• by Phil Leggiere , November 28, 2006

Publishers have realized it’s one thing to bring together hundreds of thousands of people to share videos. But it’s quite another when you start trying to figure out how to monetize all that activity, says Kevin Sladek, chief strategic officer of San Francisco-based VideoEgg.

To fill this gap, VideoEgg launched the Eggnetwork in September. The network recommends paid ads to consumers who download or upload specific kinds of content. When a consumer watches a video, advertisers on the network can invite him or her to opt in to view ads in the formats they prefer. One format offers an ad ticker overlay that displays a suggested trailer or other ad unit at the bottom of a video as it plays. Another invites people to click on a paid ad at the end of a video, while a third deploys a prominent brand presence below the requested video as it plays, then shows a brief still frame ad followed by a 15- or 30-second post-roll spot. The network will offer targeting not only by video subject content but also by user-based demographics.