Montreal-based video ad network Sourceknowledge has announced a partnership with blurbIQ, a California-based creator of gamified digital advertising platforms.

The deal will see Sourceknowledge leverage blurbIQ’s platforms, implement them across its network of publishers and offer them to advertisers on top of its own existing SEM, display and video pre-roll offerings. blurbIQ, meanwhile, will provide advertisers with creative for a variety of customized ad solutions.

BlurbIQ’s gamified platform adds an interactive layer to video, in-banner and social media ads, allowing advertisers to engage consumers through surveys that recommend products and viewer-selected storylines, then offer social rewards based on their answers. The platform functions across desktop, smartphones and tablets, and also allows advertisers to leverage Quicktime analytics to measure and optimize campaign performance.

Hector Pantazopoulos, VP of business development and co-founder, SourceKnowledge, tells MiC that the partnership was a good fit for his company because blurbIQ was looking to gain a foothold in the Canadian market, while Sourceknowledge was looking to deepen its video platform, which only began rolling out in the past 18 months.

He says the addition of blurbIQ’s gamified ad platform to its portfolio also has the added benefit of allowing advertisers to measure consumer engagement on top of more traditional metrics like viewability and completed views.

Sourceknowledge’s ad network targets three core demographics, including “vibers” or youth aged 18 to 25, urbanites aged 26 to 34 and parents aged 35 to 45. The network includes more than 100 publishers in Canada and the US across categories like games, music, food and women.

According to comScore data from June, Sourceknowledge’s network reaches 5.3 million Canadians per month.