Video ads are showing up in so many places now—on the Web, on mobile devices, as part of on-demand programming, and of course on regular network TV—that managing all those video files, in all their various formats, is getting to be a bit of a nightmare for advertisers and their agencies. Extreme Reach, a new startup in Needham, MA, hopes to solve that problem with software that tracks, manages, and delivers video ads across several media.
Extreme Reach is expected to emerge from stealth mode tomorrow, and to announce a $1.5 million Series A venture investment from Village Ventures in Williamstown, MA, and Long River Ventures of Hadley, MA, and Worcester, MA. The company says it already has several Fortune 500 companies on its client list, although it hasn’t yet named them.
Behind Extreme Reach are a group of former executives from Belmont, MA-based FastChannel Network, which went through a staff reduction after its 2006 merger with DG Systems. They include CEO John Roland, COO Tim Conley, CTO Dan Brackett, and vice president of sales Patrick Hanavan.
The company says its Web-based software stores video commercials on a unified platform where they can be accessed with equal ease by an agency’s interactive division or broadcast division and converted for playback on the Web, on TV, or on demand.
“The goal is to offer the breadth and scale of TV with the inherent accountability and measurability of the Internet,” Roland says in a company statement due to go out tomorrow. “Our SaaS video platform simplifies the process for advertisers and agencies managing video campaigns across all media allowing them to overcome the problems created by media fragmentation and a lack of standards.”
