advertising

MSNBC Decision 08 Dashboard

Pete Wylie — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:09:43 -0500

MSNBC aggregates all sorts of election-based content on its Decision 08 Dashboard site, including online videos detailing issues and contextual stories, as well as streaming video coverage of the election results. The site also includes issue briefings, giving voters information about candidates' stances on gun control, abortion rights, the economy, and national security, among others.

MSNBC is also advertising a "One Stop" feature that allows users to view streaming feeds from other websites in a single widget. The site will host streaming coverage from its legion of political pundits throughout the evening and into the morning, if need be.

MSNBC Decision 08 Dashboard

Google announces AdSense for Games

Pete Wylie — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:54:44 -0400

After announcing a click-to-buy feature in YouTube videos, Google continued to roll out big plans for online video ads this week, as it announced the release of a beta for AdSense for Games. With the new ad format, game developers will be able to drop text, video or image ads into their games and earn revenue in the process.

The ad displays are completely customizable, and developers are free to position them at any point in their games, such as between levels or after losing a life. Google reported that the ads would be targeted demographically and contextually, and that the ads would be sold through its AdWords sales staff. Google's 2006 acquisition of Adscape Media, which pioneered game ad placement, now appears to be bearing its first fruit.

Google is only opening the beta program to established game developers; to be included, a game must have 500,000 or more plays and derive 50 percent or more of its traffic from the U.S. and U.K.

It remains to be seen how successful or popular the ad model will be. Gamers are finicky and will complain if ads are at all intrusive. But when ads are integrated into the game experience, such as in the Grand Theft Auto series, gamers tend to have a positive response to the "reality" that real advertisements lend the game. Advertisers will also need coaxing to accept a model without significant click-through metrics.

For more:
- see coverage of the launch at Information Week here

SMW: Video monetization a good news/bad news story

Doug Mohney — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:17:11 -0400

San Jose, CA - Monetizing online video in today's environment is a "good news, bad news" story, said YouTube's Larry Hoffner at Streaming Media West.

Hoffner, director of content partnerships at YouTube, noted that online video viewing is now a mainstreaming practice, with 75 percent of U.S. internet users streaming 11.4 billion videos monthly. Broadband access - the enabling technology for online video - is expected to increase 50 percent over the next five years. And user behavior is converging, with 15 hours per week spent online.

The bad news is spending on online advertising is "incongruent" to the proliferation of online products. Out of a total U.S. advertising spend of $303 billion, only 6 percent is spent online while 22 percent is spent on TV. People spend more time online than they do in front of the tube, but advertisers have not migrated there at the same rate.

In other words, nobody is getting paid.

Advertisers and content people want monetization, but nobody wants to "exchange analog dollars for digital pennies," said Hoffner. There are too many "Show me the money" phone calls taking place across the industry.

Hoffner posits that a combination of standardization and innovation will lead to successful monetization. Advertisers are looking for "what is the same" in measurement standards and those standards need to scale. "There's no agreement on what a click is, when a view is a view," he said. "How do you get to a [gross rating point] online?"

Even though TV spending and ratings are going down, TV still has ratings. "You can't do that necessarily online," Hoffner said. Online video advertising is a pitch, not a measurable equation of metrics for ad agencies to understand. "Once there is a standard, then the budget starts flowing. That's not happening yet, that's what we need to work on."

Online video content distributors have to use and stick with a universal standard. YouTube, Hulu, Joost and other video players have adapted a video display standard, but more mainstream players such as CNN.com, Time Warner and smaller ones such as local TV stations all need to agree on the same standards or, "We're all just leaving money on the table."

Content distributors need to innovate collectively to keep the flow of people coming online. Media companies large and small need to create an environment where they can best distribute, display and monetize content. Finally, advertisers need to provide a "superior service" to deliver messages, along with a clear cut measure of the results that demonstrates to ad buyers how people are engaging with video, where they are watching the video, and other pertinent demographic information about consumers.

"Streaming is a part of our social fabric," said Hoffner. "The economy around streaming is immature. We need to work together to standardize and continue to innovate."

The invisible (apparently) online video upside

Pete Wylie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:56:09 -0400

comScore released online video metrics today, which report that Americans watched 556 million hours of online video in July. Five. Hundred. Fifty-six. Million. Hours. In case you were wondering, that's 63,400+ years worth of online video consumed in one month!

If that's not enough eye-time to sell some advertising, who knows what is.

But that's exactly the problem that is dogging the industry right now. The most recent figures from eMarketer put online video ad spending at less than $600 million for 2008. Some quick math breaks that down to roughly a dollar per hour of online video content viewed. 30-second TV spots continue to cost into the upper six figures and beyond, so where is the disconnect with online video?

Everyone intimately familiar with the industry has heard the stock answers; fear of ads running alongside questionable user-gen content, viewer distaste for/avoidance of ad formats, and lack of ROI. The lackluster online video ad results for NBC's online Olympic coverage are a perfect example of monumental traffic, coupled with tepid ad sales.

But ad buyers should change their tune quickly as the number of viewers and videos viewed skyrockets. The same comScore figures indicated that more than 140 million Americans watched online videos in July, and, on average, they watched 82 videos each, or roughly four hours of content. YouTube led the way here, with five billion individual videos viewed for an average of 54 videos per user. Most of this content probably ran without ads, which will soon prove to be a major oversight.

For more:
- see the full comScore numbers here

SPOTLIGHT: YouTube gets ad-mobbed

Pete Wylie — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:27:31 -0400

In an increased effort to recoup its $1.65 billion investment, Google recently increased the amount of ads running with video clips on YouTube players embedded in other websites.

Most clips viewed on the YouTube home site run without embedded ads, but YouTube players on other sites now have an ad space at the top of the player and a frequently updated overlay ad space at the bottom of the video itself.

Some analysts are concerned that this might take away from the clip viewing experience.

View Saul Hansell's blog for more.

Survival Tips for Short-Form Video Ads

Doug Mohney — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:27:42 -0400

Ovum has mapped out a number of survival tips for advertising in what it calls the "short-form video jungle."

Leading the charge in giving best practices advice is BT Podshow President Adam Curry (known more intimately as "The Podfather" if one knows where to listen). Brand safety is a big one; companies don't to randomly associate their products with randomized user-generated content with no quality control or content vetting. Curry is a big fan of "popularized" content promoted through the PodShow and Mevio networks--vetted hosts, developed brands, targeted audience demographics.

Other tips include focusing on episodic content since serials develop loyalty and establish a consumer franchise to build ad revenues. Ad messages should fit the length of the short-form content; in a three to eight minute video, acceptable ads will run between 3 to 30 seconds long. Ads should be "appropriate" for the online video environment; glossy and over-produced segments won't go over well.

For more
- Ovum's survival tips for advertising in the short-form video jungle
- Adam Curry's other life as The Podfather

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