Posts for 'BrightRoll'

  • Agencies Believe Targeting is By Far Most Valuable Benefit of Online Video Advertising

    BrightRoll has released findings from its 3rd annual U.S. ad agency survey, including among other things, that agencies believe targeting is by far the most valuable benefit of online video advertising. Cited by 56% of respondents, targeting alone exceeded all other benefits combined: reach (20%), price relative to TV (8%), other (8%), ad unit format (7%) and ability to reuse creative (2%).

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  • VideoNuze Podcast #250 - Sports are Driving TV Everywhere Adoption; Yahoo Acquires BrightRoll

    I'm pleased to present the 250th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

    (Programming note - While we were quite tempted to add our voices to this week's raging net neutrality debate, we decided to pass, on the assumption that listeners are likely fatigued. But if you'd like us to do an episode on net neutrality, please let us know.)

    Instead, we start this week with FreeWheel's newly-released Q3 '14 Video Monetization Report (VMR), and specifically how sports are playing a big role driving TV Everywhere's adoption. As Colin wrote, a whopping  82% of live online video ad views are now tied to sports content. Live video ads themselves grew by 214% year-over-year and now account for 21% of all video ad views for programmers.

    This is critical because it's increasingly clear that sports are going to play a pivotal role in broader TVE adoption. Colin will be moderating a session at VideoSchmooze on Dec. 4th that will dive deep into the subject with FreeWheel's Brian Dutt, who oversees the VMR, along with executives from Comcast, NBCU and Fox Sports. The session is a key part of our jam-packed VideoSchmooze program.

    We then discuss Yahoo's acquisition of video ad platform BrightRoll for $640 million cash. As I wrote earlier this week, the deal is the latest in a string of video ad tech acquisitions, fueled by the market's growing acknowledgement of online/mobile video advertising's growing importance. We also dig into what the deal means for Yahoo.  

    Listen in to learn more!



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  • Yahoo Acquires BrightRoll As Big Media Embraces Programmatic Video Advertising

    Late yesterday Yahoo announced it's acquiring video ad platform BrightRoll for $640 million cash. The deal had been rumored for a while and is the latest in a consolidation trend in the video ad tech space (and larger online video space) over the past year. By my count, since the start of 2014, there have been over 20 different online video acquisitions in the U.S. alone, spanning ad tech, content creation, distribution, search/discovery and mobile.

    The BrightRoll deal instantly makes Yahoo one of the leading players in programmatic video advertising, a significant growth area in the industry. Yahoo joins other big media companies that have also entered the programmatic video ad space via acquisition (e.g. Facebook with LiveRail, AOL with Adap.tv, RTL Group with SpotXchange, etc.). With all of these companies now emphasizing programmatic, growth will surely accelerate further.

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  • Study: Mobile Video Provides Cost-Effective Incremental Reach to TV Ads

    BrightRoll has released a new study, conducted by Nielsen, which concludes that mobile video advertising provides cost-effective incremental reach to TV advertising. Nielsen found the following incremental reach with mobile video ads in 4 verticals it studied: CPG (12.7%), Auto (11.9%), Telecom (9.5%) and Financial Services (9.9%).

    Underlying the incremental reach benefit of mobile video is Nielsen's estimate that once a brand hits 60% or more of its target audience with TV advertising, there's a point of diminishing returns, making incremental reach very expensive.

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  • BrightRoll Forms Partnerships to Accelerate Programmatic Video Ads

    BrightRoll announced a number of new and expanded partnerships this morning at its BrightRoll Video Summit, all intended to accelerate programmatic video advertising. They include:

    comScore and Nielsen - Integration of comScore's Validated Campaign Essentials (VCE) and Nielsen's Online Campaign Ratings (OCR) so buyers can tap into this measurement data in planning, targeting, optimizing and reporting on their campaigns. Access to the data is being provided free to buyers.

    Google - A programmatic integration with DoubleClick so that video ad buyers using BrightRoll will be able to gain real-time access to high-quality inventory in the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, which includes YouTube.

    BlueKai - Last, BrightRoll announced that mobile audience targeting is available, with BlueKai as the first 3rd-party mobile data provider that has been integrated. Others are expected this year. The mobile capability means buyers using the BrightRoll platform will be able target audiences beyond desktops, on smartphones and tablets. BlueKai includes 20,000 data categories in a marketplace of 70 million unique iOS and Android users.

    (Note: I'm attending the BrightRoll Video Summit this morning and will be continuously tweeting highlights at #BRVS.)

     
  • BrightRoll is Using Amazon Web Services to Process 30 Billion Ad-Related Data Points Per Day

    For a glimpse into cloud computing's significant contribution to the successful scaling of online video advertising, yesterday BrightRoll shared some details of its relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) which it has been working with since 2008. According to BrightRoll, AWS now processes 30 billion data points per day in order to deliver 3 billion video ads per month. BrightRoll said in 2013 it delivered over 23 petabytes of content, which will double in 2014. In a related case study, Kenneth Cheung, BrightRoll's senior director of engineering said that "If AWS didn't exist, BrightRoll would be a different company."

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  • Innovid's iRoll Interactive Ads Now Available For Mobile; BrightRoll First to Adopt

    Innovid is announcing this morning that its iRoll interactive video ad format is now also available for delivery in mobile to smartphones and tablets. This means that the same iRoll ad can be used online and in mobile, from the same ad server providing unified cross-platform analytics. Innovid's CEO Zvika Netter told me he believes this is a first for in-stream video ads. Innovid is also announcing that BrightRoll has become the first network to adopt the mobile iRoll and that several multi-screen campaigns are already live.

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  • Study: Targeting Still Main Appeal of Online Video Ads

    There are lots of things to be excited about when it comes to online video, but the main appeal continues to be targeting, according to BrightRoll's latest U.S. Video Advertising Report (free to download). Targeting was cited by 43% of respondents as the most valuable aspect of online video (up from 41% in 2011), far outpacing the next favorite attribute of reach (cited by 28% of respondents). All other attributes had 10% or less appeal.

    Like 2011, contextual and behavioral again lead in terms of targeting methodologies, with the former cited as most valuable by about 37% of respondents and the latter by 34%. Demographic and geographic trailed. Behavioral targeting will increase by 24% over 2011 with two-thirds of respondents said that over 40% of their ads in 2012 will include behavioral targeting.

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  • Report: Standards, User Experience Are Key Hurdles For Online Video Advertising

    Though online video advertising is surging, standardization of ads and the user experience are key barriers to its continued growth. That's according to video ad network BrightRoll's 2nd annual publisher report, released this morning, which contains insights about the current state of the online video advertising market.  Since the vast majority of the online video ecosystem is supported by advertising today, understanding how to increase spending and effectiveness are crucial to its ongoing success. BrightRoll surveyed over 100 executives at premium content publishers for its report.

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  • Survey: 65% of Media Buyers Plan to Shift Spending from TV to Online Video

    Online video ad network BrightRoll has released results of its Q1 '11 survey of media buyers' attitudes towards online video, and no surprise, they are yet again quite bullish. Several data points highlight online video's growing appeal; in particular the survey found 65% of respondents said they plan to shift campaign dollars from TV to online video. Beyond TV, as the chart below shows, display advertising is actually the spending bucket likely to see the biggest shift to online video, with 86% of buyers planning to move some of their display budget to online video.

    Importantly, 28% of media buyers forecast online video will see the largest increase in spending in 2011, with mobile video right behind at 27%. Online video is also becoming a more common component of all ad campaigns, with 27% of media buyers saying that over half of their request for proposals included an online video component. 41% of buyers reported targeting as the most valuable aspect of online video advertising to their clients. Within targeting, the most beneficial form is behavioral, followed closely by contextual and demographic.

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  • BrightRoll Unifies Mobile and Online Video Ads in New Offering

    Online video ad network BrightRoll is announcing this morning that clients can now buy pre-roll ads in mobile streams using the same BrightRoll buying platform as they use for online video. The move is further evidence that as the universe of mobile devices that play video continues to proliferate, the infrastructure that allows unified media planning and buying will follow.

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  • BrightRoll Launches BRX Online Video Advertising Exchange

    Online video ad network BrightRoll is launching the BrightRoll Exchange ("BRX") this morning, a self-service online video ad exchange intended to catalyze large-scale, efficient pre-roll video ad buying. BrightRoll CEO Tod Sacerdoti told me yesterday that BRX has been in the works for over a year and began a quiet beta test in April, initially with BrightRoll itself as the primary buyer, and in June with the first 3rd party buyers added. Tod said BRX now has hundreds of publishers participating and thousands of targetable URLs.

    Exchanges have long been important parts of the display ad buying ecosystem and Tod sees online video advertising following the same cycle. Over the past several years more and more brands and agencies have begun buying online video ads, learning about the new medium and its ROIs. Some bigger buyers are already looking to buy at scale, and others will surely follow. However, BrightRoll research suggests that key obstacles remain, with half of publishers it surveyed unable to sell 20% of their online video ad inventory. BrightRoll believes this is primarily due to buying inefficiencies.

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  • BrightRoll Breaks New Ground with Reporting Suite

    Last Thursday's BrightRoll announcement of a suite of 3rd party verified reporting tools, including comScore, Nielsen, Insight Express, and Vizu, breaks new ground is addressing the online video advertising efficacy problem. The suite aims to help marketers understand the actual results of online video campaigns with an eye to driving increased spending in the medium. On Friday, I had a chance to chat with BrightRoll's CEO, Tod Sacerdoti, who explained the reasons for this value-add reporting service.

    Tod said that the idea for enhanced reporting came from three problems. The first is that an extraordinarily high number of media buyers - somewhere in the realm of 85% according to BrightRoll's research - did not understand the effectiveness of their online video buys. The second problem was that buyers don't fully use ad networks' in-house analytics and don't fully trust them anyway. Further, as ad spend has poured into online video, so have many low quality networks, who can rely on unsavory tactics to get views and thus lower overall CPMs. Thirdly, internal analytics don't get at the big picture, including for example, how a placement on BrightRoll performs versus a competitor.

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  • February Has Been a Red-Hot Month for Online Video Financings

    February may be the shortest month of the year, but just less than 3 weeks in, the pace of online video financings has been the hottest since I started tracking this data over a year ago. By my count there have been at least 8 financings announced this month and I suspect I've likely missed a few (please let me know if so). This week brought financings from Clicker ($11M), YuMe ($25M) and TidalTV ($16M), adding to those announced previously: Encoding.com ($1.25M), IVT ($5.5M), Voddler ($3.5M), BrightRoll ($10M) and the big whopper of the month Ustream ($75M) though this one in two tranches.

    Even with limited liquidity and choppy public markets, investors continue to make big bets across the online and mobile video ecosystems because of the massive shifts in consumer behaviors, business models and technology development. In 2009 I tracked at least 64 companies raising almost $470 million in the worst venture capital market in decades. Despite investors' enthusiasm, at least 2 big craters (Veoh - $70M and Joost - $45M) prove that even startups with blue-chip teams and promising headstarts can flop in this still nascent market.
     
    Update: Make that 9 financings in February, for a total of just under $150 millon, as Vook announced just today that it has raised a $2.5M round.

    What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).

     
  • VideoNuze Report Podcast #34 - October 2, 2009

    Daisy Whitney and I are pleased to present the 34th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for October 2, 2009.

    This week Daisy and I first discuss my post "Break Media Gains Momentum with Branded Content in 2009" in which I describe how Break, a male-focused entertainment community, has used branded content to differentiate itself and increase revenues. Branded content is a relatively new media form where sponsors fund the production process and have significant creative input or outright control.

    Break has been able to offer branded content projects as a value ad to sponsors' media buys on its sites by allocating a percentage of the client's media spend to the projects. I describe how Break does this, along with how branded content has helped it separate itself from competitors and grow revenue by a projected 18% this year.

    Related, Daisy then talks about pricing trends in the online video advertising market, quoting ad network BrightRoll's CEO Tod Sacerdoti as saying that he's seen CPMs drop by an average of a dollar or more per quarter since launching in 2006. In his view prices have been inflated due to a "false equilibrium" about inventory scarcity. He sees prices continuing to fall into the low teens, a level at which more advertiser's budgets will flow into the online video medium - though not necessarily from TV. Learn more about Tod's predictions for the industry and Daisy's interpretations.

    Click here to listen to the podcast (14 minutes, 12 seconds)

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  • thePlatform Adds Partners to Its Framework Program

    thePlatform is announcing this morning that another 20 companies have joined its "Framework" partner program originally rolled out in Feb. '08. There are now over 80 companies participating.

    In its release, thePlatform notes that its "role is to make online video publishing a seamless process for our customers...." That's a commonly-shared goal among video platform companies, yet I continue to hear from various content providers that stitching together the various pieces they require into a total solution can be difficult. That's why these kinds of programs, where partner products are pre-integrated, add a lot of value for customers.

    Among the many companies thePlatform cites as new partners are quite a few I've written about previously on VideoNuze (click to see each write-up): Aspera, Azuki Systems, BrightRoll, EveryZing, Transpera, Visible Measures, YuMe and others.

    (Note: thePlatform is a VideoNuze sponsor)

     
  • First Look at comScore's July '09 Video Ad Networks' Rankings

    Below is a first look at comScore's rankings for video ad networks' "potential" reach for July '09. The rankings, which have not yet been publicly shared, reveal a relatively tight clustering of 5 video ad networks - ScanScout, Tremor Media, YuMe, Broadband Enterprises and BrightRoll - with ScanScout capturing the number 1 spot in its first month being fully measured by comScore.

     

    The "potential reach" aspect of these rankings is important to understand. As I explained in June in "Unraveling comScore's Monthly Viewership Data for Online Video Ad Networks," the potential reach numbers account for the aggregate number of viewers of all the sites that the ad network has the right to place ads on. However, as I discussed with Tania Yuki, comScore's director of product management, it's not a perfect measure, though comScore is continually trying to improve it.

    The rankings are determined through a combination of the ad networks' self-reported publisher list and comScore's own tracking. If a video network reports that any one publisher accounts for 2% or more of its viewers, comScore requires a letter proving the business relationship. There is also a self-policing mechanism as comScore provides a "dictionary" of all publishers that each ad network reports. Competitors can review the dictionary and appeal to comScore if something appears amiss. Still, there's some looseness in the methodology, and having spoken to a number of industry executives, also a fair amount of concern that it is accurately portraying the industry's true performance.

    comScore recognizes the limitations of the potential reach approach and that it is just one way of understanding a video ad network's value. Actual monthly performance is equally important, and comScore has been working with ad networks to implement this reporting as well. As I wrote in June, the "hybrid" approach requires ad networks to insert a 1x1 beacon in their video players. Though this approach also has its limitations, many of the biggest video ad networks are now implementing the beacon, and soon comScore will likely begin reporting actual as well as potential reach.

    Video ad networks are a very important part of the online video ecosystem, responsible for placing millions of dollars of ads each month. Importantly they allow a level of targeting and reach that brands seek, but are often unable to attain on their own with a handful of direct site relationships. With the online video medium still relatively new, buyers require data helping them understand their options. However, the comScore data is just a first filter, diligent buyers still must dig in to understand how each network, or individual site meets their needs.

    What do you think? Post a comment now.

     
  • Unraveling comScore's Monthly Viewership Data for Online Video Ad Networks

    A monthly reminder that online video remains a work in progress is comScore's viewership data for online video ad networks. Even as someone who follows the industry closely, I find these reports confusing. The press releases often distributed by various online video ad networks touting their progress only adds to the confusion. I touched on this last month, and to clear away some of the fog, last week I spoke to Tania Yuki, comScore's product manager for its Video Metrix measurement service.

    comScore's traffic reports are extremely important for the online video industry's growth because they are a key source of data for advertisers, media buyers, agencies and others looking to tap into this new medium. Ad networks in particular are an important part of the online video ecosystem because they provide significant reach, targeting and delivery technology, all of which are required by prospective advertisers.

    A key part of the current confusion is that each month comScore's Video Metrix Ad Focus report - which details the total audience of unique viewers for online properties and ad networks - combines both the actual audience of destination properties with the potential reach of video ad networks. For example, here's the top 10 for April:

     

    As you can see, 5 of the top 10 listed are ad networks, whose measurement is potential, while the other 5 are actuals. "Potential" is supposed to represent the aggregate number of viewers of all the sites that the ad network has the right to place ads on. However even the validity of this number is amorphous, because networks are only required to provide comScore proof of their relationships if the site accounts for more than 2% of all streaming or web activity.

    Recognizing the need to provide more clarity, comScore has recently made available the option for networks to participate in a "hybrid" measurement approach, meant to track networks' actual viewership. To participate, networks need to place a 1x1 pixel, or "beacon" inside any video player where their ads appear. comScore takes the data reported by the beacons and combines it with its 2 million member panel of users whose behavior it tracks. It reconciles differences between the two through a "scaling" process that looks at the intensity of users' non-video behaviors.

    To give a sense of the difference between potential and actual, comScore reports BrightRoll - which along with Nabbr are the only video ad networks to have implemented the beacons by April - as having 26M actual viewers vs. the 62M potential reported.

    comScore's hybrid approach, which fits with its recently-announced "Media Metrix 360" service, is an important step forward in providing more clarity on how video ad networks are actually performing. Still, as Tania explained, even the hybrid approach has its own idiosyncrasies. For example, some publishers resist having a network's beacon incorporated into their video player, because they want to receive traffic credit themselves. Further, it is a voluntary program. Tania said that in addition to BrightRoll and Nabbr, other networks like BBE, YuMe and Tremor are all working through the implementation currently.

    The actual numbers are important for buyers, so that ad networks' viewership can be assessed on an "apple to apples" basis with online properties, as well as non-video options. Tania said that media buyers tell comScore they value both potential and actual numbers. Though that sounds right to me, I think that for the online video medium to mature, buyers are going to put increasing emphasis on actual performance, particularly as it relates to existing media. That's why recent efforts from YuMe and Tremor to translate online video's impact into TV's gross rating points (GRP) paradigm are also important.

    In short, comScore seems to be doing its part to improve reporting clarity. However, this isn't going to resolve itself overnight; the market will continue to experience reporting confusion for some time to come.

    What do you think? Post a comment now.

     
  • comScore Data Shows Tremor Media, Others Gaining in Premium Reach

    Amid the steady stream of sneak peek press releases I'm sent each day, one I received late Tuesday from Tremor Media, the video ad network and monetization platform, caught my eye.

    The release cited March data from comScore indicating that Tremor's network now had potential reach of 137M unique users and 57M unique video viewers (both unduplicated). The former number is from comScore's Media Metrix Ad Focus report and the latter from its Video Metrix Ad Focus report.

    In particular, the latter number stuck out because I recalled comScore numbers from just 2 weeks ago that revealed the viewership for the top 10 video sites. Google (YouTube) was #1 with about 100M viewers, and Fox Interactive (mainly MySpace) was #2 with about half the amount, 55M.

    comScore's new data meant that Tremor's potential reach was second only to YouTube's actual reach. And if you make the argument that much of YouTube's viewership is still UGC, while Tremor's network focuses solely on premium publishers, Tremor would be #1 in potential reach against premium video, a key point of the release. It's also worth noting that 2 other video ad networks focused on premium publishers also show up in comScore's top 10 for potential unique viewers- BrightRoll with 56M and YuMe with 41M.

    Tremor's VP of Marketing Shane Steele and market research manager Ryan Van Fleet walked me through the data further yesterday.

    First, it's important to read these numbers carefully, as there's a little bit of apples vs. oranges going on. The Video Metrix Ad Focus report combines actual viewership by the destination sites (e.g. YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo, Hulu, etc.) with potential viewership by the ad networks. The report clearly denotes what's considered "potential." If I understand it correctly then, the comScore numbers for ad networks should be read as "here's the total potential audience of viewers you have access to." However, what percentage of this accessible audience actually gets an ad served by the ad network is only known by the ad network itself.

    VideoNuze readers will recall there's been a lot of sensitivity around these comScore numbers, since last summer a minor kerfuffle broke out over comScore's ranking of YuMe's traffic. Initially it attributed MSN's full audience to YuMe, but later revised YuMe's ranking down by only included pages against which YuMe ads could be served. comScore also stated that on an ongoing basis it would report "potential" reach for ad networks based on documented agreements and "actual" reach for those networks that included certain tags. The new Tremor numbers reflect this potential reach measurement.

    It's also important to remember that comScore filters its data to arrive at unduplicated reach. As I understand it that means that if for example Tremor had USAToday.com and Fox.com in its network (note Tremor doesn't disclose its publishers except to its advertisers) and a single user watched video at both sites, the user would only be counted once in Tremor's potential reach. I don't know how exactly comScore de-duplicates viewership, but let's assume it's accurate.

    The extent of Tremor's reach (along with BrightRoll's and YuMe's), particularly against premium video is an encouraging sign. I've written in the past that key inhibitors of TV ad dollars moving over to online video are both scale and various friction points in the ad buying process. The comScore data demonstrates that a cluster of ad networks is emerging that can deliver against TV ad buyer's reach expectations, while adding new targeting and reporting capabilities unavailable in TV. There have also been recent enhancements to these companies' reporting/analytics (particularly around GRPs) to synch up with TV ad buyers' expectations.

    The online video ad model continues to grow and evolve in spite of the current recession. This is particularly important for expensively-produced premium video where effective online monetization is crucial.

    Chime in here with a comment if you think the comScore data or its implications needs further clarification.

     
  • BrightRoll Targets High-Quality Video Ad Network

    Over the next few weeks I'll be doing a series of posts on broadband video advertising's key opportunities and challenges, based on briefings with industry players. Advertising has increasingly become the industry's business model of choice, so understanding its future development is critical.

    Just as there are advertising networks for Internet display or banner advertising, there are now a number of independent ad networks dedicated to broadband video advertising. These ad networks perform a crucial role in aggregating and selling inventory, creating efficiencies for both publishers and advertisers alike. These are particularly critical functions given how fragmented video is online.

    I recently had a chance to catch up with Tod Sacerdoti, CEO/co-founder of BrightRoll, a big independent video ad network, who's in the trenches every day and is as knowledgeable as anyone about today's market and key challenges. BrightRoll is focused on building a network of high-quality publishers offering advertisers full transparency about which sites their ads run on. It is flexible to support all formats, players and units and has served over 1 billion ads to date.

    Though BrightRoll just introduced an HD in-banner ad unit, it generally shies away from pioneering new formats, leaving it to publishers to drive the market. Tod believes that technical leadership will be a key differentiator and so BrightRoll builds all its own technology in-house.

    For ad networks, the size and quality of their publisher network is obviously critical. BrightRoll's sweet-spot are premium branded sites that it can sell for around $15-25 CPM. This is the middle part of the market, below the "super-premium" sites but above the vast amount of user-generated video which is tough to sell.

    Tod breaks down the market's current 10 billion streams/mo. Of the 40% non-YouTube videos, about half of the streams are monetizable, yielding about 2 billion streams. Tod thinks about half of these are sold. Two reasons for such a high unsold ratio are that many premium sites are maintaining minimum CPM requirements and because there are usage spikes that create unsold inventory. One of BrightRoll's key goals is to get the "unsold" server call from premium sites which want to maximize yield on usage spikes.

    From Tod's standpoint a big challenge remains lack of standards, and therefore the reluctance of big publishers to fully integrate with ad networks. The IAB has been focusing on video standards which are expected soon. I have thought for a while that broadband video advertising will be driven by big brands diverting budget from TV ad spending. This contrasts with search, where Google in particular has relied on tens of thousands of smaller, ROI-focused advertisers. Tod sees it the same way and therefore is focused on driving high-quality online reach that brands require, along with reliable tracking and reporting.

    With so many sites churning out video and hoping to tap advertising budgets, appealing to big brands becomes ever-more important. Between this and the difficulty of finding talented sales people, ad networks like BrightRoll will play an ever-greater role in the industry.

    What do you think? Post a comment!

    (Note: VideoNuze won't be published tomorrow, March 28th)

     
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