blinkx unveils AdHoc, the first contextually relevant video advertising platform. Just as Google's AdSense transformed advertising on the Text Web, blinkx's AdHoc platform will revolutionize video advertising by matching compelling, customized, TV-style ads to your audience on the Video Web.

Search technology performs two useful functions - finding content, and also matching that content to meaningful, relevant advertising. blinkx's distribution strategy has established it as the de facto standard for video search on the Web, so the natural evolution was to apply that proven technology to the automatic selection of ads. AdHoc leverages blinkx's patented speech-to-text transcription and visual analysis technology to understand video content more thoroughly and effectively than any other service today, and can therefore dynamically place the most pertinent advertising against it.

Online video presents an extremely attractive opportunity for advertisers and media companies: targeted distribution with the potential for immediate action, and the availability of real-time metrics to assess the effectiveness of a given campaign.

blinkx's AdHoc platform offers content partners and advertisers a unique value proposition -- video advertising which combines the emotive power of TV promotion, with the relevance and utility of contextual search advertising. This is an exciting prospect, not only in terms of enhancing viewer experience, but also in increasing the effectiveness of campaigns.

In addition to its unrivalled relevance, the AdHoc platform offers media companies and advertisers the most flexible solution for customizing the timing and appearance of video ads, with options that include pre-, post- and mid-roll placement, as well as dynamically-selected banners, in-video mini-banners and a unique, post-roll catalog view. Partners can even select which ad databases to leverage - their own, the blinkx AdHoc platform, or even external ad systems, such as Google's AdWords.

"Until now, online video advertising was a kind of Frankenstein's monster - an attempt to cobble together technology that was built for Text Web banner advertising and apply it to an entirely new medium - the Video Web," said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. "The AdHoc platform is revolutionary because it was built from the ground up to address rich media, resulting in higher monetization for media companies, more effective marketing for advertisers and, most importantly, a useful, non-disruptive experience for users."

"As video choice continues to explode, consumers desperately need tools that help them easily find what they're interested in," said Tim Hanlon, Senior Vice President at Denuo, the media futures unit of ad giant Publicis Groupe, S.A. "At the same time, marketers clamor to reach interested, though ever-fragmenting audiences with judicious and relevant ad messaging. AdHoc's contextual video approach deftly bridges those two forces, allowing information and advertising to flourish in a mutually beneficial way."

The AdHoc platform is available to advertisers, media companies and other partners effective immediately.