• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 13, 2014

Keek, a 36-second Sanpchat-like video social network, will soon begin hosting advertisements in the United States. The site recently took on its first client, Saudi Telecom, in Saudi Arabia through ad agency Starcom MediaVest Group.

Partnerships will also lead Keek into the United Kingdom and China, per Bill Blummer, SVP at Keek. The social site doesn't offer brand pages, although MTV and Pepsi have found organic followers after setting up accounts. Consumers will make short clips comparing Pepsi and Coca-Cola, or buying the products in the store, for instance.

The brands rely on search engine optimization to drive traffic. Google, Bing and other search engines will index clips posted to public areas on Keek, but users can request to exclude content.

The introduction of ads to Keek also will see partnerships with Twitter's MoPub and Google DoubleClick AdExchange (AdX) for Web-based inventory. "We project about 10% of revenue will come from the real-time marketplace offering real-time bidding and programmatic, and 70% through advertising networks," Blummer said. "Companies like Millennial Media, InMobi and other top-tier ad networks will monetize the majority of our ad inventory during the first year, and our direct sales organization will support about 20%."

Video and still ads will appear in the leaderboard and along the right rail of the page. Some ads will appear as video interstitials, so they will see the advertisements as visitors navigate through different sections on the site.

During Advertising Week, Blummer said the company presented "Keekasodes" to brands, demonstrating how content can become instrumental in branding products and services without making the message obnoxiously obvious.

Original content will become a major push for Keek. Last week, the company announced the appoint of Michael Rotenberg to Board Director. Rotenberg co-founded the management and production company 3 Arts Entertainment. Rotenberg has produced feature films such as Extract for Miramax, Office space for Fox, Head of State for Dreamworks, and Son-In-Law for Disney.

In September, Keek announced signing a digital content partnership with Ora.TV, the online on-demand digital network, covering exclusive digital content from big name in entertainment like Larry King. The mobile app is available in 190 countries across 6 global regions, and in 36 languages.