ViTrue: User Generated Ad Video Gets Funded
Written by on November 27th, 2006 in Ajax News.
User-generated video sharing site ViTrue, Inc. has come into some money. The company announced a major Series “A” round of funding from Comcast Interactive Capital and Turner Broadcasting on Monday - although we can only say it’s in the single digit millions.
ViTrue hosts user-generated (UG) video a la YouTube with an advertising focus. This relatively new type of advertising is called Branded Video Community, meant to promote “brand engagement.” So if you love the San Francisco Giants, (and who doesn’t?), you can create a video promoting the team and post it through ViTrue.
For now, ViTrue only has homemade video for Moe’s Southwest Grill, Lance Foods, The Cincinnati Bengals, and something called The Nerd League. Not exactly brands I want to “engage” with but I’m not saying this kind of advertising won’t be effective. It’s too soon to tell, but Ted Turner is a believer.
Maybe this is how the online video world will finally figure out how to monetize UG video and avoid copyright lawsuits? Lord knows YouTube is worth a lot of money, but Google hasn’t been talking much about how they’re going to cash in on the acquisition. Plus they keep having to filter content for illegal uploads of copyright material. So if sponsoring UG content is the new plan, ViTrue just has to hope and pray that someone will come up with something hilarious for Moe’s Southwest Grill. (Note to contributors: competitive eating is always a winner!)
Turner Broadcasting will test this model later this year when it launches an online campaign called “Funny or Not?”
ViTrue is no stranger to UG video. The company owns Sharkle.com, the online video-sharing community. It was founded by CEO Reggie Bradford. Louis Toth, managing director at Comcast Interactive Capital, and Dennis Quinn, executive vice president of business development for Turner Broadcasting, will be observers on ViTrue’s board.
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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/54802092/