Euro Round-Up: Videoplaza Launches Karbon; Festival Of Media Back In Switzerland; DoubleVerify Bringing Brand Safety To RTB

Videoplaza Launches Karbon, Its “Agnostic” Video Ad Management Platform

Videoplaza, a leading sell-side ad management platform for video, unveiled Karbon this week. The technology is the first device-aware ad platform, which means publishers can now monetise their video content across any connected device. Designed to be device-agnostic, Karbon was built from the ground up aiming to solve the challenges faced by publishers and broadcasters in monetising video effectively in a multi device world.
Consumer migration towards multi-device connectivity opens up an opportunity for publishers to monetise across devices and increase their reach, however it also introduces several obstacles. Some of the major challenges publishers face are how to effectively sell an audience across multiple devices, how to keep ad operations workflow simple as new devices are added and the need to invest in future-proof technology that can address new devices as they emerge. Karbon is designed to be a solution to these issues.
Sorosh Tavakoli, CEO of Videoplaza, comments: “The demand for video content beyond the PC is real, but so is the struggle publishers are currently facing to ensure effective monetisation. Media owners need a clear strategy and technology to support them as they implement a device agnostic approach. Karbon offers media owners a complete solution for managing video monetisation, along with the peace of mind that they can target any new devices coming to market. We anticipate 50% of our traffic will be generated by non-PC devices in 2013, driven by publisher and consumer demand.”
Karbon is an end-to-end ad management platform for IP-delivered video that creates a single workflow for delivery of ads to multiple devices. The platform includes a device library of 7,000+ device profiles, ensuring compliance with all current and future devices, an “Asset Factory” which automatically transcodes each asset for each device and ensures the right asset ends up on the right device every time and cross-device campaign tarketing, enabling the publisher to sell one audience across devices, including unique user capability, or to target audience per device.
Arnaud Moutet, Head of Ad Operations at M6, is intrigued by the possiblities: “However compelling for our advertiser clients, selling one audience across devices has proved complicated for us. Now Videoplaza is launching a solution that removes that complexity and supports our strategy of being available on any device. We are extremely excited about Karbon and our first impressions have been beyond anything else we’ve seen in the market.”
The Festival of Media – Global 2012 Returns to Montreux

Now in its sixth year, The Festival of Media 2012 will return to Montreux, Switzerland 15-17 April 2012.
The Festival of Media is an international celebration of media creativity and innovation – uniting global media specialists with senior marketers, media owners and thought leaders, to do business and debate the many changes in media that are altering advertising landscapes worldwide.
The theme for this year’s agenda is “When data becomes insight: the beauty in numbers and the science of storytelling”. Media and consumer data has never been so readily available and so comprehensive, whether derived from measurement of media usage, sales data or social media tracking. The Festival agenda will feature speakers that will show how to get the best from this data to drive insights that improve storytelling and increase ROI.
Annie Rickard, CEO, Posterscope, comments on last year’s festival: “The Festival of Media 2011 in Montreux was the best to date. A future-facing agenda with some thoughtful and memorable content, an interesting exhibition area and a comfortable auditorium set against a backdrop of lakes and mountains. It was attended by over 700 people and yet everything was within walking distance so it felt much more intimate. Lots of lively discussions in the bars. The Festival of Media 2012 in Montreux? Yes please.”
Speakers announced for this year:
– Paul Adams, Global Brand Experience, Facebook
– Stephen Allan, Worldwide CEO & chairman, MediaCom
– Salman Amin, Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, PepsiCo
– Nigel Burton, Chief Marketing Officer, Colgate-Palmolive
– Mike Cooper, CEO, PHD Worldwide
– Charles Courtier, Global CEO, MEC
– Alain Damond, Worldwide Managing Director, Initiative G14
– Mainardo de Nardis, CEO, OMD Worldwide
– Marc de Swaan Arons, Chairman, EffectiveBrands
– Laura Desmond, CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group
– Robert Dreblow, Marketing Communications Director, World Federation of Advertisers (WFA)
– Jim Elms, EVP, Head of Global Strategy, UM
– Aaron Fetters, Associate Director Global Digital Strategy & Analytics, Kellogg’s
– Maria Luisa Francoli, Global CEO, MPG
– Gian Fulgoni, Executive Chairman & Co-founder, comScore
– Tom Gill, Marketing Capability Manager Agency Relations, Global Commerce, Heineken Intl.
– Ian Hutchinson, Chair, WFA Media Council
– Benjamin Jankowski, Group Head, Global Media, Mastercard
– Steve King, CEO Worldwide, ZenithOptimedia
– Jack Klues, CEO, Vivaki
– Gerhard Louw, Senior Manager: Intl. Media Management, Deutsche Telekom
– Jonathan MacDonald, Co-founder, this fluid world
– Annie Rickard, President, Posterscope Worldwide
– Frank Rose, Author, The Art of Immersion
– Mauricio Sabogal, President World Markets UM & Initiative, Mediabrands
– Marc Schröder, MD, RTL Interactive GmbH & Exec Board Member, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland
– Juan Señor, Partner, INNOVATION Media Consulting Group
– Richard Seymour, Co-founder & Design Director, Seymourpowell
– Nigel Sharrocks, CEO, Aegis Media Global Brands
– Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon.com
– Petra Zinkweg, Global category Director, Friesland Campina Foods
DoubleVerify Powers Brand Safety Targeting at Scale for Advertisers in Real-Time Bidding Environments

DoubleVerify announced this week the availability of its brand-safety targeting and advertiser brand profiles for real-time bidding (RTB) exchange environments. The new technology aims to bring more transparency and accountability for RTB impressions, as well as increase performance for ad campaigns through customised brand-safety and targeting profiles based on advertiser preferences to find the inventory and placement advertisers want.
Advertisers who use online media verification for campaigns can see an increase in ROI by cutting wasted impressions and maximising media spend. DoubleVerify is making its data available to agency trading desks, ad networks and DSPs. In the first of several planned RTB environment integrations, DoubleVerify’s data can be applied to campaigns running through the AppNexus platform.
Oren Netzer, CEO of DoubleVerify comments: “DoubleVerify strives to bring transparency and accountability to the industry. For the first time, advertisers and DSPs can access our data before bidding to ensure maximum ROI on campaigns. By working with DoubleVerify in RTB environments, bidders can buy brand safe inventory at scale, with confidence, and avoid paying for impressions that are not targeted, safe or relevant for the brand. Our pre-bid decisioning solution is powered by our robust data set of billions of impressions each month, allowing us to proactively find brand-safe, precisely targeted, high-quality pages and sites that match the specific criteria of ad buyers.”
CPX and Dedicated Media are the first to use this differentiator through AppNexus.
Ryan Becker, VP, Business Development and Operations at Dedicated Media comments: “We believe that the most effective advertising comes from the intersection of the right ad, targeted to the right person, in the right environment. In fact, we’ve built our reputation upon exactly that. As a result of this partnership, we’ve added another layer into our SMART decisioning engine that uses DoubleVerify data to ensure the highest quality and best performing inventory for our clients.”