FierceOnlineVideo Leaders - Jason Glickman, CEO Tremor Media

FierceOnlineVideo spoke with Jason Glickman, CEO of online video ad network Tremor Media, to discuss the company's progress in 2008 and to get his thoughts on the company and the industry in 2009. 

FierceOV: How did 2008 end up for Tremor, Jason?

Jason Glickman: It was a year of aggressive growth for Tremor and the online video industry in general.  We grew in scale, as Tremor is now serving online video ads to 1,400 publisher partners with 137 million unique visitors. We're also beginning to see the shift of ad dollars from the huge pool of money going to TV ads over to online video advertising, which is encouraging. The supply of online video content also increased dramatically, which enables more impressions and advertising budgets to increase as well. Advertisers are seeing the benefits of the reporting and targeting that can be delivered with online video advertising. 

FierceOV: Which specific metrics or indicator are publishers and advertisers responding most favorably these days? 

Glickman: In terms of format, pre-roll has proven to be the dominant and most well-received. So talking about pre-rolls, the clearest measure of success we've seen is completion rate, and Tremor sees about an 80 percent completion rate on the ads we serve. That's achieved through the quality of the content the viewer is watching, the right targeted ad being delivered to the specific user, and frequency caps, so that the user doesn't feel bombarded.

Other measures like brand lift and click-through rate are also good indicators, but click-through rate is probably overvalued as a true ROI indicator. 

FierceOV: Some industry observers have mentioned a glut of online video content, resulting in a shortage of creative to fill the inventory adequately. Do you think this is accurate, given Tremor's reach across so many different web properties?

Glickman: I'd have to disagree with that, there is a large amount of inventory available, and that's over high quality, professionally produced content, which is all Tremor touches. But there is plenty of video advertising to run large impression campaigns for our customers, and this is not something we've experienced as a company. 

FierceOV: How do you view the competitive landscape in online video advertising currently? 

Glickman: Well the venture capital is hard to come by these days, and if a company hasn't gotten scale yet, it will be difficult to build it in this environment. I think the companies that do manage to scale will be the ones that survive. People are retrenching, but there is also more cooperation than you would imagine, because we're in a market that hasn't come close to taking all the TV spend it can, so all the companies are pulling from a large pot and infighting is only going to hurt us in the long run. 

FierceOV: Tremor recently announced a $18 million round of funding. What does the funding mean for Tremor and what do you plan to use this capital for? 

Glickman: We look at it in a number of ways. First, it's a validation of the video climate. Online video is one of the lone bright spots in the marketing world right now. It's also a validation of Tremor as a company, and our growth in revenue, customers, and technology.

We plan to use the funding for new product development and global expansion. Last year, we received a strategic round from the European Founders Fund. That allowed us to bring on former head of Google Germany, Christian Baudis, as our executive GM in Europe. We've opened offices in Germany and the U.K., and we see the opportunity for online video in Europe getting brighter and brighter. They are about two years behind the U.S. in online video, but the percentage growth is higher than in the U.S. two years ago, and the transfer of TV dollars to online video is happening more rapidly. 

FierceOV: What do you think 2009 holds for Tremor and the online video industry as a whole? 

Glickman: I think we'll see the shift of dollars from TV to online video accelerate, and a lot of the conversations on online video advertising deals will start to resemble those of the TV world. I think content syndication is an area to watch, as media companies cease to view their content in such a proprietary way. I think they are moving away from the walled garden approach.

I also think people are going to get the content they want, on the device that's most convenient, whether that's the TV, the PC, the mobile phone, etc. That trend won't be stopped, not by content owners or media companies, so I think you'll see people accept that and find ways to monetize it and make it work.