Roundtable: Online Video Advertising

By Masha Geller
圆桌会谈:在线广告
Summit participants discuss the future and potential of online video.

During a roundtable discussion on the first day of this week's iMedia Summit in Lake Las Vegas, one thing became very clear-- online video advertising has a long way to go before brands start paying serious attention to it.

The small group of participants was led by Carole Walker, director of marketing communications and ethnic advertising at Masterfoods USA, who asked everyone to kick the discussion off by naming three things that stand in the way of wider adoption of video online advertising.

After an hour of discussion, the group had a clear winner: Measurable results, or rather, lack thereof.

Participants from PointRoll, Centro, Kaiser Permanente, Tremor Network and Nissan agreed that the biggest hurdle for online video proponents to overcome is that they can't offer an apples to apples comparison between online video advertising and television advertising.

At present, despite its many widely publicized flaws, advertisers still put their trust in Nielsen's television ratings, yet are very skeptical about nearly all metrics associated with online video. All agreed that despite online video being just as measurable, if not more so, than television, the two sides are speaking different languages and marketers are having a tough time deciphering the interactive video dialect, and thus continuing to live in the fear of the unknown in many cases.

This is not to say that online video is doomed to spend eternity on the back burner.

Several research studies, namely a recent one from PointRoll, have shown the effectiveness of online video advertising and advertisers are definitely paying attention. Many have successfully employed the myriad online video technologies currently available and the sector is quickly moving out of the "just hype" category and into the "viable digital marketing technique" sphere.

The key is pre-planning, the group agreed. Repurposing television creative online is okay, but it doesn't take advantage of the interactivity offerings of the medium, which almost never fail to deliver better results for marketers.

Chip Russo of Pointroll, said, "If you're going to make video really effective online, get engaged really early so you have an opportunity to customize. Repurposing [TV ads online] is still ok, but custom video for the web is where we see the best results."

Another benefit of sitting at the planning table from the beginning is that it allows for bringing in people with specific online video experience, who can negotiate the landscape of TV vs. web, such as difference monitor ratios and different monitor color schemes. "If you can pre-plan, it's something you should definitely do," Russo said.

Another pitfall of online video is the dearth of pre-roll inventory, largely caused by the still relatively small amount of available online video contenat. One way to combat that, panelists agreed, is to extend online video messaging to the rest of your online video buy, such as ay of the popular in-banner video formats.

Finally, there is the issue of educating both clients and agencies about online video advertising. While everyone tends to think of online video ads as the spots appearing before content rolls (pre-roll) that's only a small portion of the plethora of opportunities currently available.

A monumental task, but not an impossible one.