Integrated search across all content types – video, audio, text and image – drives enhanced navigation and user engagement across 96 Univision online properties

BOSTON - RAMP, the industry’s leading provider of next-generation video and search experiences for major online media publishers, announced that Univision Communications Inc. has selected RAMP to deliver search across 96 Univision web and mobile properties. Univision began its rollout last week.

“The ability to present the right content to the right user is a critical component of maximizing the value of premium content across a network of sites.”

RAMP’s award-winning universal search solution enables users to easily and quickly find all relevant content on the site across all formats – video, audio, text and image. RAMP’s topic page publishing solution identifies and publishes thousands of user-friendly and SEO-friendly topic pages for easy navigation across Univision’s content collection.

“Given the footprint of Univision’s digital properties, we needed to identify a solution that could scale to our requirements while being easy to build, launch, and maintain,” said Kevin Conroy, president, Digital & Enterprise Development, Univision Communications Inc. “RAMP allows our Univision content to be easy to find and discover while helping us deliver on our ROI.”

RAMP’s MediaCloud platform continuously ingests all of Univision’s content and creates rich metadata, including time-coded transcripts and tags for video content, and automated tagging and indexing of text and image content. This indexed content is then deployed across all of Univision’s online properties using RAMP’s template search results pages, which also include searches for specialty Univision content types such as recipes and featured keywords.

“RAMP’s Universal Search solution is unmatched in the market in terms of delivering a comprehensive search experience for major media companies like Univision,” said Tom Wilde, CEO, RAMP. “The ability to present the right content to the right user is a critical component of maximizing the value of premium content across a network of sites.”

About RAMP

RAMP has developed the next generation of search & video experiences to make video more valuable. Using RAMP, clients are able to fully leverage the value of all of their video content by driving increased discovery across search and social sites, enhancing user engagement through dynamic search and publishing solutions, and maximizing revenue through sophisticated advertising capabilities.

Leading media companies and enterprises using RAMP include Thomson Reuters, FOXNews, ABCNews, NBC, Dow Jones, Meredith, Citibank, and others. For more information visit RAMP.com, or contact us at info@RAMP.com.

Ad-Receptivity Ratings on Par with Primetime Television

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released “45 Million Reasons and Counting to Check Out the NewFronts,” an in-depth research study focused on the growing reach and impact of digital video – revealing that original professional online video (OPOV) captures the attention of 45 million U.S. viewers per month.

 

“It is very exciting to have the opportunity to benchmark viewing levels to original professionally produced online video as the ad marketplace is evolving”

“Consumers are rapidly turning to digital video for entertainment, news and information, and advertiser demand to reach this growing audience is expanding in kind,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “The wealth of original professional digital programming being presented at the Digital Content NewFronts is evidence of the public’s hunger for new, compelling content available online. It is a watershed moment. And, this study provides valuable insights that can help marketers take advantage of this momentum, and effectively tap into the evolution of the digital video platform as a central hub for must-watch original programming.”

The study was conducted in partnership with GfK and surveyed over 2400 people, representing the U.S. adult population, in order to identify and question over 1000 avid video viewers that screen programming across various platforms. The results clearly demonstrate that original professional online video programming is hitting strong benchmarks when compared to traditional television. Receptivity to marketing messages during OPOV was directly in line with consumer ad receptiveness while watching primetime television programming on a regular TV set. Plus, those surveyed who view both primetime TV and OPOV cited viewing new, unique content and flexible screening times as preferable aspects of OPOV over primetime television viewing.

“It is very exciting to have the opportunity to benchmark viewing levels to original professionally produced online video as the ad marketplace is evolving,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics and Measurement, IAB. “It is particularly telling that this kind of programming is attracting a large following – 45 million already – while also bringing viewing experiences and ad receptivity that compare favorably with regular TV.”

The demos also speak to the appeal of original professional online programming, with younger adults 18-34 (31%) and males (24%) exhibiting markedly higher OPOV monthly viewing levels.

When it comes to which digital device consumers use to watch this type of video, laptops (used by 50% of monthly OPOV viewers) were far and away the favorite pick, followed by:

• Desktop computers (39%)
• Internet connected TVs (27%)
• Smartphones (26%)
• Tablets (23%)

No matter which device consumers choose for streaming purposes, the majority (89%) of OPOV viewing happens at home. The same goes for the viewing of user-generated content (UGC) and traditional TV programming online (88% vs. 93%).

Looking at how social media channels are leveraged during viewing, the research finds that OPOV and UGC viewers (41% vs. 56%) tend to integrate social media much more within their online video experiences in comparison to those watching TV online (35%).

To download the entire “45 Million Reasons and Counting to Check Out the NewFronts” study, go to: www.iab.net/DigitalVideo45

Methodology

For this study, GfK screened 2,425 people from the general U.S. population, age 18+, as monthly+ viewers of online video and “ever” users of “TV online,” “UGC” or “original professional online video” (OPOV). Full surveys were ultimately completed with 1,005 monthly+ viewers including: TV online – 705 ever users/495 monthly+ users; UGC – 913 ever users/724 monthly+ users; and OPOV – 727 ever users/441 monthly+ users. The study was conducted March 19 – 24, 2013, via a 23-minute online survey using GfK KnowledgePanel®. KnowledgePanel is the only online research panel recruited using an address-based probability sample, offering higher quality and more reliable results than volunteer, opt-in samples.

About GfK

GfK is one of the world’s largest research companies, with more than 12,000 experts working to discover new insights into the way people live, think and shop, in over 100 markets, every day. GfK is constantly innovating and using the latest technologies and the smartest methodologies to give its clients the clearest understanding of the most important people in the world: their customers. In 2012, GfK’s sales amounted to EUR 1.51 billion. To find out more, visit www.gfk.com/us or follow GfK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GfK_en.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

Revenues, Renewals and New Clients All Indicate an Accelerated Momentum

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Ace Metrix®, the new standard in television and video analytics, announced achieving another record breaking quarter, both in terms of new clients and in overall revenue. The Company experienced a 59% increase in bookings year over year, maintains a better than 90% renewal rate, and added the largest number of new clients in a single period in the Company’s history. New clients this quarter include influential advertisers in the automotive, beverages, quick serve restaurants, technology, telecommunications, travel services, and website categories.

“We continue to invest in our technology, scale operations, and expand our digital product based on client demand – yet we’ve also improved our gross margins and cash position, making forward progress toward another breakout year.”

“Q1 was one of the strongest quarters we’ve ever seen in terms of revenue growth and renewals – second only to Q4 of last year,” said Scott Travis, Chief Revenue Officer for Ace Metrix. “We have also added more new clients this quarter than in any prior quarter – adding to the already impressive roster of advertisers and agencies.”

“More and more, advertisers are finding the speed with which we deliver comprehensive and competitive data crucial to driving ROI of their campaigns,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix. “We continue to invest in our technology, scale operations, and expand our digital product based on client demand – yet we’ve also improved our gross margins and cash position, making forward progress toward another breakout year.”

Ace Metrix boasts the world’s largest database of television and video advertisement metrics, closing in on 30,000 ads, each scored by a unique, large sample of consumers balanced against the US census. The database represents more than 900 brands across 85 categories.

About Ace Metrix

Ace Metrix® is the new standard in television and video analytics, dedicated to delivering better, faster, and more cost-effective solutions for evaluating video advertising within competitive context. Through the Ace Metrix LIVE™ platform, companies can now access timely, actionable data wherever, whenever they need to, enabling real-time advertising campaign optimization. Combining leading edge technology and patent pending methodology, Ace Metrix is revolutionizing the way marketers measure themselves and their competitive landscape. The Company is privately held and is backed by leading venture capital firms and industry leaders including Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Palomar Ventures, Leapfrog Ventures, and WPP.

Follow Ace Metrix on Twitter for sustained insight: @Ace_Metrix.

Drives Double-Digit Revenue Growth and Increased Impressions by 725%, Recognized as Colorado Company to Watch and Denver Post’s Top Places to Work

DENVER - SpotXchange, Inc., the largest global marketplace of digital video ad inventory, announced an exceptional 2012 for the company as it delivered record-breaking revenue and ad impression growth. SpotXchange’s success and revenue growth of 69 percent in 2012 was due in part to the company’s leadership in programmatic selling of online video advertising, expanded strategic partnerships and international growth. As the advertising marketplace evolves and advances due to greater innovation like programmatic buying and selling of digital video, SpotXchange is primed for continued rapid growth on the heels of a very successful 2012. In fact, already in 2013, SpotXchange has been recognized as a Colorado Company to Watch, and was listed by the Denver Post as one of the top places to work for the second year in a row.

“Programmatic video advertising was a huge growth area for us in 2012, and we’ve set the bar even higher for 2013 with the launch of our industry-first programmatic selling tools, which provide tremendous new capabilities for our publishers and push the boundaries of innovative ad buying.”

The success of SpotXchange’s digital video advertising marketplace comes at a time when the online video market is undergoing tremendous growth, as advertisers and brands increasingly supplement their TV ad campaigns. According to a new study*, as online video has grown, real-time bidding (RTB) inventory and revenue have grown faster than the overall video market as a buying mechanism for acquiring inventory. RTB will account for 24.7 percent of all U.S. online video spending, eclipsing the $1 billion threshold by 2014.

“Our strong growth is partially due to the fact that our partners report that SpotXchange is consistently one of the top inventory sources for programmatically-enabled, brand-safe in-stream video,” said Mike Shehan, CEO of SpotXchange. “Programmatic video advertising was a huge growth area for us in 2012, and we’ve set the bar even higher for 2013 with the launch of our industry-first programmatic selling tools, which provide tremendous new capabilities for our publishers and push the boundaries of innovative ad buying.”

Expanded Ecosystem of Partners Fuel Record Growth

SpotXchange expanded strategic partnerships with partners including AdoTube, DataXu, MaxPoint, SundaySky, TubeMogul, Turn and Videology during 2012, and struck a record number of new partnerships, including AcuityAds, Brand.net, Brandscreen, Digilant, Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager and Struq. In addition to SpotXchange’s record-breaking overall revenue growth, the company’s RTB platform saw 10 times the revenue over the past year. Also, the company doubled the number of auctions in its exchange since 2012, with over 400 million auctions per day. Furthermore, comparing year over year growth, the company generated 4 times the number of bid requests to its RTB demand partners (more than 50 billion per month).

“Brands are shifting their digital video budgets to programmatic platforms and we partner closely with SpotXchange to enable this revolution in media buying,” said Brett Wilson, CEO and Co-Founder of TubeMogul. “SpotXchange is a technology innovator and the capabilities they bring to market provide direct benefits to our brand clients.”

“Turn works with the best inventory partners: for the right audience, the right scale, in the right place, to deliver value for marketers,” said Maureen Little, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Turn. “SpotXchange is a valued partner providing our advertisers with real-time access to the programmatic online video marketplace.”

International Growth and Expansion

SpotXchange established its first overseas operations in mid-2011 opening subsidiaries in Australia and the UK. In December 2012, the company expanded its European expertise with the appointment of Sophie Davidas as Director, Business Development in France. SpotXchange believes overseas markets represent a significant growth opportunity as campaigns targeted outside of the US represented 19% of 2012 revenue.

Product and Industry Advancements

SpotXchange continued to deliver key innovation across its product portfolio while educating and expanding the industry around insights like RTB and programmatic buying and selling, including:

• Forrester RTB Research: Second annual Forrester study that found that RTB in online video advertising is growing at a 57% CAGR, and total RTB spend will reach $1.14 billion in 2014. To download the study, visit SpotXchange.
• Industry-First Programmatic Selling Tools: SpotXchange’s new suite of publisher tools provides more transparency than ever, and enables publishers to make real-time, automated pricing decisions on an impression-by-impression basis. For the first time in video, publishers have insight into who their buyers are, what segments of their inventory are most in demand, and the tools to make selling decisions based on those insights.
• First Call Service: Allows online publishers like IDG TechNetwork and Tetris Online to capitalize on demand for premium video advertising inventory by brand advertisers via an exchange in a safe and transparent environment. The number of “First Calls” from publishers to the SpotXchange marketplace has increased 131% over the past year.
• RTB Insights: First to provide auto- versus user-initiated video advertising information to real-time bidding buyers and better insights into bidding activity for RTB partners.
• Digital Video Survival Guide: Provides advertisers and publishers with best practices, insights and tips to navigate through the cluttered digital video landscape and maximize their investment in online video.
• Private Marketplace: In February, SpotXchange hired Dana Caputo of Conde Nast as Director of Private Marketplace Services, a role in which she will help build invite-only private marketplaces for video publishers to leverage programmatic selling and maintain 100% control over their inventory.
• SkipIt: New online video ad-skipping technology for consumers balances control/flexibility levers between publishers, advertisers and consumers, helping to reduce high-abandonment rates. Nearly 5 billion invites to skip video ads have been sent to tens of thousands of SkipIt members over the past year.

Corporate Social Responsibility Drives Top Places to Work in Denver for Two Consecutive Years, and Colorado Company to Watch in 2013

SpotXchange made advancements in corporate culture and responsibility and added new benefits for employees. The Denver Post, for two consecutive years, has identified the company as one of the metro area’s top workplaces in their annual survey of best places to work. The Denver Post’s second annual Top Workplaces section highlights the Denver area’s top companies as ranked by their employees.

SpotXchange was also awarded the Colorado Companies to Watch Award in Q2 of this year. The Colorado Companies to Watch award energizes the state of Colorado by recognizing second-stage companies that are developing valuable products and services, creating quality jobs, enriching communities, and creating new industries throughout the state.

Additionally, the company announced the availability of unlimited paid-time off (PTO) for employees, mandating a positive work-life balance for its team members. Along with Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, SpotXchange was selected as a Pacesetter organization for the National Center for Women & Information Technology, a fast-track program in which senior executives from startups, corporations, universities, and government commit to increasing their numbers of women in technology.

* Forrester Consulting, “RTB Powers the Rapid Growth of Online Video” (April 8, 2013)

For more information on SpotXchange please visit: http://www.spotxchange.com/.

About SpotXchange

With more than 400 million auctions per day, SpotXchange is the largest global marketplace of video ad inventory reaching 120 million unique visitors in more than 50 countries each month. The leading platform for programmatic buying and selling of digital video, SpotXchange connects thousands of publishers with advertisers, agencies, trading desks and ad networks, running top brand campaigns through its IAB-certified marketplace. SpotXchange shows premium publishers and more than 1,000 world class advertisers that there is a better way to buy and sell digital video — with solutions that guarantee total transparency, brand safety and real-time control in either a private or public marketplace.

Company’s Demand Partners Can Reach Unduplicated Video Viewing Audience

AUSTIN, Texas - Q1Media, Inc. reported that it has launched its AdExcite Video Exchange to provide critically-needed new online video ad inventory for the marketplace. Q1Media, a leading technology provider of programmatic advertising solutions, worked with LiveRail to create its private exchange with significant reach into a segment of the online audience not previously reachable via video advertising.

“We’re providing a greenfield source of inventory in brand safe environments and reaching an audience that hasn’t been hit with 20 video ads already”

“Private exchanges like ours are now delivering the massive reach that major advertisers need. Demand partners trust the AdExcite Video Exchange because we can guarantee them 100% viewable, high quality video ad inventory at massive scale,” stated Phil Banfield, CEO, Q1Media. The company currently reaches over 100 million unique video ad viewers a month according to comScore.

The AdExcite Video Exchange allows advertisers to target video ads to a large audience beyond standard sites like YouTube and Hulu. “We’re providing a greenfield source of inventory in brand safe environments and reaching an audience that hasn’t been hit with 20 video ads already,” said Banfield.

Q1Media worked with LiveRail to create a custom interface to their publisher monetization platform. The customizations allow publishers to run Q1Media’s innovative vSlider video ad unit as well as standard pre-roll ads. “We’re thrilled to be working with Q1 Media to help bring their private exchange to market. As the video dollars being transacted programmatically continue to grow, the need for that demand to be matched with high quality video placements has never been greater. The AdExcite Video Exchange does just that,” stated Mark Trefgarne, CEO and Co-Founder of LiveRail.

About Q1Media

Q1Media, Inc. is a digital advertising and technology company formed by the 2013 merger of Q1Media, a market leader in delivering online display advertising with a reach of over 150 million monthly unique visitors, and AdExcite, a comScore top 10 video advertising platform. Q1Media, Inc. serves ad agencies, agency trading desks, major brands and web publishers with a proven technology platform that brings efficiency and value to the programmatic buying and selling of display, video and mobile device advertising. For sales inquiries, visit www.q1media.com or www.adexcite.com.

Study Commissioned by SpotXchange Reveals Real-Time Bidding Will Account for Nearly 25 Percent of US Online Video Advertising Spending in 2014

DENVER – According to a commissioned study*conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SpotXchange, the largest global marketplace of digital video ad inventory, real-time bidding (RTB) in online video advertising will account for 24.7 percent of all U.S. online video spending by 2014. In the study “RTB Powers The Rapid Growth of Online Video,” Forrester found that over the past year, RTB has been the fastest growing segment of the online video advertising market, growing more than 100% from 2011 to 2012, and forecast to grow more than 70% in 2013.

“RTB Powers The Rapid Growth of Online Video”

Forecasted 57% CAGR Over 3 years Helps Eclipse Billion Dollar Threshold in 2014

Using Forrester’s Online Video Forecast, 2012-2017, and from interviews with online video buyers, sellers and technology providers, the research firm determined that U.S. online video RTB spending has and will continue to dramatically increase. In 2012, U.S. online video RTB spending accounted for $402 million, exceeding last year’s estimate of growth. For 2013, Forrester predicts RTB spending will increase to $686 million and by 2014, RTB spending will increase to $1.14 billion – which represents a 284% increase since 2012.

Additional Findings – Definitions and Publisher Intent

The growth in online video advertising inventory practically mandates an automated solution and the definition of RTB continues to evolve from a bidding platform to a programmatic tool for the automated buying and selling of online video advertising. RTB platforms will morph from bidding engines into real-time buying engines that base their decisioning on data and analytics such as audience targeting. Other key findings from the study include:

- Online video is supplementing TV ad campaigns. While advertisers have begun to move a small percentage of TV budget to online video, those dollars represent a major influx of revenue into this green-field medium. As buyers learn how to fill in the gaps of campaigns, they will use RTB to maximize reach, frequency, or sales-lift gaps midflight.

- Programmatic buying mechanisms will continue to grow but diversify. As the online video vocabulary crystallizes and more parties understand programmatic buying, its adoption will be significant as a replacement to manual insertions.

- The marketplace will cleave along three fault lines: private vs. public; fixed-price vs. bidded; and premium vs. run of network.

- As the use of the platform shifts to buying impressions and placing ads using different pricing mechanisms, premium publishers’ interest in the automated aspects of the sale will become more enticing.

- Those premium publishers that have tested automated platforms are doing so primarily in private marketplaces, where they are able to test the impact on pricing, fill rate, and targeting on a limited and controlled basis.

“I believe that this study validates the vision we saw years ago on the promise of online video through the eyes of RTB and programmatic,” said Michael Shehan, president and CEO of SpotXchange. “Buyers have recognized the inherent value and transparency that RTB and programmatic provides, but we’re bullish on making sure publishers realize the power of automation through private marketplaces and new tools that will put them on an even playing field with demand side platforms and agency trading desks. We are excited to lead this charge for publishers and remain committed to aiding in the continued growth of this market.”

*To download the full study, RTB Powers the Rapid Growth of Online Video, please visit www.spotxchange.com.

About SpotXchange

With more than 400 million auctions per day, SpotXchange is the largest global marketplace of video ad inventory reaching 120 million unique visitors in more than 50 countries each month. The leading platform for programmatic buying and selling of digital video, SpotXchange connects thousands of publishers with advertisers, agencies, trading desks and ad networks, running top brand campaigns through its IAB-certified marketplace. SpotXchange shows premium publishers and more than 1,000 world class advertisers that there is a better way to buy and sell digital video — with solutions that guarantee total transparency, brand safety and real-time control in either a private or public marketplace.