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Apr
2
There’s lots of hooplah these days surrounding Online Video and the ad units that go with it. Quite frankly, it’s simple, direct/focused and can be bought at extreme scale, making it really easy for planners, buyers and brands to understand and work with. This is what’s made it an overnight $1.35 Billion dollar market.
All that being said, it is a new medium, much like Digital OOH and buyers and creatives are having a tough time making use of the medium for lack of standards, best practices and - dare I say it - a lack of want to take the time and understand how audiences are consuming the medium….sound familiar?
Jonathan Shambroom of Crackle Inc wrote a concise article on MediaPost yesterday that I thought I’d share. His main premise:
As the industry continues to develop, advertising creative should become more compelling and further integrated into the online experience
When you go through his arguments/points, he highlights a few common mistakes that media/creative need to be aware of in dealing with the medium. I thought they were relevant to those in the creative space who work/want to work in Digital OOH. For those of you on the Network Owner-Operator/Content/Integrator side, this should sound familiar. His opener:
Clearly, there is a robust audience and fertile playing ground at advertisers’ fingertips. And they’re hoping to take advantage of it. But before they break out the checkbook, marketers need to nail down the basics and beware of three common mistakes made with ads across online video entertainment sites:
The mistakes:
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Mistake 1: Blasting an arsenal of ad units on a site.
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Mistake 2: Repurposing broadcast ads.
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Mistake 3: Branded entertainment that’s irrelevant to the Web site
I’ll let you read his article and you can get your own take-aways. Link below. My thoughts:
Mistake 1:
This is the argument that is the least relevant but I’ll comment anyway. Online video is a 1-1 medium, whereas Digital OOH is a 1-many medium, even though it is highly demographically/audience targeted. The premise in the point is that online video is laser focused on an individual and that the surrounding “environment” (the rest of the web page) and that the content is very important and audiences are there to “get something”. In doing so, marketers need to recognize that it’s not the ad people are there to see and you need to “integrate” your ad efforts with the environment.
In Digital OOH, each individual Network has the opportunity to sell not only the “ad unit” (spot) but also the environment in which the DOOH exists to up the impact for direct ad sales. Folks like Cruise Media or C3MS (Dr Offices) or The Bar Channel or Fifth Window (Bars - duh) have a great opportunity to link the signage they control with on premise programs. Using the environment as a supporting infrastructure to your Network allows you to be less obvious about your advertising and allows for an integrated marketing experience (aka immersive).
Mistake 2:
Anyone who’s sold ads in the DOOH space will always run into the argument that a Brand or Agency simply wants to use their 30 second broadcast spot on the networks. We all know this doesn’t work but some tend to acquiesce and not push the issue to get the sale and not push back on those holding the cash. Online Video has some of the same issues. As Jonathan sayas in the article:
Online video audiences accept the fact that free video access comes with ad support, but anything longer than 15 seconds is too long. Given the length of online videos (Comscore puts the average at 2.8 minutes) and the amount of time spent online (approximately seven minutes per day), 30-second spots are simply unacceptable. Respect the audience with shorter spots, and they’ll be more likely to pay attention to your message.
The idea is to create a narrative for the audience, not an interruption, because online audiences have different attention spans than television audiences. An ideal scenario might be as follows: Create 5-second brand centric pre-roll with 15-second entertainment centric post-roll that includes actionable value proposition or free stuff.
The ad spot length forecast sounds remarkably similar to what I’ve been mouthing off about for a while. You can read it in Digital Signage Today’s segment that I wrote. As a comparison, Digital OOH has unique dwell times, loop lengths, OTS options that are much like what Jonathan highlights in his piece. I agree strongly with him - Respect the audience
Mistake 3:
As Jonathan highlights about online video:
Ensure you’re targeting your audience, and go beyond the rate card. Comedy? News? Sports? Music? Advertising can go a long way to build brand awareness, but ads must embrace the content around them.
Irrelevance in content is a killer to Digital OOH. If you’re not targeting and serving relevance to your audience in the way of something they want to partake of to watch, they simply won’t watch/participate in your Network. I’ve gone off about treating your Network like a magazine and focusing content in that manner. The more relevant the content, the more people watch, the more you will get acclaim, the more your ad rates go up…nice equation, huh? 
Ultimately, the ads have to be right for the environment, you have to service the environment with the right format (6s and 15s) and not take advantage/abuse consumers and make sure the content you’re serving up fits those you’re talking too.
Happy Humpday
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