“We’re very proud of the numbers comScore reported for SpotXchange,” said SpotXchange CEO Michael Shehan. “Joining comScore was an important first step in raising our profile in the media buying community. While we don’t believe our network is fully represented in the comScore numbers since we are just at the very beginning stages of working with them, this is still an especially proud moment for SpotXchange, as the Company has proven that superior technology, unwavering focus on our mission and a strong value proposition trump heavily financed competitors any day of the week.”

SpotXchange is a performance-based video ad network that operates an exchange-based marketplace where buyers and sellers of video ad inventory come together in a real-time environment. SpotXchange has never raised institutional funding, having supported itself through significant investment from its sister company, Booyah Networks, and a small round of angel funding from notable industry titans like Alex Bogusky co-Chairman of Crispin, Porter & Bogusky. SpotXchange enables advertisers to target video ad inventory using a variety of enhanced targeting technologies, and is the only video ad network to offer both retargeting and behavioral targeting technologies.

“I’m not surprised by SpotXchange’s success and growth,” says Alex Bogusky, co-Chairman of CP+B. “When you combine the best qualities of TV advertising with the most advanced interactive targeting methods and an efficient and accountable platform, you’ve suddenly made every marketer’s dream come true.”

About SpotXchange

SpotXchange is a performance-based video ad network that guarantees our advertisers generate a return on their video advertising investment. Combining the power of video with advanced targeting technologies and an efficient exchange-based marketplace, SpotXchange enables advertisers to achieve their campaign goals regardless of the metric – more sales, registrations, phone calls, web site visitors, interactions, brand lift, purchase intent, brand awareness, in-store visits, etc. The SpotXchange patent-pending online video advertising platform received the 2007 & 2008 Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award for Best Video Ad Platform. The company was spun off from Colorado-based digital marketing and technology company, Booyah Networks in March 2007. Booyah Networks ranked 23rd on the 2006 Inc. 500. SpotXchange clients and partners include Reckitt, TVU, Mochi, RealGames, and Razorfish to name a few.

###

Contact:

Erica Harte

303-345-6609

eharte@spotxchange.com

ComScore monitored the online behavior of 200,000 members of its consumer panel, all of whom belong to supermarket loyalty programs, to determine how online marketing affected their purchasing.

Read the rest of the article here:  http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=31550

Small Businesses Finding Great Success With Online Video Ads Using SpotMixer’s Upgraded Online Video Advertising Service

SpotMixer 2.0 Loads New Features Into Its Industry-Leading Video Creation and Distribution Technology, Offers 30-Day Free Trial

SpotMixer

REDWOOD CITY, CA–(Marketwire – August 4, 2009) – Despite the challenging economic times, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across the country are quickly discovering that video ads are helping them target and win new customers more cost-effectively online. SpotMixer (www.spotmixer.com), an industry-leading online video and TV ad creation and advertising service, has added new features and functionality with its recent 2.0 release, providing businesses an even more comprehensive and affordable end-to-end DIY video advertising solution. As a result, SMBs across the country are reaping the benefits of video advertising — online and on television.

With this release, SpotMixer is making it even easier for advertisers to create high-performing video ads. Among other new features, the ad campaign management component of the service gives businesses the ability to target their customers by location, gender, income level and age. With these upgrades, SpotMixer reinforces its already-strong reputation as a leader in building ease of use into a powerful online service that helps businesses manage the entire cycle of online video ad campaigns — from ad creation and distribution to reporting of results.

SpotMixer recently partnered with SpotXchange, a leading video ad network, expanding its already robust video ad distribution network of thousands of websites where SpotMixer customers can place targeted video ads across all types of demographics.

Now, with a 30-day free trial, SpotMixer allows businesses to test-drive the basic features of SpotMixer’s video services, including adding a video to their website and having a hosted company video web page that features their video, a Google Map and/or Yelp reviews.

Businesses that have recently tried video ads are impressed with how effective video ads can be at generating quality traffic — just the right target customers — to their website. L.A. Minerals, an online cosmetics company, explored how to create video ads online and chose SpotMixer as its solution. Said Lorraine Pierce, CEO of L.A. Minerals: “We’ve noticed a traffic increase of about 50% since launching online video advertising through SpotMixer. This method provided us with a much better result than just regular TV ads or pay-per-click. I think using online video advertising is an effective strategy for getting your messages across to a specific target market — in our case it was females of a certain age range.”

Other customers accustomed to paying thousands of dollars to produce TV ad spots rave about the cost-effectiveness of SpotMixer’s TV ad creation capabilities. Cotton Blossom Flower Shop in Maricopa, Arizona created a video ad using the SpotMixer solution to advertise on cable TV. “I was intimidated about online video creation, but SpotMixer’s user-friendly software made making a dynamic video ad easy and extremely cost-effective for my small business,” said Cindy Dunn, owner of Cotton Blossom Flower Shop. “The value we got was obvious: we’re able to create video ads whenever we want, without the hassle of buying software or hiring an expensive agency.”

“SpotMixer is thrilled that businesses are seeing great results from our new and improved service,” said Kathleen Farley, SpotMixer’s vice president of Product Marketing. “Our goal is to make it as easy and affordable as possible for small businesses to successfully reach their target customers and get the most from their online marketing budget.”

About SpotMixer

SpotMixer, a service of One True Media, Inc., is an easy-to-use and innovative video creation and distribution service for small to mid-sized businesses who advertise online and on TV. The first and most respected name in Web-based video creation for consumers, One True Media has leveraged its technology and marketing expertise into SpotMixer to help businesses easily and cost-effectively create videos and advertise with video online and on TV. SpotMixer is a Google AdWords Authorized Reseller for video. Founded in 2005, the company is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures and NTT Finance, and is headquartered in Redwood City, CA. For more information about SpotMixer, please visit www.spotmixer.com.

You might be asking, what is performance-based video advertising?  To us, it means several things.  First and foremost, it means our advertisers should always see a measurable return on their advertising investment.  While that means generating sales and leads for many customers; for many others, it means measuring and optimizing spend against other metrics such as clicks, % of how much of their video ad is viewed, brand awareness, purchase intent, coupon downloads, interactions and the list goes on.

To achieve measurable returns, SpotXchange has always had a focus on empowering advertisers to eliminate as much waste from campaigns as possible, while enabling them to optimize campaigns in real-time as performance data is revealed and analyzed.  SpotXchange offers a number of unique capabilities that enable us and our customers to focus on performance:

• Exchange-based Marketplace – Exchanges are one of the most efficient ways to buy and sell anything.  SpotXchange’s exchange-based marketplace allows publishers to set their asking price, and allows advertisers to easily purchase ultra-targeted inventory at the price that works for them.
• 25/7 Rule – SpotXchange only charges advertisers when 25% of the video or 7 seconds is viewed by the consumer.
• Real-time Optimization – Like sponsored search platforms, SpotXchange tools enable real-time changes to campaigns based on performance metrics.
• Full Client Services Free of Charge & 24/7 Self-Service Tools – SpotXchange will provide a dedicated client services team to manage advertisers’ campaigns at no charge.  Additionally, clients can access their campaigns any time to manage campaigns and check real-time reports through SpotXchange’s self-service advertiser tools.
• Fully Transparent Marketplace – SpotXchange is the only video ad network that allows you to target specific publishers within the marketplace.  Advertisers know exactly where their ads play and how many times their ads played on those publishers when targeting specific publishers.
• Advanced Targeting – Advertisers can also target across the SpotXchange network using a variety of highly advanced targeting technologies including behavioral, retargeting, de-targeting, geo-targeting, contextual, frequency capping, and day parting.
• Frequency Cap Management – Advertisers can set how many times they would like to show their ad to a specific consumer in any given period of time.
• No Ad Serving Fees - SpotXchange will serve advertisers’ video ads and banners for absolutely nothing.
• Third Party Ad Server Compatibility – SpotXchange can also serve video ads from any third party ad platforms such as DoubleClick and Atlas.
• Flexible Terms – CPM, CPC & CPA – A dynamic exchange-based marketplace gives SpotXchange the flexibility to accommodate any business model for advertisers.  Those that perform best will get the most traffic, and those that do not will receive less traffic.
• No Spending Limits – Purchase as much as or as little inventory as you want.  There are no spending minimums on SpotXchange.  Try it out and expand campaigns as they perform.
• No 24 Hour Out Clauses – We actually call it our 24 Second out clause.  Log into the tools, select the campaign, and deactivate the target that is not working for you.
• Direct Integration with All Publishers – SpotXchange is directly integrated with all of our publishers.  We rarely ‘rep’ a campaign.  This means we have control over every aspect of your campaign, which allows us to provide services like real-time optimization.
• Free Video Ad Creation Services - Securing appropriate video ad creative can be challenging for even TV advertisers. As such, SpotXchange will provide free video ad creation services to advertisers. Just send us all of your other creative like logos, banners, scripts, and other creative assets. SpotXchange will create a video ad complete with professional voiceover at no additional cost.
• Proprietary & Patent-Pending Ad Technology – Unlike many display and video ad networks, SpotXchange operates on own proprietary and patent-pending technology. Many ad networks use Atlas, DoubleClick or have a seat on the Right Media Exchange. Not SpotXchange. We own and control all of the technology. This allows us to drive our own product planning based on our customers’ needs. We aren’t dependent upon others to dictate what we can and cannot offer to our advertisers.

Click here to learn more about what it means to advertise on SpotXchange.

SpotXchange publishers benefit from a competitive marketplace as well.  By combining a competitive auction-based marketplace with powerful video ads, advanced targeting and real-time ad calls, publishers can maximize the value of their unsold inventory.  Click here to learn more about the benefits of becoming a SpotXchange publisher.

Over the past two years, we’ve run hundreds of campaigns for large multinational brands, to small local businesses.  In so many instances, our customers told us that SpotXchange performed the best for them.  We’ve sold tens of thousands of pizzas, subscribed thousands of people to satellite TV services, engaged tens of millions of housewives to interact with CPG ads, sent hundreds of thousands of young males to DVD release web sites, and the list goes on.  If you are planning a video ad campaign, no matter how big or small, you should contact a SpotXchange sales rep (sales@spotxchange.com) to see for yourself how your video ad campaigns can really perform.

Mike Shehan, CEO

SpotXchange

Mike’s quote:

But change is inevitable, and it’s fueling the growth of the casual games business. Mike Shehan, founder and CEO of SpotXchange said, “The money is moving in only one direction.” His company auctions video-based advertising on games sites, with, he said, theatricals increasingly keen on online because movies studios wants their ads to be seen by targeted audiences and “nothing targets as effectively as online games”. Portals are becoming ever more effective at knowing who is playing their games, and what sorts of products they like.

To read the full article, click here:  http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/28953/OPINION-Casual-Connects

First of Its Kind Service Facilitates Hyper-Targeting of Ads Using the Easy-to-Deploy Universal Media Delivery Bar.

Targeted Insertion and Delivery Service Turns Internet and Mobile Video From a Cost Center to Profit Center.

Service Introduced at NAB Show 2009 in Las Vegas.

NAB2009

SAUSALITO, Calif. & LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Equilibrium® (www.equilibrium.com/), a software and hosted services company that specializes in helping enterprise clients of all sizes to manage, monetize and mobilize content, today announced the introduction of the EQ Network™, at the National Association of Broadcasters conference. The EQ Network enables content owners to deploy quickly a Media Delivery Bar™ on their site allowing viewers to effortlessly request personalized videos to be prepared and delivered via a breakthrough Ad-Per-View™ Software as a Service (SaaS). For the first time ever, content owners can also quickly personalize video experiences to web, wireless and mobile devices on-the-fly, without any pre-processing.

Equilibrium’s Media Delivery Bar provides Web site video content owners with the tools to hyper-target advertisements to individuals based on voluntary demographic information they supply. The Media Deliver Bar can be installed on any web page that contains video content within minutes, without requiring additional infrastructure costs or changes for the content owner or advertiser.

The Media Delivery Bar is easy to customize and assign to any video, providing either personalized advertising and/or sponsored viewing experiences in four simple steps through any EQ Network enabled site: (1) Viewers first choose the video and device to be delivered to, (2) opt in to share demographic information, (3) the requested video is automatically properly formatted without having to be pre-loaded into the Ad-Per-View system, and then (4) targeted video ads are inserted and delivered to the viewers’ existing Internet video player, wireless or mobile device. Advertising, sponsors and ID’s are also inserted on-the-fly into pre-roll, mid-stream or post-roll positions.

The EQ Network’s scalable Ad-Per-View technology automatically optimizes video content for billions of existing mobile devices, Internet video players and new ones as they become available.

“After seeing the preview of the EQ Network, it looks very promising as a no-hardware-required solution that content owners and advertisers will be able to use to set business rules on a per video basis,” said Stacey Foster, Coordinating Producer, Saturday Night Live. “Also very appealing is that the EQ Network automates the delivery of video content to the web and mobile devices, making it very easy to expand the reach of content while helping to cover costs through targeted advertising opportunities.”

The Internet video advertising sector is currently estimated to reach $850 million this year, according to eMarketer, and to increase by almost 80 percent by 2012.

“Equilibrium allows mobile video advertising to make a quantum leap forward by enabling dynamic video ad insertion,” said Michael Shehan, CEO of SpotXchange, LLC and Booyah Networks, Inc. “Combining SpotXchange’s advanced video ad targeting with the EQ Network and Media Deliver Bar empowers advertisers to reach consumers with the same accountability and accuracy as its online counterpart.”

Ads can be hyper-targeted using key features and services included in the EQ Network:

• Simple to implement, requires no infrastructure change to a Web site or web server
• Automatically transform, customize and assemble personalized programming
• Easily insert IDs, pre-rolls, post-rolls and advertisements where desired
• Dynamically generate and deliver personalized video and advertising experiences anywhere without worrying about file formats and pre-transcoding
• Extend video advertising reach to billions of devices
• Target advertisements and measure results with unprecedented precision

Both content owners and advertisers can gain from the EQ Network. Advertisers can track viewer demographics tied to contact information as well as the basic CPM impressions and easily build, manage and track highly targeted campaigns. Content owners benefit by receiving higher advertising rates with relevant, targeted impressions.

“After many years of intensive research and development, we are pleased to offer the EQ Network to content owners and advertisers to automate the heavy lifting and time consuming content assembly, ad insertion and deployment tasks, while simultaneously insuring that every ad impression is relevant, effective, counted and monetized through the use of our Media Delivery Bar,” said Sean Barger, CEO of Equilibrium.

For more information and for a step-by-step video to see how the EQ Network and Media Delivery Bar work, visit www.eqnetwork.com.

Follow the link below to view full article:
http://xboxpc.com/955538-Online-Games-Find-Success-in-a-Recession.html

With the standards now approved and in place, marketers and agency buyers can include preroll video advertising in their media plans and have accountability just as they would for traditional media. Preroll video advertising can now be evaluated on an apples to apples basis with television on both a national and local level.

When compared to television advertising, all preroll video advertising purchased through SpotXchange will give the buyer much more accountability in the following metrics:
1) how many unique viewers were reached
2) frequency capping for each piece of creative by viewer
3) real time optimization by creative by site based on ad playrate, ctr and conversions
4) re-targeting viewers based on their interaction or lack of interaction with the ad
5) target in-market buyers for auto’s, home goods, consumer electronics and many more product categories.

As a contributing member of the IAB’s DVC, SpotXchange would be happy to review all standards with you and answer any questions you may have. Here are brief descriptions for each of the 4 major standard initiatives and links to the full document.

1) A Digital Video Advertising Overview
This document serves as a high level introduction to the digital video ecosystem and defines in-stream(pre-roll), in-banner and in-text ad units.
http://www.iab.net/media/file/dv-report-v3.pdf

2) Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Best Practices
This document defines the creative sizes and advertising specs that video sites can offer advertisers. These guidelines simplify operational aspects of creating and delivering pre-roll ads.
http://www.iab.net/media/file/IAB-Video-Ad-Format-Standards.pdf

3) Digital Video In-Stream Ad Metrics Definitions
This document defines additional non-currency in-stream metrics such as playrate and completion rate for all sites. This will allow buyers to receive common reporting metrics from multiple media partners that are consistent.
http://www.iab.net/media/file/DV_In-Stream_Metrics_Definitions.pdf

4) Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST)
VAST establishes a standard way for ad servers to respond to video player ad requests. VAST supports linear video ads, non-linear overlay ads, and companion banners, thus matching the formats specification previously released.
http://www.iab.net/media/file/VAST_1_11_FINAL.pdf

Happy New Year to you!

Just how in the world will local online video advertising become a $1.5 billion industry (according to The Kelsey Group’s US Local Video Forecast – 2007 – 2012 Report) in just a few years after only generating $11 million in 2007? Local advertisers are generally not the most sophisticated brand marketers on the planet. Most don’t know what CPM stands for, and fewer would agree to pay on a CPM basis. Therefore, one would seemingly conclude that local video advertising, largely billed as a branding medium, would not grow as quickly as projected. However this was roughly the same argument when search marketing began to reach critical mass. Local advertisers surely weren’t going to pay per click to drive visitors to their site; and yet, local search marketing has become one of the most competitive and largest segments of sponsored search. If history is any guide, local search offers some very important lessons that can be applied to all forms of video advertising – from brand to direct response campaigns.

First Lesson: Engage Everyone, Measure Everything

Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) typically use marketing companies, like Dex Media and Reach Local, for online and sometimes offline promotions. These companies employ sophisticated campaign management practices and technologies that allow them to arbitrage traffic from large search players like Google and Yahoo. These players can often justify the cost of paying per click by providing every means possible to engage the consumer and to measure such engagement. It’s not about brand recall, although that is a major benefit. It’s about interactions, whether it’s a phone call, an email, a filled out form, a coupon or a visit to a dynamic Web site. It’s foolish to assume all consumers want only one way to engage with a business. I hate talking on the phone, so I order online. My mom hates to order online, so she calls a live person. And my dad prefers to go to the store. Knowing that, local advertisers provide every opportunity to interact with the consumer. In addition to typical impression and post click behavioral tracking, online video advertisers might also want to consider the following tactics:

• Unique Phone Tracking Numbers – We have found that overlaying the video ads and companion banner units with unique phone tracking numbers is a remarkably effective way to not only generate call volume, but also to track the quality of your traffic sources. You can obtain call tracking numbers from companies like Ingenio, Marchex, and Telmetrics. Most of the time, these providers will report the caller’s name, address, phone number, time of call, length of call, and some even record the call for you so you can measure lead quality.

• Push to Talk – This nifty feature allows consumers to request that the business contact them. The consumer types in their phone number in a form and they hit the ‘push to talk’ button. The business is then notified to contact the interested customer. As always, the push to talk lead is tracked back to the traffic source.

• Dynamic Sites – Many local advertisers have dynamic Web sites that change elements of the site, like phone numbers and tracking ID, based on who is sending the traffic to their site, once again allowing them to track the lead source. For instance, the unique call tracking number found on the video ad and banners will match with the phone number on the dynamic site.

• Request for More Information Forms – Many local advertisers’ Web sites encourage consumers to fill out a form to receive more information. Again, all is tracked back to the traffic source.

• Coupons – To drive foot traffic and orders, local advertisers are masters at offering up an incentive. For video advertisers, it can be as simple as saying in your ad, “mention this ad and you’ll get…” or having your companion banner direct people to a printable discount coupon.

Second Lesson: Optimize, Re-optimize, Then Re-optimize Again

Local search advertisers employ a constant cycle of measurement and optimization. Better performing sources of traffic get prioritized, while wasteful sources are automatically pruned from the plan.

While video advertising isn’t as automated as some would hope, some networks and exchanges will allow you to optimize your campaign on the fly as you measure conversions. For instance, one company did a campaign for an auto parts store in a small suburb of Minneapolis. After targeting the Minneapolis DMA coupled with contextual targets of local news, sports, and automobiles, the campaign did OK, but the performance would not justify a sustained campaign. The advertiser optimized the campaign to target only automotive content and to target the neighborhood where the auto parts store was located. This dramatically lowered the number of video impressions served to just 1,000 in one month. However the campaign drove a significantly higher percentage of Web site visits, filled-out forms, and calls to the store at a lower cost to the advertiser.

Third Lesson: It’s the eCPM, Stupid!

The arbitrageurs of local advertising are remarkable in that they will work with any traffic source regardless of the payment model-CPM, CPA or CPC. By understanding and attributing a value to certain interactions with their consumers, whether they are phone calls or filled-out forms, they can always assess the value of a traffic source to quickly determine if it’s worth it to them. If a cost per click campaign doesn’t offset the cost to generate their desired engagement metrics, then they will shift ad budget somewhere else that can, even if it means paying on a CPM basis.

We’ve found that local video ads can even outperform branded campaigns paying on a CPM basis when these campaigns are properly targeted, measured and optimized. For instance, in the above auto parts store example, those 1,000 impressions generated 40 visitors to the site and four phone calls, thereby generating traffic worth over $50 eCPM to them.

So what can brands learn from local video advertising? No, not to move to performance-based advertising. I don’t think anyone is going to buy a box of mac and cheese online. However inviting consumers to interact on multiple fronts can help easily quantify which traffic sources are most engaging and cost effective. For mac and cheese, potential measurable interactions could be downloading a recipe, printing a coupon, or participating in a survey.

Perhaps if the industry were to more widely adopt the sophisticated tactics found in local search advertising, one could actually argue that local online video advertising could be much larger than the Kelsey Group has projected!

Link to article