A new handful of online video-ad formats –called bugs, tickers and skin- are becoming the favorites among marketers. They are added to formats like preroll, midroll and postroll (ads that appear before, during and after a video).
The skin format --in which the ad appears in a graphic surrounding the window where the video plays-; see it working in Heavy.com- is getting a spread after CBSSports.com has adopted. Bug –logos that appear in text or graphics on or next to the video-, and tickers –horizontal bars that usually run on the bottom of the video—are getting also a good response.
Last month, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group that represents more than 375 publishers, released standards for various types of online-video ads.
Ad executives still are trying to figure how much to pay for and ad bug or an ad skin, and how to gauge their effectiveness. They agree that it is unlikely a single video-ad format will be the winner. Rather, several are likely to predominate.
Heavy said skins are one of the most-effective forms of online-video ads. It claims that click-through rates average 1.68%, compared with the fraction of a percentage see on most banner ads. InSkin Media is also a big supporter of skin ads.
The technology also can include a video-search function, which could carry videos from multiple publishers, and a section to display related videos. Heavy said these features encourage viewers to watch more videos, which would mean a bigger audience a publisher can sell to advertisers.
IP traffic growing at a annual rate of 46 percent
Cisco Systems is projecting that IP traffic will increase at a combined annual growth rate of 46 percent from 2007 to 2012, nearly doubling every two years. This will result in an annual bandwidth demand on the world’s IP networks of approximately 522 exabytes2, or more than a zettabyte. This increase is due mainly to the use of video and social networking and collaboration applications.
In 2012, Internet video traffic alone will be 400 times the traffic carried by the U.S. Internet backbone in 2000.
Video on demand, IPTV, peer-to-peer (P2P) video, and Internet video are forecast to account for nearly 90 percent of all consumers IP traffic in 2012.
People become less patient when they go online and demand design simplicity to reach a site quickly
Web users always want simplicity, since they don’t show much patience for distractions. They are looking for very specific pieces of information, and they “always been ruthless and selfish and now are even more so,” Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen says.
Reason why of websites should be simply is because people want to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave.
Joost, having a tough time, goes to an online video web
Remember all the hype surrounding Joost in 2006 and 2007 (they raised $46 million)? Well, now Joost.com, which requires a downloadable application, is having a tough time. High-quality content is everywhere without downloading an app (not only Hulu.com, Veoh or AOL TV). How getting back in the game? Now Joost is planning to launch a browser version and focus on broadening and differentiating itself with indie content, music videos and comedy channels.
Its CEO Mike Volpi explains “the world has migrated from an exclusive model of content distribution to non-exclusive model”. That is true, Joost made a big mistake. Now, TV networks are happy to distribute their content via conventional Web sites, as widely as possible.
Brightcove improves its back-end user interface
Many people praise Brightcove’s players, but its back-end user interface confusing. Now they are building a new version, called Brightcove 3, among other reasons because of the new competitors out there. For example, the Cambridge-based video hosting Delve Networks is releasing a completely rebuild version of its service.
It seems that Brightcove 3 doesn’t require publishers to skip around between tabs to address different part of the set up process (as Delve Networks is doing). An iTunes-looking control panel takes advantage of drag-n-drop and batch editing capabilities, which should streamline the addition and editing of videos.
