Video Insider
Online Video Insider

Online Video: Redefining How Businesses Connect With Their Customers
Why should corporate America take notice of a small household appliance maker? Because that company is a prime example of a small but growing group of businesses that have cracked the code on the video-centric Web.

Online Video Ads Ride High During Tough Economic Times
Doom and despair are the watchwords for the advertising and publishing industries as our economy nosedives into a recession. In times like this, it is easy for advertisers (dragging their agencies with them) to simply retrench and wait for better days to market themselves. It's also easy for advertisers to stay away from "newer" ad types like online video -- ad types that could be deemed risky or peripheral to a core media campaign....

Online Video CPMs Bound To Drop As Display Ad Budgets Head South
Amidst the gloomy prognostications of '09 advertising budget declines, one area that's due for certain course correction is online video CPMs. We've heard everything from big media's projections of 20% across-the-board declines in overall ad spending to the more optimistic flat spending in broadcast while magazine and newspaper tumble further. But one thing's for certain: digital budgets are in for a wakeup call in 2009.

Brands And Users Benefiting From Online Video Contests
In 2006, Pepsi's Frito-Lay pushed the marketing envelope by challenging users to create an ad for the Super Bowl. The contest was successful beyond everyone's expectations, resulting in over a thousand submissions, millions of views and a hilarious winning commercial that won "best ad of 2006" honors. This occurred right around the time of Google's acquisition of YouTube. Many thought that this was the peak of the user-generated content (UGC) boom, but in many ways it was the beginning. UGC has continued to enjoy substantial growth via YouTube, blogs and other outlets that allow ease of content creation and distribution.

Where You Goin’ With That Pre-Roll?
As digital specialists, we've been trained to continually search for "the next thing." Ten years ago we were looking for the next banner ad and we thought that we found the next "cool" sites (R.I.P. Boo.com, Pets.com, Kozmo, Flooz, and many others that have fallen). Today we're looking for the next MySpace, Facebook or Youtube, the next Quarterlife or the next "In the Motherhood" (for my brothers at Mindshare). We've become wired to constantly change; to be dynamic and nimble and react to consumer interests and concerns in real-time with goal of "innovation."

Searching for Digital Media: EveryZing’s MetaPlayer
We've been talking, reading, and are inundated with so many promises of a world of digital media content that is or will soon be at our fingertips. True enough, there is an amazing amount of audio and video content to be sought and sifted through. But, let's face it-- finding what you want in, say, an hour-long television interview is still really, really hard. First, you have to watch the video (yes, I know, what an inconvenience...). If you're fortunate, someone has tried to make it easier for you by indexing the interview with selected keywords that you can jump to. That works, as long as what that "someone" has indexed has some relation to your interests. But, if it's an interview where what you really want are only the sections where the interviewee mentions, say, "Watergate," and those sections have not been tagged for you, there is no other solution than to watch the content in a linear mode.

The Revolution Will Be Downloaded
For proof that the viewer wants to be in charge, look no further than the Summer Olympics. Not only did the opening ceremony in Beijing have a gigantic DVR audience of 3.25 million viewers, but NBC said 40% of its online viewers used the Web to view events they had first seen on TV.

Breaking New Battleground
With only a week left in the 2008 election season, we can begin to take a look at the role online marketing played in the candidates' overall strategies. While the total amount spent online will likely disappoint those in the industry who thought this would be an absolute breakout year from a spending allocation perspective, on balance both candidates have taken advantage of the latest online has to offer. But, this being the Video Insider, we have to review the candidates' utilization of our favorite medium: online video. Aside from creating good YouTube channels, there hasn't been much done outside the box from either candidate. That is, until the week before last.

Are All Politics Local? How About, All Politics Are Personal?
With Election Day less than two weeks away, there still remains a large contingency of undecided voters. Traditionally, television gets most of the budget during the entire election cycle. No doubt, TV is a powerful medium because of its reach and its ability to engage at an emotional level with pictures and sound. But are political media buyers missing a big opportunity by not utilizing the full resources of online video advertising? I think that presidential, gubernatorial, and ballot initiative campaigns can reach and engage swing voters in these final days at an even greater level via online video advertising because it allows for not only localized reach, but most importantly, it allows personalized reach.

Teaching A New Dog Old Video Tricks
Back in 2000, as CEO of the then-fledgling Klipmart, I was banging my head against the walls of several agencies trying to explain how video could be placed in banner ads to create a richer ad experience that cut through the clutter. At the time, the idea sounded alien. I would launch into a presentation about how video, the most engaging and emotive tool one can use, could be placed within an ad, and auto-streamed to targeted users, only to be greeted by tilted heads and blank stares. At the time there were maybe two companies in the space. Then, almost overnight, everyone was talking about video rich media. Oh, how history repeats itself -- now with online branded entertainment video.