Tacoda, Tremor Team for Behaviorally Targeted Video Ads

Tacoda has teamed with rich media and video ad technology provider Tremor Network to create a behaviorally-targeted in-stream video advertising offering for both of the companies’ networks.

By combining Tacoda’s targeting technology with Tremor’s video ad insertion technology, Tremor’s clients can now buy pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll video ads that are targeted using Tacoda’s behavioral technology and audience data. Tremor’s expanding rich media ads, many of which contain video content, will also utilize Tacoda’s targeting technology. In-stream video ads that Tacoda advertisers buy on its Audience Network will be served by Tremor’s technology.

“Brand advertising is a core of what we’re doing in our network, and since video advertising has been shown to drive better branding impact than graphic ads alone, we decided it was time to develop relationships and partnerships with people who know video advertising well,” Dave Morgan, CEO of Tacoda, told ClickZ News.

Morgan said Tacoda is most impressed with Tremor’s mid-stream ad serving product. In addition to its relationship with Tremor for in-stream ad serving technology, Tacoda is finalizing a deal with rich media player Klipmart to provide Tacoda with its pre-roll ad serving and analytics technology, Morgan said.

Both Tacoda and Tremor expect their existing customers to take advantage of the new capabilities of the other, and hope the added capabilities will attract new advertisers to their respective networks as well, according to Morgan and Jason Glickman, CEO of Tremor Network.

“The goal of the relationship is to drive new revenue streams for both companies by leveraging existing sales channels and capitalizing on the core competencies of each,” Glickman said.

The availability of a video ad product with behavioral data will be especially attractive to those advertisers that are focused on branding, and may be more comfortable with TV than rich media, Morgan said.

” When you deliver something with more traditional graphic ads, you have to do a lot of legwork to prove the brand value,” Morgan said. “With video, it’s self-evident on its face that it delivers brand value. There’s very little loss between engagement of video on TV and the PC, and in fact there’s often even more engagement on the PC because you’re leaning forward, and not off in the bathroom during the commercials.”

Tremor already offers contextual targeting on its expanding rich media ads, and plans to add that capability to its in-stream ads later this year. Before this deal, Tremor’s video ads have been targetable by the site they appear on.

Tremor’s ads are distributed on more than 300 publisher sites with a combined 60 million unique monthly visitors. Tacoda’s Audience Network has established partnerships with more than 3,000 Web sites reaching more than 140 million unique visitors per month.