YouTube Challenger; Programmatic Creative

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Poaching YouTube’s Users

Ex-Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has been working on a platform to challenge YouTube’s online video dominance. The video streaming service, dubbed Vessel, is staffed by a fleet of ex-Hulu, Netflix and Amazon leaders, and Ad Age reports that it could debut as early as this month. Vessel will offer both free and subscription-based access, with both versions slated to serve ads and work across apps, desktop and mobile sites. Naturally, there are possible ties to connected-TV services like Apple TV, Roku and Xbox. Purportedly, Vessel’s secret sauce will be signing YouTube creators to yearlong contracts that require creators to upload new content to Vessel and wait 72 hours before posting elsewhere.

Private Auction Potential

Google wants its private exchanges to ease brand marketers into programmatic by marrying automation with creative, Adweek’s Garrett Sloane writes. “There is a sense that advertising technology and creative are at odds, but I don’t see it that way,” said Neal Mohan, VP of display and video ads. “Technology is something that should fade away and empower creative agencies to do what they do best: find ways to connect brands with consumers.” More.

Social Value

Are brands wasting their efforts on Facebook and Twitter? Forrester analyst Nate Elliott writes in a blog post that top brand marketers only reach about 2% of their fans and followers via Facebook and Twitter posts, and interactions clock in at an abysmal 0.1%. “It’s clear that Facebook and Twitter don’t offer the relationships that marketing leaders crave,” Elliott writes. “Yet most brands still use these sites as the centerpiece of their social efforts — thereby wasting significant financial, technological, and human resources on social networks that don’t deliver value.” Read it. On Friday Facebook said it would further dial down nonpaid page posts in the news feed. Elliott, a frequent critic of Facebook’s algorithms, suggests marketers rethink their social strategies, and says Facebook will soon become a “repository for display ads.” The WSJ has more.

Raising Eyebrows

Eyeview has raised $15 million to drive adoption of its personalized video platform. Press release. In a recent AdExchanger interview, CEO Oren Harnevo said, “We take the original TV ad and change stuff: We’ll change the price, and [the information will] come off a feed. The technology takes different pieces and renders the media, so we’re left with hundreds of thousands of videos in the cloud.” Read that. Also, Eyeview hired former Conversant exec Brian Pozesky as CMO and West Naze, former EVP of sales and tech at News Corp., to spearhead CPG sales.

Shazam OOH

Shazam and Adspace Networks teamed up to bring interactive ads to more than 200 malls nationwide. Through the partnership, Shazam’s “ultrasonic watermark” tech will recognize smartphone users up to 40 feet away, and serve shoppers special content and offers. “Through our partnership with Shazam, we are able to offer our advertisers a seamless way to retarget their ads and extend their content to consumers’ smartphones,” said Adspace Networks CEO Dominick Porco. The challenge is convincing users to reimagine Shazam’s functionality. The service has long been used for music discovery. Press release.