We announced today our new video ad unit called PowerRoll DataConnect with advertising partner Land Rover, the luxury carmaker.  PowerRoll DataConnect is a video ad that is enhanced with an interactive overlay or graphics (GIF, JPG, or Flash) on top of the video ad, making it more relevant, informative and engaging.  The new DataConnect feature provides the ability for advertisers to pull in an xml data feed, like auto retailer locations, and in real-time display this information to viewers who are watching the pre-roll.  You can see a demo of this ad unit on our ad gallery.  You will see that if you enter your zip code the 3 closest retailers will be displayed within the player.  It’s a great example of how a pre-roll can be localized to the viewer.

Gavin O’Malley of MediaPost did a great article on this, check it out.

- Molly Glover Gallatin

Yesterday we had our second annual Bar Game Olympics in NYC at Slate.  We had a great turnout from our ad agency clients who competed in Foosball, Pool and the all time favorite - Beer Pong.  The winning agency for the event - OMD!  Below are a few pictures from the event.

- Molly Glover Gallatin

Today thePlatform, the leading white-label video management and publishing company, announced a partnership with us.  YuMe is now part of what they call their “Framework” program.  What does this mean?  Our ACE video ad platform has been fully integrated into their media publishing system (mps), so their customers will now have access to our unequaled video ad serving and management platform that enables publishers to maximize revenue generated from their video inventory.

Per Marty Roberts, thePlatform’s VP of Marketing, “In an increasingly robust online video environment, media companies want the flexibility to integrate and test new technologies that best suit their business needs without worrying about compatibility issues.  Our role is to make online video publishing a seamless process for our customers and allow them to easily publish their content regardless of the technical requirements.”

- Molly Glover Gallatin