• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, January 6, 2015

Yashi, a video demand-side platform (DSP), has partnered with video engagement platform Viewbix to bring interactive video ad tech to programmatic ad buyers. 

Viewbix’s technology allows marketers to put call-to-action buttons within video players, for example, or to redesign the video player altogether to fit the brand. The company recently raised $3 million in funding, per TechCrunch.

Fleishman Hillard, a PR firm and marketing agency, said it is “considering using the new offering.” Ephraim Cohen, SVP and senior partner for social and digital at Fleishman Hillard, told Real-Time Daily: “We need to eliminate the current click-through challenge and let people have a complete content experience with brands without leaving the site they are on.”

“We’ll look to see if it helps to start an ongoing engagement between the consumer and the brand by putting the content experience, with engagement features such as share or like buttons, in front of the right audience, at the right time and location,” said Cohen, regarding whether Fleishman Hillard will use the Yashi-Viewbix offering.

Yashi and Viewbix claim that an office supply manufacturer tested the new offering via a pre-roll campaign and saw view-through rates and click-through rates 6% and 12% above industry averages, respectively.

The idea of marrying interactive overlays with digital video ads bought via programmatic is not new. The Yashi-Viewbix partnership is similar to a partnership Coull, a UK-based video ad network, struck with supply-side platform PubMatic in November.