• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 5, 2008

Amid a flurry of industry consolidation, Heavy Corp. Wednesday announced plans to go in the opposite direction and spin off video advertising platform Husky Media, as a stand-alone venture.

Launched last year as a platform for video publishers to monetize their video assets at premium ad rates, Husky Media is aimed at young men 18 to 35. The video platform has built its reputation heavily on its "video skin" ad unit, which wraps video players with high-CPM ad units specifically designed for brand advertisers.

Simon Assaad, co-CEO of Heavy Corp., said the spin-off will give Heavy access to new and untested demographics.

"By spinning off the Husky Media platform we're enabling Husky to go after the whole video market, not just young men," he explained.

According to Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk, however, the move is counterintuitive at a time when online media companies and ad technology providers are rushing to consolidate and streamline their offerings.

"Like Microsoft and Yahoo are trying to gobble up all the pieces to the online advertising puzzle, I think it makes more sense to keep the ad platform under their corporate umbrella," VanBoskirk opined.

In fact, Heavy's leadership team will continue to oversee both entities--Heavy Corp. and Husky Media--which will be co-located at new offices on Seventh Avenue in New York City.

"Video advertising is the fastest-growing sector in online media, but that doesn't mean there's a need for more ad networks," VanBoskirk noted.

But Heavy apparently has its reasons. "We were constantly approached by other publishers asking to use our video advertising technology, which is why we created the platform," said David Carson, co-CEO of Heavy Corp. "Spinning it off will only accelerate its growth among publishers and advertisers."

To support its planned expansion, Heavy recently added several high-profile executives to beef up its sales infrastructure. Anthony Katsur, former engineering vice president at DoubleClick, was brought in as chief operating officer of the Husky ad network.

Tommy Pizzo, former East Coast sales manager for MySpace, was named Heavy's VP of East Coast sales. Robert Koshar, former director of media operations for WebMD, was appointed vice president of ad operations at Heavy, while Tony Biel, former director of advertising sales for Veoh.com, was named a director of sales for the Western Region.

Heavy, which recently announced first-quarter year-over-year revenue growth of 58%, is also finding success with its own original programming. Just this week, the company signed CBSSports.com as a distribution partner for its sports series, "The Burly Sports Show."

Heavy's other original programs include "Over the Hills," a parody of MTV's "The Hills," "Flex and the City" a spoof of "Sex and the City," "Superficial Friends," and "Kung Fu Jimmy Chow," to name a few.

According to Heavy executives, the structure of the spin-off is still subject to the consent of its shareholders and its board of directors.