At AdMonsters Screens on Nov. 19, Videoplaza will be unleashing the newest member of its executive squad, Chief Commercial Officer Rags Gupta, to give a little real-world context to multi-screen monetisation. We caught up with the former BrightCove VP to hear about his recent move and get his thoughts on device fragmentation and the “New TV.”
Welcome to Videoplaza! What attracted you to the company? How is this new role different from your previous one at Brightcove?
Thanks! Where to begin?! Initially the team, the product and the market traction impressed me from my perch on the Board, which I joined early in the year. I was always bullish on the market in general but am even more so now having seen clients ‘vote with their eyeballs’ on IP-delivered video. This role is different in that there’s a wider remit given the company’s stage and that it’s based here in Europe. All in all, I’m very happy to be back in online video.
Your presentation at AdMonsters Screens is about multi-screen monetisation in the real world. Do you know anything about multi–screen monetization in fantasy worlds, like Middle Earth? Basically I want to know how Hobbits do it.
In Middle Earth, there’s one screen to rule them all…
OK, kidding aside – What is the biggest obstacle right now for publishers attempting to reunite their audiences divided by device fragmentation?
It’s a combination dealing with the challenge of fragmented technology platforms and immature technologies (such as HTML5) along with finding the best way to position, package and sell the audience to the advertising community. Of course, we at Videoplaza envision being the one ad management platform to rule them all, helping them resolve these issues and hiding the technical complexity of a multidevice world!
Do you feel European advertisers and publishers are embracing – or at least waking up to – the idea of New TV? (That is, IP-delivered television.)
Yes. We consistently see premium content publishers being sold out of inventory. The growth of IP-delivered video advertising is exponential compared to traditional TV advertising (which is essentially flatlining in the US and Europe) from the data we have (see our latest research report here), although adoption varies by market of course, depending on the maturity of the market, broadband connectivity, mobile adoption etc.
Videoplaza CEO Sorosh Tavakoli told us earlier this year live streaming was going to be huge alongside the Olympics. Do you feel like advertisers and publishers are recognizing this opportunity?
Yes, to a degree. The publishers that can package and sell this in the right way will be the ones to benefit the most from live as it’s very much the responsibility of publishers to educate the ad buying community on the benefits of live streaming ad opportunities. Technically we can make it work but the publishers need to get the advertisers to buy in to the value of live.
 |
The age of multi-screen is upon us. Whether you’re interested in mobile, tablet, IPTV, goggles, or other enabled devices, learn cutting edge techniques and best practices from industry leaders and get involved in discussions with expert panelists only at AdMonsters Screens, Nov. 19 in London. |