Posts for 'Advertising'

Yesterday Nielsen made its Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings commercially available, following trials by GroupM, ESPN, Facebook, Hulu and Unilever. Cross-Platform provides, for the first time, "unduplicated and incremental reach, frequency and GRP measures for TV and Internet advertising." Cross-Platform brings together Nielsen's Online Campaign Ratings (OCR) with its longstanding national TV panel.

The Cross-Platform launch follows Nielsen's announcement two weeks ago that 15 leading video and digital ad platforms have integrated OCR, plus last week's news that the CW Network will use OCR to measure its online viewership and offer demographic guarantees for online advertisers for the 2012-2013 TV season. As I explained last week, Cross-Platform is so critical to online video advertising because it helps align the ecosystem with media buying expectations of the multi-billion dollar TV advertising industry.

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In a bid to evolve online video advertising beyond the world of standard pre, mid and post-rolls, yesterday Sharethrough announced Sharethrough Sponsored Videos a "native" video ad format, meant to incorporate brand videos more seamlessly into publishers' web pages.

As Sharethrough explains them, native ads have three commonalities: they're integrated with the publisher's look and feel; they are choice-based, rather than interruptive; and they're meant to be standalone content experiences. The goals are better user engagement, improved user experiences, and higher brand lift, as compared with traditional video ad placements.

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Innovid is announcing this morning that its iRoll interactive video ad format is now also available for delivery in mobile to smartphones and tablets. This means that the same iRoll ad can be used online and in mobile, from the same ad server providing unified cross-platform analytics. Innovid's CEO Zvika Netter told me he believes this is a first for in-stream video ads. Innovid is also announcing that BrightRoll has become the first network to adopt the mobile iRoll and that several multi-screen campaigns are already live.

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Continuing its push to bring more efficiency to the world of online video ad buying, yesterday, Adap.tv introduced "Unified Planner," a media planning solution for agencies and advertisers to optimize campaign performance. The idea is for buyers to have access to multiple data sources, and then easily buy recommended inventory, optimize the ongoing campaign and measure results.

According to Adap.tv, Unified Planner allows buyers to create online video media plans including goals such as recommended sites for targeting desired audiences, expected reach and frequency for the sites, estimated performance, and costs. Inventory is sourced from direct buys and online marketplaces. Once the plan is created, Unified Planner allows changes to be made with visibility into campaign impact.  Buying is done through spot, RTB, upfront commitment or direct buys through automated RFPs.

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Consumers' ongoing adoption of multiple devices has made it harder than ever for advertisers to figure out how to make their spending on video advertising as effective as possible. To help clarify things, yesterday YuMe and IPG Media Lab released a new study yesterday (download here) which shows that while the role of screen size matters, other factors including ad clutter, creative content and context actually matter more in determining ad effectiveness.

In the study, 147 participants were exposed to ads on linear TV, connected TV, PC and mobile devices with ad load and frequency typical of what is found when viewing content on these devices. Four different types of content were shown, depending on participants' interests.  Participants' ad recall, excitement and attention were each measured, through a mix of follow-up surveys and biometric tools.

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After a week off for R&R, I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 146th edition of the VideoNuze-TDG Report podcast. Colin is at the IBC conference in Amsterdam this week, so his audio isn't quite as good as usual. There, he attended a fascinating presentation by a Unilever executive on how the company is adapting its advertising to the realities of a multi-screen world. Colin shares his reactions, particularly to how Unilever is creating its own online content in order to engage its audience in ways not possible with traditional TV advertising.

Shifting gears, we then discuss Amazon's aggressive content licensing blitz that I wrote about earlier this week. Having spent hundreds of millions of dollars licensing premium content over the past 15 months in support of its Prime Instant Videos, I think it's pretty clear that Amazon has emerged as the strongest new competitor to Netflix. Colin agrees, but reminds us that although content parity is critical to competitiveness, user experience matter as well. On this front, we agree Amazon still has a lot of work to do to match Netflix. Listen in to learn more!


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Most viewers know that ads are what pay the freight and so they're inevitable. But that doesn't mean they have to like them. At June's VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit, TV Guide.com's EVP & GM Christy Tanner presented the company's latest research, drawn from its panel of 10,000 online users, which showed that 66% of respondents "hate" ads during streaming videos (so-called "mid-rolls"). The hate rate for pre-rolls was 35% and for post-rolls, 32%. That possibly led to a 56% jump in paid streaming from Spring 2011 to Spring 2012.

Despite this, recent research from FreeWheel showed that even with higher ad loads and the increasing prevalence of mid-rolls, completion rates for both content and ads were up in Q2.

Christy also noted that 73% of respondents streaming TV shows do so to catch up on missed episodes and 40% for shows discovered mid-season or between seasons, while just 6% do so to cut back on cable. However, the research also showed that 5% cancelled cable. Lots more in Christy's presentation below.

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Nearly 90% of connected TV viewers notice ads when they're watching video, and 66% of them are likely to interact with the ad according to a new study released this morning by video ad management/network YuMe and researcher Frank N. Magid Associates. The study, which included 736 connected TV users, is being called the most extensive research yet done on the burgeoning connected TV sector and underscores emerging advertising opportunities for brands to connect with viewers.

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Visible Measures, which provides video analytics and operates the Viewable Media video ad network, has raised another $21.5 million, led by DAG Ventures and including existing investors. The funds will be used to drive adoption of the company's products.

Visible Measures' CEO Brian Shin said that the company will achieve 300% revenue growth in 2012, for the second year in a row. That strong growth is aided by the April, 2011 launch of Viewable Media, the company's video ad network that is based on its core analytics platform. Viewable Media differentiates itself as performance-based and positions video ads as content that users can choose from on publishers' web pages. The company said that over one hundred brands and agencies have adopted Viewable Media since launch.

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If you catch up on your favorite TV programs by watching them online, then no doubt over the past year you've noticed, as I have, that ad volume has been growing. A new report from ad manager FreeWheel substantiates the trend: the number of video ads in long-form content (20+ minutes) has more than doubled, from just over 3 in Q1 '11 to almost 8 in Q2 '12. But in a very encouraging sign for both content providers and advertisers, an amazing 91% of these ads (including pre, mid and post-roll) are viewed to completion, the highest level FreeWheel has yet measured.

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Tremor Video announced earlier today that in June it served 98.3% of its in-stream video ads in players that were 400 pixels or bigger. Tremor has found that the bigger-sized players drive double the engagement rate and also boost completion rates for ads. Based on its own analytics, Tremor found that for ads appearing in 400-500 pixel players, 62% of viewers watched to completion and for ads appearing in a 500-700 pixel player, completion jumped to 75%.

Tremor believes that as player sizes get bigger the viewing experience becomes more TV-like, therefore inducing users to relax and be more prone to sit through ads. Looking ahead, this bodes well for ads on connected TVs, where the content and ads are seen in full screen. Tremor said that it is advising publishing partners to increase the size of their players in order to deliver improved ad performance.

Related, Hulu must also be finding similar results; back in March it increased the size of its video player by 55% to a beefy 900x500.

At last month's VideoNuze 2012 Online Video Advertising Summit, our closing session was a big picture debate on the future of online video advertising, featuring AOL's Frank Besteiro, NBCU's Peter Naylor, TiVo's Tara Maitra, TubeMogul's Brett Wilson and YouTube's Suzie Reider, which I moderated.

One of the things the group addresses is whether buyers of online video advertising will prefer an impression-based model (akin to traditional TV advertising) or an engagement-based model (akin to search and other forms of online advertising). I believe it's a key question as it goes to the heart of how video advertising will work and the experience viewers will have online. Within this larger question is the omnipresent issue of measurement - when will there be an accepted currency for online video advertising, and what will it be?

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One of the hottest topics in the online video world is whether ad dollars are shifting over from TV. Given that so much of original online video is free, and that ad spending as a whole is roughly flat, the success of online video pretty much depends on persuading media buyers to allocate some of their dollars to online video.

At last month's VideoNuze 2012 Online Video Advertising Summit, a panel of industry experts from GroupM, Digitas, Adap.tv, Collective and Canaan Partners discussed this topic and key challenges to increasing online video ad spending. Not surprisingly, the top challenge is improved viewer measurement and more specifically, unifying online metrics with traditional ones from TV. This wide-ranging discussion provides great insight into what media buyers are looking for and how the online video ad market is evolving.

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One of the great visions of online video advertising is the ability to precisely target certain audiences with personalized ads. However, realizing that vision is not so simple given all the variables in play, plus the expense of generating custom creative. This is where Eyeview, a video ad technology provider, believes it has cracked the nut. At the recent VideoNuze 2012 Online Video Advertising Summit, Tal Riesenfeld, Eyeview's co-founder and VP of Business Development, presented on how Eyeview works and gave examples of successful recent campaigns for Mazda, Expedia and Ace Hardware that it has powered. It's a fascinating look at the future of online video advertising.

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At the recent VideoNuze 2012 Online Video Advertising Summit, eMarketer's principal analyst David Hallerman presented data on the state of the online video advertising market. While bullish about its prospects for growth, one of David's clear message was that TV advertising isn't going away any time soon, and in fact the growth of ad dollars TV will experience over the next 5 years will actually be greater than online video's.

In David's presentation, he explains the key factors he believes will hinder or help online video's growth. No surprise, one of the most important is unified measurement. Overall, David sees online video advertising as being complimentary to TV advertising. At the end of the session I join him on stage for 10 minutes of Q&A.

Note: David's slides are available for download here.

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A new report being released today from London-based video ad technology provider Videoplaza, and research firm IHS Screen Digest adds to the case that broadcasters must diversify into IP-based delivery of their content to multiple devices in order to achieve continued growth. The report, "A Future for TV: IP-delivered Video Advertising in a Connected World" presents new data on adoption of connected devices by TV and PC households in North America and Western Europe, share of ads now being delivered by non-PC devices and video ad loads by device, among other data.

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Each week it seems there's another research research report showing how viewers are increasingly splitting their time watching video on multiple devices. Audience fragmentation is creating new opportunities and headaches for advertisers trying to reach their target audiences efficiently and cost-effectively.

This was the topic of one of our panel discussions at the VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit a couple of weeks ago, which included Marc DeBevoise, SVP/GM, Entertainment at CBS Interactive, Suzanne McDonnell, SVP, Ad Solutions, Discovery and Anupam Gupta, President and CEO, Mixpo, with Nick Buzzell, President and Executive Producer, NBTV Studios, moderating.

Two of the recurring themes of the session were that simplicity is essential for advertisers to capitalize on advertising opportunities across three screens and that it is still early days, so multi-screen advertising approaches vary depending on specific circumstances. The excitement around new technologies and devices is compelling but understanding client objectives and their level of sophistication is crucial. This is one of the reasons that pre-rolls, mid-rolls and post-rolls have become omnipresent; they're comparable and complimentary to existing TV advertising, making them relatively easy to work with.

There were lots of other great insights and lessons shared in this 25 minute session.

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At the recent VideoNuze 2012 Online Video Advertising Summit, TDG senior analyst Colin Dixon sat down with Ed Haslam, SVP of Marketing at YuMe to discuss the market for video advertising on connected TVs (sometimes also called "Smart TVs"). Ed and Colin agreed that while there are already 20 million or more U.S. homes with these TVs, the ad opportunity is still relatively small, though it has enormous potential as these devices are adopted in hundreds of millions of homes globally over the next 5 years.

Ed has a strong perspective on this space as YuMe has a deal with Samsung and with LG to power advertising on their connected TVs. In the session, Ed discussed the experiences of 2 early advertisers, Toyota and State Farm. He also explained exactly where video ads are inserted today, how these units differ from typical pre-roll units seen online, and how the market is broadening to also include in-app advertising. Ed also describes 2 key challenges for the connected TV advertising space; consumer fragmentation and gaining developers' attention.

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Collective has released its Video Metrics Report 2012, delivering 6 profiles of online video viewers who are female and heavy buyers of certain types of consumer packaged goods. The 6 profiles are for buyers of diet foods, organic products, beauty products, household products, baby care products and carbonated beverages. For each profile, Collective shares index figures for age, income, occupation, product preferences and TV consumption. Collective also offers marketers specific tips for how to reach these 6 profile groups with online video advertising.

Collective generated the profiles by analyzing hundreds of millions of video impressions along with its Audience Cloud profile database and Personifi purchaser data. The insights are valuable for brands that are seeking to reach certain types of potential buyers using online video advertising, in conjunction with TV ads.

One of the things I was listening hard for throughout the sessions at this past Tuesday's VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit was whether speakers and attendees believe a convergence is coming between TV advertising and online video advertising models. To date the two have been siloed with different user experiences, back-end technologies, measurement systems (or lack thereof), ad loads, etc. In fact, the most frequent touch point between the two may well be on the creative side, where many of today's pre-roll ads remain re-purposed TV spots.

Yet with premium video proliferating online and connected devices like the iPad, Xbox and Smart TVs driving more consumption of entertainment, the formerly bright line distinguishing a viewer's online video experience from their TV experience is becoming increasingly blurry. For viewers this causes confusion around what degree and type of advertising to expect when they watch. And for content providers it likely means monetization is not being fully optimized across platforms.

At the heart of the issue, I believe, is whether video advertising should continue to be impression-based, as it always has been with TV, or engagement-based, as online has become, primarily due to the rise of search as online's dominant category.

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