By Jennifer Zaino
Semantic ad targeting and brand protection is diving deeper into the online video category. That’s one result of a new deal for React2Media to represent ad pepper media’s display products and services, iSense, SiteScreen and the real-time bidding platform adEXplorer, in the U.S.iSense is based on Crystal’s Sense Engine semantic analysis technology for supporting content targeting of display advertising, while SiteScreen keeps ads away from objectionable content. Check out this article and this one for more details on how the semantic targeting and protection suites work, and this one for information on the adEXplorer platform that will be integrated into Act2, React2Media’s video ad network. adEXplorer incorporates the precise page-level targeting and brand safety filtering of the iSense and SiteScreen technologies.
Many web sites today, including YouTube and Yahoo Network, operate on the pre-roll model, where embedded video players run an ad in advance of the video that users are waiting to see. React2Media takes the tack that web sites need not have embedded video players, so “you don’t have to be married to the small amount of web sites that have one,” says COO Jordan Galbraith. Its technology also allows, while the video ad plays in the banner, for an expandable companion ad running on the side with more details.With the ad pepper relationship, “now we can offer ads in a banner across any web site in the world and can match content on the page with the content of our advertising,” in real-time, he says. “We’re one of the first to target page level content to video ads.” That level of dynamism is a switch from manual site-specific media buy approaches.Video is becoming a very interesting online advertising vehicle for clients because it’s familiar to them from their experience in the television world, according to Galbraith. There’s not the same learning curve as with display or email advertising. “These agencies understand video already. And now they get the semantics and brand protection, and for a significantly cheaper CPM (cost per mille) than high-end web sites selling pre-roll,” he says. There, limited inventory equals hefty competition. React2Media expanded its service to do video ads in traditional IAB ad sizes because every web site carries those ad units, reducing CPM costs.And, adds React2Media CEO Alex Shaller, they get those advantages plus analytics, such as seeing user engagement with the video – when they stopped it, or when they went on to the web site for further information, for instance.eMarketer this week noted that that U.S. online display ad spending will grow 24.1 percent in 2012 to $15.4 billion. This estimate includes banners, rich media, sponsorships and video purchased across publisher sites, networks, exchanges, DSPs, social networks and mobile. While the video is a differentiator in this deal, Shaller says that one shouldn’t ignore that the semantic technology has “proven to be extremely effective in page banner campaigns for a wide array of clients that have the ability to optimize by specific categories.”The new relationship also means that the ad pepper technology will now be sold by a sales force double its original size, and gain about a 30 to 40 percent increase in business development resources, so overall its approach to the U.S. market will be much stronger. Both Shaller and Galbraith previously were with ad pepper, launching its U.S. offices here in 2006 and iSense in 2007. Say Galbaith, “we’re bringing the family back together.”