Making mobile video ads buffer-free
India-based Smile Vun Group (SVG) recently acquired mobile video technology platform Seventynine and digital agency Networkplay from Gruner+Jahr. With the acquisition of Seventynine, SVG Group will add the video ad serving capability to its services. In conversation with Digital Market Asia, Chirag Shah and Deven Dharamdasani, Co-Founders of Seventynine, talk about their new in-app mobile video platform called app jacket launched for the APAC market.
Chirag Shah
Mobile is a smaller screen than a TV or a desktop, and any advertising on that screen does not get very effective unless it is impactful, big and engaging. Talking about the mobile advertisements, Shah feels there is no format to advertising in mobile yet. He said, “There are ads running on the sides, top or bottom, but nothing is effective. That is why the money is not flowing in to mobile advertising yet. The unit is not giving it the engagement or impact with the banner ads, rich media and videos also.”
Video gives the push to the brands so that they can get the desired results on app, feels Dharamdasani. He added, “Today our industry has been very vocal about web and mobile. The industry has moved towards an app ecosystem wherein people are consuming apps – utility, games or news. So our product is very clearly focussing on the upcoming area which is apps.”
Videos are already part of the mobile advertising, but talking about what gives them a competitive edge is, that the videos do not require 2G or 3G connection. The platform allows apps to display videos without internet connection, thus doing away with the slow buffering process on 2G and 3G.
Shah says, “We don’t get actual 3G in India throughout your travel or in the office. The speed is so slow that the experience of video is bad. So what we have invested time in is to give that experience of a mobile with a HD quality video ad, which does not have any buffering, no matter where you are. So we have created a technology which serves an HD quality video in any connection or even without a connection.”
Banner ads and rich media cannot be as effective as videos, feels Shah. He said, “We need this seamless quality of videos to make an impact on mobile advertising.”
So how does the platform work without 3G? Shah explains, “Caching is a temporary storage in the device. Whenever you download an app, the platform finds a Wi-Fi connection, takes the creative from the server and stores it into the mobile phone, without the user knowing about it when they are surfing content. So while the user is playing a game, or reading the news, during that time the creative from the server has been taken, stored in the mobile phone of the user, and whenever the user opens the app the next time, it does not go to the server. It throws the video from the user’s mobile phone and that’s why it does not require a connection wherever the user is.”
“This storage process is only temporary only for a day or so. There can also be queuing of ads. As an advertiser, I should not be showing a user more than three ads a day, which are not the same and which should be targeted,” Shah adds.
The platform allows targeting according to handsets, geography and also targets the content according to the user’s interests.
Dharamdasani adds, “This product does content targeting, if you are reading an article on auto, so the platform will give an auto ad. So this kind of targeting also shows to the brands to advertise on the platform. We are also giving power to the app developer – that as per the usage of the consumer, where they want to place the ad, so it allows native placement to app developers.”
Talking about the ROI on the product, Shah concludes, “Buffer free seamless experience is beneficial to both the advertiser and the consumer. The eCPM on video will be 10 times than banner ads for publishers. For both the publisher and the advertiser, this platform will get more revenue.”
