Sizmek Launches Verification Tool to Analyse Video Ad Placement

sizmek_tagline_vertical_RGB_3Open ad management platform Sizmek has unveiled its Video Verification tool for all its video ad-serving customers, giving additional data on viewability and enabling brands to avoid wasting money spent on media, and maintain brand safety.

Beta testing of the new tool has seen significant benefits for clients digital video campaigns, but also revealed that 28 per cent of impressions were not appearing in the right places, instead delivering on pages with negative content. In addition, 12 per cent of impressions were delivered to non-video environments, such as in-banner ads or thumbnail-sized players, meaning that they were essentially wasted.

The Video Verification tool provides advertisers with a more detailed picture of the quality of video advertising campaigns, which is still relatively new compared to display advertising. Traditionally, assessment of brand safety and page context have been easier with the tools that exist for display advertising, while the specialised tools needed to perform this with video campaigns have lagged behind.

“Verifying the placement of media is important to advertisers and is often a challenge in digital due to the complex nature of ad purchase and delivery,” said Siobhan Crowe, global digital advertising manager at RB, who participated in the beta test. “In surfacing and understanding the issues in media buying, we can then take steps to manage and prevent these placements. We have already gained significant insights as a beta partner in Sizmeks video verification program about the performance and impact of our online video campaigns.”

“Our customers are actively seeking a verification solution for video that includes dynamics specifics to video placement quality, in addition to information on the pages where the ads appear,” said Ricky Liversidge, CMO and head of product at Sizmek. “Video verification is a critical step to deliver on the promise of online video as a premium channel.”