At a time when the world was captivated by television, the Internet changed the scenario with the number of possibilities it offered to people — one of those being advertising, allowing companies to target their potential customers locally and around the globe. But the bigger benefactors of online advertising, until recently had been the large enterprises, who had vast resources at disposal for extensive advertising activities, while smaller business like retail shops or local restaurants struggled to make use of this hot medium.

Observing the plight of small businesses, Diaz Nesamoney founded Jivox in 2007 and introduced industry’s first self-service online video advertising platform for local businesses. “The online advertising space was already crowded, with almost all players focusing on large enterprises. Local businesses needed help in tapping into this new medium, so, setting up a platform for them seemed logical,” says Nesamoney. With an easy to use online service to create high-impact video ads using royalty-free videos, images, music or existing creative assets and then place them on the best local content websites at very affordable prices, the San Mateo headquartered company helps improve the effectiveness of their marketing by reaching local customers through online video advertising.

Transforming Businesses

A survey by the Online Publishers Association found that 80 percent of those who watch online video have seen a video ad at some point, which made 31 percent to visit the advertiser's website and 12 percent to make a purchase. Small businesses traditionally had been advertising in the local newspaper, yellow pages or the radio but Jivox helps these businesses to move beyond banner ads and search advertising by adding online video ads. The Jivox platform provides advertisers with video ad creation tools, targeting technology, reporting capabilities, and a network of publishers.

The features offered by Jivox platform include, ‘AdSlate’, a self-service video creation tool that allows users to produce ads using Jivox’s large library of still images, video clips and music, or by using their own content such as a digital picture of a storefront, product shots, head shots or logos. ‘Targeting and campaign management’ is another feature that enables advertisers to get their ads in front of the right audience using sophisticated algorithms developed by Jivox. ‘Video network’ offers advertisers extensive opportunities to get their targeted message in front of a wider range of audience.