Brett Wilson is CEO of TubeMogul, an online video, advertising and analytics platform company.
AdExchanger.com: What problem is TubeMogul solving today? Seems like a couple, potentially.
BW: The common theme among our offerings is that we help advertisers get their videos watched and watched longer by the right audiences. Currently we offer paid and free flavors:
- PlayTime is our video advertising platform where advertisers only pay when someone chooses to initiate an interaction with their video. PlayTime is 100% transparent – in addition to pre-approving sites and placements, advertisers can log-in in real-time to see statistics like impressions, views, play time and social shares for every placement during and after the campaign.
- OneLoad is our free content syndication service where advertisers can easily syndicate and track their videos on video sharing and social networking sites.
With both services advertisers get our world-class analytics to measure who is watching, how they discovered the video, second-by-second engagement and post-play interaction metrics like click-throughs and Facebook shares.
What made you start your video ad platform, PlayTime ? Are margins slim for content distribution, for example?
TubeMogul has always been about distributing and tracking videos. Adding a paid media component was a natural. Advertisers that use both of our services can see exactly how their paid media is amplifying their social media.
How is the audience data that you collect for targeting – known as Mass Audience Segmentation Technology (MAST) – different than other audience segmentation data available through data companies today?
First off, we collect far more video viewership data than any company other than Google. Currently we are capturing multiple billions of streams per month and tens of billions of player impressions (and we are just getting started). Our data set includes a wealth of information that spans both content viewing and ad viewing information.
We go far beyond traditional data segmentation and manual application of those segments. Instead, we built predictive audience models to target the individuals most likely to watch, watch longer and share a video. Contrast this approach with buying a fixed data segment (e.g. targeting auto ads to people that watch auto videos), with little upfront understanding of how it will perform and no evolution of the segment as the campaign runs. Note that we can layer in classic third-party segments and demographic data by advertiser request to put the final targeting layer on the campaign.
You’re likely familiar with the term demand-side platform (DSP). Would you consider your platform a DSP for video?
Yes and no. Similar to a DSP we have technology to buy targeted media inventory and audiences in real-time. In contrast to a typical DSP, we are integrating video audience models and a data platform into the media buying platform.
Could you add targeting for other digital channels into your platform such as display or mobile?
Yes, we can use our targeting for any inventory available via real-time interfaces. You’ll see us expand into video in all forms including pre-roll, mobile and TV. For the first time advertisers will have a single dashboard where they can evaluate media spend across both placements and ad units using analytics like cost per minute viewed.
Any momentum trends for PlayTime and MAST that you can share beyond the 25 ad campaigns you mentioned in your April release?
We have run 129 campaigns to date, spanning 92.3 million views (and counting) and an average viewing time of 56.4 seconds – that’s 46% longer than a typical 30-second TV spot at about one-third the price.
Has online video advertising finally arrived? What are (or will be) the tell-tale signs?
It’s getting there. Although TV advertising and online video are still viewed as imperfect substitutes and this is likely the gauge of ultimate success, video is now proven to be more effective than simple display, for instance. According to joint research we did with Dynamic Logic, video leads to 1.4% more ad awareness and 0.7% more purchase intent than simple Flash display — and these effectiveness metrics are increasing every quarter.
How will TubeMogul differentiate from an array of video ad platform tech companies today such as Tremor Media, BBE, Auditude, Adap.tv, Adconion’s Joost and others?
Our data side gives us an unfair competitive advantage. A dollar spent with us versus our competitors will result in a lower effective cost per view and more play time. Also, our best-of-breed analytics and research make our service more accountable and gives advertisers the best tools to evaluate their media spend.
Do you anticipate seeking a new round of funding any time soon? How many employees do you have today?
We are not actively fund-raising. The team is growing – we hired 10 people just last month and are looking for no-BS rock stars in ad sales, machine learning and business development. Contact us if interested.
What milestones would you like TubeMogul to have accomplished a year from now?
We will be launching a self-serve media/audience buying interface for the DIY-inclined. We also expect to significantly expand our data footprint by accelerating the standardization of our video analytics as the industry standard.
Follow Brett Wilson (@bjwilson34), TubeMogul (@tubemogul) and AdExchanger.com (@adexchanger) on Twitter.
