for EMEA at Adap.tv. “Real-time bidding is relatively new in the video space – our technology will offer Collective Video’s clients a new way to trade VoD directly.”

About Collective
Collective helps brand advertisers connect and engage with target audiences across display, video and social media. Collective’s industry expertise provides a strategic advantage to its clients by leveraging proprietary audience modelling, insights and ad effectiveness metrics. Our flagship products, Collective Display and Collective Video®, are powered by AMP®, our market-proven data and media management platform. Collective is headquartered in New York with offices in London, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Collective’s investors include Accel Partners®, Greycroft Partners and iNovia Capital.
http://uk.collective.com/

About Adap.tv

Adap.tv builds the technology that makes buying and selling video advertising simple and efficient. The company’s products – Adap.tv for Advertisers, Adap.tv for Publishers and the Adap.tv Marketplace – work in harmony to connect video advertising buyers directly to sellers on a single platform. The Adap.tv Marketplace is the industry’s largest video marketplace for premium publishers and brand name advertisers, with over 6,500 sites selling inventory and hundreds of campaigns running daily. Based in San Mateo, CA and with sales offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and London, please visit http://adap.tv/.

Los Angeles, CA – PK4 Media, the premium online video advertising network and publishing company today announced the acquisition of JSFOUR, a media and technology company. As part of the acquisition JSFour founder, Jimi Smoot, will join PK4 Media as the VP of Product Development. The two companies have been in collaboration to develop an advanced video distribution platform named Bishop.

The Bishop Video Platform (BVP) is designed for the next generation of online video. At the core of Bishop’s DNA is JSFour’s Render platform, which was engineered for publishers to lower the cost associated with running video on their site. PK4 Media brings advertisers to the mix to offset any cost. Bishop is at the intersection of JSFour’s technology and PK4’s distribution strength. The platform provides an easy-to-use solution for publishers and advertisers seeking to incorporate video on their website, or in their marketing mix.

This ground-breaking format enables a new breed of marketing. Publishers no longer need content delivery network (CDN) relationships, a video player, or an expensive video platform. Now they can quickly and easily upload video to Bishop, embed a player and begin optimizing their content. Videos are automatically monetized. This easy to deploy solution also benefits creators. As content is deployed and syndicated across more than 4,000 sites within the PK4 Media distribution network, royalties go right back to the content creator.

“When JSFour showed us their low cost and streamlined method for publishers to add video their site, light bulbs went off instantly,” said PK4 Media CEO and Founder, Tom Alexander. “We knew that the publishers we have relationships with would benefit from this platform, and any costs would be offset through our brand partners. We acquired the technology almost immediately.”

Mr. Smoot built the Render Platform, the main asset acquired by PK4Media and the technology behind Bishop, while moonlighting during his tenure at Initiative. Throughout his diverse carrier, Jimi has worked on all of the sides of the advertising ecosystem gaining a unique perspective on the ins and outs of the business. He has held several positions in media sales and account planning. Most recently serving as Innovations Manager at Initiative, he was responsible for identifying cutting edge technology-based marketing opportunities for Dr Pepper, VIZIO and KIA. Holding a seat on the thinkLA Adzoo board, Jimi is an active member of the Los Angeles advertising community.

“As someone who is passionate about innovation, I’m absolutely pumped to see some of my technology advance a whole new video platform,” said Jimi Smoot, newly appointed VP of Product Development at PK4 Media.  “Bishop combines content creation with a broad and vast distribution system, enabling the next generation of online video advertising.”

PK4 Media is a premium advertising network and publishing company with a proprietary video platform for publishers, advertisers and content creators. The company offers a brand-centric, performance-based media solution through a unified network of brand-safe publishers.  The platform delivers advanced tracking, targeting and optimization capabilities extending beyond typical video ad solutions.

About PK4 Media
Founded in 2009, PK4 Media is headquartered in Los Angeles, California with sales offices throughout the United States, including San Francisco and New York. PK4 Media is a privately-held company led by industry leaders from OMD, Blue Lithium, ValueClick, Publicis, and Initiative. For more information, please visit: www.pk4media.com.

LONDON – MirriAd Limited, the market leader in digital product placement, announces the launch of the ‘Hub’, an integrated solution for broadcasters. MirriAd has developed a unique platform for the digital placement of branded imagery seamlessly into professional video that is scalable and can be managed by broadcasters directly. For the first time, broadcasters can enable large sales forces to sell product placement inventory whilst maintaining control of the content.

Leading brands have confirmed that previewing opportunities, understanding the context and knowing the precise size, position, and duration of the placement opportunity de-risks what can otherwise be considered a risky purchase.

The MirriAd Hub is a brand new concept and relies on a networked technology which empowers producer/broadcasters to cost effectively meet client needs for reliable and valuable placement in premium content. The Hub handles media logistics locally, analyses video content, creates inventory suitable for contextual placements and then places it in a secure portal or ‘walled garden’ for sale.

A Hub located at a broadcaster’s premises devolves total control of the creative and commercial decision making to the sales and production teams with fast turnaround at minimal overhead. The Hub is provided by MirriAd as part of the service business model, requiring only minimal initial capital outlay from the broadcaster.

Seven Network, a leading national broadcaster in Australia, deployed a Hub in late spring 2011. After initial trials, Seven launched the Hub Digital Product Placement service commercially in the middle of 2011, to great effect. Today, Seven is placing brands digitally into several top rated shows and long running series. The process is working seamlessly between production and sales organisations and has resulted in a fast growing new revenue stream for the network, having amortized the initial investment within the first six months of commercial operations.

The Hub uses MirriAd’s ZoneSense software technology running on local hardware central to which is a cluster of NVIDIA’s very high performance GPUs. This enables broadcasters to create inventory comprised of visuals at high speed combined with analytical and marketing data which can then be placed in an online Catalogue for sale to brands and agencies. The Catalogue is integrated directly into the MirriAd platform and supports all the producer/broadcaster editorial approvals and compliance processes, thus ensuring that inventory offered to brands and agencies is ready to go.

Mark Popkiewicz, MirriAd CEO, said:

“Seven is a fast mover with high standards for production values and commercial operations. They have deployed a new commercial process which fits seamlessly into their operations and the Hub is central to that. We will be launching our new services such as MirriAd Analytics and the MirriAd Catalogue within Seven early in 2012.”

Kurt Burnette, Chief Sales & Digital Officer, Seven Media Group said:

“MirriAd has proven to be the leading technology in digital product placement. The introduction of The Hub provides further ability for our customers to see exactly what, when and where integration can happen across Seven Network owned and produced properties, in advance and all in one place. Each program and opportunity can be carefully selected for its impact and relevance to the brand.

“MirriAd and Seven have been working together for 12 months and have fully developed the offer for the Australian market, ensuring the MirriAd and Seven offering remains the world’s best practice for advertisers.“

About MirriAd

Launched in September 2007 by CEO, Mark Popkiewicz, previously a director of BBC Ventures, MirriAd aims to revolutionize product placement for the digital era. MirriAd has developed an end to end solution able to digitally place brand imagery into any video on demand and at scale. MirriAd’s digital placements have been extensively researched and proven to achieve excellent results for brands whilst positively impacting production values and the viewer experience on line and on TV.

Headquartered in London with offices in New York and Mumbai, MirriAd is privately owned with institutional investors including Oxford Technology Management, Oxford Capital Partners, STV Group PLC, Seraphim Capital and South East Growth Fund and notable angel investors Bruce Smith and Stephen Bullock.

SAN FRANCISCO – LiveRail, the first real-time video ad technology platform for publishers, networks and agencies, and MediaMath, the first and only enterprise-class DSP, announced that LiveRail will serve MediaMath as a video ad serving partner.

Through LiveRail’s technology, MediaMath can now empower marketing professionals to deliver more video advertising in real time across a network of top publishers, utilizing the same automatic buying, efficient pricing, and seamless delivery buyers expect from MediaMath’s platform. The DSP will also sell video inventory from LiveRail’s network of publishers.

Through strategic partnerships with the leading DSPs, LiveRail is now powering the industry transition toward automated, real-time video ad buying. With LiveRail’s technology, DSPs can manage their real-time video ad sales alongside their display sales, and also use LiveRail as a video ad server. LiveRail’s direct relationships with publishers also provide DSPs with both the video ad inventory and consumer targeting that buyers are eagerly taking advantage of.

Nearly $50 million will be spent on video RTB this year, but rapid growth in video ad networks, DSPs, and agency trading desks will lead to triple-digit growth in 2012. LiveRail’s technology touches all sides of the video advertising spectrum, helping agencies, DSPs, and publishers manager video ad sales, inventory, and analytics while ensuring multi-platform delivery, support of VAST and VPAID standards, and total buying transparency.

“Programmatic buying is taking off in the display ad space and buyers are increasingly interested in exploring the potential of video RTB,” said Joe Zawadzki, MediaMath’s CEO. “Because LiveRail offers fully automated buying and easy ad serving through its network of publishers, they were the ideal partner to accelerate our real-time video offering.”

“By further expanding its video offering, MediaMath is showing that ad buyers are very interested in the potential and efficiency of RTB for video,” said Mark Trefgarne, LiveRail CEO. “We’ve seen interest in video RTB grow steadily over the past half year, which is a great sign for the video ad segment. More potential buyers encourage more publishers to adopt the technology, opening up more inventory and creating more opportunities to match advertising to targeted viewers.”

About LiveRail

LiveRail delivers technology solutions that enable and enhance the monetization of Internet-distributed video. By focusing specifically on challenges and opportunities created by online video, its tools are designed to be easier, more efficient and more effective than traditional display ad servers to deliver and track advertising into this new medium. Founded in 2007, LiveRail’s senior team is led by its founders, Mark Trefgarne (CEO) and Andrei Dunca (CTO). LiveRail Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with offices in New York City and Romania. LiveRail is backed by Pond Ventures.

SAN MATEO, Calif. – Brand.net, the company that connects the world’s biggest brands to their customers across digital media, announced a major expansion of the contextual, targeting, brand safety and campaign optimization features of its video advertising solution.

“Our first generation video product was designed to meet our brand advertisers’ request for guaranteed in-stream only campaigns, in premium, brand-safe environments, with branding impact optimization and measurement completely integrated across video, rich media and display,” said Elizabeth Blair, CEO of Brand.net. “During 2011, demand has consistently exceeded our capacity. With this product release, we increase our in-stream video media delivery capacity more than tenfold and significantly expand the available features and functionality, all while maintaining our full set of reach, frequency, audience composition, media delivery, pricing and quality guarantees.”

Specific enhancements include:

- An expanded set of contextual options within Entertainment, News, Lifestyles and other content categories

- Expanded audience targeting from leading third-party audience data providers including eXelate, Nielsen, Catalina, and Bizo, and more granular geo targeting options

- Full RTB integration with leading video ad exchanges, including Doubleclick Ad Exchange and Adap.TV
Brand-safe environment assurance, through enhanced SafeScreen™ page-level content quality filtering, and full support for third-party verification options

- Impression cross-format campaign optimization to ensure achievement of campaign guarantees and maximum brand KPI performance across display, rich media, and in-stream video formats

- Expanded reporting insights across delivery, composition, GRP, TRP, completion and engagement metrics

Brand.net video continues to incorporate only 100% IAB and VAST-compliant in-stream ad formats, with no hidden in-banner video ad bundling. The success of campaigns including in-stream video can be proved through Brand.net’s full suite of branding-impact measurement solutions, including attitudinal surveys, ActivityLink™ online behavioral impact, and social media measurement. Brand advertisers can also add in-stream video to SalesLink® campaigns, where Brand.net has delivered a more than 500% average ROI.

By extending the MFP guarantees to all types of video campaigns, traditionally a more unpredictable format, Brand.net is enabling large brand advertisers to more effectively plan, execute, and measure their video ad campaigns.

About Brand.net

Brand.net (www.brand.net) connects the world’s biggest brands to their customers across digital media. The company’s MFP™ advertising platform guarantees reach and frequency, audience composition, media delivery and pricing in quality environments up to a year in advance. Brand.net optimizes every interaction for branding impact, proving success through online engagement, awareness and offline purchase. The company leads the industry with an offline sales average ROI of over 500%.

The company is privately held and headquartered in Silicon Valley.

Leading video company Break Media releases Digital Video Advertising Trends: 2012 study, detailing digital video landscape for the upcoming year

LOS ANGELES – Break Media, a leading creator and publisher of digital video content, announced the findings of its annual Digital Video Advertising Trends study, which found that digital video advertising spending is up and expected to continue to increase throughout 2012. In addition to organic growth of budgets, the increase is projected to come from a number of existing sources, including 32 percent from television budgets, and be reallocated into new platforms such as mobile — easily the fastest-growing format — connected devices and the emerging ad selector format.

The study compiles data from hundreds of advertising decision-makers about their digital video advertising plans heading into 2012. In addition to discussing budget growth and allocation, the study includes shifts in cost models and distribution formats. Use of video ad networks has reached a nearly universal level, which has also driven uptake in usage of the Cost per View (CPV) model. The video ads, themselves, come in a number of formats, but most advertisers still prefer pre-roll. However, the mass adoption of multimedia-ready smartphones and tablets has driven significant growth in mobile, which increased almost two-fold in the past year and is expected to jump another 16 percent in 2012.

Key findings from the study include:

- Video spending to increase: In the coming year, 68 percent of advertisers will increase the share of online display advertising devoted to video ads.

- Video budgets being driven up from multiple sources, including TV: Advertisers increasing video ad spend in the next year say the dollars will come from television budgets (32 percent), overall advertising budget growth (38 percent) and non-video display budgets (45 percent).

- Video Ad Network use skyrocketing: More than 90 percent of all advertisers plan to use video advertising networks in the coming year, increasing the share of spend devoted to them from an average 20 percent to 41 percent of total video dollars.

- Cost per View model offered by more publishers and networks: The pervasive use of video ad networks (VANs) has driven variety in the pricing models available, and the CPV model has increased two-fold in the past year (to 40 percent). A number of advertisers indicated they used Cost per Thousand (CPM) and Cost per Click (CPC) models because CPV wasn’t offered by publishers or VANs.

“Video advertising spending is growing faster than expected, and this is the first time a significant portion of the increased resources devoted to it are coming from television budgets,” said Andy Tu, vice president of marketing for Break Media. “New ad formats and pricing models are changing the landscape for how video inventory is bought and sold. The Cost per View model has clearly caught traction in a short amount of time, and new formats including mobile video and advertising on connected devices will be compelling ways for brands to connect with consumers in the coming year.”

For the full study from Break Media, visit: www.breakmedia.com/Digitalvideoadstudy.

About Break Media

Break Media is a leading creator, publisher, and distributor of digital entertainment content including video, editorial and games. The company’s properties include the largest humor site online — Break.com — as well as Made Man, Game Front, Holy Taco, Screen Junkies, Cage Potato, All Left Turns, Chickipedia, and Tu Vez. The Break Media Creative Lab is an in-house production studio creating original videos that range from award-winning branded entertainment to celebrity-driven web shorts to viral one-offs. The Break Media Network represents hundreds of publishers as one of the largest video advertising networks online, reaching more than 120 million visitors each month. For more information, visit www.breakmedia.com.

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Wurl, a new online video engagement platform, launches today with a groundbreaking way for video publishers to build viewer loyalty among smartphone users. Backed with over $3 million in investment capital raised over the past 24 months, Wurl is poised to revolutionize mobile video viewing.

“It’s extremely difficult for publishers to build a loyal audience for their online video series. When viewers visit a publisher’s website or channel, they typically watch one or two videos and then forget to come back to watch new content,” says Wurl co-founder and CEO Sean Doherty. “We created the Wurl video platform so that publishers can attract and retain a loyal mobile fan base for their video series.”

Any publisher or brand can build a network of followers simply by publicizing their “wrl.it” link – the unique short URL they receive from Wurl. Wrl.it links are the linchpin of the Wurl platform, providing one-click video following. Every time a new video is released, followers receive a notification – the new video is then available for on-demand streaming to their smartphone.

“Our Wrl.it links will enhance Stand Up To Cancer’s online and digital video presence, which – in turn – helps build our grassroots movement of supporters,” says Rusty Robertson, co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer, a charitable program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. “Anyone who clicks our wrl.it link becomes a subscriber to all of our videos; it seamlessly engages them in a dialogue about how innovative science can end cancer.”

“Wrl.it links are central to our service architecture,” says David Martinez, Wurl co-founder and VP Engineering. “Wrl.it links can be accessed effortlessly through a button on a website, a link in a Facebook post – even by scanning a QR code.”

To kick off this new service, Wrl.it links will be simultaneously released today by Wurl’s launch partners and are expected to generate over 5 million wrl.it link impressions on social networks, emails, text messages and their websites. Launch partners include Stand Up To Cancer, NoLabels.org, PBS News Hour, Fora.tv, The Ripon Society, BIPAC, The Daily Caller, The Truman Project, and The Republican Senatorial Committee, and many more. More info about Wurl’s launch partners is available at wurl.com/partners.

ABOUT WURL

Wurl is the first company to create a mobile subscription platform for video. Based in Palo Alto, California, Wurl is a free service that helps video publishers convert occasional viewers into loyal fans. The Wurl platform is open to any publisher, continually tracking each publisher’s video series and notifying followers when a new video is released. Learn more about Wurl at: http://wurl.com. To download the Wurl app for iOS or Android, just click any wrl.it link – for example: wrl.it/y/su2c.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – In spite of the introduction of more than 150 new ads plugging new models and holiday promotions, automotive advertisers have experienced a lukewarm reception from U.S. consumers in Q4, according to Ace Metrix, the authority in television advertising effectiveness. The company, which today revealed lists of the most effective luxury and non-luxury automotive ads to break so far this quarter, found Q4 ads from Chevrolet to be a notable exception, leading the non-luxury automotive category in effectiveness—a category that performed far better than its luxury counterpart. This trend is a departure from last year when luxury brands out-performed non-luxury brands in effectiveness.

“Consumers tend to dislike sales event promotional ads, yet this year many brands opted for this type of messaging instead of better-performing, more creative brand/product messaging,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix. “The result is the disappointing performance of many of the nearly 35 holiday-themed automotive ads to break so far this season. Case in point: it’s astounding that four of the ‘Top 10’ luxury automotive ads were below norm– a clear signal that many automotive brands have stepped away from good creative this season and fallen back on ‘Buy it now, you idiot’ messaging wrapped up in sales events and bows.”

Verbatim quotes from consumers who were surveyed included: “It’s the Christmas car bow ad…I think advertisers should know we’re tired of these and they should do something else…” “How many times are car companies going to show a car as a Christmas gift?…It makes me NOT want to buy [from them].”

Lexus, a brand typically in the Top 10 creative rankings, was conspicuously absent this quarter. Last year, the brand had more brand/product ads and had an average Ace Score of 584. This year, Lexus geared its creative toward holiday-themed sales event ads (“December to Remember”), resulting in a 14 percent drop in their average Ace Score to 504 – well below norm for the luxury automotive category.

One consumer said of the Lexus ads, “People don’t buy other people cars, and even if they did, do you think hearing one annoying jingle would really clue them into the fact they were getting a new car? No!”

On a positive note, luxury brands like Cadillac, Audi and Mercedes-Benz got their holiday messages right with Ace Scores above the norm. In addition, ads longer than the standard 30 seconds dominated both lists.

“One trend we are seeing a lot of is what we’re calling ‘the return of story-telling’—longer spots that allow a brand to tell a story,” Daboll commented. “Chevy’s top-ranking ads are a great example of this, as is the top-ranking Thomas Keller BMW ad.”

Most Effective TV Ads for Non-Luxury Automotive, Q4 To Date*

Most Effective Luxury Automotive TV Ads, Q4 To Date*

*Definition: Ace Score is the measure of ad creative effectiveness based on viewer reaction to national TV ads. Respondents are randomly selected and representative of the U.S. TV viewing audience. The results are presented on a scale of 0-950, which represents scoring on creative attributes such as relevance, persuasion, watchability, information, attention, etc.

Ace Metrix will reveal the Top 10 Ads of the Quarter and Top Ads for the Year on January 4th, 2012.

Ace Metrix is the industry authority in measuring and understanding the impact of advertising creative. Through patent-pending Ace ScoreTM measurement technology, Ace Metrix collects and measures the consumer impact of every nationally breaking TV ad in near real-time. Through its Creative Lifecycle Management TM suite of products, Ace Metrix provides actionable creative analysis, from ideation through real-time in-market performance optimization, to many of the world’s leading advertisers and agencies. Ace Metrix works with leading global advertisers. For more information, visit www.acemetrix.com.

Follow Ace Metrix on Twitter for additional insight: Ace_Metrix.

With Shopper Access, brands can connect both display and video ad campaigns with actual offline sales to understand campaign effectiveness and optimize it to increase their return on investment. This depth of data also allows brands to activate marketing campaigns using purchaser-based definitions such as light or heavy shoppers of specific products and categories, shoppers of competitive brands, “switchers” and other shopping-based behaviors.

For example, a diaper brand can use Specific Media’s Shopper Access to reach moms with an ad for baby wipes to drive cross-category and line-extension purchases. Specific Media is in discussions to apply the shopper-based solution to a number of brands from the largest CPG companies.

Nielsen Catalina Solutions, a joint venture between Nielsen and Catalina Marketing, accesses 60 million households from a subset of Catalina’s shopper data warehouse. Shopper Access provides insights into how advertising influences consumer purchase behavior. The data is anonymous and aggregated using a secure third-party agent, and does not contain personally identifiable information (PII) to protect the privacy of individuals. The shopper data is matched with Specific Media’s online audience and further modeled based on proprietary Nielsen Catalina Solutions’ shopper profiles.

“Nielsen Catalina Solutions is pleased to work with Specific Media on Shopper Access,” said Mike Nazzaro, CEO of Nielsen Catalina Solutions. “Specific Media has unmatched scale in display and video, a long history of pioneering precision marketing using behavioral triggers and a solid track record of data governance and integrity. They’ve also made significant investments in growing their CPG category and have emerged as a strong leader in this space.”

“The breadth and depth of the Nielsen Catalina Solutions data and analytics are unparalleled in the industry,” said Vic Catalfamo, vice president and head of Global Consumer Goods Category, Specific Media. “Our multi-year alliance with Nielsen Catalina Solutions will now allow our large base of CPG brand customers to reach shoppers whenever they are online, with display and video campaigns that are truly scalable across the Internet.”

About Specific Media

Specific Media is a digital media company driving viewership for content owners, engagement for brands and relevance for consumers. With capabilities spanning original programming, cross-channel distribution and addressable advertising, the company connects audiences, content and brands, adding meaning to each touch-point. As people discover new ways to consume content, Specific Media creates impactful media experiences no matter where they are.
www.specificmedia.com

San Jose – blurbIQ Inc., the leader in interactive gamification of video across the digital marketing spectrum, announced that Michael Hirshoren who previously ran US ad sales for Rhythm NewMedia has joined the company Board of Directors and  that Jack Hallahan, Vice President of Innovations for Mojiva Inc. has become an advisor to the company.

Other Board members for blurbIQ – whose patent pending interactive video advertising platform allows advertisers and publishers to use game mechanics to drive consumers to interact with their video messaging to remember brands at the point of purchase – include: Dan Stubbs, Director of Business Development at Johnson & Johnson; Todd Bates, Managing Partner at international IP law firm Hilborne Hawkin & Co.; Kimberly Smithson Slaveski, Vice President of Risk and Control at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and BlurbIQ’s CEO Scott Reese, and CTO Drew Spencer.

“blurbIQ has gotten extraordinary traction in the marketplace already, partnering with top technology and ad networks to help brands assure their video messages are both delivered and understood,” says Mr. Hirshoren. “I am pleased to join the Board at a moment of tremendous acceleration.”

“Michael and Jack have fantastic track records with decades of experience developing traditional and digital strategies for Fortune 500 brands,” says Mr. Reese, the company’s CEO. “We will take advantage of it as we grow blurbIQ.”

Mr. Hirshoren previously ran US ad sales for Rhythm NewMedia, driving the company’s US digital strategy and content relationships while focusing on deepening brand connections with mobile consumers. Rhythm has served billons of video, display and rich media ads on behalf of the world’s largest brands including P&G, GM, Verizon, HBO, Marriott, Kraft, Disney and over 200 others in 2010 alone becoming the largest mobile video ad network.

Since 2003 and prior to joining Rhythm NewMedia, Mr. Hirshoren was a director with AOL Media Networks where he managed executive relationships with top clients through integrated online and offline advertising programs. He was part of the team that helped AOL navigate the difficult transition from subscription model to a successful advertising driven business.

Prior to AOL Media Networks, Mr. Hirshoren was vice president for Salon.com from 1998 to 2003 where he directed all sales efforts for the eastern United States and helped Salon achieve a successful IPO.

Mr. Hirshoren was a pioneer in online advertising holding various management positions at Ogilvy & Mather and Y&R’s Wunderman Cato Johnson. He was part of Ogilvy & Mather’s first digital media team and holds an Effie for his work with IBM.
Mr. Hirshoren started his career in the international marketing department of United Parcel Service (UPS).

Jack Hallahan, heading up All Things Rich Media for Mojiva, travels the globe offering best practices and creative solutions for mobile advertisers. He launched Mojiva’s Mobile Creative Alliance, an influential consortium of mobile creative and technology providers helping advance Mobile Rich Media.

Before he joined Mojiva Mr. Hallahan ran Tap Mobile, a consultancy, where he was instrumental in launching start-up social news platform Blancspot. His marketing insights and savvy helped earn Blancspot App of the Week and a #2 Ranking behind CNN on Apple iTunes Store. Mr. Hallahan offered critical guidance and launch strategies for emerging digital platforms including QR Code Innovator JagTag, Travel App MondoWindow, Social App Get Me Rated, Music Fan App New York Rock Exchange, and Best Buy-backed consumer tech advisory App Tecca.

In 2005 Mr. Hallahan helped launch the first mobile television ad platform as VP, Advertising for MobiTV. Spearheading new product and technology innovations, team building, and partnerships, he steered major brands into mobile, including BMW, AXE, Jeep, Intel, Anheuser-Busch, HP, Visa USA, Daimler-Chrysler, Navy, and Nikon.

Mr. Hallahan is a recognized expert in cross-platform integration from years working with brand owners and agencies, including industry leaders Chiat/Day, AKQA, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health and Young & Rubicam.  During this time, he was responsible for over $200 million in advertising campaigns.

blurbIQ (http://www.blurbiq.com ) is the leader in interactive gamification of video across the digital marketing spectrum. The patent pending technology overlays video with brand and trivia questions as the video streams. blurbIQ turns video commercials into interactive “games” that dramatically increases viewer engagements, video completion rates, and ad retention. These interactive video units are distributed as pre-roll, in banner, mobile, tablet, and social media advertising units. blurbIQ provides quick time analytics dashboards so brands can measure every interaction with their video content like never before. Since launching in July of 2010 blurbIQ has acquired key accounts such as E*Trade, Duracell, Church & Dwight and General Motors.

NEW YORK – VideoHub, a division of Tremor Video, and Nielsen, a global information and measurement company, today announced an alliance giving VideoHub customers access to Nielsen Online Campaign RatingsTM gross rating points (GRPs) via VideoHub for Advertisers. The relationship marks the first time Nielsen has integrated its GRP data with an online video advertising platform.

The incorporation of data from Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings into VideoHub marries the standard GRP metric used in TV advertising to online video performance for the very first time. The collaboration gives advertisers a single metric for their gross reach — the total number of people exposed to an ad — and effective reach – more granular insight into the quality of the ad exposure and actual performance across all screens.

With Nielsen’s online GRPs, advertisers using VideoHub can now see what demographic audiences their campaigns reach online. Then, via the VideoHub advertising platform, they can understand how those audiences responded to their campaigns and identify the key signals driving performance metrics like engagement and brand lift.

Nielsen data is now available to every advertiser running campaigns through VideoHub, whether those campaigns run on the Tremor Video network or VideoHub is being licensed outside that network. Tremor Video is the largest independent online video technology company, with more than 2,000 campaigns currently running through VideoHub.

“Debate over whether the GRP is good or bad for the digital space has gone on for years, but those days are coming to an end,” said Kelly McEttrick, Director of Platform Strategy for VideoHub. “Advertisers can now look at their demographic reach, and then evaluate how their campaign performed within each audience segment. A single view into gross reach and effective reach is the kind of insight advertisers have only dreamed of until today.”

“Marketers want to cleanly compare the reach of online video media to other media – principally TV,” said Steve Hasker, President, Media Products and Advertiser Solutions, Nielsen. “Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings provides a standard GRP across platforms, so that online can be measured the same way we measure GRP’s on TV. We’re excited to work with Tremor to help advertisers understand the audience reach and brand engagement of online video, and we look forward to bringing the same service to VideoHub publishers in the future.”

Clients using VideoHub will also be able to order customized Nielsen Online Brand Effect reports to combine their GRP data with ad effectiveness metrics to further evaluate reach and brand impact of their ads.

Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings combines traditional Nielsen TV and online panel data with aggregated, anonymous demographic information from participating online data providers. It is the only Internet measurement system accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC) that provides GRPs for online advertising campaigns, enabling for the first time, consistent cross-platform reach and frequency metrics.

VideoHub for Publishers launches in 2012, also incorporating Nielsen’s online GRP data.

About Tremor Video

Founded in 2005, Tremor Video (www.tremorvideo.com) provides in-stream video advertising solutions to Fortune 1000 brand advertisers and top tier publishers and is widely regarded as the leading video company online. Leveraging their innovative video ad formats and publisher technology, Tremor Video delivers the mass reach and campaign results advertisers should expect from digital video. Tremor Video is the only video ad platform that can provide 100% brand safety by scanning and categorizing every single video stream before an ad is ever served. Powered by award-winning SE2 technology, Tremor Video’s video algorithm also gets smarter at finding and engaging viewers with every ad served, enabling the company to welcome and encourage pay-per-engagement pricing. Tremor Video is a privately held company headquartered in NYC with 10 national and international offices.

VideoHub, a division of Tremor Video, is a first of its kind analytics console that helps marketers and agencies monitor the complex video ecosystem to dynamically match ads with content and viewers, deliver upon marketing goals, and maximize brand impact. Unlike traditional video management platforms, VideoHub focuses on effectiveness and delivers real-time analytics for deep transparency across ads, content, viewers, and performance. To request a demo, visit videohub.tv

About Nielsen

Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

REDWOOD CITY, CA – YuMe, the operating system for TV 2.0, today announced Ad Visibility capabilities to guarantee that brand marketers’ video ads are always visible to viewers, eliminating wasted impressions and ensuring higher ROI on their ad spend.

Using YuMe’s ACE Relevance Engine, which collects detailed information about the in-page environment of the video player, YuMe’s Ad Visibility technology automatically determines the viewing area, detects the player size, pinpoints player coordinates relative to the viewing area, and intelligently delivers a contextually relevant video ad. This integrated viewport detection technology ensures that video ads are served only when the video players are within the viewer’s sight.

According to Radar Research, up to 50 percent of all ad impressions are never seen by the intended audience.[i]  Inclusion of unseen impressions in campaign reporting results in inaccurate metrics. YuMe’s Ad Visibility technology eliminates waste and delivers accurate brand engagement metrics to marketers.

“Ad Visibility technology is not only critical for advertisers to run successful video ad campaigns in which their ads are always visible, it is also necessary to provide advertisers and publishers with accurate brand performance metrics,” said Jayant Kadambi, YuMe CEO. “The Connected Audience Network is the only video ad network in the market that delivers all the essentials of video advertising for brands.”

YuMe’s Connected Audience Network, powered by ACE technology, enables YuMe to effectively deliver visible video content across multiple screens—online, mobile, and connected TV—and provides advertisers with real-time targeting, measurement, and optimization tools to accurately track campaign performance.

YuMe’s video advertising essentials for brands include:

•       Ad visibility assurance: YuMe’s viewport detection solution guarantees that no impressions will go unseen, so every video ad impression truly extends reach and brand awareness.

•       Brand-safe distribution: YuMe ensures ads are associated with safe content to protect brand equity. Since video ad players are portable, YuMe’s brand security measures follow the video player wherever it goes to guarantee protection.

•       Cross-screen compatibility: YuMe enables marketers to reach any screen their customers are viewing, be it a computer, mobile device, or connected TV. Moreover, advertisers can build their YuMe Ads just once and run them on all screens.

•       Premium, 100% in-stream video inventory: User-initiated, well-lit video ad placements on quality publisher properties and applications yield high brand impact and optimal branding opportunities.

•       Video ad placement on professionally-produced content: YuMe ensures that the brand message is always paired with high-quality video content for brand credibility. Ads are never placed next to user-generated video content.

•       Highly interactive video ad units: Socially rich ad units drive brand awareness, favorability, recall, and purchase intent for immediate brand engagement.

•       Advanced, guaranteed audience targeting: YuMe delivers ads to the right audience using a variety of targeting techniques to meet audience guarantees, ensure relevance, and maximize brand favorability.

•       Powerful analytics for brand performance optimization: YuMe provides instant, actionable insight into video ad campaign performance across all connected devices.

About YuMe
YuMe is the software infrastructure provider powering digital video and the next generation of television with its operating system for TV 2.0. Its video advertising technology and services seamlessly connect advertisers, app developers, content distributors, consumer electronics manufacturers, and publishers across the globe. YuMe’s patent-pending Relevance Engine powers its premium in-stream video ad network, the YuMe Connected Audience Network, and its industry-leading advertising management solutions, ACE for Publishers and ACE for Advertisers. The YuMe Relevance Engine matches the right ad to the right audience on whatever screen they are viewing—PC, mobile, or connected TV. YuMe is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, CA with its European headquarters in London. The company is backed by Accel Partners, BV Capital, DAG Ventures, Intel Capital, Khosla Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and Translink Capital. For more information, visit www.YuMe.com, follow @YuMevideo on Twitter, or like YuMe on Facebook at www.facebook.com/YuMevideo.

SAN FRANCISCO – Since launching its mobile video ad format earlier this year, Greystripe, the largest brand-focused mobile ad network and a division of ValueClick Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK), has seen an increasing number of brand advertisers flock to video.

The mobile video ad units were launched in June 2011. Since then, over 30 brands have run campaigns, delivering over 100 ad creatives throughout the Greystripe network on iOS, Android and the mobile web. The demand for mobile video ads has increased significantly in recent months; Greystripe has already seen a 300 percent increase in the number of campaigns booked so far in Q4 of 2011 relative to all of Q3 2011.

Universal Pictures and its agency, Ignited, ran a successful campaign with Greystripe to drive trailer views and promote the theatrical release of the new film The Change-Up. The two-week campaign, targeting men 18-34, generated nearly nine hundred thousand complete trailer views. A video of the ad displayed on an iPhone can be seen here. In addition to entertainment, retail, consumer-packaged goods, insurance and electronics brands have all run mobile video ad campaigns with Greystripe.

“We are consistently seeing mobile ad dollars flowing to mobile ad digital as users embrace multiple screens — often using their smartphones and tablets while watching TV,” said Vikrant Gandhi, senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

Greystripe is benefiting from the massive shift of broadcast advertising budgets into mobile, driven by the efficiency and effectiveness of reaching the 40 percent of TV watchers who are on their smartphones and tablets at the same time (Nielsen). In addition, advertisers are flocking to Greystripe’s video format because of impressive campaign results. On average, consumers have watched the entire video ad 50 percent of the time, with click-through-rates of between 1 and 3 percent. This is particularly impressive because users have the option to skip Greystripe video ads at any time.

“Mobile video ads will be the major growth driver for brand advertising spend in 2012, as traditional broadcast budgets continue to flow into mobile and online screens,” said Michael Chang, Greystripe general manager. “Greystripe is well positioned to take advantage of this video-fueled growth because of a fantastic ad user experience and our ability to serve more full-screen mobile video ads into premium content than any other mobile ad network – over 1 billion per month.”

For more information visit: http://www.greystripe.com/videoads/

About Greystripe

Greystripe, a division of ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK), is the largest brand-focused mobile advertising network in the US by reach. Greystripe delivers the highest engagement and most sophisticated targeting for brand marketers, the maximum revenue for publishers and app developers, and the best ad experience for users. Greystripe’s proprietary advertising platform serves billions of rich media impressions to over 40 million users of touch-driven devices through more than 3,500 application titles and mobile websites across all major mobile platforms.

For more information, please visit: http://www.greystripe.com

About ValueClick, Inc.

ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK) is one of the world’s largest digital marketing companies. Through a unique combination of data, technology and services, ValueClick increases brand awareness and drives customer acquisition at scale for the world’s largest advertisers, and maximizes advertising revenue for tens of thousands of online and mobile publishers. ValueClick’s brands include Commission Junction, ValueClick Media, Dotomi, Greystripe, Mediaplex, Smarter.com, CouponMountain.com, Investopedia.com, and PriceRunner. The Company is based in Westlake Village, California, and has offices in major advertising markets worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.valueclick.com.

San Francisco – Vizu Corporation (www.brandlift.com), an online ad technology company whose solutions allow advertisers and publishers to measure and optimize Brand Lift in real-time, announced that it has completed an enhanced integration with Adap.tv, the company that connects video advertising buyers and publishers directly on one platform. This next phase of integration will provide buyers in the Adap.tv Marketplace with the ability to measure and optimize towards brand metrics, such as awareness and intent, in real-time and directly within the video experience. This partnership supports Vizu’s “Value in Video” initiative, an effort to provide the industry with the ability to measure and optimize Brand Lift generated by video advertising in real-time.

Until recently, video buyers have been unable to move beyond completion and clickthrough rates, the inadequate metrics by which video campaigns are measured and optimized. Through this enhanced integration, advertisers are now able to determine the contribution of different creative, messages, targeting, and frequency to overall campaign performance and quickly evaluate and adjust them to optimize performance.

“The ability to show Brand Lift in real-time is a game-changer for the industry,” said Jason Shulman, vice president of sales at Adap.tv. “In fact, our annual State of Video Report indicated that brand lift ranked the top three most important metrics for video campaigns, reinforcing that brand awareness and intent are top of mind.”

“The fragmented landscape of video serving technologies is one of the key challenges facing the growth of online video advertising,” said Dan Beltramo, CEO of Vizu. “This integration with Adap.tv is the next step in our “Value in Video” initiative, allowing our customers to seamlessly access our Brand Lift measurement and optimization capabilities within the Adap.tv Marketplace.”

Advertisers are already taking advantage of the integration, and benefiting from the unique capabilities Adap.tv and Vizu are now bringing to market. In one case, a major CPG company running a branding campaign to increase purchase intent for a leading line of odor-eliminating products found that the Adap.tv and Vizu solution provided a powerful one-two punch, delivering:

- 84% lift in purchase intent for the product amongst people who had been exposed to the campaign;

- Brand Lift that significantly outperformed the market norm; this campaign performed in the top 10% of all CPG campaigns as measured by Vizu;

- Identification of the top performing pre-roll creative provided the opportunity for in-market optimization of Brand Lift.

The Adap.tv-Vizu case study can be downloaded in its entirety at: http://brandlift.vizu.com/knowledge-resources/case-studies/pdf/Vizu Case Study – Adap.tv.pdf

Vizu Corporation (www.brandlift.com) brings the same metrics used to measure and optimize brand advertising effectiveness in the offline world to the online medium. By providing the first real-time, enterprise technology platform that allows brand advertisers and their partners in the digital media ecosystem – publishers, ad networks, exchanges, and demand side platforms – to collaborate around measuring and optimizing Brand Lift metrics, Vizu enables its customers to move their target audience through the purchase funnel, from building awareness to creating intent and preference. Vizu’s brand advertising effectiveness platform is used by over 60% of Advertising Age’s Top 100 Brand Advertisers and Comscore’s Top 50 Media properties to support all key aspects of the advertising lifecycle, including media buying, audience profiling, and Brand Lift optimization.

About Adap.tv
Adap.tv builds the technology that makes buying and selling video advertising simple and efficient. The company’s products – Adap.tv for Advertisers, Adap.tv for Publishers and the Adap.tv Marketplace – work in harmony to connect video advertising buyers directly to sellers on a single platform. The Adap.tv Marketplace is the industry’s largest video marketplace for premium publishers and brand name advertisers, with over 6,500 sites selling inventory and hundreds of campaigns running daily. Based in San Mateo, CA and with sales offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and London, Adap.tv is privately held and backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Gemini Israel Funds, Redpoint Ventures and Spark Capital. For more information, please visit http://adap.tv/.

NEW YORK, NY – Jun Group (www.jungroup.com), the premier social video platform, released data that shed light on emerging trends and usage patterns in one of the fastest-growing segments of online video, social video. The study defines social video as online video programs created for major brands, which users opt-in to watch and which they can share with others. In addition to the data summarized below, Jun Group has created an infographic to visually represent the findings. The infographic can be downloaded here: http://jungroup.com/infographic2011/

Jun Group based the study on a sample of more than 13 million user-initiated video views between January 1, 2011 and September 30, 2011. The views were a result of social video campaigns created for Fortune 500 brands across a number of vertical categories, including consumer packaged goods, apparel, consumer technology, retail, luxury products, fashion and beauty, sports and fitness, and auto.

Key findings are as follows:

Humor works. Humorous videos are prominent within the social video space, accounting for four-in-10 campaigns. Those who watch a humorous video are more than three times more likely to click to a brand’s Facebook page after viewing than those who watch other types of social video content.

Celebrities don’t guarantee engagement. Only one-in-10 social video campaigns feature a TV or movie personality, and they are actually less effective at driving brand interactions than non-celebrity videos. Celebrity videos drive 12 percent fewer visits to brands’ Facebook pages than non-celebrity videos. This data may indicate that those who watch celebrity videos are more interested in the famous personas than the brands behind them.

Short and long-form most effective. Fifteen-second videos produce the best click-through rates, but they are used least. Only 10 percent of videos are 15 seconds or less, yet they are 153 percent more effective than videos between 16 seconds and one minute.

Videos of 60 seconds or more are the second-most effective format, outperforming videos between 16-60 seconds by 70 percent. This may indicate that 16 second-to-one-minute videos are not enough time to tell an engaging story.

“Social video is re-writing the advertising rules of engagement,” said Mitchell Reichgut, founder and CEO of Jun Group. “While the vast majority of online video advertising is still interruptive, social video engages people on their terms. The data from this study demonstrate why social video is one of the hottest new segments of online advertising.”

The study also provided the following insights:

Girl power grows. According to Jun Group’s first study in January (www.marketwire.com/press-release/Jun-Group-Shares-2010-Trends-and-Insights-From-Social-Video-1385030.htm), women accounted for nearly 57 percent of social video views. In 2011, that number has grown to 63 percent.

18-44 year-olds dominate, younger people gaining interest. Sixty percent of video watchers are between the ages of 18-44, while viewers between 12-17 years-old increased by 48 percent since the beginning of 2011.

Facebook page traffic. The social video opt-in environment is more effective in driving post-view engagement than interruptive video units, such as pre-roll. Users who opt-in to watch social videos are more than three times as likely to interact with a brand after the view, compared to pre-roll*. Social videos are notably effective in driving users to a brand’s Facebook page. “Join a brand on Facebook” is the single most popular post-view interaction, accounting for 40 percent of all post-view activity.

Social video completion. Social video programs deliver completion rates that are significantly higher than pre-roll. On average, 64 percent of users served a 30-second pre-roll video watch to completion, according to a recent study*. In contrast, 95 percent of users who opt-in to a social video of the same length watch to the end.

*YuMe Video Advertising Metrics reports (’10,’11)

About Jun Group
Jun Group is the premier social video platform. The company’s distribution technology delivers millions of monthly opt-in video views across social networks, mobile devices, premium content sites, and YouTube. Jun Group distributes videos from 15 seconds to 3 minutes-long with exceptionally high completion rates and significant post-view activity, such as web site visits, coupon downloads, and store locator usage. The company’s analytics dashboard, Voyeur, provides real time data about views, shares, likes, tweets, ratings, comments, and geographic dispersal down to the state and town. Founded in 2005, Jun Group’s clients include Fortune 500 brands, major entertainment companies, and media and creative agencies. For more information, visit www.jungroup.com.

PALO ALTO, CA – Auditude (www.auditude.com), the leading provider of video advertising technology and monetization for premium content owners and distributors, released a report showing online video publishers, content owners and distributors have greater advertising revenue opportunities as viewer acceptance increases around TV-like commercials within online video. Furthermore, completion rates of ad breaks streamed within live content jumps significantly, compared to those within video-on-demand content. The report indicates that video publishers, content owners and distributors can increase revenue potential based on viewer acceptance of ads in premium content.

The Auditude Video Monetization report shows how content type, length of video stream, ad format and placement affect viewers’ response to ads. The analysis is based on a sample of over 11 billion ad impressions running through Auditude’s video ad serving platform. Auditude’s study reaffirms that:

Live vs. Video-on-Demand: Completion rates of ads on live content are significantly higher (86%) compared to video-on-demand content (60%). This suggests that live content actively engages viewers who know that they may not see that content again after its current availability and, therefore, are more willing to sit through digital commercial breaks.

Mid-Roll Completion: Mid-roll video ads have the highest (75%) completion rates as viewers are watching long-form content that they have likely committed to seeing through completely. These ads are the closest comparison to the TV viewing experience as they can be programmed similarly to television with multiple commercials during a single break within online viewing. This insight has strong potential ad buying ramifications given the popularity of the pre-roll ad format today.

Professional vs. User-Generated Content (UGC): Viewers complete in-stream ads on professional content 68% of the time, versus 52% for UGC. The study also highlights that there are more linear video ad opportunities served into professional content than UGC, regardless of content length. This suggests that advertisers possibly view this type of content as safer and more brand-friendly, and are therefore willing to buy more of it.

Overlays on Video: There are more overlay (non-linear) ads served within UGC vs. professional content. Overlays tend to be more intrusive and are viewed as a performance- or action-oriented product for brands willing to risk exposure on UGC content.

“Our research shows that content owners and distributors can create a highly-engaging ad experience in online video that closely resembles what is present on television. For example, the power of tune-in during digital live content can be just as impactful as on television, and maybe even more so given the interactivity of the creative execution. This provides tremendous opportunities to maximize the value of digital video content and make it available to audiences no matter how they are accessing that content,” said Jeremy Helfand, CEO of Auditude. “With the growing distribution of IP-based video content on desktops, smartphones, tablets, game consoles, and other devices, we see strong cross-platform revenue opportunities within digital video. These are the types of ad experiences where content owners and marketers will find great success.”

Auditude’s study shows that publishers, content owners and distributors must evaluate several elements of the video ad experience, including length of individual content, placement of ad breaks, and the ad format to use. In-stream commercial breaks are the preferred ad solution for professional content while overlays are typically used for monetizing UGC. Audience behavior shows an acceptance of ad breaks in exchange for premium content, similar to a television experience. With multiple ad breaks inserted effectively within digital video, publishers can amplify revenue opportunities for their content.

Auditude’s Video Monetization report examined video ad impressions across 300 publishers to better understand user viewing habits and engagement. This study encompassed thousands of ads from a wide array of advertisers.

The full report is available on Auditude’s site at www.auditude.com.

About Auditude
Auditude provides video advertising technology and monetization solutions for premium content owners and distributors. Its platform enables content owners and publishers to rapidly scale the business requirements and ad serving needs around premium video content. Auditude works with marquee broadcast and professional content organizations in online video to help grow video ad revenue opportunities through superior technology. Clients include Comcast, Major League Baseball, Dailymotion, Dick Clark Productions, FoxNews, Major League Gaming, Lionsgate, UK’s Channel 5, and Starz Media, among others. Auditude has been named one of the top private companies in America by Business Insider, Always On and The Hollywood Reporter. Auditude is based in Palo Alto with offices in London, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City. For more information, please visit us at: www.auditude.com.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ  – Already a leader in Smart TV products, LG Electronics has expanded its offerings for television application developers, content distributors and advertisers with the world’s first integrated advertising platform for Smart TV applications. The company’s complete ad solution includes in-app advertising support incorporated into LG’s app development SDK, management and optimization of the publisher’s ad inventory, and ad monetization through LG’s alliance with YuMe.

LG Electronics developed the LG advertising platform to strengthen the ecosystem of developers, publishers and users, creating a mutually beneficial platform in which developers can maximize revenues and users receive targeted, relevant and engaging advertisements. The global, multi-device platform offers advertisers the immersive engagement of the TV’s large-screen experience combined with the interactive engagement of digital media.

YuMe and LG announced today that Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., the U.S. arm of global automotive manufacturer Toyota, is the charter advertiser on LG Smart TVs.

“For advertisers like Toyota, the LG ad platform can be the third screen complementing on-line and mobile digital campaigns with an in-home shared viewing experience. As users discover the expanding content and application offerings on LG’s Smart TVs and connected devices, usage is growing rapidly which will provide advertisers with the audience and reach for both broad and targeted campaigns,” said Sam Chang, general manager of LG’s Smart TV Innovation Development Group based in San Jose.

“Toyota customers are watching video online, on their mobile phones and on TV, and we are excited to be able to reach this previously unreachable audience on Smart TVs,” said Dionne Colvin, national marketing media manager, Toyota.  “At Toyota, we pride ourselves on our innovative approach to advertising, and as media consumption habits change, we see a real opportunity to further engage consumers through YuMe and LG.”

Publishers will be able to make use of the accessible, real-time reporting system and a host of other features. The LG ad platform, powered by YuMe’s ACE Relevance Engine, is a turnkey solution for publishers, which manages publisher ad inventory to optimize ad CPMs and supports a variety of ad sales models including YuMe’s Connected Audience Network.  Because the LG ad platform is integrated into LG Smart TV HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc™ players, Smart TV Upgraders and other LG Smart TV platforms, advertisers can run their campaigns on these devices as well as other connected CE devices participating in YuMe’s Connected Audience Network.

“The LG ad platform will enable several common digital ad formats such as interactive display banners, in-banner video and in-stream video as well as some new ad units such as click to sponsored applications and search related ad units,” Chang said. “This combination of LG’s innovative Magic Motion remote control allowing for point and click control of applications and YuMe’s advertising technology opens the way for developers, publishers and content owners  to develop new content and ad models on one of TV’s most intuitive systems.”

LG and YuMe will be running pilot ad campaigns in the United States with several leading advertisers starting in November with broader advertiser participation planned for the spring of 2012.

For more information on the LG Smart TV Solution, please visit: www.lgad.lgappstv.com

NEW YORK – Casale Media Inc., a leading premium online media company, published a research brief showing that advertisers and agencies will increase spending on digital video advertising by 25 percent over the next 12 months and would amount to about 23.8 percent of total online ad budgets. “Digital Video Advertising: Removing Barriers Equals Greater Opportunities,” is based on an October 2011 research study conducted by Advertiser Perceptions for Casale Media that surveyed more than 150 media buyers, managers and planners at leading advertisers and agencies in the United States. The report examines the factors contributing to online display and video media decisions.

Respondents generally agreed that video advertising provides a much more engaging environment for marketers to relay their brand messages. The report shows that growth in spending on video ads will require key factors:

Removal of barriers: A separate study by eMarketer found that 85 percent of advertisers and ad buyers are more likely to book video ads if the planning, creative and execution of video ad campaigns were more simple and painless. More than a third of those surveyed in the Casale Media study found the planning (38 percent), creative (40 percent), and execution (35 percent) phases to be difficult.

Increasing awareness: Marketers and agencies view digital video advertising as one of the most effective ways to realize brand lift – 80 percent of the survey’s respondents use video ads to increase awareness of traditional and new brands, products and/or services.

Measuring and realizing a return on investment: The most common responses to why marketers are not using digital video advertising more were because it is too difficult to measure ROI (40 percent) and there is not enough ROI to justify increasing spend (38 percent).

“When it comes to video, many online advertisers still perceive it as the Wild West because it continues to evolve and grow, but without giving publishers and advertisers enough control,” says Joe Casale, CEO of Casale Media. “Our research provides clarity for those involved in online media spending decisions to help identify where the barriers are, how to overcome them and realize the maximum potential of digital video advertising.”

The Digital Video Advertising report details the issues marketers are facing in each phase of a video ad campaign – planning, creation and execution – as well as who is most responsible for budget and creative decisions at brands and agencies. The full research report can be downloaded at: http://casalemedia.com/dva-report.

About Casale Media

Since 2003, Casale Media has been redefining the standard for online media quality, ad delivery management and media optimization technologies with premium services that generate measurable success for all stakeholders in media and marketing. CasaleX, the industry’s first premium exchange with real-time bidding, is a highly controlled, brand-safe media marketplace that provides publishers with maximum control and advertisers with exclusively high quality inventory.

The company’s premium advertising network, MediaNet, is used by eight of the top 10 U.S. online display advertisers and reaches nearly 70 percent of the U.S. online audience across more than 3,000 actively monitored properties. One of the leading independent digital media companies, Casale Media is guided by its dedication to needs-based development and quality-focused culture. More information is available at www.casalemedia.com.

About Advertiser Perceptions

Advertiser Perceptions is the world leader in providing the media industry with research-based advertiser insight and guidance necessary for strengthening brands and increasing advertising sales, market share and competitive advantage. The company specializes in determining, analyzing and communicating what advertisers think – their plans, opinions and motivations. Advertiser Perceptions proprietary database of media decision makers is one of the largest in the world. The advertiser survey and questionnaire development process that they employ ensures optimal response. Focus and media industry expertise enables Advertiser Perceptions to effectively analyze and accurately interpret the research that they conduct on behalf of their clients who represent many of the largest international media companies.

The publicly accessible resources for the DPA Toolset are now available dpatools.cablelabs.com.

“By opening access to the DPA Toolset to vendors, developers and the public at large, CableLabs is offering a speed-to-market resource that will accelerate the availability of technologies supporting advancements in electronic advertisement delivery, including the dynamic insertion of commercials into viewer-requested VOD streams,” said Don Dulchinos, CableLabs Senior Vice President, Advertising and Interactive Services.

The DPA Toolset streamlines the testing and validation process for SCTE-130-compliant technologies by allowing developers to emulate multi-platform architectures involved in the delivery of interactive advertising messages and related content across an array of distribution channels. These channels may include VOD streams, web pages, interactive program guides and other media vehicles.

The DPA Toolset solves a pressing challenge for advanced advertising technology developers: the need to assure interoperability across complex labyrinths of web services and message flows involved in the dynamic delivery of targeted advertising to cable customers. The DPA Toolset provides a specific, well-defined, interoperable and multi-vendor message set for each use case that occurs in the implementation of advanced advertising at national, regional and local levels. With the DPA Toolset, technology developers can test the performance of their solutions in advance of deployment at both isolated service points and across multiple service points involved in advanced advertising implementations.

How it works

The DPA Toolset creates profiles that define the valid web services message for every use case tied to SCTE-130 implementations. These profiles, combined with Web Service Description Language (WSDL) descriptions that define the functionality and parameters of web services involved in SCTE 130 implementations, can be used to test all elements and attributes of messages in an environment that emulates real-world deployments.

The toolset provides a two-pronged approach: a set of profiles and a tool to exercise those profiles. The profiles are exercised in a software emulator that can represent any SCTE-130 service at the message level. The toolset allows any mixture of real and emulated devices to make up a testable configuration. It validates that an actual message exchange contains the correct set of messages, and validates each message exchanged against a specific example of a profile.

Interop event

CableLabs hosted an interoperability event in July 2011 that allowed advanced advertising vendors to exercise the DPA Toolset for the first time.

“It’s critical to our business that the BlackArrow Advanced Advertising System maintains support for the latest standards — ensuring seamless deployments, and maximum interoperability. The DPA Toolset offers our development team a ready resource for testing and verifying the interactions of complex technologies within a real-world emulation environment,” said Chris Hock, Senior Vice President of Product for BlackArrow. “Our participation in the advanced advertising event held at CableLabs this summer enabled us to use the DPA Toolset in a laboratory environment to verify key interoperable aspects of our technical development.”

Although the DPA Toolset is initially directed at implementing and testing SCTE-130 messaging, the technology is generic to any web services messaging environment, including very large and complex problem spaces. The CableLabs community license allows free, non-commercial use of the DPA Toolset to address any problem space. CableLabs invites developers to contact the organization for further commercial use or distribution.

About CableLabs

Cable Television Laboratories (www.cablelabs.com) was founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry. The Emmy Award winning laboratory is a non-profit research and development consortium that is dedicated to pursuing new cable telecommunications technologies and to helping its cable operator members integrate those advancements into their business objectives. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains additional web sites at www.cablenet.org, www.ebif.tv and www.tru2way.com.

Advanced Digital Cable™, CableCARD™, CableHome®, CableLabs®, CableNET®, CablePC™, DCAS™, DPoE™, DOCSIS®, EBIF™, Go2BroadbandSM, M-Card™, OpenCable™, PacketCable™, PeerConnect™, and tru2way® are marks of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.

San Francisco – Vizu Corporation (www.brandlift.com), an online ad technology company whose solutions allow advertisers and publishers to measure and optimize Brand Lift in real-time, today announced that it has completed an integration with Firefly Video, which is powered by Tribal Fusion’s E9 Audience Engagement Platform. The integration represents the next step in Vizu’s “Value in Video” initiative, an effort to provide the industry with the ability to measure and optimize Brand Lift generated by video advertising in real-time, wherever and however the video is delivered. In so doing, Vizu will help address one of the key challenges facing the growth of the medium – a fragmented landscape of video serving technologies.

“Vizu’s real-time capabilities are a core part of our Insights Focus suite of analytics,” says Kelle Martin, Executive Director of Audience Insights at Tribal Fusion. “Metrics like viewing time and completion rates are important, but at the end of the day advertisers want to know if they’re driving Brand Lift against traditional brand funnel metrics, from building awareness to creating intent and preference. This integration with Vizu makes it incredibly easy for our customers to do that.”

“Many of the advertisers we work with leverage Firefly Video to engage with and influence their target audiences,” says Dan Beltramo, CEO of Vizu. “This integration allows our customers to measure and optimize Brand Lift generated from these units in real time, maximizing the return on their video investment.”

Advertisers are already taking advantage of the integration, and benefiting from the unique capabilities Firefly Video and Vizu are now bringing to market. In one case involving a campaign run by the world’s largest children’s entertainment network, Firefly Video was proven to drive significant tune-in intent for a new feature length television movie. Specifically, Firefly Video leveraged their integration with Vizu’s Ad Catalyst solution to show:

- 251.1% lift in consumers’ intent to tune into the feature-length television movie amongst those who were exposed to the campaign

- This campaign performed in the top 10% of all entertainment campaigns measured by Vizu

- Brand Lift was generated after just two exposures, indicating the branding effectiveness of Firefly Video’s video units

Vizu’s Ad Catalyst solution, part of the company’s brand advertising effectiveness platform, is used by leading brands, agencies, ad networks, and publishers to measure and optimize the effectiveness of online brand advertising efforts in real time. Ad Catalyst measures the Brand Lift generated by online advertising campaigns, replacing click-through rates with a much more appropriate metric for brand advertisers. As Brand Lift data is available in real time, it also enables in-market optimization of campaigns. Leveraging an intuitive dashboard, the contribution of different creative, messages, targeting, and frequency to overall campaign performance can quickly be evaluated and adjustments made that ensure both Brand Lift and return on advertising spend are maximized.

“Video advertising is inherently a brand-building medium, and requires brand-relevant metrics,” says Harris Bernstein, Regional VP of Sales at Tribal Fusion. “Vizu’s real-time Brand Lift metrics helps us provide the proof that our video units deliver superior value to advertisers. The integration will make it easier for us to provide this proof to all of our customers. We are very excited to be working with Vizu.”

The Firefly Video-Vizu case study can be downloaded in its entirety here.

To learn more about the “Value in Video” initiative, read the press release at: http://brandlift.vizu.com/about/press-releases/20110926.htm

Firefly Video (http://www.fireflyvideo.com/) is an online video advertising company that provides brand advertisers the ability to effectively complement their TV and pre-roll buys, easily, efficiently and with full brand safety. Leveraging Tribal Fusion’s E9 Audience Engagement Platform, Firefly Video combines mass reach and world-class targeting to connect advertisers with their most desirable prospects and drive brand lift across a worldwide audience of 453 million unique users.  Firefly Video enables brand advertisers to connect with consumers who are most interested in their brand and engage with them by combining the impact of video with interactivity. Firefly Video combines the best of TV advertising: emotionally engaging full-motion ads, with the best of display advertising: interactive engagement, fine-grained targeting, user feedback, social sharing and intelligent insights.

Vizu Corporation (www.brandlift.com) brings the same metrics used to measure and optimize brand advertising effectiveness in the offline world to the online medium. By providing the first real-time, enterprise technology platform that allows brand advertisers and their partners in the digital media ecosystem – publishers, ad networks, exchanges, and demand side platforms – to collaborate around measuring and optimizing Brand Lift metrics, Vizu enables its customers to move their target audience through the purchase funnel, from building awareness to creating intent and preference.  Vizu’s brand advertising effectiveness platform is used by over 60% of Advertising Age’s Top 100 Brand Advertisers and Comscore’s Top 50 Media properties to support all key aspects of the advertising lifecycle, including media buying, audience profiling, and Brand Lift optimization.

LOS ANGELES – AdColony, a division of Jirbo, Inc., announced the launch of AdColony Express, the world’s first self-serve HD mobile video advertising platform exclusively for mobile devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. AdColony Express provides savvy marketers the easiest way yet to deploy high-quality TV advertising to an ever-growing network of mobile devices in just a few clicks.

With the explosive growth of mobile devices like the iPad 2, and the new iPhone 4S, marketers are increasingly looking to drive brand equity and purchase consideration across this broad-reaching audience. With AdColony Express, this has never been easier. After a one-click account sign up process, marketers can simply upload their video and creative assets, set their campaign budget, and submit their campaign for launch. Following AdColony campaign approval, the ads are instantly deployed across AdColony’s powerful mobile video ad network in full Instant-Play™ HD.

“With AdColony Express, we want to make deploying an ad campaign across our network as seamless as possible,” said Will Kassoy, CEO of Jirbo Inc., “We’re confident this provides an ideal solution for brands looking to reach this growing audience that’s increasingly spending more time on mobile devices. This is also an amazing way for app developers to drive discovery and engagement. What used to only be available to brands and agencies through a formal RFP process will now be right at the fingertips of anyone.”

The AdColony network reaches millions of mobile devices and generates industry-leading click-through rates for advertising campaigns averaging from 2.5% to 10%+ and was the first mobile network to charge advertisers just for completed video views. Videos played on the AdColony network have a 97% completion rate. Additionally, AdColony users tend to be high quality loyal users who return to the apps they’ve downloaded. In an internal study, users were 15 to 25 times more likely to engage with apps they downloaded after watching an AdColony video ad than users from other app promotional networks.

AdColony Express for Google’s Android platform is in private beta and will also be available soon.

Please visit www.AdColony.com for additional information.

About AdColony

AdColony™, a division of Jirbo, Inc., is the premium mobile video ad network that exclusively features Instant-Play™ technology to deliver HD mobile video ads instantly to consumers across the most popular and highly engaging apps in the world. Ad units include preroll/midroll/postroll Instant-Play video ads and, for the most popular social apps that often do not have banners or pre-roll, AdColony offers Videos for Virtual Currency ads which allow users to earn in-game virtual currency and goods by watching Instant-Play video ads. AdColony, Jirbo, Instant-Play, Videos-For-Virtual-Currency, and V4VC are trademarks of Jirbo, Inc. All rights reserved.

San Jose – blurbIQ Inc., whose patent pending interactive video advertising platform allows advertisers and publishers to use game mechanics to drive consumers to interact with their video messaging to remember brands at the point of purchase, today announced the launch of its cross platform interactive video ad units. Brands can now deploy and measure their interactive video campaign’s messaging across the digital marketing spectrum – from online pre-roll and in-banner units, to mobile, tablets, social media, and interactive TV – with one technology provider.

With game mechanics, blurbIQ inserts questions as video streams creating an unobtrusive game environment for the consumer to interactive with the video messaging. With its new cross-platform interactive video ad units, blurbIQ can create and execute video campaigns on any platform within 48 hours. As a result consumers pay closer attention to brand messages producing effect, cost efficient results. For example, after a 30 day cross platform interactive video campaign, a leading online financial company saw video completion rates as high as 81%, interaction rates of 38%, a click through rate of 5.86% and most importantly, achieved a 428% reduction in their cost per acquisition.

“Consumers want to be entertained instead of being annoyed by advertising. blurbIQ turns ordinary video into interactive video that engages, entertains, and educates like never before. We drive consumers to interact with and understand the messaging of the video,” says Scott Reese, CEO of blurbIQ Inc. “When consumers remember your brand at the point of purchase, they will buy your products.”

Advertisers and publishers are also able to serve blurbIQ’s interactive video in-stream as blurbIQ is fully compliant with VAST/VPAID standards developed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

“We have always operated under the premise that advertisers must be able to deliver their interactive video content wherever they want easily and quickly,” adds Mr. Reese, CEO of blurbIQ Inc. “Over the last few months our team has built out the necessary tools to allow for a one stop shop environment.”

Leading brands, agencies, ad networks, and publishers can now leverage the blurbIQ Interactive Video Advertising Platform as part of the company’s engagement, brand messaging measurement, and ad retention strategy. With quick time analytics dashboards, dynamic insertion of brand questions within video, brand rankings to encourage replay and sharing, brands are truly able to measure video campaign performance that ensures return on advertising spend are maximized.

Quiz questions pertain to brand massage

blurbIQ (http://www.blurbiq.com ) is the leader in interactive gamification of video across the digital marketing spectrum. The patent pending technology overlays video with brand and trivia questions as the video streams. blurbIQ turns video commercials into interactive “games” that dramatically increases viewer engagements, video completion rates, and ad retention. These interactive video units are distributed as pre-roll, in banner, mobile, tablet, and social media advertising units. blurbIQ provides quick time analytics dashboards so brands can measure every interaction with their video content like never before. Since launching in July of 2010 blurbIQ has acquired key accounts such as E*Trade, Duracell, Church & Dwight and General Motors.

New York, NY – According to a new study by VINDICO, the leading online video ad management platform, mid-roll video ads offer advertisers higher performance than pre-roll or post-roll video ads within long-form video environments. VINDICO analyzed millions of video ad impressions within the consumer and packaged goods category delivered by VINDICO over the past 12 months to identify viewing trends and help marketers set benchmarks for advertising success.

VINDICO’s data revealed that mid-roll ad placements in the study worked better than pre- or post-roll ads: 93 percent of mid-roll video ads were viewed in their entirety, compared with only 83 percent completion of post-roll video ads and 85 percent completion of pre-roll video ads. Pre- and post-roll ads are attached to most ad-supported content regardless of length, whereas mid-roll ad placements are typically found only in longer-form online content, such as in the middle of a TV program or movie.

“The industry has grown accustomed to predominantly using pre-roll ads as the main vehicle for delivering brand messages via video,” said Matt Timothy, president of VINDICO. “However, our data shows that online viewers may respond better to mid-roll ads particularly because they are delivered within ‘full meal’ video environments as opposed to ‘snacking’ opportunities, such as a movie trailer or video clip. As a result, mid-roll within episodic content where the viewer is invested in watching the full video event tends to offer higher completion rates. Advertisers should consider giving more emphasis to mid-roll when developing their video media plans.”

The study also revealed that many video ad campaigns that run in long-form environments lack sufficient labeling of pod position, suggesting there is a huge opportunity to further understand online viewing behavior.

“There is a tremendous opportunity for marketers and publishers to better understand not only which pod placements work best, such as pre-roll or post-roll, but also the frequency and timing of such video ad placements within each piece of content,” Timothy added.

Serving almost 40 percent of all online video ads, VINDICO provides advertisers and leading agency groups such GroupM, Havas, IPG, Publicis and Omnicom the easiest way to buy, serve and track all online video ad campaigns with a single video ad management platform. A market leader, VINDICO delivered more than 15.7 billion video ad impressions over the last 12 months, including five billion video ads in Q2 2011, up from 1.8 billion in Q2 2010.

About VINDICO
As the first ad management platform dedicated exclusively to video, VINDICO allows advertisers to buy, serve, track and measure all of their online video ad activity. Since 2006, VINDICO has been the gold standard in online video platforms, providing standardized reporting and analytics for the online video industry. The power of online video isn’t just the audiences it reaches and how it reaches them. Its strength also derives from its ability to track an ad campaign and precisely measure the campaign’s effectiveness. For more information, please visit http://www.vindicogroup.com. For insights into the dynamic landscape of online video advertising, follow VINDICO on Twitter: http://twitter.com/VINDICO_Group.

Otilia Otlacan: YuMe has just launched three ad units, all focused on increasing the brand engagement of video ads. Can you comment on what have been the drivers behind this launch, what has made you look into new ad formats?
Scot McLernon: This particular launch was primarily driven by findings from our brand advertiser clients and our Innovation Lab. Many YuMe advertisers want to run interactive ads on the YuMe Connected Audience Network as opposed to plain pre-rolls that lack opportunities for immediate, on-the-fly engagement. As a result, we now offer interactivity to all advertisers, particularly those seeking high brand engagement metrics.

Video ad innovation is not new to YuMe. This launch simply underscores our commitment to designing high-impact video ad experiences. We will continue to innovate and launch new ad units through our new ad framework and powerful video player technology. Moreover, we will continue to build and serve ad executions that reach audiences wherever they are watching video: at work, at home, and everywhere in between.

Otilia Otlacan: I have taken a look at the new YuMe Ads gallery and noticed there is quite a variety of social interaction that can be added to a previously standard video ad. Could you tell me a bit more on how the integration with various social media platforms works and whether there are any requirements for the publishers carrying these ads?
Scot McLernon: YuMe Ads allow for multiple hooks into social media integration such as driving brand followers and sharing brand videos on popular destinations like Facebook and Twitter. With that in mind, our brand advertisers utilize social interactions in three ways to build upon their social media presence and create a viral impact:
1.    Increasing fan base via follows or likes for opportunities to re-market or upsell.
2.    Sharing video ads or other video content, such as product demos and client testimonials to allow for further user engagement.
3.    Driving traffic to apps on social networks to drive brand consideration, improve recall, and [eventually] increase purchase intent.

YuMe publishers are not required to take further action in order to serve these ads as they are already equipped with this functionality. Also, new YuMe platform publishers and app developers can begin to serve socially rich, interactive video ads quickly and easily.

Otilia Otlacan: It is my understanding that these new interactive video ad formats can also be delivered on TV. What types of interaction and what engagement metrics are available in this case?
Scot McLernon: YuMe can report all interactions with our screen-agnostic video ad units. However, each connected TV environment into which we serve video ads varies in the level of interactivity support for video ads. Since some devices may not accept interactivity, Yume Ads can easily adopt to each manufacturer’s video ad environment. Whatever the case may be, YuMe tracks and reports on essential video ad metrics.

Otilia Otlacan: Of all new features offered by YuMe’s three new ad formats, which one is the most employed by advertisers so far?
Scot McLernon: While the Ready-Mades have proven to be quite popular among advertisers on cross-screen, integrated campaigns, the new YuMe Pre-Roll is the hottest new ad format, both on web-only and mobile/tablet video campaigns.

Otilia Otlacan: Earlier this summer, YuMe has strengthened its presence in Europe . Considering the differences in online privacy regulations between the EU and the US, do you have a different approach in working with your EU-based advertisers, as far as socially-enabled ads go?
Scot McLernon: YuMe complies with regional targeting and re-targeting regulations and does not map social media data to cookies. YuMe’s socially-enabled ads drive highly engaged users to brands’ various social campaigns to encourage interactions with advertisers’ landing pages, such as a Facebook fan page or official Twitter account. That is exactly what our brand advertisers want: to drive engagement within their already established social media channels.

Otilia Otlacan: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Scot McLernon: Brand marketers are increasingly looking to reach audiences via video ads across all screens and to obtain deeper insights into how viewers engage on those different delivery mediums. YuMe’s socially rich, interactive ad units help brand advertisers deliver a consistent video ad experience across any screen with the same interactive features, while sharing detailed analytics to provide insight into campaign performance on each platform. Moreover, allowing for sharing of video ads yields a greater reach of brands’ marketing messages, as impressions driven by a friend, colleague, and/or community recommendations on social networks can help a brand’s video ad campaign go viral.

About Scot McLernon, Chief Revenue Officer – YuMe

Scot brings over 15 years of interactive marketing experience to the YuMe team. He has built and led three successful web sales teams, including at CBS Marketwatch and CBS Interactive. Most recently, McLernon was President of Upstream Group, Inc. where he developed Habitat–the industry’s only combined training and networking event for sellers. McLernon was on the Board of Directors for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) for five years and co–founded the Bay Area Interactive Group (BIG) in 2004, which educates and helps network the Bay Area’s interactive marketing community.

Recognizing his accomplishments as an innovator and industry pioneer, McLernon received the ad:tech Industry Achievement Award in 2007.

REDWOOD CITY, CA – YuMe, the leading relevant video advertising technology company, today announced the availability of new product offerings focused on increasing brand engagement impact of video ads. The new initiative, YuMe Ads, consists of an entirely new base pre-roll unit that features automatic hooks into Facebook, Twitter, YouTube campaigns and features supplemental brand awareness and response elements. Additionally, other units in the YuMe ad portfolio include Ready-Made, quick to market experiences that incorporate key interactive features, and a brand new Custom-Made offering that lets brands create one-of-a-kind video advertising experiences.

YuMe’s unique player technology and video ad framework enables brands to offer interactive experiences natively on publisher sites, providing advertisers with scale across three screens — mobile, online and TV, reaching audiences wherever they are consuming video content.

“Consumers are actively consuming online video and brand advertisers are getting more adventurous and creative about their cross-screen video ad campaigns and offering consumers more ways to interact with their brands,” said YuMe CEO Jayant Kadambi. “These new interactive video ad formats will help brands connect the dots and engage with consumers more fully wherever they are viewing content—whether it be on their phone, PC or TV.”

“With YuMe Ads, we were able to successfully combine both engagement and response objectives in one unit that led to stronger brand recall and purchase intent in a single execution,” said Kelley Elizabeth Train, Group Digital Director for Omnicom PHD. “We have already experienced a 20 percent increase in viewer downloads and trial sign-ups from the custom ad units as opposed to just the traditional video and companion banner. Moving forward we aim to leverage highly interactive ad units in more unique ways to allow the media buys to feel richer and have the ability to answer multiple business objectives.”

Three New Units

YuMe Ads includes three distinct category ad offerings with interactivity and standardized cross-platform compatibility.
·         YuMe Pre-Roll: Enhances traditional pre-roll and supports up to three interactivity options, from a rich set of options, with zero turnaround time and no pricing surcharge. Optional interactions include: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Special Offers, and Store/Dealer Locator and more.

·         Ready-Made: Quick to market for advanced mix-and-match capability and builds off existing pre-roll video with support for special in-player web API integrations (Twitter, Google, YouTube, etc.).

·         Custom-Made: Built to order signature ad units with massive in-player interaction and flexibility around branding. Also supports special in-player web API integrations.

Redefining Pre-Roll

As brands build extensive campaigns that encompass Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social content sites, video campaigns are an important portal into their broader campaigns. With the new YuMe pre-roll, brands will be able to select up to three optional links as overlay buttons on their video ads, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, other websites, offers, and dealer/retail information. This format replaces the current pre-roll format from YuMe and commands the same CPM as a traditional video-only pre-roll.

Ready-Made and Custom-Made Units

Ready-made ad units extend flexibility for multiple video combinations, enabling the addition of sophisticated animations, social and interactive features, and supplemental videos and even rendering a microsite experience in the player.  Encompassing some of YuMe’s most popular formats such as PowerRoll, an interactive banner across the bottom of the pre-roll, and InSynch formats that synchronize with other elements of a page, ready-made ad units now include more interactivity and extend to the mobile environment with all new Tap2Motion and 2Motion ad units.

Custom-made ads provide a wholly unique experience, enabling endless creative options specific to the brand and their desired viewer experience. In addition, YuMe’s built-in advanced analytics track all user interactions and provides multi-level insight to marketers seeking to measure their brand impact, such as interaction rates, brand lift, campaign ROI and overall viewer engagement.

For more information on YuMe Ads, please visit: http://www.yume.com/ad_gallery_all.

About YuMe
YuMe is the leading, relevant video advertising technology company. It enables top-tier publishers to maximize profits on their professional video content while safely delivering the most effective advertising campaigns for major brands and their agencies. YuMe’s patent-pending Relevance Engine powers both its premium in-stream video ad network, The YuMe Connected Audience Network, and its industry-leading advertising management solutions, ACE for Publishers and ACE for Advertisers. The YuMe Relevance Engine matches the right ad to the right audience on whatever screen they are viewing—PC, mobile, or connected TV. As a result, YuMe gives publishers and advertisers unprecedented reach, brand safety, contextual relevance, controlled syndication, unique YuMe Ads and consistent delivery across all digital media platforms. YuMe is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, CA with its European headquarters in London. The company is backed by Accel Partners, BV Capital, DAG Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Intel Capital. For more information, visit www.YuMe.com, follow @YuMevideo on Twitter, or like YuMe on Facebook at www.facebook.com/YuMevideo.

NEW YORK – AOL announced today that it has brokered a unique partnership with VivaKi, the strategic entity that combines the media and digital assets that sit inside of Publicis Groupe. This partnership aims to explore the online video advertising arena and continue to innovate and identify top performing ad models that are best for advertisers, publishers and consumers. This initiative will leverage the success and momentum of VivaKi’s ongoing research effort, The Pool, which has conducted extensive research and testing in the online video space. In its first three waves of research or “lanes,” the ASq was selected as the most superior online video ad model, out-performing the industry’s pre-roll standard.

To date, ASq has 15 certified publishers, including AOL, and has supported over 150 client campaigns across 35 advertisers and garnered more than 400 million impressions. This partnership between VivaKi and AOL will build on the success of this model and identify other formats that provide more personalization and social components within the online video user experience. ASq is powered by VINDICO, a leading video ad management platform, which will also serve the VivaKi-AOL partnership.

“We are excited to be partnering with VivaKi to push product innovation forward and evolve online video ad models,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman & CEO, AOL. “We challenged the industry last year with the launch of Project Devil in display, which helped us rethink how content and advertising should be viewed on the Web, and we wanted to explore what the Devil principles and philosophies could mean for video ad formats. There is still so much opportunity for growth and innovation.”

“We know the ASq is a breakthrough idea, but there is room for more ad models that support the medium. No other platform can be sustained through simply one format, look at TV or display,” said Tracey Scheppach, VivaKi’s EVP/Innovations Director and Co-Founder of The Pool. “We gave our employees around the world, as well as our trusted partners, an opportunity to voice their ideas for the best online video ad models and we received 72 ideas in total, which we’ve narrowed down to the top three that will go into testing.”

The first model that will go into field trial testing consists of a pre-roll overlay within a video player that gives the viewer an option to click and expand the ad into a branded toolbar, which provides viewers with multiple ways to interact with the brand. The second model is a slate ad format that asks whether the viewer would like to watch a full :30 ad or a :15 ad and then answer a question immediately following the ad. The third and final model is a pre-roll overlay that provides buttons for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social platforms to enable a seamless way to interact and share ads with their social circle. To reinforce the sharing option, this model would also include a billboard at the end of the pre-roll or at the end of the content. VINDICO will handle ad serving for all three models during this process.

Since its inception in 2008, The Pool has launched nine lanes globally and logged over 35,000 hours, working with over 100 different companies while reaching 262 million consumers.

This lane will kick off in November 2011 and is open to all VivaKi clients. Results are expected in early 2012 and official names will be given to the three models during The Pool process.

About AOL

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a premier global media company with a suite of brands and products serving consumers, advertisers and publishers worldwide. The AOL Huffington Post Media Group is a leading source of news, opinion, entertainment, community and digital information comprising a wide range of destination websites, including AOL.com, The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Moviefone, Engadget, Patch, AOL Music, StyleList and MapQuest. The AOL Advertising.com Group includes Advertising.com, ADTECH, Pictela, Video (inclusive of AOL Video, goviral and 5min Media), Content Solutions and Sponsored Listings and serves a combined content and advertising market at scale through video, brand advertising, content and ad serving. AOL is focused on engaging consumers and providing online advertising services and solutions on both AOL Huffington Post Media Group destination websites and third-party websites, in addition to serving consumer platforms including AOL Mail, AIM, about.me, and mobile experiences. AOL also operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services in the U.S., which serves as another distribution channel for its consumer subscription products, such as AOL TechGuru and Computer Checkup.

About VivaKi

VivaKi is part of Publicis Groupe (Euronext Paris Exchange: FR0000130577; and part of the CAC 40 index) the world’s third largest communications group. VivaKi aggregates the marketplace influence of four autonomous brands, including two global media agency networks: ZenithOptimedia and Starcom MediaVest Group; and two leading digital marketing agencies: Digitas and Razorfish. On behalf of its agency brands and their clients, VivaKi faces the market to help identify and build technology, message distribution, audience aggregation and content solutions for the future.

About The Pool

The Pool is a first of its kind industry program that unites the financial resources and thought leadership of its clients and a host of content providers to test and create industry standards for new advertising models. By “pooling” insights and resources, this initiative aims to identify future engagement models across a variety of emerging media platforms. Participating clients and content providers are given the opportunity to view and evaluate new advertising models and receive access to all proprietary research ahead of the marketplace. The following lanes have been launched and released: Lane 1: US online video – November 2008 launch, February 2010 industry release; Lane 2: US short-form online video – July 2009 launch, September 2010 industry release; Lane 3: China online video – April 2010 launch, April 2011 industry release. The following Lanes have been launched and are still in progress: Lane 4: UK online video – October 2010 launch; Lane 5: MENA display – September 2010 launch; Lane 6: Spain online video – November 2010 launch; Lane 7: Australia online video – March 2011 launch; Lane 8: China online video/cross media metrics – August 2011 launch; Lane 9: US Tablets – October 2011 launch.

With VideoHub for Advertisers, marketers and agencies can look at how their video campaigns are performing across all networks and publishers in real-time. For the first time, advertisers have access to unparalleled and sometimes surprising insight into brand performance metrics and the factors enhancing the brand, provoking viewer engagement and driving other key performance indicators.

VideoHub Marketplace provides early stage video advertisers with an easy-to-use, self-serve interface to buy video on the Tremor Video network and other inventory sources.

“In the absence of alternatives, the video advertising industry has focused almost exclusively on efficiency over effectiveness,” said Anthony Risicato, GM of VideoHub, a division of Tremor Video. “With VideoHub, we mine for answers to ‘why’ advertising performs the way it does. Our advertising partners are already uncovering surprising correlations between certain signals and brand performance, and that intelligence will grow exponentially as the platform evolves.”

VideoHub analyzes numerous video signals and determines which factors are the most important in delivering campaign success, with particular emphasis on the criteria that drive engagement and brand lift. In an effort to share the insights gathered from the nearly 1 billion streams running through the platform every month, the company recently launched a report that give marketers a snapshot of the video advertising industry.

The story was first reported in VideoNuze.

About Tremor Video

Founded in 2005, Tremor Video (www.tremorvideo.com) provides in-stream video advertising solutions to Fortune 1000 brand advertisers and top tier publishers and is widely regarded as the leading video company online. Leveraging their innovative video ad formats and publisher technology, Tremor Video delivers the mass reach and campaign results advertisers should expect from digital video. Tremor Video is the only video ad platform that can provide 100% brand safety by scanning and categorizing every single video stream before an ad is ever served. Powered by award-winning SE2 technology, Tremor Video’s video algorithm also gets smarter at finding and engaging viewers with every ad served, enabling the company to welcome and encourage pay-per-engagement pricing. Tremor Video is a privately held company headquartered in NYC with 10 national and international offices.

VideoHub, a division of Tremor Video, is a first of its kind analytics console that helps marketers and agencies monitor the complex video ecosystem to dynamically match ads with content and viewers, deliver upon marketing goals, and maximize brand impact. Unlike traditional video management platforms, VideoHub focuses on effectiveness and delivers real-time analytics for deep transparency across ads, content, viewers, and performance. To request a demo, visit videohub.tv

Prashant Mehta, CEO, Komli Media, said, “Jivox has great technology and built a fantastic team under Naren Nachiappen’s leadership. We are really excited to partner with Jivox as its leading edge platform brings tremendous value to all our advertisers and publishers across the Asia Pacific region. ”

As part of this partnership, Komli Media acquires related assets from Jivox, including existing publisher and customer relationships in India, while Jivox will also support Komli Media as a platform licensee and a strategic partner.

Naren Nachiappan, Managing Director, Jivox India, said, “We are very excited about our partnership with Komli Media and believe this is a great opportunity for us to scale our business. Since our launch in India over 2 years ago, we are pleased to have become the fastest growing and largest video ad network. As we considered different options for expansion in the APAC market, it was clear to us that Komli Media had the unique combination of leadership, vision and APAC presence which makes them our ideal partner. We see significant benefits in this partnership for our customers and partners which will now have access to a comprehensive digital media product set from Komli Media.”

About Komli Media
Komli Media is Asia Pacific’s leading digital media network. Its digital advertising technologies enable marketers to reach, acquire and foster audiences and publishers to maximize their revenues. Komli Media provides marketers with innovative solutions across brand marketing, performance marketing, social media, and video advertising. ViziSense, India’s leading online audience and ad measurement platform is powered by Komli Media technology. PostClick, Australia’s leading site representation firm, and Indoor Media, the UK’s leading ethnic ad network, are both subsidiaries of Komli Media. Headquartered in Mumbai, Komli Media now has offices in Bangalore, Chennai and New Delhi (India), Hong Kong, Manila and Singapore (SEA), London, Melbourne and Sydney (Australia), and New York, Redwood City, Toronto and Des Moines (North America). Find out more at http://www.komli.com.

About Jivox
Jivox is the leading cross-platform interactive video advertising technology company. The Jivox platform enables brand advertisers, digital agencies and publishers to deliver highly engaging video ads powered by interactive and social sharing features. Using Jivox creative tools, interactive video ads can be easily authored and delivered in-stream, in-banner and on mobile devices and tablets. Jivox is the only provider that delivers and measures interactive video advertising online and to popular HTML5-compatible mobile devices, including the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Android devices and Blackberry. Jivox technology ensures these ads run on all platforms without worrying about all of the challenges of HTML5/Flash, operating systems, browsers, video encoding, form factor and other issues with delivering video ads across multiple platforms. Jivox provides sophisticated campaign performance tracking, brand awareness and purchase intent analytics for advertisers via BrandGage — its proprietary real-time analytics platform. The Jivox platform is used by several hundred media companies and agencies including Gannett, Bloomberg, Weather Underground, Sun Times Media, InteractiveOne, Starcom, OMD, FUOR Digital, GroupM and Lee Enterprises. For examples of Jivox Ads see: http://www.jivox.com/demoads.

San Jose, CA – Coming on the heels of announcements by KN Dimestore and Vizu regarding their services that insert multi-question surveys into streaming video and display ads, blurbIQ, the only company to utilize game mechanics to strategically insert interactive questions within video to test brand message receptivity, today reports that interrupting online video views to test brand reception actually increases interaction and completion rates.

In an in-banner 300×250 user-initiated bake off against other web video vendors, including Eyeblaster, Pointroll and DoubleClick, blurbIQ achieved an interaction rate of 37.97%, a lift of 915% over the “industry average” of the other video vendors of 4.15%.  blurbIQ’s video completion rate was 65.45% vs. 43.57% for the others and its click-through rate was 2.52% vs. 0.18%, a lift of 1,400 %.

Using game mechanics, blurbIQ turns video commercials from passive to active engagement by overlaying brand and trivia questions on the video. The average number of brand questions answered per 30-second engagement is 3.39. Consumer product knowledge is scored and they can compare their knowledge score against their friends and others around the world. The interactive video units allow for viral sharing and navigation to advertiser sites for special product discounts. Up to 5% of visitors end up sharing something with friends. Of these 80% are shared via Facebook, 16% share via email and 4% share via Twitter.

“You would think that interrupting video views to ask brand-related questions would kill user interest. But just the opposite happens. They watch longer, convert at a higher rate and remember more about the brand message. We drive consumers to interact with and understand the messaging of the video, “says Scott Reese, CEO of blurbIQ Inc. “As a result, consumers remember brands at the point of purchase because they had a fun and entertaining experience interacting with the video message.”

Video viewers exposed to blurbIQ’s “gamification” have shown +95% unaided brand and key message recall two weeks after one exposure vs. single digits for TV viewers of the same commercial.

“The problem in video advertising is that people ignore commercials. Brands want consumers to buy their products and they cannot measure if their advertising message was received.  The single most important thing in advertising is consumers remembering your brand at the point of purchase. blurbIQ solves the problem,” Mr. Reese adds. “Watching a video is forgettable. If you play an interactive video it is memorable and game changing. blurbIQ MAKES people remember brands and buy products.”

blurbIQ (http://www.blurbiq.com ) is the leader in interactive gamification of video across the digital marketing spectrum. The patent pending technology overlays video with brand and trivia questions as the video streams. blurbIQ turns video commercials into interactive “games” that dramatically increases viewer engagements, video completion rates, and ad retention. These interactive video units are distributed as pre-roll, in banner, mobile, tablet, and social media advertising units. blurbIQ provides quick time analytics dashboards so brands can measure every interaction with their video content like never before. Since launching in July of 2010 blurbIQ has acquired key accounts such as E*Trade, Duracell, and General Motors.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – BrightRoll, the leading provider of digital video advertising services, today announced the launch of real-time bidding for buyers on its online video advertising marketplace, The BrightRoll Exchange (BRX). The availability of real-time bidding allows buyers to target audiences at the individual impression level across BRX’s vast inventory of premium digital video content, while leveraging a dynamic pricing model to optimize campaign spend. Leading buyers including RocketFuel, Turn, DataXu, MediaMath, Media6Degrees and TubeMogul have signed on to execute video buys in real time via BRX.

“Online video advertising now reaches half of the American population and this trend will only accelerate,” said Bill Demas, president and CEO of Turn. “As advertisers increasingly use video to connect with their audiences, we are seeing a strong demand for RTB efficiencies in video. This partnership with BrightRoll enables brands to leverage Turn’s leading media and audience optimization capabilities to drive audience engagement across the largest sources of premium video content on the web.”

Media buyers who take advantage of BRX’s real-time bidding functionality can optimize performance by targeting only the users that are most valuable to them using anonymized data. Unlike bulk buying, which targets large audiences by category at a fixed rate, real-time bidding enables buyers to purchase video ads on an impression-by-impression basis at the price they’re willing to pay. BRX conducts a dynamic auction for each impression, enabling true market pricing so that buyers minimize their spend by paying for only the impressions they want.

“The use of DataXu’s unique impression-level decisioning technology integrated with BRX maximizes performance against an advertiser’s marketing objectives, increasing confidence that their investment in online video is money well spent,” said Adrian Tompsett, director of business development at DataXu. “Advertisers and agencies get superior campaign results by combining the sight, sound, and motion of online video with programmatic buying, optimization and advanced analytics.”

“The launch of our real-time bidding capabilities comes in direct response to market demand and the incredible momentum we have behind us as the largest video ad exchange in the industry,” said BrightRoll CEO and co-founder Tod Sacerdoti. “Since its inception, we’ve focused on making BRX the leading marketplace for buyers and sellers. This translates to highly targeted, efficient video campaigns for advertisers and more revenue for publishers.”

BRX offers buyers the reach, targeting, delivery controls and reporting capabilities required to execute brand-safe video campaigns at scale. Access to its real-time bidding capabilities are available via a simple technical integration and certification process.

About The BrightRoll Exchange
The BrightRoll Exchange (BRX) is the world’s premier online video advertising marketplace with thousands of sites and more than 100 million monthly unique viewers. BRX offers buyers access to massive pools of audited, brand-safe inventory, transparent site-lists and advanced audience targeting. BRX provides publishers a convenient and effective way to maximize monetization of their available inventory. For more information visit www.brx.com or read more on the BRX blog.

San Francisco -Vizu Corporation (www.brand lift.com), an online ad technology company whose solutions allow advertisers and publishers to measure and optimize Brand Lift in real-time, today announced the launch of its “Value in Video” initiative. The program’s objective is to provide the industry with the ability to leverage in-stream, real-time testing of consumer sentiment wherever and however video is delivered, addressing one of the key challenges facing the growth of the medium – a fragmented landscape of video serving technologies.

As a first step in this initiative, Vizu also announced enhancements to its brand advertising effectiveness platform to fully support the VAST/VPAID standards developed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), allowing anyone serving video inventory compliant with these standards to leverage Vizu’s in-stream capabilities to measure and optimize Brand Lift.

“Our broadcaster partners utilize a variety of players and online video platforms, so putting together an all-encompassing measurement methodology was a challenge,” says Joshua Iselin, Managing Director of TVN, Australia’s largest in-stream video network. “With Vizu now enabling Brand Lift measurement and optimization via VAST/VPAID compliant inventory, we have multiple options at our disposal. The ability to survey viewers in-stream is a major technological innovation – as a result we’ve seen incredibly high response rates, helping to alleviate an issue that plagues the industry. We are proud to be working with Vizu to pioneer in-stream video measurement and optimization.”

“If advertisers can’t measure the performance of video on the entire media plan, they’re not getting the full picture. VAST/VPAID were developed to meet that challenge, and to bring more confidence to video advertisers,” says Daryl McNutt, BrightRoll’s Senior Vice President of Research and Marketing. “BrightRoll is a major proponent of standards like these that help move the industry forward, and we’re happy to see partners like Vizu support them as well.”

Leading brands, agencies, ad networks, and publishers leverage Vizu’s Ad Catalyst solution, part of the company’s brand advertising effectiveness platform, to measure and optimize the effectiveness of online brand advertising efforts in real time. Ad Catalyst measures the Brand Lift generated by online advertising campaigns, replacing click-through rates with a much more appropriate metric for brand advertisers. As Brand Lift data is available in real time, it also enables in-market optimization of campaigns. Leveraging an intuitive dashboard, the contribution of different creative, messages, targeting, and frequency to overall campaign performance can quickly be evaluated and adjustments made that ensure both Brand Lift and return on advertising spend are maximized.

“We strongly believe in the value of video, and that it has the potential to accelerate the flow of brand advertising dollars online. We are thus investing to ensure the medium reaches its full potential,” says Dan Beltramo, CEO of Vizu. “We’re excited to announce our support of the VAST/VPAID standards, but aren’t stopping there – we will soon be announcing integrations with many leading video player technologies, ensuring our customers can measure and optimize their video efforts anytime, anywhere.”

Vizu Corporation (www.brandlift.com) brings the same metrics used to measure and optimize brand advertising effectiveness in the offline world to the online medium. By providing the first real-time, enterprise technology platform that allows brand advertisers and their partners in the digital media ecosystem – publishers, ad networks, exchanges, and demand side platforms – to collaborate around measuring and optimizing Brand Lift metrics, Vizu enables its customers to move their target audience through the purchase funnel, from building awareness to creating intent and preference.  Vizu’s brand advertising effectiveness platform is used by over 60% of Advertising Age’s Top 100 Brand Advertisers and Comscore’s Top 50 Media properties to support all key aspects of the advertising lifecycle, including media buying, audience profiling, and Brand Lift optimization.

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in August for an average of 18 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in a record 6.9 billion viewing sessions.

YouTube Partner Rankings Now Fully Released in Video Metrix

August marks the first month of official rankings for comScore YouTube Partner Reporting within the Video Metrix offering, for a never-before-seen comparison of viewership across thousands of YouTube partners and their channels. This offering provides a comprehensive and granular view of the unique audiences within different YouTube partner channels, enabling advertisers to more-easily create and optimize campaigns across specific channels to reach desired target audiences.

The data revealed that video music channels VEVO (60.6 million viewers) and Warner Music (30.9 million viewers) assumed the top two positions. Gaming channel Machinima ranked third with 17.7 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios with 10 million, Demand Media with 8.4 million and Revision3 with 6.6 million. Within the top 10 partners, TheGameStation demonstrated the highest engagement with 76.5 minutes per viewer on average. Machinima was a close second on average engagement at 72.6 minutes per viewer, while accounting for the second most videos viewed (289 million) after VEVO. Interestingly, 68.1 percent of Machinima viewers were male and 70.3 percent were under the age of 35.

*YouTube Partner Reporting based on online video content viewing and does not include
claimed user-generated content

For more information about comScore Video Metrix YouTube Partner Reporting, please visit comscore.com/youtube or email youtube@comscore.com.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in August with 162 million unique viewers, while VEVO ranked second with 62.3 million. Facebook.com remained at the #3 position with 51.7 million viewers, followed by Viacom Digital with 49.9 million and Microsoft Sites with 46.4 million. Total viewing sessions reached another all-time high in August at 6.9 billion, with Google Sites generating the highest number of viewing sessions (3.5 billion). The average viewer watched 18 hours of online video content during the course of the month, with Google Sites (5.7 hours) and Hulu (3.2 hours) demonstrating the highest engagement.

Top 10 Video Ad Properties by Video Ads Viewed

Americans viewed more than 5.6 billion video ads in August, with Hulu generating the highest number of video ad impressions at 996 million. Tremor Video ranked second overall (and highest among video ad exchanges/networks) with 764 million ad views, followed by Adap.tv (720 million) and BrightRoll Video Network (603 million). Time spent watching video ads totaled more than 2.5 billion minutes during the month, with Hulu delivering the highest duration of video ads at 426 million minutes. Video ads reached 50 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 37.6 times during the month. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 38.1.

*Video ads include streaming-video advertising only and do not include other types of video monetization, such as overlays, branded players, matching banner ads, homepage ads, etc.
**Indicates video ad network
†Indicates video ad exchange

Other notable findings from August 2011 include:

- 85.8 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
- The duration of the average online content video was 5.3 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.5 minutes.
- Video ads accounted for 13.4 percent of all videos viewed and 1.3 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

BURLINGTON, Mass. – Tubifi, Inc. launched a new solution for online video creation, distribution and analytics designed to remove the barriers of high costs, time commitment and in-house talent required to produce world class videos for business.

Tubifi’s offering features a world-class creative team led by a former CLIO-winning advertising executive and a global network of skilled videographers. The new company also has access to extensive libraries of high quality video footage through partnerships with leading video content providers and is developing its full technology platform for release in 2012.

“Excellent advertising and video creation were, until now, the preserve of large corporations with vast marketing departments and deep pockets,” said Ian Brower, award-winning chief creative officer and co-founder, Tubifi. “But, in today’s world of video-centric, connected mobile devices, all companies need compelling video to be competitive.”

Video is critical in a world that is increasingly mobile, connected and social. Forrester Research reports that, compared with standard SEO (search engine optimization) techniques, a properly submitted video is 50 times more likely to achieve a first-page Google ranking. As SEO guru Bruce Clay has said “If your competition has a video and you don’t, the competition wins. So I think we are going to see video on almost every site that at least wants to rank.”

Tubifi provides a complete answer to how companies can excel in the digital world with game-changing video quality and distribution. Tubifi’s online video platform will host video for websites using the leading video player and delivering video that is optimized for viewers’ devices and network connection speed. Tubifi also enables uploading of video to free online video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, sharing video through social networks like Facebook and Twitter, bringing email campaigns to life with video links, and attaching video to third party content to expand reach.

“Most companies simply cannot afford, and often don’t have, the skill set in-house, to develop world- class videos and determine the best channels for distribution,” said John Belchers, CEO and co-founder, Tubifi. “With our solution they now have a simple yet powerful answer to their video communication needs.”

Harbaldeep Singh, Tubifi’s chief product officer and co-founder, states that “Tubifi’s process is built on collaboration with the customer from creating a concept and developing the storyboard, to completing the online video or advertisement and distributing it via the most impactful channels.” Tubifi’s offering is completed by the measurement tools companies need to analyze their video’s performance and adjust their distribution strategy and/or video for better results and maximum impact.

To help streamline the content licensing process within Tubifi’s ad creation and distribution platform, the company will work with Thought Equity Motion’s application programming interface (API) to access the millions of hours of video in Thought Equity Motion’s large library of sports, news and entertainment footage.

The new company was founded by long-time software, video and advertising executives including Belchers, a seasoned professional who has managed various technology companies with similar rapid growth opportunities, Brower, a CLIO-award winning creative director, Singh, an Emmy-award winning video software engineer, and Micha Barnum, who has expertise using innovative technology in next generation video solutions.

For more information about the company’s offerings and to view additional examples of Tubifi’s work please visit www.tubifi.com.

About Tubifi, Inc.

Tubifi provides a complete solution for video ad creation, distribution, analytics and improvement, empowering companies of all sizes to engage with a mobile, connected, social world through the power of world class video, at a very affordable price. With an award winning creative team and global network of videographers across the US, Canada and Europe, Tubifi ensures that a company’s message will come to life. Tubifi’s works with best-of-breed partners throughout the ad creation and distribution workflow to ensure messages are seen in the most powerful way in the channels that maximize impact.

For more information, please contact Tubifi at 888 9TUBIFI (888 988 2434) or visit our website at http://tubifi.com/.

NEW YORK – Tremor Video, the largest independent online video technology company, announced that it has successfully raised a $37 million round of financing. New York City-based W Capital Partners led the round, which also includes the participation from Keating Capital, Canaan Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth, General Catalyst Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Singapore’s EDBI, Time Warner and SAP Ventures.

Having acquired ScanScout and Transpera in the past year, Tremor Video has extended its market leadership in the interactive video space and reaches more consumers than any other online video advertising company (according to comScore).

“We invest in companies that are leaders in rapidly growing markets, and this is no exception,” said Bob Migliorino, Managing Director of W Capital Partners. “Tremor Video’s performance in the fastest growing segment in online media, combined with Video Hub’s game-changing technology, makes us extremely happy to be working with them.”

With the launch of Video Hub in May of this year, Tremor Video has radically changed the network model by enabling brand advertisers and their agencies to monitor in real time the key factors that are driving their campaign performance. VideoHub analyzes numerous video signals and determines which factors are the most important in delivering campaign success, with particular emphasis on the criteria that drive engagement and brand lift.

Based on Tremor Video’s SE2 technology, Video Hub provides marketers with unparalleled insight into which environments enhance their brands, what provokes viewer engagement, and why a campaign is successful. Tremor Video plans to continue investing in the continued development and market adoption of Video Hub. It will also use these funds to explore additional acquisitions and expand into fast growing markets internationally.

“W Capital has a history of successful late-stage investments in leading companies, such as Ancestry.com, OpenTable and Pandora,” said Bill Day, Tremor Video’s CEO. “As we continue to develop our technology and increase its market presence, we plan to use this capital to aggressively increase our leadership role here in the U.S. while expanding globally.”

About W Capital Partners

W Capital Partners is a private equity firm that acquires portfolios of direct private equity and venture capital investments in the secondary market investing in late stage growth equity companies with market leading platforms and business models. Since 2001, W Capital has become a leading participant in providing private equity firms, financial institutions, corporations and employees with a liquidity alternative for their private equity investments.

W Capital provides private equity investors an exit for highly illiquid investments, in order to generate distributions to limited partners, reallocate resources into new strategic areas and eliminate follow-on capital requirements for portfolio companies.

With more than $1 billion of committed capital under management, over 60 completed portfolio transactions and investments in more than 100 companies, W Capital is the largest firm dedicated exclusively to the acquisition of direct private equity investments in the secondary market. For more information, please visit: www.wcapgroup.com

About Tremor Video

Founded in 2005, Tremor Video (www.tremorvideo.com) provides in-stream video advertising solutions to Fortune 1000 brand advertisers and top tier publishers and is widely regarded as the leading video company online. Leveraging their innovative video ad formats and publisher technology, Tremor Video delivers the mass reach and campaign results advertisers should expect from digital video. Tremor Video is the only video ad platform that can provide 100% brand safety by scanning and categorizing every single video stream before an ad is ever served. Powered by award-winning SE2 technology, Tremor Video’s video algorithm also gets smarter at finding and engaging viewers with every ad served, enabling the company to welcome and encourage pay-per-engagement pricing. Tremor Video is a privately held company headquartered in NYC with 10 national and international offices.

NEW YORK – PointRoll, a Gannett Company and leading provider of digital marketing technology, announced a strategic alliance with Tremor Video, the largest independent online video technology company. The partnership enables brands to buy video advertising on a national level through Tremor Video’s network while targeting and dynamically serving locally relevant in-stream video advertising through PointRoll– bringing part of the $17 billion local TV advertising market online.

The joint venture will now provide major brand advertisers with a fully integrated dynamic video solution that will allow them to maximize their video marketing spend. Ford is just one of the advertisers who has leveraged this alliance and is currently running a dynamic in-stream video campaign. The 15-second video ad’s final frame presents an offer dynamically delivered at run-time based on each viewer’s geography that gives them the option to visit their local dealer’s website.

“As video has become a more prominent element in online advertising, we wanted to apply the same dynamic nature to it, as we have with display advertising,” said Keith Morris, SVP, Group Account Director, Tier 2 Digital at Team Detroit’s Retail First division. “Being able to bring localization of offers and messaging to online video ads is the next natural step in the progression of our dynamic online strategy and coordinating the efforts of Tier 1 and Tier 2.”

“The goal of successful interactive advertising is to make the ad feel like part of the viewing experience,” said Jason Krebs, SVP and Chief Media Officer at Tremor Video. “This partnership enables advertisers to leverage Tremor Video’s technology and network to achieve national scale and PointRoll’s dynamic delivery capabilities to engage consumers at a precise local level.”

“The tremendous success of Ford’s dynamic end card campaign proves that video is no longer one size fits all,” said Catherine Spurway-Hepler, SVP of Strategy at PointRoll. “At PointRoll, we put killer creative and data optimization to use in all of our campaigns, no matter the platform, to drive success. By partnering with Tremor Video, we can supplement our mission with their technology to deliver engaging and applicable video ads on a national scale.”

About PointRoll

PointRoll, a Gannett Company (NYSE: GCI), is the leading provider of digital marketing services and technology. PointRoll enables advertisers, agencies and Web publishers to create, deliver and measure interactive and action-inspiring online video, rich media display, digital circulars, mobile, and social campaigns. Delivering both the art and science of the digital engagement, PointRoll provides the creative tools, analytics, distributed content, and expertise marketers need to effectively engage consumers and make a memorable and measurable impression. Evolving beyond the banner, PointRoll allows marketers to find consumers wherever they are across any digital platform and deliver a relevant and engaging brand or direct response experience, dramatically improving ad effectiveness. Serving more than 500 billion impressions for more than two-thirds of the Fortune 500 brands, PointRoll delivers measurable online advertising campaign results. For more information, visit http://www.pointroll.com or follow us @pointroll.

About Tremor Video

Founded in 2005, Tremor Video (formerly Tremor Media) (www.tremorvideo.com) provides in-stream video advertising solutions to Fortune 1000 brand advertisers and top tier publishers and is widely regarded as the leading video company online. Leveraging their innovative video ad formats and publisher technology, Tremor Video delivers the mass reach and campaign results advertisers should expect from digital video. Tremor Video is the only video ad platform that can provide 100% brand safety by scanning and categorizing every single video stream before an ad is ever served. Powered by award-winning SE2 technology, Tremor Video’s video algorithm also gets smarter at finding and engaging viewers with every ad served, enabling the company to welcome and encourage pay-per-engagement pricing. Tremor Video is a privately held company headquartered in NYC with 10 national and international offices.

REDWOOD CITY, CA – YuMe, the leading relevant video advertising technology company, announced that co-founder Jayant Kadambi has been named CEO as YuMe expands to the next phase of technology growth. Michael Mathieu, who led the company’s revenue growth that outpaced the industry over the past three years, will continue to serve on the Board of Directors and is stepping down from his day-to-day role at the company. Kadambi, who co-founded YuMe and previously served as CEO, will lead YuMe in continuing to build both the media business and technology platform that provides end-to-end software as a service (SaaS) solutions for video that allow publishers and advertisers to reach their audience on any screen — PC, mobile, or connected TV.

“I’m excited to take on the role of CEO – it’s clear that the future of video advertising depends on the technology platforms and systems in place for publishers and advertisers to effectively monetize their content,” said Jayant Kadambi. “Michael has been an important part of our growth over the last three years and we look forward to continuing to work with him in the future.”

YuMe has broadly expanded the reach of the YuMe business and technology platform:

-    Serving over 1.5 billion ad impressions per month on its global video ad serving infrastructure;
-   Triple digit revenue growth for three consecutive years far outpacing the industry;
-    New Relevance Engine-based supply and demand side video infrastructure product offerings;
-    Expansion into Europe with the opening of a London office;
-    Additionally the company has hired senior executive leadership, including Tim Laehy as CFO, and an experienced team to drive marketing and expansion on mobile platforms.

About YuMe
YuMe is the leading, relevant video advertising technology company. It enables top-tier publishers to maximize profits on their professional video content while safely delivering the most effective advertising campaigns for major brands and their agencies. YuMe’s patent-pending Relevance Engine powers both its premium in-stream video ad network, The YuMe Connected Audience Network, and its industry-leading advertising management solutions, ACE for Publishers and ACE for Advertisers. The YuMe Relevance Engine matches the right ad to the right audience on whatever screen they are viewing—PC, mobile, or connected TV. As a result, YuMe gives publishers and advertisers unprecedented reach, brand safety, contextual relevance, controlled syndication, and consistent delivery across all digital media platforms. YuMe is a privately held company with offices in Redwood City, CA and London, UK. The company is backed by Accel Partners, BV Capital, DAG Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Intel Capital. For more information, visit www.YuMe.com, follow @YuMevideo on Twitter (www.twitter.com/YuMevideo), or like YuMe on Facebook at www.facebook.com/YuMevideo.

San Francisco, California – Sharethrough, the leader in social video advertising, today announced that comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, is now measuring Sharethrough’s audience reach and other relevant video metrics.  Advertisers will now be able to reference comScore’s audience measurement data when placing media buys for longer-form, viral and other forms of non-traditional brand video content through Sharethrough.  Sharethrough is listed as a “social video platform” in the comScore Video Metrix service.

comScore has measured Sharethrough’s current U.S. reach at 97.5 million viewers; Sharethrough expects this number to grow significantly in the coming months as more publishers integrate with the Sharethrough platform. Sharethrough also ranks in the Top 6 of the comScore Video Metrix across several video advertising industry metrics, including average minutes viewing video content and number of content video views and content video visits.

Sharethrough is quickly becoming the standard for social video distribution, providing advertisers with the distribution technology, third-party measurement tools and unique publisher network necessary to execute large-scale media buys for non-traditional brand video content. Sharethrough’s average campaign size has nearly tripled year-over-year and overall company revenue has grown by over 100 percent year-over-year. The company has expanded their partner network rapidly, adding high-performing publishers across video, gaming and mobile categories.

“The fact that comScore is now measuring Sharethrough is a major milestone for the social video industry,” said Dan Greenberg, CEO of Sharethrough.  “Advertisers are making very sizable media buys for their brand video content, so there’s a real need for third-party validation of social video network reach.  With a trusted source such as comScore measuring reach for this emerging category, we anticipate that brands will now be able to invest in even broader distribution of their video content.”

About Sharethrough
Sharethrough provides brands with a repeatable, scalable and transparent approach to distributing video content that guarantees viewership and maximizes shared engagement.  Sharethrough drives engaged audiences for brand videos through its social video ad products, unique publisher network and proprietary targeting and optimization tools.  Sharethrough is used by many of the world’s leading brands, including Sony, Microsoft, General Motors, Victoria’s Secret, Nestle and LEGO, as well as top agencies such as Pereira & O’Dell, Universal McCann, Evolution Bureau and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.  Founded in 2008, Sharethrough is a privately held company based in San Francisco, Calif.  For more information about Sharethrough, please visit www.sharethrough.com.

LONDON, UK – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an analysis of the online advertising market in the United Kingdom across the general population of fixed line Internet users, online video viewers and smartphone users. Among its findings, the analysis shows mobile and video advertising gaining traction in reaching a sizeable percentage of the total audience. In June 2011, 63.1 percent (or nearly 2 out of 3 online video viewers in the UK) were exposed to video ads. Among the total number of smartphone users in the same time period, 25.4 percent recalled seeing an ad while browsing the Internet or using an application on their devices. In comparison, 95.3 percent of fixed line Internet users were exposed to online display advertising.

“Over the past few years, video and mobile have emerged as important channels for advertisers seeking to reach digital consumers,” said Mike Shaw, director of comScore Marketing Solutions. “While the penetration for video and mobile advertising has not yet reached the level that it has for online display advertising, it is likely that the penetration for these will only grow as mobile advertising continues to increase and more advertisers incorporate video as an integral part of their marketing strategy.”

Advertising Expands Reach among UK Mobile and Video Populations
Over the past two quarters, mobile advertising has seen a steady increase in reach. 5.4 million UK smartphone subscribers (25 percent overall) recalled having seen ads through a mobile browser or app in the quarter ending June 2011, representing a 28-percent increase from three months prior. In addition, nearly 8 percent of smartphone users recalled seeing ads at least once a week (up 28 percent), and 7.5 percent recalled seeing them almost every day (up 52 percent).

Of the 33.7 million online video viewers in June, 21.2 million (63.1 percent) were exposed to ad videos. While the total number of online video viewers remained constant from quarter-to-quarter, the number of unique viewers exposed to video ads rose 15 percent. Meanwhile, the online display market continued to show a high rate of penetration in the UK, with 40.0 million unique visitors exposed to online display ads in June 2011, accounting for 95.3 percent of the total UK online audience.

* The Total Audience differs across the platforms measured in terms of age: Video Metrix is based on the 6+ UK video viewing audience, Ad Metrix is based on the 15+ UK online audience, and MobiLens is based on the 13+ population of UK mobile users.
**Video Metrix and Ad Metrix utilize comScore’s United Digital Measurement (UDM) methodology that combines census-level data with the comScore panel.
***MobiLens is based on a survey panel that is nationally representative of mobile subscribers.

15-24 Year Olds Most Likely to be Exposed to Online Video Ads and Smartphone Ads
A demographic analysis of people exposed to online advertising revealed that 15- 24 year olds were the most heavily exposed to online ad videos. Nearly 70 percent of 15-24 year olds were exposed to at least one online ad video in June 2011 – approximately 7 percentage points higher than the total Internet audience. 15-24 year olds were also 10 percent more likely than the average video viewer to be exposed to video ads, while 25-34 year olds have the second highest penetration and were 4 percent more likely than average to be exposed.

*An index of 100 indicates average representation relative to the base audience.

15-24 year olds see an even more pronounced relative skew when it comes to exposure to mobile advertising. In June 2011, 31.6 percent of UK smartphone users age 15-24 recalled having seen ads on an app or browser, the highest penetration among age groups. With an index of 125, 15-24 year olds were 25 percent more likely than the average smartphone user to recall exposure to mobile advertising. Meanwhile, 45-54 year olds and those 55 and older showed a significantly lower likelihood than average of recalling mobile ad exposure.

*An index of 100 indicates average representation relative to the base audience.

“The penetration of mobile and online video advertising market shows greater variation across age groups, compared to the online display advertising market which already reaches an equally high percentage of users across all ages,” added Shaw. “This indicates an opportunity for advertisers looking for ways to efficiently target younger audiences, who are heavier online video viewers and mobile users. These audiences are likely to carry these behaviors with them as they mature, underscoring the future potential for video and mobile advertising.”

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

“This deal is another step forward in expanding DG’s presence in the fast-growing Internet advertising vertical,” said Scott Ginsburg, Chairman and CEO of DG. “The combination of MediaMind, Unicast and EyeWonder brings together a highly qualified roster of professionals, a complementary footprint of offices and geographic locations, along with innovative technologies to connect advertisers and agencies with the most desirable audiences on a worldwide basis.”

EyeWonder is a leading provider of interactive digital advertising products and services, including online video and rich media solutions, serving Fortune 1000 companies and premium marketers around the globe. In addition to helping advertisers, interactive agencies and content publishers create, build, track and optimize campaigns, EyeWonder is recognized globally for its technological expertise around targeting. EyeWonder Predictive Behavioral Targeting served over 3.5 billion targeted impressions in the most recent quarter.

“To fulfill our vision of converging TV and online media, we require a strong global position in online advertising,” said Neil Nguyen, President and COO of DG. “By joining EyeWonder with Unicast and MediaMind we are strategically establishing an online media powerhouse. We are delighted to welcome our new colleagues to DG.”

DG expects EyeWonder to generate revenues of approximately $36 million to $37 million for full year 2011. In addition, the Company anticipates realizing $7.0 million in cost synergies in the first twelve months following the close of the EyeWonder transaction. Subject to customary closing terms and conditions the transaction is expected to close on September 1, 2011.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisor to DG.

About DG

DG FastChannel®, Inc. (now known as DG) provides innovative technology-based solutions to the advertising, broadcast and publishing industries. Through its television unit, including the MIJO, Treehouse and SourceEcreative brands, the Company serves more than 5,000 advertisers and agencies through a media distribution network of more than 28,000 radio, television and print publishing destinations throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. DG’s internet division, comprising MediaMind, EyeWonder and Unicast, provides data driven digital advertising solutions to more than 9,000 brand owners, using approximately 3,800 media and creative agencies across 8,200 web publishers in 64 countries. DG utilizes satellite and internet transmission technologies, creative and production resources, digital asset management and syndication services that enable advertisers and agencies to work faster, smarter and more competitively. DG extends its benchmark of excellence to a wide roster of services ranging from custom rich media solutions and interactive marketing to direct response marketing and global creative intelligence. For more information, visit www.DGit.com.

j-Roll aims to increase consumer interactivity and engagement by offering advertisers and marketers the opportunity to include all of the features and functionality of a website within the ad unit. It offers consumers an immersive interactive brand experience within the ad. j-Roll’s multiple functionalities in a single ad includes the ability to open ads over pre-roll, play games, print coupons, view image gallery, look up store locators and movie show times just to name a few.

“Joost Media has been offering highly effective and progressive in-banner video units for years on a global scale. It’s been a part of our DNA since the very beginning,” said Nick Higgins, chief revenue officer at Joost. “Now we are extending these successful offerings and capabilities for pre-rolls. j-Roll is yet another example of our commitment to offer the best possible brand solutions to our partners.”

Expanding its product offerings with j-Series, its suite of in-banner video products, and now with j-Roll, Joost Media continues to deliver innovative and creative tools for effective video advertising.

About Joost Media

Joost Media is a digital media company that connects brands and audiences. Combining the power of exclusive publisher relationships, targeted reach and custom experiences, the company provides advertisers with high-impact branding solutions to an engaged audience. Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, Joost Media is a fully owned subsidiary of Adconion Media Group (www.adconion.com). For more information about the company, visit http://www.joostmedia.com.