Serious about Business

Mixpo Honored as Team of the Year

According to Wikipedia, “A team comprises a group of people linked in a common purpose. A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize his or her strengths…”

This is a great description of the Mixpo Product and Technology team. Our team last night was honored as the winner of the  “Team of the Year” by the British Columbia Technology Industry Association (BCTIA) and its 2009 Technology Impact Awards (TIAs). The Mixpo team was up against TELUS, a national telecommunications company in Canada, with $9.7 billion of annual revenue. Can you say, “David vs. Goliath?”

The BCTIA’s TIAs, now its 15th year, shine a spotlight on the people and innovation that sets the standard and serve as role models in British Columbia. Mixpo was founded in Victoria and a vast majority of our Product and Technology team is housed in our offices North of the Border.

So, why was the Mixpo team honored? Simply put, over the past couple of years they’ve delivered. According to the BCTIA and based on our submission, they were asked to change “direction mid-stream – one of the most difficult tasks an organization can undertake, and it that requires a solid team to execute.”

The BCTIA went on to write about the Mixpo team, “In the rapidly changing and competitive technology market of digital marketing, Mixpo’s team provided the momentum, savvy, and innovation to drive the company’s future profitability.”

We’re very proud of our Product and Technology team. They are the backbone of Mixpo and our efforts to be the best online video advertising technology company in the world making rich media VideoAds accessible to local advertisers, large or small. Great job team and congrats!

McDonald's and other advertisers see success with Online VideoAds

In a recent post (Capturing the value of VideoAds), I talked about capturing the value of VideoAds.  I introduced the thesis that video display ads are different than regular display ads and much more effective both for advertisers and prospects. 

VideoAds running in-banner benefit prospects by:

- Creating a richer presentation that’s highly interactive and more informative

- Bring information TO the viewer rather than forcing them to click away

- Keeping viewers in control and letting them take action when they're ready

And for advertisers by:

- Providing more insight into how receptive viewers are to an advertiser’s message

- Working across the purchase funnel helping advertisers achieve brand awareness and purchase    
   intent goals or conversion related goals, e.g., email inquiries, or, yes, even click to a website when      the viewer is ready

Again, working with our publishing partners, we’re seeing the benefits of VideoAds for advertisers both large and small who focus on the local market. 

One of the world’s most recognized brands goes local

Case in Point: McDonald's wanted to drive awareness of the regional launch of McCafe and their new line of coffee drinks.   They launched a VideoAd campaign in the Detroit area repurposing seven of their television spots.  Viewers watched over 1100 minutes and on average each viewer watched over 80 percent of the VideoAd.

Download Ad-0406-fastfood_core

A local tourism bureau goes big with VideoAds

Case in Point: Sonoma Country Tourism is like a “little piece of Provence” and wanted to drive awareness of that fact by showcasing the epicurean delights on Sonoma.   They also wanted to drive action – clicks, calls, and inquiries.  In three weeks they generated over 1100 clicks with a 0.53 percent CTR.

Download Ad-0403-wl_tourism_core-1

A regional healthcare provider finds the perfect marketing medicine

Case in Point: The University of Washington Medicine and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, serves the northwest community but is more known for its trauma center and university medical school than the world-class specialty practices in areas like Brain Aneurysms and Heart Arrhythmias.  Using existing videos and turning them into VideoAds, they generated over 13,000 minutes of view over the 10-week campaign period.  The average length of each VideoAd was 2 minutes, yet viewers watched over 50 percent.

Download Ad-0422-uw_core

A Performing Arts Center has a command performance online

Case in Point: The Orange County Performing Arts Center (OCPAC) wanted to promote a series of events in rapid succession, get people excited, and drive ticket sales.  With events ranging from Stomp to CATs, OCPAC achieved an engagement rate that was 7X that of the click through rates regular display ads achieve.  The top performing event, Backyardigans, achieved an ER of almost 1.70 percent.

Download Ad-0403-performing_arts_core-1

Conclusion: These local advertisers understand that the display ad can do so much more than provide a click.  With video, display ads can drive brand awareness, purchase intent and lead customers down the purchase funnel to a sale but it all starts with getting viewers to engage with your message and become prospects.   The click isn’t dead in display ads,steve it just has lots more company.

Video Kills The Display Ad?

Display ads have needed an overhaul for quite some time. The sole benefit of "the click" and associated clickthrough rate is under siege now that video is being incorporated into banner ad real estate.  It's high time to advance the regular display ad. 

Video enabled display ads offer so much more capability than their ancestral cousin.  VideoAds offer the ability to engage viewers and turn them into prospects no matter where they are in the purchase funnel and that includes BUT not limited to driving direct response (or clicks). 

For more on the topic, I invite you to check out the featured article, "Video kills the display ad...metrics" just released on Adotas.

Capturing the value of VideoAds

Working with our local media publisher partners, over the past several months, we’ve run thousands of ad campaigns delivering tens of millions of VideoAd impressions. In the process, we’re learning a lot about what makes for an effective VideoAd campaign.

At a macro level, we know that video display ads act totally different from regular display ads. Regular display ads provide a click.  VideoAds not only offer sight, sound and motion, but ways for viewers to engage with the ad and get more from it. Viewers can get the full brand’s message in one place. They get the value proposition, the offer or the promotion. They also control the experience, how and when to interact and, yes, even click.

At a more measured level, consequently VideoAds provide richer metrics on effectiveness. What  ‘effectiveness’ means, however, varies based on the objective of the advertiser. VideoAds show advertisers how viewers respond and interact, how much they watch, if their interest goes up by expanding the player to full screen. And when clicks are measured, VideoAds again go beyond regular display ads ─ not just measuring if a click occurs but when it occurs indicating a better or more qualified lead.

Taking a sample of our case study work for advertisers in automotive, travel, events, and sports we’ve seen how VideoAds help advertisers reach their advertising objective driving average engagement rates (ER) 5X that of the clickthrough rate (CTR) of regular display ads and brand exposure (represented by average view time) where viewers on average watch more than 70 percent of the total video.

A MLB team swings for the fences
Case in point: A major league baseball team, in the dark days of January, wanted to get people excited about the upcoming season. Running a VideoAd campaign, the MLB team achieved an engagement rate that was nearly 7X the CTR of a regular display ad.

Download Ad-0403-baseball_generic-1

A local television station sweeps up success
Oftentimes, advertisers just want to ‘get the message’ out and drive offline activity.

Case in point: A western U.S. local television station wanted to promote some special news programs to drive viewership up during the critical sweeps week. In one week, over 660 minutes of the VideoAd was watched.

Download Ad-0403-tv_station_generic-1

An auto dealer drives clicks
And of course, some advertisers want to drive clicks and interactions ─ especially important for “tough times” categories like automotive.

Case in point: A luxury auto dealer wanted to increase visits to a website where it was promoting a new “affordable” luxury SUV.  A VideoAd promoting the new model generated more than 90 clicks and 100 interactions in just one week.

Download Ad-0403-auto_generic-1

A Ski resort takes viewer on a long run
Finally, video – even short 15 second ones – tell a story that regular display can’t. Advertisers can make their case for their business and viewers get more information.

Case in point: A ski resort in Colorado, where some of the best resorts in the world reside, wanted to differentiate themselves from the pack. Their VideoAd campaign not only generated high ER but also brand exposure. On average, viewers watched over 70 percent of the VideoAd, and 54 percent of the viewers watched it all the way through.

 

Download Ad-0403-ski_resort_generic-1

There’s lots of debate going on about the true value of display and how insufficient the click has been as the metric for success. Video changes that. Video affords advertisers more flexibility to meet different objectives and the Internet acts as an enabler for measuring success across those varied objectives. Engagement and brand exposure capture the value of video advertising. Clicks are just a part of the value - with their importance dialed up or down based on the advertisers’ objectives. 

So does engagement trump clicks? 
We believe it does.  Engagement tells a better story than clicks alone do about what is going on in an ad, whether the message resonated or not, and when the viewer took action and what those actions were - all benefits to the advertiser who wants transparency on performance.  Similarly, video tells a better story to the viewer, providing them better information that they digest without clicking away, and letting them choose how and when they engage - with the benefit of control and choice being theirs. 

In this new world of video advertising, value goes both ways.

Who’s winning the race for online video ad dollars?

Borrell Associates reports that newspapers are beating out local TV in local video revenue.  In fact, they also report that IYP’s, who sell advertorial video to SMBs, are poised to pass local TV as well.

I’m surprised for a couple of reasons:  1) local TV already has clients who run broadcast ads, hence, it should be an easy 1-2 punch to sell existing advertisers on “packages” that extend their reach online; and 2) local TV sales folks “get video” and marrying video to the performance metrics of online should make for an easy sale.

The cable companies, on the other hand, are making traction.  Borrell notes how they are targeting video ads down to the zip and neighborhood level. And they certainly have digitally smart local sales people who know how to sell video.

My conclusion: there are lots of local media publishers who can play in the online video ad game but are at different stages in doing so. 

To me, the report is less about who is winning today and more about the rich opportunity all local publishers have to take what they have: a local sales force, existing advertisers, great local content, and ad inventory they can sell themselves at a premium, and generate big time online ad revenue with video. 

The current year aside, everyone is still bullish on online advertising revenue growth and how video will help to fuel it for years to come.

Nonetheless, the point is clear: to be a player, you first have to get on the field. 

AlwaysOn's OnMedia 100 is On

The AlwaysOn OnMedia 100 NYC event kicked off last night.  Anupam, our CEO, is speaking this morning in the CEO Showcase – 50 of the award winners present to the attendees.  See agenda for the 2 day event.  There’s an eclectic group media professionals here - from venture capitalists, media publishers, leading press and analyst in attendance, and of course, representatives from the winning companies.  Ironically, in spite of our current economic times and the fact that the event is being held in lower Manhattan - just a few blocks from Wall Street - the mood is very upbeat.  Of course, this makes lots of sense because each of the winning companies are sanguine about the technologies they've developed and the prospects of bringing real value to our customers and the market.  So the venue and location, make a lot of sense.

Mixpo Selected OnMedia 100 Award Winner

We were just announced as winner of the OnMedia 100 Award given to private, emerging technology companies in the advertising, publishing, marketing, branding and public relations spaces.  The award, selected by AlwaysOn's editorial team is based on its market opportunity, level of innovation, growth and customer traction.  The selection to this prestigious award is based on disruption in the marketplace.  In the words of Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn, "This is the list of the top 100 emerging companies that are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities in the marketing, branding, advertising, and publishing industries."

Dissuption comes in many ways.  In today's tough economic times, there are lots of companies whose business models are eroding and facing disruption, namely, traditional media companies and the advertiisng industry as a whole.  For Mixpo, we like to think our technology is disruptive BUT in a way that helps traditonal media companies - in newspaper, broadcast television, and radio TRANSFORM themselves online and compete.

As AlwaysOn put it: "The winners from this year's list will likely look back on this time as their formative—albeit challenging—adolescence; a time when even though they had to sharpen their game to win deals, they were also met with a market hungry for their efficiencies and insights."  We're honored to be recognized as winner of the OnMedia 100 award but even more excited for the reasons behind it.

The AlwaysOn OnMedia 100 Award Winners

The OnMedia 100 winners will be recognized at the OnMedia 100 Conference at the Ritz Carlton, New York City, on February 2-4. This two-and-a-half day executive conference is co-presented by Forbes and will feature presentations and high-level debates from CEOs, journalists, industry experts, investors and publishing and advertising executives.

Online Advertising in 2009

With 2009 almost here, everyone is bracing themselves for a tough year especially in the advertising industry where big spenders like automotive and financial service sectors are sure to be down.  

I recently ran across an article in BusinessWeek,titled: Why Online Ads Are Weathering the Recession.  In it, the author quoted some disturbing projections from Barclay Capital that U.S. ad spending is expected to be negative 10% next year and only positive 1% the following year.  The Barclay study also went on to predict that traditional media platforms will be hit the hardest lead by Newspaper with a stunning 17% year over year drop in ad revenue, followed by TV and Radio with 15.5% and 13% year over year declines, respectively. Radical change is coming to these industries the offer suggests.

While these traditional media platforms lose ground, the silver lining for the publishing industry is online where positive year over year growth is still projected (upwards of 6 to 10%).   

But why the positive projections for online advertising when whole industries are going through radical shake ups?

Among other things, online advertising brings: 1) accountability: by knowing how ads perform, if they are driving clicks, and, more and more, the ability to pay based on performance; 2) targeting: the ability to pinpoint qualified prospects based on e.g., geography.  

We, too, are bracing ourselves but we are bracing ourselves for the powerful role we expect VIDEO to play in fueling online advertising and helping publishers in newspaper, television, and radio not only weather the recession but excel in 2009.

Beyond the accountability and targeting online advertising brings, we see a radical change in how VIDEO advertising allows publishers to do more and offer: 1) a richer experience that video provides over text links or regular display ads; 2) greater accessibility to small and medium sized businesses who could not afford high production video but can now create compelling video ads at low cost; 3)more meaningful measurability tied to interactivity rather than just clicks from regular display ads that offer , 5 second exposure and often lead to a dead end.

Sure, will see lots of radical changes across many sectors including advertising but traditional media platforms will not go away; they'll just be augmented by new media platforms.  For the smart and visionary publishers, the shake up as an opportunity to leverage what they have: strong local sales forces, expertise in creating great content and strong readership (listenership), and, yes, their existing media platforms, to create a more holistic offering to their advertisers leveraging the internet and video.  

For 2009, that may seem radical but someday (soon) online VIDEO advertising will be as commonplace as.... online advertising.

A time for thanksgiving...during tough economic times?

Much has been written the past few months about the tough economic times we're in.  I recently wrote an article for Media Post entitled, Online Video Ads Ride High During Tough Economic Times
that talked about how businesses responded to tough times in the past with many pulling back their advertising efforts and hunkering down - hoping for better days.  A few gutsy advertisers, however, took a different approach and saw it as an opportunity to advance their business in spite of what others where doing and in spite of good (navigational) data to help them steer through these rough waters.

Today's advertisers can be thankful that they can navigate through tough times by being smarter about where they spend their marketing dollars.  In today's world, advertisers don't have to rely on sheer guts for success.   Performance data and the ability to change direction (optimize) based on information is the fuel that will power many advertisers through these tough times.  We're seeing this with many of our publishers who serve small and medium sized businesses.  Their clients are not laying anchored in some harbor or simply adrift, waiting for the tides to change.  They are staying the course and relying on performance data (not guts) for their success.   Yes. there is still much for advertisers to be thankful for.

Mixpo selected as a top 25 Innovator & Entrepreneur

Seattle Business Monthly just announced their Power Players - Top 25 Innovators & Entrepreneurs in their October 8th, 2008 issue and Mixpo was selected.  Here's what they said about Mixpo:

The Next Generation of Online Advertising: Anupam Gupta (President & CEO, Mixpo)
In an age when video on the web is ubiquitous, advertisers need to be sharper in their approach and flashier in their delivery to get today’s internet audience to pay attention. Banner ads just won’t cut it anymore.

That’s where Delhi, India, native and MSN alum Anupam Gupta comes in. The 34-year-old president and CEO of online video ad startup Mixpo has developed a set of web-based services that help local businesses advertise online in a measurable and results-driven way.
“Over the last few years, video has grown online, and much of that is consumer video on sites like YouTube,” Gupta says. “There are a ton of eyeballs out there, so it’s natural to have advertising follow where the eyeballs are.”

Mixpo, with 17 employees, has developed a number of applications and platforms designed to make it easy for just about anybody to develop his or her own audio/visual advertisements that can be added to a website or embedded in other sites.

“Let’s say a real estate agent has 10 high-resolution photos of a house he’s trying to sell,” Gupta says. “You can use those images to create some compelling video using the Mixpo platform.”

The company, which raised $6.5 million in venture capital in 2006, also offers clients an extensive series of tools that allow businesses to track how many people click on an advertisement and even the general area where these people are located. Mixpo’s suite of web applications measures the number of impressions an ad generates, how many people start watching an ad and whether those people click on interactive components of the ad, such as a coupon. This information lets businesses of all sizes tailor advertisements specifically to a target audience, geographic region or even an individual community.

Mixpo rolled out its first web-based services at the beginning of 2007 and has steadily added new capabilities since then.
“It’s not just about creating and posting an ad online,” says Gupta of Mixpo’s power. “It’s about getting those videos discovered by search engines and putting them on local newspaper sites where people will see them.” —J.M.

Companies were selected because of their ability to change the local space we all reside in: the Puget Sound area known as Western Washington.  It's nice to be recognized locally as we help other local markets' publishers and advertisers across the country succeed.