Better Internet
Video Marketing

Did you know there are a “Best Practices” Guide for digital video? The IAB Video Council released this handy guide for advertisers. You can check it out here http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/onlinevideomarketing.html

The Internet and mobile communications has made reaching out to other people so much easier. Thanks to the rapid advance of technology, reaching another person is at the tip of everyone’s fingertips. This has proven to be a boon for advertising videos but not everybody is cheering. Some privacy advocates have been asking for some government regulation to protect consumers and users.

Regulators should think twice about imposing more stringent guidelines as this could kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Berin Szoka, in his article ‘Targeted Online Advertising: What’s the Harm & Where Are We Heading?’ declares government regulation poses a danger to the health of the Internet. Government regulation will stifle the advertising video industry which is the economic engine that has ‘supported a flowering of creative expression and innovation of online content and services says Szoka. He however acknowledges that concerns of privacy advocates have to be addressed and he proposes a technology based solution to help keep the balance between privacy, regulation and economic concerns.

Self-regulatory efforts (by websites and ad networks) can be refined, especially through technological innovation. For instance, Szoka says, if websites and ad networks supplemented their current “natural language” privacy policies with equivalent “machine- readable” code, that data could be “read” by browser tools that would implement pre-specified user preferences. However, this system would only work if users realize and make real choices about paying for “free” content by disclosing their personal information.

Privacy sensitive users are free to keep out of whatever tracking they find objectionable, but according to Szoka, this will come with a price. “The less data they agree to share, the less content and services they can fairly expect to receive for free,” Szoka says. This means users might not be able to access certain sites, content and functionality without watching extra untargeted ads or paying for such content. “There is no free lunch,” Szoka adds.

For the moment, authorities are resisting calls for more regulation, and Szoka agrees that this is the right move. Keeping the Internet “free and open” requires preserving the economic engine that makes it so.

Technorati Tags: Advertising Video, Internet Video Marketing, online advertising

Membership in social network sites has been growing rapidly in the last few years and advertisers have been quick to exploit this opportunity. Along with this growth, advertising video spending is expected to grow 45% this year to reach $850 million.  Part of this increase is attributed to the added presence of professional video content on the Web.

Social networks provide companies with one of the best ways to build brand awareness and increase sales while content providers realize these sites have the potential for efficient distribution channels.  This realization has led to much experimentation with various applications and widgets.  However, the time for experimentation has passed and marketers are now consolidating their strategies and sticking with fewer proven vendors in order to increase their ROI.

What are the best practices that marketers should keep in mind as they consolidate?

SplashCast CEO Michael Berkley says the first step to maximizing ROI is to ensure content is professional, compelling, and constantly updated.  “Basically, for the sought after viral spread that gives presence in this space its value potential, you want to advertise on content that already has legs,”  Berkley says.

Also, a content provider should have the ability to update content in real time.  A particular widget developer may be preferred because it makes it easier to upload and refresh live in every application that is installed.

A marketer should have the means to measure the success of his advertising video campaign.  Metrics such as up-to-the-minute click-throughs or length of time a user spends time interacting with an application should be kept track of in order to help the marketer allot resources to the approach that works best.

Choose a widget provider who understands, hooks, says Berkley.  This way, more people will be able to view the message marketers wish to get across.   Utilities which make users’ lives easier are hooks in and of themselves, he adds.

Berkley also advices to work with companies that have figured out how to become available on any web page and mobile device.

Finally, always maintain quality in content.  Following these tips will lead to a better return for any marketer’s advertising video online campaign.

Technorati Tags: Advertising Video, social network sites, video content, web content

It may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie but technology is progressing to the point where when one watches an advertising video in the mall it may watch you back.
Small cameras embedded in the screen or hidden around it can now track who looks at the screen and for how long.  Makers of the tracking system claim the software can determine the viewer’s gender, approximate age and in some cases ethnicity and can change the advertising video accordingly, according to a report by Dinesh Ramde.

That could mean razor ads for men, cosmetic ads for women and video game ads for teens, says Ramde.

The technology is also a goldmine for advertisers as the ability to determine viewers’ demographics will enable them to determine the effectiveness of the reach of their ads.

Technology is still a ways away from identifying individuals and remains in limited use, but manufacturers declare the system can accurately measure gender 85 to 90 percent of the time while other measures continue to be refined.

This means that the system is capable of displaying an ad for a group of men but will switch to a minvan ad when women and children join them.

The idea of smart advertising videos, however, does not please everyone. Some opponents to the use of the technology argue cameras that study people contribute to an erosion of privacy.  The use of the technology without the consumer’s knowledge also raises the hackles of privacy-protection advocates. Although manufacturers claim that nothing is ever stored and no identifying information is ever associated with the pictures, skeptics want privacy protection built in to the technology stage while it is still in its infancy.

Technorati Tags: Advertising Video, marketing video, sales video

Direct response video is a well-established, wildly successful marketing tool that is becoming main stream throughout the Internet.  Since its inception on TV 20 years ago, direct response video has sold more than $100 billion of products for entrepreneurs and small business owners and people with great ideas and vision. In 2007 Direct Response TV is had one of its best years on record. However now with the economy in a recession budgets are tighter, and advertisers are more selective in selecting the media they choose to promote their products.

Online video marketing is still growing. There is a reason for that, online video is fast becoming the most effective way to reach and connect with Internet audiences.  The direct response video is designed to bring Internet users emotionally closer to the audience. Online video is close enough to television to feel familiar to traditional marketers and advertisers.  Large fortune 500 companies are using online video to promote their products. Apple sold a million video downloads within 21 days of launching its service.  Right now, online video is still a work in progress with much of the chaos – and dreams – that the early entrepreneurs experienced in TV of the 1950s and early ’60s.

Don’t get lured into a false sense of security, because these products are incredibly successful, direct response TV is without risk. It is easy to put video on your blog or website.  Along the lines of rich media content delivery for blogs and websites, the product must match the market.  There are even products like Instant Video Generator that easily and instantly turns your emails and websites into full sensory, multimedia marketing communications tools.  We are seeing more and more pictures, audio and video being integrating and syndicated within web content.

The delivery of visual and video content is dynamic; advertising models are in flux; and marketers and advertisers have a great many places to place their bets.  DRTV is far different from general advertising and therefore offers must be positioned accordingly.

Get creative, time to crank up the volume and craft your own Internet video. Online video is fast becoming the most effective way to reach and connect with your Internet audiences.  It all adds up to this: Now is the time for Internet video.

Government is resisting calls from some sectors to increase regulation in the online advertising industry.  The US Federal Trade Commission is urging the advertising industry to more meaningful and rigorous self-regulation even as it expanded the guidelines for online marketers engaged in behavioral advertising, according to a report by Grant Gross of IDG News.  FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz wrote in a statement that this is the last clear chance for advertisers to show that self-regulation with their advertising video can effectively protect consumers’ privacy online lest government be forced to intervene with a more regulatory approach.

The FTC released its revised behavioral marketing principles recently and critics are not satisfied with the stance the government agency has taken saying it does not do enough to protect consumer privacy. “Unknown to most members of the public, a vast commercial surveillance system is at the core of most search engines, online video channels, video games, mobile services and social networks,” said privacy advocate Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

The FTC report makes some changes to four privacy principles first laid out in 2007: transparency and consumer control; reasonable security and limited data retention; consumer consent for major changes to existing privacy policies; and affirmative consumer consent for using sensitive data for behavioral advertising video.

The FTC also clarified its stance on retroactive changes to privacy policies saying a company must keep any promises it makes with respect to how it will handle and protect consumer data.  Companies, therefore must, before using previously collected data in a manner materially different from promises the company made when it collected the data, obtain the express affirmative consent from affected consumers.

Four online marketing and advertising groups have already said they are committed to working together to develop a set of privacy principles for online advertising.  The American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau have created a task force to support the FTC’s goal of a self-regulatory program, according to Gross’s report.

Despite its critics, many people want to see self-regulation work. Time will tell whether advertising videos alone will effectively balance companies’ marketing and data collection practices with consumers’ privacy interests.

Technorati Tags: Advertising Video, online advertising, online video

Online advertising video continues to grow in Asia heralding great opportunities for marketers willing to adjust to this breed of customer.  Max Digital Media Newswire reported the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has released a documentary video examination of online video showing that online advertising video for China, Japan, and Korea is forecasted to grow from US$10.3 billion this year to US$15.1 billion in 2012.  The CASBAA also released an additional in-depth Data Pack related to the video, available exclusively to its members.  The pack contains information which highlights the impact of streaming video services across Asian markets.

Japan, China and Korea are expected to drive the next wave of online advertising video development in Asia with China drawing further attention as it emerges as the largest wired broadband market in the world with 190 million connections in 2012.  CASBAA’s study revealed home access accounts for 74.1% of all connections in China while Internet cafes are the source for almost 40% of the youth market.

More audiences are migrating to the Web, according to the study.  About 33% of Koreans are watching movies online in some form while Todou, a popular video sharing site in China claims that advertising revenue reached US$1.65 million in the first half of 2008.  Japan and Korea also have video sharing sites which have large audiences.

The study projects China’s online population to surpass Korea’s more developed digital advertising market, but the sophistication and maturity of the Japanese market will support its continuous growth.

Video piracy continues to be an issue, however, as it continues to be rampant in China and Korea.  Some 47% of viewers surveyed in Korea admitted to illegally downloading feature movies without paying, or paid less than 50 cents per title last year.  Japan, on the other hand remains a relatively strong copyright protected regime and traditional sources of paid content in that country are still popular, according to CASBAA’s CEO Simon Twiston Davies.

Other obstacles include current uncertainties over rights, regulation and business models of online video services.  Despite this, Twiston Davies remains optimistic about the prospects.  New strategies are needed to fully exploit this fast growing market and those who are successful in doing so will have hit the mother lode.

Technorati Tags: Advertising Video, online video, video sharing

In the advertising business one hears a lot of talk about the “three screens”: television, the Internet, and mobile devices.  These are seen as the main avenues by which advertisers can get to their intended audience.  But among these three screens, which of them dominates and gives the most benefits for an advertising video?

According to Randall Stross, major ad agencies led him back again and again to television.  “This is not only because it remains the one place where an advertiser can gather a truly mass audience for a single commercial message but because it provides what advertisers call an ‘immersive experience,’” says Stross.

Stross points out that we used to speak of reading a book as an immersive experience but now the term seems to be shorthand for video on a screen.  People are showing a clear preference for a fully formed video experience that comes ready to play on a screen, requiring nothing but our passive attention.

The average American household consists of 2.7 persons and contains 2.9 television sets, in front of which the typical American watches up to 142 hours of television monthly, according to Nielsen figures.  Internet use, on the other hand, averaged more than 27 hours monthly with 31 percent of Internet use occurring in while watching television.  People are also taking an interest in watching videos on their phones.  There are about 100 million handsets which are video capable worldwide.  Advertising videos take a great part of the videos that they watch over television, the Internet and their mobile devices.

As a result of our continuing love affair with our screens, print media has taken a hit as subscribers to print newspapers have gone missing and book publishers are wondering where readers have gone to.  Stross speculates that a tipping point has been passed in the competition between screen and screen that has been underway since the beginning of broadcast TV and now continues with video and other media.

The aforementioned statistics from Nielsen seem to indicate that people prefer the passive attention needed when engaging during a TV show or viewing a video than print and text formats.  Are people getting lazier?  Stross thinks not.  It’s just that text is now so infrequently used that people are starting to view it as a burden. Well, that may certainly be true for users in the advertising world.  A user will not make the effort to understand and read text format advertisements particularly when it is unsolicited.  A well made advertising video definitely keeps the attention of viewers more surely than a nicely turned phrase.

Technorati Tags: Advertising Video, Internet Video

With the global economic slump here to stay for the forseeable future and everyone pinching their pennies, creating marketing initiatives that are both effective and accountable has become a greater challenge than ever before.  Nancy Marzouk, in her article “The 10 Things Performance Marketers Should Do— But Don’t”, lists 10 guidelines in order to help strengthen a brand in this time of global recession.

Marzouk recommends to take optimization into one’s own hands. “Do not pay for someone else’s optimization that is not transparent to you,” she admonishes. One should demand transparency in order to see how one’s sales video budget is being used and how keywords are being optimized.  By doing this, one makes sure that he or she is getting value for the optimization premium paid.

Eliminate media waste by pinpointing and targeting one’s ideal customer.  Marzouk says one can do this by looking for a partner who can append one’s data to theirs and personalize one’s media plan.

One should know his or her addressable market, Marzouk suggests.  “Are your goals realistic given you addressable market?  How big is your current market opportunity? How can you expand it?”, says Marzouk,” Know where the tipping point is in terms of diminishing returns.”

Analyze your attribution method in relation to frequency and exposures of your sales video. One should know one’s optimal frequency across the whole media plan.  If one can’t track frequency and exposures across the entire media plan, one can’t assign attribution equitably, Marzouk says.

Fifth, Marzouk recommends establishing metrics based on cross-channel market opportunity. having a system for cross-channel attribution analysis in order to establish metrics that will allow one to effectively budget different channels.

Marzouk also recommends to invest in good creatives, have control over where one’s sales video ads are running and give one’s website the same amount of attention as one’s media.  “If one does not have control over where their ads appear, it won’t matter how compelling they are,” says Marzouk.

“Challenge your ad agency.  Ask why they are doing what they are doing so that  dollars are spent as they should be,” says Marzouk.  Finally, clearly define one’s objectives.

Technorati Tags: ads, media, sales video

Even with the US Department of Justice effectively putting an end to merger talks between search engines Google and Yahoo, Microsoft still doesn’t seem to be satisfied.  Ross Fadner, in his column “Around the Net in Online Media” reported Microsoft recently underwrote a new International Advertising Association survey in which 100 members responded to questions about search advertising power scares them.  The bottomline?  65% said that the online advertising video market was dominated by Google, limiting choices and price options for online advertisers while 85% said it is important that a strong competitor emerge to challenge Google’s dominance.

Who is afraid of Google? Apparently a lot of people are, especially Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Time Warmer CEO Jeffrey Bewkes .  The three reportedly met at Time Warner Building in New York to discuss strategies to stave off Google’s dominance, which by some estimates has a search share of 70%.  Kara Swisher speculates Microsoft would buy Time Warner’s AOL for $4 or $5 billion dollars, and then spin AOL’s content, advertising, and communications assets into Yahoo.  What effect does this have for advertising video executives?

Google, which represents 70% of the search advertising video business, has been tracking flat growth for most of 2008—a trend most likely brought about by the 8% fall in U.S. search spending in the 4th quarter, according to search advertising firm Efficient Frontier.  However, James Beriker CEO of Efficient Frontier said although it was difficult to predict whether the next quarter would be better or worse, there were certain “encouraging signs.”  At any rate, Google is set to reveal its earnings for the period this Thursday.

Meanwhile, online networking site MySpace has partnered with five new independent labels and indie music distributors beefing up the catalog of music available on MySpace Music.  The entry of Nettwerk Music Group, INgrooves, IRIS Distribution, RoyaltyShare, and Sony Music Entertainment’s Wind-Up Records now makes seven indie labels which have partnered with MySpace. However, the online networking company has yet to finalize a licensing deal with indie giant Merlin which has been very vocal against the terms MySpace Music offers to its partners.

Technorati Tags: Advertising Video, advertising video business, advertising video market, search engines