Eyeview gets $15M from Marker to Scale Up Its Video ad Platform
João-Pierre S. Ruth
November 19, 2014
big apple-based Eyeview has raised $ 15 million from venture capital firm Marker, certainly one of its existing traders, to help develop its customized on-line video advert platform. Eyeview’s tool lets entrepreneurs push digital video commercials personalised and tweaked for shoppers, says CEO and co-founder Oren Harnevo. the corporate was once based in 2007 and thus far has raised $ 34.5 million in total funding. Harnevo says the company’s plan is to carry customized video advertisements to connected televisions, computer computers, and mobile units. different varieties of merchandising, reminiscent of print and billboards, tend to be localized, he says. “however video by no means acquired there, primarily because of know-how,” Harnevo says. “It’s almost not possible to run a tv advert for different cities with totally different messages.” the corporate’s platform lets marketers goal now not just age teams and profits levels, Harnevo says. The focused on can drill right down to customers who have visited their model’s web site and checked out specific merchandise. That, he says, can assist pressure gross sales relatively than simply put out a brand’s message. Eyeview gets knowledge from brands, he says, equivalent to what customers have sold in stores and the kinds of vehicles they personal. that’s coupled with Eyeview’s data on which kind of message matches sure demographics, along with other data, to edit present video advertisements to go well with the recipients. “In 5 years, 30 to 60 percent of video commercials will probably be customized,” Harnevo says. He adds that his company will purpose next 12 months to show to entrepreneurs that they do not have to run the identical video commercials all over. “It’s very hard to change individuals’s minds, particularly chief advertising and marketing officers who’ve been operating tv ads for two decades,” he says. Eyeview has excessive ambitions in an advert tech scene that is quite frothy, particularly in big apple. whereas it is smart for startups here to latch on to an business with deep roots within the metropolis, it is usually difficult to stand out. Harnevo says there is a consolidation of expertise formats in advert tech. “You see Google, AOL, Yahoo, and smaller companies beginning to say with mobile video ads, you want one platform to buy media, see reporting, and fasten on efficiency,” he says. With the landscape beginning to seem somewhat homogenous, Harnevo believes Eyeview can set itself apart by bringing individuality to online video ads. “Personalization is unique enough for marketers to use us,” he says. With the newest funding, the corporate plans to make bigger with new hires—in particular in gross sales—and to increase its presence in Detroit, los angeles, and Chicago, where it already has places of work. Eyeview recruited Brian Pozesky from Conversant to be its chief marketing officer and West Naze to function executive director of client packaged items gross sales. Naze was in the past executive vice president of sales and expertise with news Corp. Eyeview has already employed more than 50 new workers this year. the corporate presently has a body of workers of 80 with plans to develop to one hundred through finish of yr. “We have been two or three folks in 2011 right here in big apple,” Harnevo says.
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