The IAB worked with Deep Focus, OMD, Avenue A | Razorfish and others on video ad guidelines. Hear what one insider sees as the industry's next steps for migrating TV dollars to digital video.
The IAB took a bold, and long anticipated, step forward for the digital video industry when its Digital Video Committee published a video format and best practices doc in May.
I say long anticipated because, according to eMarketer, in 2008, 80 percent of all internet users watch online video; yet, it's been two years since Google acquired YouTube and video exploded onto the digital consciousness, and the industry is still struggling to find the right formula for video-based advertising.
To that point, it's been one year since I cornered IAB President Randall Rothenberg at the Yale Club in New York and asked him why the IAB wasn't being more proactive about addressing the prohibitive lack of standardized ad formats for digital video. At the time I was tasked with figuring out how to monetize a now defunct high-resolution UGC video portal with 20 million visitors per month -- and one of the biggest bandwidth bills on the planet. Like many of my industry colleagues, I'm sure, I was frustrated by what I perceived as a lack of video expertise by digital media planners, and an apparent lack of a coherent game plan by the holding companies.
Aside from the complexities of monetizing UGC video and distributed traffic, I kept seeing RFPs that asked for something that fit in a spreadsheet yet was simultaneously "a custom, out of the box big idea." (read: not scalable).
Randall replied that while it wasn't the IAB's job to lead the charge, it was important to establish and promote acceptance of standards the industry sets for itself.
Or more formally:
The IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices, fields interactive effectiveness research and educates marketers, agencies and media companies, as well as the wider business community, about the value of interactive advertising.
The industry has spoken, and the Digital Video Committee is now active.
For those of you who haven't yet read the white paper (though it should be required reading for anyone in the digital video space), here's what you will want to know. I will also talk about what needs to happen next to facilitate the migration of TV dollars to digital video.