Serious about Business

Online Video Formats: What's the future?

Mark Robertson in his blog titled:  Three Online Video Formats for the Future highlights an article by Melissa Chung in the Industry Standard.   In the article, Melissa talks about three online video formats she thinks could be the future of online video advertising.  They are:

1) Lead generation for video
2) Interactive pre-rolls requiring user input on branding effectiveness
3) Clickable videos that integrate ads with content

She appears to lament the fact that in spite of the positive forecasts for online video advertising growth, the current forms of online video ads seem stuck in the same "retread" notion of pre and post rolls - "rudimentary formats that just piggy-back off other video."

In our work with clients and partners, we see the three things Melissa talks about as closer to reality than she may realize.  Especially for small and mid-size marketers, lead generation and interaction capabilities that drive even more qualified leads is what they are want - not just video.  Online video that drives direct response is just around the corner Melissa, just wait and see.   

A Kelsey Conference Wrap Up

We’ve been here at the Kelsey Group conference on Drilling Down on Local ’08.  The focus of the event is on "catching the wave in local marketing" and specifically charting the transition from offline to online.  Fortunately the conference is right here in Seattle.  Actually two blocks from our office.

Some of the key themes I saw here were:

1) video is the next big thing in online video advertising
2) vertical marketing and the push to online (makes sense given the topic on local)
3) marketing that drives direct response

The show was impressive not just for the broad, strategic thinking that was evident from leaders throughout the directory, interactive media, publishing, and technology side, but also how the focus was really on drilling down to the local market.   Kate Kaye, Senior Editor at Click Z, said it best when she talked about not forgetting that for many SMBs you can't forget the personal level of investment they make.  These are businesses that make decisions at the dinner table that to them are big decisions.  She also went on to say that, for the SMB, results really matter and that direct response matters because at the end of the day it's their money.

We got a chance to demo our product at the conference and focused exactly on the points referenced above - that we need to move beyond the "promise" of video and to the real science of driving action for businesses.

We also got to listen to some great discussion on the state of old media versus new that highlighted the speed of advertising moving from offline to online.  One such session was lead by Peter Krasilovsky, the Program Director for this event, talking with Merrill Brown, Founder and Principal of MMB Media.  For a recap, check out John Cook's Venture Blog entitled: "Old media needs to wake up, or die."

For us, this conference was great, not just for the chance to demo our product, reconnect with lots of smart industry leading people, but also for the validation in our new platform (launched at Kelsey) and the confirmation that our focus on driving action through online video IS the end game goal for small and mid-market advertisers.

 

ActiveRain Members Speak Out!

Today, we just announced an agreement with ActiveRain, the nation's largest social networking site for real estate professionals, to offer our online video advertising platform to their 85,000+ member base. We've actually been already working with the folks at A|R and invite you to see some of the comments on the blog titled, "Mixpo versus Youtube! Who will be the Winner?"

Why display ads will change?

A very interesting article was posted in iMedia Connection, entitled: "Is display advertising dead?"  The article talks about the opportunity for display ads to morph from the "pushing" adverts to something more informative and from something that immediately takes consumers away from a site, to let's them interact right there through the ad.

This article is definitely worth a read. 

ReelSEO on Mixpo

Mark Robertson, in his blog ReelSEO, interviewed us recently about our take on Video Marketing for SMBs.   Mark also commented his perspective on the needs of the SMB market that we'd like to share.   In specific, we'd like to highlight the following:

"I consider a few core concepts of particular importance when for marketing/advertising for SMBs. Small business advertisers tend to gravitate towards more direct response vs. branding. With that in mind, advertising solutions should:

• have conversion elements as part of the creative
• be measurable
• be effective
• be easy to implement"

We like the phrase "brand response" and believe online video advertising has the ability to help local SMBs brand better online and still drive the action and interaction they desire.

We thank Mark for the opportunity to tell our story and, as usual, welcome your comments.

Online Video Brand Building

A recent post on Media Post's Online Video Insider entitled, "But Sir, What about Impressions?" brings some thought provoking context to brand building capabilities of the Web and accountability.  The emergence of online video advertising CAN provide advertisers, of any size and not just the big packaged goods ones, the ability to drive measurable brand impact - through longer view times and interaction - if people could only start seeing the branding world beyond the :15 second pre-roll. 

Of course, the notion of measurable results that drive brand impact (through action and interaction) is what Mixpo is all about.  It's nice to see others catching on to the notion.

Enabling Video SEO & Online Video Marketing for SMBs article

Mark Robertson, on his blog Reel SEO, wrote a great piece about Enabling Video SEO & Online Video Marketing for SMBs - and also provided a nice overview and introduction to Mixpo. We're honored to be written up in Reel SEO and included in an article that speaks to the "unique opportunity" as Mark puts it for small and medium sized companies to start leveraging online video to market more effectively. We hope you take a read of Mark's article and give us, and/or Mark, your feedback.

Small is Beautiful

We were asked by the good folks at Search Engine Land to contribute to a column: Small is Beautiful. Small is Beautiful is for small businesses with a focus on:

"millions of small businesses that have to compete against larger, often better staffed and funded rivals for top positions in search rankings and ads. Columnists offer creative advice and tips that smaller, nimble search marketers can exploit to gain a competitive advantage online. The Small Is Beautiful column appears on Tuesdays at Search Engine Land."

We just published our first article entitled: Online Video Advertising + Search Engines = Opportunity For Small Businesses. Take a read. We'd love to hear what you have to say.

Online Video Boom Carries On

10 billion video views online! That's the statistic that just came out from ComScore measuring last December's online video views and reported on the Kelsey Group blog.

We've always held the belief that consumers' changing media habits will drive the business need to adjust, and this data and the reported 141 million total unique users to video sites are proof points that businesses will want to take advantage of online consumers' growing appetites for video consumption and start marketing with video online.

A quote from the Kelsey blog summarizes the trend toward online video and how it benefits local businesses: "As video gains more exposure and acclimation among local searchers, demand will only grow among small and medium sized businesses, which will increasingly see it as a viable local marketing tool. Online video should be enticing to most SMBs in theory because it lowers the traditional barriers to video advertising (previously limited to cable spot tv)."

Video Ads on Google: A Win-Win for Consumers & Advertisers?

As many of you may have seen in the NY Times last week, Google will be testing online video ads in its search results. Reaction from consumers and advertisers has been swift and has varied widely, but for those of us who have been entirely focused on developing online video advertising, this uptick in interest is exciting.

We wrote a piece digging into this a bit more that was published today in Search Engine Land, the vehicle of search industry veterans Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman. We invite you to check out the article here: Video Ads on Google: A Win-Win for Consumers & Advertisers?

If you have any of your own thoughts and comments, please send them our way!