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Morgan Spurlock's New Series Premieres on Hulu, With Heavy Monetization
This week Morgan Spurlock's new six-part documentary series "A Day In The Life" premiered on Hulu, which is its exclusive distributor. The premise is that
each episode follows one well-known personality for a full day, giving the viewer an intimate look into their life. The first episode focused on Virgin Group's Richard Branson. Future episodes are set for release on Wednesdays.
I thought the episode was well done and fortunately it doesn't slip into a "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" mode, instead mostly focusing on Branson's promotional tactics in support of Virgin America's new Chicago routes (note "Entourage" fans will enjoy a cameo from actor Adrian Grenier). Perhaps the most interesting thing about "A Day In The Life" wasn't the show itself but how heavily Hulu is monetizing it with ads, illustrating the point I was making just yesterday about online video's potential for heavier ad loads.
Categories: Advertising, Aggregators
Topics: Hulu, Morgan Spurlock
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Video Ads Gain Acceptance; Gap With TV Ad Loads Means Big Opportunity Remains
Yesterday video ad manager FreeWheel released its Q2 '11 Video Monetization Report, chock full of interesting data points gathered across 11.3 billon video views and 6 billion video ad views in the quarter. Among the key findings: long-form content (defined as 20 minutes+) carried an average of nearly 3 ads per view, with an 81% ad completion rate.
I agree with FreeWheel's observation that the implementation of multiple ads in long-form content is akin to the TV model, and the strong ad completion rates (especially for mid-rolls which were the highest at 94-96%) indicate that consumers are becoming more accepting of the fact that premium online video content will be accompanied by ads, just as it is on TV. The data suggested two additional things to me: first, while long-form monetization is improving, a huge opportunity exists in the ad load gap between online delivery and TV and second, online video completion rates could become the basis to offset DVR-driven ad-skipping.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: FreeWheel
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Innovid Quietly Expands iRoll Support Among Ad Networks
Innovid has added Specific Media as the latest video ad network to support its "iRoll" interactive pre-roll ad unit. Specific joins Adap.tv, BrightRoll, Collective, SpotXChange, TidalTV, Tremor Video, Undertone, Value Click and other ecosystem players, which according to the company collectively account for approximately 60% of video ad inventory in the U.S. Large ad networks are important to Innovid because advertisers want huge scale and also the ability to target specific audiences for their campaigns.
For those not familiar with the iRoll, it transforms standard pre-roll ads by adding interactive overlays with customized calls-to-action. These can include social media sharing (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.), e-commerce prompts within the video, and mapping and localized information such as the nearest theater a movie is playing to purchase a ticket. Advertisers and agencies can use the Innovid Studio to add the interactive elements. Innovid also offers a full analytics suite.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: Innovid, Specific Media
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YouTube Delivers 1 Billion "Promoted Videos" Ads
More evidence of YouTube's ability to monetize its massive user base: the company has announced that it has delivered 1 billion views of its "Promoted Videos" ads since launching the program less than 3 years ago. Promoted Videos are an extension of Google's AdWords model, allowing advertisers to upload short video spots, specify keyword results against which Promoted Videos should be highlighted and then set a campaign spending limit.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: YouTube
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Digital Radio and Video Advertising Mix As Slacker Signs Up With YuMe
Digital radio is all the rage these days, and now Slacker Radio, one of the key players, is looking to further monetize its audience through video advertising, by partnering with ad manager YuMe. Under the deal, being announced this morning, Slacker will use YuMe's ACE for Publishers (AFP) ad serving platform to insert ads across multiple devices. Slacker will sell its own ads and will also tap into YuMe's ad network.
Categories: Advertising, Music
Topics: Slacker Radio, YuMe
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VINDICO Served 5 Billion Video Ads in Q2 '11, Estimated 40% Market Share
Video ad platform VINDICO posted a strong Q2 '11, serving 5 billion video ads, up from 1.8 billion in Q2 '10. When VINDICO compares this amount to the
approximately 13.7 billion video ads that comScore reported as delivered during Q2, VINDICO estimates it has close to 40% market share. The company reported that it is now working with 200 clients, a 400% increase over last year, which includes 21 of the top 50 TV advertisers.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: VINDICO
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SupersonicAds CEO Sees Social Game Incented Video Model As the "New Prime Time"
Incented video views in social games are all the rage and yesterday, SupersonicAds, one of the many players in this space, raised a $4.2 million financing from Greylock (bringing its total to date to $6 million). I caught up with SupersonicAds CEO and co-founder Gil Shoham who sees this model as the "new prime time" as it marries the massive usage of social game use in Facebook and elsewhere with brands' desire to reach the audience.
For those not familiar, companies like SupersonicAds (and others such as Jun Group, Blue Noodle, WildTangent, Social Vibe, etc.) work with social game publishers and social networks to promote video ads that reward users with virtual currency for viewing (see Kellogg's example below). Gil sees the reward as the "hook" to get users watching, but the post-viewing engagement (e.g. "Likes," click-throughs, sign-ups, etc.) are based solely on the brand's appeal and the strength of the creative. Gil said 50-80% of users watch the full video, with an average 20% of those "Liking" the brand and 40% returning later to visit the brand's web site.
Categories: Advertising, Games, Social Media
Topics: Facebook, Greylock, SupersonicAds
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1/3 of YouTube's In-Stream Ads Now In Skippable Format
Google executives were as sparing as ever in yesterday's Q2 '11 earnings call with details about YouTube's financial performance, but they did divulge one
interesting new nugget: 1/3 of YouTube's in-stream ads are now in a skippable format. Susan Wojcicki, Google's SVP, Advertising shared the data point to show the rapid progress that YouTube has made since launching its "TrueView" format last December.
TrueView is an important building block in a larger industry initiative Google is pursuing, to have 50% of video ads include a cost-per-view element. Google believes that by giving viewers the option to skip the ad or select a particular one, engagement will be stronger which will in turn drive rates higher. As with DVR ad-skipping, viewers also gain greater control of their experience which so satisfaction will improve.
Categories: Advertising, Aggregators
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Claussen Pickles Is Latest Brand to Use Incentivized Video Views
Claussen Pickles, which is part of the Kraft Foods family, is the latest brand to successfully use incentivized video views in social games. For those not familiar with the concept (which I wrote about last April), those playing social games on sites like Facebook and others are offered the opportunity to earn virtual currency in exchange for watching a brand's video and/or engaging with it in a particular way (e.g. sharing, liking, etc.). The brand gets an uncluttered experience delivered to a highly-targeted audience.
Mitchell Reichgut, CEO of Jun Group, whose firm partnered with ad agency The Escape Pod, to execute the Claussen campaign, shared the 1-minute video that was created, called "Journey to the Claussen Pickles" (see video below). The offbeat video highlights the idea that Claussen pickles are found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, and though they require extra effort to find, are worth it.
Mitchell said that video is targeted to moms playing social games on sites like Facebook. The completion rate is 75-80%, driven be the need to finish viewing in order to earn the reward. Of those that complete viewing, approximately 10% "Like" Claussen on Facebook, which means the brand now has a direct communications channel to send future offers and news.
Categories: Advertising, Games, Social Media
Topics: Claussen Pickles, Jun Group, Kraft Foods, The Escape Pod
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New Data Indicates Almost Half of Online Viewers Watch Pre-Roll Ads Even When They Can Choose Not To
Two recent data points share a common, though somewhat surprising, conclusion: almost half of online viewers watch pre-roll ads to the end even when presented with the choice to opt out and skip the ad entirely. Clearly two data points aren't enough to form a real trend, but they do provide insight into how online video advertising may ultimately differ from traditional TV advertising.
The first data point came from YouTube and Scripps, via this article in Online Media Daily. Scripps ran ads for 3 different programs on YouTube using its "True View" format that allows users to easily skip past the ad. It turned out that 44% of viewers actually watched the ad through to the end (a key benefit of the TrueView model is that advertisers only pay for ad views, not for skips).
Then separately this week, video ad manager AdoTube released its Q1 2011 In-Stream Ad Format Index, which provides data on the 4.25 billion ad impressions generated across AdoTube's network (slides here). Among the key findings: 45% of viewers of its "Polite Pre-Roll" which allows skipping, watched through to the end. That was a 7% increase from the prior quarter and on par with conventional pre-roll ads. Another interesting finding was that when the Polite Pre-Roll is used, the abandonment rate for the content itself is 18% lower than when conventional pre-rolls are used, suggesting that ad choice enhances the content experience.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: AdoTube, Scripps, YouTube
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TED, YouTube and the Renaissance in Ad Creativity
Yesterday TED celebrated the 5 year anniversary of its "TEDTalks" being distributed online, with 500 million views to date. TEDTalks, which feature individuals speaking for up to 18 minutes on a variety of different subjects, are thought-provoking and inspiring. Using the power of online video, TED has extended its reach and influence far beyond the group of people who attend TED events in person.
More recently, TED, with the support of YouTube and others partners, has begun to focus on how advertising can be reinvented in the digital age to be more compelling and relevant. Last September, it launched "Ads Worth Spreading" (a spin on its tagline of "Ideas Worth Spreading") to recognize ads that nurture passion and encourage viewers to watch and be a part of a community. AWS seeks to move the advertising model beyond "ambushing" viewers, as has long been advertising's M.O., to instead develop a shared dialogue.
At the recent ELEVATE conference, we were very pleased to have Ronda Carnegie, TED's head of global partnerships and John Militello, Google's head of creative innovation, Americas join us for a fireside chat to discuss AWS and the role YouTube itself is playing in redefining how brands engage their audiences (video after the jump). I've written a number of times recently about breakthrough campaigns on YouTube (e.g. Perrier, The Expendables, Desperados beer); no doubt other creative ads on YouTube will follow.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: Sharethrough, TED, YouTube
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Microsoft and Nielsen Team Up to Correlate Online Ads With TV Tune-In
Microsoft and Nielsen are teaming up to launch the "Television Online Effect" pilot program, to help measure how specific online ads drive TV tune-in. The partners will leverage aggregate profile data from Nielsen's TV/Internet Fusion panel to create a target audience based on TV and online usage. Microsoft then plans to run online campaigns to this audience on its owned properties. It will then measure the tune-in effect of these campaigns. Entertainment is the first vertical in the program, which will launch by August 1st.
I can see a real opportunity for this for various reasons. The TV landscape noisier than ever, with cable TV networks flooding the market with a record amount of original programming and broadcast networks continuing to fight for audience share. Meanwhile, traditional tune-in advertising, in radio and newspaper, is less effective than ever because audiences are spending more time online. The good news is that in online, users' profiles can be accurately understand and then correlated to what TV shows they're likely to enjoy, in turn increasing the ads' ROI and the likelihood that shows find their appropriate audience.
Categories: Advertising
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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.
Categories: Advertising, People
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Perrier Scoring With Interactive YouTube Campaign
Add Perrier to the list of brands that are discovering the power of running creative video campaigns on YouTube. Perrier launched a clever interactive experience called "Le Club Perrier" 2 weeks ago that appears to be driving significant viewership and engagement. Viewers are invited to watch and pass along links to videos in order to "unlock" the next versions which promise to get "sexier, steamier and wilder as the number of viewers goes up" (right, could they make it more tempting?).
It seems to be working though, at least according to the viewership meter, which indicates nearly 7 million total views to date (the campaign is also #5 on this week's AdAge/Visible Measures Viral Video Chart, though with a far lower view count). Part of the mystery is that it's not clear how many times the videos have been shared via email, Twitter or Facebook, or what it takes to unlock the next version. However, the invitations to share are heavily promoted and follow each video segment.
Categories: Advertising
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comScore: YouTube's Time Per Viewer In May Tops 5 Hours, More Than Next 5 Sites COMBINED
comScore released its May 2011 U.S. online video rankings today which once again illustrated the extent to which YouTube remains the 800-pound gorilla of the online video market. For the first time, YouTube's time spent per viewer during the month exceeded 5 hours, coming in at 5 hours, 11 minutes. That reflects nearly 2.2 billion viewing sessions generated from over 147 million unique viewers (83.5% of all Americans who watched any online video in May).
Looked at another way, YouTube's 5 hours, 11 minutes of viewership is more than the next 5 properties ranked had during the month, combined. The number 6 property, Microsoft's sites, had 46.5 million visitors for the month, less than a 1/3 of YouTube's, and 252 million viewing sessions, just 1/9 of YouTube's (see below). Hulu is the only property remotely close to YouTube in viewing time per user, racking up 3 hours, 38 minutes per viewer in May from 196 million viewing sessions. But Hulu had 28.5 million unique viewers in May, less than 1/5 of YouTube's.
Categories: Advertising, Aggregators
Topics: comScore, Hulu, YouTube
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Recapping All of the Product and Partnership News from ELEVATE
At the ELEVATE conference on Tuesday a number of our partners made product and partnership announcements which I mentioned were coming in a teaser last Friday. Each helps move the online video advertising market forward in different ways. A brief recap of each follows:
Categories: Advertising, Events, Technology
Topics: Adap.TV, AdoTube, Conviva, ELEVATE, EyeView, Grab Networks, Innovid, Ooyala, Panache, RAMP, Tremor Video, Undertone, YuMe
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Panache Introduces Interactive Ads in HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)
Video ad technology provider Panache is introducing the ability to insert interactive ad overlays in HTTP live streaming (HLS) content delivered to iOS and Android connected devices. Panache is announcing the capability at ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit. Panache CEO Steve Robinson, who briefed me last week on the capability, sees this as primarily supporting dynamic ad insertion into live television streams that would be simulcast to devices.
Panache believes this capability is significant because it bypasses the need to separate TV programs streamed online into segments, with video ads inserted between them, which is a cumbersome process. Steve reports that pay-TV operators and TV technology providers are excited about Panache's offering because it moves them closer to their vision of convergence between TV and other devices. Many premium content providers are recognizing the value of live streaming for audiences, especially to newer mobile devices. Categories most often mentioned are sports or music, but entertainment programming is also a priority.
Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: Panache
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Teaser: More Video Ad Innovation Coming Next Week
A little teaser for this Friday morning: next week is going to bring a number of announcements of new video advertising innovations, particularly for mobile devices. The announcements will be synched with ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit, coming up next Tuesday, June 7th. This week I've been getting a preview of some of the news from various technology providers and it's exciting stuff that will no doubt help accelerate the market.
A key underlying theme I am continually hearing from technology providers for online and mobile video advertising is their desire to help move ad dollars over from TV (or at a minimum to have online and mobile become complimentary media buys). But, as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, TV advertising is still a "known" commodity, whereas it's still early for online and mobile and there are a lot of question marks. Technology providers are united in their goal of helping premium video content providers improve their monetization and are innovating at a furious pace in order to demonstrate the advantages over TV.
Stay tuned next week for some cool updates.Categories: Advertising, Mobile Video
Topics: ELEVATE
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DVR Capability Would Make Online Video Even More Compelling
The BBC's announcement late last week of its new "Series Record" feature, which enables iPlayer users to subscribe to download future episodes of specific TV programs just as they might do with a DVR, caught my attention because it adds compelling new value to the current online video streaming model. That's because, as valuable as it is to have premium content available online, it still requires the user to actually be online and have a robust broadband connection (and soon enough to also be adhering to their ISP's usage cap).
For many, meeting these criteria isn't a problem. However, there are lots of others, particularly those of us who travel frequently, for whom these streaming prerequisites block many potential viewing opportunities (try streaming over a MiFi card or on a hotel's wireless network or on an airplane!). As a result, if we want to watch an episode of our favorite network TV program freely available online, or something from the Netflix streaming or Hulu Plus catalog, the only option is likely to have to pay to download it from iTunes or Amazon or another provider.
Categories: Advertising, Devices, DVR
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VideoNuze Report Podcast #99 - May 20, 2011
I'm pleased to present the 99th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for May 20, 2011.
In this week's podcast, Daisy Whitney and I discuss the new "Bud United Presents: The Big Time" contest which was announced earlier this week. The contest resonated with me because it really showed how brands can take full control by leveraging social media and online video. Daisy and I discuss the implications and what it might mean for other brands. Listen in to learn more.
Click here to listen to the podcast (8 minutes, 39 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Categories: Advertising, Podcasts
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