blinkx, a video search engine, has launched adHoc, a contexually-relevant video advertising platform. This is truly the first contextual video ad platform. Just like Google Adsense matches text ads and making them contextually relevant (contextual advertising), the blinkx AdHoc contextual video platform matches compelling, customized, TV-style ads to an audience on the video internet.
blinkx’s distribution strategy is now the de facto standard for video search on the Web, so the natural evolution is to apply that technology to the automatic selection of ads. AdHoc leverages blinkx’s patented speech-to-text transcription and visual analysis technology to understand video content more thoroughly and effectively than any other service today, and can therefore dynamically place the most pertinent advertising against it.
blinkx’s AdHoc platform offers content partners and advertisers a unique value proposition — video advertising which combines the emotive power of TV promotion, with the relevance and utility of contextual search advertising. This is an exciting prospect, not only in terms of enhancing viewer experience, but also in increasing the effectiveness of campaigns.
In addition to its relevance, the AdHoc platform offers media companies and advertisers the most flexible solution for customizing the timing and appearance of video ads, with options that include pre-, post- and mid-roll placement, as well as dynamically-selected banners, in-video mini- banners and a unique, post-roll catalog view. Partners can even select which ad databases to leverage — their own, the blinkx AdHoc platform, or even external ad systems, such as Google’s AdWords.
The AdHoc platform is available to advertisers, media companies and other partners effective immediately.