Serious about Business

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!

Google and VideoAds

An interesting article just ran in the NY Times Technology section entitled, Google Tests Video Ads on Search Results Pages. It's interesting to see Google validating the promise of video advertising online, as well as seeing comments from concerned readers regarding the potential impact on the quality of their Google experience.

It is really too early to understand the full potential of online video ads for advertisers and consumers, but if video ads just end up becoming another way to: take advantage, manipulate, shock into action, or annoy consumers, then you can bet you'll see the backlash hinted to by the NY Times article readers.

We believe in the premise that VideoAds should truly inform readers and invite them to interact with a brand, not shock them into action as most online ads try to do today. Some of our own research, working with small and medium sized business clients shows that VideoAds longer than 4 minutes are getting surprisingly deep viewer engagement and even repeat plays. Why is that? It's because the content is relevant, informative, and engaging. Hitting people over the head, the way most display ads do, is not the direction we believe will drive viewer satisfaction and advertiser benefit.

At the end of the day, Google is the master at providing relevant search results. VideoAds that move beyond the manipulation offered by most display ads, and actually inform, engage, and even excite viewers about a brand can be highly relevant in the Google context.