VideoEgg Hatches Cost-Per-Engagement for Mobile

Pleased with the way the cost-per-engagement (CPE) ad model is being embraced by its customers, video and rich media ad network VideoEgg has introduced a CPE-based mobile ad offering.

The platform is a part of VideoEgg’s existing AdFrames product, extending AdFrames onto mobile devices, beginning with the Apple iPhone. Mobile distribution will be included as a standard option on all large campaigns, according to the company. The platform will distribute ads both over applications and Web pages viewed on the iPhone.

With CPE, advertisers pay only when a user engages their rich media ads. VideoEgg cited the expansion of faster, 3G networks as being a key factor in mobile ad success.

The company said AdFrames for mobile means publishers can easily monetize content across the mobile medium. It named a long list of application developers and platforms as being “launch partners” for AdFrames, including SGN, Jirbo, FlipSide5, Optime Software and Mobclix.

VideoEgg said it’s platform will deliver advertisers reach across 35 percent of the top 20 most popular free iPhone applications including GasBag, Hangman, Scribble, iGolf, TouchHockey, Tic Tac Free and MarbleMash.

With VideoEgg’s new product, “the focus is clearly on open mobile environments that deliver rich media experiences,” said VideoEgg CMO Troy Young. He said mobile is an environment “where people are spending more time and it has become interesting to us the same way the Web is interesting to us. This is part and parcel of everything we do today: Creating interesting, multi-dimensional experiences for consumers.”

VideoEgg runs “hundreds” of CPE campaigns, said Young, adding the pricing model “gives advertisers, in these more difficult times, reassurance that there are people interacting with their ads.”

CPE, said Young, is “accountable, performance-based advertising” that takes advantage of the Internet’s technological capabilities. “While the metric is a new idea, it’s a twist on an old idea which is cost-per-acquisition,” suggested Young. “We deliver time with the advertiser’s content�We are saying, “Let the Internet do what it’s good at, which is accountability.”

According to Young, Nikon and Ubisoft Canada are among the first companies to sign on for AdFrames for Mobile campaigns. Nikon is using the mobile platform to promote its CoolPix and D90 cameras.

VideoEgg originally specialized in in-video overlay ads but subsequently shifted focus to ad representation in applications.