Today is a big day as we are launching our first two clients in the UK! We have signed Incisive Media and Factory media, both launching sometime during the day on mpora.com and vnunet.com.

Below is the official press release going out today. If you are attending the IAB event later today, make sure we meet up!

PRESS RELEASE

Videoplaza signs first UK Clients

Incisive Media, Factory Media first UK sites to use video dedicated ad server to monetise time

London, June 4th, 2009 – VIDEOPLAZA, announces its first UK clients for its ‘built for video’ ad server platform – Monetizer. Factory Media and Incisive Media will both launch online video advertising services, through Videoplaza, to capitalise on the growing popularity of online video.

Videoplaza, a privately owned company, based in Stockholm and London, enables clients to manage, present and track online video advertising. It has developed an ad server platform that can increase revenues and demonstrate media value, from advertising placed in and around their online video content. Working with leading broadcasters, news media, business and consumer publishers in five countries, Videoplaza’s ad server technology, creative ad formats and real-time reporting enables clients to monetise the time users spend watching online video, rather than started streams.

Factory Media’s extreme sports video channel Mpora will offer advertisers and sponsors access to its valuable audiences using Interactive Pre, Mid and Post Roll advertising. The channel will also use In-stream overlays, served within the video content, a format proving popular with advertisers and users alike and also Companion Ads synchronised with a client’s video ads.

Incisive Media a leading business information provider, is implementing Videoplaza’s ad server to offer exciting new opportunities for brands and B2B advertisers to target its high value audiences, starting with the IT professional community VNUnet

By adopting Videoplaza’s ad server platform both companies will be able to more effectively manage their online video advertising inventory, optimize client campaigns and demonstrate improved advertiser ROI, in terms of advertising exposure and engagement. The deals will also introduce the next generation interactive preroll format to the market called the iRoll.

John Barnes, Managing Director – Digital Strategy and Development UK & Asia for Incisive Media stated “We see a great opportunity in video and want to be equipped with the best monetisation tool in the market. We have chosen to work with Videoplaza not just because of their technology, this company understands this space and has made it work in other markets.”

According to Darryl Newton, Managing Director, Factory Media, “Mpora.com is now a significant part of our business, with over 2 million video streams served each month. Demand for advertising on our platform is growing incrementally and clients are particularly excited by creative video solutions. Working with Videoplaza we feel we can meet the needs of these customers better by offering more dynamic and engaging formats combined with video specific reporting such as engagement rates and time spent with the ads.

Sorosh Tavakoli, Founder and CEO for Videoplaza added “We are delighted to announce agreements with these two great innovative publishers. We are doing everything we can to repeat the success from the Swedish market where more and more publishers have profitable online video products.”

Videoplaza has been in the UK since January 2009 and is building a local team to advise and support both local media owners and international networks based in London.

For further information contact:
Sorosh Tavakoli, Founder and CEO Videoplaza
+44 7530 885 492
sorosh@videoplaza.com

John Barnes, Managing Director – Digital Strategy and Development UK & Asia, Incisive Media
+44 (0)20 7316 9007
john.barnes@incisivemedia.com

Darryl Newton, Managing Director, Factory Media
+44 (0)20 7332 9700
darryl.newton@factorymedia.com

Download the press release as pdf

One of the main events of 2009 for Videoplaza will be the Admonsters event in Prague June 7-9th. I’ve come across Admonsters a couple of times and I’ve only been hearing good things about it and after meeting Matt O’Niell, who heads things up there, a couple of times my impression is that they are doing a lot of things right.

Admonsters is basically one of very few forums for ad ops people to meet and share knowledge about what is happening in this more and more complex world of ad serving. We are a result of that complexity, adding a new nische product to the current eco system of products out there solving different problems.

We are proud GOLD sponsors at the big Prague event which means we can spend a lot of time with the Admonster members. It will be a very good opportunity for us to show what we can offer but also to learn more about our users.

From Videoplaza, we will have me, Alfred Ruth our VP Products and Magnus Hultman our VP Sales attending. If you are also attending, we are all looking forward to meet you there!

(…and if you are working with ad ops, make sure you get your self a ticket straight away!)

When over in Paris a couple of weeks ago to kick things off and for the Ad:tech conference, Franck Perrier did a  video interview with me about Videoplaza. Below is the video and here is the link to his blog post (translated in English here).

And regarding the French market, Sophie is coming up to speed and building a good base now. We are also working on a French part for this blog that she will manage. Stay tuned within the coming couple of weeks for more info on that.

If you are based in Paris or just passing by, make sure to meet up with Sophie over a coffee! She can be reached at +33 6 70 01 90 48 or sophie@videoplaza.com.

Au revoir.

Working with a niche tech product with a limited target group, premium media companies, it makes sense to early on expand to new markets. After spreading our wings to the Nordic countries and the UK, we’re now moving a bit more south to the European mainland and France!

Videoplaza Country Manager France – Sophie Davidas

Not only do we appreciate good French cheese and wine, we’ve also fallen in love with Sophie Davidas who will be our main woman in Paris. Sophie is joining the team as Country manager France and has dedicated herself to help exporting the Swedish model, making online video a profitable business for French media companies.

Sophie is a smart and charming doer with a diverse background from different areas. She has run her own companies, written movie scripts and done consultancy in mobile and online video areas. She also has an MBA from INSEAD.

Kick-starting with Adtech tomorrow

We are kick-starting our expansion in France by attending and participating at the Adtech conference in Paris tomorrow and on Wednesday. Make sure to come by and say hi to us and Sophie if you are around, it’s free to attend.

Sophie can be reached at +33 670 019 048 and sophie@videoplaza.com.

Finally, here’s a couple of notes that have been on my blog-about-list:

I wanted to start by bragging about us being one of Sweden’s top 33 tech companies all categories by the weekly papers NyTeknik and Affärsvärlden and we’re also a RedHerring top 100 Europe finalist.

I also wanted to let you know that I’m speaking tomorrow at the Royal Institute of Technology at the annual Media Tech days (Branschdag Medieteknik). Don’t hesitate to drop a note if you are around tomorrow and want to meet up!

Will blog more soon, promise :)

We’ve just launched three new publishers, NT, Corren and Sydsvenskan, all of them local newspapers (well, that’s their background at least). It’s amazing how quickly and independent they’ve got started and have preroll and overlay campaigns up and running just after a couple of days!

You can check them out here: 24nt, 24Corren and Sydsvenskan TV. The advertisers are local retailers, brokers, opticians, local dating sites etc. instead of the P&G’s of the world.

A preroll ad for a local broker.

Why local newspapers?

I believe local newspapers have a big opportunity when it comes to monetizing their online video content because of three reasons:

1. They have strong relationships with the local advertisers, better than local TV.
2. They have a tradition of producing the actual ads for their clients, which makes it easier to get them to try new formats such as overlay banners or our iRolls.
3. It’s complementary to their existing advertising products as it involves audio and moving images which can communicate brand experiences in a completely different way than print and online display ads.

I believe we will see more and more local papers embrace online video because it will make their overall ad business perform better. Hopefully, they will also get a piece of the TV budgets that sure are gonna get relocated.

Today is a good day. I’m happy to announce that we have, not one, but three new clients that will use our technology to monetize their online video efforts.

The new clients are Dagens Nyheter, Sydsvenska Dagbladet and the Norrköpings Tidningar group.

Dagens Nyheter will use us on their brand new site that features online video closely integrated with the rest of the content. They even use embeded video right on their front page which of course generates a lot of streams. Swedish company Picsearch have built the robust player and made our integration.

Sydsvenska dagbladet is also about to launch their new site, and of course online video will play an important role. Danish company Xstream have provided the player technology and we are really excited to be working with them as they have a strong presence in both Denmark and Norway.

The Norrköpings Tidningar group is planning something really exciting. The group owns media properties in Norrköping (Norrköpings Tidningar), Linköping (Östgöta Correspondenten) and Luleå (Norrbottens Kuriren and NSD). In all these three cities/regions they have started local news-tv-channels and the upcoming online versions of each of these channels will be really cool. Of course, we will help to monetize them.

Be sure to take a look at 24nt (Norrköping), 24Corren (Linköping) and 24Norrbotten (Luleå) when they launch. It won’t be long until they do.

We are of course really excited to be working with these great companies. They are all heavy brands with a lot of tradition, and needless to say, I’m extremely proud that we can play an important role in their efforts to grow their online business.

Further, there is really a bigger story behind this. Almost every media company out there is working with video in some way or another regardless of background. It doesn’t matter if you used to do broadcast tv or print — online video is too big a trend to neglect.

Over the few years that online video have existed, the media companies have struggled. They have learnt what they should do and what they should not, and finally we are reaching the tipping point. The audience and content is there, the technology is there and now it’s time to finally monetize.

We’ve been memebers of the IAB UK’s Video Council since October where we together with the other influential player of the British market are trying to create a standard for online video advertising as well as a pedagogical handbook for media buyers. All of this since we believe it will play an important role to help the growth of the online video advertising business.

When it comes to the Swedish market, IAB has been a bit slower. In fact, IAB Sweden wasn’t even formed until September 2008. But now things are moving, and we’re part of creating a Swedish IAB standard for online video through the IAB Sweden Video Task Force which I am currently chairing.

I’m glad to say that we most definitely have had a kick-start. We had our first meeting last week and besides a few exceptions we had all of the major Swedish publishers present. And we’re working hard to recruit the last few.

Of course, the Swedish workgroup will strive to make the Swedish standard compliant with other similar efforts in other countries. And since IAB UK is certainly making a good job, we are paying close attention to what’s coming there.

Anyway, we are all joined in the effort to make online video as profitable as possible in order to pave the way for better services to the end users.

And the first step is of course to develop a standard in order to make it easier to buy.