Power Video

Meet the New Standards

It’s official. The Interactive Advertising Bureau completed its industry guidelines for online video ads. You can read the actual document here (PDF format).

The highlights:

-- Overlay ads should run 5-15 seconds without audio until the viewer opts in.
-- Pre-, mid-, and post-roll ads should not exceed 30 seconds.

These practices have pretty much been in place already; the IAB has simply formalized these unwritten rules. But as paidContent points out, the industry still needs clarification on the best way to measure impressions and other metrics. Still, it’s a start.

Clarity Coming to Ad Formats?

The Interactive Advertising Bureau is scheduled to publish new guidelines for online video ads Monday, May 5. For the past month, the IAB has been accepting suggestions from industry members on its proposed guidelines (PDF format). The guidelines cover best practices for the most common current in-stream ads, including linear ads and companion ads.

It’s great that someone is taking the lead. Too many marketers have kept their distance from online video in part because of the lack of standards. Along with the Online Video Advertising ROI Council’s efforts to determine video advertising’s effectiveness, the IAB’s efforts should make it easier in the long run for marketers to justify launching online video campaigns. As eMarketer’s David Hallerman points out, “Video ads command higher prices than static display advertising.” And if standards make advertisers more comfortable with the format, they’ll be more comfortable with paying higher CPMs.

Critics will say that standards will stifle creativity. That may be true, but unbridled experimentation with ad formats has confused marketers and consumers alike. Sure, things get less exciting when you start talking about “standards” and “guidelines,” but that’s what happens when an industry enters its next phase. And this is clearly a sign that the online video industry has matured.

Break CEO Breaks it Down

Mashable has posted a podcast interview with Break Media CEO Keith Richman, who discusses the state of the online advertising business. Last week, Break Media formed the Online Video Advertising ROI Council, which will “analyze and determine online video advertising effectiveness and better understand the challenges in measuring ROI for the online video medium.” We certainly need someone to do that.

Richman explains the council’s goals in further detail in the interview. It’s a fascinating listen for content providers and distributors as well as marketers.

Recruiters to Score with Video

While people have debated the pros and cons of video resumes, recruiters are finding out that online video can be a big boost to their efforts. Click Z reports on a study from Borrell Associates that finds online video ad spending will reach $10 billion in 2012, up from $522 million last year—much of that driven by major local ad categories, including recruitment.

Like any other ad, video from recruiters could be used to pinpoint the right candidate, which also involves eliminating the wrong candidate. Think about watching a video tour of the department for which you’re applying for—you’d know right away whether it seemed like the place for you. This is particularly true for younger job seekers, who value culture and environment as much as they do salary and benefits. And video testimonials from current employees can be a great asset, as well.

As is often the case, the simplest applications are the most effective.

Riding the Rails

The open-source framework Ruby on Rails has become a popular tool among Web site programmers. That’s why we’re now offering Fliqz4R, an open-source Rails wrapper for the Fliqz video platform developed in collaboration with educational technology company LearnHub. You can learn more about the new tool, including instructions, resources, and code examples, at LearnHub’s Fliqz community site.

My, How We’ve Grown

We try not to toot our own horn too much around here, but some things are worth celebrating. The fact that we’ve enjoyed robust growth—six quarters in a row—is one such thing. As is the signing of Inman News as our 7,500th customer.

Inman is the leading independent real estate and media news service. Real estate is one of our key vertical markets, so we’re particularly proud to provide white-label video services for InmanTV, where you can see a few examples of Inman’s branded Fliqz players.

Now it’s on to the business of serving the next 7,500 customers.

Learning to Love the Recession

Sure, recessions are generally unpleasant. But all that corporate belt-tightening may actually be good for online video advertising. At least according to the folks at BtoB. The magazine’s 2008 Interactive Marketing Guide—completed with data research assistance from eMarketer—finds that the gloomy economic horizon will accelerate the shift away from traditional media to digital media as marketers demand granular, measurable data.

Money paragraph: “Online video is an especially interesting category, in part because the cost of entry is so much lower than traditional broadcast efforts, a fact that has and will spur adoption by companies that never had a video strategy in the past. U.S. online video advertising spending this year will increase 74.2% from 2007.”

Not that we’re hoping for the economy to dig itself into a deeper hole—even we know about the law of diminishing returns. Besides, this shouldn’t be a short-term proposition. Yes, more companies will use the opportunity to explore this new medium. But they’re likely to stay here if they get the results they demand.

It’s worth reading the entire guide. You’ll find some helpful tidbits about online video ads, including “5 Simple Rules for Producing Effective Online Video.”

Video Classifieds: Where Are They?

Mike Cassidy at Video Insider wonders why online classifieds—and eBay in particular—haven’t jumped on the video bandwagon. “Much like virtual tours have allowed home buyers to be much more effective when searching for a property on real estate Web sites, the same could potentially be true for consumers of miscellaneous goods and services.”

It’s a good point, especially given the nature of classified ads. Unlike traditional advertising, you don’t have to be a professional videographer to get your point across in a video classified (just as you don’t need to be a professional copywriter to craft a competent classified ad). And we’d like to add that it’s critical that the video uploading tools be as intuitive as possible, and that the player blends in well with the look and feel of the site that’s hosting it. That way, you’ve created value for both the consumer and the listing site.

Another Ad Network Joins the Fray

A few months ago we told you about AdItAll, which allows companies to create online video ads from a library of prepackaged clips. Today, a new service called Jivox hits the scene, allowing companies to… create online video ads from a library of prepackaged clips. The main difference is while AdItAll uses Google’s AdSense platform for distribution, Jivox distributes the free, user-created ads through its own network based on user preferences for geographic, demographic, and contextual parameters.

Making it easier for the little guy to take advantage online video advertising is a worthy endeavor, one that we aspire to in our own way. But, as NewTeeVee points out, it’s not clear whether Jivox users can distribute their videos over other ad networks. If they can’t, that may defeat the purpose for many would-be advertisers.

Update: Today’s New York Times has a piece about D.I.Y. web video ads, mostly focusing on a company called The Talk Market, which helps companies create QVC-like product demonstration videos. A sub-niche of a niche offering. Oh yes, this is definitely a trend.

In Search of Online Video Profits

Mike Cassidy has posed a challenge on Online Video Insider: “If you were given $1 million for an online video business, how would you spend it?” Cassidy comes up with four business models—video search, video portal, ad serving, and ad solution—that are prime for someone—anyone—to develop the killer solution.

We’ve been discussing the same issues here. Like Cassidy, we’re interested in what you have to say.