The virtual spokesperson company's CEO talks about how "always on" video can power automotive marketing in an engaging and turnkey fashion.

Len Ostroff brings a wealth of relevant experience to his role as Rovion CEO, including over 15 years of financial, operational, managerial, technical and media experience. Prior to joining Rovion, Ostroff served as the chief operating officer of Sinclair Ventures, Inc., the corporate venture capital arm of Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI). In this role, Ostroff was responsible for all non-broadcast investment activities for one of the largest owners of television stations in the country. Mr. Ostroff has served as a director and advisor to numerous private media and technology companies. Mr. Ostroff graduated from Lafayette College with a BA in Business and Economics.

iMedia: Tell us a bit about your background in marketing and in online video.

Len Ostroff: My background is not in traditional marketing. I have a technology background, but most recently I was a corporate venture capitalist for the largest television station owner in the country. I think I learned marketing in a trial-by-fire fashion. What I saw was that content, and especially video content, wanted to be consumed anywhere at any time on any device. My feeling, however, is that the technology behind providing "always on" content would quickly become commoditized, and that in order to succeed, a company would need to do something a little differently. I think that, so far, Rovion has a strong, rapidly growing niche. What I tell some of the traditional video providers is that Rovion is the sizzle, while they are the steak.

iMedia: Let's touch on the background of Rovion itself. How did it come about? What unmet need was it designed to serve?

Ostroff: Rovion has been around for about five years and has been providing virtual spokespeople through its proprietary technology since its inception. What has really fueled our growth over the past year, though, has been the propagation of broadband and the desire of both sites and advertisers to truly engage the visitor in a new, unique and compelling way.

iMedia: Tell me, in your own words, what Rovion's InPerson technology does? How does it help marketers distinguish their products from others? How does it help consumers identify with a brand or a product?

Ostroff: InPerson brings the amazing Hollywood-style special effect of green screen technology to the internet in a completely turnkey, hosted way. We provide full-motion streaming media without the four walls of a traditional video player. The videos run on top of all of the other content on the webpage, and are invoked through one line of computer code. We do not require the website to modify their page or content in any way to add video to their site.

Rovion is a full service creative and technology company. We can handle everything from the talent selection, script writing and production of the videos, through encoding, hosting, serving and reporting. Our clients typically are looking to bridge the gap between their broadcast assets and broadband. As an example, T-Mobile has spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads to brand Catherine Zeta-Jones as their spokesperson. However, if you go to their website, you only see a beautiful static picture of her. How compelling and engaging would it be to have her walk onto the T-Mobile home page and greet visitors and then describe the special offers on the site? This is how many of our clients are currently using InPerson, and we have objective evidence that our technology significantly increases a site's visitor-to-customer conversion ratio. Even if our client is not looking to necessarily sell anything, we also have had third-party studies done that prove that user engagement increases through the use of InPerson videos, and that the reaction to the virtual spokespeople are almost uniformly positive. 

Now we have many of our clients asking us if they can use InPerson as an ad unit on third-party sites. We have already run a few campaigns and have seen truly incredible results-- in some cases clickthrough rates are over 10 percent.

iMedia: Rovion has partnered with companies across many industries, including entertainment, sports, ecommerce and automotive. Is there a certain kind of company that benefits from use of your technology more than others in their markets?

Ostroff: It's really interesting. We have hundreds of clients: from small mom and pop ecommerce sites, all the way up to some of the most highly trafficked sites on the internet, so I can't say that there is any ideal client. We believe that any site that is looking to engage their visitors, bring their site to life or use an ad unit that combines the best of branding and direct response should be using InPerson. Now that we have third-party sites ready and willing to take InPerson as an ad unit, I would expect that many of our current clients will begin looking to use it in this way, and we're just starting to see this happen.

iMedia: Recently, Rovion partnered with MileOne Automotive, a network of automotive retailers. How is Rovion's InPerson technology being used to promote MileOne and its dealerships? What is involved in this campaign, and how does it help drive leads and sales?  

Ostroff: MileOne is the Mid-Atlantic's largest automotive group, and they were looking for a way to really engage the visitors who came to their websites. They are very, very internet-savvy and saw InPerson as a way to further connect with and guide their visitors through the automotive research and purchasing process. They measure everything and with our backend reporting system, they get all of the data of how their visitors interact with the InPerson videos. So far, they have been extremely pleased with how well InPerson has performed for them in terms of engaging their visitors and driving these leads through their site.

iMedia: How has the MileOne campaign been received by consumers?

Ostroff: The folks at MileOne tell me that they get positive comments all the time about how cool and helpful their new website video guides are from people who come into the dealerships. That tells me that we're bringing awareness to their dealership and helping them drive their business.

iMedia: Tell us your feelings on how video content delivery for automotive differs from other industries. How do you determine the best strategy for an automotive brand?

Ostroff: The automotive industry needs to get further invested in online video. They are the No.1 advertiser in terms of dollars on TV, and in some cases they account for up to 25 percent of a local TV station's revenues. There are very few industries that are able to put approximately $400 into acquiring a customer, which is the average these days for many dealerships. Everyone knows that the internet is the top place for researching and influencing automotive purchases. With so much money being spent on TV branding and marketing, bringing a portion of those dollars to the internet should be a priority. The automotive industry should be reaching these soon-to-be customers at the point of research, and what better branding, educational and engaging format is there than video?

iMedia: What do you see as the greatest challenges for reaching the automotive audience with targeted video messaging?

Ostroff: Providing the right information at the right time to the right potential customer. It's all about reaching the consumer when they're ready to buy.

iMedia: What must automotive marketers be aware of in order to create memorable video-based campaigns?

Ostroff: I think it's really all about education and engagement. We are all time constrained these days, and while being memorable is important, I think providing the right information at the right time to help the consumer make an educated decision is the most important factor. Sure, humor can be fun, but it can also get lost or misinterpreted on some people. When you're reaching a mass audience like the automotive industry does with TV, you can afford to take a few gambles. But when you're in a one-to-one relationship on a web page, you should be more cautious and be certain to provide as much information as possible in the most engaging and memorable way to drive people towards a purchase decision.