• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 21, 2008

Of its several hundred local business clients, Web video startup Jivox is heralding a new interactive online shopping service named WatchNBuy.com for standing out from the crowd.

The San Antonio, Texas-based WatchNBuy displays original video content of products "in action," and lets consumers click on items in the videos to buy them.

"Their whole concept of blurring the line between advertising and informational video is very interesting," said Jivox founder and CEO Diaz Nesamoney. "WatchNBuy.com also demonstrates how advertisers with existing creative content can easily reuse their material on our network."

WatchNBuy had found that consumers searching for specialized items were generally very motivated to make purchases, but reaching those audiences required it to expand the number of opportunities for its promotional content to be viewed by the right buyers.

WatchNBuy then experimented with a number of online ad solutions but was disappointed with the results, as well as poor targeting capabilities.

"The great unknown of selling on the internet is how to tap into the right audience, and Jivox's targeting capabilities are helping WatchNBuy.com solve that crucial challenge," said George Siegal, CEO of WatchNBuy.com.

WatchNBuy initially employed the Jivox online video ad platform for a test campaign to promote MyBackYardFireplace, a company offering a low-cost, portable backyard fireplace. WatchNBuy.com edited down original video content it created for MyBackYardFireplace to fit the Jivox video ad format and deployed the repurposed content on the Jivox ad network.

Now, according to Diaz, "the ads are seeing for stand alone IAB units somewhere between 0.2-1.0%, while in streams are between 2-4%."

Earlier this year, Jivox raised over $10 million in series A funding, not long after the San Mateo, Calif.-based company launched a do-it-yourself platform for smallish businesses to create, target and deliver video ads online.

Jivox also recently reached 40 million viewers in the Jivox Video Network.

The Jivox platform provides advertisers with video ad creation tools, targeting technology, reporting capabilities, and a network of publishers.

Publishers in its network include WorldNow, ExpoTV and AOL India, while hundreds of small and local advertisers have signed up for the service.