Facebook's Video Ad Process; Blinkx Revenue Is Up

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Facebook’s Video Ad Hurdles

Facebook “premium” video ad offering comes with a “premium” $1 million-a-day price tag – and Facebook has only invited a small group of brands to submit concepts, says The Wall Street Journal. Once submitted, Facebook Inc.’s creative team will approve or reject ads based partly on how “meaningful” they are. Facebook’s approach to video ads apparently seeks not to offend users, yet it may displease advertisers in the process. The WSJ has the story.

Earning Blinkx

While media platform company Blinkx was announcing the acquisition of Lyfe Mobile, it was also informing Wall Street of its latest quarterly earnings results. See them (PDF). The FT summarizes: “Blinkx’s 2013 revenue increased by 25 per cent to $247.2m, while profit before tax rose only 5 per cent year-on-year to $17.6m. … The profit figure reflected a one-off charge of $8m due to Blinkx integrating Rhythm NewMedia into its business, a mobile advertising network that it bought for $65m late last year.” Read it (subscription). Shares of Blinkx slid nearly 9% yesterday.

Video Kumbaya

On Tuesday, Rocket Fuel announced video integrations with LiveRail, SpotXchange and Tremor Media. Rocket Fuel’s platform already includes pre-roll video from Adapt.TV, BrightRoll and DoubleClick’s AdX. Fuel SVP Simon Hayhurst said, “More and more brand marketers are challenged with the task of reaching the right audience at the right time across a variety of mediums. Brand marketers love video ads, and big data loves video too.” Read the press release. Attractive video inventory remains in short supply – especially in nonguaranteed markets.

Taking Flight

Flite CEO Will Price announced on LinkedIn that he’s leaving his position at the company and that co-founder Giles Goodwin will retake the reins. Price added, “I will continue to serve on Flite’s Board of Directors and will work closely with Giles, the team, and our top partners over the months to come.” Read more. Back to the venture capital world?

AmEx Programmatic

On Tuesday, American Express announced plans to shift 100% of its online ad budget to programmatic channels and began vetting vendors to help it do so. As the ninth-largest online display advertiser in the US, AmEx’s pivot was shocking to many in the industry. Last year alone, the company spent $128.5 million on online display ads, according to Ad Age Datacenter. Ad Age has the story.

Bedeviling Patents

Vringo’s $30 million-plus windfall may not make it all the way to the bank as a judge is considering – once again – whether Google’s AdSense/AdWords infringed upon Vringo’s patent. BloombergBusinessweek writes, “The dispute is over filtering technology to determine placement of advertisements on search results, which Vringo claims is fundamental technology used in Google’s AdWords and AdSense for Search products. While Google wants the verdict thrown out, Vringo said the trial judge erred in limiting the period from which it could collect damages.” Read more.

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