Archive for the ‘Publishers & Advertisers’ Category
Last week our team had the pleasure of presenting at the New Tech Denver Meetup alongside several other local startup tech companies. The New Tech Denver and Boulder meetups always draw a crowd, and this one had more than 100 techies in attendance to hear the “what’s what” from emerging technologies along the Front Range.
The SkipIt team donned our comfy SkipIt t-shirts and mingled, sipped our share of beer and then settled in to listen and learn. When it was our turn, the talented Mr. Kevin Hunt (@showtunes), joined by one of our lead engineers, Andrew Kuttig, had 5 minutes to tell the crowd all about the benefits of skipping video ads to get to their online content, how users can pay to skip or earn lots of free skips, about all the main technologies behind running SkipIt and how we’ve signed up tens of thousands of users since we launched in April 2012.
Couldn’t make it that night? If not, check out the video:
Thanks very much to our MapQuest hosts for the use of their cool office space, and to New Tech for allowing us to present with fellow startups like Flowth, Reflections, and Ibotta and listen to an informative Q&A session with Peter Adams from Rockies Venture Club.
We might love to skip video ads, but we won’t skip New Tech meet ups – see you all there.
If only I had SkipIt
The busier we get, the harder it can be to clear away the clutter in our lives. Clearing clutter can extend to our online experience too. And wouldn’t you know it, that some of our favorite websites would like to clear away some of the advertising that clutters their sites too. But the fact is that advertising, pays the bills. So websites have to balance between advertising to stay in business and annoying their visitors with video ad overload.
So how does SkipIt help them clear the clutter while earning even more money than they could before?
SkipIt pays publishers NOT to play an ad. And we recognize that by offering SkipIt, all of a publisher’s web video ads are skippable. Consequently, SkipIt must pay publishers much higher revenue for allowing skipping than they would make actually playing the web video ads. All a publisher has to do is integrate the SkipIt operating system with the their website and they can offer their visitors the ability to skip web video ads on their site.
But what about the advertiser?
Publishers then turn around and credit any advertiser that had an ad skipped. This all happens in an instant. Ah, technology! This credit makes advertisers happy because they’re not paying for skipped ads, and publishers like the extra money and happy advertisers. Most of all, consumers have the choice of whether they want to skip or watch the video ad, and they have total control of their online experience and their schedule. Skipping an ad is free by earning free skips at www.skipit.com or by paying a small fee.
SkipIt — clearing clutter online, one website at a time.
We here at SkipIt like to win. But we like to share too. That’s why we created SkipIt in the first place – to give folks more control over their online experience with an innovative new service in the advertising industry. We launched SkipIt at the right time, because there’s a movement afoot on Madison Avenue to make online ads as relevant and engaging as possible. We’re consumers too! We know that not everyone will like every ad – that’s just not possible. But since advertisers essentially pay for all the content we consume online, we wanted to address consumer frustration with better advertising without hurting advertisers in the process. They’re paying the bills, they should have a say too!
So, here’s how it works for advertisers:
- When people click on the SkipIt invite and skip a video ad, that advertiser doesn’t pay for that skipped ad
- The website that it played on (the publisher) gets paid by SkipIt, and then credits the advertiser for that skipped ad
- Advertisers like it because their ad dollars are being used efficiently – they aren’t wasted on people that don’t have time, or just aren’t interested in watching video ads
The SkipIt Ecosystem
SkipIt even covers other advertiser costs. We will credit advertisers for their ad serving and ad operations costs for all video ads that run through the SpotXchange marketplace that were skipped. Other ad skipping solutions out there either benefit the publisher or the advertiser, but not both like SkipIt does.
How else do we make things fair for advertisers? We are working with handfuls of advertisers to design ways for consumers to earn free skips. For example, soon, consumers will be able to go to SkipIt.com and interact with select advertiser offers in exchange for free skips in their SkipIt accounts. Some folks will want to pay for skips, some will want to earn free skips, and there will soon be plenty of ways to earn free skips. Either way, we want to ensure advertisers aren’t paying when people skip their video ads.
SkipIt is the fairest ad skipping solution on the market. Everyone wins in some way. Your favorite websites get to keep creating good content and offer you the choice to skip. Advertisers don’t pay for skipped ads and will soon have the choice of interacting with consumers that WANT to hear from them. And most importantly, YOU, the consumer, have more control online. ‘Bout time.
Stay tuned as SkipIt becomes THE solution for bypassing online video ads. We’ll continue to work hard for you, publishers and advertisers in the meantime.
Skip It good.