Overlay.TV gets boost to push overlay technology in video
Overlay.tv, a company that lets you overlay video with graphics and other information, has raised $4.6 million more in backing.
Overlay is just one of several companies helping publishers monetize video by letting them insert ads within video. Like a number of other companies, it’s working on technology that’s more nimble than currently offered by leading video sites such as Google’s YouTube. It doesn’t rely on standard ad technology, such as Flash, which can take many hours to hardcode multiple ads into.
Overlay doesn’t host the video itself. It lets marketers or regular users grab videos from more than 20 other online video sites, including YouTube, Metacafe, Videojug and others and then overlay the videos with pictures, words and graphics that link to products or information on external websites.
Other players are doing something similar.
There’s VideoClix, which offers users similar ways to inject information into video. If you point to any object in the video with your cursor, it will tell you what that object is and find out more information about it (image left). Video site Revision3 partnered with VideoClix to give its users access the technology in order to make Revision3’s videos more interactive. There’s also Bubbleply, which lets you add bubbles and text into video. And there’s Qoof, which focuses purely on publishers inserting sales information into videos. So for instance, a snowboard retailer could have one of its salespeople explain how to use snowboards, while inserted info in the video shows how to buy them, how much they cost, and how they compare with other snowboards (see demo currently on bottom of Qoof’s home page). Then there are sites such as Adap.TV, which inserts ads whenever its technology recognizes spoken words in a video. [Update: Veeple, another site that inserts media, such as PDFs or PowerPoints into video, recently launched.]
Overlay is trying to distinguish itself by being even faster to use and more flexible in how it lets users interact with content, says chief executive Rob Lane. It lets you interlay content in a video within two or three minutes, with say, 20 links pointing to other sites or information — and if it’s not performing the way you like, you can change it on the fly.
I played around with the technology enough to agree that it’s very easy to use. However, its interface is not as elegant as that of some others — VideoClix’s, for example.
However, Lane says companies like VideoClix remind him of Flash technology because they require mastery of a new set of tools and take more time to use. Other, lighter technologies, such as BubblePLY’s, meanwhile, don’t have the backend platform that allow links to be dynamically created to point to ad affiliates. Using Overlay, though, if a user clicks on a product link in a video and then buys it, the publisher can earn affiliate revenue. Overlay says it has relationships with 1,000 affiliates.
Overlay recently created a way to insert a Twitter widget — letting you add your Twitter profile with one click and insert recent Tweets to any video. Other viewers click on the widget, and they’re allowed to log into Twitter and send a message from their account.
The company is working on a host of other interactive technologies. For example, it allows fans to sing along karaoke style to music produced by the Jonas Brothers. It also lets users link through to their MySpace and Facebook accounts.
It has signed up 20 contracts with labels and publishers including Nettwerk Music Group (including Sarah McLachlan videos, for example), Hollywood Records, KidzBop (see here) and Transcontinental Media. It also provides a white-label technology for publishers to use on their own sites. The company’s software developer kit allows further customization.
Overlay, based in Ottawa, Canada, launched earlier this year after raising $4.53 million in a first round of capital. This second, most recent round comes from the same backers: Celtic House Venture Partners, Tech Capital Partners and EdgeStone Capital Partners.
CEO Lane said the company isn’t too focused on making money this year or next, because its still early and he’s more interested in getting users. He says it won’t be realistic to expect profitability until around 2010.
A sample of Overlay.TV’s technology can be seen in the video below.
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