Adgully Exclusive | Internet is an amazing opportunity for growth: Vdopia's Saurabh Bhatia

Vdopia Inc. , a pioneer in mobile and online video advertising, enables major brands to engage their desired audiences in premium content environments around the world. The company, which introduced video advertising to mobile devices, is the only provider of auto-play video ads running across both apps and the mobile web.

In the Asia-Pacific market, Vdopia also provides clients with the largest network for online video ads as rated by comScore, as well as patented technology for large-scale, real-time integration of video ads in live content. Vdopia's global client base includes Nokia, Scion, Microsoft, Sony Pictures, MillerCoors, Wrigley, Bausch & Lomb, Samsung, Lufthansa, Disney and Vodafone.

Vdopia's business concept is to meet the needs of leading brands to deliver video advertising to their key targets, in the digital environments where these targets are already consuming high-quality content.

Adgully caught up with Saurabh Bhatia, Chief Business Officer and Co-founder, Vdopia Inc., to know more about the company's growth plan in 2011

Bhatia says that the company offers seamless, reliable video serving technology across the kind of premium video ad units that users want to engage with.For publishers,Vdopia's video ad units present opportunities to make the most revenue from their content.

"We provide a variety of services for publishers and content owners, including on-boarding advertisers and sharing the ad revenue with the publisher or content owner. For advertisers, we let them utilize their existing TV creative in highly accountable and targeted ways, by delivering these creatives to large digital and mobile audiences. We follow a pay-per-view metric, which means you pay only for the advertising that works, to give truly measurable results," he says.

Specifically in the mobile space, the company seeks to provide a unified video ad experience across all OS's and smartphone types -- including the iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices ' whether the ad is running inside an app or on a mobile web site. Hence this way, a marketer's message can be consistent whether they run it on TV, online, or on mobile.

Bhatia adds, "We are committed to playing a proactive role in shaping the ad industry's adoption of digital video technologies, providing important perspective on industry issues such as standards, formats and measurement."

In India, both the launch of Vdoipa's video ad network, and then its subsequent groundbreaking work with "VLive' technology have been some of the most talked about offerings. VLive is a patented solution which enables video ads to be inserted into the online video stream of a live event, in the same way ads are inserted during a live TV broadcast. ESPNStar named Vdopia its exclusive digital ads sales agent for the recently concluded ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

While on the mobile front, June 2011 marked the second anniversary of Vdopia's entry into mobile advertising and also the successful story of 4 billionth mobile video ad being served. Among its "firsts" in mobile over the past two years, Vdopia introduced:

¢ The entire concept of mobile video ads, with our pre-app / in-app video ads for iPhone and then Android

¢ Video ads to the mobile Web, for iPhone and Android

¢ Talk2Me, a high-performing social media ad overlay for iPhone and Android

¢ Future5, the industry's first HTML5 ad authoring solution

Talking about the roadmap for the company, Bhatia says, "Vdopia is expanding from being No.1 in the online advertising space in India to creating exciting ad formats and platforms on the global mobile front in 2011. We intend to maintain our leadership position by offering new and innovative video monetization solutions based on our proprietary, patent-pended technologies ' whether on the Internet, in apps, or on the mobile Web."

However he is quick enough to add that the company is still young, "We need to grow quickly but properly, to ensure we're always best serving the needs of our leading network of brands and publishers.That in mind our biggest challenge is finding enough of the right people, people like us, who possess that rare mix of entrepreneurial spirit, big dreams they hunger to succeed, and the attention to detail needed to make these dreams a reality," Bhatia adds.

So what is the scope of mobile video advertising?

Bhatia says that in terms of the market opportunity, hundreds of millions of people around the world already interact with the Internet and apps on their mobiles ' and this number will scale to billions of people within the next few years. He further adds that during this same time, their connections and their devices will get more robust, making possible a world where video on mobile is as prevalent as it is on television and online. Thus, the scope and upside potential are enormous.

"Turning specifically to this market, India now boasts of being Asia Pacific's single largest market for mobile ad impressions. While India is still into advanced feature phones right now, smartphones are rapidly catching up. Local advertisers and publishers are clearly noticing the fierce growth of telecom here and the growing numbers of addressable mobile audiences. Because video ads can effectively deliver brand-driven creative ' while complementing existing TV spots in a way static banner ads cannot ' Indian marketers are now directing their interest toward mobile," he adds.

While signing off he says, "As mentioned previously, in addition to mobile ' where we will soon be introducing additional exciting products ' live streaming of premium content on the Internet is certainly one of the amazing opportunities for growth." | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]