Online Video Growing Strong
The success of online video ads is largely dependent on both the quality of the content and the ability for advertisers to target it at the right audiences. People online have short attention spans these days, and it takes good creative and targeting to really captivate the viewer.
Magna Global, a division of Interpublic Group of Companies Inc’s Mediabrands and a leading Madison Avenue forecaster, released new research predicting strong growth in online video advertising.
According to the report from Magna’s global director of forecasting, Brian Wieser, online video will grow by 32%, increasing to $699 million in 2009 (compared to $531 million in 2008) and $1 billion by 2011. The projections seem promising, but are smaller than Wieser’s previously estimated 45% increase to $805 million this year, from a report last summer. Still, while Magna also says that online video spend is still remarkably small compared to traditional TV, we’ve seen recent reports that show impressive growth in online video.
Compared to other online ad formats, Magna says video is growing the fastest, outpacing search, social media, mobile, gaming and other emerging media platforms. Wieser says online video’s rise is from the ability to “reach their consumers in a more targeted and cost-effective manner” compared to traditional media. It’s also due to the fact that there is just more premium online video advertising being created.
So, what does this mean for the digital advertisers?
Invest more online ad budget in video.
No advertiser should be left behind, especially with IAB’s recent video ad guidelines. There is less confusion about formats, and it’s more than clear that online video is the clear choice.
See more details on Magna’s report in MediaWeek, MediaPost, PaidContent and Contentinople.
Tags: IAB, Online, Video
Filed under Thoughts | No Comments »
Online Video Digitizes the Radio Star…. The IAB Makes Sure We Monetize It
Online video is gaining momentum in a big way these days.
This week, the IAB released new digital video player-ad interface definition guidelines. The latest in a series of online video advertising guidelines and formats meant to drive traction in the video advertising space and provide consistency across ad models. This goes a long way in developing a greater level of comfort with brand advertisers. The IAB’s support demonstrates that digital video is a safe and measurable space for a brand’s voice.
According to the IAB site, “This is only part of the IAB’s ongoing effort to improve marketplace understanding of the role of digital video in the marketing and media ecosystem.” The new guideline focuses on standardizing the digital marketplace to facilitate the buying and selling of video advertising with in-stream and integrated ad models. By creating standards for content publishers and video advertisers to seamlessly integrate advertising into video content, the IAB is making it easier for publishers to work with advertisers to generate healthy revenues.
The IAB’s active stance on the promotion and commerce of the digital video space reinforces the growth potential market. At a time in the economy when brands are scaling back budgets, online video remains a considerably cheaper buy that heavily engages the brand with the niche demographic they’re aiming to reach.
In a recent eMarketer blog post, Senior Analyst David Hallerman said, “Digital marketing offers compelling benefits, especially for cash-conscious companies. Marketers can more readily measure the results of Internet advertising than with most traditional media. This produces more-efficient advertising and higher ROI, which in turn pushes traditional media to compete with lower pricing.”
As the Internet continues to grow to be the preferred destination for consumers to watch video content on sites like YouTube and Hulu, advertisers should jump on the opportunity to reach this valuable online audience.
Tags: Advertising, eMarketer, IAB, Online, Video
Filed under Thoughts | No Comments »
ValueClick Increases Value of Banner Ads
Improving ad targeting has always been important to advertisers, but it’s becoming even more crucial as ad space online becomes more dispersed, fragmented and crowded. Last month, ValueClick launched its latest kind of banner ad units that attempts to help marketers better target their messages.
They’re called ActiveAds, and they allow banners to automatically change text and images based on demographic data about the individual viewer. ActiveAds uses motion tracking, or match moving, a technology that overlays different text or graphics on top the original video frame. Although the customization is limited to a few words and images, motion tracking provides a level of personalization not found in static, generic banner ads.
As with Real Time Content, ValueClick uses anonymous information about consumers, so there is no privacy concern. ValueClick uses targeting data from its Precision Retargeting product, which feeds ActiveAds data such as a consumer’s geographic location or contextual data based on the sites they are visiting. While this may not be as granular or accurate as solicited or personal user profile data, ActiveAds, like Real Time Content, supports any number of attributes and data points provided by the advertiser to personalize the ads. This creates a unique experience and a deeper connection with the viewer than a general banner ad.
Even as newer rich media ad formats emerge and video advertising becomes more prevalent on the Web, there will always be a place for banners ads. It’s interesting to see that for banners, there is also necessity to move towards personalization. Not only is there an increasing demand from advertisers, but also, as ValueClick Media general manager Bill Todd says, “[There is a] wealth of data which can be used to improve performance by tailoring ad creative to each individual consumer.”
There is enormous potential to customize ads to be more relevant to each consumer, especially at a time when ad units are ever changing. Increased personalization has shown to greatly affect the attention, reaction and action of consumers, and utilized the right way, this can lead to much higher conversion rates. As content personalization grows as a means for advertisers to connect with their customers on an individual level, we’re going to continue seeing the lengthening of the personalization continuum.
Tags: Advertising, Innovation, Personalization, ValueClick
Filed under Thoughts | No Comments »
Striking While the Iron’s Hot: RTC Makes A Splash in Innovation
Real Time Content recently submitted for and was honored to win in the 2009 Internet Advertising Competition awards. Our entry, “The New Age of Personalization: Matching Message to Need,” won the Best Insurance Rich Media Online Campaign category.
The submission was the demo for our Nationwide Home Insurance campaign, which resulted in a click-through rate increase of 240% and a sales increase of 50%, proving that personalized video really makes a difference in the advertiser’s bottom line.
Presented by the Web Marketing Association, the Internet Advertising Competition awards are given to agencies and technologies for outstanding achievement in Internet advertising. The IAC award is one of the only competitions to recognize only online categories of advertising. Some of the Best in Show winners included campaigns from Atmosphere BBDO, Agency.com and AvatarLabs. See a list of all the winners here. The Web Marketing Association is a leader insetting a high standard for Internet marketing and Web development.
Real Time Content’s technology evangelist, Martin Russ, was also given a Certificate of Recognition for the Advertising Research Foundation’s 2009 Great Mind Awards in the category of Innovation. The awards are presented to individuals who have developed innovative research ideas – methodology, theory, service and solution.
The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) is a collective of diverse marketing experts, including 400 advertisers, advertising agencies, associations, research firms and media companies, that are all tied by the a single thread of staying true to innovation and creativity in advertising to lead the industry forward.
Tags: Awards, Innovation, Personalization, Real Time Content, Research
Filed under News | No Comments »
Production Optimized: Shooting More Successful Videos
Getting more bang for your buck has hit every level of every industry. Even video production teams are looking for different ways of creating low-cost, high-quality video, targeted content that can be used for several different audiences.
Production teams already shoot a mixture of targeted and generic material as part of the filming process. During the editing process, the different segments of the video (i.e. targeted and generic) are spliced together to create a succinct video that conveys the intended message and serves to entertain the viewer.
Think of all the different takes or scenes that are involved in filming, only to be discarded in the editing process. What if we were able to save this material for later use and possible monetization? It’s time to look at video production differently in terms of segmented content that can be easily spliced together to present a targeted message, which involves shooting stock video and targeted material.
But what about highlighting what the production team does best – being creative? ‘Personalized video’ technology streamlines the segmenting and editing process so that the same production team can fully focus their energy on filming and the creative process.
Production teams already know how to think about targeting, about how to shoot multiple versions for specific audiences, and they know how tricky it can be to keep track of more than a few threads and edit them into separate versions. Immediately upon using a personalized video platform, they realize that they already have the skills to make much more finely detailed targeting, many more variants, and much more finely structured versions because personalized video tools allow them to keep track of things, work on multiple versions simultaneously, and there’s no need to spend ages editing all of those versions. And they are now spending their valuable time thinking about the task – creative time, instead of technical drudgery doing the editing. With personalized video technology, the editing phase goes from utilizing the brunt of their energies to autopilot.
Freeing up creative minds makes them more creative. These video production teams are exactly the types of early adopters that can make the most of what personalized video offers because they already have the right mind-set.
If you shoot lots of original video material, personalized video technology could make you more productive and more successful.
Tags: Creative, Production, Techniques, Video
Filed under Thoughts | No Comments »
