The Tech & Innovation Awards recognize Silicon Valley’s most promising tech innovators, selecting an exceptional group of finalists in 14 categories out of 200 nominations. Check out the complete list of winners.

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The mission of Best Buddies is to establish a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. More than 20 BrightRollers came together the morning of Saturday, April 27 to support Best Buddies in their annual Friendship Walk at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. In conjunction with the walk, Best Buddies held a fundraiser in which they earned more than $40K for the charity!

Big thanks to all who participated or donated to this great cause. Photos from the event have been uploaded to the BrightRoll Facebook page. Check back next month to see what the do-gooders of BrightRoll have been up to.

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Video saw the greatest increase in spending among all US digital ad formats from 2012 to 2013 and is expected to reach $4.14 billion by the end of the year, according to eMarketer. This is echoed in this year’s survey with 66 percent of respondents including video in more than half of their digital RFPs. In fact, 75 percent of brands and agencies find video to be equally or more effective than TV.

While digital video continues full speed ahead, programmatic has become a hot topic in the industry for media buying. The report reveals that more than one third of respondents expect half or more of their digital budgets to be programmatic in the next 12 months.

Other key findings from the report include:

• GRPs/TRPs are considered the form of audience measurement that clients value most in video advertising – a 46 percent increase from last year
• 36 percent of respondents think behavioral is the most valuable form of targeting
• Almost 40 percent of respondents say completed views are the most important success metric – a 42 percent increase from last year’s survey

The top findings from this year’s report are highlighted in the infographic below.

For complete results and analysis, download the 2013 US Video Advertising Report and the read the press release.

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Welcome Address by Tod Sacerdoti, Founder & CEO, BrightRoll
BrightRoll CEO and founder, Tod Sacerdoti welcomes attendees by addressing the evolution of digital video advertising, calling 2013 the year of big growth.

What is Premium? A Buyers vs. Sellers Perspective
Digiday reporter, Jack Marshall interviews Ran Harnevo of The AOL On Network and Kristin Haarlow from Spark Communications on the topic. Both sides share their perspectives about what premium content means to their business (buyer vs. seller).

Analyzing the Convergence of Programmatic Buying and Video
BrightRoll CEO, Tod Sacerdoti sits down for a fireside chat with Steve Hasker of Nielsen to discuss industry dynamics impacting the future of digital video and TV measurement.

How Digital Video Can Drive In-Store Purchases
In this marketer spotlight, Dan Mosher of BrightRoll speaks with Chris Henger of Catalina Marketing to discuss how the company has recently boosted usage of digital video and is combining data and user preferences with programmatic video to drive in store-purchases and brand loyalty for Catalina CPG clients.

Leveraging Data: How to Target the Right Audience
Craig Whitmer of BrightRoll hosts a panel with Eric Roza of Datalogix and Luke Kigel of J3/Universal McCann who share best practices and tips for reaching desired audiences.

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BrightRoll CEO and founder, Tod Sacerdoti welcomed attendees by addressing the evolution of digital video advertising, calling 2013 the year of big growth:

“As the world’s largest video advertising platform, BrightRoll is seeing two key trends for 2013. First is the rapid adoption of programmatic video buying among advertisers and third parties driven by the explosive growth of mobile and web RTB. The second is the upswing in audience-based targeting as measured through comScore and Nielsen. Both of these trends underscore the need for advanced tools and real-time technologies that enable customers to maximize efficiencies and measure ROI.”

Tod’s welcome address kicked-off a series of discussions featuring candid conversations on the hottest topics in video advertising today:

What is Premium? A Buyers vs. Sellers Perspective
Digiday reporter, Jack Marshall interviewed Ran Harnevo of The AOL On Network and Kristin Haarlow from Spark Communications on the topic. Both sides shared their perspectives about what premium content means to their business (buyer vs. seller).

Analyzing the Convergence of Programmatic Buying and Video
BrightRoll CEO, Tod Sacerdoti sat down for a fireside chat with Steve Hasker of Nielsen to discuss industry dynamics impacting the future of digital video and TV measurement. Hasker addressed how publishers and advertisers are incorporating programmatic video ad platforms into their strategies and what advances in audience measurement methodologies mean for successfully leveraging digital video.

How Digital Video Can Drive In-Store Purchases
In this marketer spotlight, Dan Mosher of BrightRoll spoke with Chris Henger of Catalina Marketing to discuss how the company has recently boosted usage of digital video and is combining data and user preferences with programmatic video to drive in store-purchases and brand loyalty for Catalina CPG clients.

Leveraging Data: How to Target the Right Audience
Craig Whitmer of BrightRoll hosted a panel with Eric Roza of Datalogix and Luke Kigel of J3/Universal McCann who shared best practices and tips for reaching desired audiences. Both sides (data provider and marketer) agreed that targeting is an important aspect of digital video and is highly valued by clients. They also highlighted that targeting the right audiences across multiple screens can be deceivingly complex, however, it is quite simple — data is the differentiator and quality is key.

Summit attendees turned to Twitter to share insights from the day’s events, tweeting @BrightRoll using the #BRVideoSummit hashtag. Below are a few highlights:

@veenome: At #BRVideoSummit and everyone is asking about video ad #viewability – packed event

@JiveJones6h: BrightRoll Video Summit. Really enjoying the topics being discussed so far! #BRVideoSummit (@ Altman Building) http://4sq.com/15mi8bK

‏@sundaysky4h: @BrightRoll & @Equinix announce the fastest #RTB solution for #video #advertising to decrease latency http://hub.am/YVJe6W #BRVideoSummit

@davidaKaplan: Quote: AOL On The ‘Premium’ Video Conundrum – http://www.adexchanger.com/online-advertising/quote-aol-on-the-premium-video-conundrum/ … #brvideosummit

@kevinlenane8h: #brvideosummit 500% growth yoy on @brightroll platform pic.twitter.com/rXTwM3UP5a

‏@CSignore157h: Interesting insights into OCR strategy and use cases from Steve Hasker #brvideosummit

If you missed the Spring 2013 BrightRoll Video Summit, panel sessions will be available on the BrightRoll YouTube channel and event photos will be uploaded to the BrightRoll Facebook page in the coming days. The next BrightRoll Video Summit will be held in New York on Wednesday, September 25, 2013.

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Campaigns that run on the BrightRoll video ad platform can be optimized to Nielsen OCR delivering advertisers with the most in-target video impressions. Already available on the BrightRoll platform in the US and UK, global advertisers can now take advantage of this TV-like audience measurement for online video.

The solution measures the audience of online advertising, providing reach, frequency and gross rating point (GRP) metrics as well as demographics such as age and gender.

As the industry conversation around audience measurement grows, BrightRoll will continue to provide strategic tools to advertisers that help increase the effectiveness of campaigns and actionable insights drive ROI.

Every month, BrightRoll employees are given the opportunity to participate in community outreach or acts of charity through the company’s “BGood” initiative, which organizes, encourages and supports giving back to the community. We know blood transfusions save lives and that there’s no alternative for human blood. Every three seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion and just a pint of blood can help up to three people.

BrightRoll was happy to share the love and looks forward to the next blood drive. Check back next month to see what the do-gooders of BrightRoll have been up to.

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Fast-forward to today – there are multiple platforms for video ads and dozens upon dozens of metrics to measure performance. Video is no longer limited to one platform or one measurement metric. In today’s digital landscape, viewers consume video across four screens: computer, smartphone, tablet and connected TV. Marketers are following suit to reach audiences across all screens, yet today’s performance metrics are device-specific making it difficult to easily demonstrate cross-platform campaign effectiveness.

In the same way that you can’t use a ruler for all forms of measurement (think weight or density), it is inaccurate to apply a single platform metric across all video screens. This pushes marketers to ask two very important questions: What metrics for video matter most across each device, and more importantly, what metrics can be applied across all screens?

A new white paper from BrightRoll cross-examines performance metrics for digital video to expose the metrics that matter most. As marketers continue to invest in cross-platform solutions, they’re seeking measurements that can be applied across screens. This paper reveals that audience measurement serves as the common denominator and uncovers the truth behind measurement methodologies.

Download the audience measurement white paper.

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This spring’s 2013 BrightRoll Video Summit is focused on discussing how the latest trends and technologies increase efficiencies in the digital video advertising industry.

Join us as we hear from high-level industry executives about the latest learnings and solutions that create opportunities for buyers and sellers in the digital video advertising ecosystem.

You won’t want to miss this event! For complete agenda and registration information, please visit brvideosummit.com.

BrightRoll supports all five winning IPR formats in the US, UK and Canada across our platform including BrightRoll Exchange. Offering a full array of performance tracking, engagement metrics and audience measurement that can be recorded by site/placement and creative, these units provide a variety of interactive concepts:

•  Full screen: upon viewer interaction, ad expands to the video player with a full canvas of interaction possibilities including more video, social and other features
•  Extender: encourages viewers to “extend” their viewing experience beyond the traditional 15- and 30-second duration limits
•  TimeSync: enables interactive features in the ad to be synchronized to what is being shown in the video ad
•  Filmstrip: scrollable, multi-panel, horizontal unit that drives viewer discovery through interactive rich media panels
• Ad control bar: drives engagement through an extendable control bar overlay containing a series of clickable buttons

Learn more about the IAB Rising Stars awards including the winning digital video formats.

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