Online Video Advertising

When talking about the role of online video, perhaps Roe Pressley of nextwebstudios.com said it best in a Press Release in August, 2007: "Incorporating video into your business website's main page exponentially increases time spent viewing, information retention, and click-through rates, not to mention the profoundly human touch it adds to your marketing strategy. Why make customers sift through thick paragraphs of text to find out about your company's services, when you can have a human being walk right out onto the main page and explain it for them?" While your at it, be sure to check out nextwebstudios.com, as they have an excellent example of how effective videos can be.

Powerhouse NBC was one of the first to jump on the YouTube bandwagon after it saw the popularity of its videos that were originally on the site illegally. They saw the potential and chief executive of NBC, Chad Hurley stated, "It's a clear proof point that we're building a viable, long-term business, and it's showing there's common ground between traditional and new media." Chief marketing officer for NBC, John Miller adds, "The fact that ["Lazy Sunday"] virally spread like wildfire, that clearly told us something -- that we could maybe duplicate that and create promos that people could share. The mechanism was there, we want to fully embrace the viral activity that YouTube embraces."

There are so many things that are constantly changing and growing in the online advertising world, and Google is always at the forefront. Adsense will soon be a thing of the past because Gadget Ads will be catching on soon in advertising online. Google Gadget Ads allow interaction between the Gadget and its audience. Branded applications and dynamic data feeds allow gadgets to be virally transferred and posted by any user, so if your gadget is popular, your audience is expanded as a bonus. These gadgets are able to include interactive videos and games complete with sound and animation. They are almost like little websites within the bigger website. There are some excellent examples here. I think that this type of advertising will be less intrusive and therefore more beneficial than trying to include pre-rolls, skins, commercials, or any combination there of. I can't help but include this question: What sounds like it would be better - skins, bugs, and tickers, OR gadgets? The first grouping sort of makes my skin crawl and doesn't sound appealing at all. Gadgets, on the other hand, sound fabulous. Just like Inspector Gadget, Google Gadget can do anything. Go, go gadget!

I'm not sure how I feel about big name newspapers who are accompanying articles with videos, or sometimes just leaving out the article all together. Yes, it's great that we have the technology, and people can get news in more ways than by merely reading....but geez! I can't help but think it's a bit sad that people can't even read a newspaper these days without the help of a video.

Although I have no idea how to solve the problem, the advertiser's conundrum within online videos is that there is little standardization within the medium. All the measurement of clicks and views and reach isn't going to do any good if the situation cannot be replicated. You never can tell how popular videos are going to be, especially user-generated content, so it is hard to rely or put any faith in advertising presented there. How to go about doing that is the next big question.