Videology Brings In-Video Contextual Targeting to Europe
Video ad platform Videology has introduced its contextual video targeting product into Europe, following roll-out in the U.S last month.
Videology's partnership with TriVu Media allows brands to identify and place ads within specific video content using real-time bidding (RTB) technology. Videology will use TriVu’s TVm Index data to bolster its Xtract Video product suite.
The first European customer for the technology is VivaKi, whose managing director of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa describes the platform as "genuinely game-changing."
Speaking to StreamingMedia.com, Rhys McLachlan (right), head of global TV strategies at Videology explains, “Xtract is effective at understanding the frame environment in which we place client ad messages. Videology is not unique in that. Increasingly, contextual targeting is a requisite for a lot of businesses. With TriVu we go a step beyond the URL by being able to read, analyse, and decision against the tags that are distributed with the actual video inventory that runs in those URLs.”
McLachlan gives examples, such as a client preferencing ads on a sports page but not wanting copy to be placed against stories reporting soccer players fighting on the pitch. He suggests brands are reluctant at the moment to advertise around current affairs video “because they don't want to associate with negative news stories”, but that Videology's solution would be able to open up this category “mindful of the editorial content into which we are placing ads and mindful of brand guidelines.”
“If we get a brief that a client is interested in video moments where goals are scored, then 'Goals' would be one of the tags that TriVu can pass us and gives us in turn the opportunity and scale of targeting just those points,” McLachlan explains. “We can use TriVu as a filter to define loads of segments and to positively target in-video.
“A number of premium advertisers may want to advertise to children, or conversely may want to legitimately avoid children. We can flip the switch either way. It's about providing this confidence to advertisers.”
McLachlan says the technology has been road tested in ad exchanges where allocation decisions are made in nanoseconds. “This is not about making a decision based on reaching a certain audience for a price, but about being mindful of other data which considers whether the content is editorially appropriate for that brand.”
Videology's partnership with TriVu Media is a step toward connecting the dots for advertisers across screens. For Europe, this means Videology is able to offer local language capabilities and provide contextual targeting to broadcasters looking to shift TV advertising budgets to online video with as much control as possible.
“By way of comparison, if the TV station is the URL in which TV buyers allocate spots to the schedule based on brand guidelines, then the allocation of particular breaks within a programme is the TriVu piece,” McLachlan says.
“We're starting to see a significant shift in the migration of TV money into online video and in order for us to perpetuate that shift we need to provide tools that appeal to the TV buyer.
“To do that we have to understand that media traders in TV have a different mindset to someone responsible for a RTB strategy. TV buyers are investing client spend in key performance indicator's related to building brand strategy or delivering great recall among other criteria, whereas RTB is more about measuring the attributes of an action," McLachlan says. "Our product gives TV buyers the confidence to trade across screens by coming closer to replicating TV trading with video trading.”
“It's also a numbers game,” McLachlan adds. “In online video we are talking huge volumes. Even the smartest TV buyer doesn't have the capacity to analyse every single URL and every placement, not when there are north of a billion impressions every quarter. In a world where everything is automatic and programmatic, our product provides the TV buyer with the security to sit in front of their client and say with confidence that 'we are investing in online video because your consumers are there.'”
For VivaKi, Videology's flagship European client, executive managing director Marco Bertozzi stated, “While we have already made great advances in contextual segmentation of our inventory through relationships with our publisher portfolio, TriVu allows us to determine editorial and page level attributes, and therefore suitability for clients. It is genuinely game-changing and we’re looking forward to pioneering the implementation of this tool with AOD (audience-on-demand) clients across our European markets.”?
Videology is expanding into Europe on the back of a $60 million funding round completed in May and led by Catalyst Investors with NEA, Valhalla Partners, Comcast Ventures, and Pinnacle Ventures. The company says that almost half of its business is generated outside the U.S. It recently launched operations in Spain, Portugal, and Italy and is expanding into new markets including Benelux, Turkey, Russia, Germany, and Eastern Europe. ?
TriVu Media, founded in 2012, says it aims to double the size of the video ad market within two years, by providing TV-style content transparency to connected TVs, computers, and mobile devices. Its TVm index provides data including type and size of player, required viewer engagement (click-to-play or auto-play), ad clutter (number of calls/related ads within video), and actual video content.
"Content visibility has been the missing link in digital video for brand advertisers interested in extending their TV campaigns across platforms," stated CEO Paul Calento. "Integrating TVm within the Videology solution [means] advertisers can determine the scenarios that will work best for their advertising message based on actual video content, and not just site lists.”
Related Articles
By analyzing AddThis's vast behavioral database, Videology can deliver bespoke audience groups for advertisers at scale.
03 Dec 2013