VideoNuze Posts

These are turbulent times in both video advertising and video content, with longstanding assumptions being rocked by new technologies and viewer behaviors. Nobody has all the answers to how things will ultimately shake out, but at next Tuesday's 5th annual Online Video Advertising Summit, we're privileged to have 2 prominent industry leaders keynoting, who will provide their insights on the current market and where things are heading.

In the morning, I'll interview David Cohen, Chief Investment Officer for Universal McCann, who is widely recognized as one of the advertising industry's foremost digital thought-leaders. David will discuss how clients are looking for ever-greater buying flexibility which renders the upfronts antiquated, the challenge of re-aggregating TV audiences across fragmented video platforms, how UM is driving an "automation agenda," and why cross-platform measurement is so vexing, among other topics.

Then in the afternoon, I'll interview Neeraj Khemlani, Co-president, Hearst Entertainment & Syndication and President, Hearst Digital Studios.  Neeraj will share insights on how online video is reinventing the studio model, why the intersection of news and video is so compelling, what established media companies need to do to succeed with video, and the strategy behind Hearst's big video investments (e.g. Vice, BuzzFeed, Roku, AwesomenessTV, etc.), among other topics.

Both keynotes will be grounded in the realities of today's advertising and content dynamics, but will be forward-looking, as we examine how key trends will further develop. Each keynote will provide critical insights to attendees about what to expect going forward. I'm really excited about interviewing both David and Neeraj to learn from them as they share their respective points of view.

Over 400 industry colleagues are now registered for the Video Ad Summit and there's still time to join them.

Learn more and register now!

More affirmation that advertisers and agencies are shifting spending to video: a new Forrester survey has found that 77% of advertisers and 70% of agencies plan to increase their video ad spending in the next 2 years. In addition, 73% of media companies plan to offer more video inventory to meet demand.

The data is based on a survey Forrester conducted of 529 executives at advertisers, agencies and media companies in 8 countries, including the U.S., for a report commissioned by Teads.

continue reading on VideoNuze iQ

Pixability has released its second annual, deep-dive, "Beauty on YouTube" report, finding, among other things that beauty video views have increased by 50% between January, 2014 and April, 2015. Overall, beauty is one of the most vibrant verticals on YouTube, with 1.8 million videos driving 45.3 billion total views to date, of which 55% are now viewed on mobile devices.

There are over 123 million subscribers to YouTube beauty channels. Makeup accounts for 51% of beauty videos, far ahead of hair (28%), nails (10%) and skincare (6%). No surprise, 89% of YouTube's beauty audience is female.

continue reading on VideoNuze iQ

The full program for the June 16th VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit in NYC is now complete, with 54 industry leaders set to appear on 13 different sessions that will cover all of the hottest online video ad industry topics (see full program here). If your business relies in any way on online video advertising's success, the Video Ad Summit is a highly-focused, must-attend day of learning.

With over 350 executives already registered to attend, the Video Ad Summit is also an excellent day of networking and business development. Registrants come from throughout the ecosystem - ad agencies, brands, content providers, technologists, venture capitalists, journalists and others.

Headlining the event are our 2 keynote guests David Cohen, Chief Investment Officer, Universal McCann and Neeraj Khemlani, co-president, Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, who will share their insights on the future of advertising and content.

Executives from ABC, Bonnier, CBS Interactive, Conde Nast, Defy Media, Digitas, Google, Heineken USA, Hulu, MEC Nielsen, Puma, Reuters, Roku, Starcom, Turner, Viacom, Xaxis, Zenith Optimedia will also be on stage, along with dozens of others.

The Video Ad Summit is generously supported by 21 sponsors, including Title Partner Videology; Premier Partners DashBid, FreeWheel and Pixability, Headline Partners Altitude Digital, Beachfront Media, Genesis Media, LiveRail, Nielsen, Ooyala, Operative, Teads.tv and TubeMogul, plus Branding Partners Adobe, Akamai, Alphonso, Brightcove, JW, Roku, Tremor Video and VertaMedia.

Learn more and register now!

It's no secret that smartphones and tablets are now nearly ubiquitous, and that more and more video is being consumed on them. For example, Ooyala recently said that 34% of all video plays were on mobile devices in Q4 '14, which was up from 6% just 2 years prior. Meanwhile, YouTube's CEO said last Fall that 50% of its views are on mobile and its head of content said about its product development focus, "It's all mobile, mobile, mobile."

All that mobile video usage is now starting to heavily impact how video is created and monetized. While mobile video has always been shorter-form than desktop, a key creative influence over the past year has been Facebook's insertion of audio-off autoplay video in users' news feeds. Last week Fortune provided a lot of context for what's behind Facebook's 4 billion views per month. Then, in an insightful post, Newsbound's Josh Kalven pointed out how audio-off is leading content creators to adopt readable video formats.

continue reading

I'm pleased to present the 276th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

It was yet another busy week for industry news, with a highlight being Showtime announcing its new OTT service for $10.99/month. For entertainment-focused viewers who want inexpensive access to great content, the world keeps getting better all the time.

Meanwhile for sports fans, the NFL announced it's partnering with Yahoo to live-stream a Jaguars-Bills game online in the Fall.

In one piece of non-news, it appears that neither Apple's OTT service nor an upgraded Apple TV device are going to debut at WWDC next week. And finally, it appears that ads won't be coming to Netflix any time soon either.

Listen in to learn more!

Click here for previous podcasts

Click here to add the podcast feed to your RSS reader.

The VideoNuze podcast is also available in iTunes...subscribe today!

A new survey from Unruly reveals that 70% of U.S. advertisers have shifted a portion of their TV ad budgets to programmatic online video ads in the past 12 months (see graph below). In addition, 75% of U.S. advertisers said that programmatic will account for a share of their overall online video ad budget.

The data is based on a survey of 1,000 senior advertiser and agency executives, 500 each in the U.S. and U.K. from March, 2015. It is one of the strongest endorsements yet for the adoption of programmatic video advertising.

continue reading

Netflix has been back under the microscope these past few days as reports (here and here) surfaced that some users were seeing pre-roll and post-roll ads promoting original programs. That immediately led to speculation that Netflix was preparing a full-on ad play that would significantly alter the viewer experience.

This in turn prompted Netflix's CEO Reed Hastings to post on Facebook, "No advertising coming onto Netflix. Period. Just adding relevant cool trailers for other Netflix content you are likely to love."

continue reading