Why AI is Crucial for Brands to Stay Competitive in the Digital Advertising World

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Research shows that 82% of marketers completely or somewhat agree that AI and machine learning (ML) are important trends in advertising, and 87% agree that using AI and ML will improve advertising performance.

Technological evolution stemming from artificial intelligence and machine learning has opened new doors for marketers. Fueled from these advances, interactive video has become more prominent among brands and advertisers. Creative teams are leaning into this new landscape of advertising and opting for AI-powered digital marketing tools to enhance campaign performance, personalization, ROI, insights, relevance and more. 

AI and ML are no longer the “future” of advertising, but the top trend in digital marketing. Today’s technology can target and customize ads with unparalleled precision. AI-powered platforms will only continue to grow in the future; the faster companies learn and adapt to new practices, the faster they will grow and stay relevant in highly competitive markets.

AI Fuels Digital Marketing Advancements

Interactive video has different meanings to different advertisers, so it is important to know exactly what each “interactive” company offers. Early on, while AI trends were still on the rise, KERV foresaw the possibility for advancement in the video advertising sector. Built from experts for experts, KERV created a patented, interactive video technology platform that helps brands and advertisers maximize their current video campaigns.

Busy consumers need ads that are both aesthetically compelling and highly relevant. KERV immediately adds layers of intelligence and interactivity to existing videos to drive brand growth. The savviest content creators are seeing repeated success by using new creative formats, such as interactive video, to expand the digital landscape to tell a stronger, more compelling brand story.

Adding Relevance to Video Campaigns

There are many, many video advertisements with strong visuals that successfully entice audiences to lean in and want to learn more. However, what these aesthetically pleasing video campaigns might lack is the ability to showcase specific products, information, history and click-to-purchase options.

KERV is solving this problem for brands by turning a standard, in-stream video advertisement into an interactive experience for consumers. Dimension, customization and action-based touch points are layered over the ad, which gives advertisers the opportunity to tell multiple stories with one video creative.

Multi-level Storytelling Inspires Brand Growth

Interactive technology brings website functionality features directly into a video ad. The convenience factor is of high value for busy consumers who are actively engaging with your ad. In addition to the shoppable video aspect KERV provides, each object in the video is able to be uniquely customized to provide consumers with additional information they would have not normally received from the original video ad.

All too often we, as consumers, see beautiful creative ads from brands. However, there are many thoughts that can race through a loyal consumer’s mind as they are watching a video ad. Personally, I find myself wondering what clothing a certain actress is wearing and where I can buy it, how it fits, what it’s made out of, etc. Or, I might find myself wanting to know more about a company’s services, history, sustainability, nutrition – there are many questions that one video creative simply can’t answer all at once. That is, until now.

Interactive video adds to your beautiful creative by letting consumers discover information that might only exist on your website, social media, marketing materials, etc. The creative is no longer just about delivering a visually compelling ad, it’s about letting users decide what they want to experience from your ad. Unique stories, and supporting information, can be told with each object in every scene of the video.

In a busy world, one might see an amazing advertisement and completely forget to search for the item that sparked their interest. This is a needless lost engagement opportunity with a consumer who wants to actively engage with your brand. Having interactive capabilities at their fingertips allows consumers to engage with your brand in real-time, easily learn and even add to cart for a quick checkout.

Thanks to technology making everyday life easier, advertisers now have new opportunities to monetize inside of their video creative with interactive video.

Interactive Intelligence Fuels New Optimizations

With KERV, each element in the video campaign is optimized with data fueling each part of the creative. The advancement in KERV’s platform is what sets the technology apart from other interactive video companies. KERV is the only interactive video platform in existence that can provide precision at the object-level. 

Object-level precision is important as it essentially is part of the patented, AI technology that identifies each specific item by its pixel-edge. Each object, and features within objects, are immediately layered with data intelligence and tracking capabilities, so brands get the most accurate reporting and consumer insights available. Additionally, this precision provides more touchpoint opportunities for users to engage with. More integrative touchpoints equal higher video engagement.

This precision is beneficial for brands that have specific features they want to identify within objects in their videos. For example, KERV has provided value for automotive brands who want to showcase different features on cars, technology brands who want to explain multiple functions on their products and retail brands who want to explain the sustainable or functional creation behind their clothing. 

New Insights Provide More Effective Data Optimization

Videos are now filled with interaction points that allow consumers to organically engage with your content. Each pixel-identified object is layered with intelligence and is assigned a unique Wiki description and link-out URL. All of which is customizable at the client’s discretion.

Along with object-level identification, KERV also creates object-level tags that present more granular tracking and optimization/delivery opportunities for accuracy in reporting. Each object now creates its own specific metrics.

This level of intelligence allows video advertisers to effectively understand what highly targeted audiences are compelled to within various video campaigns. KERV’s 15+ proprietary, action-based metrics – in addition to the full range of standard, video metrics – helps advertisers easily measure the impact of their video campaigns and apply the new findings to future campaigns.

Interactive ads are not gated or forced on users, so the performance data earned is organic to the brand. Measuring video campaign results based on more effective KPI’s, such as user engagement and time spent with the brand, provide a higher value to digital marketers as they generate action-based results.

Marketers Agree AI and ML Improve Ad Performance

Interactive video performance is guaranteed to be always better than that of your static video. KERV clients typically see a brand lift of 10x higher engagement, 6x higher interaction rates and 4x more time spent with the brand – in comparison to traditional in-stream videos.

Your video ads may be performing well, in front of the right people, but if your creative isn’t compelling or relevant, you’ll lose the opportunity to effectively engage with the consumer. Today’s technology-driven world has made significant impacts in the advertising industry, and KERV is part of this advancement. Rethink what is possible with interactive video and elevate your video campaign with KERV.

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Rich Kentopp
VP, Product Management

After his career of being a pastor and touring musician, Rich started his technology career almost a decade ago with many of the KERV leadership at Lin Digital. Since then he has been a Product leader at three different scaling startups, learning how to build valuable products with teams who love to work together.

Devin Monds
Head of EMEA Sales

Devin is a dedicated and experienced media sales professional with over 15 years in the digital media space in both North America and EMEA. He most recently headed up the International Team at Adludio, the premier advertising platform for delivering strong creative on mobile devices. Prior to his role at Adludio, Devin worked on the Global Brand Partnerships team at CAA Sports in London, and was International Sales Director at LoopMe where he built out the US West Coast Sales Team from Los Angeles. With a proven track record of new business development and revenue generation, Devin has a multitude of solid relationships with brands and agencies, globally.

He relishes the opportunity to engage with new clients on a daily basis, in order to identify tailored solutions that can drive their desired outcomes. Furthermore, he takes pride in his culinary skills, often experimenting with new recipes and delivering delectable results.






    Brad Quinn
    VP of Publisher Development

    Brad Quinn is the VP of Publisher Partnerships based out of our NYC office. He has over 15 years of experience across Agencies, Publishers and Tech. At KERV, Brad leads the Partnerships team focused on content providers and distributors. He integrates KERV’s tech capabilities across ads and content to create a real‑time interactive/shoppable experience.

    David Knight
    VP of Engineering

    Before joining KERV in 2018, David Knight spent over 31 years building software products for large corporations like IBM and Schlumberger, 3-person “garage” startups and everything in between. He’s spent the last 15 years discovering and refining the tools, development process, and necessary culture that create great Engineering teams capable of meeting the special demands of technology driven startups.

    Dan Bloomfield
    VP of Technical Ad Operations

    After spending time living in New York and working for NBC Universal’s first digital operations team Daniel moved to Austin in 2009 to further pursue ad tech. During the next decade, he built a career working on interactive video first for Sizmek and then Nexstar. He immediately jumped at the idea to work for KERV and was one of the first to join the company in 2017.

    Creed Pettit
    SVP, Head of Partnerships

    Creed Pettit is an entrepreneurial sales executive offering experience in all aspects of solutions selling, team management, negotiation, organizational leadership, go-to-market strategies and momentum driven models. Prior to joining KERV, Creed served as Media & Entertainment Vertical Sales Leader, Global Business Solutions at TikTok.

    Karen Germ
    VP of Marketing

    Karen Germ is a seasoned marketing and communications professional with a nearly 15‑year history serving in leadership roles across the advertising and technology landscape. Most recently, Karen served as OAAA’s VP of Marketing where she implemented industry leading initiatives to elevate and promote the power of OOH for advertisers, agencies, partners and consumers. 

    Ryan Schoenfeld
    VP of Digital Strategy

    Ryan Schoenfeld’s career started as an intern at a smaller digital media agency while attending the University of Texas. Since then, he has spent over 15 years working in the programmatic advertising/video space.

    Bill Roberson
    VP of Media

    Bill Roberson has worked in the digital space for over 17 years, spanning Media Buying, Ad Operations, Analytics and Optimization, Account Management and now Creative.

    Grant Gorton
    VP of Creative

    Grant has been with KERV as VP of Creative for over 5 years, and has worked as a designer and creative director at agencies and media companies for the last 17 years.

    Michael Fleischman
    CFO

    Michael Fleischman serves as the CFO at KERV Interactive in addition to being an Executive Residence at Progress Partners, a Merchant Investment Bank and Venture Fund. Prior to KERV Interactive, Michael was the CFO and current Board Member at Digital Remedy, a privately-held media execution company supporting agencies, publishers, and brands in navigating the complex adtech landscape of digital success.

    Previous to Digital Remedy, Michael spent 20 years at Cablevision and Rainbow Media Holdings during which he was instrumental in the launch and management of multiple regional sports networks and a number of national cable networks including American Movie Classics, Bravo, The Independent Film Channel as well as the structuring of partnerships with companies including Liberty Media, NBC, Fox/NewsCorp, and MGM. 

    A native of the New York City area, Michael resides with his wife where he enjoys biking, tennis  and spending time with his wife and three adult children.

    Taylor Pate
    CTO

    Taylor Pate serves as CTO at KERV Interactive. Taylor’s experiences in the advertising and creative industry spans 14. He began his career in 2008, working as a designer, animator and art director specializing in the design and production of interactive art. Early in his career, he created 3D character animations and tools for best-selling video game series The Sims while working at Edge of Reality, who developed video games for Nintendo 64, GameCube, PlayStation and Xbox.

    In 2012, Taylor made the shift to work in-house at an online advertising and media services agency, LIN Digital, where he was promoted multiple times in a four-year span. He worked on a variety of online, interactive projects for clients while also developing and automating internal tools and processes. Taylor then spent the next two years working as the director of engineering at multi-platform digital media company HYFN Local, a division of multi-billion-dollar corporation Nexstar Digital LLC.

    Jay Wolff
    CRO

    Jay Wolff serves as Chief Revenue Officer at KERV Interactive, leading global revenue and partnerships, in addition to being the Executive Vice President of 212 NYC, New York’s leading organization for the digital advertising industry. 

    Jay’s expertise in revenue and partner growth in the advertising industry spans 19 years. Most recently, Jay served as CRO of Varick Media, and Chief Growth Officer at Boostr, the first end-to-end SaaS revenue management system for media companies. Previously, as Regional Vice President of SambaTV, Wolff built the revenue organization and east coast market from the ground up. 

    Prior to joining SambaTV, Wolff served as Vice President of agency and brand partnerships at PulsePoint; instrumental to the merger of ContextWeb and Datran Media.

    Jay holds a BS in Marketing from Syracuse University and a Certificate of Management from the University of Chicago. He resides in Rye Brook, NY with his wife and daughter, Olivia. 

    Dan Bienenfeld
    President

    Before co‑founding KERV in 2017, Dan Bienfeld spent the previous 35 years founding six start‑ups in various verticals such as publishing, licensing, med‑tech and ad‑tech. Within these companies, he enjoyed two meaningful exits, which provided him with the ability to continue his passion as an entrepreneur. 

    Aside from bringing together ‘Rock Star Talent,’ his main focus has been raising over $50M, primarily for the startups identified above, as well as creating strategic partnerships. Currently he lives in Westlake Village, CA with his wife and two kids. In addition to his entrepreneurial journey, he also enjoys working out, traveling and an addiction to sushi.

    Gary Mittman
    CEO

    Gary Mittman brings more than 30 years of experience in technology and direct marketing, as well as substantial experience in building startups to exit with creativity and agile development. Before starting KERV, he held numerous top‑ranking leadership roles, including Founder & President of Nami Media (which was acquired by Lin Media/Nexstar Media Group), CEO & Founder of Marina Communications (also acquired), and Vice President of New Business Development, Direct Response at Western International Media (now Initiative Media).

    Gary also brings a decade of experience in the entertainment industry, including managing all booking for New York City’s premiere performance night club, The Ritz, as its Executive Manager and Booking Agent, Executive Producer of the MTV concert series ‘Live At The Ritz’, a Professional Manager at Chappell Music Publishing, and started out as an Assistant to legendary Clive Davis at Arista Records.

    Andi Fenster
    CPO

    Andi Fenster went into the profession of Human Resources 30 years ago, because she believed from a young age that the way you treat your employees is what you get out of them. Her goal as an HR professional has been to help create the type of work environments that inspire folks to want to come to work. She is also a Management/Leadership/Career Coach and her focus is optimizing humans focusing on the mind‑body connection. 

    “We, each, have tremendous potential and the abilities to level‑up if we choose to understand how to get the support we need to get us there. Helping talent thrive and helping them create success is my reason for doing what I do.”

    Marika Roque
    COO & Chief Innovation Officer

    Marika Roque is a top expert in digital media, data and organizational infrastructures recognized with over 15 years of professional leadership experience. Previous to KERV, Marika worked as the vice president of digital operations for Mass2, a division of multi-billion-dollar corporation Nexstar Digital LLC. Prior to Mass2, Marika served as vice president of digital media activation at LIN Digital.

    Marika has held senior-level positions for leading advertising agencies in the Austin, Texas area including Sizmek and GSD&M. She also spent years in Chicago working for FCB Global and Starcom MediaVest Group. While at Starcom, Marika was recognized for her involvement in the creation of the first agency-side programmatic pipelines and what the industry now refers to as an agency trading desk.

    Marika holds a Bachelor’s in Advertising from The University of Texas at Austin, which she achieved while also participating as a former D1 collegiate athlete.