The Video Player Ad-serving Interface Definition (VPAID) was introduced by the IAB to establish a common interface between video players and ad units, as an upgrade to the more basic Video Ad-Serving Template (VAST), but does VPAID still have its limitations? ExchangeWire speak with Andrew Gerhart (pictured below), COO, AerServ about how VPAID is helping video advertising to reach the next level.

ExchangeWire: What were the limitations of VAST that prompted the IAB to introduce VPAID?

Andrew Gerhart: VAST, or the digital video ad-serving template, was designed for in-stream video only, and a very basic video format. Think of VAST as an economy car – no frills, features, upgrades, or luxury packages. With standard VAST, the video ad will play in a vanilla format, as you might see on television, with the advertiser receiving basic metrics relating to delivery and quartile events, i.e. how much of the video did they watch? VPAID enables interactive video experiences, as well as deeper analytics about the video view events. A VPAID video for a hotel in Las Vegas may include a button that allows the user to open up and click through a photo gallery, or an overlay that allows them to search for available rooms. VPAID is the luxury car with navigation, bluetooth, and an interactive dashboard.

Does VPAID have its own limitations?

In mobile, VPAID inventory is sometimes limited due to its requirements for compatibility in the app environment. The video player, or host SDK, needs to be capable of handling and rendering the VPAID ad and associated events, and not all apps have this capability. In addition, within a mobile environment, the VPAID ad must be delivered via JavaScript, as opposed to VPAID delivered via Flash in a desktop environment. This change in creative delivery has presented some limitations and barriers to scale for mobile VPAID.

Andrew Gerhart, COO, AerServ

What are your views on the perceived lack of standards surrounding VPAID?

I don’t think there’s a lack of standards surrounding VPAID. I think the IAB has done a nice job setting very specific standards for VAST and VPAID.

Are advertisers implementing VPAID correctly?

Unfortunately, we still run into issues where media buyers are trying to use Flash-based VPAID ads in mobile environments, which obviously results in issues with delivery. That said, we’ve seen some nice utilisations of VPAID by advertisers, integrating interactive components on top of the video ad, and layering in viewability metrics to optimise the campaign and report back to the buyer. We’ve seen some nice VPAID ads that integrate end cards when the video is done playing, animated overlays, and device vibrations.

With browsers dropping support for Flash, is this causing issues with VPAID on the demand and the supply side?

I think that in the desktop world, that is absolutely a concern. With browser-based targeting, one should be able to eliminate any delivery issues caused by Flash support, but I am sure issues arise.

AerServ focuses squarely on mobile; and, in the mobile world, VPAID is delivered via JavaScript and, therefore, these Flash issues are not a concern.

Since its launch last year, how has the MRAID Video Addendum helped mobile video executions?

I think the MRAID Video Addendum was a creative solution to the VPAID inventory problem referenced above. Historically, there have been far more ad servers, platforms, networks, and SDKs that supported MRAID than those that supported mobile VPAID. Unfortunately, there is a lot of fragmentation, and not all apps are compatible yet, so we haven’t seen the MRAID Video Addendum utilised at scale. The Video Addendum has allowed advertisers to obtain video reporting metrics (impression, video start, video quartiles, etc.) through VPAID that were not previously available for video shown within a MRAID ad unit.

Is VPAID future-proof?

VPAID is certainly not perfect. But, it is a solid technology, with needed improvements over VAST, and with a lot of room to grow in the mobile market. In the desktop environment, VPAID is much more commonly used than VAST; and I think we’ll see this same trend soon in mobile.