HOLLYWOOD, Florida — The company which publishes IGN, AskMen and PC Magazine is eager to distribute more video through social networks, seeing them represent inventory to carry TV-style ads.
That is according to Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Shah says Ziff Davis is making videos for Facebook that carry sponsor videos powered by Facebook’s tools.
“Instant Articles is one way you can work with Facebook,” Shah says. “The way we work with Facebook is, we produce video content that’s embedded within the experience and often monetised through sponsorship with a client.
“Facebook, earlier last year, created a ruleset and a toolkit that allows content creators like ourselves to integrate marketers in to video that we produce that we post on Facebook and amplified through Facebook’s amplification.
“That’s a really nice revenue opportunity. The way they make money is the extent to which we do amplification. That’s a really good business model.”
Shah says TV ad spending has yet to move online because online video platforms beside YouTube lacked sufficient scale. But now he is excited that social platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter are providing that scale, thanks to big moves in to video distribution.
Many may contend that the social networks are becoming video networks. Whilst some of them are, of course, making big strides in to video and now claim large numbers of video views, text-based social interaction continues to be the prime consumption driver for many users.
But it is inarguable that the platforms’ video initiatives are driving large-scale consumption of video.
This video is part of a series produced at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting. Beet.TV’s coverage of this event is sponsored by Index Exchange. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
