Commentary

YuMe Aims At Outstreaming; So Does Unruly, For News Corp., Others

Ad tech firm YuMe today will introduce a new product offering the ability to outstream video ads, a category generally described as ads that run within text dominant Web pages or streamed within copy on mobile phones.

At the same time, Unruly, the London-based ad tech firm newly acquired by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp., said it would begin running its form of outstreaming on a handful of NewsCorp text-based sites, and offer it to other clients, as well.

Like competitors, which include Teads and Virool, YuMe and Unruly outstream ads play only when visible or appearing at natural breaks in copy. 

Advertisers pay only when a viewer sees a certain percentage of the ad before continuing to scroll. At Teads, that time is a full 30 seconds, and Unruly said it would bill at that same cost-per-completed view (CPCV) rate.

For publishers trying to find space for advertisers, outstreaming provides a new place to sell, an advantage as premium video space tightens up. 

YuMe claims to be the only company offering customized ad solutions developed by an in-house creative studio that services both outstream and in-stream advertising, and the company thinks its dual abilities gives it an advantage with publishers and advertisers.

Because ads using YuMe’s technology will rely on a human being physically interacting with the piece of copy in which they’re found, proponents say the outstream idea is a good way to bolster viewability and guard against bot views.

According to a study commissioned by Teads, 70% of advertisers that tried outstream ads say the format made it easier for them to buy programmatically, and around 69% cited viewability advantages. The data said two-thirds thought that the ads, which subjectively might be seen as less annoying that typical pre-roll, create a better user experience. 

It would appear the outstreaming business is heating up. Teads, which calls itself the "inventor" of the platform, on Oct. 12 announced it had partnered with the Moat analytics company to provide its clients with real-time data on viewability. Teads said the new arrangement would drive a "deeper level of transparency" to evaluate Teads' performance.

That move shows how important advertisers and publishers are taking the viewability problem. A new report says one dollar out of every three dollars spent on digital advertising was eaten by fraudsters, though not all of that is attributable to viewability or bots precisely; some of the $18.5 billion that will be lost in 2015 is being wasted on things like fake registrations and leaky analytics. 

“Given the increased demand from both publishers and advertisers for brand safe ads that are 100% viewable,” Jayant Kadambi, YuMe’s CEO in a press release, the outstreaming capabilities should help YuMe globally.

Unruly's new In-Article outstreaming feature will become apparent in its British paper, The Sun, on financial Web site MarketWatch and on its News.Com.Au in Australia. The New York Post will introduce In-Article soon and Unruly will begin offering the product to other premium publishers.

In its announcement, Unruly seems to coin a phrase for outstreaming, which it terms as "polite page loading" that gives  "options for the viewer to close, share and initiate sound on the player." That is certainly one of the few times the word "polite" has been linked to News Corp. endeavors.

Ad-sharing data and marketing is at the heart of the Unruly's business. News Corp. acquired Unruly just last month, for as much as $176 million, depending on whether business hits certain performance marks.



1 comment about "YuMe Aims At Outstreaming; So Does Unruly, For News Corp., Others".
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  1. Mani Gandham from Instinctive, October 26, 2015 at 12:08 p.m.

    It's sad how this format is becoming more popular when it's among the most hated by consumers - the people these advertisers are trying so hard to reach. It's also a leading cause of adblocking and seems to be trading long-term sustainability for a short-term opportunity to blast users with more ads.

    Programmatic isn't really a unique here, anything can be bought programmatically, not just outstream. And increased viewability and inventory are because these videos are injected into the content a visitor is trying to read. Of course it's viewable by forcing it on the reader and it's basically creating new ad space where it shouldn't really exist.

    The only people that defend this format all work in advertising for outstream video companies. It'd be interesting to see a real survey of what the public thinks, I'm pretty sure it would be a unaimous vote against oustream and adblocking is the manifestation of that disagreement today.

    It's about time the industry stops celebrating these terrible ads and starts working on real innovation that works for advertisers and users alike.

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