Sunday, December 02, 2007

Has AOL Figured Out Video Advertising?

AOL recently announced plans to introduce a new ad format to integrate into online videos. Advertisers know that users hate pre-roll ads but these are much more valuable than post-roll ads since viewers can't skip them. Nevertheless, the ad industry is eager to find the best way to include advertising in video without alienating consumers.

AOL's new ad format is a way to address the issue and it may be a real leap forward. Basically AOL will be offering "video ticker ads," a graphic banner ad that is integrated directly into streaming video content. The ads will appear for a short time and disappear if the user doesn't click on it. If the user does click on it, the video will pause while the a full ad (e.g. - video or Flash) is launched.

The real beauty of this new format is that it could also be adapted in the future for interactive television advertising. We are already accustomed to tickers (aka - "lower thirds") that contain information or network promos. The next step could be advertisements that could be triggered by pushing a button on your cable remote that would pause your program and launch an interactive ad.

Sounds promising. Here's a link to the full announcement from a couple of weeks ago:
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=71229&Nid=36507&p=216556

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