$9 million for SpotMixer's video ad service

One True Media, the parent company of an online video ad creator called SpotMixer, has announced a fresh $9 million in Series B venture funding. The round was led by DAG Ventures, with contributions from NTT Finance and existing investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Amid widespread financial difficulties (to say the least) in the media business, SpotMixer and its new investors are pitching it as a cost-cutting option for small companies.

"While the market opportunity for video advertising remains well-defined, smaller businesses are more concerned than ever about how to most cost-effectively spend their limited advertising dollars," said DAG managing director Young Chung, who has joined One True Media's board of directors. "SpotMixer has quickly established itself as one of the most innovative and thoughtful solutions that will enable accelerated growth around this major advertising trend."

In conjunction, SpotMixer announced that it has been appointed the first official "authorized reseller" of Google's AdWords service for videos. This means that SpotMixer clients will be able to directly distribute their ads using Google's ad platform in addition to creating them online.

SpotMixer charges clients a minimum of $49 per month for access to its online tools, which are effectively a souped-up version of the many Web-based video "mixing" services out there. Then they can shoot them out across the Web with video embed codes or ad campaigns on the Web or cable TV.

Making the advertising process cheaper and easier is certainly a good pitch during a recession, but there's a flip side, too: Small companies with tightening budgets could easily opt to nix video ads altogether, sticking with the more familiar territory of text or display advertising. SpotMixer, on the other hand, maintains that video ads are more effective

[cablespots]

Again, we see a company trying to "automate" the creative process in advertising and put it in the hands of the small business person. I'm all for taking control and having choice. This type of activity, though, is what sinks small businesses, who feel they must do everything themselves, and not rely on the experience of professionals.

If you're new in business, why do-it-yourself, if you don't know what you're doing, yet? Homemade ads overlay the ego of inexperienced entrepreneurs onto look-alike footage. The result can be an embarrassing hodgepodge that doesn't communicate accurately or in a compelling way, and turns off potential customers.

One major downside of self-made template ads is that inevitably one company's ad will look like another's, which kills the branding effort. Try attending a party wearing the same dress as your hostess -- and see if you're invited back. ;-)

Quality production is the least expensive part of any advertising campaign. Quality custom-made productions can be had very inexpensively via real agencies like CheapTVSpots or TVSellsRealEstate.

Importantly, do-it-yourself template companies often place media at a premium cost, unbeknownst to their newbie clients. Something they don't find out until they've burned though their entire second mortgage to fund their business start-up. Tech solutions like these are sexy and seductive, but they often create more losers than winners.