Archive for the 'Internet Monetization' Category

BrightRoll Launches First To Market HD Video Advertising Unit

Yesterday, BrightRoll announced the release of an exciting new product - HD video ad units that scale across 65% of the BrightRoll publisher network. This first to market offering - near full screen ads in high definition - represent a quantum leap in both video quality and ad effectiveness for online video advertisers. Here is the press release.

We continue to be focused building online video advertising solutions that are more impactful (bigger and higher quality), more effective (higher engagement and click through rate) and highly scalable (reaches over 65% of the BrightRoll network).

We are excited that this new ad unit delivers on all fronts and is a true innovation in the video ad category. In addition, the response to this new ad unit has been overwhelmingly positive. We have already signed up multiple advertisers in the entertainment and technology verticals, and we are expecting HD ads to represent at least 10% of our business this calendar year.

It is clear that innovations involving high quality and HD video, which impact file size and therefore streaming costs, will likely not come from the high volume video sites which typically drive video innovation. This is because most high volume video sites have yet to generate a profit and streaming higher quality or HD video files simply accelerates an upside down business model.

On the contrary, our business model is based on delivering an increasing amount of value for our advertising clients on every ad we serve, so our incentive is to deliver the best quality experience that is technically possible. This is the most recent step in our efforts to add additional value to the online video advertising process for advertisers and agencies, and we are looking forward to additional announcements coming soon.

Here is screenshot of the ad unit:

Here is some of the press on the announcement:

CNET
TVWeek
MediaPost
Mashable
NewTeeVee
Webware

BrightRoll Serves 1 Billionth Video Advertisement

Two days after announcing our financing, we just released news of our billionth ad served which was the HP Gwen Stefani campaign. We are extremely excited about this milestone and believe it demonstrates the scale that is occurring in our business and the overall video advertising market. I have included the release below and it is also available on Yahoo.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ — BrightRoll, Inc., the world’s
largest video advertising network, announced today that it has served its
one billionth advertisement less than six months since hitting the
half-a-billion mark. BrightRoll helps leading agencies, representing brands
such as Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard and Sony Pictures, launch and scale video
campaigns across the industry’s leading publishers. Since the company
launched in July 2006, BrightRoll has expanded its reach to provide
execution capabilities across over half of the top 100 online media
properties in the United States. The one-billionth video advertisement was
served on September 27, 2007 for Zenith Optimedia, Hewlett-Packard’s
advertising agency.

The campaign, for Hewlett-Packard printers, features Gwen Stefani
elaborating on her creativity and the creative process. BrightRoll helped
Zenith Optimedia execute the Hewlett-Packard campaign across a portfolio of
stellar publishers such as CBS, Clear Channel Radio, CNN and ESPN.

“BrightRoll has been a huge asset to the online video planning and
buying process for Zenith Optimedia and Hewlett-Packard,” said Miranda
Molen, media supervisor at Zenith Optimedia. “They streamlined the creative
production process, improved media efficiency and provided strategic
metrics analysis. Put simply, their knowledge of the digital video
landscape and ability to execute campaigns is unrivaled.”

“Video advertising is an important new category of online marketing and
we are excited to work with national brands and premier publishers to
unleash the incredible opportunities it represents,” said Tod Sacerdoti,
CEO, Brightroll. “BrightRoll’s growth is further evidence that scalable and
trusted solutions exist in the marketplace today and that online video
advertising has officially arrived.”

BrightRoll executes video campaigns on hundreds of publisher sites,
including more than 50% of the top 100 online media properties in the
United States. The average BrightRoll video campaign reaches over 50
million unique users over a six week period. A video advertising innovator,
BrightRoll is built entirely on proprietary video ad serving, targeting and
optimization technology.

About BrightRoll

BrightRoll is the world’s largest and most trusted video advertising
network, having served more than 1 billion advertisements in 12 months.
BrightRoll helps major brands and agencies execute “smart video ad
campaigns” across the industry’s leading publishers, including over half of
the top 100 online media properties in the United States. BrightRoll’s
proprietary campaign execution, inventory management and advertising
delivery technology provide brands and agencies with the reach, frequency
and scalability needed to achieve their campaign goals. BrightRoll is a
privately held, venture- backed company and holds its headquarters in San
Francisco, CA. BrightRoll offers its service at http://www.brightroll.com.

Amazon releases Context Link

I have been a long time Amazon.com Associate,amazon2.jpg ever since I released the eBook How To Use Google while in business school. I haven’t logged into my account in years but recently logged in and was impressed to see a new Context Link product (see Google Adsense example to the right). As a test of the new product, I thought I would list some great business books I have read below. If the product works, you should see a dotted underline that has a preview and links to Amazon.

Here are some of my favorite business books:

  • Hiring The Best - Martin Yate
  • Man’s Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
  • Made in America - Sam Walton
  • Trading Up - Michael Silverstein
  • The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
  • Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki
  • Moneyball - Michael Lewis
  • Multiple Streams of Income - Robert Allen
  • Running Money - Andy Kessler

I promise to post more books soon and I will let you know how the Amazon contextual link performs.

AuctionAds - The real deal?

My CTO mentioned the site AuctionAds to me today and I recalled that I hadn’t checked up on their progress. Boy was I surprised reading Shoemoney’s latest post on the topic:

(AuctionAds was) started in March and has grown to 25,000 publishers showing 300 million impressions a day on over 80,000 unique domains is the hottest new advertising product for 2007.

I think those numbers are impressive no matter what business you are in, but I find them particularly interesting given their traction relative to AdBrite. AdBrite claims around 650M daily impressions across 31,000 sites, which would mean that AuctionAds has nearly caught them in under six months.

Now, there are lots of reasons to questions these numbers and I have seen their ads in lots of questionable locations (such as ThePirateBay). However, I believe the most interesting question to ask is “Why have they grown so fast?”

My hypotheses for the early success of AuctionAds:

  1. They are compatible with Google Adsense (ie, you can run both)
  2. There are many sites that Adsense will not monetize (works for AdBrite too)
  3. The company was started by a famous money maker (ie, powerful distribution)
  4. The ads are actually relevant content to the site, so folks will run them even if the economics are not super

That all said, the rubber meets the road on economics. I have yet to find any bloggers at scale that are generating over a $.20 CPM, which is still small potatoes in most categories. This will be an interesting one to watch but I am an early believer for sure.

A few of my favorite things…

Online monetization is a broad subject and there are many paths to reaping great returns. As the founder of an ad network, a publisher and domainer, I have used nearly every online advertising tool and platform out there. Here are a few of my “favorite things”;

Contextual Advertising - Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher Network, Pulse 360, Quigo
CPA Networks - Azoogle
Banner Networks - Advertising.com, ValueClick
Video Advertising - BrightRoll (disclosure - I am the CEO)
Domain Parking - Sedo, Domain Sponsor
Affiliate Marketing - Commission Junction
eBook / Software Sales - ClickBank