the rise of video advertising

The growth of video as an online content form has exploded over the last year, driven by the growth of broadband penetration (nine out of 10 households in the U.K. have broadband) and lower production costs. User-generated video content (most notably on Youtube) brought video to the foreground; however international media owners have now turned their attentions and investments to editorial video content as well. At the same time, many TV programs can now be streamed online, creating IPTV advertising opportunities. Video search engines such as Blinkx have launched, categorizing video content and making it more accessible to everyone. Video is no longer just watching a funny video on Youtube, but also a richer way to get up to speed on news and research, both for businesses and consumers alike. According to eMarketer, 70% of Internet audiences watch video content on a regular basis. Perhaps even more surprisingly, according to CacheLogic, over 60% of internet traffic currently consists of video applications.

From an international marketer point of view, the rise of online video offers both new advertising opportunities and challenges. The main video advertising opportunity to date has been to run streaming video advertising in the existing online ad placements (most commonly MPUs), on a CPM or click-to-play basis (Google). The new opportunity is to advertise within the video feeds themselves, either as a pre-roll placement or as an overlay format. Some of the media owners can even target the ad to appear when a relevant keyword is spoken on the video feed itself.

The easiest option for advertisers would be to run their existing TV ads online, however unfortunately it is not that simple. The 30-sec TV ads are too long for the attention span of an online audience, who have specifically clicked to watch a piece of content. According to studies by the Guardian in the U.K., the ideal length of online video is 15 seconds. Furthermore, even if you could utilize the TV ad online, should you? Online offers the opportunity to engage and interact with your audience, thus the advertising itself should be a step beyond TV’s one-way communication. In fact, according to Dynamic Logic the most impactful form of advertising online from a branding POV is interactive video, outperforming video and standard online advertising formats. Certain video pre-roll placements are also generating response rates of 3+%, which is amazing in comparison to the average online click rates of 0.15%. More importantly video can be measured on metrics beyond clicks, such as video interaction rate and length of video duration.

International advertisers need to evaluate their creative strategies based on the rise of video advertising opportunities internationally. Beware jumping on the viral video bandwagon without fully evaluating the alignment with and impact on your brand and message. Ensure you apply the same quality standards to online video as to any other advertising you undertake.Taking advantage of the opportunity requires a bespoke creative strategy: The video should be a way to arouse the interest of the target audience and the interactive element, e.g. with expandable panels the way to engage and inform the audience of your offerings. Otherwise we run the risk of continuing the interrupt-approach of TV, turning the audiences off.

Hanne Tuomisto-Inch hails from Helsinki, and is the Online Communications Director at Banner, London. She was recently named a 2007 Agency Innovator by this magazine.

Hanne Tuomisto-Inch can be contacted at
hanne.tuomisto-inch@b1.com

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