In Focus

8 video myths debunked

Marissa Gluck
Video Posted on July 14, 2008

The truth about video

There is no doubt that online video advertising holds a great deal of promise. It's immersive, rich and potentially highly engaging. Traditional brand advertisers innately understand online video with its parallels to television advertising. Coupled with the possibility of interaction and sophisticated targeting capabilities, it entices advertisers with the tantalizing promise of the 30-second spot -- only better.

A 2007 eMarketer report, Video Advertising Online: Spending and Audience, projects that the online video audience will hit a mass-market benchmark this year as more than 50 percent of the U.S, population will watch video online. eMarketer also projects that 2008 will see $1.35 billion spent in online video advertising in the U.S., which is expected to grow to $4.3 billion by 2011.

Yet, the promise of online video advertising recalls the heady days of the early digital advertising industry. There is a great deal of hype, propagated by publishers over-promising on the abilities of the media vehicle. Advertiser exuberance and heightened expectations are predictable but will inevitably result in disappointment as online video advertising proves much more difficult to execute and deliver than anticipated.

Let's take a look at some of the most common myths about online video advertising and examine the realities.

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Comments

Jeff Bach
Jeff Bach July 15, 2008 at 8:37 AM

Well written article overall! But I do have to take issue with one thing :)

Myth #5 is a tough one to take. As a content provider trying to make a living at it, writing like this makes me think that you are independently wealthy and that the rest of us are as well, so we should just put our content out there purely for other people's enjoyment.

While performance is certainly one way to look at it, there are way more walled gardens that are at least generating paychecks than there are open gardens generating paychecks. If Youtube was owned by anyone other than Google, I would venture to guess that it would long since have been shut down for lack of profitability and high bandwidth costs.

Before you write more stuff like this, why don't you start creating, producing, and publishing your OWN content online and experience the reality of making a living from online content? I'm pretty sure you would rapidly come to understand the difficulty of making a living from an advertising-based, open garden business model.

On the upside, change is happening fast, online growth is solid and we're probably too far into the transition to go back to the way things were......

my .02
JB

Tim Bottiglieri
Tim Bottiglieri July 14, 2008 at 9:32 PM

wow, every paragraph hit the mark ! sizzle sells, but be careful, there is very little room for error in the worldwide arena, online video can be dressed up to look & sound amazing. Yes it can initially seem distorted because of the immediate, infinite amount of exposure, and the uncertainty of not knowing who, where, etc. posting by unhappy customers travel the seas of broadband media channels immediately being seen by how many ?

Online video for marketing / buying, selling is wonderful, media buyers / sellers I believe are up to speed, that stream of revenue will eventually be a huge part of their bread & butter. There are many scenes to be considered though.With so much being available so fast, designing the landscape of things becomes endless, adventurous, and unsure. The packaging should not be to analytical, keep it simple, easy, colorful, keep the attention. The online video platform is open for use. Creativity is the standard, each and every campaign can set there own individual standard and/or statement, why wait and see what the other is doing, , in this collage of things, the standard is small, boundaries are wide, not everything works for everyone. online video software packaging allows for change and/or variety.