(VIDEO) 'Premium' Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: Coull's Watkins

(VIDEO) 'Premium' Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: Coull's Watkins
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FORT LAUDERDALE -- Advertisers like to talk about their search for "premium" ad inventory - the kind of places that only quality brands like to be seen. But is inventory really "premium" if hardly anyone sees it?

"What defines premium is in the eye of the beholder," says Irfon Watkins, CEO and co-founder of Coull, a Bristol, UK-based company whose technology mines the content of videos, indexing them for ad targetability.

"An editor may say, 'This is a 'premium' bit of video' - but, if you follow the data, it's been viewed four times. The (real) premium bit of video on the site is something that's been put up by a subeditor with a YouTube player and has suddenly got a million views. Why is that not (considered) 'premium'?

"With the amount of properties given over to place video online, it can't all be premium, just because it's a moving image. The idea that every video deserves a $30 to $40 CPM is just crazy.

Watkins says Coull has a hand in 15 billion views per month across 150 countries. Having opened a US office in 2013, around 80% of company revenue comes from the country. Coull raised $4m in angel funding in March 2014 and in November launched a programmatic private marketplace for in-video overlay advertising.

Watkins was interviewed at Beet.TV's executive retreat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Beet Retreat '15 was sponsored by AOL and Videology. Please find additional videos from the event here.

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