Honeycomb Set to Revolutionise Advertising Delivery in Ireland

Honeycomb has today announced that they are fully operational in Ireland, offering their transparent low-cost cloud-based delivery model across the country.

Having set up their Irish office in August 2016, Honeycomb began advertising delivery in the region in September, and full connectivity to the entire Irish network was completed last month. They will continue to connect with new broadcast and VOD channels as Ireland’s network evolves. With full connectivity throughout the UK, as well as main European markets, Honeycomb’s network and global reach is expanding daily.

Refreshingly transparent and user-friendly, Honeycomb was first launched earlier this year, and recently attracted a major investment from venture and growth investor, Beringea. Developed to make the video advertising delivery process simple and intuitive, Honeycomb delivers assets from advertiser to broadcaster and publisher, in a faster and more efficient way.

Operating more like a community, Honeycomb works with users and partners towards its goal of ‘zero-waste video advertising’. The thinking behind this new data-rich system is that once TV evolves to replicate the buying and content scheduling models of online advertising, Honeycomb will be able to identify and supply the data, with the delivery speed needed, for converged programmatic TV.

Martin Fitzgerald has been named as Manager of Honeycomb Ireland. Formerly Digital Media Manager with IrishTV, Martin brings his unique experience to the role.

James Carpenter, Founder of Honeycomb, comments: “Martin has over twenty years of experience with post houses and broadcasters. A tech guy and an editor, rather than a salesman, we wanted to ensure our customers have a technical contact on the ground in Ireland. All Honeycomb clients have 24/7 telephone support which is managed from London. Martin is supported by an Account Management team with market and technical info so he is part of an international team.”

Honeycomb launched the first ‘fair’ delivery rates for the Irish market, setting the standard for transparent costs. Prior to Honeycomb the Irish delivery rates were out of line with the rest of Europe and disproportionate to the actual cost of digital delivery; using unsustainable add-ons such as HD and Express service premiums. Honeycomb have pledged to be 100% transparent with their cost model, passing on the savings of cloud-based digital delivery to their clients.

Fitzgerald comments: “We operate fairly and transparently, and Irish broadcasters appreciate that we deliver HD as standard. We’re also championing subtitling with our partner Zoo Digital at a competitive rate of £275 per clock. This will really help broadcasters achieve their new subtitling requirements as defined by the BAI for 2018. ”

Operational in the UK since Summer 2016, Honeycomb has already delivered ads to Irish broadcasters from companies like Weiden+Kennedy and Splash.

Danielle Stewart, Head of Production at Wieden+Kennedy comments: “It has been an all-round success thus far. Our Business Affairs team have found the ordering system easy to use and Honeycomb provided them with a straightforward summary of where the playouts have gone, and via which stations, which is very useful. This is in addition to the clear cost differential, currently saving us fifty percent of our previous spend, and with their flat fee across SD and HD, we will be saving our brands a significant sum in the long term.”

Fitzgerald adds: “Our rate card really is a game changer and it is not an introductory offer. We are open with our clients about how much faster and more efficient our systems are, and with less manual intervention and less errors, we also see less cost. It doesn’t cost more to send HD than SD, so why would we charge our clients more? That is not the Honeycomb way.  

“Irish producers are very forward thinking and are keen to switch to our data driven approach to advertising which will take them beyond today's fire-and-forget delivery systems. ‘Big Data’ is an integral part of the delivery network and we are making that data visible. The Irish market is evolving rapidly so the feedback is that advertisers want to be progressive whilst reducing overheads.”

Honeycomb is now available to advertisers in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Register at  www.honeycomb.tv