As privacy in digital advertising continues to rise as a concern among both regulators and the public, TubeMogul shares the desire for additional safeguards. In addition to participating in numerous trade associations and voluntary Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) guidelines, TubeMogul offers a global opt-out here.

The company took its privacy safeguards a step further today, implementing TRUSTe AdChoice icons on all video ads targeted using 3rd-party audience data on PlayTime, the company’s brand-focused video advertising platform. To opt out or learn more, a viewer can simply click the icon. TRUSTe, widely seen as the market leader, serves over 10 billion impressions per month and is the only provider recognized in the United States Federal Trade Commission 2010 privacy report. Here is an image of it in action:

Beyond opt-outs, TubeMogul believes that “sunlight is the best disinfectant,” to quote former U.S. Justice Louis Brandeis. In other words, transparency will lead us to a better solution. When brand advertisers — who care deeply about their customers’ perceptions — are in complete control, privacy problems are less likely to happen. To that end, PlayTime always puts marketers in complete control over where their ads are run, how they are targeted and much more, with additional tools to protect against fake pre-roll and placements that play without a viewer’s expressed intent.

Share on

Shortly after posting that TubeMogul was named to Streaming Media’s “100 Companies That Matter in Online Video,” we were notified of several more awards, which we are consolidating into a single, rapid-fire post. Among them:

We want to thank everyone for the kind wishes of congratulations on the rapid momentum of PlayTime, TubeMogul’s video advertising platform which launched in April to make the world of real-time media buying safe for brand advertisers.

Share on

The editors of Streaming Media recently released the first annual Streaming Media 100, a list of companies that have the greatest impact on online video. TubeMogul, which unveiled the industry’s first demand-side platform for video early this year, is featured on the list which encompasses video giants such as YouTube.

You can see the full Streaming Media 100 list and read more about the selection process here.

Share on

Today, Video Insider published an editorial from our CEO, Brett Wilson. In case you missed it:

Conventional wisdom assumes that video ad exchanges are comprised primarily of low-end inventory. At OMMA AdNets in July, for instance, Program Director Ross Fadner posed this question: “Will publishers ever put good quality inventory on exchanges?” Jason Krebs, Chief Media Officer at Tremor Media, quipped: “I don’t think there is any great need, nor do I think it will happen.”

Well it is happening, at least in part. Running an internal analysis of inventory available for real-time media buying across a five-day sample of over 200 million streams and cross-checking against comScore’s top 100 publishers in Video Metrix, we discovered a few interesting facts.

– 54 out of 100 companies listed in the comScore 100 have inventory available for real-time bidding on the top exchanges and supply-side platforms.

– 29.1% of pre-roll impressions available for real-time buying are from comScore 100 publishers.

– YouTube, despite its massive reach, only accounts for slightly over one-fifth of comScore 100 volume. Other sources, including top media companies, constitute a majority of sites.
Why might this be happening? Publisher-direct sales, often involving faxes and IOs, are not always perfect. Unpredicted viewership spikes can mean unsold inventory. Also, top exchanges and supply- side platforms are increasingly giving publishers more control over how they monetize, letting them set minimum CPMs, parameters on who gets access, line-item controls and much more, freeing up available inventory.

This is not meant to imply that premium video inventory is not scarce, or that video is in any way analogous to display, where a glut in inventory led to more rapid adoption of exchanges. Recent discussions about private exchanges, and the role they could play in the marketplace, indicate that many top-tier publishers want additional tools to maximize revenue before they will be willing to drastically increase the inventory onto real-time exchanges and platforms.

We obviously bring an agenda to this. But since only an aggregator can see across this inventory in detail, we felt obliged to publish these early numbers in the hope that a more nuanced discussion might take place about how real-time bidding fits into the broader video ad ecosystem.

Video ad exchanges may not be a “silver bullet,” but there are several natural advantages that suggest criticism is premature. At its best, real-time audience buying leveraging third-party data can pinpoint any audience, on any device, at scale. It also promises to bring market-like precision and transparency to an industry where price and other variables are often difficult to understand.

So the next time you hear an ad network — or anyone else — malign real-time video, ask them where they are getting their numbers. Top-tier inventory is increasingly out there, awaiting bidding.

Share on

Couchbase recently awarded TubeMogul the Developer’s Award for best use of Membase Server technology. A Membase Server is used in TubeMogul’s real-time bidding system, which handles billions of ad requests per day. Each bid request must be received and responded to in less than 120 milliseconds, so having a scalable system that is both robust and whip fast is key. This translates to faster bidding on more impressions to reach your campaign goals, no matter what they may be.

We are extremely proud of our RTB development team for producing the only real-time bidding system of its kind on the market!

Share on

PlayTime, our demand side platform for video advertising, continues to gain momentum after launching in April to make the world of real-time media buying safe and effective for brand advertisers. Today, we announced a partnership with Ikon to be the default video advertising solution to be used by their newly-created trading desk. Ikon is a leading, award-winning agency in Australia and among the fastest growing there, with top clients from Coca-Cola to Westfield.

Phil Cowlishaw, their Media Performance Director, had this to say: “trading online video in this way is a natural extension of our established trading desk offering. PlayTime delivers us efficient access to high quality video inventory on the web at scale. Partnering with TubeMogul allows us to maximize impact for every campaign by deepening our understanding of how to use video to achieve brand objectives.”

Read more here.

Share on