It seems everyone in the space is getting into online video. Publishers. Ad networks. Agency trading desks. And why not? Online video commands high CPMs. And there is a direct line into the much coveted TV budgets. Here Sean Crawford, VP, International Business and Emerging Platforms at adap.tv, discusses his company's offering in the European market, RTB-enabled video inventory, and the trends we're likely to see in the local online video market over the coming months.

Can you give some overview on the Adap.tv proposition? Are you more focused on the exchange solution – or do you have a holistic approach to buying and selling online video inventory?

SC: Adap.tv provides a complete end-to-end platform for buying, selling and managing online video advertising. This platform includes 3 major products - Adap.tv for Publishers, Adap.tv for Advertisers and Adap.tv Marketplace – that connect buyers with sellers on a single platform. The Adap.tv Marketplace is the industry’s largest video marketplace for premium publishers and brand name advertisers, with over 4,200 sites selling inventory and hundreds of campaigns running daily.

What kind of footprint does Adap.tv have in the UK and Europe?

SC: Adap.tv has offices in the London that services our publisher and advertiser clients in the UK, as well as across Western Europe. Currently there are approximately 75 million monthly impressions on the Adap.tv platform in the UK and another 50 million across Western Europe.

How does the Adap.tv online video exchange work? How can publishers sell through the platform and how can buyers access inventory? Do you allow DSP integration?

SC: Publishers can sell their video inventory in the Adap.tv Marketplace in a few different ways. First, they can run the Adap.tv for Publishers ad server, which is integrated with our Marketplace and offers the ability to list inventory in it. Publishers can also connect directly to the Adap.tv Marketplace and make their inventory available for sale. Once inside the Marketplace, publishers have complete control over their inventory. They have the ability to pre-approve buyers and creatives, set a minimum floor price and determine which ads run on which sites.

Buyers can access the inventory in the Marketplace in a few different ways as well. First, they can run their entire video business through Adap.tv for Advertisers which allows them to buy, serve and manage all of their video campaigns in one place. This also includes direct access to publishers and inventory inside of the Marketplace. Second, advertisers can buy directly from the Marketplace via our self-serve console or via our managed services feature. Adap.tv is already integrated with a number of DSPs including [X+1]. Like publishers, buyers have complete transparency into the sites they are running on, as well as control over who they do business with and what prices they pay.

What about RTB? Is your video inventory available in real-time?

SC: Yes, there are many publishers and buyers who use the Adap.tv platform for real-time bidding.

What metrics are used to buy video inventory? Is it all CPM or do you offer CPE? Is the type of video served pre-roll or post-roll?

SC: Inventory in the Adap.tv Marketplace is currently priced on a CPM model. In the Adap.tv Marketplace buyers can buy in-stream pre-roll and mid-roll, as well as in-banner. This is 100% transparent to the buyer so each knows exactly what they are buying. On the ad serving side, publishers can run pre-roll, post-roll, mid-roll and overlay ads.

Google announced that it will soon make YouTube inventory available in real-time through Adx. How are you differentiating yourself from similar offering. Is the Google move a threat to your business model?

SC: The transacting of video advertising through marketplaces is the fastest growing segment in the industry. Google’s announcement is good for the industry as they will do a great job of educating the market on the power, efficiency and effectiveness of exchanges. The growing market, however, is not a zero-sum game. Our differentiation in the market comes from our end-to-end platform that (a) focuses on premium inventory, (b) brings buyers and sellers together in one place and (c) allows sellers to manage their business successfully including and beyond the marketplace.

CPMs for video inventory is high due to lack of demand. Will publishers want to put ad impressions on an exchange when they are selling out at such high prices? What’s their motivation?

SC: The value proposition for the Adap.tv platform is that by leveraging the Marketplace a publisher maintains control over his inventory while allowing multiple advertisers to bid on impressions, potentially driving up CPMs and fill. In this scenario, the buyer is definitely motivated.

Is there any video inventory outside the tv broadcaster’s web inventory? Will video content become available across big premium publisher?

SC: Yes, there are millions of impressions outside of TV broadcaster's web inventory. In the UK for example, according to Comscore, there are hundreds of millions of impressions from more than 200 publishers in the market.

Is the growth in supply going to have downward on current online video pricing? Or are we a long way off that scenario?

SC: Our experience thus far has been quite the opposite. Video is the only digital medium that uses sight, sound and motion. Unlike display advertising, where many publishers designate a portion of their inventory as "remnant," pre-roll inventory is available as fixed placements and drives higher engagement. What the Adap.tv Marketplace provides buyers is increased access to a high volume of premium video inventory. Along with an increase in demand, we have seen an increase in CPMs.

What trends are you seeing on the European buy-side? Is online video attracting brand budget away from TV? Are we going to see massive growth in the online video market?

SC: The market is already experiencing significant growth in online video buying and the UK market is in the midst of that growth. At an estimated 60 million GBP in 2010, an estimated 120 GBP in 2011 and 200 million GBP in 2012, the growth is on. The dollars coming in are both TV dollars as well as brand dollars in general. Online video is a great branding vehicle and buyers have recognized this and are allocating spend accordingly.

How do you see the European online video market developing over 2011? More exchange buys? Shifts in brand TV budgets?

SC: 2011 is a year of growth for online video. Increasingly we are seeing that online video is a key vehicle for brand messaging in the UK and across Europe. We believe that a growing number of this buying will shift to platforms that provide transparency, control and real insights. We also see an increase in the amount of premium, quality online video inventory that brand advertisers desire. If we combine these two trends, it portends a year in which TV buys are augmented in a real way by online video buys so that the brand message is pushed out further to audiences.