Video Widgeteer SplashCast Gets $4M
SplashCast, which makes branded video widgets for clients such as Sony BMG, has raised $4 million from Australian advertising exec Mark Bayliss and Emergent. This round includes the $2 million the company had already raised from angels (including poker star Phil Hellmuth).
When we asked what differentiated his company, CEO Mike Berkley told us “SplashCast’s patent-pending video channel platform is the key to deep engagement.” That’s not a terribly convincing answer for me; can there really be IP in this stuff? Basically, SplashCast allows its customers to syndicate new content by sending it out to media players that fans have already embedded on their pages.
However, having a direct channel to the customer is pretty useful in this day and age of abysmal click-through rates on the social networks where kids spend all their time. Berkley claims his ads receive 3 percent CTRs, quite a ways up from the decimals you’ll see for banner ads on Facebook.
See an example below:
| Add Chris Brown to your page |
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[...] NewTeeVee’s Liz Gannes had this take on SplashCast’s “social advertising” and its position against traditional online advertising media: [H]aving a direct channel to the customer is pretty useful in this day and age of abysmal click-through rates on the social networks where kids spend all their time. Berkley claims his ads receive 3 percent CTRs, quite a ways up from the decimals you’ll see for banner ads on Facebook. [...]
SplashCast channels $4 million | Techvibes…
— 11:28 AM on March 20, 2008
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Thanks, Liz!
Re IP: yes, we provide our clients with a fairly robust content management system (CMS) for real-time programming of their distributed SplashCast players. Patents were filed a few years ago.
Cheers,
SplashCast
Interesting poker stuff. Checkout my poker site if you want, quite new but am getting there :)