By Lewis Rothkopf, BrightRoll’s vice president of network development
April 23, 2009
There’s a great amount of buzz about “TV Everywhere” — everywhere! And while many consumers will be thrilled to have access to the video content they pay to see at home — everywhere — independent content producers have good reason to worry about the “big boys” moving in on their turf. After all, wasn’t the vacuum created by the lack of legal super-premium content the reason for the great success of independent video over the last four years?
Not completely.
It’s true that independent video filled an important void for those looking to watch something interesting during their lunch hour (or “other” time), but who weren’t interested in (insert-clichéd viral -video reference here). Yes, the fact that quality independent video took off was due in large part to a lack of serious competition, but also because it was engaging, well-produced and often compelling.
Now, those independent producers face an uphill battle in holding onto and growing their audience. They’ll be battling with some of the very best content in existence for very limited consumer attention spans. Because lunch hours (and even “other” time) are only so long, even compelling content isn’t enough anymore. To stay in the game, independent producers must assign equal importance to the editorial and business sides of their ventures.
To read the rest of the post, visit MediaPost’s Video Insider.
By Tod Sacerdoti
In July of 2008, I penned a byline for MediaPost’s Video Insider that addressed an increasingly hot topic in industry circles: how to reach TV-sized audiences online. In an era of ‘TV Everywhere‘ talk, and growing focus on online video metrics, the need for better standards around measurement has become vital. In many ways, it helps to look at online video ad buys in much the same way as we look at TV ad buys.
Unlike traditional GRP, iGRP (the Internet Gross Ratings Point) addresses many of the same metrics that TV buyers are familiar with, but packages them for the Internet. As more brands devote their ad budgets to hybrid campaigns that include TV and online video buys, or entirely scrap TV buys for video campaigns, I’m glad to see that iGRP is being pushed as an industry standard for measurement.
Consumers are increasingly watching content across many different platforms. To reach them, advertisers need to understand how to best harness the power of the Web and television, and be able to accurately measure the mediums against each other.
As I wrote in my piece, online video offers the best of both worlds – measurable performance coupled with massive audience aggregation. Why not leverage the strengths of the medium and package it in a way that the bigger buyers understand?
Nine months later, it’s heartening to see more of our industry peers signing on to the iGRP standard: This week, YuMe announced their “coining” of the iGRP term. While they weren’t the first to discuss this online video advertising standard, these types of visible stands are exactly what the industry needs to mature and thrive.