Posts for 'Advertising'

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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Since I read Dish Network's press release last month announcing its new Auto Hop feature, I've been scratching my head, wondering (like many others), what Dish's cryptic CEO Charlie Ergen was really thinking about with the move. Auto Hop is such a blatant poke in the eye to broadcasters' ad-based business model that Ergen surely knew it would evoke a legal and business response - as it has.

Therefore, I was hoping an article in last Friday's WSJ, based on the first interviews with Ergen about Auto Hop, would clarify his motivations. While some have called Auto Hop a negotiation tactic with broadcasters over retransmission consent fees (which, in part it is), rather, I think Ergen's larger message with Auto Hop is that the traditional TV ad model is irreparably broken and it's urgent the industry figure out what's next. Not doing so risks the ultimate unraveling of the great American broadcast TV industry.

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There are lots of things to be excited about when it comes to online video, but the main appeal continues to be targeting, according to BrightRoll's latest U.S. Video Advertising Report (free to download). Targeting was cited by 43% of respondents as the most valuable aspect of online video (up from 41% in 2011), far outpacing the next favorite attribute of reach (cited by 28% of respondents). All other attributes had 10% or less appeal.

Like 2011, contextual and behavioral again lead in terms of targeting methodologies, with the former cited as most valuable by about 37% of respondents and the latter by 34%. Demographic and geographic trailed. Behavioral targeting will increase by 24% over 2011 with two-thirds of respondents said that over 40% of their ads in 2012 will include behavioral targeting.

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Online video advertising platform provider Mixpo is announcing this morning that is supporting Microsoft Advertising's deployment of the VPAID standard on MSN, MSNBC and other properties in its network. VPAID is an IAB standard for video players and ad units that enables market efficiencies for in-stream interactivity. VPAID helps make ads more engaging to viewers, more effective for advertisers and more monetizable to publishers. Here is a sample ad for Nordstrom Rack using the Mixpo ad platform that offers interactive elements to shop, see social media updates and find the closest store.

(Note: Mixpo is a sponsor of the June 19th VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit and will have a team on hand doing demos and answering questions.)

If you watch TV programs via VOD from your pay-TV operator, then you've probably had one or both of two curious experiences I've had: either the same, untargeted ad plays repeatedly at the breaks, or no ad (and therefore no monetization for the content provider) plays at all. With over 600 million monthly VOD views occurring these days, the lack of dynamic, targeted ad insertion in VOD diminishes the user experience and leaves lots more money on the table.

There are multiple reasons to explain all of this, but one of the main ones is that there are very hard technology problems involved to solve it, as the pay-TV infrastructure (notably the set-top boxes) vary widely in their capabilities. Creating a platform that runs across pay-TV operators' different infrastructure, at scale, to enable advertising, has been a very tall mountain to climb. Now, after years of hard work and investment, BlackArrow, the company that decided to address the situation, looks like it has finally arrived at the summit.

In this interview at the recent Cable Show, BlackArrow's CEO Dean Denhart explains that the company now has agreements covering 30 million subscribers, with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Rogers, which are all rolling it out. He walks me through a handful of slides that explain exactly how the BlackArrow system works and the progress programmers, advertisers and pay-TV operators are making. And importantly he discusses how the online video and on-demand TV worlds will converge over time. Watch the interview (15 minutes, 18 seconds)

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Talk to anyone around the online video ad space about key challenges, and the topic of audience measurement - or the lack thereof - quickly comes up. But in an interview I did at the Cable Show with Discovery's Chief Digital Officer JB Perrette, he re-frames the problem as actually not being with measurement itself, but rather that there isn't an accepted "currency" throughout the industry.

As JB explains, the industry is drowning in data, but since everyone has their own, there's no Nielsen-like standard yet to use for buying and selling of online video ads. JB notes Nielsen itself is trying to evolve, but is challenged with its current panel-based measurement approach. JB adds that changing a standard where billions of dollars are at stake takes time, but he's confident eventually it will happen.

JB also discusses Discovery's deal to acquire Revision3 and how Discovery is "buying the capability to develop content across all screens," how marketers are looking for authentic engagement opportunities, why "TV is the last frontier of difficult navigation," and the role that brands play in a world with infinite content choices. Watch the video (13 minutes, 46 seconds).

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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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If you're an agency or advertiser trying to run online video ad campaigns these days, you're encountering a fractured, laborious work flow resulting from the numerous ad technology providers you need to deal with. That's the kind of friction that impedes online video getting its fair share of ad spending. To address this problem, Adap.tv is launching its "App Center" this morning, which centralizes the process for buyers to access multiple ad technologies. Adap.tv co-founder Teg Grenager explained App Center and took me through a demo yesterday.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 133rd edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for May 18, 2012. This week's topic: Dish Network's new "Auto Hop" feature, which automatically skips ads in DVR-recorded broadcast TV.

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It's no secret that with consumer behavior fragmenting over different video sources and media-related activities, advertisers are having a tougher time than ever reaching their targeted audiences. Especially elusive are younger, lighter TV viewers. No surprise, these lighter viewers skew younger with about 31% of 18-49 age group in the category. They're also choice targets for advertisers: they're wealthier, more educated and more diverse.

To help prove the efficacy of online video advertising as a method for reaching these viewers, yesterday Google/YouTube and Nielsen released new research demonstrating that lighter TV viewers (who average 39 minutes per/day) are more effectively and cost-efficiently reached with online video advertising that compliments traditional TV advertising.

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As this week's TV advertising upfronts kick-off, the inconvenient truth of live TV viewing's ongoing decline should be on the minds of everyone in the ecosystem. The days of forcing viewers to tolerate almost a minute of advertising for every two minutes of TV programming they viewed are fading. With DVRs now approaching 50% of American homes, viewers are more in control than ever, and live viewing's decline will accelerate. One bit of good news for both TV networks and advertisers is that online video advertising is maturing in time to help. Following are 4 reasons why online video advertising's appeal should grow:

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I visited the SeaWell Networks booth at the recent NABShow and got a demo of their new network-based ad insertion capabilities from CEO Brian Collie. SeaWell's Spectrum technology helps service providers manage delivery of adaptive bit rate (ABR) streams to multiple devices, in partnership with ARRIS. At the NABShow, Brian demo'd how Spectrum can dynamically and seamlessly insert ads into video based on an individual user's behavior. SeaWell just completed an $8 million financing. See video below (5 minutes, 43 seconds).

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As with TV, it's awfully hard to predict which particular programs and initiatives unveiled at last week's Digital Content NewFronts ("DCNF") will succeed and which will flop. But one thing that I'm fairly certain of is that the aggregate effort by digital outlets to create high-quality originals portends significant audience fragmentation ahead. To me, the historical parallel is as follows: what cable TV has done to broadcast TV in re-distributing audiences, online is about to do to cable TV and to broadcast.

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