FOOA and Online Video Ads

Jeremy Allaire (Brightcove) ‘Ads in Online Video – which ad format will work and why?’

For online video, there is an explosion in new distribution and self-service platforms. there are 1000′s emerging online, from production companies, prosumer creation, traditional publishers getting into the space, I like to use the phrase fragment or be fragmented. Micromarkets can flourish, from the major suppliers and the smaller companies.

For an example, Discovery have their traditional channels online, and they also are launching new micro-channels, leveraging their catalogue. It’s happening from the bottom up as well; sometimes it is actual fragmentation of the existing value chain. We are distributing over 3000 channels from professional media channels. eg Shipwreck central – they make traditional Tv programmes and web stuff. The access to national Tv ads/big company ads is great for the microchannels. As existing programmers rethink the linear tv, so advertisers need to rethink what they are doing.

So we have open distribution; you have to think about reaching consumers where they are not where you want them to be. Content aggregators, portals, social media sites. the driving forces are branded destination sites, viral distribution and widgets, managed syndication, portal distribution.

So programmers and marketers have to develop a blended distribution strategy. Like e-commerce merchants, must chart out programs and policies to reach and touch consumers, and think about binding advertising to content wherever it goes. Advertisers have to get comfortable with the fact advertising will exist in multiple places. But how do you manage this distribution?

Dow Jones is one company that I think is doing an excellent job. They have a branded channel on wsj.com; they are also embracing viral distribution, with embed code. Allows users to contextualise it, talk about it. The wsj could also wrap their chrome around it, put ads in it etc, follows the content. Dow Jones embraces the audience as a distributor. They have taken it a step further and adopted managed syndication, provide the content for other website owners can use and distribute. Brightcove have a syndication market, you can distribute the channel. It needs to be approved and it will contain advertising, but they get the whole channel. Often, the distributors can get a commission for the distribution, eg timesdaily.com syndicates Dow Jones.

For marketers, you are buying massively distributed media. The marketer has to gain an understanding of this syndicated inventory. There will be diverse contexts where the media will be. Metrics have to move to content, not sites, and their could be a high chance of sales channel conflicts. you can also distribute marketing content, brand content as a new form of media buy, where you can develop an affiliate network for marketing content.

So what is happening in the formats and policies? the industry is stalled with the existing stuff; typical approach is a 5-30′ pre-roll with a companion banner even for shortform video, running every other clip. There are a lot of challenges – negative end user reaction, limited brand engagement, the format not suited to support mid and long form and there is creative fatigue due to insufficient inventory and too heavy rotation. (tell me about it….even on the big networks it gets really really boring. marketers need to get more out there, or the publisher needs to stop running them!)

What to do? innovate on the formats, such as overlay ads, takeovers, bumper sponsorships, flash ads for non-video. Eg a 3 sec bumper followed by a 5-10sec mid roll bottom third overlay and a post-roll sponsorship takeover, also triggered by click on overlay. Looking at time based advertising, midroll implementations and strict adherence to creative rotation by buyers. (this sounds OK and a lot more interactive than the current format without too much interference)

So what is happening with the consolidation on the ad industry? The dominant players are pursuing a holistic vision composed of Ad Platforms and Ad Marketplaces against all formats. this implies that publishers will rely in a combination of technology platforms and marketplaces to drive highest yield and value. in particular when thinking about fragmented distribution and environment then marketplaces will become more important as he direct sales environment will not be able to grasp the environment. Buyers will need to get comfortable with this as content dynamically moves across the various properties.

So what is the role of the end-user? You have to embrace the users in what they want to do; media owners need to think about the value of the user. You need to support media and brand exposure on the user’s online homes, these are increasingly the most valuable place to engage the user. Allow the user to become programmers, with favouriting, bookmarking, playlists. Media is becoming disconnected from source. The final thing is the highest value, which is end users as producers. Simple (allow easy upload) and powerful (allow remix and refactoring) the first example was with haagen daaz, where users submitted new flavours, with a voting systems, with their own editorial content. the NYT, on boston.com, there was a submit your local sport story, to tap into local passion, getting High School sports videos. The basic use case is create and upload but the more powerful usecase is allowing the user into your brand, allowing remixing and higher engagement. So we have a new product, called Aftermix, (still in beta), which will give users tools to work with video and content. It’s an online video editor that allows a user to create originals plus has the ability to interact with video across the web – you can offer rights cleared media. A powerful tool for deeper engagement.

Audience Q&A

Q: rights cleared video is not a solved problem…from your perspective do the YT lawsuits threaten your viral distribution…and is YT dominance at sik
A: it’s difficult to figure out how you build a business on pirated, the mix is complies with UGC and legitimate content. We do the opposite, start with the interests of tight holders and create the avenues for sharing and voting and engagement in a way that respects the enduser. i think YT is doing fine now…

Q: evidence of usage to support business cases for 1000s of microchannels?
A: the jury still out, only over last 6 months they have been emerging. Looking at the best, it looks like it could be a good business. the distribution does not solve marketing or quality, there is no magic formula. We’ve seen 100s that are developing growing audiences, with access to advertising. This takes years to develop, we are in yr 2 in a 5-`0 yrs evolution.

Q: creative talent fees and affect of this syndicated distribution feed in calculation this?
A: it carries a lot, depending on the all the elements. Increasingly, what we are seeing is the distributor are trying to as clearly as possible outline what the rights are and tie those into the talent contracts. in a way where they do not have to account for every single thing but look at an aggregated pool.