At the NewTeeVee Live Conference, more than a few panelists predicted that the slew of video sites out there may not last much longer. At the same time, most of the talk about video has been about which ad units will work best for the medium. Will video disappoint next year, or will marketers figure out a way to monetize all that traffic and save some of those video sites?
Kronengold: They are correct, there's going to be a huge shakeout of video sites because they won't be able to sustain their business models. If your site is dedicated to video that advertisers won't support, and you don't have a subscription model or some other mechanism to generate revenue, you've got a tough business model. The ad unit discussion will continue on, but people will come to agree on the basics. Pre-roll will continue to be a dominant ad unit for high quality, professionally produced content. We're also going to see more interactive rich media ad units as companion banners that a user can engage with during the video without interrupting the video experience.

Broitman: I do feel that there are far too many video sites out there than are needed. However, I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. I feel that competition between these sites drives innovation, and we have still not found the holy grail of online video or online video advertising.

Cheyney: Video will disappoint due to lack of innovation, causing case after case of video failing to deliver ROI and other success metrics to brands.

Edwards: Brands are desperate for opportunities to articulate their value propositions in video ads. They know that video and rich media do a better job of creating impact, shifting perception and driving awareness than any other ad formats. The challenge is finding scalable digital-video outlets to replace TV. Broad-based video portals such as YouTube struggle to convince marketers that their content is safe and high-quality enough for major brands, while many independent producers have quality without the reach.

Roell: User-generated video content will disappoint next year. How many more dancing students can you see? Will it remain popular? Yes, yet the amount of self-publishing and viewership will go down. In return, quality and professionally produced content will rise. Brands and marketers will produce professional content as users are shifting more to viewing than reading.

In the last Presidential election, we saw the importance of blogs. This time around every candidate seems to have some sort of online presence. Will we see significant online ad buys from the major campaigns going into 2008?
Deierlein: Yes, this is a critical touch point to the potential voter and donor.

Edwards: Yes. And the embarrassing misfires so early in the campaign season might even make 2008 the year that presidential campaigns start spending wisely online.

Kronengold: We've already seen significant ad buys from a few of the major candidates from both parties. The benefits of online advertising lend themselves very nicely to political advertising. Campaigns can target their messages to the places where they resonate most, or where they are trying to rally more support. It's much more efficient than TV. We're currently running ads with multiple videos that enable users to see where a candidate stands on a few key issues, and they are performing quite well.

Cheyney: While the online ad spend for the election will be the largest to date, it will still only garner a small percentage of the overall ad spend.

Roell: I don't think we are there yet. In this case video and online video distributions needs to be improved and widened. Candidates still rely on habits based greatly on TV as a medium. So for us to take away from this slice we need to give something equivalent, which is online video. We need to improve the quality, give large scale, targeted reach opportunities and introduce features that are unique to online video versus TV, e.g., interactive components.

The threat of a potential economic slowdown and the sub-prime mortgage crisis have a lot of traditional marketers worried at the end of 2007. At the same time, predictions for online growth continue to be strong. Should online marketers be concerned about a potential economic slowdown next year?
Edwards: Economic slowdowns hit the experimental and untested sections of the advertising ecosystem hardest. In 2000-2002, online was a relatively new channel for most marketers and was the first to go. By 2008-2009, online will become a predictable and highly measurable channel relative to print, television and outdoor. This go-around, it may be that online is the most resilient sector.

Roell: Not at all, we are actually in an extremely strong spot. Digital or online media will fast become the core of the campaigns as we are more cost efficient and provide detailed data points over other media. So, others will be cut and we will increase.

Deierlein: Yes, folks need to pay attention to what is happening on Wall Street and Main Street. We as an industry cannot go unscathed if a major recession hits. That said, I am looking forward to radio as the solid number four medium in terms of spend.

Cheyney: The potential online slowdown will hit the financial sector the hardest, which currently represents more than 30 percent of online ad spend. In 2008, we'll see a reallocation of those ad dollars shift towards online marketers outside of the financial sector hardest hit by the slowdown. It will mark a major opportunity for opportunistic companies to forge their online presence. If opportunistic marketers fail to jump into the online fray, then sellers will be hurt harder than marketers and we'll see an increase in remnant inventory as well as inventory shifted towards ad exchanges.

Kronengold: I don't think there are too many advertising agencies that are underwriting sub-prime mortgages. 2008 looks very good from where we're sitting.

2007 saw a slew of major mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital seems to be flowing fast and easy. Will we look back on this year as a bubble?
Roell: Not at all, maybe some valuations were higher than they could have been, but overall, these acquisitions are extremely smart as we have only reached the beginning of our climb for growth in online usage, information and engagement opportunities. We will see strong multipliers for another two years, the main focus on acquisitions being done on niche, emerging solutions as the majority of large entities have satisfied their foundational need.

Deierlein: I think it is a bubble but not sure if it will burst in 2008 or 2009 -- but the valuations are out of whack in ways we saw in the late 90s.