Europe’s Leading Online Video Ad Serving Provider Gives Advertisers Increased Engagement, ROI Using Digital Element’s IP-geolocation Technology

In this case study

Scenario

Watching videos online has become a mainstream activity around the world. There are millions of people viewing billions of videos on a daily basis. Companies, such as Videoplaza, recognize the tremendous monetization opportunity that exists for advertisers that take advantage of the groundswell interest in online video. But Europe’s leading online video ad serving provider also understands the need to be able to deliver relevant campaigns across various regions that maximize revenues for its clients.

The company has recently expanded its footprint into new geographies, doubled its staff and moved the headquarters to London. Videoplaza now serves 50 plus clients in 15 markets around the world. As the online video market continues to mature very rapidly, Videoplaza wants to stay ahead of the pace.

“Ad serving volumes are up immensely,” said Alfred Ruth, Videoplaza co-founder and vice president of products. “It’s important for us to stay ahead of the traditional competition because they, too, are starting to understand how important online video is. In addition to embracing and building multi-delivery platforms—to include not only PCs but also mobile, IPTV, set-top boxes, etc.—we needed the ability to specifically target viewers using IP-geolocation in order to increase engagement for our advertisers and ultimately produce much better ROI.”

Solution

According to Ruth, “Online advertising in Europe is quite different because it’s not just one clearly defined market. It really differs from country to country, with each having several very distinct regional audiences. In 2009, we realized our solution needed more geo-targeting depth than we were getting from our current open-source database. And, taking into consideration the problems others were having with data reliability at the regional level, we wanted a new geolocation technology that would offer us the deepest, most reliable global datasets.”

Videoplaza evaluated Digital Element against one of the other main geolocation technology providers in Europe. In addition to the unmatched depth and breadth of data it provided, Digital Element’s flagship solution, NetAcuity®, was selected because it offered the best value in relation to cost. NetAcuity is being utilized within Videoplaza’s robust ad-management platform and is available for clients when and where they need to incorporate geotargeting capabilities for their campaigns.

“We’ve seen great value with Digital Element’s solution,” Ruth said. “It’s been an effortless ride in deploying the technology in that it runs on our server with little maintenance involved. We’ve been very happy with the performance of the data and the fact that the software just keeps itself up
to date.”

Success

“One hundred percent of Videoplaza’s clients demand these geotargeting capabilities be available when they need them,” added Ruth. “And, when needed, the NetAcuity technology has performed as it should. We had high expectations to begin with, and Digital Element has lived up to them.”

One Videoplaza client, in particular, has benefitted from more in-depth and reliable geotargeting capabilities. TV4 Group is Sweden’s largest commercial broadcaster with content made available through its TV4 Catch up service. To date, this broadcaster has been able to:

  • Allow for more accurate broadcasting of content by region;
  • Organize sales team and structure by location;
  • Enable local sales team to better sell local advertising—and sell it at a premium;
  • Localize national campaigns; and
  • Maximize ad revenues.

Additionally, Videoplaza’s geotargeting capabilities have allowed international clients such as those in the United Kingdom and Spain—that need to serve content in multiple languages—to present language-specific campaigns. For example, campaigns can be enabled to automatically run for respective audiences—English- or Spanish-speaking—based on their geographic location.

“The interest in online video is only going to continue to grow, especially with the ongoing progression toward mobile,” Ruth said. “We must continue to reach consumers in the most efficient way while providing them with ads that are relevant. On the other hand, it is very important to prove the ongoing effectiveness of this medium to advertisers and publishers that are allocating increasingly larger amounts of their overall marketing dollars here. Location will continue to play a major role, and we look forward to applying other Digital Element capabilities around mobile and postcode targeting in the future.”

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