Artimedia to make splash in Israel with exclusive tie-up with Walla!

Singapore

SINGAPORE-LISTED Artivision Technologies announced on Sunday that its video advertising subsidiary Artimedia has partnered Israeli Internet company Walla! Communications for a three-year, exclusive contract that will make Artimedia the largest premium video ad network in Israel, one of the world's top tech capitals.

The tie-up will showcase Artimedia's suite of innovative video ad solutions, which could potentially rival those of Google and Yahoo!, Artivision chairman Philip Soh told BT.

Walla! - one of Israel's largest Internet portals, whose services include search, e-mail, e-commerce, chat, and video on demand - reportedly serves over 2.5 million monthly unique users in Israel. It was originally listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 1999 but delisted in 2012 following a tender offer by Bezeq, an Israel-listed telco with a market cap of US$5 billion.

As part of the contract, Walla! will integrate Artimedia's video ad platform onto its portal, and provide at least 10 million video views per month for Artimedia to insert ads.

"The exclusivity means that all of Walla!'s advertisers must now use Artimedia's platform for them to advertise in Walla! . . . (and that) Artimedia is essentially replacing DoubleClick - owned by Google - as the dominant player in Israel," said Mr Soh.

In return, Artimedia will pay Walla! a minimum annual sum in cash (to be funded by internal resources or borrowings) over the three-year term. An advance payment for Walla!'s inventory - financed by proceeds from Artivision's convertible loan announced on April 18, and amounting to some US$2.7 million - has been made.

"Artimedia's video ad technology will bring significant value to Israeli advertisers," said Mr So. "We understand what viewers like (or dislike) to see, and with our programmatic analytics, allow advertisers to deliver more efficient, targeted ads and provide more effective branding."

Among its video ad offerings are SmartOverlay (which shrinks the video to display an ad below the video and then resizes the video to its original size when the ad is completed); TargetRoll (which places an ad over "whitespace" areas in the video); and SceneRoll (which introduces an ad between video scenes) - all of which take care to not obscure video content or disrupt the viewing experience.

The SmartOverlay and SceneRoll features, in particular, are patented by Artivision and not offered by Google or Yahoo!, BT has learnt.

"Artimedia's platform is able to serve both desktop and mobile devices, and we operate from the cloud," added Mr Soh.

On why Walla! chose to partner the Singapore-listed company, Walla! CEO Ilan Yeshuha said: "Artimedia's video ad network with its patented technology is currently the most advanced the industry has seen. Programmatic video advertising is the future for publishers and advertisers to adopt."

The three-year contract with Walla! is expected to be up for automatic renewal and boost the group's media solutions revenue, said Artivision.

Artivision shares, which will resume trading on Monday, last traded at S$0.084 on April 22.

Globally, online video ad expenditure could hit US$11.4 billion by 2016, up from just US$0.1 billion in 2005, according to a Statista report.