Santa Monica, CA - March 11, 2021 -- GumGum, a global technology and media company specializing in contextual intelligence, today announced their In-Video product, which is the first scalable overlay ad placement for streaming video environments.
As one of the largest advertising platforms in the world, GumGum is expanding its offering to include a new video ad format that opens up video inventory that has never been available before. This new In-Video product allows brands to think past the commercial break and connect with customers in a non-intrusive way, by placing ads directly into uninterrupted video-content. Â Ultimately changing how advertisers effectively reach audiences in streaming environments and unlocking additional inventory for video publishers.
“This new ad unit is a game changer for CTV and OTT and for all of us as consumers. With this In-Video overlay unit, publishers have access to video inventory they haven’t had before and brands have the opportunity, for the first time, to reach consumers without disrupting the content they want to be watching,” said Phil Schraeder,CEO, GumGum. “We have seen an overwhelming amount of interest for this product already, as our pilot program is basically sold out. We are excited to expand this offering with more video publishers and streaming platforms in the coming year as the demand continues to skyrocket.”
Inspired by the  lower-third TV promos that news sites typically use, this new overlay ad placement puts the user experience first by providing a better, less intrusive way to deliver brand messaging across streaming inventory. GumGum’s patent pending Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) technology allows overlay ads to be inserted post-production, directly into the streaming video, giving viewers the ad experience without ever leaving what they came to watch. GumGum and Digiday research found that 45 percent of industry professionals say consumer demand for non-interruptive experiences will heavily impact video strategy in the future.
While many companies are testing out technology to place overlay ads within video environments, this is the first that gives advertisers a true scalable option to purchase user-targeted ads in real-time, post-production, either via a programmatic or direct buy. This offering is currently available with CTV apps AXS.TV, Zone.TV, VideoBridge, and ACW TV. Â In 2021, GumGum will continue to grow this offering through partnerships with key streaming providers and expand beyond video-on-demand into live linear TV.
“This has been a year in the making but we believe these overlay ad placements will change how advertisers effectively reach audiences in streaming environments. By placing ads right into the streaming video we can help improve brand favorability, solve for giving advertisers attention metrics they crave, and unlock additional inventory for video publishers,” said Ken Weiner, Chief Technology Officer, GumGum.
This new ad format gives publishers additional video inventory to monetize, allowing for the opportunity to boost overall video CPMs. With this seamless technical integration, publishers can easily indicate which videos they want to monetize and GumGum technology will take care of creating the available inventory and source demand. Publishers will also have the ability to use the new available inventory to promote their own content.
GumGum isn’t the only one excited about this new overlay ad placement:
“At IPG we like this kind of out-of-the-box thinking. Streaming environments are a huge focus for our clients right now and they are looking for innovative and creative ways to connect with consumers within OTT and CTV environments. We are excited to explore the effectiveness of GumGum’s new in-video ad unit and give our brands the ability to connect with consumers in a meaningful and non-intrusive way." - Kara Manatt, SVP Intelligence Solutions, MAGNA Global
"GumGum has been an essential partner for many of the Ad Council’s most important recent initiatives, including #AloneTogether, which encouraged social distancing in the Covid-19 pandemic, and Vote for Your Life, our campaign to remind Americans to get out and vote during last year’s election. We are proud to have been an early adopter of GumGum’s In-Video unit for CTV. The results have been really impressive, amplifying our PSA messages to the right online audiences, without being intrusive. We’re so excited to see GumGum’s In-Video capabilities move further into the OTT and CTV space, helping to open up the huge potential within streamed video environments.” - Kathy Kayse, Chief Media Strategy and Partnerships Officer, Ad Council
“We are very excited to unveil this collaboration with GumGum.  As part of the exponential growth in OTT, being able to provide innovative advertising solutions has been an ongoing request from partners. Delivering elegant overlay advertising on Connected Televisions was a challenge due to the absence of the native web browser. With the combination of our OTT SMART API and Gum Gum's SSAI technology, we are now able to introduce a new set of ad inventory on CTV expanding opportunities for both supply and demand.” - Joe Pascual, CEO/CTO of DotStudioPro
"GumGum's extension of its dynamic ad placement into CTV is an exciting innovation VideoBridge is excited to help enable. Our partners are always looking for differentiation, and this new placement represents a cutting edge product for buyers in the fastest growing ad ecosystem, CTV," - Â Nick Frazee, CEO, VideoBridge
"ACW TV is thrilled with the performance and results of GumGum’s In-Video ad units. GumGum’s seamless technical integration immediately generated new ad-revenue streams to our channels without any disruption to the ACW TV user viewer experience,”  - Attila Juhasz - Owner / ACW TV
For over a decade, GumGum has been known for pushing the envelope in building technology that allows advertisers to reach consumers in the most effective way.  In addition to these leading ad units, GumGum is the leader in contextual intelligence through its Verity™ offering, which incorporates leading computer vision and natural language processing technology to help advertisers the ideal content to place ads.
For more information please reach out to pr@gumgum.com.
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