Latest developments in online video advertising

Frost & Sullivan predicts that video will outperform all other major online advertising segments over the next four years. In Australia alone, the research firm forecasts that expenditures on online video advertising will increase from US$35 million in 2010 to US$180 million in 2015. Meanwhile, Tony Chen, managing director of GroupM’s China Interaction, has described online video advertising as the “low-hanging fruit” for 2012.

Through investments and partnerships, video platform providers are bringing new capabilities to the marketplace. Here are some of the latest:

Ability to choose auto or user initiated video ads via RTB

Spotxchange has launched a real-time-bidding supply source that offers its partners initiation type (auto-initiated versus user-initiated) information for video ad inventory in real time with every bid request.

While advertisers are usually willing to pay a premium for user-initiated video spots, as they draws higher user engagement, historically these placements have been bundled together with auto-initiated videos in brokered deals by ad networks and sold at a flat CPM. Spotxchange aims to allow its partners to value each placement opportunity independently.

“By providing the initiation type along with site data, Spotxchange enables advertisers to make more efficient buying decisions for each individual campaign,” said Adrian Tompsett, vice-president of business development at Dataxu, a Spotxchange RTB partner.

“Brand safety” by matching ads with viewers and content

Video advertising network Vena has secured an exclusive Asia-Pacific license with video analytics firm Videohub. The deal, which starts on 1 March, allows the ad network and its advertisers to dynamically match ads with content and viewers—the idea being to prevent advertising content from appearing on unsuitable or unsavoury websites. The new offering, according to James Zipeure, Vena’s chief operating officer, takes the guesswork out of the equation.

“The VideoHub technology gives our clients security for their campaigns by scanning not only the web content on the page, but also the video content to determine if the content is suitable for the campaign," he said. "If the match is not right, the sites are eliminated from selection. We can now give clients the confidence that all placements are now 100 per cent brand safe for their products.”

Southeast Asian video ad network

Tapping into the region’s growing online audience, Southeast Asian-based ad network Innity has launched its own video ad network, Enroll. According to Comscore, in Malaysia and Singapore (the only two Southeast Asia markets it monitors) online video has a reach of mor than 82 per cent, and the two nations have some of the highest engagement rates in Asia-Pacific.

The new video network offers five video ad formats, encompassing both pre-roll and mid-stream units, running on cost per view and cost per engagement. The units can be integrated with social sharing, information, and store-location features.

The video ad network, launched late last year, has a client list that includes Samsung, Oreo, and Sime Darby. The network’s video publishers include RazorTV, Tonton, Sinchew, Viva News, and Kompas.