Maven Networks isn’t exactly recreating online video advertising, but the Internet TV Advertising Platform it launched last week offers a number of innovations that will open some new doors for the publishers who use it.
The five-year-old company, which launched a media player in March, started focusing on video advertising, “so our customers could monetize video on their own sites,” said Maven’s VP of marketing Kristen Fergason.
The new platform offers three features that will help publishers and advertisers run effective video campaigns–a variety of new ad formats; an insertion engine that will enable ads to be placed in the best position in the videos; and a series of inventory management and prediction tools.
The new formats include versions of overlays, videos and sponsored skins that aren’t unique to Maven but offer some novel features, such as an interactive fulfillment panel that plays at the end of a video that enables the user to play an additional video or request information, such as the address of a local dealer or a brochure that will be sent by e-mail. After users go to a video ad from an overlay, they can be offered additional videos, which appear in a separate box on the right side of the media player.
The new insertion engine is based on a variety of metrics that enable publishers to play ads at different times while the video plays. Everything from the user session time to the video clip length to the average view time and the popularity of the video clip are factored in to provide a “cue point insertion,” which is the best time to insert an ad while the video plays.
The cue point insertion tool is part of the inventory management system that will govern the frequency and type of ads that are played with the videos.
The ability to play an ad at different times during the video creates a wealth of new inventory, as much as three times more, Fergason said. “When the user is playing a video, 15 seconds in you have an opportunity to play an ad, it’s a second ad in a stream. Those placements didn’t exist before, so it offers a new opportunity with a higher CPM.”
Maven has been testing the new ad platform with publishers in closed trials. This week, it will test it with consumers who will be asked to comment on the new ad formats. The results of the tests will be published in November, Fergason said.
The company has also created a forum of publishers, agencies and tech providers who will collaborate on developing the platform. The publishers are Financial Times, TV Guide, Fox News, Scripps and 4 Kids Entertainment; the agencies are Ogilvy and Digitas; the tech providers are DoubleClick and Atlas.
The goal of the platform is to help Maven’s publishing partners upgrade their video advertising. “We want the publishers to use the new forms of advertising,” Fergason said. “The industry is so stagnant. We want to help people kick it into gear. There hasn’t been much innovation during the last five years, but we hope to increase video advertising inventory and revenue.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More