• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 11, 2008

To stand out in an increasingly crowded market, video ad network ScanScout has named Bill Day as its new CEO. Cofounder and onetime head of online information resource About.com, Day most recently served as chief media officer at local online ad company Marchex.

Day is taking the reins from Waikit Lau, ScanScout's cofounder and acting CEO, who will now return to his role as president of the company.

Four days into the job, Day expressed confidence in ScanScout's ability to thrive among ad technology vendors like YuMe and WorldNow and networks like Tremor and AdBrite within the nascent video advertising space.

"The technology works," Day said. "I wouldn't be here if that weren't the case."

Day also previously served as CEO of adware firm WhenU, which has since been rebranded as MeMedia, and repositioned as a behavioral targeting firm. Yet, according to Lau, the depth of Day's industry experience is not known to many.

"People may not be aware that while at About.com, Bill actually started another company called Sprinks--an extremely high-performing ad network that was eventually acquired by Google," said Lau. "We're extremely pleased to name him."

Lau had served as CEO of ScanScout since December, when Doug MacFarland left the position after only a year. MacFarland, who still serves on the company's board, left due to personal reasons, and was actually instrumental in Day's hiring, according to Day.

To date, ScanScout has pursued an aggressive strategy of industry partnerships with the likes of widget company Clearspring Technologies to expand the reach of its contextual in-video ad technology.

ScanScout also recently became the exclusive domestic provider of in-stream video ads for Web video network Broadband Enterprises, which helped to expand ScanScout's network five to seven times, to roughly about a billion monthly streams in the U.S.

Despite drawing large and highly engaged audiences, social and video-sharing networks have had difficulty making the experiences relevant and brand-safe for marketers. As a result, the U.S. online video ad market is still only worth about $1.2 billion, according to eMarketer.

ScanScout has been trying to change that with Brand Protector, a proprietary technology that scans online video content to determine its appropriateness for a particular advertiser's brand. Its technology breaks up a video into tiny segments, which it lumps into ad categories, making sure the piece of content is both ad-friendly and relevant.

The broad adoption of ScanScout's technology, according to Day, is just what the video ad industry needs to thrive.

"Markets like this can benefit from multiple tech solutions, but we know at this point that our technology is proven to work," Day said.

By Day's estimates, the company is presently delivering roughly 200 million video streams per month.

Last year, ScanScout closed a $7 million Series A round of funding, which was later followed by an undisclosed strategic investment from Time Warner.

Moving forward, Day has his sights set on some big partnerships. "We're looking to go to the other big guys that have a lot of video streams, and work with them," he said. "A lot of these guys are focused on pre-roll, so our focus on mid-roll is very complementary."