• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 19, 2011

Expanding into video, ad technology provider AdKeeper has reached a major distribution deal with ad network Tremor Video.

To date, AdKeeper CEO Scott Kurnit said the company’s "Keeper" ad button -- which allows consumers to save online ads for later -- has never appeared on video advertising.

Yet “video advertising is certainly ‘Keepable,’ with engaging content and the benefit of sight/sound/motion,” said Kurnit. As such, he added, “many of our partner advertisers are eager to Keep-enable their video.”

AdKeeper's business model encourages people to click a small icon in display ads, which they can save in a personal file on the company's site. The deal is something of a reunion, as it brings together Kurnit and Bill Day -- CEO of Tremor Video, and himself a co-founder and former COO of About.com.

Day said AdKeeper’s time-shifted model "gives viewers control of the ad experience and dovetails with Tremor Video’s mission to offer 100% brand-safe environments."

Launched as a beta in February, AdKeeper is backed by over $40 million in venture funding from Oak Investment Partners, DCM, True Ventures, Spark Capital and First Round Capital.

Yet as Kurnit readily admits, space in and around ad units is becoming pretty crowded between the various social media tags and ad option icons. How AdKeeper’s "Keep" button fares in the fray remains to be seen.

Earlier this year, Kurnit -- who previously founded About.com -- said AdKeeper had so far secured about 20% of the available online ad inventory under contract, including Pepsi, which committed 100% of its ads beginning in May.

While still small compared to TV, ad-supported online video is all the rage. In October alone, Americans viewed 7.5 billion video ads, according to comScore Video Metrix.  In the ad-serving category, Tremor ranked first among video ad exchanges/networks -- and second overall -- crossing the 1 billion mark for the first time.

BrightRoll Video Network ranked third with 756 million, followed by Specific Media with 512 million; and CBS Interactive with 415 million.