Brand Name: Alltel Wireless
Agency/Campaign Creator: Martin Agency, Tremor Media
URL: http://cdn.dynadco.com/Alltel/Alltel.htm

What is unusual and effective about the video campaign?
What was most unusual about this campaign was the duration of the ad. It is only 5-seconds long, which is a significant departure from the usual 15-second and 30-second pre-roll spots that we see. Alltel’s goal was to raise brand awareness, and a short, branded pre-roll message is a great format for raising awareness without interfering with the content that the user is really requesting.

What sort of technology was used?
Tremor’s Ad-inStream enables our advertisers to continue to use their preferred ad servers, which allows for a no-hassle integration with their current reporting. The video itself is streaming Flash video.

Did it live on the brand’s site, was it distributed through an online video network, viral or was there some other model?
The campaign was distributed across the Tremor Media network. In addition to running in front of a publisher’s content, the short duration of the Alltel ad made it ideal to put in front of other short form content that isn’t normally seen as viable pre-roll inventory.

Was there any user-generated component to this campaign? Did you empower viewers to comment, favorite, download, mashup or do anything to the video?
This is a fairly straightforward pre-roll execution. However, the duration of the ad should be seen as a “best-practice” for monetizing short-form content. Five seconds is enough to get your brand message across, but it doesn’t diminish the overall user experience when watching short clips either.

How does the video campaign fit into and complement the overall brand strategy for the company?
The campaign objective was to reach people who use their cellphones as their primary phone and use the web to communicate with friends and family. They also wanted to reach families that currently share a mobile plan, as well as travelers. With the variety of publishers on our network, we were able to easily target and reach all of those demographics effectively.

How would you improve the video campaign?
We’d like to have run a brand test measuring the impact that different lengths of creatives have on brand favorability and purchase intent, and then use that data to optimize the campaign.

Brand Name: The History Channel’s “American Eats”
Agency/Campaign Creator: Glow Interactive, Horizon
URL: http://media.glowinteractive.com/thc/ae/

What is unusual and effective about the video campaign?
This is a great example of interactive video. When the banner loads, the guy standing there holding a “Rollover to Feed Me” sign begs for interaction from the user. When the banner expands, the user has a choice of foods to drag into the main window. The video seamlessly switches to a new video, with the appropriate food item being handed to the guy, who then explains the history of that food, just like the show.

What sort of technology was used?
Flash and Flash Video

Did it live on the brand’s site, was it distributed through an online video network, viral or was there some other model?
As it wasn’t one of our campaigns, we don’t know the actual media plan.

Was there any user-generated component to this campaign? Did they empower viewers to comment, favorite, download, mashup or do anything to the video?
No mashups or tagging required.

How does the video campaign fit into and complement the overall brand strategy for the company?
This ad unit does an excellent job of delivering all the branding a show would need. It has the time and day of airing, prominently placed logos for the show and channel, and it offers enough content for the user to get a true feel for the show and whether or not they’d want to tune in.

How would you improve the video campaign?
This ad could use a “Tell a Friend” viral component. I would definitely forward this if I thought they’d enjoy the show, or simply because it’s a great ad that is fun to interact with.