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Want to Insert Ads Into Your iPad-Enabled, HTML5 Videos? There's a Service for That

via ReadWriteWeb by Sarah Perez on 4/7/10

mDialog, a four-year-old Canadian-based video platform company, is announcing the launch of their new Apple-focused service, an "HTML5 adaptive video streaming service with dynamic ad-insertion." In a nutshell: it lets you stick ads into videos that work on the iPad and iPhone. The ads can be pre-roll, post-roll, mid-roll and precisely geo-targeted to fit an advertiser's needs. They can also be swapped out and replaced in real-time. The service's ad-insertion features put mDialog's platform more on par with that of Adobe Flash, a plugin-based technology that doesn't run on Apple's mobile devices.

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The mDialog service uses Apple's adaptive streaming specification in combination with the mDialog ad platform to deliver targeted videos to mobile device owners, whether they carry an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. And by the second quarter of this year, the same technology will be made available to the Android mobile OS as well.

For advertisers, the necessary features for managing an advertising inventory are present. On the back-end, you can customize settings like device frequency capping (how many times an ad is delivered to a unique device), time restrictions (when an ad should be played), a target impression goal (how many times a video is served), ad placement (pre-, post- or mid-roll) and geo-targeting. That last feature is incredibly easy-to-use thanks to an integrated Google map. Drop a pushpin, set the radius in miles. There's also DoubleClick integration for those who use it.

With mDialog, advertisers can get almost creepily specific, similar to the way Facebook ads seem to know far too much about you. Imagine targeting all the people attending a game at a football stadium, Greg Philpott, mDialog's President and Founder, suggests. Or watching an automobile ad that directs you to the dealership nearest you...and by "nearest" you, we mean not just those in your hometown, but those nearest to your precise location at this exact moment. As an aside, Philpott tells us that, in fact, the auto industry is very interested in just this sort of thing.

HTML5 Video vs. Flash: Ads and Analytics Needed

mDialog's Apple angle is due to the fact that it's focused on HTML5 video, both live and VOD (video-on-demand). For those who have somehow missed the news: the iPad doesn't play Flash video. This has put advertisers in a quandary since HTML5, the upcoming but still-not-solidified standard for web markup language does not currently support in-stream advertising and real-time analytics features in its video feature. But when there's a hole to be filled, the industry will fill it. Brightcove, for example, has advertising and analytics on their 2010 roadmap, MeFeedia's platform allows for HTML5 video and ads, entertainment community Break Media announced the same and white label platform Ooyala offers real-time analytics, advertising and live-streaming tools. Others are sure to follow.

A few of mDialog's features, including CPC and interactive overlays have yet to arrive. This detailed chart shows them as "coming soon." Philpott tells us "soon" means within the next 60 days, so advertisers won't have to wait too long. In the meantime, developers can use mDialog's application SDK to get started on their video integrations. Interested parties can get in touch with the company via their website.

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