Matt Wasserlauf is CEO of BBE, an online video advertising company.
AdExchanger.com: In a nutshell, what problem(s) is BBE solving today?
MW: BBE is providing efficiency and effectiveness in online video. Efficiencies are captured by price, but not only price. We built VINDICO, our proprietary video ad-server and tracking system to remove the speed bumps and make buying in video more efficient. We’re solving effectiveness by aggregating premium content with in-stream video advertising and helping grow that content by producing quality video such as our Webby award winning series, Jen & Barb: Mom Life.
How are the key points of differentiation between BBE and competitors such as Tremor Media, Adconion and others?
Key points of differentiation with our competitors begins and ends with our focus: in-stream video. Companies like Tremor and Adconion built their early success on rich media and video in banners. BBE has always been focused on in-stream, high quality video. VINDICO, our proprietary, MRC-accredited video ad-server and our original programming, highlighted by our Webby award-winning Jen & Barb: Mom Life, are other points of differentiation for the company.
The exchange model has been slow to gain momentum, however in the long term it will definitely play an important role. I think we’ll see the biggest impact on the direct response side. As online video becomes mainstream, there will be a tipping point where tier-two and tier-three advertisers place more importance on the quantity over quality of content (tier-one advertisers will always keep quality in the forefront) . That’s when an exchange model will emerge.
In your opinion, are there parallels between BBE’s VINDICO subsidiary’s demand-side ad server and the emerging demand side platform model in display? What’s causing this development?
It’s all being driven by the demand for automation. Our clients need their video investment to be made simple (like display). Unfortunately video remains a labor intensive industry, however VINDICO makes it easy by automating the process and removing the labors of manual delivery. In turn, this decrease some of the cost of doing business. Which makes our clients very happy.
What is holding back more dollars being spent through online video advertising networks today?
The Big 4 are Education, Measurement, Creative, and Quality of Content.
How has your partnership with Quantcast evolved? Why is it important to BBE?
Measurement is huge focus for video networks. When we partner with companies like Quantcast, we are able to build better measurement tools which deliver more targeted campaigns and more robust results to our clients. This is a win-win for everyone in that it BBE is able to build a better product, Quantcast is able to captures more share of the online universe, and our clients become more comfortable investing more of their budget in video.
It would appear that marketers are just starting to buy efficiently audience across marketing channels – e.g. mapping individual user cookies across video, display, mobile. Is BBE ready to help the marketer understand attribution across all these channels?
Absolutely. We adamantly believe that cross-platform is where the future will be. In fact, we’ve just begun testing methodologies for showing scale against user data in video. It’s very exciting stuff. Can’t say much more beyond that.
What is BBE’s target market today? And can you share any trends that you’re seeing with your clients today?
Our client roster is primarily composed of the Fortune 500 companies, however we are seeing a distinct trend of video running deeper and bleeding quicker into Fortune 1000+ companies than we initially predicated. Online video is truly becoming a standard part of all media plans. Its now more familiar and in turn is more generally accepted. A crucial element fueling this evolution is the interest from smaller and regional companies who have limited funds, but need to be incredible efficient, effective, and targeted with their buys. Those are the clients that are really pushing the boundaries of the industry.
Last question – when does convergence happen between TV and online? Where is it on your roadmap?
Truth be told, everyone thought I would happen before 2010. It didn’t. But NOW we are really starting to see the acceleration. If I had to guess, I believe a complete convergence will happen in the next 2 -3 years. It’s definitely on the forefront of our roadmap.
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