Just over a month after securing $47 million in debt financing for expansion and acquisitions, online video ad specialist Teads has acquired interactive video company Brainient.
In purchasing the cross-device video solutions provider, Teads appears to be wasting little time in using its recently acquired cash to meet objectives of “adding value” and diversifying in the video ad space.
According to Teads, the core focus of the acquisition is interactive and vertical video, which leading video ad platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat don’t support.
Other exchanges, meanwhile, are “struggling” to optimise this consistently across devices, screen sizes, and orientation modes without “major discrepancies”.
Teads studio
Rebranded as Teads Studio and led by its CEO, digital entrepreneur Emi Gal, Brainient will operate as an independent business unit within Teads, where it will have a role in “empowering” brands to create smartphone-exclusive versions of their existing videos, which are still somewhat of a rarity.
On the interactive side of things, Teads Studio will allow creative and media teams to add the functionality to their videos, such as inviting consumers to test or buy a product, visit a site or share on social media, all of which could be subject to real-time tweaking.
Teads’ CEO Bertrand Quesada commented: “I am very excited by the opportunity to speed up the adoption of the most advanced outstream video advertising formats. For instance, we will also help agencies and brands streamline the creation of 360° creatives, leveraging a normal landscape video.”
The announcement also follows a report last week that saw nine in 10 consumers demanding improvements be made to online video advertising. Poor delivery, buffering and failure to load topped the list of annoyances for the majority.
In the light of those findings, Teads’ expertise in unobtrusive, premium outstream formats coupled with Brainient’s aptitude for personalised content shouldn’t do any harm.