Adotube Launches Video Ad Network
Adotube is a new video advertising network that offers publishers a way to monetize their videos by using opt-in, lead generation ads that overlay on top of the video in a (mostly) non-instrusive manner. Similar to LiveRail (which we profiled earlier this month), Adotube ads are opt-in, meaning viewers must click on them before they play. But unlike LiveRail, Adotube does not serve video ads, but instead displays interactive banner ads that are focused on lead generation.
"Our opt-in advertising technology was created for those seeking a simple and effective way to make money online," said Adotube President Leo Grzhonko in a press release. "We refer to it as the in-stream interactive online video monetizing solution."
In addition to pre-roll and post-roll banners, Adotube's main product are their overlayed "roll-over" advertisements. When a video starts, Adotube loads a flash graphic in the lower corner of the video player -- either a static button or an animated character. When the viewer rolls his mouse over the graphic, the video pauses and an interactive banner opens over the clip. The banner ad collects information from the user and returns him to the video where it was paused. These ads are aimed at lead generation.
The ad animation will keep playing, even if the user pauses the video, and Adotube ads will continue to cycle until the user views it. Some of these ads could get annoying because of that, but Adotube's overlay tech could easily be used in conjunction with non-intrusive ad designs.
Adotube says they offer demographic targeting for their ads, but the examples on their page were a bit odd, with targeting options like "first name" -- honestly, who can (or wants to) target an ad to a single person? Perhaps I am missing something, but rather than true demographic targeting, their example appeared really to show a way to choose which form fields would be shown on the banner. Certainly helpful, but not actual targeting.
The New York-based company is building a publisher network of sites with at least 200,000 uniques per month, and their software can be plugged into any flash player or load ads on videos pulled from any source (including YouTube, Daily Motion, etc.). A sample Adotube advertisement is embedded below.
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"Non-intrusive"? Please tell me you don't seriously think that's true. A quick question. Do you use Microsoft Office products? Did you turn off the "clippy" office assistant? Why?
I´ve just tested it, and the movie didn´t pause while I was watching the ad. I rolled over over a banner which was in spanish (I live in Argentina) and then a text within a semi-transparent container appeared with two buttons: yes and no. I clicked yes and a test field appeared, all while the movie was playing behind.
So please test it again and correct your description. Also this doesn´t seem to be a good way to monetize, since Adotube will have to be the player of the video so it´s up to them to add virality to the player and to improve it, and I think that should be left to the video providers. In any case, if I want a different player, it will be my own.
Great site, great reviews! I congratulate all the team, even when I disagree, which is good.
Is it possible to take a service called Adotube seriously?
To Soxiam:
"Non-intrusive"?
It is! If you consider 30 sec pre-roll as an obtrusive option. Besides this is only one presentation style. Our platform is flexible. You can make a very unobtrusive ad if you wish, simpy a small logo in the corner, or have the ad show up only at the end of the video. We give the Publisher flexebility on how "obtrusive" they want to run the campaign.
To Martin:
"Also this doesn´t seem to be a good way to monetize, since Adotube will have to be the player of the video so it´s up to them to add virality to the player and to improve it, and I think that should be left to the video providers. In any case, if I want a different player, it will be my own."
Adotube is available as a Plug-in to a 3rd party player as well here is the example:
http://www.adotube.com/sandbox/demo/JWFLVPlugin/JWFLVPlugin_example.html
+ feel free to play around with options:
www.adotube.com/beta/adotube_video_beta.html
Our player will go open source quet soon.
Is it possible to take a service called Adotube seriously?
:) Our team is fanatical in taking seriously our service
It's quite neat, but can the avatar that popups up be changed? Also I don't think it would convert well since people want to see the video now, and they'll just ignore the ad. Hence why you should put the ad at the end of the video -so it doesn't bother the viewer, and so that if they're really interested they'll click and follow the ad. Otherwise, the viewer is just going to ignore the ad, view the video and forget about the ad - even if they liked the ad and were interested.
@Martin: It pauses for me in the example I included in the post above, but I think you can set the videos up not to pause on ad click, so perhaps the example you were testing was set up that way?
To LiveTV:
"but can the avatar that popups up be changed?"
Please go adotube.com to in-video ad examples and play with the options. We have different avatars/presentation styles etc.
"Also I don't think it would convert well since people want to see the video now, and they'll just ignore the ad. Hence why you should put the ad at the end of the video -so it doesn't bother the viewer, and so that if they're really interested they'll click and follow the ad."
Check the YouTubes solution announcement today :) on the statistics as far as overlays are concerned. You can indeed put the offer at the end of the video, it is one of the configuration options available to the Publisher.
Adotube is publisher centric. You can make an ad as aggressive as you like or as unobtrusive as you like.