Collective Buying More Video; Adds Web TV Enteprise In The UK

Collective is back on the acquisition trail and its at least partially paved with video advertising companies as the company follows its Oggifinogi purchase with the acquisition of UK-based, video ad network Web TV Enterprise. Read more on Collective’s site.

Collective CEO Joe Apprendi and Web TV Enterprise’s Jamie Estrin discussed the news and its implications.

AdExchanger.com: How will Web TV’s technology be integrated into Collective considering Collective’s existing video capabilities? Will it be rolled out to US customers, for example? Or is this acquisition more about establishing a UK “beachhead”?

JOE APPRENDI: Web TV will leverage Collective’s AMP data and media management platform, allowing for audience targeting and analytics across its premium publisher and content network. We’re adding value for our existing customers in the UK while expanding Collective’s value proposition to traditional TV and video buyers by presenting advertisers with engaging formats, channels and content to communicate their campaign messages.

UK publishers and partners will be able to leverage the display and video technology capabilities of the combined companies. As part of the Collective umbrella, Web TV can leverage Collective’s expertise to enhance its video on demand (VOD) offering and access Collective’s agency, advertiser and publisher partners.

Any differences that you see in the way you approach the UK video ad market versus the U.S.?

JOE APPRENDI: Unlike other video ad networks in the UK (and frankly in the US as well), Web TV’s revenue comes predominantly from broadcast media budgets vs. digital plans.  Collective is pursuing the same strategy here in the US.  Additionally, like Collective’s US business, we will focus on further enhancing our data capabilities in the UK and apply our display targeting and analytics capabilities to online video advertising.  Collective will deliver precise pre-roll targeting and provide clients with a wide range of insight tools. Collective’s depth of audience data combined with our ability to create a brand-safe content environment is a powerful offering for UK advertisers.

What was the cost of the acquisition? What are the plans for integrating the Web TV team into Collective?

JOE APPRENDI: The cost of the acquisition will remain undisclosed. Web TV will operate as a subsidiary of Collective, servicing its existing agencies, advertisers and publishers.  Having said this, we are already working on incredible cross-sell opportunities that exist between our combined video and display business.

How do you make the case for broadcast budget to the marketer?

JAMIE ESTRIN: Simple, it’s a function of audience reach and time spent.  In both categories, share of broadcast spend online vs. TV is not where it should be.  In addition, television quality programming is more widely available online than ever before. Today’s consumers have a host of choices online, and people are watching more video than ever before. Online video combines the emotional engagement of television with targeting and metrics capabilities nonexistent offline.

TV might deliver greater reach and frequency at moment, but online video has the highest levels of engagement of all forms of digital advertising.

How is this different from their goals with their online budget?

JAMIE ESTRIN: Historically, we view digital budgets focused on direct response campaigns and, broadcast budgets as means for delivering mass brand awareness. Our theory is that online video should be part of the broadcast budget, not digital media plan (display, search, mobile, social, etc.).  Comparable formats and metrics exist right now to make it easy to compare to television, cable or satellite options.   Once you meet the established benchmarks of GRPs and efficiency, then we can highlight the advantages of online video advertising whether audience targeting, user engagement, social interaction and accountability.

By John Ebbert