Klipmart CEO Chris Young contends that 2006 will be the year that online video achieves an equal place with broadcast TV and cable.

When Klipmart launched six years ago our mission was to take the best of broadcast television ads and marry it with the interactivity and reporting capabilities of the internet. We've done just that -- more than 1700 times so far.

Along the way, a funny thing happened: broadcast TV stopped being the sole source of video commercials and it stopped being the only place advertisers used sight, sound and motion to touch consumers.

While the vast majority of our online video spots derive from commercials shot for other media (from TV to theatrical trailers), marketers are increasingly shooting original video just for online audiences. The real driver is the ability to reach vast audiences again. Thanks to cable and various electronic distractions that include video games, DVDs, iPods and TiVo, the broadcast TV audience has splintered. As a medium, the internet used to pale in comparison to the reach provided by the other players in the mix, but this has changed, and quickly. According to comScore MediaMetrics, an estimated twenty million U.S. consumers go to the Yahoo! front page per day. The result is that the broadcast media mix is finally diversifying.

The new broadcast media mix is now TV, cable and, yes, online. 

What led to this shift in the mix? Comparability, scalability, reach, and measurable results, all driven by an irrefutable shift in media consumption. Package this with an exceedingly high concentration of elusive 18 to 34 year olds, and online, as a broadcast media, becomes a "must-buy" channel to reach audience with the ad format, reach and frequency that advertisers have used for more than half a century. Powered by codec innovations, broadband adoption, and proven DR and branding results, online video has now come of age and is quickly capturing its fair share of the new broadcast media mix.

I think 2006 will be the Year of Online Video. With still-limited online video inventory, there is no reason for advertisers not to factor online in their upfront market strategies as a viable alternative for -- or as a supplement to -- broadcast spending. Advertisers can amortize the out of pocket cost of their TV spots by running them online. No need to educate them on the merits of a GIF, JPEG, or SWF to get them involved with online advertising. In-Stream gives these advertisers what they've been looking for: same ad, same ad inventory. No translation required. 

In-Page video inventory is burgeoning and has now been joined by its new sibling, In-Stream. Online publishers are investing more in broadband video content, giving advertisers a familiar commercial break format. Together, these viable ad inventory options are delivering comparable reach with unparalleled targeting and results. 

What really makes the online component of the New Broadcast Mix easy is reliable vendors who simplify production, delivery, and the reporting process. In essence, advertisers with very little effort have to do no more than send along their existing video assets. The rest is done for them.  There are no new skills required for embracing this new and growing broadcast mix component. 

The final factor driving advertisers to online video is measurability. When we run video online, the advertiser is able to track and report much more than impressions and clicks. Percent of video viewed, interaction rate and time spent with the ad are all standard, quantifiable reporting metrics.  On a recent execution, online users spent 91 seconds, on average, interacting with the various interactive elements built into one of our more sophisticated video ad executions.

Most importantly, online is able to measure this interaction rate -- the number of people that interact or click on an ad. This valuable metric of audience involvement and engagement with video advertising is simply unavailable in other media.

No comparable metrics exist in TV either for broadcast or cable.

In conclusion there is no reason why broadcast and cables ads cannot work in conjunction with online video to build an even stronger relationship between brands and consumers. As Cory Treffiletti, senior vice president, managing director at Carat Interactive San Francisco, wrote recently "television is the most widely used introductory media format because it is the best at generating emotion using sight, sound, and motion. The internet, conversely, is widely accepted as the most effective format for dialogue because it is the best vehicle for having a true discussion with the consumer. Those roles being established, you can certainly utilize TV for a dialogue and the internet for an introduction."

In my opinion, you can accomplish both with online video in the New Broadcast Media Mix.

Chris Young co-founded Klipmart in 1999 with the sole premise of taking the best of TV and marrying it with the interactive and reporting capabilities of the internet.  Now, five years and 1000 video campaigns later, Mr. Young's premise is well on its way. Klipmart grew campaign and ad impression volume well over 300 percent in 2004, establishing new relationships with many Fortune 500 companies.
 
As CEO and a pioneer in video advertising, Mr. Young continues to evangelize and spread the merits of video advertising on the Internet and speaks at industry conferences, events and panels.  Operationally, he is responsible for executing the Company's strategic partnerships and coordinating the various departments of Klipmart to facilitate the corporate strategy.

Prior to Klipmart, Mr. Young worked at Citigroup working in the Global Syndicated Finance Group structuring investment grade and emerging market high yield bank loans.