Adap.tv is targeting direct response advertisers through their online video site.
Instead of offering pre-rolls, the company has partnered with Amazon.com (AMZN) and Shopping.com to bring their numerous products to their site.
"It is essential to find a business model for online video," said Amir Ashkenazi, co-founder of Adap.tv and Shopping.com, who says pre-roll ads are not user-friendly.
How the service works is they will get product images from the two online retailers and place them alongside video from Metacafe, which the company also has a deal with for video content. There will also be text ads brought to the Adap.tv platform from an unknown source at this time.
Images of the products will look like they're overlaying the video being viewed. When they're clicked, they take the user to the landing page of the advertiser.
While Ashkenazi says that pre-roll ads aren't user-friendly, that hasn't been proven yet whether people will reject them with professionally produced content. At the end of this year, or early next year, we should know after the traditional media companies launch their initiatives this summer.
Metacafe and Adap.tv say they want to eventually go into brand advertising with the platform. "The really big thing from my perspective is what they can do for brand advertisers," said Metacafe VP Sales Mort Greenberg.
Why would they want to do that with the Amazon.com, Shopping.com deal? That deal is to create some revenue right from the beginning. Branded advertising is far more lucrative, but needs more scale than the company now has.
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