By advancing its SplitBox technology to auto-play outstream ads – ads embedded within articles – on the iPhone iOS browser, SlimCut Media, a company head-quartered in New York with offices in Toronto that creates video ad ops for publishers, believes it has added 50% more inventory to its video ad stock. This is welcome news for the company, which launched SplitBox a year and a half ago to offer advertisers access to safer inventory, and publishers an opportunity to add to their video inventory.
The company offers space on premium publishing venues, including the Toronto Star, Postmedia and La Press.
Splitbox, which launched its pre-iPhone compatible version in January 2014, positions ad content in between editorial content in news sites so that a viewer sees the ad as he or she scrolls through the content. The video ad opens up as the viewer scrolls, and plays while it is onscreen, closing when its completed. The ad plays in mute until the user hovers over the ad to turn on audio. Also, the ad will not play until it is absolutely viewable, according to Véran.
Ads can be of any length with most inventory running 15 to 30 seconds, and in some cases – a TV series trailer, for instance – can run for over a minute.
But a tech mis-match at the start resulted in iPhone browsers rejecting outstream ad content because browsers exited to full-screen mode for video content. SlimCut has worked on a solution for over a year, and has now announced that it’s team was able to come up with a tech solution. Outstream video ads available through Splitbox now play just as well on the iPhone as they would on an iPad or on Android phones.
“This new technology is truly innovative because you are watching the actual video ad in-content, not a moving image.” says Damien Véran, president of SlimCut Media, of the ad-tech which is embedded into the content.
SlimCut gives advertisers increased video space on mainstream publishing sites. “There is scarcity of inventory for premium video, but there is a lot of demand in Canada,” explains Véran. He notes this is a concern for publishers as the millennial market is increasingly consuming video on mobile, and as publishers strive to develop more programmatic offerings for advertisers.
Advertisers will have access to increased inventory through Upscale, a private programmatic marketplace where Splitbox partners will be able to trade. Open only to premium publisher clients and advertisers Véran says the marketplace will conduct bundle sales at discounted CPMs while ensuring quality inventory.