Sizmek updates its HTML5 Ad Builder video tool with VPAID interactive authoring

If Flash video had chosen a costume for Halloween earlier this week, it probably would have gone as HTML5.

That’s because the standards-based HTML5 is taking over as the most popular video format, while the proprietary Adobe format of Flash continues its spiral down into oblivion.

To help publishers make the transition from one era to another, ad management company Sizmek is out today with an updated Ad Builder HTML5 video tool, which adds VPAID-based, no-coding interactive authoring.

In its announcement, the Austin, Texas-based firm cited Andrew Broadstone, director of product management at content delivery network Brightcove. As the industry completes its transition to HTML5, he said, “interactive ads that use Flash VPAID are the last piece of the puzzle [to evolve].”

Sizmek director product marketing Jaime Singson noted that VPAID is an API accompanying the HTML5 video file, enabling it to provide interactivity like an animated overlay.

In many current HTML5 video tools, he said, there are often VPAID templates that are “very rigid” in the kinds of interactivity they can offer. If you want more, Singson said, you usually have a developer write the necessary code.

But Sizmek’s new JavaScript-based VPAID capability, he said, can be authored without coding, via menus and other selectors that offer “full control.” Here’s a screen from the updated tool:

As an example, he pointed to the interactive animation layer you can see in this video, once you click on the “Sizmek: Find out more” box in the ad before the movie trailer. He said the interactive layer was created in less than 10 minutes.

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About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.