AdPerk: Watch Video Ads, Get Cool Mags

Popular Science has signed on as the second major publishing sponsor of AdPerk, an online video ad network that offers users free or low-cost magazine subscriptions as a reward for watching video ads.

Dwell magazine was the first print partner when AdPerk launched in June as the latest in a crop of incentive-based online video sites, including BrandPort and BrightSpot, that aim to offer a win-win-win model for advertisers, publishers and consumers alike.

AdPerk places banners on the host magazine's home page or other outlets, offering users free or reduced price issues in exchange for watching short videos. Visitors who click on the banners are taken to the AdPerk platform, where they can choose which ads to view and start earning points.

To get those points, viewers use an automated system to confirm they have watched the entire ad, which also ensures that advertisers get a solid return on their pay-per-performance investment. AdPerk also provides metrics on user ad selection, behavior and message effectiveness across the site.

The model sits well with brands like LG Electronics, Disney Mobile and Duxiana that are also advertisers in AdPerk's network, but according to Barry Soicher, the company's cofounder and CEO, print publishers in particular stand to reap a wealth of benefits.

AdPerks pays partners like Popular Science and Dwell a predetermined fee for all subscriptions, and they also receive increased readership and brand awareness.

"With so much information available online, magazines' value proposition has changed," said Soicher. "Print is somewhat of a luxury, and some readers can't necessarily fit a magazine subscription into their budget."

Soicher adds that the model also bolsters print's value in the eyes of advertisers: "What someone reads says so much about who they are. The audience magazines can provide becomes very demographically relevant to advertisers." AdPerk plans to add 6 to 10 additional publishers by mid-fall, he said.

While helping to offset declining print ad sales, the incentive model also helps advertisers harness the power of online video in a way that doesn't mimic broadcast TV--or its diminishing value for ads in the midst of increased DVR adoption.

"We're going to see this space get hotter and hotter," said Kivin Varghese, founder and CEO, BrandPort. "The brand accountability metrics are there, the user annoyance with ads is there, and I think it's going to accelerate in direct correlation with DVR penetration."

Indeed, with research firms like MAGNA Global predicting more than a third of all US households to have a DVR by 2011, sites like BrandPort, BrightSpot, and now AdPerk provide marketers with the option of engaging with consumers on a pull-only basis.

"We're able to bring [users] ads that are relevant to who they are as an individual, ads that they are genuinely interested in," said Harrison Wise, vice president, corporate communications, BrightSpot. "It's very different than the shotgun approach to traditional advertising where they target large buckets of consumers and hope for the best."

In seeming validation of the incentive model's viability as an ad channel, BrightSpot also announced the addition of two new partners to its subscription program--MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball, and XM Satellite Radio Canada. Users that log on to BrightSpot.tv can now earn credits toward their monthly multimedia subscriptions or satellite radio bills.

Next story loading loading..