Archive for September, 2008

Hi there, how do you like our new costume?

Today we’re launching our new website and profile, straight from London.

The logo

The idea with the logo is to illustrate simplicity, transparency and innovation. And of course some kind of video window.

To our help, we’ve had help from Hummingbirds (Logo and profile) and Winston Design (Web design and code base).

Ad:tech London

Our entire team is now here in London for the Ad:tech conference, ready to kick ass! I’ll be speaking tomorrow at 3.50pm and make sure to come by our stand to get a glance of our brand new Campaign Manager interface. Our stand is numbered 414 and we have fresh coffee and Swedish candy waiting for you.

Cheers!

We started this business a year ago because we didn’t believe in the preroll as an ad format for monetizing video. Today we have realised it’s not about the concept of showing an ad before the content, it’s a pretty good spot to place an ad at, the problem is in the execution.

Today we are proud to present our take on the pre- and midroll format by introducing the iRoll.

Kanal 5 is first out with campaigns from McDonalds, JC and HomeEntertainment. Try the format below where you’ll see a preroll on a Madonna video.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

The iRoll is not about changing everything, it’s about the details.

Why the standard preroll is inefficient and can be intrusive

1. You can’t do anything with it.
2. Once played, it disappears.
3. Many times perceived as too long.
4. Viewing the same preroll ad many times is intrusive.

Our take on the problem: the iRoll

1. It’s interactive: The ads are clickable, they can be interactive in many ways: slideshows, forms, games etc.
2. It’s present: If you don’t want to interact with the ad right away, it sticks around, even if not fully expanded.
3. It can be shorter: The format being two parts enables the first pushed out part to be really short. An interested user will actively click to receive more info.
4. It’s less intrusive: The user is never forced to view the same ad twice in one day. After the first impression the user is given an option to close the ad.

And most importantly the format doesn’t necessarily need special creatives, a video file is all that’s needed. So an advertiser running a preroll campaign across different sites can include sites with this format without any extra effort, this is solved with a default curtain.

The iRoll and the Overlay will live together as monetization tools offered by our ad server. The Companion banner which is the last piece of the puzzle will be supported within weeks.

We hope this format and concept will be copied and widely spread. All feedback is appreciated!

One of the Videoplaza core values is transparency. We try to be open and clear about what we do and don’t. So here is a status update on what is going on right now.

• I’ll be speaking at the annual Swedish TV conference Kristallen Sep 8th.
• The entire team will fly to London for the Ad:tech conference Sep 24-25th where I’m speaking and we’ll have a stand. That’s also when we’ll launch our ad server Monetizer 1.0!
• We just joined the IAB UK and will be a part of the Video Council. First gathering is now on Thursday!
• More focus on the UK market. I’ll be there every other week now to get things going. Any ideas on office space and place to sleep is appreciated.
• We’re continuing to grow our team. We’re 7 today and will be around 1o before christmas. We’re adding a sales and account manager to start with.
• We have a new logo, website and communication profile coming up soon.

Any ideas, feedback or questions, drop me a line or give me a call: sorosh@videoplaza.com or +46 739 241352.