Deal Brings Overlay Ads to Live-Streamed Videos

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Video platform company Ooyala signed a deal with YuMe to serve overlay advertising into live-streamed video content, the two firms said yesterday. Ooyala's dashboard will allow online publishers to relevantly target ads for brands when showing live events, according to Jayant Kadambi, president of YuMe, based in Redwood City, Calif.

As an example, Kadambi said, a running shoe brand would be strategically selected over a lingerie retailer for a spot during a live-streamed marathon event. There is also behavioral targeting that can be done via aggregate data. For instance, he said, if the system knows that a set of viewers have shown an interest in cars, an automotive ad will be served during the live stream whether the content is about cars or not.

Kadambi added that the system gives advertisers a more interactive placement when compared to a banner ad that appears to the right of a video player. "People's eyeballs are on the live streaming event," he said. "They are not on the side of the Web page."

Like non-live video overlays, the ads can be text-only, image-based, or rich media, Kadambi said. Individual publishers have leveraged his company's technology for high-public-interest streaming events in the last couple of years, he said. These include Fox News' online video coverage of the Republican National Convention and Wimbledon's Web site for its tennis championships.

"It costs money to generate live streams and get people to watch while you are doing [them]," he said. "Until people could make money on them, there's been a little bit of a resistance to run them live... Hopefully, this will help people do more live streaming."

Meanwhile, Ooyala says it is poised to capitalize on the growing marketplace for live-streamed sports, news, politics, weather, and even baby births. Last week, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company announced the implementation of a system to deliver "near-HD" quality for various online viewing formats.

The company has worked with media and advertising clients such as Warner Brothers, Wenner Media, Fremantle, Armani, Sybase, and Electronic Arts.