• Here's What the World's Largest Media Buying Agency Thinks About Online Video Advertising [VIDEO]

    A couple of weeks ago at the ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit, Mike Bologna, head of emerging communications at GroupM did a fireside chat with Jack Myers, Chairman, Media Advisory Group, to discuss the agency view of online video advertising. For those not familiar with GroupM, it is a unit of WPP and is the world's largest media buying agency, accounting for over 32% of global media billings. Mike is the point person on all emerging media and has a front-row seat in the unfolding drama of online video's efforts to attract traditional TV dollars.

    In the 25-minute video (after the jump), Mike provides a candid view of online video's opportunities and challenges. Among other things, he clarifies what constitutes "professionally created" content, explains that online video can be viewed as more economical than TV despite its higher CPMs, discusses how the strong recent upfront actually benefits online video, shares why he just advised a client to shift 4% of its TV spending to online video, describes why a single source of measurement is critical to the industry's growth and articulates the challenges YouTube has in attracting ad dollars.

    Importantly, Mike provides insight into the online video ad buying process and the complicated staffing and decision-making dynamics between agencies and advertisers that publishers must navigate in order to succeed. It's an unvarnished view of the challenges content providers will have as they try to attract advertiser interest. For anyone in the industry whose company is dependent in one way or another on advertising, Mike's thoughts will be extremely valuable.