Coull Buys Agency To Scale Up Its Video Ad Tech In The US

Online video advertising is white hot at the moment but a small company based out of the UK has managed to come up with an innovative model. Coull’s technology lets publishers and advertisers tag individual products within videos, making it possible to click through and buy products right from the video. Coull has been doing this for a while, though Wirewax is a new kid on the block doing something similar. The innovative part is that Coull only charges for user engagement with the video, which is unusual in a sector known for charging for anything done with the video. That means budgets get spent on results and not just impressions. Advertisers such as Nike, Renault, Unilever and Agent Provocateur are already users of Coull in Europe.

Last year Coull, the video advertising network based out of the UK, closed a large $2M angel round led by Peter Hargreaves (co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown) who took at 10% stake. It’s since raised an additional $900,000 through new and existing investors and is today acquiring California-based RevUpNet, an established and profitable online marketing agency, for $2 million. RevUpNet is an online-based marketing agency that has strong relationships with publishers, and will act as a way for Coull to enter the U.S. market.

Although Coull has been loss making, the acquisition of RevUpNet means it will now be become profitable in Q3 of 2012.

The sole video partner of Google Affiliate Network, Coull has 383 advertisers including Dell, Sears, Puma and American Express and 52,000 publishers that includes the Telegraph, Imagine and Future Publishing.

Irfon Watkins, CEO of Coull says they expect 50% of their business to come from U.S. within the next 12 months.

Video is the fastest growing sector within online advertising, so Coull is well positioned for this growth.