After launching in Australia two weeks ago, music video platform VEVO has signed up several big-name advertisers.

Mentos, Sony Music, Paramount Pictures and Vodafone are the first advertisers to sign up to advertise on VEVO’s network, which offers display and video advertising opportunities on its website, apps and YouTube channel.

Since launching, just under 2.2 million unique Australian viewers have watched VEVO on YouTube or the VEVO.com site, and 66,442 have installed mobile apps. Launched in Australia in conjunction with MCM Media, the platform attracts 3.3 billion video views per month globally, primarily on exclusive video premiers from partnered artists such as One Direction, Rihanna, LMFAO and Lady Gaga.

The service is free to use, deriving its revenue primarily from advertising, with video ads played every seven minutes in between music videos.

MCM Media chief executive Simon Joyce says VEVO’s latest global analysis showed that 90% of commercials running on VEVO were viewed to completion. With VEVO viewers watching an average of 60 minutes of video programming each month, it is “a premium environment for an engaged audience”.

VEVO will also be joining the growing number of online platforms producing their own branded content, following the example of YouTube, Yahoo, Hulu and others. Six new series will be produced in the US, to be screened globally.

Launched in 2009 as a joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, VEVO uses its website, YouTube, mobile apps (on iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7 platforms), connected television apps (on Google TV and Boxee), and user embeddable video players to power music videos from over 1000 artists. Australia is the fourth country, after the US, Canada and Britain, to receive the service.