MAM
Eyeblaster’s new version of rich media platform
NEW YORK: Eyeblaster, which claims to be the leader in rich media delivery and management, has announced the launch of Eyeblaster 5.3. This is the latest upgrade to its rich media platform.
Eyeblaster 5.3 includes enhancements that make it easier for online advertisers to create, manage, and track rich media campaigns directly, and produce more effective online campaigns. One such enhancement is the ability to serve larger file-sizes of up to one megabyte (1 MB).
An official release informs that AOL UK will use the new technology to launch a 1 MB rich-media ad for its AOL Music Sessions@AOL.
Sessions@AOL is the AOL-produced, exclusive in-studio performance and interview series that spotlights some of the biggest names in music, including Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, LeAnn Rimes. The ad, using Eyeblaster’s expandable banner ad format, will combine music video segments from various artists in a fast-moving Flash MX-based environment upon user interaction.
The 1 MB limit can be used for Flash files in all seven Eyeblaster ad formats, including floating ad, commercial break, interstitial window ad, and full-page overlay formats. AOL UK’s senior label relations manager Sarah Western commented, “It’s our goal to make AOL Music the premier music destination on the web, and Sessions@AOL is integral to that. Eyeblaster gives us the perfect vehicle to show how entertaining and engaging Sessions@AOL performances and interviews really are.”
Web publishers who have stayed away from ads with large file sizes in the past have often done so as a result of concerns about their affect on website usability, as well as poor experiences with older video streaming methods. Eyeblaster removes those concerns by combining best-of-breed solutions in one platform, which results in surprising creative power and a user-friendly viewing experience.
These solutions include the following:
* Data streaming is now combined with Eyeblaster’s polite download, so the rich media portion of the ad can download quickly without affecting the website user’s experience.
* Automatic and manual “buffering” controls for the streaming process have been added to maximize the user experience and the number of ad plays. The buffer, which is the amount of the ad that loads before the ad begins to play, can be adjusted in the new product version based on bandwidth, ad file size and agency and publisher preference.
* Closer integration with Flash MX allows all popular video formats to be imported into a Flash video and easy creative set up.
Eyeblaster CEO Gal Trifon said, “Technology that supports web content created for broadband users, including advertising, is vitally important now that broadband usage is substantial. With our latest platform enhancements, Eyeblaster has created the easiest system for creating and delivering bandwidth-targeted online ad content. The possibilities for richer, more visually creative ads have expanded dramatically.”
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
