Just when the advertising industry seems to be recovering, talk of double-dip recession emerges (Huffington Post, WSJ, Yahoo Finance). Couple that with the ever-increasing number of screens and formats advertisers have to be prepared to adapt to (NewTeeVee, YouTube Blog, Gizmodo, Steve Jobs’ Blog, Adobe’s Blog, Forbes, TechCrunch, Mashable) and the costly impact on the industry (AdAge) becomes all too apparent. In an August 23, 2010 poll, 68 per cent of AdAge readers think we’re headed for another round of economic pain. Are today’s advertisers prepared for what comes next?
4delite (www.4delite.com), the angel-backed San Francisco-based start-up, has announced the launch of its cloud-based rich media publishing platform for advertisers who want to create powerful, yet unified, ad creative for cross-media purposes that mobile and web experiences provide. Founded by Silicon Valley veterans Eugene Walden, Andy Laursen and Mary Ray, 4delite has developed a scalable publishing platform that is future-proofed for whatever emerges (or re-emerges) as the standard format for mobile and online advertising.
The 4delite cloud-based platform lets you drag-and-drop your own design for ad creative (see 10-minute or 2-minute video demo) as well as embed whatever tracking URLs you require. The startup’s publishing platform turns weeks of work and approval cycles into minutes, allowing businesses to publish and easily design through drag-and-drop functionality full ad campaigns that meet both IAB and MMA advertising specifications. The customization of ad dimensions and file sizes can be controlled by users. By checking a box, users can publish their own HTML5-friendly ad formats to be viewed on web browsers for the iPhone and iPad.
Now anyone can publish unified, agency-quality ad campaigns to meet today’s mobile and online diverging ad requirements in a matter of minutes.
Besides providing users a cloud-based CMS to organize their ad creative and assets (such as font and image assets) 4delite gives you direct access to image search engines like Flickr, Bing, Google Images as well as one of the world’s top microstock-photography agencies in the world: Fotolia. “A segment of our customers are agencies of all sizes. This integration with 4delite offers us the opportunity to be more tied to the workflow of our agency-customers, as well as gives us a strategic edge over our competition,” says Garth Johnson, EVP Fotolia North America. This August, users will get the added benefit of purchasing Fotolia assets through 4delite’s seamless API integration.
4delite also contains contextual site preview, which lets advertisers review and share (through link – see example here) their ads created in the 4delite platform within the context of the sites and phones where the ads will be served. This features makes it easier for advertisers to pitch to clients (or internal teams), prototype and produce their online and mobile ads within context. “In one of our concept review meetings with our client Keen, we showed the client a rich media prototype of an ad concept we wanted to test within the contextual site preview. The moment they saw the ad in context of a web site, the client wanted to run the ad immediately. I’ve never seen anything like it. We continue to use the platform today – couldn’t imagine going back,” John Trotter, Partner and Creative Director of Forty Forty Agency.
4delite technology can be licensed by major ad networks to allow enterprise customers to quickly create and place mobile and online ads. The company also offers enterprise packages on a monthly for agency seats.
While 4delite’s self-service platform is free to publish, users have the option to upgrade to premium plans if they want to access certain enhanced features.
At a time when advertisers are still trying to reach their audience and drive revenue with tight budgets, the 4delite platform is the obvious solution. By using the 4delite platform, advertisers can both tighten workflows and save thousands of dollars without compromising quality creative. “We used to outsource hours and hours of flash work, but with 4delite we are able to work much more efficiently in-house and as a result we are able to realize the subsequent savings,” says John Trotter of Forty Forty Agency. No other platform provides the ease of use and powerful solution that 4delite offers advertisers who will have to invest in multi-format ad creative that can be delivered across platforms.
Since mid-April, the 4delite platform has generated over 1,000 registered users, including small business owners, internal creative teams, and small to mid-sized ad agencies. Currently, ads created in the 4delite platform can be viewed through the standard online web browser experience as well as through web browsers used on iPhones and iPads (Opera, Safari, etc.). By the end of the year, 4delite anticipates having integrated more placement APIs into its platform in order to streamline the display ad creation to placement process.
4delite is an angel-funded start-up, founded by a trio of Silicon Valley veterans: Eugene Walden, Andy Laursen and Mary Ray. Based in San Francisco, the company offers a cloud-based rich media publishing platform — the first self-serve solution for advertisers who want to create exportable rich media ads that work across mobile and web platforms, including the iPhone and iPad. Its board of advisors include: Mike Herring, Roger Lang, Will Price, Steve Cutcliffe, Todd Simon and Jon Staenberg.
Related Stories In Addition to the Embedded Links Above:
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Mobile App or Browser-Based Site? Report Says The Browser Will Win on Mobile
IAB: Forget Flash, Move to HTML5 for Tablet Ads
JPMorgan Forecasts A 10.5 Percent Rebound In U.S. Display Advertising in 2010
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