Brand New World's creative chief argues that online video syndication presents new opportunities for creatives beyond just the consumer-generated hit video destinations.

While it seems that just about every publisher, cable network, and search engine is rushing to put up a broadband video portal these days, we've also seen more than a smattering of new independent "video channels" going up as well. From YouTube and RooTV to ExpoTV and others, it seems that everyone wants a piece of the consumer-generated video world. The trouble is that most of these new entrants are stand-alone destinations that depend on word of mouth and viral push to get you there. There's not much brand marketing going on that I've seen. Then, once you arrive at these sites, you discover it's really just another IFILM of some sort -- with very little value beyond a list of the "One Hit Wonder" videos of the week by category.

I guess that's cool for those with nothing better to do than troll this week's Low-Fi videos to see which ones they deem worthy enough to bother pushing to a friend: "Subject: Check this out! Hope you find this as funny as I did…NOT!"

Looking beyond their numbers…
Not being a media guy, I hear that some of these new sites are getting huge numbers, with YouTube really going strong.

But, beyond just the numbers of unique visitors, time spent and return visits, I wonder whether these sites aren't really just another set of online destinations that will need to be strongly branded, promoted and advertised-- only to see who's left standing a year or two from now. 

Then again, I can't help wondering how many advertisers will get seduced into their waters early… only to find out there's probably a more targeted video portal they should have bought from a strong cable, masthead or online publisher.

Internet video syndication: a different approach.
What I do find extremely intriguing, from a creative point of view, is the opportunity to syndicate the TV campaigns we create on behalf of our clients for free across the long tail of the net by enabling hundreds, even thousands, of traditionally text-based sites to offer our campaigns in branded video player environments that we create!

Talk about aggregating impressions: what advertiser wouldn't want a branded online video environment of their own instantly exportable to sites that value their content? 

Companies like BrightCove and Maven Networks, whose software solutions make it easy for agencies like ours to extend the reach of our client's video online, aren't selling a destination per se. They are enabling creatives to take what we conceive, shoot, and edit and package it in new and different ways and unit lengths into branded-video player environments that, I believe, represent the true promise of internet video for advertisers. Not just a pre-roll ahead of a viral video on some new online destination, but a fully meta-tagged campaign ready for export… and readily available to the long tail of the internet-- for free.

The Creative Imperative: shoot wider, go longer!
If I sound like a football coach, it's because that's precisely the kind of storyboards creative directors need to be huddling around. 

Shooting wider libraries -- beyond just :30s, :60s and the occasional :15s to satisfy the media people -- means creatively thinking about your core idea's elasticity past your :30 TV spot story arc. If you truly have a big enough idea, then your ability to apply it across multiple units and lengths -- whether it be two to three minute webisodes, or short form mobisodes or something else entirely -- should be your goal. 

Then, once you've shot that wider body of video assets, your media planners have a lot more to work with and can really deploy them long: from mass reach traditional media to more targeted narrow-cast internet video platforms and syndicated internet video services.

Internet video comes in many forms. As creatives, our mission is to go beyond cutting down our :30s to :15s and slugging them into pre-roll online video environments.

Instead, we need to get in lock step with our media brethren. They are the ones who are busy showing advertisers the way to move from mere impressions to true engagement. And without giving them wider and deeper libraries of video-based creative assets to work with, I'm afraid we won't really get to true engagement for a long time.