VideoEgg Rocks: Debuts AdFrames in Silicon Alley: Google Next?
How does a Web 2.0 video play garner attention for an advertising product launch? Rent out the Hard Rock Cafe in the middle of Manhattan’s Times Square for an ENGAGING afternoon of fast paced, high-level media brainstorming, capped by open bar cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.
In the late 1990’s, lavish Web site launch parties were held throughout Silicon Alley seemingly on a nightly basis, and I enjoyed many of them! Venture capital was flowing and so was the hospitality. Most striking though, from a business development perspective, was a general lack of marketing on the part of party hosts. I remember asking fellow celebrants sipping Martinis in a trendy downtown nightclub one evening, which particluar Website were we celebrating, as there was no signage or corporate announcements. The even bigger question: Where was the ROI, then?
In big conrast, today’s Silicon Alley “parties” are not only fewer and far between, they generaly serve to further explicit business objectives: The Video Egg mini-conference today, for example. Themed “The Engagement Debate,” about two dozen agency, marketing and programing execs offered their real world perspectives on the state of the nascent field of measuring and valuing audience engagement in interactive environments.
In addition to driving the “conversation” forward about the need for marketers to ”engage” consumers on the Web, two VideoEgg execs participated in panels and Troy Young, VideoEgg CMO, presented a rapid-fire new ad product overview at the end of the sessions: Introducing VideoEgg AdFrames. One of the moderators insightfully quipped, for Troy, the conference “engagement” generated will be measured with an old, but still very good, school metric: Advertising contracts signed!
I chatted with Young during the party and asked him what inspired VideoEgg to come up with a new ad product which departs from its signature, core offering. Young told me VideoEgg continually strives to innovate and build towards more and varied solutions which meet diverse and ever changing marketer needs. What’s more, each new product has a shot at turning into the next big advertising thing, Young indicated, hopefully.
I also joked with Young about when we should expect Google to come out with its own version of the latest VideoEgg creation. After all, when Google announced its YouTube overlay ad product with much fan fare last year, VideoEgg “welcomed” YouTube to its orignal video overlay party by declaring on its homepage:
We invented the video ad overlay product about a year ago. We are delighted that the market is finally catching on to a vital new approach to video advertising.
VideoEgg does NOT appear to be holding a YouTube grudge: A Google TV Ads exec participated in VideoEgg’s opening panel today. The Googler was, in typically Googley fashion, reserved on stage, but perhaps he was taking notes during Young’s AdFrames pitch:
AdFrames is a performance-based ad offering designed specifically for brand advertisers. Advertisers pay on an “engagement” basis – that is when a user rolls over the ad and the advertiser’s full screen creative is displayed.
No other network offers rich media like this.
So there, Google!
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