Every publisher struggles how to present videos with pre-roll ads at the right moment when a user is ready to see them. One solution is to embed the related video content into the site’s context manually. It is, however, very costly for publishers. Sprinkle, a Sweden-based start-up, is trying to help publishers automate the process of putting video content into context by publishing automatically context-based videos to visitors.
The start-up defines themselves as “a monetization platform for syndication and distribution of content.” Using technology provided by Finland-based Leiki, Sprinkle’s widget matches the article’s content semantically with all existing videos from publishers’ content providers or their own archive. Then it loads three most relevant videos under or next to the article.
With this technology, Sprinkle enables publishers and content providers to get much bigger reach and make users stay on the site. All parties involved jointly share revenues from ad sales. It is a win-win model for everyone involved in the ecosystem – users get better online experience; publishers and content providers get more traffic and reach, improved user retention and, as a result, bigger revenue. Sprinkle, in its turn, takes a percentage of new created ad revenue on publishers’ platforms.
A founder of Sprinkle, Magnus Hultman, the founder and former Managing Director of Smartclip Nordics, says fifty publishers have already signed since the service was launched four months ago in Sweden. Among them is Göteborgs-Posten, a major daily newspaper in Sweden, which online video traffic increased 150 % after the first month. “Later this year, we are planning to expand to other Nordic countries and the rest of Europe.”
Hultman emphasizes, “Editorial resources are decreasing, and therefore, co-operation between publishers is needed.” Sprinkle has much bigger vision about the ways to monetize online media platforms. “This service is just a beginning of cooperation between publishers. In the long run, publishers will need to cooperate closely and create a “walled garden” in order to survive, and we will help them to do so.” Soon we will see if Sprinkle’s push for one common business model will make all participants of the eco-system happy and willing to adopt it.
