Jivox wants to do a Google!

Naren Nachiappan

One-year old Jivox's primary aim is to bring the power of online video to the mass market. California-headquartered Jivox offers web-based video advertising service and plans to do for video what Google's AdWords has done for display advertisements. Naren Nachiappan, Managing Director (India), Jivox, has pioneered several industry innovations both as the CEO of US-based Proceler, an embedded systems design and soft processor technology company, and as the Senior Vice-President of VenturCom, a leading provider of products and expertise for Windows-based, real-time, embedded, and control-oriented applications. In his previous stint at Nasdaq-listed Wind River, a leading player in device software optimisation, Naren was instrumental in setting up a team in Bangalore with a zero per cent attrition rate through his three-year tenure. A Harvard graduate, Naren also holds an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. In an exclusive interview to Sify.com, Naren, who currently heads the Jivox India operations, unveils his plans. Other tech interviews: 'Never say never, and never say die' | Now, track your bus online | Yos Tech eyes top slot in ‘health management’ | ‘nineMotion to bring offline habits online’ How effective is the online video advertising medium in India? We have real data for campaigns that we executed in March 2008 on an Indian publisher site. Our data indicates a very high CTR (click through rate) for video advertising. We have received in excess of 4% CTR when running a video ad on an Indian entertainment site. For comparison purposes, display ads generate roughly 0.1% to 0.2% CTR, which would imply that video ads are roughly 30x more effective than display ads in generating click through traffic. Where are you positioned in the global markets? Our services are targeted at advertisers and publishers across the globe; but we have chosen to begin developing the market in India and in the US with offices in Bangalore, Delhi and Silicon Valley, USA. We are delighted with the response we have received since the launch of the company and the service. It is our intention to expand our sales and marketing presence worldwide in the medium term. Do you have regional specific video advertising model? No, our video advertising business model is common across the globe. While there may be some regional differences in usage patterns of our tools, it is fair to say that this truly is a global industry with price and service competition across the globe. Best practices are converging at a rapid rate in the online advertising world. How unique is your online video advertising service? There are a number of companies that are targeting different portions of the video advertising value chain. Some companies are focused on building a publisher network and some are focused on technologies for publishers while others are focused on enabling advertisers with targeting facilities and campaign definitions. The particular mix of capabilities we have chosen to focus on is unique; our emphasis is on making it very easy for an advertiser to build and execute a video ad campaign. With our product, an advertiser could create a video ad from scratch, and define and execute a campaign in literally minutes. Is online video advertising a cost-effective platform? Absolutely. Going back to our experiences with very high CTR rates, video advertising is a platform that is 30 times more effective than display advertising. In addition to the CTR, there is the much higher branding effect with a high impact full motion video that is played in the context of content which typically has a viewer’s complete attention. In terms of video creation, typically this was one of the cost factors which made this an expensive platform. However, with the introduction of Jivox’s AdSlate product, advertisers can now create video ads for free. This removes the final cost barrier to video advertising and makes it a very cost effective platform. Tell us about your India plans? India is both a development centre and a very important market for us. The Indian market is expected to grow rapidly with the increasing adoption of broadband infrastructure across the country. With our sales office in Delhi and the soon to be opened office in Mumbai, we will start by targeting major online advertisers in India, followed by the smaller businesses. The core of our development team will also be based in Bangalore, and will expand later this year. Other tech interviews: 'Never say never, and never say die' | Now, track your bus online | Yos Tech eyes top slot in ‘health management’ | ‘nineMotion to bring offline habits online’ What's your funding pattern? Our seed round in the amount of $2.7 million was completed recently. The lead investor in this round was Opus Capital, a leading Silicon Valley firm.

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