• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, October 27, 2010

As the market for online video continues to expand, WPP research unit Kantar Video on Wednesday debuted its own online video syndication, tracking, and optimization platform.

"With over $1 billion in annual global video marketing spending anticipated to grow globally to $10 billion by 2015, online and mobile video is the fastest-growing ad medium in history," said Eric Salama, CEO of Kantar.

Dubbed Videolytics, the platform offers real-time tracking and measurement, including analytics -- demographic, psychographic, and attitudinal -- and visualization tools.

It also offers "fingerprinting" technology, which tracks all instances of online video no matter where or how it is distributed -- even if it is taken offline, modified and reposted as it is distributed virally.

"This on-demand platform enables efficient and accurate analysis to facilitate better, faster decision-making by marketers and their agencies, content creators and distributors, and media companies," said Bill Lederer, CEO of the New York-based Kantar Video.

Videolytics is a Software as a Service, open platform with free trial access for qualified accounts that provides seamless integration with various online and offline tools and services.

As such, Kantar Video is presently experimenting with ways to integrate the new platform with various third-party services.

The first, Echo Video -- created with tracking services Cymfony and Compete -- combines Videolytics with behavioral and sentiment tracking to provide analysis of viral video impact and returns.

The program hopes to differentiate between owned vs. paid vs. earned media contributions, quality assurance on media placements, competitive campaign monitoring, audience and consumption measurement, among other features for marketers.