How Mediastay Improved Fill Rates and Load Speeds with JW Player’s Powerful Ad Technology.

The Challenge

For Mediastay, one of the most effective channels for monetizing online game portals and licensed TV was video. But the company faced a disparate landscape of technology partners in France, and it often had to adapt its ad implementations for different partners. In many cases, less than ideal ad tags led to error codes, missing creatives, and disappointing fill rates. Mediastay sought a video solution that could overcome these issues—a “robust player that does it all,” said Youssef Rezgui, Operations Director at Mediastay.

The Solution

After a benchmark against competitors, Mediastay chose JW Player to monetize the content produced by its customers in the online TV and casual gaming world. The company updated to JW8, the latest and most lightweight version of the player. Mediastay’s clients could easily and quickly implement JW8. The player handled multiple requests between ad tags and servers. In addition, JW’s analytics platform allowed Mediastay to see overall stats on how their video ads were performing.

JW Player provided “better support for all ad tech, promoting more ad fill and fewer tag errors,” said Rezgui. More precisely, the company enjoyed a 10% uptick in fill rate between 2016 and 2017.

The company also saw lifts in ad volume and the number of completed videos. Play rates—the ratio of plays to embeds—climbed from 60% in 2016 to nearly 80% in 2017.

Because “video ads display more quickly than before,” Rezgui said the user experience greatly improved. Customers were “happier,” he noted, when “videos didn’t lag” and “when revenue share was higher.”