YuMe received $9 million in funding last year, at a time when video ad networks seemed to be raking in the investment dough. Another sign of good fortune for YuMe is its recently announced partnership with Microsoft. Online video ad network YuMe has been selected by Microsoft to sell and manage Microsoft's unsold online video ad inventory on Microsoft's online properties.
According to YuMe and Microsoft, the YuMe ad network has been chosen in part because of its robust platform, indicating that Microsoft hasn't gotten the online video advertising segment of its own platform quite right for its own satisfaction. Outsourcing ad sales also indicates that Microsoft's own reach isn't far and deep enough, as it will be relying on YuMe to push its unsold ad inventory even further across the Web. To that end, Microsoft has indicated that it will be looking to YuMe to connect more ad networks to its platform.
What does YuMe get out of the deal?
Besides another "in" with Microsoft, YuMe gets additional advertising content to work with, extending that variability and value onto their own clients. As part of this partnership, Microsoft will also be utilizing YuMe's NetworkMe, which is a system that lets clients aggregate their video content into a single ad network, and gives a single place to manage inventory and certain aspects of ad campaigns. In all, this looks like something that could tie in with Microsoft's initiative to extend more cross-reporting feedback to advertisers, especially with the use of NetworkMe.