CES 2010: What it Means for Video Advertising - Shane Steele - MediaBizBloggers

Welcome Shane Steele our newest MediaBizBlogger

Every year, it seems that almost everyone who works in technology or media descends on Las Vegas to attend the Consumer Electronics Show. It has become the largest trade show in the US according to some estimates and as somebody who’s just back from Las Vegas, I can believe it. It took me and my team about two days to walk the halls, and thank goodness we all had comfortable shoes on.

The 3D TV displays clearly dominated the show. We couldn’t walk more than a few feet before seeing another device manufacturer or content producer showcasing their new 3D wares and eyewear. But we are media & advertising people, and a few other things interested us more than 3D TVs. Mukund Ramachandran, head of Tremor Media Product Marketing and I took notes, and below is our summary of the trends that we see impacting the online video industry as a whole.

Tremor Media's Mukund Ramachandran and Shane Steele at CES

It’s an app world

Everywhere we looked, we saw apps – app supported phones, tablets, TVs, and even cars. It seems like there isn’t a device that won’t support apps in the near future; or at least that’s what the device and software makers are betting on. Today, the app ecosystem develops largely for the phone meaning for predominantly casual gaming and location based apps. As apps migrate to larger screens, we will see more compelling media, content, and entertainment apps which support richer ad experiences within the apps themselves.

Touch everywhere

Devices that use touch as the primary mode of interface continues to grow – from phones, to digital book readers and tablets. This trend will have a huge impact on how UI designers think about content delivery within the touch context, where users are far less likely to take multiple actions to get to their desired content. Simple intuitive design, and the shortest path to presenting content, will become paramount. From an ad perspective, we think this is going to further increase the adoption of in-stream ad formats.

Connected TV’s

3D TVs are cool, but Wi-Fi enabled connected TV is cooler. This is the technology that will finally tip consumer behavior towards watching more online content on their TV. As more TVs and TV-connected devices become Wi-Fi enabled, online video will change fundamentally. It will no longer be “online video”; it will just be video that can move from screen to screen.

What does all of this mean for online video advertising? How will online video advertising evolve over time? Yogi Berra once famously said that predicting anything is hard, especially if it’s about the future. But we’ll give it a try – here are ours:

· Online video advertising will become video advertising.Our industry will change fundamentally. Today, most users go online for a few hours a day but we see a future in which they will be online almost all the time – via their PC’s, tablets, e-Readers, TV’s and phones. The whole distinction of “being online” will go away. Hence, online video advertising will evolve to digitally-delivered video advertising with the ability to reach audiences wherever they are consuming video, across any platform, and on any screen.

· Ad networks with a technology edge will win.As content gets delivered across multiple devices and platforms, advertisers will insist on getting an audience view vs. a device specific view for their buy. Ads will have to be trafficked, delivered and optimized across multiple platforms - and the ad networks that have a technology advantage that can migrate across platforms will win.

· Video reporting will evolve.Click thru rates and completion rates will give way to brand awareness and engagement metrics. Online video providers will scramble to work with third party research providers who measure branding impact and ROI to demonstrate the value they have created.

· The companion banner will eventually fade away. Companion banners were initially introduced as a way for publishers to track video impressions, because it was then not possible to introduce tracking pixels on videos. In order for the publisher to track video plays, publishers added a companion banner along with every video impression and said “we’d track these” as a proxy. Not only is that no longer necessary from a tracking perspective, but the “TV everywhere” phenomena will lead to more full screen experiences, contributing to the death of the companion banner.

Online video advertising is predicted to boom in the next few years, and the technology advances seen at CES will only contribute to this trend. A final prediction: As consumers adopt new internet and app enable devices for video consumption, digital video ad creative will finally move beyond repurposed TV spots. And we’ll see lots more three second spots than 3D spots.

Shane Steele is a media and marketing executive with 14 years experience in digital media and brand marketing. She is currently Vice President, Marketing at Tremor Media, the largest video ad network where she oversees all of the company’s marketing efforts. Shane can be reached at ssteele@tremormedia.com You can also follow Shane at http://www.linkedin.com/in/shanesteele and http://twitter.com/shane_steele .

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