John Vincent is CEO of EyeWonder, an online advertising technology company.
AdExchanger.com: How would you like to see standards evolve for in-stream video ad inventory? And in-page video ad inventory?
JV: Standardization is still a work in progress for the in-stream industry, so at this point we’d really like to see more of it in place. The IAB’s Digital Video Committee has made a great start by releasing its Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) and Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions (VPAID) guidelines. VAST standardizes communication protocol between video players and ad servers while VPAID defines a method for video ads to communicate with video players, enabling ad compatibility across all VPAID-compliant players. Perhaps in the future standards could address how to handle sequencing and scheduling within players as well as develop standard video screen sizes.
Can you see in-stream video ad inventory available through an ad exchange model someday soon? What are the complexities?
Yes, absolutely—and that’s another reason we need to have standards in place. Right now, serving any type of interactive ads (in-stream or in-page) via an ad exchange platform is challenging because the plan for the placement is different. We need to nail down standardization as it relates to pixel dimensions and how ads interact with content for it to be a viable option.
What is your view on ad exchanges and demand-side buying platforms such as those announced by the major agency holding companies? Good for the marketplace and EyeWonder?
Anything that allows for the market to expand is good for the entire interactive digital advertising ecosystem—advertisers, agencies and rich media providers alike. EyeWonder has relationships with many different players within the industry, and we’re always looking to develop partnerships that help drive growth in online advertising.
How do you see display advertising evolving in the future? Will it all be rich media—as in video?
According to numerous articles and studies, video advertising is most definitely growing. In a recent Dynamic Logic MarketNorms study highlighted in their “Digital Advertising: Evolving from Display to Video” whitepaper, online video is proven to have more impact than display advertising in improving brand metrics such as message association and purchase intent. However, other forms of display advertising are still relevant. In the same study, Dynamic Logic MarketNorms show rich media combined with video can be effective as well. So yes, we do believe display will lean more and more toward rich media and video making up a much larger percentage.
What do you think agencies need to do to prepare for the increasingly automated world of online advertising—let alone, digital, cross-channel advertising?
Agencies need to partner with Service-Leveraging Technology Organizations (SLTOs) like EyeWonder to help them get their messages across multiple channels. By partnering with rich media companies that offer not just technology, but service, agencies can then deliver inventive advertising that delivers measurable results for clients. What really sets SLTOs apart is their service and in-depth knowledge of how to optimize different technologies and online ad products. Agencies benefit because they can concentrate on what they do best—being creative—and therefore leave the technology and distribution to the experts.
What is PageMorph and why is it important for online advertisers and publishers? How is this good for the user?
PageMorph™ is a homepage takeover ad format that gives advertisers maximum brand exposure on high-profile publishing sites. With PageMorph™, an ad functions as a homepage takeover and appears to manipulate the surrounding Web page by shrinking, stretching, crumpling or otherwise animating the actual site or a real-time screenshot of the page.
Publishers gain premium selling space while also keeping ad clutter off their homepages as well as the ability to provide engaging content for viewers, meaning every impression counts.
Advertisers reach a large number of viewers with flexible, customized solutions and built-in innovation. These types of executions build buzz and create a big impact, making them great for product launches.
Most of these ad units are user-initiated, meaning viewers that want to immerse themselves in the ad experience can do so, giving them a richer, deeper interaction with the brands they’re interested in.
How does EyeWonder help its clients with attribution?
EyeWonder currently works with several ad servers with systems that track attribution for our clients. In addition, we’re working on developing our own system functionalities that we hope will address attribution among other client requests in the near future.
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