Vibrant Expands Support To Brand, Mobile Viewable Ads
Laurie Sullivan
New York, July 22nd, 2012 —(MediaPost)— Vibrant Media, the contextual advertising company behind in-text advertising, will expand its services to offer support for full-page brand and mobile ad units. The company will begin this fall with offerings for the Apple iPad, followed by iPhone and Android, and then other tablets.
Viewable ads will also become a focus for Vibrant this year. "About 40% of viewable ads are never seen," said Vibrant CEO Cella Irvine.
The ads expand from a keyword or an image on a page. Brands like Procter & Gamble, IBM, BMW, Chrysler and Jaguar tap into in-image placements where viewers must hover over the ad for three seconds before it expands. About 4% of users complete the task. The ads get between 40% and 50% completion rates for 15-second spots.
Earlier this year, the company launched Lightbox Video, a technology that opts-in viewers with a three-second countdown.
IBM ran a campaign aimed at turning IT professionals into brand advocates. Along with the Lightbox technology, Vibrant ran a Twitter feed in the ad unit and asked people to tweet or retweet their impression of the video or the advertisement.
Irvine said this service expands the supply of video inventory because it's not limited to pre-, mid- or post-roll ads in a video.
Vibrant has undergone a transformation during the past nine months. Aside from expanding its services from in-text ads to branding, video and interactive ads, the company in January acquired Image Space Media, an in-image advertising technology company. The 12-person New York technology startup had zero revenue, Irvine said, but the company will close out this year with revenue "in the high single digits."
Irvine said the ISM acquisition will help Vibrant generate "healthy revenue growth" this year, along with the March hire of CRO Sheila Buckley, former chief digital officer at the Weather Channel.
Viewable ads will also become a focus for Vibrant this year. "About 40% of viewable ads are never seen," said Vibrant CEO Cella Irvine.
The ads expand from a keyword or an image on a page. Brands like Procter & Gamble, IBM, BMW, Chrysler and Jaguar tap into in-image placements where viewers must hover over the ad for three seconds before it expands. About 4% of users complete the task. The ads get between 40% and 50% completion rates for 15-second spots.
Earlier this year, the company launched Lightbox Video, a technology that opts-in viewers with a three-second countdown.
IBM ran a campaign aimed at turning IT professionals into brand advocates. Along with the Lightbox technology, Vibrant ran a Twitter feed in the ad unit and asked people to tweet or retweet their impression of the video or the advertisement.
Irvine said this service expands the supply of video inventory because it's not limited to pre-, mid- or post-roll ads in a video.
Vibrant has undergone a transformation during the past nine months. Aside from expanding its services from in-text ads to branding, video and interactive ads, the company in January acquired Image Space Media, an in-image advertising technology company. The 12-person New York technology startup had zero revenue, Irvine said, but the company will close out this year with revenue "in the high single digits."
Irvine said the ISM acquisition will help Vibrant generate "healthy revenue growth" this year, along with the March hire of CRO Sheila Buckley, former chief digital officer at the Weather Channel.
About Vibrant
Vibrant (www.vibrantmedia.com) is a world leader in contextual technology aligning billions of words across the Internet with relevant video, information, tools, and advertising. With over 6,500 premium publishers, reaching more than 250 million unique users per month (comScore, 2012), Vibrant gives top brand marketers the opportunity to deliver highly targeted advertisements within premium Web content and offers publishers premium editorial tools to re-circulate users throughout their websites. Vibrant works with top brand advertisers such as Microsoft, Unilever, Chrysler and AT&T. The company was founded in 2000 and has offices in London, New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf. For more information, visit www.vibrantmedia.com or www.facebook.com/vibrantmedia or http://twitter.com/vibrantmedia.
