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Vadio turns up the volume, names Brent Hieggelke SVP

As streaming music video starts landing on more mobile applications and sites, startup Vadio is looking to conquer this growth area with the assistance of new senior vice president of marketing, Brent Hieggelke, who helped build Urban Airship into a mobile engagement leader. 

Vadio?s platform enables media companies, brands and others to integrate licensed and curated music videos into their own digital properties via a video player. Following the launch of Vadio-powered music video streaming on CBS-owned Radio.com and MetroLyrics.com, the company is positioning itself to be a leader in both streaming music video content and ad solutions. 

?Music video streaming is phenomenally popular, yet is relegated to a few places today,? said Mr. Hieggelke. 

?We have an SDK that can be added to an app so they can add streaming music video and curate content that can be monetizes against,? he said. 

?Brands that want to associate themselves with music could create channels on their platforms or it could be sponsored content on a media property.?

Streaming music videos
The consumption of streaming video content continues to grow across platforms. EMarketer reports that consuming video is the number one digital activity, with the average consumer spending 1:55 hours per day. 

Music videos, in particular, are very popular, with Nielsen reporting that music video streaming grew by 102 percent in 2015, outpacing audio-only streaming. 

The growing importance of streaming music video is also apparent in this week?s announcement by Spotify that it is adding video to its platform. 


Vadio, a startup based in Portland, OR, that currently employs approximately 20 people, has been building the business quietly over the past year. It is now ready to scale up and is positioning itself to address this growing market with both a video content and a video ad monetization solution

The Vadio solution is turnkey, with customers able to integrate an SDK, curate content and start streaming within a few weeks. 

The platform also enables customers to customize the experience. 

While brands are quickly enhancing their ability to produce digital video ads, one of the challenges is that there is still a lack of available inventory where they can place video ads, something Vadio wants to address. 

Vadio also handles all of the music licensing so its customers do not need to bet involved in what can be a time-consuming pursuit. 

?The biggest challenge is having to get the legal rights to do this,? Mr. Hieggelke said. ?We have that built in.

?A lot of folks are creating great video advertising but, the big problem is that there is not that much digital video inventory to match that against. 

?Vadio brings the video content as well as the slots for the video to run against.?


Driving engagement
Once the video player is installed, it plays linearly so consumers who engage to watch a single video will continue to see a selection of music video content chosen by the media company or brand. 

For example, on the Radio.com site there is a section called Looped where users can choose to watch either pop, country or urban music videos. Radio.com also inserts content it has developed, including studio interviews with artists. 

MetroLyrics.com, a popular site for finding song lyrics, starts playing a music video for the song a user is searching, but only after someone has been on the lyrics page for 10 to 15 seconds. 

?MetroLyrics.com has had a massive increase in terms of session length,? Mr. Hieggelke said. ?The first music video launches into subsequent music videos that they can curate. 

Brand opportunities
Vadio is also live with a number of radio stations and hope to get sign on a number of brand marketers this year.

?Brands try to associate themselves with music content all the time,? Mr. Hieggelke said.  ?This is a great way for them to do that in a really engaging way. 

?There is a such a natural tie in between music and business,? he said. ?If you are a brand and you can go in and curate the music play list that would best suit your brand, then customers can sit back and enjoy it as a digital experience.?