Real Time Bidding: Ploy or Panacea? (ClickZ)
Summary: As part of a regular monthly column for the well-read digital advertising publication, Frank examines the supply-and-demand factors contributing to falling video ad rates and discusses the various solutions emerging to address it, starting with the growing popularity of real-time bidding exchanges.

Analysis Paralysis and Mobile Advertising (Business2Community)
Summary: Frank suggests a “just do it” strategy for brands and advertisers stuck on the fence over employing video ads. While video, and particularly mobile video, advertising can be a confusing space, the low costs involved compared to other types of mobile and online advertising allows for cheaper experimentation than ever before and as such should be embraced, not avoided.

How Can Vine’s 6-Second Video Window Earn Big Bucks for Twitter (AdAge)
Summary: Vine is a hit with users, but can it deliver revenues? In this piece, Frank details the various strategies and tactics that Twitter can take to monetize this momentum, and what that means for both users and brands alike.

Seven Steps You Can Take to Capitalize on the Mobile Video Viewing Shift (MarketingProfs.com)
Summary: Today’s brands are more than just advertisers. They’re content publishers as well. So how can they best play this role in the mobile video space and capture the attention of the growing number of viewers watching video on mobile devices? Frank lists seven simple steps–from website optimization to mobile app strategies–that will help any business asking themselves this exact question.

Beachfront.iO allows developers to quickly and efficiently monetize their apps with video ads. Once Beachfront.iO is integrated into an app, you immediately start serving the highest paying ads available from all ad sources. Beachfront.iO’s unique video ad mediation platform puts developers in control of their video advertising — pull video advertising from many of your own ad sources, as well as through Beachfront’s demand sources.

Knowing speed and performance is of utmost importance to today’s mobile consumer, Beachfront.iO’s patent-pending technology is able to optimize at sub-millisecond response times and deliver the appropriate video ad with advanced targeting precision.

Built on Google’s new Go programming language and proprietary in-memory technology, Beachfront.iO delivers ultra-fast video ad serving, access to real time data, and a lightweight SDK integration. Beachfront.iO helps developers achieve premium eCPMs, fast fill and low latency rates as well as deliver a real-time view of their advertising performance across devices.

Today, Beachfront.iO focuses solely on video. Video advertising today is one of the most effective brand engagement mediums. Since mobile consumers are more engaged with video than desktop users, video ads are a perfect fit for mobile devices. iO allows brands to focus on that user engagement, with a flexible, targeted and measurable platform dedicated solely to video ads.

Today, iO is available to everyone. You can register for an account at beachfront.io, and get started immediately. There are no costs involved to begin monetizing your apps with video ads.

Beachfront CEO Frank Sinton is a regular contributor to Clickz, with new columns appearing monthly. The latest is “Real-Time Bidding: Ploy or Panacea?” which examines the increasing interest in RTB as the latest effort to monetize unused ad inventory more effectively.

The problem is that as more video content is created for online and mobile channels, the ad inventory around them is also increasing, but the available advertising is slow to respond. As such, ad rates are falling, making it more difficult to drive revenue from this content.

His takeaway is that while any effort to fill unused inventory more effectively is a good one, RTB is not the end-all-be-all solution. Other efforts like digital upfronts and native ads for mobile are equally worth considering. And there won’t be one winner, but rather several attempts that collectively could solve the problem.

Read the full post here.

Frank Sinton, CEO of Beachfront Media, shares his thoughts in this AdAge guest post about how Twitter’s Vine video app could generate revenue for both Vine and it’s users. Here’s an excerpt:

Vine is interesting for advertising because it sits at the intersection of three areas of great potential — video, mobile and advertising. Vine could prove a huge win for Twitter if it can crack the mobile-advertising nut. The massive user base and traffic that Twitter and other social media have built and extended into the mobile sphere are already starting to threaten the early mobile-advertising pioneers.

Click here to read more.

Some of the most successful implementations of mobile video are bite-sized clips designed to entertain viewers while going about their day–waiting in a line, sitting in a lobby, etc.

So it was only natural for CollegeHumor to bring their Webby Award-winning videos to Android  mobile phones using the Beachfront platform. The free app updates with new video daily for fans to watch, discover new videso, and share them on Facebook, Twitter and email.

CollegeHumor’s famous Sketch comedy, Jake and Amir, Hardly Working, Very Mary Kate, funny Batman and our hilarious animations, celebrity videos and the best music video parodies are all included.

Download the app from Google Play here.

Eytan Elbaz is one of Beachfront Media’s most active members of our Advisory Board. His vision and advice have proved invaluable resources to the continued growth of our company, and in this guest post he’s written for AllThingsD, you can see why.

As the founder of Applied Semantics–acquired by Google 10 years ago to form what is now the AdSense network–Eytan knows his way around the digital advertising business as well as the realities of running a lean and successful startup. He’s now the co-founder and chief strategy officer of the mobile entertainment network Scopely.

Both roles are huge assets to us at Beachfront Media, and we look forward to his continued involvement.

The early fruits of this relationship quietly emerged earlier this month with the launch of Big Frame’s urban lifestyle channel Forefront.tv and YouTube star Tyler Oakley, and soon will include the launch of a new channel designed for women called Wonderly.

Big Frame’s story is a familiar one. It’s found great success signing new talent and developing original programming for viewers online. But they also know that viewers want to view this content on devices other than their computers. So they turned to Beachfront Builder to power native apps for these different platforms.

See for instance Forefront.tv. Big Frame created the original online presence here. Then we created the mobile application, found here. But we did more than just create a mobile interface for their videos. We’ve opened the door to a whole new world of user engagement, brand development, and monetization for both Big Frame and their talent.

First, let’s look at engagement. With this app, Forefront.tv users can now opt to receive notifications when new content is available for viewing, either for the entire channel or just for the specific artists/shows they are interested in. They can directly access the content they’re most interested in without the need to search or risk missing out on new developments. And as the publisher, Big Frame establishes a direct relationship with the audience (and vice versa) while gathering insights and analytics for how content is consumed across mobile, web and connected TV devices.

Second is the brand. One of the more overlooked benefits of mobile apps is the app icon that appears on users’ devices. That icon sits on their phones for as long as the app is installed, creating a brand connection every time it’s seen, regardless of whether the app is open or not, and doing so on the device that we already know is where many users are consuming content the most.

Finally, there’s monetization. Big Frame and their talent can now supplement their online revenues with ads across multiple devices—such as video ads, custom skins and in-app purchases—expanding their revenue potential along with their viewership.

Individually, each is a powerful benefit for not only Forefront.tv, but also any of Big Frame’s other programming. Taken together, they’re a powerful suite of services that let publishers control and benefit their fan connection better than ever before.

And the beauty of it all is that once publishers like Big Frame are connected to the Beachfront Media platform… that’s it. They don’t need to hire new app developers for each vertical they want to take online, or for each new device they want to add distribution to. They simply take their top channels and turn those feeds into apps that span across devices and without sacrifice to the experience and brand identify must for loyal viewers. The speed to market is literally minutes to create the apps and then approval is based on the app stores.

That’s why we’re so excited to work with a partner like Big Frame. They have the content, the talent and the vision to fully exploit all the benefits the Beachfront Media platform has to offer. We’re looking forward to working together with them and developing even more exciting tools in the future.

The piece focuses on the bedroom, car and kitchen, among others, and references Motorola Mobility’s study and research firm IHS’ stats on  demand for mobile video and other applications. A quick excerpt:

The takeaway from all this is that there’s an opportunity when developing video apps for mobile and tablet devices to consider where viewers might be interacting with that app, and ensure that your optimizing the experience for that environment. Think road-trip apps, cooking apps, alarm apps and so on. Or even interactive apps designed for multiple viewers, not just a single user. The list can only grow from here.

Read the full article here.

Let’s Get Personal: The Next Step In The Evolution Of Mobile Target Marketing (MediaPost)
Summary: Successful mobile marketing requires getting beyond peak-engagement targeting. Smart advertisers will focus on secondary location data, contextual targeting, useful content, and showing restraint.

NAB’s Smith: Broadcasters Must Seize the Wireless Future (MultiChannel News)
Summary: NAB president Gordon Smith in his convention keynote said the future of TV relies on broadcasters’ “willingness to embrace new platforms, and go where our viewers want to go.” Those viewers are going mobile, and as such broadcasters need to compete there on par w/ their wireless industry rivals. Also worth noting this Billboard panel summary on startups that are helping advertisers better target new customers.

The mobile war is over and the app has won: 80% of mobile time spent in apps (VentureBeat)
Summary: Smartphone users spend 80%  of their time on their devices using apps, vs 20% on the mobile web, based on this Flurry report. Of those apps, games represent 32%, Facebook 18%, and general entertainment 8%.