Trailblazer: The fine art of skinning

InSkin Media has quickly entered the market with an innovative tool that Knight claims has cracked online video advertising. His solution, a Flash 'skin' format, is integrated around video media players, and can be used around both premium and user-generated content. Essentially, it's a branded media player, or a square banner ad, with some clever little twists.

InSkin ads begin each time a new video or application starts, and run for the duration of the content, maximising exposure and eradicating the irritation posed by waiting for pre-rolls to finish. Users are getting tired of having to wait for 30 seconds of ads to watch a two-minute video clip. "We've had banner blindness, now we're seeing 'pre-roll impatience'," says Knight.

Usually, another site will offer the clip without interruptions, so users jump ship and loyalty shifts. Importing the commercial television model across to the internet, with its multitude of sites, simply won't work.

"We wanted to take the idea that a banner should deliver rich-media content, to deliver high click-through rates and ultimately drive advertiser costs down," explains Knight.

The idea is that by hitting consumers with contextual, targeted ads, they won't be able to help but look. Knight likens the effect to that of advertising near the goalposts at football matches - despite the distracting event, it's hard to ignore the brand message. "This goes back to the days of sponsorship; it's far less intrusive to the consumer," he says.

A demonstration of InSkin reveals the potential for consumer-initiated promotional videos within the player. This, Knight says, gets around the problem of pre-roll being limited to ten seconds, a short window of opportunity for click-through, and effectively monetises content twice. "With InSkin, the same advertiser is offering rich media ads and the chance to click through throughout the length of the video content." Combined InSkin and video ads could work well for clients such as Sony, which could run teaser movie clips before an extended banner ad.

Knight kicked off his career in the mobile entertainment sphere founding Ultrafones, the first UK company to sell mobile phone ringtones. He then set up The Tone Group, an Australian mobile entertainment content provider, which he sold to successful SMS chat company Mobile Messenger.

His entrepreneurial spirit was demonstrated years earlier though, inspired by a 'Branson-esque' approach to life. "I grew resourceful, understanding that if I wanted something, I had to go out there and get it rather than wait for it to come to me."

Early enterprises ranged from car-washing (the most lucrative), to organising coach trips around South of England clubs, to breeding chinchillas.

Whether Knight will achieve his lofty targets remains to be seen, but InSkin's potential is high - online long-form content is growing, and needs to be ad supported.

Rotating InSkin ads offer the potential to monetise by 40 times more than pre-roll, and any application, even a Facebook Scrabulous game, has 'skinning' potential.