Streaming Media West Red 2009 Carpet Interview - Tom Wilde, RAMP on Monetizing Discovery and Engagement Through "Content Optimization"

In this 2009 Streaming Media West 2009 Red Carpet interview Peter Cervieri sits down with Tom Wilde, CEO of RAMP, the company formerly known as EveryZing, and the industry’s leading "Content Optimization" platform for media publishers. Tom also spoke at the Online Video Platform Summit on the SEO Panel - Optimizing Video Search and Discoverability, and is a recognized leader in the field of Internet search and online advertising. His newly rebranded company made the announcement at Streaming Media West with a new name, new and improved tools for video search and discovery, and new focus. The new Software as a Service (SaaS) platform platform is divided into four core solutions: RAMP:workflow, RAMP:discovery, RAMP:engagement, and RAMP:monetize, and is designed to help media publishers expand video search and discovery and ramp up engagement monetization of all types of web content though, "content optimization."

RAMP has an interesting history in that it's portfolio of technologies spun out of a company called BBN Technologies, one of the world’s foremost research organizations with more than $100M government funded research, in speech-to-text and natural language processing technologies and search for the Department of Defense. The technology was developed primarily for monitoring phone calls and broadcast television mediums. When the company was acquired by venture capitalists they decided to spin out some of the technology which was over 30 years of R&D and included 20 patents that his company acquired. Some of the problems that the government was trying to solve was speaker, topic and format independent technology, which has very similar requirements to that of big media companies.

RAMP began as PodZinger, a podcast search engine, and started trying to figure out how to create rich metadata from audio files to make audio podcasts more discoverable. PodZinger used speech-to-text technology to create a text index of the audio, which enabled users to find content anywhere within podcasts and jump directly to the point of their keyword. They moved to a B2B media merchandising platform solution soon after rebranding as EveryZing, and opened up their platform to include all forms of online multimedia content. Tom identified the challenge of video discoverability as one of the key emerging problems of the web, and that rich media content misses out on monetization opportunities when it can't be discovered through search engines.

RAMP Content Optimization and RAMP Platform Solutions suite is more of big media company play with startup fees roughly in the low tens of thousands, with monthly fees usually between $5,000 and $15,000. Licensing costs can be paid either on a monthly or annual cycle, based on the amount of content that is processed. Many media companies use RAMP's speech-to-text algorithms to auto-generate transcripts and tags for third-party content. Customers in specific market verticals include news, sports, local, infotainment, print publishing and web.

On Vator News, Tom said that the re-branding was,

"largely driven by the completion of our solution to a business-to-business SaaS provider to media companies. Everyzing was an older consumer destination name and we didn't feel it was reflective of what we do now and what we're doing going forward. RAMP has a nice set of meanings; ramp up your traffic, ramp up your sales, it's easier to remember."

According to Tom, 2010 will bring more focus on social media, mobile and managed services and he noted that the pervasiveness of video across all verticals will continue to grow.

In his Red Carpet interview he said,

"In the end, virtually every company of significant size out there has to begin to think like a media company. They have to produce media because that's how the marketing conversation will happen through video and through social. So I think all of this converges in the future, where there won't be any major company that isn't behaving like a media company."

See Mark Robertson's post on ReelSEO for more on RAMP's Content Optimzation Platform. Also see Andy Plesser's interview with Tom on Beet.TV where he talk about how companies like CNBC, Thomson Reuters, FOX have implemented the service and OVPs like thePlatform, Brightcove, and YuMe have partnered with hosted solutions.

About RAMP
RAMP is an advanced Content Optimization SaaS platform providing publishers’ workflow, discovery and engagement solutions to drive monetization of online content to users’ search and browsing behavior. RAMP offers publishers an open, flexible and modular capability to optimize large amounts of content, including text, audio, video and images, within dynamic publishing environments. As a result, publishers’ content becomes positioned for discovery and precise targeting, both on search engines and within publishers’ own websites. Users rely on such precision to discover and engage with content, thereby increasing the commercial viability of content for publishers while curtailing publishing costs.
Leading publishers using RAMP include – FOXNews, NBC, DowJones, Meredith, and others. For more information visit: www.RAMP.com, or contact us at info@RAMP.com.

Related:

• EVERYZING IS NOW RAMP: COMPANY ANNOUNCES NEW CONTENT OPTIMIZATION PLATFORM FOR MEDIA PUBLISHING · Ramp.com
• RAMP RECEIVES STREAMING MEDIA’S 2009 READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS FOR VIDEO SEARCH AND INDEXING PLATFORM CATEGORY · Ramp.com
• Beet.TV: RAMP Powers Video Discovery for CNBC, Thomson Reuters, FOX, others
• VatorNews - EveryZing RAMPS up
• EveryZing Moves to RAMP Focus on Content Optimization
• Streaming Media - Under New Name, EveryZing Ramps up Video Automation

Online Video Platform Summit SEO Panel - Optimizing Video Search and Discoverability

Video discovery via search has seen rapid growth over the past few years with the explosive increase in the online video market. But it's not enough to achieve a high Google ranking; making video more discoverable through video search engine optimization (SEO) is key for businesses to maximize visibility, drive traffic to their sites, and reach a targeted audience. Panelists in this session will discuss the importance of increasing user engagement with video SEO-using keywords, metadata, relevant content, media RSS, and video syndication-and social media marketing through demonstration of use-case scenarios.

Optimizing Video Search and Discoverability
Thursday, November 19, 2009 10:30 AM PST

Moderator
Tim Siglin
Chairman
Braintrust Digital

Tim Siglin is a contributing editor for StreamingMedia.com. He serves as Chairman of Braintrust Digital, a digital media production company, and is a co-founder of the go-to-market consulting firm, Transitions, Inc. He has been involved full-time with strategic consulting and digital media integrations fields for almost 20 years. Besides writing as a contributing editor for StreamingMedia.com, Siglin has also recently created a new blog, covering digital media workflows, with emphasis on metadata and online video in the corporate, higher education, web development production industries. The blog can be accessed at www.workflowed.com

Braintrust Digital is a media production and design company specializing in creation and delivery of content through traditional and new media. Braintrust also provides AV integration services for select clients that require high-quality viewing experiences on corporate, religious and educational campuses.

Transitions, Inc. - a business and technology development firm - assists startups and hypergrowth businesses in the financial services, digital media and advertising / marketing industries.

Speakers
Dr. Pete Kocks
President
Truveo

Pete Kocks oversees the ongoing development, growth and operation for Truveo, the leading video search engine. He joined Truveo shortly after the company's founding in 2004. Prior to Truveo, Pete helped launch three software startups in the fields of video surveillance, database monitoring, and application hosting.

At Presidio Technology, he led the development of a distributed video surveillance system with a unique approach to indexing video streams. As CEO and co-founder of BayGate, he led the development of a database monitoring system from inception to deployment in the mission-critical datacenters of dozens of large corporate customers. BayGate was acquired by Portal Software in 2001. As one of the first employees of Digitivity, a startup that developed and brought to market a Java application server, he guided the technical and business relationship with Citrix systems that ultimately led to its acquisition by Citrix in 1998.

Pete holds a doctoral degree from Stanford University where his research focused on systems modeling and computation. He received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Mark Robertson
Founder
ReelSEO

Mark Robertson is the Founder and Creator of ReelSEO.com, The Online Video Marketer's Guide, which provides news, tips and trends on the online video industry and video marketing. Mark speaks regularly at conferences, webinars and industry events sharing his extensive experience in online marketing, particularly in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Mark was previously the Director of Search for Freedom Communications and has worked with many newspaper and broadcast stations for optimization online content.

Lou Schwartz
Chairman and CEO
Multicast Media Technologies, Inc.

Lou Schwartz's vision and leadership have been the driving force behind the growth and success of Multicast, a company that has not only pioneered the way video content is managed, distributed and consumed over the Internet, but has also helped many satisfied clients define winning business models. Since co-founding the company in 2000, Mr. Schwartz has led the organization and its strategic direction.

Prior to launching Multicast, from 1993 to 2000, Mr. Schwartz practiced corporate and securities law guiding numerous companies from the earliest stages of private seed financing through the public offering of securities. While practicing law, Mr. Schwartz completed mergers and acquisitions aggregating in excess of $3 billion. Mr. Schwartz received his bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University and law degree from Mississippi College School of Law.

Tom Wilde
CEO
RAMP (formerly EveryZing, Inc.)

Tom Wilde is a widely recognized leader in the field of Internet search and online advertising, and prior to becoming EveryZing’s CEO has held numerous leadership roles in the field including SVP/GM of the Consumer Division at domain portfolio company NameMedia, senior vice president and general manager of MIVA Inc.’s North American division, responsible for both MIVA’s U.S. online advertising network as well as the company’s consumer business, and senior operating roles managing Terra Lycos’ global search & publishing divisions. Tom has also served on the IAB Search Engine Committee and holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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