• by Wayne Friedman , September 29, 2008

Spot Runner, the Los Angeles-based automated advertising agency for mid-size marketers, has struck a deal with PR Newswire's MultiVu to launch a more streamlined service in producing and distributing video and other multimedia news releases.

Much as it does for TV marketers in producing quick TV commercials, Spot Runner will now customize script and video for multimedia news releases that target news media organizations.

Spot Runner draws on a global network of thousands of filmmakers and video journalists to help advertisers.

Those video news releases are then distributed through MultiVu's global distribution network, which includes more than 40 video-sharing sites such as YouTube, Metacafe, Crackle and Blinkx.

According to MultiVu data, releases with video have a 35% improvement in being picked up by the news media versus those that don't. The company says that with the rapid increase of online video in many areas, it's important for marketers to add video to the mix.

MultiVu says 48% of Internet users have visited a video-sharing site, representing a nearly 50% increase from last year.