The former Eyeblaster executive, current CEO of Falk North America and recent addition to the Klipmart board of directors talks about online advertising.

In part one of our interview with Klipmart's newest board member, Joe Apprendi, we learned that Flash is the new rich media, the key to online video's success is keeping it simple ("it's not a crime" to repurpose television commercials!) and how measurability gives online video an advantage over television. In this installment, we'll learn how online video can boost reach as consumer media habits fragment and reveal the most successful format for online video. Also, Apprendi will share some new insight on two of the industry's hottest debates: repurposing versus shooting video exclusively for online and streaming versus precached video ads. 

iMedia: You mentioned strengths of online video advertising like interactivity and measurability, but not targeting. How does video help marketers reach audiences lost to a splintering media landscape?

Apprendi: I think "reach" is more appropriate. It’s undisputed that the television audience is shifting swiftly to online in both shear numbers and usage, especially those people connected with broadband at home. Broadband users now represent over 55 percent of at-home users. Tack on at-work access and the reach/usage is that much greater.

Thanks to companies like Klipmart, marketers now have a turn-key channel for their television spot without any technical or process barriers. Now internet creative/technical skills required. And as stated, they can deliver the same high quality audio/video with better measurability and accountability.

iMedia: In your view, what is the strongest format for online video? Banner, expandable banner, interstitial, in-stream? And why?

Apprendi: Klipmart has tracked percentage of video viewed and interaction rate on billions of online video ads across multiple ad formats in pretty much every advertiser category. In-page ad units (super banner, banner, rectangle, skyscraper, half-page ad, etc.) have the most data. Based on Klipmart research to date, it’s clear that the in-page rectangle and half-page ad outperform banner and skyscraper units in both percentage of video viewed and interaction rate.

iMedia: While Klipmart specializes in streaming broadband quality (15 fps) video, other vendors (Unicast, for example) have experienced success with precache broadcast quality (30 fps) video. Do you see growth potential for higher quality precache video?

Apprendi: We’re not seeing a lot of demand for pre-cache and 30 fps at the moment, mostly because current quality is great and comparable to television. Size of file, cost of delivery and publisher acceptance is limiting inventory and scalability of pre-cache at the moment. The quality and delivery speed of streaming Flash continues to improve for all users, especially the growing share of broadband users/impressions. I see a growth opportunity, but limited, as the benefits of pre-cache really lie in long-form video (60 seconds or more) or video content. For the 15 and 30 sec video spot, streaming video certainly delivers at the level the market requires and will continue to do so.

iMedia: You said that it’s not a crime to deliver the exact broadcast spot online. But wouldn't you agree the online audience (especially the broadband crowd) is different than the television audience? Some industry professionals and researchers suggest editing commercials down. What do you think of this? In the future, would you suggest that marketers shoot different ads for online and television?

Apprendi: Let me take this is a few parts. First, I don’t think the online audience is any different than the television audience in terms of pychographics and demographics. The same people are doing both, even at the same time. Now, if you’re asking me if they are behaving differently in front of the computer versus a television, I’d have to agree with you. Nevertheless, the same video spot viewed online vs. broadcast has proven equally or more effective on both brand and direct marketing metrics, so the effectiveness is still there with much greater measurability.

Secondly, I wouldn’t be encouraging marketers to increase the length of commercials for online distribution, but the same ten, 15, or 30 second spot will work. Based on Klipmart research, 56 percent of all 15s are full-viewed versus 42 percent of all 30s. Mostly common sense, but doesn’t mean the marketer shouldn’t give their audience the opportunity to view 30 seconds. [It's] no differently than what they are doing with television today. It’s simply an "opportunity" to communicate to an audience for 15 or 30 seconds. At least with online video, you can quantify how this percent of video-viewed metric varies by creative and placement.

As a result, to answer the third part of the question, marketers will certainly leverage this information in the creative and production area and I’m certain this will lead to video creative being shot exclusively for online distribution. Nevertheless, this is by no means a requirement to deliver video ads online today and from my perspective will never be.

iMedia: We have heard from both ad agencies and publishers that existing metrics from third parties like Nielsen and Accustream are inadequate for video ads. Is a lack of standards with regard to measurement limiting advertiser support of online video advertising?

Apprendi: I don’t think it has much to do with lack of standards in measurement. We just need to get the word out and the conversations going. Most importantly, let’s not complicate the process from a creative, delivery or reporting standpoint. Agencies and marketers need to know that right now they can run their same broadcast commercial online without compromising quality or measurability. In fact, they can improve upon it and increase reach and ROI wherever their media plan takes them. Klipmart provides this today across every ad format and publisher in the market. The key is to keep it simple, once you have a dialog with the customer, new opportunities will emerge.