Social Video Advertising Company Sharethrough Secures $5 Million Series A Funding

With more than 200 successful brand campaigns under its belt, Sharethrough introduces new approach to viral distribution of branded content and measurement of shared views

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Sharethrough

Oct 18, 2010, 06:00 ET

SAN FRANCISCO , Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Sharethrough, the leader in social video advertising, today announced that it has closed a $5 million Series A equity financing round led by North Bridge Venture Partners and Floodgate. Sharethrough offers brands a repeatable, scalable and transparent approach to distributing creative brand video content that guarantees reach and maximizes shared engagement. Advertisers are increasingly creating unique video content beyond 15-30 second TV ads, and they are turning to Sharethrough for guaranteed views and sharing.

Early Sharethrough social video studies have shown that shared views average 3x more view time than views delivered through paid media, and that social video marketing delivers significant increases in brand lift, engagement, and sharing.

While brand managers are investing unprecedented amounts in the development of creative and entertaining brand video content, many are struggling with how to create audiences for this content in a scalable and repeatable way. Unlike traditional video ad networks that focus solely on delivering views and impressions, or PR-driven campaigns that rely on luck to generate interest, the Sharethrough video distribution platform and network offers advertisers a performance-based system that guarantees video views and optimizes for sharing through its social video ad units, highly social publisher network and industry leading targeting and reporting technology. Sharethrough has executed more than 200 campaigns on behalf of top brands, including Sony, Xbox, GM, Activision, Nestle and LEGO, and has more campaigns than any other company on AdAge's weekly Top Viral Video Chart.

"The future of advertising is social, and social is all about sharing. We've shown time and again that shared video views are superior to traditional views because they fuel a much higher level of engagement with the content and the brand," said Dan Greenberg, co-founder and CEO of Sharethrough. "At Sharethrough, we respect creative and entertaining content, and we celebrate the amazing brands and agencies who produce it. The vision of this company is to enable that creative branded content to reach the audiences who will most appreciate it. Our customers recognize that creating great content is only part of the equation - the challenge is getting your content seen and shared. Before Sharethrough, this process too often relied on the 'post and pray' strategy. Now with Sharethrough as a distribution partner, brands and agencies can have confidence that audiences will watch and share the creative video content that they produce."

In addition to North Bridge Venture Partners and Floodgate, Sharethrough has also attracted high-profile angel investors including industry veteran Ron Conway, entrepreneur and angel investor Ron Bouganim, customer development guru Steve Blank, and Rapleaf CEO Auren Hoffman. With this round, Cali Tran will join the Sharethrough board of directors. Sharethrough's advisory board also includes 500 Startups founding partner Dave McClure, Lean Startup founder Eric Ries, former CEO of Adaptive Path Janice Fraser, VP Sales Interclick Taz Patel, Mozes CEO Dorrian Porter, and Attributor CEO Jim Pitkow.

"The demand for social video advertising is growing tremendously, and as the leader in this emerging area, Sharethrough will help shape the way we understand and measure the impact of branded video content," said Cali Tran, principal of North Bridge Venture Partners. "The company is at the forefront of leveraging social media, and more importantly, its valuable data attributes. This funding will help Sharethrough continue to empower brands and advertisers to not only discover their most passionate customers, but also engage them for powerful social advocacy."

Sharethrough was founded by Dan Greenberg and Robert Fan and is managed by a team of entrepreneurs with deep expertise in social commerce technology, video advertising, marketing, film and video content creation. Team members have led some of the most successful brand video campaigns in history and bring expertise from marketing and video innovators, including Google, VideoEgg and Current TV.

About Sharethrough

Sharethrough provides brands with a repeatable, scalable and transparent approach to distributing video content that guarantees viewership and maximizes shared engagement. Sharethrough drives engaged audiences for brand videos through its social video ad products, unique publisher network and proprietary targeting and optimization tools. Sharethrough is used by many of the world's leading brands, including Sony, Xbox, Victoria's Secret, Nestle and LEGO. Founded in 2008, Sharethrough is a privately held company based in San Francisco, Calif. For more information about Sharethrough, please visit www.sharethrough.com

SOURCE Sharethrough