NEW YORK, NY (July 29, 2008)—To meet the need for standardization in the expanding digital video landscape, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today announced the release of a “Digital Video Ad Serving Template” (VAST), designed to standardize communication protocol between video players and servers.

VAST will allow companies to build digital video players and video ad servers that have the same interfaces and speak the same standard language. Publishers who use the standard will be able to plug into multiple third-party digital video ad servers and networks without additional development and therefore enable a powerful tool for improving yield.

This document:

- Defines a standard ad response for in-stream video
- Provides specifications that are compatible with any video player framework
- Includes guidance for most on-demand video players (i.e., Adobe’s Flash, Microsoft’s Windows Media Player and Real Player)
- Includes accommodations for linear video and interactive ads (e.g.“pre-roll”) as well as non-linear ads such as clickable overlays as described in the IAB Digital Ad Format Guidelines

“Digital video is one of the most exciting platforms to emerge within the interactive advertising ecosystem,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “VAST is a critical industry accomplishment because it lays out a much-needed mechanism for standardization in one of the hottest areas of interactive advertising.”

“VAST allows for standardized communication between ad servers and players which is essential as more and more marketers embrace digital video as a key element of their interactive media plans and publishers wish to maximize yield on their video inventory,” said Ari Paparo, Group Product Manager, Advertiser Products of Google.

The public comment period will last until September 10, 2008. The feedback will then be reviewed and the document will be finalized and publicly released.

To review the complete document, please go to: http://www.iab.net/vast

About the IAB’s Digital Video Committee:
The Digital Video Committee of the IAB is comprised of over 145 member companies actively engaged in the creation and execution of digital video advertising. One of the goals of the committee is to implement a comprehensive set of guidelines, measurement, and creative options for interactive video advertising. The committee works to educate marketers and agencies on the strength of digital video as a marketing vehicle. A full list of Committee member companies can be found at: http://www.iab.net/member_center/35088?iabid=a0330000000s0p4AAA

About the IAB:
Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net) represents over 375 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising. IAB members are responsible for selling over 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the continuing 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 evaluates and recommends standards and practices, fields interactive effectiveness research, and educates marketers, agencies, and media companies, as well as the wider business community, about the value of interactive advertising.

We’ll be having a press conference at our Dublin offices later today (noon GMT) that may or may not be followed by a party – keep your ears open if you’re around, cause we do know how to party!

If you’re an artist or a music fan, here’s what MUZU.TV has for you: an extensive library of music related video content, as MUZU has signed a deal with major record label Sony BMG and also over 200 international labels which include Defected Records, Cherry Red Records, and Eagle Rock to name a few. MUZU TV protects the rights of music on the site and generates income by a shared advertising revenue with the music content owners including unsigned artists.

MUZU TV Features:

FAN TV – With a profile on MUZU.TV, a fan has the ability to upload videos onto the artists page. These videos can be from live performances, TV footage, or personal footage with the band or of songs from the band / artist.

CHANNELS – You can create channels in your personal profile of your favorite songs and videos and add them to your player. You can create as many channels as you want to be featured on your profile.

EMBED PLAYER – The player that is featured on each profile can be embedded into an artist or a fans personal website by using the embedding code from the player. Any changes that a person makes to the player within their MUZU.TV player – those changes will update on the player where it has been embedded.

I know, you’re on a blog about online advertising, so chances are you’d want to know how MUZU.TV is monetized: we’re mostly relying on direct sales and employing Google AdSense to cover the remnant inventory. In parallel, we’re working at the moment on a number of deals with video and rich media ad networks in order to make the most of our rapidly expanding video inventory.

The ad serving platform we’re using is DoubleClick DFP, and we’re also employing Fivia’s excellent AdFront solution for smooth integration of the ad operations with Sales and Finance.

Advertising opportunities on MUZU.TV

- TV Player and Channel: to showcase brand-owned music video content and a selection of artist’s content from within the MUZU TV site
- Embed your Music TV player into brand’s site with a selection of content from MUZU TV and brand’s own content
- Interactive Video Product Placement: Interactively authored objects within video, with clickable product that pauses content, and allows the user to get info & / or purchase. Agreement with Artist / label required
- In Stream Video ad formats: Interstitial sting, Rich media Ticker, Expandable Ticker, post roll video / clickable sting
- Standard Rich Media formats: Button, MPU, Skyscraper, Leaderboard, Supersizes, Expandable, Overlay, Roadblock, Advanced video, Transitional
- Integrated Co-branded competitions for User / Artist Generated Content: incentives to specific users to contribute to a brand’s Channel
- Branded Live Streams: from branded events or the MUZU TV studio
- Sponsored Content: (On a select basis)
- Campaign targeting to specific User’s demographics, Genres, Artists, Festivals, Venues and more…

If you are a member of the press and would like to get in touch with us, please email Debra Johnson at Taylor Herring PR: debra.johnson@taylorherring.com

If you would like to discuss about advertising opportunities, please contact advertising@muzu.tv or call us at + 353 1 487 7740.

For any other enquiries, shoot us an email at info@muzu.tv and one of us will get back to you right away!

P.S. I’ve just noticed this is my 100th blog post! One more reason to celebrate today