Broadband Enterprises' COO explains why online video is not only strategically effective, but cost-effective, too.

Back in the 1950s, television and print were optimal ways for advertisers to reach consumers' pockets. Families spent evenings gathered in front of the TV set and mornings reading the newspaper.

Now, the average American family is accessing content in different ways, in different rooms. The kids are downloading original content on the internet or watching their favorite television shows on mobile phones, and parents are enjoying video on-demand and TiVoing various shows. 

Meanwhile, many advertisers continue to operate as though television and print are the most effective media to reach consumers with disposable income. However, broadband video has emerged as the more sensible option, as it returns every dollar invested with reach measured on actualized impressions.

The thinking is, you take that same television creative and apply it to a user who is fully engaged and accounted for.

Every month, more than four billion streams are viewed by people who consume video at home or at work, people who as recently as a year ago were being asked to pay for the content to which they're now being granted free access, as long as they watch a 15- or 30-second commercial beforehand.

That's a more than equitable tradeoff for most users, who, according to comScore Media Metrix, watch approximately 37 streams each month. Even at a four-to-one ratio (streams-to-ads), that's close to an average of 10 ads viewed every month per user.

This actualization factor is lending credibility to the medium as the broadband universe continues to swell. With genuine return being realized by the early-investing advertisers, the effective cost of doing business in broadband video becomes all the more manageable. Marketers are taking both their television spots and CPMs and applying them to the medium. In turn, the cost of entry has proven minimal because dollars are being withdrawn only when the ads are actually viewed.

Repurposed television methodology -- in both rate and creative -- isn't necessarily sustainable, but it has helped accelerate the industry, which is now somewhere between the warmup lap (P&G, Pfizer, GM, Microsoft, Coke, AMEX, AT&T and others) and full-throttle mode (the rest of the Fortune 500 advertisers).

In most cases, the first movers are enjoying rate flexibility and inventory diversity across a growing set of channels and publishers. Despite a possible inventory shortage at two or three stops along the way, supply is vastly outpacing demand. The offline programmer of yesterday is a broadband supplier today. Add to that the viral phenomenon and a spate of original broadband productions, and the ROI calculator suggests a bright future.

Of course, one of the challenges the agencies face is convincing their clients that the user at a tier-two site is no less valuable than the user who visits one of the "safe buy" portals. In many cases it's the same user, which speaks further to the value proposition of broadband that remains largely untapped.

The backdrop here is an interactive environment that places the user at the critical point of sale. Products and services are a click away. Suddenly, placing that ad video that cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce on television into a clickable forum isn't such a bad idea. If it worked on TV, fresh, qualified reach on broadband seems a logical, if largely non-standardized, target.

Many of the industry's top agencies are now creating wholly independent units whose primary function is to serve as an effective go-between within the television and interactive groups. These "video" teams are comprised of strategists who are experienced enough to connect with traditional spenders, and sophisticated enough to understand both the benefits and challenges of broadband. It's up to these talented thinkers to extract the dollars from traditional broadcast in such a way that the television folks see it not so much as marginalization but more so as revitalization.

Bridging the divide between traditional broadcast and broadband will require non-territorial thinking. The melding point is video-- video on the television screen, video on the computer monitor, video on the wireless device. It's about the consumption of video, regardless of the manner in which it is displayed. The advertisers paying the bills want to be informed about where the eye balls are and how those eyeballs can most effectively be reached. Now that broadband has realized true scale, the needle will move.

While leveling the uneven creative terrain will be one of the medium's biggest challenges (formats, sizes, interactive components, et cetera), it's the lack of creative restraint that makes broadband video well worth the time invested. The television spot hardly scratches the surface. Time is no barrier in broadband, where pre-rolls and post-rolls are a precursor to originally produced, long-form programming by advertisers.

The soaps era, revolutionized by P&G more than 50 years ago, will re-invent itself in streaming video's TiVo-proof, product-placement arena. The options abound for marketers in the web's magazine rack. And with ROI already coming in, the broadband medium is ready to take the entire game to the next level.