As part of our Global Partner Day series, we are launching the first YuMe Partner Day in London on the 4th of March. We will be bringing together publishers for a morning of education and collaboration around the digital video advertising space.

The event promises to be packed full of interesting insights for publishers, who are looking to effectively monitise their websites and apps with video advertising. We invite those in the area to join us; RSVP here to reserve your seat!

Our breakfast event will be hosted at the state-of-the-art, Dolby Screening Theatre in Soho Square and will feature a lively panel discussion around the topic of SDK vs. VAST tags, with publishers including Trinity Mirror, The Football League and ESi Media debating the issue.

There will be an in-depth fireside chat with our CEO and co-founder Jayant Kadambi, who will share his views on how video advertising creates sustainable revenue for publishers across all screens.

Attendees will also hear from an Agency lead on what they, and their clients, are looking for from video advertising as traditional TV and digital video start to work together.

The morning will finish with a best practice session utilising a Decipher and YuMe research study, giving insights into consumer behavior, how to develop for the future and ultimately monetise your audience.

Places are limited for the event, so please RSVP now to secure your place!

[Video] YuMe Partner Day NYC 2013

Last week we descended upon the city of Las Vegas with our sextants and swagger, to host clients and guests at CES 2014. We led tours to navigate clients to the latest and greatest gadgets on the show floor; demonstrated YuMe ad units across multiple screens in our Connected Living Room suite at the LVH, and tracked the hot topics at each booth with our social interactive heat map.  Here’s a look back at the week’s highlights:

Monday: 2nd Screen Summit

Once again, the Summit highlighted leading trends in second screen. SVP of Marketing Ed Haslam presented the latest YuMe / IPG Media Lab research around tablet video consumption and then later.participated on the Monetization Strategies That Work panel alongside Viggle, Unicorn Media, Samba.TV and Base 79.

At the technology spotlight, Bob Hall, VP of Platform & Partnerships, announced our partnership with Gracenote – advancing the synchronization of second screen advertising. The potential collaboration between Gracenote’s ACR technology and YuMe’s SDK technology demonstrates how relevant mobile video ads can be targeted and delivered to YuMe publisher’s mobile sites and apps.

Tuesday – Wednesday: CES Show Floor

There were several big trends at CES: wearables, new device forms (e.g. curved TVs and phones), the ability to track/collect data, gesture control and cross-screen/device connectivity (e.g. LG Connected Home, Cisco’s “Internet of Everything”). Here are the highlights from some of the booths we stopped by, on our floor tours:

		Samsung  The 2014 smart TVs were showcased with a curved screen. While their UI hasn’t changed dramatically from 2013, the remote has. It is simple and includes both voice and motion control – a great improvement to the user experience. They also showcased their evolving capabilities around connecting Samsung-specific screens – especially mobile and TV. Their second screen demo highlighted how smartphones and tablets seamlessly connected to Samsung smart TVs.
		LG   LG debuted their new WebOS-powered smart TV, which was named one of the best ideas by Fast Company. In an effort to simplify the smart TV experience, it allows for more intuitive content discovery while still in live TV mode. They continue to provide an industry-leading approach to the connected home. Both Android- and iOS-compatible, their new Home Chat platform allows consumers to command and interact with their smart appliances via text. Their new Flex phone is a great illustration of the curved screen trend on display at this year’s CES.  The curved screen allows for better viewing in ambient light, along with better picture quality overall.
		Qualcomm  Qualcomm’s Gimbal system in particular was extremely exciting to see. It is a context awareness platform for on premise marketing where beacons can be placed throughout a store and then target consumers with offers within a 150-ft radius. Another unexpected surprise was the Toq – an Android-compatible smart watch. The color touchscreen utilizes the light around it so the screen is visible even in bright sunlight.
		Haier  We had to stop by at the Haier booth to check out the YuMe ad units displaying at the TVNow Smart Viewing station! Other notable tech from Haier included fingerprint ID capabilities on their smart TVs for online purchasing. It works like Apple’s TouchID, allowing in-browser purchasing direct from apps and advertising.
		Tobii  On our MEC tour in the South Hall, Tobii had a great demonstration of how its product tracks the movement of the eye, allowing you to see how and where viewers look on the screen.  With many possible applications for this technology, this could be huge for brands in terms of creative testing and for publishers to test redesigns and user interface.
		3D Printing  3D printing drew a huge crowd this year in the South Hall. It’s already being used in industries like healthcare (prosthetics) and architecture, but some companies are starting to debut consumer-friendly models (and prices). This will be an extremely exciting field to keep an eye on in general, and for any brand making hardware, this could be a huge area of opportunity in the future.

Wednesday: Digital Hollywood

We concluded Wednesday’s CES activities by participating at Digital Hollywood’s Video Everywhere – Technologies & Platforms, where Vamshi Sriperumbudur, our VP of Platform Marketing, spoke on a panel alongside executives from IBM, NTT Data, Alcatel-Lucent and Adobe.  The panel discussed today’s challenges and opportunities of OTT video for video service providers, and trends in video platforms, covering “TV everywhere” initiatives, data and mobile devices.

That rounds up our #CES2014 coverage – let us know what your favorite CES moment was! And be sure to check out our CES guest blogs on Vivaki, where we discuss how screen fragmentation can be an opportunity, what brands should be paying attention, and a look into 2015 and where the consumer will be. See you in January 2015 for the next CES!

Earlier this month at the Forrester eBusiness Forum in Chicago, we were honored with a Forrester Groundswell Award in the category for Mobile Marketing (Business-to-Consumer). The Forrester Groundswell Awards recognizes excellence in the effective use of social technologies to drive business success, and the mobile marketing award category looked specifically at companies that best used mobile tools to accomplish business and marketing goals. YuMe was awarded for our work on the justWink Mobile Flip Campaign for American Greetings.

Last September, American Greetings wanted to create awareness for justWink, its newest line of user-customizable greeting cards, and drive interaction with the justWink app. No question, our Mobile Flip ad was a perfect choice to generate buzz around the new product! Mobile Flip leverages interactions specific to smartphones and tablets; its full-screen branding experience enables a tap or a swipe to switch between video ad and branded display, and allows for multiple interactivity options, all within the ad experience. For the uWink campaign, we delivered 10 million mobile ad impressions, a 74% video completion rate, and more than 700,000 ad interactions. Thousands more used the ad to locate a store where they could buy justWink cards, downloaded the brand’s mobile app, and shared the ads through Facebook.

With roughly 150 submissions from around the world, we’re proud to have been recognized by Forrester with this award!  To learn more about our award-winning Mobile Flip ad and other YuMe capabilities, check out our ad gallery.

Last week we rolled out the next-generation solutions of the YuMe platform, YuMe’s Audience-Aware SDK™ with Audience Insights and enhanced Audience Amplifier™. Our latest version SDK captures first-party data in order to boost our ability to find the right audiences across our Connected Audience Network – benefiting both publishers and brand advertisers.  Publishers and app developers now have access to Audience Insights, the most accurate picture of their audience’s demographics and interests.  Our enhanced Audience Amplifier utilizes first-party and SDK data to create distinct Audience Segments of the most receptive and attentive audiences, and all at TV-like scale, so that our brand advertisers can get the best brand results for their digital video ad campaigns.

To better understand how YuMe’s Audience-Aware SDK is powering our Audience Insights and enables us to generate Audience Segments, we held a short Q&A with our product marketing managers, Tyler Hampton and Nikki Heyder.  Tyler works on the latest YuMe solutions for advertisers and Nikki works closely with our data sciences team on the platform side.

Q: The latest YuMe Audience-Aware SDK collects first-party data, but what exactly is first-party data?

Nikki: Most people have probably heard of third-party data, which is data collected across the web from various sites and data providers. It typically represents a tiny sample of your audience, at best, with only 5-15% accuracy for targeting.  Lesser known is second-party data, which commonly takes form as registration data purchased directly from the source. When registration data is required, versus opted-in, there is an issue of accuracy; for example, filling out a form randomly for the sake of gaining access to content or services. There’s also a recency issue – typically, users provide registration data at sign up, and are not required to update their info over the course of their membership, as circumstances (such as income, marital status, etc.) change.

First-party data is collected from your users, on your site and is therefore the best data source for any type of audience targeting.  Whereas first-party data has traditionally consisted of users’ browsing behavior, it has not been especially relevant for marketers.  YuMe’s first-party surveys are designed to get at the type of behavioral and intent based traits that marketers want to target.  Our data collection is opt-in, and therefore highly accurate– a user is most likely to respond honestly to an optional survey they feel compelled to, than being forced to. And it’s safe.

Q: Why should advertisers or publishers care about first-party data?

Tyler: In today’s world of fragmented content and screens, it’s challenging for brand advertisers to reach an attentive and receptive audience (and to do it at a scale large enough to make an impact).  In order to achieve this, it’s necessary to gain an understanding of a brand’s audience, and that is where first-party data comes in.  Most of the industry relies heavily on third-party cookie data, which can go stale and is dependent on users NOT deleting cookies.  Our first-party cookie-less data is a combination of direct survey data and observed data, collected through our embedded Audience-Aware SDK; allowing us to form Audience Segments, as a brand sees it. Reaching the right audience will help drive core brand metrics, and at TV-like scale, so with YuMe’s Audience-Amplifier, we assure that the right audience is reached at TV-like scale.

Nikki: With the shift of the TV advertising dollars ($193B market) to digital video ($4B), first-party data creates a huge opportunity for publishers.  With better insights into your audience demographics and interests, publishers are able to align their audience with who consumers brand marketers care about reaching.  Because interest-based, TV-like segments are valuable to advertisers in YuMe’s ad network, publishers benefit from improved CPMs and better fill.  And since first-party data yields a highly accurate data set, publishers reduce waste caused by inaccurate targeting.

Through YuMe’s Connected Audience Network (CAN) publishers have immediate access to a network of brand advertisers and campaigns that are looking to target TV-like audiences at scale.  Whereas a single publisher may return only a small subset of a desired audience segment, YuMe for Publishers (YFP) is able to match a small set of target users from multiple sites with a campaign that spans across YuMe’s ad network.

Q: So how does the YuMe Audience-Aware SDK work to generate Audience Insights and Audience Segments?

Nikki: Our embedded Audience-Aware SDK combines unique in-player survey data with additional data points collected by the SDK (can also leverage second- or third-party data if desired), which we use to generate highly accurate, psychographic audience segments. Using data sciences, we are able to use a relatively small number of surveys to model a highly accurate audience model of your site.

Tyler: As Nikki mentioned, our enhanced Audience-Aware SDK collects first-party data that allows us to know who the target is (via in-player surveys) and the what/when/where about their digital and device usage (browser version, screen res, time of day).  Through Audience Insights, we can measure the attentiveness of the audience.  YuMe’s data-science software continually identifies patterns in the data collected, then matches these patterns to the numerous data points coming in through our SDK.  As a result, we can generate scalable segments of relevant audiences, or Audience Segments.

Q: What else can Audience Insights and Audience Segments be used for?

Nikki: Outside of improved monetization through the Connected Audience Network, first-party data can also provide valuable insights for your business – for example, by understanding your viewer demographics you can optimize your content programming so it is better tailored to your audience makeup.

Tyler: With Audience Insights, brand advertisers can develop a deeper understanding of their audience, and garner key brand performance metrics.  We have the ability to cross reference traits of the many different segments we create, allowing us to point out additional attributes of an advertiser’s targeted segment; for example, did you know that your target audience also has an interest in luxury cars?

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Big thanks to Nikki and Tyler for taking time with us to talk about the latest YuMe solutions for advertisers and publishers! To learn more about our Audience-Aware SDK, Audience Insights and enhanced Audience Amplifier, visit: http://www.yume.com/technology.  Also, check out our latest whitepaper on the benefits of first-party insights which can be downloaded from our whitepaper resources library at: http://www.yume.com/insights/video-advertising-whitepapers.

This post was originally published on Portada on October 25, 2013; written by Jorg Nowak, Head of Latin America and US Hispanics at YuMe.

More Hispanics live in the US than Canadians live in Canada – avoiding that reality it is not even an option anymore if you want to maximize the growth of your business. As this market continues to grow, Hispanics purchasing power will continue to influence and impact the economy – their purchasing power growing by 50% from $1 trillion in 2010 to $1.5 trillion by 2015 (Nielsen, State of the Hispanic Report, 2012).

Major brands and agencies are realizing that US Hispanics are where their future is. Don’t find yourself caught on the sidelines.

With one medium in particular, digital video, marketers are already seeing the benefits of targeting general audiences. However, with the current growth of Hispanic consumer’s digital video consumption and purchasing power, it is even more vital to engage with this channel.

As we move into 2014, let me offer four recommendations around Hispanic media buys and online video.

Keys to Successful Online Video Hispanic Media Buying in 2014:

1. Hispanics are rapidly consuming content on mobile; plan for all screens

US Hispanics are leading the market as early adopters of emerging technologies. 60% of Latino households own at least one Internet-enabled cell phone and spend 68% more time watching digital videos than non-Hispanic Whites. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to capture Hispanic’s attention on mobile devices in addition to your traditional online buys. (Nielsen, State of the Hispanic Report, 2012).

2. Hispanic content is rare, so make the most of it

As marketers, we face a dilemma – online video for the Hispanic consumer is premium and often scarce. In order to capitalize on this medium, we suggest custom ad units with more interactivity and engagement.

3. Think outside of pre-roll video

There is much more to experience than just pre-roll video, and many consumers are taking notice. Consumers are actively engaging with custom ads via social elements or ‘learn more’ functions, like never before. Why not capitalize on the opportunity to grab a consumer in an interactive and compelling way?

4. Broaden your sights and your network

In the past, ad networks have often gotten a bad rap. That is rapidly changing, especially in the Hispanic space where publishers struggle with unique user numbers that don’t provide the reach and frequency that advertisers desire. Ad networks solve this dilemma with unparalleled reach and the added bonus of allowing interaction with the user vs. exposure only.

I’ll leave you with this:

If you choose to forgot any or all of these 4 points, keep in mind, you may be missing out on a huge opportunity: There are currently 55.5 million (plus 9 million undocumented) Hispanics in the US, 17.4% of the total US population . . . up from 50 million in 2010.(U.S. Census and Geoscape AMDS report 2013). At the same time, online video spend is growing aggressively, outpacing the rest of the market (more than doubling since 2012). (AccuStream Research)

These numbers can no longer be ignored, especially for those looking to win in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Jorg Nowak is Head of Latin America and US Hispanics  at YuMe, Inc, a provider of digital video brand advertising solutions. Nowak was previously Senior Vice President & General Manager at Univision Interactive Media.

More and more, consumers are using tablets to consume video content, and 2013 saw major growth in tablet usage and penetration. With studies showing that tablets are particularly effective in driving brand lift, advertisers are now seeking tablet inventory to deliver engaging brand experiences to these device users.

Despite the massive growth in mobile ad spending, app developers and publishers have yet to fully monetize their tablet inventory.  In our latest whitepaper, Plug, Play, Payday, we explain how easy it is for developers to integrate and run YuMe’s lightweight software development kit (SDK) to quickly monetize their apps.  With our SDK, publishers and app developers are provided with our ad-serving technology and have access to a network of 450+ TV-brand advertisers – ensuring targeted, TV-quality video ads to complement the app users’ experience.

To learn more about the benefits of our SDK, visit www.yumeplugplaypayday.com to download a copy of the whitepaper.

In July of this year, we held a roadshow tour across New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to present our latest research results in partnership with IPG Media Lab & Millward Brown Digital.

With IPG Media Lab, we conducted primary research regarding the tablet as the ultimate view viewing device, looking at tablets in comparison to TV, mobile, PC and in-browser versus in-app by exposing respondents to various in-context stimuli.

When studying consumers across environments and while viewing video content on TVs, PC, smartphones and tablets, we found that ad recall is often higher with tablet viewing, with unaided recall at 57% compared with 49% for smartphones, 47% for computers and 45% for TVs.

“Videos ads on tablets often grab a viewer’s attention more because tablets are highly personal devices and consumers are usually holding them in their hands,” says Kara Manatt, VP, Consumer Research Strategy at IPG Media Lab in an interview with Beet.TV. The study reveals that tablet users tend to watch videos in relaxing environments, such as at home, in bed or on vacation, and that they are less likely to multitask on tablets. As a result, tablet viewers have better ad recall.

With Millward Brown Digital, we looked at creating a comprehensive set of best practices for online video advertisers. The study quantifies which video ad formats produce the strongest in-market results in terms of ad and brand awareness, message association, favorability, and consideration. Some best practice takeaways include:

• When repurposing TV spots for online video, add interactivity to improve the performance & audience engagement
• Keep it short – remove secondary messages
• Thoroughly brand your video campaign
• Short-form videos are typically more memorable, but long-form is better for awareness

To download copies of the research reports, visit our Research Studies page. Also check out interview highlights from the YuMe Research Roadshow on Beet.TV.

Throw away your screen-by-screen media planning rule books. In this study we will show you how consumer behavior is changing the way you should plan to market across screens. We started this study assuming the tablet was the ultimate media consuming device. At the Guardian Mobile Business Summit in late 2012 we convened a panel of mobile industry experts from both the supply and demand side to discuss open questions in the industry about mobile advertising and the idea for this study was born.

We learned that screen type matters much less than environment and content type. We, as consumers are screen-agnostic when it comes to the content we consume, but where we are located drives a lot of what we choose to consume. Screen size is a driver in the amount of time a consumer is willing to spend consuming media, with the smartphone being the perfect compliment to stackable short session length content while on-the-go. The tablet and laptop are used more for longer session lengths at home. We are consuming more at home across all screens and are more responsive to advertising messaging in the comfort of our own homes. The tablet is more akin to the laptop than a smartphone and therefore should not be considered a “mobile” device by media planners.

Our old pre-conceptions about lean forward vs. lean back mode being tied to screen type are debunked with these results as well. On-the-go is indeed more commonly associated with lean forward and smartphones are the most used across screens while on-the-go. Tablets and laptops are used to consume more media at home than on-the-go … so labeling them a lean forward medium is simply not accurate. Lean forward is a more complex mode because it is a function of location, content, and screen. Media opportunities are not simply a function of screen; they are multi-modal functions of environment, content, and screen.

This study revealed the power of pre-roll video – showing pre-roll as a far superior ad unit type to banners for all brand metrics. Publishers – make sure you put video content on your tablets and smartphones too. Your consumers want to see it here, creating a great revenue opportunity!

Multi-screen consumer use trends are not splitting the media opportunity, they are unifying it. Through subtle but important nuances within consumer trends, we are realizing unique opportunities to reach a targeted audience in different contexts with ad units of different lengths and interaction modes. It is not all about the screen. All screens have the potential to work for the number one spot for relaxed medium consumption – the home.

For more on the results of this study, as well as a copy of the report please visit our research section.

Last night, at the opening of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Annual Leadership Meeting in Phoenix, YuMe was named winner of the 2012 IAB Sales Excellence Long Term Achievement Award for a small-to-mid-sized digital sales organization. The award recognizes exceptional customer service, knowledge of technology innovation and excellent sales experience as judged by agencies and brands, surveyed by the IAB.

If that weren’t enough, today, at the same gathering in Phoenix, YuMe is again being recognized by the IAB as a winner in the 2013 IAB Digital Video Rising Stars competition.

The IAB determined five creative Digital Video Rising Star ad unit categories. After evaluating more than six dozen entries based on user experience, branding, functionality, integration and adoption, YuMe’s Mobile Flip ad unit was selected as a winner in the competition’s “Full Screen” category.

The evaluation process included quantitative scoring to narrow down the finalists, followed by thorough qualitative discussions to determine the final winners. With consumers increasingly captivated by digital video programming, the Digital Video Rising Stars competition fosters digital advertising creativity and boosts larger advertising spends across multiple screens.

“We’re certainly honored to be selected as part of the IAB’s ongoing efforts to define industry standards in digital video advertising,” noted Ed Haslam, Senior Vice President, Marketing, with YuMe. “This recognition validates our leadership role in the industry, as we continue to innovate and deliver cutting-edge digital video advertising solutions across multiple screens for top brands.”

All of the winning companies will work closely with the IAB Agency and Ad Ops Working Groups throughout the year to define, build and implement the industry’s first-ever digital video ad format standard.

We are thrilled to announce that YuMe’s Connected Audience Network has been awarded the Advertiser Perceptions Highest Rated Media Brand for Advertiser Satisfaction in the U.S.

This year’s Advertiser Perceptions Highest Rated Media Brand Awards were based on an average of the Advertiser Intelligence Reports (AIR) Waves 15 and 16 ratings (Spring and Fall 2011) survey of thousands of media decision-makers, both marketers and agencies, who advertise with the leading print, television, digital, ad network and mobile media brands. The opinions of those surveyed provide the basis for insight metrics used to gauge media brand and company performance. The awards recognize media brand achievement in categories such as brand strength, sales knowledge, customer service, and advertiser satisfaction.

We believe this recognition is a strong validation of how our technology-driven Connected Audience Network coupled with our world-class customer service delivers unmatched advertiser satisfaction. YuMe’s Connected Audience Network delivers all 8 essentials elements for successful video advertising on all connected screens – PCs, mobile devices and connected TVs.

When it comes to YuMe’s world-class customer service promise, our Innovation Lab thrives to deliver the best video advertising performance for each and every advertiser we partner with and combines YuMe’s unique technology with best-practices from thousands of video advertising campaigns we have proudly run for world’s largest brands.

That is how we deliver ultimate customer satisfaction. Innovation never stops here at YuMe and such recognitions definitely fuel us to raise the bar by knitting technology, research and brilliant minds here at YuMe.

We also would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our advertisers. At the heart of our success are our clients and we’re extremely thankful for your business.

Scot McLernon – CRO