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Here's the Most Innovative Video Ad To Run On YouTube So Far
As brilliant as the video ads on YouTube were for Tipp-Ex and Sylvester Stallone's "The Expendables," it's time to crown a new champion as the most innovative video ad yet on YouTube - Desperados Tequila Flavored Beer (right, I'd never heard of the product either). I stumbled on this one yesterday (gotta love those random tweets on TweetDeck!) and the ad raises the bar once again for the rest of the market. I'm not going to spoil the fun, but suffice to say there are some great head-fakes and really well-done interactivity.
Desperados is further proof of how tantalizing online video advertising is for brands ready to think out of the box and engage their target audiences in completely unexpected ways. Over the last few weeks, as part of the planning for ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit on Tues., June 7th in NYC, I've been talking to a lot of executives in the online video ecosystem and what I consistently hear is the genuine desire by brands and agencies to learn how to do breakthrough creative, at scale, in the bustling new medium of online video.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: Desperados Tequila Flavored Beer, The Expendables, Tipp-Ex, YouTube
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Jun Group Pioneers "Incentivized" Video Ad Views In Social Games
As a non-gamer, I've been fascinated, from a distance, by the whole "virtual currency" and "virtual goods" models that millions of gamers are so passionate about. Now it turns out there's a way of marrying gamers' pursuit of virtual currency with driving opt-in video views for major brands' online video ads. Jun Group, a social video company, has been a pioneer in this emerging space, and last week its CEO Mitchell Reichgut gave me a primer on how the model works, and why it's being adopted. Jun Group is also issuing an update on its progress today.
First, for those not familiar with virtual currency, it is used to purchase specific virtual goods which enhance the experience in online games, social networks and virtual worlds. Typically there are many different ways to earn virtual currency within any particular environment, including paying for it with actual cash (yes, buying "virtual" currency with "actual" currency - it's all part of the gaming experience!), all of which adds up to a reported $2 billion per year industry.
Categories: Advertising, Social Media
Topics: Jun Group
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FreeWheel Lands British Sky Broadcasting, Opens New U.K. Office
Video ad management provider FreeWheel has landed British Sky Broadcasting (Sky), the U.K.'s largest pay-TV operator, as a new customer, and it is also announcing the opening of its London office. Sky is using FreeWheel's Monetization Rights Management (MRM) platform as its exclusive ad manager for online and mobile video delivery.
Categories: Advertising, International
Topics: FreeWheel
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Visible Measures Leverages Data With New "Viewable Media" Video Ad Network
Just when you thought there couldn't be room for another video ad network, analytics provider Visible Measures is launching a new one this morning called Viewable Media. However, Viewable Media has a few key differentiators which will be fresh for publishers and advertisers, in turn raising the bar for other ad networks. Brian Shin, Visible Measures' CEO explained Viewable Media's approach to me late last week.
With Viewable Media, Visible Measures is leveraging its Viral Reach database that it has been building on viewership and engagement for over 400 million
different videos since it began operations. To date this data has been packaged into different products so that advertisers and publishers can track various videos' performance. But as Brian explained, advertisers and media buyers have been encouraging Visible Measures to also use the data to enhance the online video ad buying process with better targeting and improved efficiency. That's where Viewable Media comes in.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: Viewable Media, Visible Measures
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Innovid Launches iRoll Apps For Easy Interactive Pre-Roll Ads
Innovid is introducing "iRoll apps" this morning to allow easy creation and deployment of interactive pre-roll ads. In addition to popular engagement features like Facebook sharing, Twitter following, YouTube posting and custom text labels, iRoll apps also allows a range of additional apps (now or coming soon) like coupon downloads, store locator with Google Maps, ticket purchase, chat, related docs and more. Last week I got an in-person demo from Zvika Netter, Innovid's CEO and co-founder and Rob Banning, director of marketing.
With iRoll apps, Innovid is looking to jumpstart a world where all pre-roll ads include interactivity. As Zvika explained, Innovid sees the pre-roll ad itself becoming browser-like, with all interactivity built right into the video window. This kind of seamless experience means that when users click within the ad, new content and options are loaded in the window itself, rather than having new browser windows pop up, which often leads to delays and a process of getting oriented, not to mention leaving the ad behind.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: Innovid, iRoll Apps
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YuMe Relevance Engine Introduced for Improved Video Ad Buying
Video ad technology and network YuMe is taking the wraps off its new "YuMe Relevance Engine" this morning, representing another key step forward in realizing online video's potential for ad targeting. The Relevance Engine powers the new 3.0 version of YuMe's ACE for Publishers ad system. Last week, YuMe's Jayant Kadambi, president and co-founder and Ed Haslam, SVP, Marketing briefed me on how they work.
With the Relevance Engine, YuMe is helping empower publishers to attract TV ad dollars by addressing each piece of the relevance equation: advertisers' needs, the publisher context and the target consumer audience. Advertisers' needs include things like brand safety, targeted devices, reach goals, and context/audience targeting. On the publisher side, criteria include page and video content awareness (based on metadata ingestion), eCPMs, viewing environment (such as which OVP player is used), device and connection speed. Finally, for the consumer profile, this includes demographics, ad viewing history, preferences, targeting data and content interests (based on cookies).
Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: YuMe
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YouTube Dominating Online Video Ad Business; $1.3 Billion Forecast in 2011
A new report this week from Citi analyst Mark Mahaney forecasted that YouTube revenue could exceed $1.3 billion in 2011 and rise to almost $1.7 billion in 2012 (see below). Mahaney's conclusion is based on YouTube driving higher video views and an improved ability to monetize these views with advertising. Google has of course been famously tight-lipped about YouTube's financial condition, other than to issue increasingly optimistic statements in its quarterly earnings calls.
Categories: Advertising, Aggregators
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Online Video Advertising Industry Keeps Innovating
Speaking of online video advertising, once again there was plenty of news this week. Among the highlights, Adap.tv launched its video ad marketplace in the U.K., PointRoll added new partners to its "Included" Program and launched new mobile and in-stream Included program, Casale Media announced a new "Videobox" format transforming display ads into video ads, AdoTube released new research that in-stream ads perform 7x better than rich media ads, and blip.tv revealed that it has built a creative services group to produce ads for its clients.
The online video ad market continues to experience strong growth. I've been talking to a lot of companies in the space recently, related to the ELEVATE conference on Tues, June 7th in NYC. There is a ton of enthusiasm, but also a continued strong need for market education and best practices, which is what we'll focus on at ELEVATE (more info coming next week).Categories: Advertising
Topics: Adap.TV, AdoTube, blip.TV, Casale Media, PointRoll
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Six Ways to Increase Digital Video Revenue
Following is a contributed post by Steve Robinson, CEO of Panache, a digital video ad fulfillment provider. For all content providers looking to optimize revenues from their online video streams, it's timely and thoughtful advice, particularly in the lead-up to the new ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit, coming up on Tuesday, June 7th.
Six Ways to Increase Digital Video Revenue
by Steve Robinson
With demand for streaming content clearly established, publishers have shifted from testing digital video advertising to bringing ad revenues toward parity with broadcast. Most publishers face two big hurdles to expanding revenues: Providing enough inventory to meet growing demand and fulfilling sold campaigns efficiently.
Both of these challenges result from an imbalance in the digital video ad market supply and demand. When it comes to inventory, premium publishers are typically only selling three to four pre-roll ads per show in digital video, compared to seven or eight in TV, and as such are only making a fraction of the revenues.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: Panache
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VideoNuze Report Podcast #90 - Mar. 4, 2011
I'm pleased to present the 90th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for March 4, 2011.
In this week's podcast, Daisy Whitney and I first discuss Tremor Media's new video ad buying platform, which I wrote about on Tuesday. Then we transition to a quick chat about Comcast CEO Brian Roberts' comment this week in the WSJ that "What used to be called 'reruns' on television is now called Netflix." It was a little bit of unexpected trash talk and Daisy and I sort through what might have motivated it.
Click here to listen to the podcast (11 minutes, 48 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Categories: Advertising, Cable TV Operators, Podcasts
Topics: Comcast, Podcast, Tremor Media
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Exclusive: Tremor Media Launching Video Ad Buying Platform, Hires Risicato to Run It
Tremor Media is launching a video ad buying platform, in a bid to streamline how Fortune 1000 brands can capitalize on the explosion of online video. The move is Tremor's latest expansion, following the recent acquisitions of
ScanScout and mobile video ad network Transpera. To manage the video ad buying platform, Tremor has hired Anthony Risicato, formerly CEO of mobile marketing company Mobile Commons, with previous experience at Covario, Innovation Interactive (where he led development of its platform that has facilitated billions of dollars of search advertising buys) and DoubleClick. Anthony shared some of the background of Tremor's move with me last week.
The video ad buying platform addresses the two key marketplace issues Tremor has observed, scale and deliverability. Tremor likens the situation in online video advertising to what was happening in the search advertising market about 10 years ago. There is a lot of interest from big brands and agencies to participate, but still too much friction in buying and delivering plus measuring and optimizing their results. Too often brands are required to go to different publishers and video ad networks to assemble their buy, which makes it harder to leverage their spending and also to optimize their ads based on actual performance.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: Tremor Media
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Addressable TV Advertising Struggles To Keep Up With Online Video
An article in Multichannel News this week, "Online Video May Force TV To Pick Up The Pace," discussed how online video advertising is raising the bar on addressable TV advertising (i.e. ads delivered through set-top boxes against VOD streams and the like). That's an understatement to say the least. From everyone I talk to, and from following the activity in the market, online video advertising has lapped addressable TV advertising and then some. From every perspective - investment, innovation, brand adoption, distribution, interactivity, online video advertising is the place brands want to be. And I see this actually accelerating; every week I speak to an executive or two whose company is delivering another exciting online video innovation.
Categories: Advertising, Video On Demand
Topics: VOD
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Top 10 Super Bowl Ads Gain A Quick $1 Million In Online Video Exposure
New research is out this morning showing how Super Bowl advertisers benefit from ongoing online video viewership. Kantar Video, an online video analytics provider, estimates that the top 10 Super Bowl ads generated an additional $1 million worth of media exposure in just the first 3 days after the game, with Volkswagen's top-performing "The Force" ad, gaining almost $540K itself. Note "The Force" has already picked up an incredible 27 million YouTube views (see below).
Categories: Advertising
Topics: Kantar Video
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Panache Goes Social With New Ad Format
Online video ad provider Panache launched a clever new format today called the "Social Offer" which responds to the number one request it receives from brands: what can we do in social? Panache's VP of Marketing Jill Druschke brought me up to speed on how the ad format works and what its objectives are.
The Social Offer format takes existing pre-roll creative and integrates it with social features from Twitter, Facebook and others that offer an API. The goal is to drive more engagement and increase CPMs. In a sample ad for Coke (see below), an overlay pops up that prompts the viewer to receive Coke Rewards points by tweeting about the ad. When the viewer clicks and authorizes a connection to Twitter, a pre-populated tweet appears with a hashtag for the campaign. The tweet is completed, the video then continues to roll and the viewer receives a message with the reward code.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: Panache
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Merrill Lynch Hits the Mark With In-Banner Video Financial Webcast
On the NYTimes.com home page yesterday I was intrigued by a rich media ad (see below) in the right column that expanded to play a video of a roundtable discussion moderated by Merrill executive Sallie Krawcheck. The ad epitomizes how online video lets brands go beyond the traditional 30-second TV spot to deeply engage their target audiences. Everything about the ad is well executed: high-quality video that can be viewed in full screen mode, professional-looking though low-key set design, chapter headings and durations that can be jumped to, links to Facebook, Twitter, etc. to share and placement on a well-trafficked, upscale-leaning site.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: Merrill Lynch
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Super Bowl Advertisers Finally Tapping Into Power of Social Media and Online Video
A great article in today's NY Times shows how numerous Super Bowl advertisers have been building excitement for their ads through social media, and in some cases by already releasing the ads in their entirety. It's the right approach, though a little late in coming. Deep in the pre-VideoNuze archives is "The $10 Million Super Bowl Ad," which I wrote back in 2006, asserting that online video would dramatically enhance the value of these expensive spots. Super Bowl spots have risen in price since, to $2.8-$3.0 million apiece, and in the very long-term I'd maintain they still may get to $10 million as the Super Bowl further separates itself as the last mass broadcast event. But regardless of the price, the key is extracting the most value from them; that's what social media and online video do best.Categories: Advertising, Sports
Topics: Super Bowl
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Exclusive: FreeWheel Launches "RPM" Product To Streamline Video's Back Office
FreeWheel, the video technology company, is launching its second product today, "RPM" - Revenue & Payments Management - to streamline the complex back office financial processes associated with distributing premium-quality online video. Last week FreeWheel's co-CEOs and co-founders Jon Heller and Doug Knopper walked me through RPM and how it relates to the company's flagship Monetization Rights Management ("MRM") product.
At a high level, RPM's goal is to help media companies make sure that everyone who's supposed to get paid when online video is monetized actually does get paid - accurately, efficiently and regardless of what business models were used. As Jon explained, the problem today is that the headaches are multiplying for the financial staff in the trenches who are dealing with increasingly complicated online video monetization/distribution that involves multiple stakeholders. The hodgepodge of spreadsheets and various proprietary systems is beginning to impede business getting done. As a former CFO himself, Jon knows first-hand that when the financial team can't accurately track what the product/sales teams are doing without adding a lot of new overhead, things are going to come to a grinding halt.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: FreeWheel
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Jivox Launches Cross-Platform Video Ad Capability
(Friday update #2) Brands and agencies looking to use the same video ad across various platforms got a boost yesterday from Jivox, a video ad technology provider. As Jivox's CEO Diaz Nesamoney explained to me, brands/agencies can now either submit video to Jivox or they can use the company's tools in order to prepare the ad properly for multi-platform use. When an ad is to be delivered, Jivox detects the user's platform/device and sends a properly formatted and encoded ad in real-time. Importantly, Jivox's analytics provide insight into usage by platform/device, so brands/agencies can detect where the ad is working best. I view this as the first of many efforts by technology providers to simply the ad delivery process as platforms/devices proliferate.Categories: Advertising, Devices
Topics: Jivox
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AdoTube Gets FreeWheel Certification
AdoTube, the online video ad platform, has secured Certified Partner status from FreeWheel, the video monetization technology provider. The companies have been collaborating since March, 2010. The certification means that AdoTube and its ad formats comply with FreeWheel's own criteria as well as IAB standards. Joint customers are able to take advantage of deep integration between the companies.
I last wrote about AdoTube in October, in conjunction with its "Polite Pre-Roll" which cleverly allows users to close out an ad when it begins playing, with period subtle reminders to follow. In research, the unit was found to have a 3.76% vs. 1.61% for standard pre-roll ads. This is an example of the more flexible and viewer-centric approach to video ads that is taking hold. As another example, YouTube recently unveiled its "TrueView" video ads, which offer more viewer control. And Hulu introduced early last year its "Ad Selector" option that allows viewers to choose which ads they want to see. No doubt more initiatives like these to follow.Categories: Advertising
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YouTube Charges $375K Per Day for Home Page Masthead Ads, Plus Other Fun Facts
The February edition of Fast Company magazine, which features a lengthy piece on YouTube, includes a number of interesting data points. One that caught my eye is that YouTube charges $375,000 per day for a home page
"masthead" ad (these are the rich media 970x250 ads that occupy the top third to half of the home page). According to the article, the home page generates an average of 45 million views per day (though it's not clear if that's U.S.-only or global). A companion article notes that the home page gets 18 million visitors in the U.S. only.
The ad running today, for Lexus's new CT 200h hybrid is a typical masthead implementation: graphics rich, with embedded video, and links to a series of original, branded videos (in this case "Darkcasting" vignettes). Last September, in "YouTube Gets Center Stage in Google's New 'Watch This Space' Ad Campaign," I noted that the premier brands that used the masthead unit in the previous month included Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Showtime, NBC, Mattel, EA, T-Mobile, American Express and others. Each has its own creative execution that often extended far beyond what's typically seen in rich media display ads (my favorite example continues to be the Sly Stallone ad for the movie "The Expendables").Categories: Advertising, Aggregators
Topics: Fast Company, YouTube
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