YuMe's CEO makes a case for a new paradigm of online video interaction, including letting users skip your ads.
Maximizing the return on an online video ad campaign -- whether the optimization metric is brand awareness, overall ad effectiveness or general campaign performance -- can be an extremely tricky business.
The transparency taken for granted in the TV business doesn't yet exist with the majority of online video ad networks and site buys, and as a result, today's online video media buys are generally based on opaque, site-specific reach and demographic data.
This lack of transparency with regards to exactly where and when an ad is actually appearing has resulted in an overall sense of conservativeness. The end result has been that advertisers and ad agencies rely on fairly simple, static sponsorship ad campaigns on specific shows or sites and complicated media planning on multiple big brand sites, resulting in a general sense that there is a deficit of good, safe inventory.
Let's take a brief look at what works well and what doesn't work so well about TV advertising from an online perspective.
TV advertising can offer absolute context in terms of the association of the ad with the content, and it offers far more transparency about where the ad is being placed.
Based on the predicted audience for a particular show or content category, fairly accurate demographic targeting is possible. On the down side, demographic targeting is not assured, as witnessed by the numerous examples of placing diaper commercials on certain shows and not knowing if those shows are really being watched by parents with young children. Also, there is almost no way to receive a real-time, or near real-time reporting in the manner the online systems provide, which afford advertisers a near-continuous, real-time feedback loop that allows them to really understand the branding or performance impact of a campaign. Then, if possible, on the current campaign, or in future campaigns, messaging can be amended and fine-tuned to make the campaign more efficient.
Though there are a few ad networks that are promising not only run-of-network buys but transparent run-of-category, run-of-channel, and in some cases specific content targeting, online video ad campaigns cannot be targeted as they are in TV today, that is, by channels of content, popularity of content, or to the content itself. This lack of targeting by video genre impedes an advertiser's ability to maximize a campaign's effectiveness.
The good news is that unlike TV advertising, online video ad campaigns can take advantage of the immersive and visual experience of video as well as the interactive, targeting and optimization strengths that broadband internet provides.