• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 19, 2010

Vindico Group, the video ad-serving and tracking division of Broadband Enterprises Inc. (BBE), has struck a deal making it the preferred provider for video ad serving for Publicis' ViviaKi, including agencies such as Mediavest, Starcom, Digitas, Moxie, ZenithOptimedia, Spark and Razorfish. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it comes as ViviaKi is pushing to become a bigger source within the online video advertising business, and is looking to leverage its role beyond simply planning and buying online video to help make a market around it.

Matt Wasserlauf, the founder and CEO of BBE, estimates that VivaKi's agencies represent as much as 40% of the premium online video advertising marketplace controlled by the major Madison Avenue agency holding companies. A good chunk of that share comes from Procter & Gamble, an aggressive player in the online video sector, which had already been working with Vindico prior to the VivaKi deal.

P&G likely represents about 10% of the online video advertising marketplace alone, Wasserlauf estimated.

While the VivaKi deal isn't exclusive, Vindico already had a strong relationship with the agency network, having worked on its recent Pool research and development project, which led to the development of the AdSelector system as a new standard for online video ad buying.

AdSelector, which was conceived by Hulu, allows users to selector their own online video ads, and VivaKi believes it owns the intellectual property rights associated with developing a marketplace around it, so it could become an even bigger player in the online video advertising marketplace. Vindico did all the tracking associated with the months-long research initiative that led to that.

Meanwhile, Wasserlauf says it has quietly been working with three of the other four largest agency holding companies, and while it hasn't necessarily announced preferred partner deals with any of them, he said the relationships also are making Vindico a critical mass player in the online video advertising marketplace.