Posts for 'Rhythm NewMedia'

  • True Multi-Channel Advertising is Still Elusive in Video

    In today's connected world, a multi-channel strategy is an important area of focus and logical aspiration: Marketers looking to engage the uber-linked consumer base are hungry for the right recipe. Ad tech suppliers gear more of their development efforts to the cause each quarter, and agencies tout their growing multi-channel capabilities to deliver on its promise. We are believers in the potential to thread messages to consumers on various devices throughout the day via advanced campaign and creative capabilities.

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  • Study: Mobile Video Ads That Include Social Media Buttons Drive 36% Higher Engagement

    Fire up a video on your mobile device and you'll almost certainly observe how social media is playing a bigger role in the ad creative before or during the content. Underscoring this, the latest Social & Mobile Insights Report for Q4 '12 from Rhythm NewMedia shows that 30% of the in-stream mobile video ads carried across its network of 200+ mobile media properties in Q4 '12 included social media buttons like Facebook "Like" and Twitter "share."

    Those buttons are there for a good reason: Rhythm found average engagement increased by 36% - from 1.6% to 2.1% - when social media buttons were included. According to Rhythm, that means advertisers that integrate social elements get more value for their campaign budgets.

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  • 4 New Research Studies Point to Growth in Video Viewership and Monetization

    There were 4 separate research studies released yesterday from important video technology providers, all pointing to continued change and growth in video viewership and monetization. Below I've shared key highlights from each, along with links to obtain the original research.

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  • Mobile Video Viewing is Still Spread Evenly Throughout the Day

    Mobile video viewership appears to be settling into a pattern as mobile video ad network Rhythm New Media's new Q3 '11 report once again shows that video consumption is pretty well spread throughout the day. As seen in the chart below, there are small blips up during the morning, lunch and evening plus a more noticeable drop-off in late-night, but overall it's a pretty smooth distribution.

    The new data synchs with prior Rhythm reports, going back to Q2 '10, as I previously reported. An exception to this is that when broken down by device type, viewing on iPads has a higher spike in evening viewership, while smartphones has a higher spike during lunch time.

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  • In-Stream Mobile Video Ad Completion Rates Running Strong

    In-stream mobile video ad completion rates are running strong according to new data that mobile video ad network Rhythm NewMedia has shared with me. According to their data, completion rates for pre-roll and mid-roll ads in Q2 '11 averaged 87%, consistent with the prior 5 quarters. The ads viewed are mostly 15 seconds in duration.

    Rhythm also reported that a total of just over 6 ads are viewed during full length episodes from premium content partners TV.com, The CW, Crackle and others. Typically there is one ad per break. In addition, total content views grew 200% from Q1 '11 to Q2 '11. Mobile devices include iOS and Android, with 60% of views delivered over WiFi networks.

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  • Mobile Video Continues to Gain Traction

    I continue to be impressed with how the mobile video market is gaining traction. It seems like rarely a day goes by now where there isn't an announcement by a technology vendor, content provider or service provider related to mobile video. Though it's still well behind online video's adoption, all of the pieces continue to fall into place for mobile video's continued growth.

    From a consumer usage standpoint, the iPhone has of course been the key driver. Whenever I'm with an iPhone owner, I'm struck by how deeply they've integrated video into their mobile experience. It's not just that they've downloaded TV shows and movies to watch on planes and so forth, but rather how natural it is for them to start playing a video and then pass their phone around so others can watch also. The iPhone has turbocharged the whole concept of shared, out-of-home video experiences.

    And though the iPhone's 30 million estimated units sold represents a huge footprint of new mobile video users (in turn generating a large ecosystem of app developers), from a device standpoint, new entrants are poised to grow the market even further. Devices powered by the Android mobile operating system are continuing to come to market, with the most recent, high-profile example being Motorola's Droid, offered by Verizon Wireless. Verizon is putting a huge marketing push behind the Droid, contributing to a growing sense of awareness by consumers of the appeal of smartphones and their video capabilities in particular. Not surprisingly given its Google parentage, YouTube has also weighed in on the benefits of Android in allowing easier uploading at higher video quality.

    In addition the iPhone and Android, among business users, Blackberry continues to dominate and internationally, Nokia has the largest smartphone position. This all suggests there will be vigorous competition among these 4 platforms, leading to lots consumer-facing promotion and rapid innovation. In a recent AdAge piece, IDC estimated that 6% of U.S. cell phone users, or 18 million people, will watch video on their cell phones this year, rising to 27 million in 2013.

    Content providers have taken notice of these dynamics and have been aggressively creating video-rich mobile apps, initially for the iPhone, but now also for Android, Nokia and Blackberry smartphones. In a recent conversation I had with Ujjal Kohli, CEO of Rhythm NewMedia, which specializes in "mobilizing and monetizing" broadcast and cable networks' TV shows, he explained how clients continue to bulk up their teams devoted solely to mobile video initiatives. An example of this is Warner Bros, which is among a number of film studios now pursuing mobile initiatives. In addition to building mobile video apps, Rhythm is also creating a mobile video ad network, like Transpera (which I last covered here). As mobile video usage surges, advertising will grow right alongside it. Mobile advertising in general received major validation earlier this week as Google acquired mobile video ad display network AdMob for $750 million.

    With all this mobile video activity, technology providers are increasingly their attention to serving their content customers. Just yesterday, Kyte, a video platform company that focused early on mobile, announced that it has launched "application frameworks" for Android and Nokia, following on previous frameworks for iPhone and Blackberry. As Gannon Hall, Kyte's COO told me, its content customers have pushed Kyte for other platforms. Now with native support for all four platforms, Kyte's customers can quickly and cost-effectively adapt existing apps, incorporating full social and monetization functions. While Gannon believes Kyte has taken the lead among OVPs in offering mobile capabilities beyond just APIs, he envisions others ramping up as well. Some evidence of this is today's partnership announcement by VMIX and Qik, to integrate mobile live streaming into VMIX's platform. More will surely follow.

    There are plenty of other examples of how the ecosystem supporting mobile video is being built out, such as Clearwire announcing this week $1.5 billion in additional capital raised for its 4G WiMax network, Verizon leading a group of venture investors in a $1.3 billion "LTE" 4G opportunity fund, Adobe releasing Flash Player 10.1 targeted for mobile devices, AT&T accelerating deployment of "HSPA 7.2" technology in 6 cities to boost 3G speeds and Akamai launching its "Akamai HD" network, which among other things supports HD video streaming to the iPhone. These and many other examples form the foundation for ever more robust mobile video experiences in the future.

    One of my predictions for 2009 was that after many fits and starts, mobile video finally seemed poised to take off. Nearly 11 months into the year, I think we're seeing ample evidence of this happening. I expect only continued growth going forward.

    What do you think? Post a comment now.

     
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