SundaySky in the News

Mformation Software Technologies Inc. is teaming up with partners Amdocs and SundaySky to demonstrate new capabilities in mobile customer care. The companies are calling the initiative the Proactive Care Technical Catalyst, and it will focus on new advances in the critical areas of automatic and proactive technical care, specifically for mobile customers.

The U.S.-Israeli company’s videos not only speak to a customer by name but take into account past history and present behavior with a brand. SundaySky can generate millions of videos from a single template in real time, allowing the videos to always be up to date.

The insurer’s use of SundaySky’s SmartVideo technology improves customer experience by rendering complex information easily intelligible.

Customer experience is a key differentiator for companies, and it can make or break customer acquisition, growth, and retention efforts. Positioned at the center of any customer-centric initiative is big data, and when it’s added to the mix, brands can make better, more informed marketing decisions based on customer behavior.

New standalone analytics software products are emerging all the time, too. For example, a New York company called SundaySky is selling software that mines company data to create real-time videos that are personalized to each customer. AT&T creates videos with the software that offer a detailed explanation of each customer’s bill, thus reducing call center volume.

By selecting a strategic location and maintaining tight communication between both offices, SundaySky’s been able to nurture a collective startup spirit across both cultures despite being 6,000 miles apart. For entrepreneurs looking to grow their companies in a second country, here are CEO Shmulik Weller’s key considerations for expanding offices internationally.

Who reads anything any more? Like many industries, healthcare is awash in paperwork, much of which is hard to read, boring, lacks a personal touch – or just never gets read. Leveraging video technology and adapting medical information to be presented in video form is a way for healthcare institutions to present their patients with a more digestible means of conveying information. ”Video is the most engaging medium,” says Jim Dicso from SundaySky, a firm that develops smart video technologies. “Smart Video enables the video to be the most relevant.” 

Jim Dicso, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Sunday Sky, told attendees at the 6^th annual Loyalty Expo on Friday that contextualized video speaks to the “notion of a conversation with customers.” During the session, “How to Use Contextualized Video to Foster Deeper Engagement and Loyalty,” Dicso said that conversation must be personal and relevant and follow a certain philosophy or flow, and change as the customer passes through the lifecycle.

SundaySky produces “smart videos,” which video are personalized to the individual watching the video, says SundaySky president Jim Dicso. “We understand and communicate through a video that is based on what the person was doing when they watched the video,” adds Dicso.

Figuring out how to attract new customers is an ever-changing calculus, but connecting with them on their level is always a good bet. Presenting prospects with relevant offers based on preferences and segments (instead of randomly generated advertising) is key. SundaySky, the vendor for AT&T’s popular video bills, helps CSPs personalize the presales experience by leveraging an automated advertising system in conjunction with cookies to serve personalized video ads to customers who browse away from a carrier’s website and onto YouTube or another video-hosting site.

Financial institutions have reached a tipping point in which they need to leverage technological advances, while maintaining focus on the individual customer, to ultimately move to the top of the consumer’s wallet.

By working to define areas of need unrecognized by the customer’s organization, sales reps can offer real value to customers. Here’s how sales reps are embracing the new B2B standard and moving away from solution selling to insight selling, 

In 2013, the cost of a :30 second video spot during the Super Bowl started at $4 million. A hefty sum for any sized business, and one that keeps many brands away from big event advertising. One expert explains why this type of spot can be a good investment, and offers advice on making the most of the exposure.

The past year was a significant one in the evolution of online video. In 2012, we saw millions of Olympics fans tune in online to watch real-time competition. We saw the first trulydigital election, with more than 55 percent of registered voters watching political videos online during the presidential campaign season. Perhaps most interesting for online brands, we saw the power of personalization boost viewer engagement. The trends in personally relevant video were among the most interesting findings in SundaySky’s State of Online Video Report, and are among the most important when it comes to predicting trends for this year.

Getting your monthly cell phone, cable TV or insurance bill can be off-putting or just plain confusing – that’s why Israeli start-up SundaySky is trying to change that.

From a content strategy perspective, there remains huge, untapped potential for video in digital experiences. For outside the box examples, look to e-tailers who are expanding the video envelope beyond viral videos, techie-guys-talking-shop videos, and webinars. Sunday Sky is pioneering new automated video production techniques that translate text on a page into dynamic product videos.

According to recent research by SundaySky, online video marketing and personalized customer strategy are safe trends for 2013. 

As for the Foundry, over the past three years, AT&T’s centers in Plano,Texas, Ra’anana, Israel and Palo Alto, California, have played host to more than 1,000 pitches. The company and its Foundry sponsors, including Intel, Ericsson, Amdocs and Alcatel-Lucent, have together invested more than $100 million in projects, 29 of which have been deployed. They include SundaySky, an app that takes the first “confusing” bill AT&T customers receive for their U-Verse service into a video that explains all the charges. “We’re getting a financial return that’s roughly 10 times our investment,” says John Donovan, who was named senior vice president of technology and network operations in Jan. 2012.

Product videos may attract additional shoppers, encourage sharing, and increase sales for online retailers. So it is little wonder that so many leading retailers are using product videos now. Relying on data aggregated from several sources, SundaySky, a video-platform provider, reported that 48 of the top 50 online retailers used some form of product video in 2012. What follows is a list of ten respected online retailers that are using product videos right now.

The coming year is likely to see growth in overall ecommerce spending, increased competition for loyal customers, and advances in marketing technology. What follows are five suggested resolutions. If followed, these resolutions could lead to more sales and more profit.

#3: Integrate Video. Video platform maker SundaySky recently reported that 48 of the top 50 online retailers were using product video to boost sales and increase revenues. Only 16 of those same retailers used product videos the prior year. As the trend continues, it will be quite common to see video demonstrations or explanations on many product detail pages.

Southwest Airlines, which carries more passengers on domestic US routes than any other airline, may begin sending customers video versions of flight confirmation e-mails that confirm details on a flight’s departure time, gate number, and arrival time. The videos may also attempt to upsell the customer on ancillary services, such as hotel stays.

The amount of content videos and video ads viewed in 2012 reached record-breaking numbers, according to a recent SundaySky report. Videos, however, aren’t just for newsworthy events such as the Olympics and presidential campaigns. Videos that are personally relevant also matter to viewers: Viewers spent 2.5 times more time watching personally relevant short-form videos than other videos, and emails that contain personally relevant videos boast a 40%-60% open rate.

Similar to television advertising, the most effective lengths for in-stream online video ads are 15 and 30-second spots. However, the advantage online video advertising has over TV is that it can be delivered in the form of a pre-roll video ad targeted and personally relevant to a consumer based on his individual shopping behavior… Let’s explore when to use a 15-second versus 30-second video ad to aquire customers.

Contrary to a recent USA Today article by Michael Wolff entitled, “Media world seeks mobile plan,” you can build a successful advertising-supported business on mobile. There are solutions that replace display ads. Video advertising is effective and engaging on both mobile and Web, which, one can assume, is why LinkedIn recently added video ads to its ad platform.

In order to advance in this climate, sales pros and job seekers alike need to embrace this new paradigm and move beyond the era of solution sales. What will it take to thrive in an era focused on insight selling — rather than solution selling? These three tips are a good place to start.

2012 has been a break out year for online video, with online video consumption at an all time high.  A new infographicfrom SundaySky takes a look at the State of Online Video in 2012, as well as some trends to look for in 2013.

Customer satisfaction is becoming a key strategic imperative for companies to differentiate themselves and optimize their acquisition and retention results. Today, consumers want an engaging and personalized experience at every stage of their relationship with an online brand. With new smart video technology, brands can address the growing needs for online personalization to bridge the gap between live and virtual experiences. 

Marketers have learned that video not only drives interaction with brands, but also searches on engines and brand Web sites, according to Kelly Ford, vice president of marketing at SundaySky, which supports a platform that creates personalized “smartvideos” in real-time for companies like AT&T, Office Depot and Lenovo. ”Brands that are innovating with video know they need to create stickiness early,” she said. “It’s all about personalized content and leveraging transactional history.”

Online retailers will be using video in 2013 to increase sales, find new potential customers, and build brand relationships if key streaming-video trends continue… Using data collected from a number of sources, SundaySky, a video-platform provider, recently reported that 48 of the top 50 online retailers were using product video on their sites to help sell products and increase revenues. By comparison, only 16 of those retailers, according to SundaySky, were using product videos in 2011.

In a new report, video marketing firm SundaySky sheds light on the growing consumer demand for personal online video relevance.

Viewers around the globe are tuning in to online content – long-form video, short ad, product demonstrations and the like are gaining in popularity. Data from SundaySky shows online video consumption has surpassed television consumption. What does that mean for online video in the New Year?

Figuring out the charges on a cell phone bill requires a special type of patience. From third-party charges to data overages, the monthly statement can look like Greek to even the tech-savvy. AT&T decided to help customers understand their wireless bills by introducing video billing that aims to better explain what charges are for. The three-minute video bills are e-mailed to you and provide personalized, line-by-line rundown of charges.

AT&T customers tired of wading through automated telephone trees for an explanation of charges on their wireless bills may find some relief in a new video service offered by the company. Using animation and narration, a personalized video provides a line-by-line breakdown and “audio tour” of users’ monthly bills. ”The videos are automatically created through a technology that AT&T developed with SundaySky,” the folks at AT&T told TechRadar, referring to the company that developed the underlying technology used in the service.

AT&T has revealed a new video bill service that will animate your monthly payments, creating personalized clips that walk through charge explanations, as well as a new location-based deals system for store discounts. AT&T video bills aim to cut through subscription shock, crafting a narrated walkthrough of the voice, data, plan, and one-off charges they’re facing in the early days of their subscription. According to AT&T, the video bills idea was prompted by the SundaySky team at the AT&T Foundry “innovation center”, and has tested particularly positively in a trial with U-verse customers. 

Underlying AT&T’s video bill is technology from a company called SundaySky and from operations software developer Amdocs. SundaySky brought the idea to AT&T through the AT&T Foundry initiative, an innovation center that aims to generate new product ideas and bring them to market quickly.

If your wireless bill is too complicated, AT&T is offering a new service where it turns your bill into a personalized video. In an attempt to help you better understand your charges, the video is automatically generated — complete with animation and voice narration — and tailored to your specific bill. The idea originated from a company named SundaySky, which presented the idea to AT&T executives through an AT&T Foundry pitch session. 

Before we move forward into 2013, it’s time to take a look back. Video ecommerce company SundaySky has just released a useful report called “2012 State of Online Video” that looks at the major trends from the past year and makes predictions for what we can expect in 2013.

Wireless carrier AT&T has added a video primer to help explain customers’ bills. Each video offers an overview of an account holder’s bill, includes multiple mentions of the person’s name and is set to a catchy tune, which may ease the shock of a unexpectedly high bill.

AT&T Tuesday unveiled a personalized video service to help explain each new customer’s wireless bill in some detail. The video service, to be rolled out nationwide in early 2013, uses computer animation and voice narration to explain a customer’s bill.

On-site videos deliver brand awareness and engagement, but what is most appealing to companies is the performance and financial impact videos are generating, specifically conversions and revenue. That’s according to SundaySky, the creator of SmartVideo (a personalized, real-time video experience). The company recently published its 2012 State of Online Video report, which captures and analyzes the current trends in online video including consumption, personalization, advertising, retail, mobile and 2013 predictions.

In that last 12 months, online videos have had 182 million views. According to Sunday Sky’s 2012 State of Online Video Research Report, online video made up 56% of consumer web traffic in 2012, up from 51% in 2011. 

In 2013, industry leaders can leverage smart video technology to turn the less-than-enjoyable billing, statement and invoice experience into a positive communication opportunity with customers. Personalized video bills set customer expectations upfront so there are no surprises, educate the customer so he knows exactly what he is paying for and why, and more importantly, deliver a wow experience that makes the customer to feel valued.

Display Ads Don’t Work On Mobile (SundaySky)
Despite mobile’s usefulness, it does not enhance or facilitate display advertising, and is thereby killing display ad revenue for media publishers. And though mobile is the primary spot of media consumption, display advertising is not effective on mobile devices and there is no solution to replace it. Video advertising is growing exponentially due to it as effective and engaging media on both mobile and Web. Which one can assume why LinkedIn recently added video ads their ad platform. What about interactive videos? Interactive video advertising is even more effective in which viewers can click directly in a video, perhaps to add a recently viewed product to a cart, or to call their nearest take-out spot for dinner. In fact, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) predicts that half of online video ads will be interactive within two years.

This marks the first time that online video demographic targeting has been used in a presidential campaign, says Kelly Ford, vice president of marketing at SundaySky, but it’s something that e-commerce companies have been doing for some time. The campaigns tailored their message based on known audience data.

“From our experience, targeted pre-roll ads from a performance marketing perspective are more effective that any online video or online display advertising investment that a brand can make,” says Ford. “For political campaigns, to put relevant video in front of the right person is what a candidate’s campaign team wants more than anything else.”

Smart applications of online video foster the highest levels of brand engagement and deliver on key performance marketing objectives, so the holidays are the perfect time for retailers to invest in video and leverage it across all channels, from website, to email communications, to advertising campaigns.

This upcoming holiday season eMarketer predicts online retail sales will account for nearly 25 percent of 2012 revenue, and we predict that online video will be a factor in driving that revenue. So whether you’ve been preparing your site since July or are getting ready now, these five video tips are sure to enhance holiday marketing initiatives to effectively engage customers for maximum financial impact during the most competitive shopping season.

As consumers continue to seek information on products across channels this holiday season, retailers plan to offer a variety of engagement options through video.

“Some retailers are modifying the look and feel of product videos to deliver a more ‘blinded’ holiday experience — where the video setting appeals to the holiday season, with snow following instead of sunshine,” Jim Dicso, President of SundaySky told Retail TouchPoints. “Moreover, retailers are adding engagement strategies that are tied to their approach for promotions and value ads.”

Holiday season marketing will likely account for a good portion of that growth, considering that the holiday season accounts for 25-40% of annual sales for retailers, according to the National Retail Federation. Moreover, even in challenging economic times, online retail sales will account for nearly 25% of retailers’ sales this year, eMarketer predicts.

You still have a small window of time to enhance your holiday marketing initiatives before shoppers start checking off their wish lists. And the most engaging and effective medium to use with those initiatives is online video advertising. Here are five tips for smart video ads that will make the most of this holiday season for your online business.

Any click-based attribution model fails to accurately capture the real influence of an online ad campaign, and therefore, undervalues brand impact. For example, with smart video advertising, a more personal and intimate medium that captures user attention and engagement for longer periods, video has more potential to influence a buy decision at distance, with or without a click.

AT&T (T) had a problem — its customers suffered from “bill shock” when receiving their first bills. Thanks to SundaySky, AT&T and other corporate customers have used its so-called SmartVideos to address the shock by “making bills easier to understand.”

As SundaySky president, Jim Dicso, explained in an October 4 interview, SundaySky “wants to bring to video the same dynamic creation capability that [Hyper Text Markup Language] HTML brought to the Web.” Dicso believes that a decade ago, not many people could use HTML but now it has become a relatively straightforward way for users to update their Web sites with new content. 

A recent study by Econsultancy and Google Analytics indicates that a majority of marketers are still using last-click attribution to measure performance-oriented campaigns. But at the same time, marketers are realizing that it is ineffective at gauging the true influence campaigns have on the consumer’s path to conversion. For online video campaigns, be it advertising, email, or on-site, last-click attribution suffers from similar inaccuracies.

We’re still more than a month from the official kick-off to the 2012 holidays – Black Friday – but savvy marketers are already making plans for better performances. Here are SundaySky’s top three tips for improving websites in preparation for holiday shoppers.

U.S. retail sales will increase 3.3 percent during the upcoming holiday shopping season compared with last year. It’s likely a good chunk of that increase will come in online retail. Holiday deals and discounts, especially free shipping offers, proved especially attractive last year. But what else can small retailers do to boost sales? First, get ready now: Hanukkah falls 11 days earlier than last year, so an early start to the season is expected. Here are 10 more things you can do before the holidays:

#8. Use video. Combine video showcasing your products or services placed above the fold on your site with prominent calls to action, such as instructions for visitors to click to watch a video. Video encourages “holiday shoppers to be much more inclined to engage in your message and make a purchase,” says Kelly Ford, vice president for marketing at SundaySky, a New York video company.

Humana says it will offer personalized explanation-of-benefits videos to health-plan members using HP’s Exstream communications software and SundaySky’s SmartVideo technology.

HP today announced it is increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty by extending the multichannel capabilities of HP Exstream, its customer communications management (CCM) solution, to include SmartVideo and digital mailbox services. HP is collaborating with solutions providers SundaySky, Pitney Bowes Volly and Zumbox to enable enterprise clients to use HP Exstream to deliver personalized customer communications via SMS, email, web and now SmartVideo and digital mailboxes.

Consumers are looking for engaging, personal experiences at every stage of their relationship with a online brand. As a result, companies are seeking ways to engage with customers at each stage of that journey, delivering a differentiated, compelling experience that balances information and entertainment, with user empowerment and satisfaction.

A new release out from SundaySky offers retail brands another way to engage lost shoppers online – through video. Called SmartVideo, the platform allows brands to retarget consumers who have abandoned retail sites without converting through pre-roll video content. What kind of ad works best in this situation?

A new arrival into the online video scene could update what brands have, to date, been doing with online video. From SundaySky, the SmartVideo platform allows for the retargeting of video ads, helping to make video a more relevant experience for the consumer.

The SmartVideo platform from SundaySky delivers personalize, scalable, real time video experiences to shoppers online throughout the lifecycle of a conversion. And, they’re retargeted, bringing retail site or cart abandoners back into the website through video engagement.

SundaySky President and Chief Revenue Officer, Jim Dicso, interviewed on the weekly technology and business roundtable show, discussing SmartVideo technology for retargeted advertising. Featuring Forbes’ Eric Savitz and Investors Business Daily’s Mike Krey. 

Jim Dicso, president and chief revenue officer of SundaySky, in an interview withRetailWire, touted the benefits of “smart video.”

These are videos generated for individual viewers while they are on the web, he elaborated. They are based on pre-built templates, many hours of recorded video, and data. As the individual browses, they are offered videos that are instantly personalized according to the consumer’s behavior/history and the retailer’s goals. Videos can be shown on a retailer’s own site, or used to re-target to shoppers as they visit other sites.  The ads can be based on the last product viewed or purchased, and site visit metrics can also be incorporated to determine the value of the potential customer, and what to show them. 

As video advertising grows, so have personalized ads. Software provider SundaySky is aiming to capitalize on that push into personalization with its tools for delivering tailored video to specific online users. 

Dubbed SmartVideo, SundaySky’s tools enable retargeted video ads as well as personalized informational videos. Both types of video draw from data to create the video automatically at mass scale and personalize it for the user, based on their most recent online actions and behavior.

Retargeted video ads can lead to a 5% to 10% increase in conversions, site visits and revenue for brands that use them. Retargeted video ads represent a form of performance-driven marketing, and are proving to be an effective way for retailers to reach consumers who are interested in their products but haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Watch President & Chief Revenue Officer, Jim Dicso, discuss here.

With smart video technology, online brands can create engaging videos that provide each consumer with a personalized experience. Videos maximize the experience with your brand, leading to increased sales and brand loyalty. However, in order to take full advantage of videos, consumers need the ability to see information with little effort. Placement of a video is just as critical as its content.

AT&T has rolled out a service that provides new customers of its U-verse TV, Voice, and Internet triple-play service with personalized video explanations of their bills. The video bills, using SmartVideo technology from SundaySky, are automatically generated, customized videos with computer animation and voice narration that explain all of the elements of monthly bills.

An email blast is a thing of the past. Marketers must embrace today’s marketing requirements that involve a shift away from generic email marketing, and a move to dynamic, personalized messaging that will engage customers and boost results.

Lenovo began using SundaySky’s SmartVideo technology to engage consumers in real time with personalized information (e.g., personal account details) via video. The fact that the SmartVideo technology is capable of producing videos in real time was particularly attractive to Lenovo, says Lewis Broadnax, executive director, web sales and marketing at Lenovo.

US telco AT&T added 155,000 subscribers for its managed IPTV service ‘U-verse TV’ in the second quarter of this year to reach a total of 4.1mn in service.

To explain its complex billing structure and process to customers, the telco has introduced innovative personalised ‘smart videos’ that pull together relevant data on each customer’s usage to address some common queries, such as payment status, when a bill is due and how much is owed.

The videos were created in partnership with a company called SundaySky, which has offices in New York City and Israel, and are pushed to a customer during the first two monthly billing cycle or whenever a service is changed.

A service that breaks down complex AT&T (NYSE: T) U-verse bill details and turns them into personalized videos is so popular among subscribers that the carrier will next introduce it for its wireless subscribers.

Forward-thinking retailers are utilizing innovative strategies, such as personalization, real-time videos and Voice of the Customer (VoC) strategies to increase customer engagement and loyalty across channels. Wine.com, Lenovo and The Container Store have taken the lead in implementing these initiatives.

An online brand’s knowledge of individual customer preference is now the standard for nurturing long-term relationships. This ensures customer intimacy, which is becoming a key strategic imperative for companies to differentiate themselves and optimise their acquisition and retention results.

Relationship marketing strategies have permeated across all industry sectors. It is commonly accepted that fostering a better customer experience drives customer loyalty, which in turn increases a customer’s willingness to consider additional purchases and recommend the company to friends, as well as to build barriers against switching vendors. Satisfied customers help drive growth and, for customer retention-focused online businesses, satisfaction is critical.

Lenovo.com began adding a second layer of video to address more technical product attributes in January. Because Lenovo computers can be configured in a “good, better, best” style, there are a lot of differentiated specs for consumers to consider, Broadnax says, and research on Lenovo customers showed they didn’t like looking at a long block of text detailing each configuration. Now the company sends product specs to online video vendor SundaySky, which converts the product variations into video form using its SmartVideo technology platform and a template that highlights to consumers exactly what they are going to get with a particular product configuration. There are more than 1,300 of these videos available, but consumers only see the one that’s relevant to their configuration. “A nice, quick, clean video gives them the detail they need and moves them down the purchase flow,” Broadnax says.

Many companies have begun to recognize the potential of online video for engaging customers and prospects. The challenge is identifying the best approach and measuring the business impact.

A new partnership between SundaySky and AT&T is changing how AT&T U-Verse customers interact and engaging with online billing. The video bills have resulted in fewer bill inquiry calls and most (90%) of customers say the bill in ‘helpful’.

To combat the fierce competition, some retailers are thinking outside the box. One of them is Office Depot, which will use video to support its holiday advertising initiatives. “During the holiday season, brands are constantly releasing limited-time sales and special promotions, so it is important to ensure our ads have up-to-date information,” said Nicole Fraley, Director, e-Commerce growth initiatives for Office Depot. “The real-time, dynamic nature of videos, specifically SmartVideos from SundaySky, gives us the means to generate videos rapidly and cost-effectively to support fluctuating price points, holiday deals and last-minute offers. These personalized videos allow us to deliver a better user experience that increases customer loyalty and return on investment.”

Have you considered incorporating online video into your business marketing strategy? It’s an effective marketing tool, and one that analyst Laurie McCabe thinks small businesses should use more.

In many ways, marketing and selling luxury goods is similar to marketing and selling other consumer brands, with a few important caveats.

Customer intimacy is becoming the primary competitive strategy for many companies looking to optimize their customer acquisition and retention results. This requires them to deliver a more unique and compelling experience to each customer. Some companies leverage marketing personas to segment their customers. Others leverage purchase history and past behavior to engage each customer in a fully personalized manner.

AT&T has started offering U-Verse triple play users a new service that purports to help consumers better understand their bill by presenting it in personalized, video form. Using SundaySky’s SmartVideo technology, AT&T’s new “SimpleView” technology automatically generates customized videos based on pre-made templates using billing data stored at AT&T.

AT&T customers with questions about their latest bill may get personalized answers through an innovative new “SimpleView” video bill explanation service the company is unveiling to their U-verse customers.

PC maker Lenovo said it boosted online sales with the addition of product videos to its Web site. Via a partnership with online video technology provider SundaySky, Lenovo integrated 1,300 personalized videos throughout its online product suite earlier this year.

Consumers are looking for engaging and personal experiences at every stage of their relationship with an online brand. As a result, marketers, advertisers, customer advocate and e-commerce executives are seeking more meaningful ways to engage with customers at each stage of that journey. They need to deliver each customer and prospect with a differentiated, compelling experience that balances information and entertainment, user empowerment and satisfaction.

When consumers shop online, they expect to receive the same personalized attention they get in-store, with engaging experiences throughout their decision-making process. To create those engaging online experiences, innovative marketers are turning to online video.

Interested in maximizing your brand’s success with online video? Here are five thoughts to consider.

Businesses looking to implement a video strategy into their website marketing efforts might want to consider leveraging SmartVideo technology.

Back in March this year Microsoft launched its first ever “direct” startup accelerator, based out of Tel Aviv, Israel. That meant it would, for the first time, be an accelerator owner/operator. Dubbed the Windows Azure Accelerator (WAA) it looked, at least on first inspection, to be designed to push its Azure cloud computing platform. Perhaps this was some paper-thin marketing initiative? “Look everyone, startups are choosing to use Azure!” seemed to be the initial message.

Today’s consumers respond to engaging online experiences — the more personal, the better — at every stage of their relationship with an online brand. As a result, today’s marketing leaders differentiate themselves by offering compelling online experiences that balance information and entertainment, consumer empowerment and satisfaction.

Online video is the fastest growing advertising medium with more than 8.3 billion video ads in March, according to comScore’s latest online video rankings. As inventory grows and online video advertising strategies mature, this trend should not only continue, but accelerate.

Smart videos help AT&T to eliminate customers’ confusion with complex bills—reducing calls to the contact center as a result.

With all that e-retailers do to drive brand awareness and traffic to their web stores, nearly 98 out of every 100 consumers who visit an e-retail site leave without making a purchase. That represents a lot of unmade sales, and plenty of wasted marketing spending.

Seeking to improve those results, e-retailers are honing their skills at reaching out to consumers who visit but leave without buying. Some are using newer online advertising systems to show ads, sometimes with videos, on other web sites as visitors to their sites move around the web. Others put site visitors’ data to work in other ways, in some cases months later, using that information to present a relevant offer to a shopper.

Video is growing by leaps and bounds – 38 billion clips in March, according to ComScore and other metrics firms find consumers are watching for longer stretches of time.

Today’s digitally-savvy consumers are empowered to product search via a plethora of devices, applications and word-of-mouth technologies. With the emergence of new tools such as the iPad, exploring product information, as well as other customers’ opinions and experiences, has become native to most consumers.

When you think of online video, chances are you’re probably still stuck in the land of web 2.0. Videos, no matter how entertaining, are still static. And though we dream that every video we post has the power to go “viral,” the truth is that, within minutes after posting, excitement slowly wanes, along with pageviews. However, SundaySky is putting the engagement back into online videos — literally

AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., the two biggest U.S. telephone companies, are taking a page from Silicon Valley’s handbook as they try to ward off new wireless competitors. The two companies are cozying up to startups in California, Israel, Europe and India, seeking to cultivate mobile hardware and software for their networks. AT&T met with 508 startups in “speed-dating” sessions last year to pick new suppliers, and Verizon has stepped up investments in promising new companies by about 50 percent over the past two years.

Here’s a great example of how online video advertising is opening up a new world of opportunities for savvy marketers: office supply giant Office Depot is dynamically creating customized video ads that are retargeted to visitors of OfficeDepot.com for specific products they browsed or purchased. Office Depot is leveraging SundaySky’s “SmartVideo” and other technologies in order to re-engage visitors and drive new purchasing. Office Depot’s Nicole Fraley explains how this works in the video interview embedded below, and SundaySky’s president and CRO Jim Dicso recently provided me with some additional details.

Chris Rick’s interview with SundaySky’s president and chief revenue officer Jim Dicso about SmartVideo.

In 2012, marketers will turn to online personalized video to stand out among their competitors and provide each consumer with a unique, interactive online shopping experience. As marketers explore the opportunities with video personalization, it’s important to understand the basics.

1to1 Media’s Tom Hoffman speaks with SundaySky President and Chief Revenue Officer Jim Dicso about ways that companies can use online video to engage customers and form tighter relationships.

Online video is now a virtual requirement and one of the best practices for businesses to gain an advantage competitively. Video boosts search engine results, increases stickiness, and improves conversion rates. Smart online video lets businesses reach consumers in real time with what they need to know in the most engaging, informative, and entertaining way possible…