AdoTube: Is In-Video the New Opportunity for Display Advertisers? - Steven Jones

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Cover image for  article: AdoTube: Is In-Video the New Opportunity for Display Advertisers? - Steven Jones

Rich Media Banner ads were originally offered as a way to showcase engagement and video elements at the scale and penetration of display buys. While there have been some really awe-inspiring creative executions, the effectiveness is still only marginally better than standard banner numbers. Buyers in-turn are responding. According to IAB's 2010 Internet Ad Revenue Report, Rich Media revenue grew only marginally from 2009 to 2010, while its share of revenue dropped from 7% to 6%. This is why I argue that a better place for these engaging ads would be where people are actually paying attention, in the video stream. Below are the three reasons why rich media banners are now ready for online video and offer a better value as overlays in the video stream.

We're Ready - Technology and Scale

The online video industry has grown. Its penetration, according to comScore's January 2011 Video Metrics report, is now at 83.5% of the Internet population. Scale buys can be made, and they can actually reach valuable target audiences. In addition, technology has improved greatly. Broadband speed and penetration has increased, while video and video advertising delivery has been optimized. Both in combination with complex tools that allow these rich media ads to be easily converted and served on video with no problems for the end-user.

Better Engagement and Performance

The most important thing to note about engagement is that banner ads are very easy to ignore. On the other hand, rich media overlays are very present in the video stream and hard to ignore. On top of this, video, especially short-form video, is a very lean-forward affair. People are actively engaged in the multimedia experience moving from one video to the next. This engagement extends to the advertising within the ad as well. This is why we have seen that rich media overlays garner 7 times higher engagement rates and 8 times higher Click-Through Rates than what DoubleClick reports (PDF) for their 2009 rich media video banner ads. Add a level of behavioral and contextual targeting onto this, and rich media overlays will far outperform their banner counterparts.

Only Marginally Higher Pricing Plus the Ability to Leverage Pre-Existing Creative Assets

There has been much debate over video advertising CPMs, but especially for these types of overlays, the premium is worth every penny. CPMs for in-stream ad units are arguably only around 25% to 100% higher than rich media display banners. With performance that is upwards of 700-800% more effective (CTR, Engagement Rate, View Through-Rate), the resulting efficiency can be seen in terms of eCPC, eCPM, Cost per Engagement, Cost per View, etc. Additionally, these rich media in-stream ads can simply be re-purposed rich media banner assets, not adding any additional cost. Ultimately, all of this has a positive impact on the ROI of any campaign.

In the end, these ads are good for everyone. Consumers enjoy the fact that they do not as abruptly interrupt their short-form video experience. Publishers like them, as they can lower drop-off rates and increase consumer consumption and inventory. Finally, they add into the mix of pre-rolls and interactive pre-rolls mixing it up for consumers making each ad slightly more effective, which of course is good for the video advertiser.

Steven Jones is Chief Strategy and Operations Officer of AdoTube (www.AdoTube.com), a complete in-stream/in-video solution that enables each part of the industry (agencies, advertisers and publishers) to have easy and efficient access to in-stream ads. Steven can be reached at sjones@adotube.com

Read all Steven's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at AdoTube: In-Video Advertising.

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