Veeseo -- which is based in Germany and works with a number of big European publishers including Spiegel, AOL UK and Axel Springer -- has partnered with Touchstorm to launch its video relevance engine in the U.S. The service uses speech-to-text transcription and a semantic algorithm to analyze and identify video that would be most relevant to a particular article. It then embeds the video in the article (in the middle of the page, to maximize viewability) along with pre-roll advertising designated by the publisher.
Veeseo CEO Jan Andresen noted that serving readers with video
relevant to what they are reading boosts engagement substantially -- “not just a couple of percentage points increase, but double or triple the click rate.”
The company
typically monetizes this with a small fee per click, while enabling publishers to boost their revenues with more pre-roll ads.
Andresen also pointed out that unlike other video recommendation platforms like Outbrain and Taboola, Veeseo's system is not designed to drive viewers away from publisher sites to video hosted elsewhere. By sending readers to publishers' own video, it allows publishers to retain more traffic and boost audience engagement.
“The incentives of the publisher and Veeseo are completely aligned,” Andresen explained. “The publisher is happy because they get more pre-roll ads while maintaining their audience, and we are incentivized because we get more CPCs.”