Recently Intergi Entertainment announced their partnership with advertising technology provider ADTECH. ADTECH is powering the ad management for Playwire, an online video platform. Read the release. We spoke with Jayson Dubin, CEO of Intergi Entertainment for further details on this unique product offering and video ad serving standards.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about Intergi Entertainment and about your role there.
A: Intergi brings online game publishers that want to generate revenue from advertising together with advertisers that want to reach consumers that engage in online gaming. We work closely with both the game publisher/Web site and the advertiser to create specific advertising campaigns that meet the branding objectives of the advertiser and delivers the best return for the publisher – and then we execute these campaigns for our customers.
I founded Intergi in 2007 after more than a decade of executive experience in sales and marketing. Just prior I’d been the President & Publisher for the Media Division of Theglobe.com, a publisher that did a lot of work in the gaming space and it was pretty clear to me that this market was largely underserved. Intergi is now comScore’s top ranked destination for reaching online gaming and entertainment enthusiasts.
Similarly, we just launched Playwire – an online video platform – because I saw how difficult it was for game publishers to cost-effectively monetize game content. As we were building Playwire, we quickly realized that monetizing video content was not just a gaming industry issue, but also a real problem for many publishers in a range of different industries including sports, travel and news, among many others that use a lot of video.
As president and CEO of Intergi and Playwire, I’m quite busy working with customers and identifying challenges that we can help them address.
Q: Is the Playwire platform just for providing in-game video advertising for Flash games or can it be used in other ways?
A: Playwire can be used by anyone with video content, it wasn’t designed as a gaming-specific video platform. But as we have a lot of experience and customers in the gaming industry, we did make our beta product available to Intergi’s publisher network to help us get ready to go to market. Since our launch, we’ve had sign ups in a diverse range of industries including technology, music, and movies.
Q: What differentiates the Playwire offering from other online video platforms?
A: Playwire was built from the ground up to make it easier to monetize video content – we’ve already done the technical work so publishers don’t have to. It’s basically one simple application that includes all the features needed, including hosting, encoding, syndication, monetization, analytics, customizations, etc.
The player itself is free, anyone can use it, and we have a ‘pay as you go’ business model – which is an industry first. Most video platforms have a lot of upfront costs including monthly subscription costs, for fee add on modules, integration and customization etcetera. Playwire is focused on removing these barriers to entry and leveling the playing field for publishers of all sizes.
Q: Tell us a bit about how the Ad Module works.
A: Unlike other video players, the ad module is built-in to Playwire’s Bolt player so publishers don’t need individual contracts from each ad network – we’ve already taken care of this with all of the major ad networks, to specifically target content and optimize publisher ROI. And its VAST and VPAID compliant.
Q: The advantages of being VAST compliant are pretty clear. What are the benefits of being VPAID compliant?
A: VPAID allows us to serve modern interactive ads where the user is able to interact with the ad and send data — all without leaving the player.
Q: Can you tell us more about your mobile offering?
A: We can serve ads into mobile apps and are currently developing on implementing our same ad system on mobile browsers.
Q: What about Rich Media ads?
A: We deliver a wide range of rich media from overlays to in-banner video, and ADTECH helps us with serving these.
Jayson Dubin is the President and CEO of Intergi Entertainment and Playwire. Dubin brings more than a decade of media and marketing experience to Intergi Entertainment and Playwire™, and a track record of launching and building successful media properties that reach the gaming audience, on a worldwide basis. As CEO of Intergi and Playwire, Dubin is responsible for providing the strategic vision and direction for the company, and for ensuring the execution of the company against its core business plan.