ValueClick's new partnership with Atlanta-based streaming video firm EyeWonder will add rich media services to ValueClick's ad network.
The use of EyeWonder's EyeMedia will enable the delivery of streaming media across ValueClick's 30,000 Web sites in the form of banners, skyscrapers or pop-ups.
ValueClick, Westlake Village, CA, also announced its intent to acquire rich media ad serving firm MediaPlex in early July. The acquisition will expand ValueClick's ad performance solutions and add Mediaplex's e-mail marketing capabilities.
ValueClick executives called the EyeMedia technology a “highly cost-effective mechanism for increasing response to, and recall of, online campaigns.”
“For advertisers who have already invested $50,000 or more for TV, we could take your video assets and extend them out into the Internet. It also complements what you're doing on the TV side,” said Elise Arthurs, vice president for global marketing at ValueClick.
In addition, streaming video allows advertisers to convey the same “emotional impact” as TV. ValueClick, which had been serving only HTML and Flash ads, also will offer the ability to track how many users clicked to hear audio.
The firm already tracks impressions, click throughs and conversions.
EyeMedia loads through modems with speeds as slow as 28K without the need for end-user plug-ins or media players, so the ads load immediately, according to ValueClick.
ValueClick also is leaving the door open to other streaming media company partnerships in the future.
At the same time, Arthurs said EyeWonder's technology is “one of the most proven. Because there are no applets and no buffer time, the user isn't waiting to see the image-to-be. There is more impact.”
