ShortTail Media, a company that helps publishers deliver video ads to text-based portions of their Web sites, has signed a deal with Web video network and technology firm TidalTV.
As part of the pact, publishers in TidalTV's network, including 30 newspaper sites owned by McClatchy, have begun selling advertisers ShortTail's signature D30 ad unit -- a video interstitial that appears as users click between Web pages.
ShortTail touts the D30 as a way for sites to better monetize text content, which still makes up the majority of publishers' content outside of the YouTubes and Hulus of the world. The company already works with sites such as EW.com and The Huffington Post and has run campaigns for brands like A&E, Sonic, Jim Beam and General Mills. (See also: "Web Ads Get More Intrusive.")
That monetization concept appealed to McClatchy, which is testing the D30 on the sites for newspapers such as The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star. "We've traditionally had our own video and video from the Associated Press, but that requires users to say, 'I'm going to watch video now,'" said Chris Hendricks, vp, interactive media at McClatchy. "We've had very limited [video] inventory because of that. This puts video front and center on our site, and it helps us compete from a volume perspective." McClatchy's sites reach about 35 million unique users, per Hendricks.
According to ShortTail president and CEO David Payne, TidalTV publishers can implement the D30 via a simple ad tag without any sort of technical overhaul. "It's completely turn-key," he said. "It's really a no-brainer for sites."
For TidalTV, which typically sells in-stream video ads, the deal provides the network with more inventory to sell while hopefully attracting new advertisers to its core offerings.
TidalTV's sales force can sell the D30 directly, as can partners like McClatchy. "Advertisers want to connect with great publishers, which we have, and advertisers prefer video," said TidalTV CEO Scott Ferber. "And video is seen as much more monetizable for most Web publishers."
