Advertising.com Brings In-Video, Pre-Roll To The Masses

TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF an increasingly video-centric Web,
Advertising.com is now offering advertisers in-video ad formats and
pre-roll inventory placement on a cost-per-click basis, while also
maintaining a CPM payment structure for publishers.

Through the integration of Ad.com's proprietary AdLearn technology,
the new Performance Video Product is seeking to bridge the "value
proposition" to a broader set of advertisers and publishers.

"With the integration of AdLearn technology into our video network, we
can now provide a new video offering for direct-response advertisers
and additional video options for brand advertisers," said Lynda
Clarizio, president of Advertising.com.

"Because the new product offering does not require professionally
produced commercials, all advertisers can benefit from the increase of
consumers viewing video online," she added.

Part of AOL's Platform-A advertising business and the largest
third-party ad network online, Ad.com is in fact playing catch-up with
this latest offering.

Ad network and Web video technology startup VideoEgg, for instance,
has offered in-video ad formats since its birth in 2005, and recently
launched a network for advertisers to negotiate a price for
engagement, thus offering a more valuable indicator of consumer
interest.

Microsoft is one of the first companies to use VideoEgg's new AdFrames
Brand Response Network to distribute video content promoting Microsoft
Office. The ads will run across the Eggnetwork, which includes
hundreds of social sites and applications.

Like Ad.com's new offering, VideoEgg's model diverges from the norm by
which advertisers buy online inventory based on impression--spending a
set amount per thousand delivered views, what's known as CPM.

And competition is bound to increase for Ad.com along with the
increasing revenue flooding into the online video market. Indeed, the
U.S. online video advertising market is expected to grow from $989
million in 2008--to an estimated $7.15 billion by 2012, according to
Forrester Research.

Ad.com's new cost-per-click offering employs a 5- to 9-second video or
flash creative asset and is streamed within an in-player video
environment.