We are very excited to announce today that we have been selected by msnbc.com to act as the exclusive ad serving platform for its embedded video players. YuMe will also sell ad inventory in the players helping to monetize premium online properties like TODAYshow.com and Nightly.msnbc.com, home to “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.”

“From the moment we rolled out embedded video, consumers all over the web have been discovering and experiencing all of the great video content that msnbc.com has to offer,” said Kyoo Kim, VP of Sales at msnbc.com. “By tapping into YuMe’s targeting and ad optimization capabilities, we can monetize those video experiences. And marketers, who previously shied away from viral video, can now associate themselves with msnbc.com’s quality, trusted content and take advantage of viral distribution.”

Below is an example of the msnbc.com embedded player.

- Molly Glover Gallatin

We are thrilled to announce that Fox News, Glam , IDG Entertainment and Funny or Die have selected YuMe’s ACE video ad platform to manage the monetization of their video inventory. Check out our press release we sent out today announcing this news and highlighting the impressive growth we have achieved with not only the adoption of our video ad platform, but with the growth of our video ad network and advertising sales.

Here’s the quote from Funny or Die, which you will see is in true Funny or Die fashion. “YuMe’s ACE video ad platform is a true end-to-end solution,” said Mitch Galbraith, COO of Funny or Die. “ACE has streamlined our ad operations, improved inventory management, increased revenue, eliminated the common cold from our office, cured my fear of heights, and taught several of our employees to speak Portuguese.”

We also announced today that with the release of comScore’s April Video Metrix Ad Network report, YuMe is now ranked the largest video ad network with over 63 million unique viewers and 560 million video streams per month.

In addition to the great growth we have experienced with publisher adoption of our video ad platform, we have also seen tremendous momentum with video advertising sales. We now have over 100 advertisers running on any given day across our premium video ad network and the number of monthly ad impressions we are serving has increased by over 325% since January!

We are very excited about the advancements we have made in 2009 and congratulations to the YuMe team for all their hard work.

- Molly Glover Gallatin

So, sometimes, stating the obvious, or reiterating the obvious is good practice. For example, Brian Morrissey, in an article titled “Real-Time, The Web’s New Prime Time” says that feedback loops are good, and even better, if the feedback is fast, or in “real-time” it’s even better. Hmm. I guess I could be sarcastic at this point, but I won’t.

I will, however, state that being able to change and alter ads (including video) to run A/B tests, to customise to the user watching and make incremental alterations to the advert while the ad campaign is running will by definition provide better results. We are still not seeing the industry take heavy advantage of this in video, which we attribute to the fact that video is a very nascent.

- Jayant Kadambi

Well, it seems as if every year around this time there is the usual flurry of articles about TV broadcast advertising, the effect of video online on the TV broadcasts, etc., etc., And in the midst of a recession, we get the usual articles about how the market is down. Not to say that it’s not true or anything. I couldn’t figure out what this article “Never Mind Online Video - Networks Rally Around TV” was really trying
to say, but the heading at the end about Online Scarcity caught my eye. We continue to believe that there is no online scarcity for TV online. The article actually goes on to contradict itself by saying Hulu is putting PSAs and I guess therefore is not sold out.

We’ve said fairly consistently that scarcity is not the issue. There is plenty of TV and TV-quality content online for advertisers. There needs to be additional work done to target the demographics of people watching the content, and make the available content consistent with the TV demos and buying strategies and plans. And of course, it’d be really nice to know if the online consumer had seen an ad offline. Not easy, but would be great.

- Jayant Kadambi

Benjamin Disraeli, the 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, who incidentally also held the post of Prime Minister of England is attributed to making the statement “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The sentence refers to the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments, and the tendency of people to disparage statistics that do not support their positions.

In the advertising business, data and metrics are key. Ad data, including impressions, unique viewers, ads streamed, ads delivered, click-through-rate, engagement, and a myriad of other metrics are analysed, counter-analysed and then used in hundreds of powerpoint decks to show clients and customers why the advert campaign did or didn’t do well.

One set of data that is often quoted, (and I still can’t figure out what the data really means), is the “potential” reach and “actual” reach in terms of unique viewers and impressions for both display
and video ads.

In general, people and companies like to be at the top of lists, not in the middle or at the end. Go figure. And when the being at the top of the list may feel as if it’s material to the business or the reputation, the data is often manipulated, and if not manipulated on purpose, then by benign neglect. Take video impressions. Reporting agencies have a list of the “top” video ad networks. So, it’s in everyone’s interest to be at the top of the list. One probably should define what a video ad is before we start making statistics about video ad networks.

So, while I pause before the next blog, the question to think about is what is a video ad? Is
it a flash file in a banner, a pre-roll video in a player, a post-roll video in a player, a swf that expands
in a banner slot? There are other choices, but let’s chew on these for a while.

Stay tuned…

- Jayant Kadambi

If one lives in the US and spends US dollars, then, over a period of time, one instinctively understands the value of the US currency. What $1 is worth, what $100 is worth, etc. There are a myriad of “metrics” that help in that understanding, from one’s take home salary, the price they pay for an apple, to the price of the apple the next day, even the price of a so-called organic apple to one from Nob Hill.

So, if one’s spending US currency daily, and lots of it and travels to the UK and is required to spend UK Sterling, what’s the immediate reaction? Convert the Pounds Sterling into the native currency and compare. Obvious eh?

Well, a joint study by the 4A’s and the ANA that can be found here, titled Marketers Need Metrics to Understand Digital Media says that on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the biggest problem, the biggest problem is having metrics to properly allocate media spend among traditional and digital media.

At this point, I’d normally lace in some sarcasm, followed by some humour, but I’ll just point you to our iGRP whitepaper on our site.

- Jayant Kadambi

Testing whether an ad works or not, engages the viewer or not, etc.,, has been a favourite past-time of focus groups. People gather focus groups, panels, take surveys, and then based on the focus group, use that feedback to either create, or alter an advert that has already been created. Take a look at Mixx creates service to allow marketers to test ad campaigns.

I like the idea. In fact, we do it all the time. We never marketed it as online focus groups though. We regularly ask agencies to give us multiple creatives and then run the one that is more engaging, has more clicks, or generally performs better, whatever the performance metric may be. And we feel, it’s far better to do this on-the-fly or in real-time than after the fact. Save’s money, save’s time and while the ad spend is occurring, you can actually improve the campaign results.

We should all encourage more of this.

- Jayant Kadambi

YuMe has been selected as a finalist for a TiE50 Award for the Internet Infrastructure category. We were selected from among 1,200 nominated companies and now we need your help to win. Go to www.tie50.net/polling to vote for YuMe.

What is TiE50? The TiE50 Awards recognize the hottest emerging startups in five focus segments: Consumer Web, Internet Infrastructure, Cleantech, Wireless and Software. The selection process for TiE50 winners will be based on a combination of a public poll and private judges’ vote. Voting is open to the public beginning Tuesday, April 28, 2009 and closes on Thursday, May 7, 2009.

Vote now!

- Molly Glover Gallatin

We are very excited about our new ad placement announced today called InSynch Video Takeover. This is the first ad unit of its kind! InSynch is unique in that it synchronizes an in-stream video ad, like a pre-roll, with any in-page banner ads. How does it work? Essentially, while the in-stream video ad is playing, the entire page where the player resides turns into an advertising canvas where anything is possible. You can have objects jump out of the video ad and into a banner placement or have elements fly across the web page, temporarily taking over the page and captivating the viewer’s attention.

The YuMe green logo exits the pre-roll and then drops down into the banner ad below.

Our first client to utilize InSynch was Dove and we have campaigns with Vitamin Water and Kellogg’s launching soon.

Click here to see InSynch in action. Let us know what you think.

- Molly Glover Gallatin

It seems that every day now, someone is conducting a study (remind me to get into the research/study/consulting business next time) to state the obvious. And I assume they are getting paid. So, today, we find that that SoDA (Society of Digital Agencies) says, and hold on to your hats here, “Marketers Moving to Digital Media”. You can read it here http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007064.

So, according to this data, digital marketing agencies are increasing spending over 74%. If I’m reading this correctly, that’s just in Q1. Metrics and Video seem to be chic at the moment. I have a feeling, it’s not just a fad.

- Jayant Kadambi