An Interview with Online Video Guru Jaffer Ali. - Jeff Einstein - MediaBizBlogger

I've been in the digital advertising and marketing business on a senior level since late 1984 – some years before there even was a recognized digital advertising and marketing business. I've seen lots of terrific ideas (some of them my own) come and go, and have worked all angles of the industry: agency, client-side, DR and branded, startup and established.

But when Jaffer Ali, the CEO of NextEra Media, first invited me to peek under the hood of his new online video advertising network, Vidsense, I knew I was witness to something very special. My close personal relationship with Jaffer notwithstanding, I immediately saw in Vidsense a concise distillation and representation of my own digital marketing philosophies and themes over the years. This, I thought, is exactly how digital media and digital video in particular should work. So I submitted a list of questions about Vidsense to Jaffer, and the following is what ensued over a period of several months…

Jeff: From a 100,000 foot perspective, what does Vidsense offer the online media environment?

Jaffer: Vidsense is all about restoring the relationship between brand and consumer. Today's online advertising ecosystem in large measure destroys the entire notion of relationship by reducing every communication – the very heart of any relationship – to its least communicative, least emotive transactional form. Vidsense reintroduces emotion into the mix in the form of an eloquent, albeit unspoken dialogue between content and audience. We leverage the undeniable phenomenon of "star power" to strike a romantic chord that resonates in our minds, yes, but even more importantly, in our hearts. The resulting "halo effect" becomes the bedrock for the relationship we seek to build.

Almost all online advertising is reduced to measurement in the false illusion that true relationships can be measured. Interestingly enough, the root of the word "measurement" actually means "illusion". Our model is predicated on the belief that measurement speaks to limitations, whereas emotion speaks to opportunity.

Jeff: What differentiates Vidsense from other online video networks?

Jaffer: Vidsense is a return to what works. We call Vidsense a "retro-evolutionary" media model because that's exactly what it is. Video is quickly transforming the Web from an information medium into a commercial entertainment medium that looks more like television every day. Accordingly, we take our cues from the Golden Ages of radio and TV when a brand's personality was inextricably entwined with quality entertainment.

Actually, Vidsense takes this proven formula a step further by completely reversing the audience-delivery sequence. In an on-demand medium like the Internet, the objective is reversed: We don't target the audience; we let the audience target us instead. Instead of suffering the frustration and expense of trying to reach a particular audience through more traditional targeting means, advertisers can now use Vidsense to entice and compel that same audience to reach them. We do this by placing targeted thumbnail links to popular TV and movie clips on the more than 20,000 safe-for-work websites that comprise our publisher network. Once a viewer clicks on a thumbnail, a new window opens, transporting the viewer to a demographically compatible advertiser's website where an embedded Vidsense video player launches the chosen clip – the operative word being "chosen". The clip is then viewed within the exclusive confines of that advertiser's branded surroundings. And because it's the consumer who drives the process, the net effect is very positive – a "welcome intrusion", if you will. In fact, our research reveals click-through rates seven to ten times higher than industry averages for text and banner ads, and viewer-satisfaction rates of over 90%.

Advertisers pay only for Vidsense-generated visitors delivered "safe and secure" to their website, while publishers receive payment for each video view that originates with them. The bottom line is, Vidsense doesn't just deliver customers to your door, Vidsense deposits them right inside your online showroom.

Jeff: What new language have you developed to describe Vidsense?

Jaffer: We began by saying that Vidsense is to Adsense what video is to print. But we soon realized that Vidsense offers a decidedly contrarian perspective that requires its own language. So we created our own vernacular, a true amalgam of old and new. We now stress the essence of what's old is new again in all of our Vidsense branding efforts. We've alternately described Vidsense as a return to what works, as a giant step back to the future, and as an idea whose time has come…again! We attach our spin to traditional language and perceptions by saying things like: Don't target your audience, let your audience target you, with Vidsense. But perhaps the best way to describe this retro-evolutionary media model is simply as: Something that works for a change.

Part and parcel to this new vernacular are new metric equivalents – terms that speak to a richer, more evocative commercial nexus. The blending of proven content and unfettered viewer predisposition produces an audience impression that defies traditional quantitative measurement. The result is an emotional bond between brand and consumer that creates what Bill Bernbach once described as advertising environments to buy. We call it Value Per Engagement, VPE for short.

Value Per Engagement is not a metric per se. Rather, it describes whatever litany of metrics (duration, customer satisfaction, conversion, etc.) an advertiser might deploy in any given campaign to determine the width and breadth – the quality – of the engagement. As a descriptive term, therefore, VPE resists agency standardization and puts the burden to define the quality of each engagement on the advertiser – precisely where it belongs.

Jeff: Why have many large advertisers been reluctant to use online video?

Jaffer: The fact is, most online video is user-generated, and therefore too risky for most image-conscious advertisers. The sheer volume of video content online makes it difficult at best and impossible at worst for advertisers to manage and control the flow of information with any degree of certainty. Toss in the legal ramifications of unlicensed, pirated content, and online video becomes more of a liability than an asset.

But we view the free-market cup as being half full. The emerging lesson of this "post it and they will come" philosophy is that quality still closes the deal. Ask yourself: Is it funnier when a skateboarder takes it in the shorts on YouTube, or is it funnier when Blake Edwards only shows you Francois' reaction as Inspector Dreyfus shoots himself behind the door? I'm smiling now just thinking about it!

The fact is, the good stuff is good – and will always be good – for all the right reasons, and that's why Vidsense works. With more than 80,000 licensed, advertiser-friendly TV and movie clips in our archives, and more than 20,000 safe-for-work websites in our publisher network, Vidsense takes the guesswork out of online video. And because our video clips are always viewed within the exclusive confines of an advertiser's branded surroundings, there is absolutely no downside risk at all.

Jeff: Why doesn't the pre-roll model work better?

Jaffer: Compared to what? No model at all? Seriously, why would anybody suffer through a pre-roll commercial online that they literally pay to avoid offline? The answer is, they wouldn't…and they don't. You can't make friends and influence people if the first thing you do is bully them. Forced intrusion flies in the very face of our on-demand world. Its failure on a performance level is virtually preordained by its utter failure on a conceptual level.

Pre-roll technology takes us straight back to the pre-DVR video Stone Age. In wresting control from the user, both advertisers and consumers are robbed of the Web's – and, hence, their own – true potential. What's more, pre-roll defies true measurement by imposing conditions on advertisers and media buyers that reinforce outdated metrics. For the first time in history we can anticipate actual consumer behavior. So how do we deal with this unprecedented branding advantage? We paint ourselves into an even smaller CPM-driven corner.

And don't get me started on clip demos versus site demos. The most popular video portals feature tens of thousands of different video clips, so on face value they appear to offer something for everyone. Everyone except the advertiser, that is. Viewers watching a Liberace clip, for instance, will certainly differ from those viewing a White Stripes music video. So if your pre-roll ad schedule is based on site demographics, your ad may very well run before both videos, guaranteeing the relative worthlessness of at least one – and perhaps both – of those impressions.

Pre-roll advertising leaves us only one point of control – the right to say "no". Wouldn't we be better off engaging consumers on their own terms in a way that encouraged them to say "yes"? Of course we would, and that's exactly what Vidsense is all about. Let me repeat: The very best way to target your audience in an on-demand medium is to let them target you instead.

Jeff: Can you expand on the concept of clip demos vs. site demos?

Jaffer: Video clips each have their own distinct demographic profile and each involves a viewer self-selection process. Essentially, viewers choose which videos they want to watch. My son and I routinely visit YouTube. But are we watching the same clips? Of course not. This is the great commercial advertising lesson of the Internet as an on-demand medium: Don't target the audience. Give them a good reason to target you instead.

Agencies and advertisers have been targeting and buying specific demos on television for years. With Vidsense, this same approach can now be applied to online video advertising, because video clips are in a sense like individual cable or television shows. Common sense dictates – and our research confirms – that if an advertiser wishes to use video to target a particular demographic, it makes more sense to target the clip demo than the site demo whenever possible.

In a nutshell, Vidsense enables advertisers to target specific clips and match audience demos to specific messages. We achieve this by channeling viewer predisposition in a unique reversal of traditional media cause and effect. Instead of hoping and praying that your target demos match up with the video, you can now use the proven power of quality content to identify and deliver the audience you want where you want them. By changing the sequence of events in the engagement process and making viewer choice the driver, the resulting impression remains pure and intact no matter where the viewing takes place. This self-selection process preserves the integrity of the clip's demographic profile to the distinct benefit of the advertiser. It's simply a matter of matching who you want to reach with the right content, in the right order.

Jeff: How can Vidsense help solve the social networking ad dilemma?

Jaffer: The explosive growth of Facebook and other social networking sites should by any measure represent a cornucopia of advertising opportunities. Turns out, however, that the very hyper-personalization that defines and drives social networks also makes it next to impossible for marketers to target specific audiences. Add to that advertiser concerns about unsavory content and increasing consumer antipathy for all advertising, and what should have been a veritable gold mine has turned instead into a media mine field.

The sober truth is that advertisers are up against the wall – in no small part because the first thing consumers will demand in an on-demand world is far fewer ads, plain and simple. It's time to invert the model. Rather than target the audience, it's time to let the audience target us.

By engaging consumers on their own terms, Vidsense solves the social networking ad dilemma. The idea is not to legislate taste but to leverage it. We do this by tapping existing sensibilities. It's easy to recreate an emotional connection when one already exists. That's why we don't try to reinvent the wheel. We just help connect the dots in the free commerce equation. At the end of the day, Vidsense represents a no-risk opportunity to put economy of scale and viewer choice to work for advertisers and social networks instead of against them.

We've actually taken the concept of social networking to its logical extreme through a new nonprofit initiative we call the Good Works Better Alliance. The GWBA enables giant social networks – or any high traffic site – to leverage their massive traffic on behalf of deserving nonprofits and NFPs. It's a great way to raise funds for worthy causes, and it's entirely underwritten by Vidsense. When you think about it, nonprofits and NFPs are the original social networks. With the GWBA, Vidsense helps transform might into right.

About Jeff Einstein and the Brothers Einstein

Jeff Einstein is one-half of the Brothers Einstein, a creative strategy and branding boutique. The Brothers Einstein help select rapid-growth clients protect their media investments with superior creative and brand strategies.