Surprise! Mobile Video Inventory Now Far Exceeds Demand

April 21, 2011

Contrary to popular belief, mobile video inventory is now far outstripping the demand from advertisers — and many players in the ecosystem have an incentive to present mobile inventory as being constrained. (BrightRoll noticed a similar dynamic as the online video advertising business matured.) Well, the jig is up.

As Ray Kurzweil says, we tend to think linearly but information technology scales exponentially. The confluence of three factors have driven this massive growth in mobile video inventory:

1. Proliferation of iPhones, iPads & Android mobile devices. Let’s be honest, nobody thought these devices would be as widely adopted as they have, but the stats are staggering. According to comScore, 69.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones by the end of February 2011. Android apps have been installed more than three billion times — Apple passed 10 billion downloads in January — and more than 350,000 Android devices are activated every day, according to Google. And Apple reported in its Q1 2011 earnings report that it sold 16.24 million iPhones and 7.33 million iPads during the quarter.

To read the entire article, please visit MediaPost

– Dan Mosher, VP of mobile and network development

What the IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines Mean for Advertisers and our Industry

April 18, 2011

When dozens of ad networks get together and agree on something, it’s a good bet that it is important to advertisers. Earlier this month, the IAB announced the adoption of its Networks and Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines. The aim is to provide advertisers greater transparency into what they’re buying. Specifically, the guidelines provide a common way for networks to describe the inventory they are selling including basic ratings for content, the position of ads on a page and a standard contextual taxonomy. In order to become certified, networks must undergo a certification process working with the IAB and are subject to ongoing review. As a leading voice for greater transparency in our industry, BrightRoll is one of 17 inaugural companies to become certified as compliant with these guidelines.

We believe these guidelines are an important step forward for the industry for three reasons. First, they will reduce friction in the marketplace by allowing advertisers and their agencies a way to easily and accurately understand what they are buying. Second, as online media purchasing via exchanges proliferates, they allow a framework for efficient and confident bidding. Finally, this represents a very real movement in the industry toward greater cooperation and trust between advertisers and networks. Ultimately, this effort removes another impediment for more dollars to flow into online advertising and rewards networks and exchanges for being more transparent.

BrightRoll is proud to be one of the inaugural companies driving this important industry effort forward. The IAB created a brief, but entertaining, video featuring industry leaders talking about what these guidelines mean. Take a moment, check it out and let us know what you think.

– Tim Avila, vice president of product marketing

Are Some Brands Too Sexy for Print? (Part 3: Intersection of Social and Video)

March 29, 2011

We recently talked about the continual growth of the online video ad industry, and how mobile content will continue to emerge as a serious driver for advertiser revenue and consumer engagement.

With an anticipated $3 billion value by 2012, advertisers and technology companies will for the most efficient ways to serve more relevant and interesting content to the consumer, wherever the consumer accesses content.

At the Intersection of Social and Video

Today, we look at how, where and when “social” intersects with video. While the online video advertising tsunami pours opportunity into connecting marketing plans, social media continues to reign supreme, making the tsunami look like a ripple on the larger online landscape. However, companies are finding high value at the intersection of online video advertising and social media.

The auto industry is a prime example, launching Facebook campaigns as the platform to announce new vehicles and as a means to connect with the evolving social consumer. Kia Motors, for example, recently spend more than $3 million on an integrated online video campaign for the new Sportage model, including video ads on sites like Top Gear and Yahoo, and an MSN home-page takeover. Kia also used YouTube and Facebook as part of the company’s largest digital investment to date, investing 15% more into the marketing budget than usual for the company.

Ford went “all in” when they launched the 2011 Ford Explorer on Facebook, including a connected marketing plan involving online video ads, executive interviews and offline marketing events across nine cities. Ford also launched the Ford Fiesta, which drew more than 700 user-submitted videos, driving (pun intended) 6.5 million views on YouTube, and more than 3.4 million impressions of Fiesta Movement on Twitter. Dubbed as the “Fiesta Movement,” the campaign also utilized Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and blogs to share online video content and social information.

What this means for Consumers: If you’re among the select group of highly influential, engaged and industry-focused consumers that help generate this coveted “buzz” marketing brands crave, expect to be offered deals and unique opportunities as companies figure out new, creative ways to launch products primarily through viral, grassroots methods.

What this means for Advertisers: Your consumers, critics and industry pundits are currently discussing your brand and marketplace, whether you know it or not and whether you like it or not. Online marketing tactics, ranging from social media to online video, are key to customer loyalty and brand differentiation. Like Ford, advertisers should be prepared to integrate TV adverts, home-page takeovers and video ads – customers are watching , so it’s time to embrace online video as a serious marketing tool to bring your campaign to the online masses.

Guru Series: Q&A with ReelSEO’s Christophor Rick

March 15, 2011

Welcome to a new segment here on the BrightRoll blog in which we sit down (virtually, anyways) with the folks who are making the online video ad industry tick. Christophor Rick, a writer at one of our favorite industry sites, ReelSEO, has graciously agreed to let us pick his brain in our first interview. Check out some of Christophor’s recent posts here, and read on for our Q&A.

1. It seems like every December industry insiders rush to put out predictions about the upcoming year and to share their thoughts on where the online video ad space is headed. As we near the end of Q1, any initial thoughts about how 2011 is shaping up? Anything you think people will be surprised about in the next 9 months?

It seems to me that online video viewership has frozen or perhaps reached a stable level. 178M Americans is over 50% of the country and 85% of Internet users in the country. I don’t know that it will grow much more over the rest of the year, which might alarm some, but with such high penetration there’s nothing to worry about. I think the big surprise will be in a massive shift of ad dollars to online after all the recent reports about how online video assists print/TV campaigns.

2. You recently wrote about a new offering from LeanIn, which layers on social networking, commenting and interacting features to online video, as well as in-stream advertising. Yet with all of the innovative new ad units and custom functionality out there, advertisers still overwhelmingly still favor pre-roll. Do you see this as a missed opportunity? What do you think are the biggest untapped resources out there for advertisers when it comes to online video?

I know there are a couple other projects in the works that give more interactivity and social networking-like capabilities to video online. This, like all new technologies, will take some time, but I believe it will be the way of the future. Pre-roll forces users to watch an ad and users don’t like that. However, if you build in more interaction and gamify the whole thing, users might really enjoy interacting with the advertising. I think that if advertisers get it through their heads that we are tired of having stuff forced on us and instead make it interesting and fun, they’ll see far better results in the intent-to-purchase and brand recall areas.

3. Several companies, including BrightRoll, have launched ad exchanges over the last year. How much understanding do you think there is in the marketplace about how these exchanges work and how they benefit media buyers? How much education still needs to be done?

I think most online advertisers are pretty savvy with exchanges since Google really turned everyone on to the power of it and is even working on an online video exchange for its DoubleClick network. As video is more costly than standard display ads I believe that the media buyers really need to start utilizing the full power of the exchanges to get the highest ROI that they can.

4. You’ve written in the past about the growth of long-form online TV and movies. What do you think the results will be for advertisers as subscription-based services like Netflix and Amazon take off?

Advertisers will be hard pressed to reach users of Netflix and Amazon. Purchasing video on demand on a subscription basis means we do not want advertising with it. We are OK with ad-supported free content but to pay and then sit through ads will not work well. The best thing that advertisers might do to reach these users is to be sure they have strong ties to online video in general because these digital consumers will also consume other video online and that will be the best way for advertisers to reach them. Just don’t cram it down their eyesockets The other option might be to start making some strategic deals with them with partner deals. If you sign up with Netflix you get some discount on other services, products, etc. That would then add value to Netflix subscriptions, give the users additional benefits of being a member and raise awareness and possibly consumption of those products for the advertisers.

Finally, they might just start sponsoring long form video online like many companies are starting to do with short-form branded video. If they produce or sponsor long-form that then hits the subscription services they then have managed to tap into that demographic. Personally, I would be OK with seeing a mention, logo, thanks to some company on long-form video. But like I said, I wouldn’t stand for an advertisement on video I paid to view. There’s already 15 minutes of ads and trailers before a film in theaters, which means, I always arrive late to avoid the ads but catch the trailers. Basically, I’m skipping the pre-rolls

For real-time updates, follow Christophor and ReelSEO on Twitter.

The Cool Kids of OMMA Global SF – and Their Best Tweets

February 28, 2011

OMMA Global San Francisco brings together some of the tech industry’s most prolifiic leaders and disruptive companies, sharing terrific insights about the current and future state of the media, advertising and publishing industry. Our CEO, Tod Sacerdoti, spoke today on the “Targeting Technologies Come to Video; Who Wins?” panel, and will again tomorrow during the “How Will Real-Time Bidding Impact How Video is Bought and Sold?” session.

However, we know that making it out to San Francisco is not always an option, so we’ve pulled the best (well, some of the best) tweets from the OMMA Global community throughout the first day of the week-long event.

Are Some Brands Too Sexy for Print? (Part 2: Growth of Mobile)

February 28, 2011

Last week, we discussed the incredible growth of online video, including impressive stats such as the industry’s expected $3.0 billion value by 2012.

Source: HP

We continue the discussion today (three-part series) around the growth of mobile – a cross-generational phenomenon, driven by cross-channel media consumption – and later in the week, the intersection of social and video.

The Rise of Mobile

The mobile space is blowing up, providing advertisers with opportunities to engage the busy, “4G” consumer through localized and interactive video content via their personal devices. Advertisers are adopting PDA strategies as mobile advertising results in 19 times higher increase in “aided awareness” when compared to online video performance. According to the Yankee Group, Americans now spend an average of one hour and eighteen minutes per day on their mobile phones.

Now, for the first time ever, the average time U.S. consumers spend online is the same as they spend watching TV, and from a generational standpoint, although Gen Yers have been spending plenty of time online for several years, this is the first year for Gen Xers.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we’re witnessing the death of TV The same report points out that online growth hasn’t really decreased the time consumers spend watching TV. Rather, consumers are devoting more time to consume media across multiple platforms. Or, as Forbes stated, they are just becoming savvier in dividing their time between online and television.

For example, during the 2010 Oscars Live Broadcast, traffic on the Yahoo! Mobile site simultaneously increased 12 percent and content consumption was up 39 percent on the Yahoo! Front Page, while browsing was 125 percent higher on the news section.

What this means for Consumers: Advertisers are going to develop mobile video campaigns that integrate geo-targeting with local deals. Companies like Groupon and Living Social have set the bar by proving how there is value in localizing online promotion efforts by offering targeted, cross-generational deals. Expect an increase of geo-targeting ads with interactive video content that not only raise brand recognition, but also localize product recommendations.

What this means for Advertisers: New opportunities to connect with consumers, on the go, with deal-enticing mobile promotions. Advertisers will adapt traditional TV or Web video and creative content into pre-roll ad units for a broad range of mobile devices like the iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Through mobile devices, advertisers will target audiences using a variety of criteria, such as type of mobile device, user geo-location and content category.

Are Some Brands Too Sexy for Print? An Inside Look, Like Woah

February 24, 2011

Online video advertising is gaining popularity faster than aviator sunglasses after Tom Cruise ignited the frenzy in Top Gun. According to eMarketer, the industry is expected to grow to $3.0 billion in 2012, up from $1.9 billion this year.

What’s really interesting though is to dig deeper into the details about what this trend means for consumers, distributors, video platforms and ultimately, advertiser revenues. How will the allocation of advertising or marketing budgets alter as more users continue to consume online and mobile media? How will advertisers capitalize on the tsunami of activity?

Throughout the next couple weeks, we’ll break this down into three posts, and discuss how this growth will impact the entire advertising ecosystem, including the impact on both consumers and advertisers:

1) Growth of online video: The Expansive Reach of Online Video Ads

2) Growth of mobile: Cross-Channel Media Consumption for Cross-Generational Adoption

3) Intersection of social and video: At the Intersection of Social and Video

The Expansive Reach of Online Video Ads

Online research and measurement leader comScore recently found that 84.6 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video throughout December 2010. When broken down, this equates to 172 million U.S. Internet users watching online video for an average of 14.6 hours, per viewer, totaling 5.2 billion views! . With a 32 percent year-over-year growth, we’re witnessing an era where new media platforms are reaching greater audiences than ever before.

Unlike past days of online and offline content, consumers are now playing a major role in the growth of video creation. YouTube users upload about 35 hours of video to the site every minute, or nearly 50,400 hours of video every day. As site traffic continues to increase, brand marketers are beginning to embrace self-made YouTube sensations – who themselves can make upward of $315k – in turn pouring money into tapping their stardom to promote or even rap about the brand.

We see no downward plunge in this line…

Image: YouTube

What this means for Consumers: Advertisers will increasingly produce ads that serve a more targeted, engaged and social audience, meaning that as a consumer, you’ll start to see targeted and personalized ads highlighting the products, and topics, you care about. Conversely, expect to see ads that are designed solely to leave you scratching your head, replaying the segment and sending a mass email recommending your friends tune in. The key throughout 2011 will be to balancing the art (or science) of viral videos, with the necessity of personalization.

What this means for Advertisers: While consumers drive purchasing decisions around ad personalization, they are also are curious creatures. The online marketing landscape is young and actively embraces innovative video and promotional activity to encourage consumers to talk about – or “share” – a brand, product or promotion. This may be the key to increasing the ever-minimal attention span.

Shameless Self-Promo: BrightRoll Pledges $1M, Brings New Measurements to Online Video

February 16, 2011

In a rare moment of BrightRoll self-promotion, we’re excited to announce our $1 million industry research pledge to advance online video advertising throughout 2011. While we’ve long championed industry research, our recent pledge, spurred by vast industry buzz and events like OMMA Video, have driven us to invest more time and dollars into ushering in a new era of online video capabilities.

The news also comes with the announcement that BrightRoll is collaborating with digital measurement powerhouse comScore to support advertisers with greater insight into online video campaigns, including third-party validation and “in-flight” campaign data for greater audience targeting.

Also, for the first time ever – and in support of our 2011 focus on research and innovation – reporting measurements that advertisers have long been accustomed to across offline mediums, like print and TV, will be now used by BrightRoll to measure and optimize online video campaigns.

As always, if there are any questions about the BrightRoll technology, network, reach or other inquiries about any facet of online video or online advertising, feel free to get in touch here, or “@” us on Twitter. Also, feel free to check out the official press release here.

BrightRoll Takes on the Twittersphere: Vol. 3

February 07, 2011

We’re back with another installment of our Twitter round up, where we catch a few industry stories you may have missed throughout the past week. Perhaps the biggest news was New Corp’s launch of The Daily, the first e-newspaper exclusive to the iPad. The Daily’s launch, of course, stirred up a flurry of chatter on Twitter – among the most interesting is the recurring meme of mobile advertising. Several big-name advertisers have already signed on to advertise with the The Daily. Apple, meanwhile, came out with a co-branded Nielsen report touting the effectiveness of its iAd platform. But that’s enough back story…our take on this week’s news follows below.

Big-name Brands Try on The Daily

News Corp’s iPad newspaper launched Wednesday, but the news created an impressive wave of punditry about what the native tablet paper means for the future of media and publishing. Deadwood newspapers are a dying business, but will The Daily’s $0.99/week subscription model make money? The answer rests in the future, but the publication has convinced big-time brand advertisers to give it a shot. According to ClickZ’s Jack Marshall, “The app includes ads from major brands such as Pepsi, Verizon, Virgin Atlantic and Paramount Pictures at launch.”

iAds Trumping Traditional TV Spots

Apple recently announced the results of a five-week study with Nielsen about the effectiveness of mobile ads vs. traditional TV spots. The study found that consumers that were exposed to a Campbell’s mobile ad were as much as five times more likely to remember the brand. We think this makes perfect sense. Smartphone and tablet users are generally less passive than TV viewers (think of your own TV watching vs. browsing habits). As players in video advertising, mobile’s certainly top of mind. Today, 26 percent of the U.S. market is tethered to a smartphone – that number is sure to surge through 2011. Whatever the ad platform, the results of mobile will be interesting to see as advertisers shift more of their budgets online.

Ditching the Super Bowl for Facebook and Twitter?

Ad Age reported that Ford Motor Co. has avoided a big Super Bowl ad buy, instead leveraging its promotional activity with social media. Jim Farley, Ford’s global marketing chief, said, “Customers are spending as much time with the mobile smartphone or online as they are watching TV now, so our advertising dollars have to flow to where the people are.” Sure, many of those folks dissected ads on Facebook or Twitter during the game, but it’s an interesting harbinger of where the ad industry is heading – and it looks like future Super Bowls will be an interesting hybrid of TV, online and more. Now we’ll have to wait and see what happens with a potential lockout. …

Finally, a funny tweet from Ad Age’s Michael Learmonth about the perils of aging in a targeted ad world. Until next time, we’ll keep our eye on the wire and ear to the Web.

The Implications of Mobile

January 27, 2011

Last fall, BrightRoll launched its mobile video advertising solution. Since then, we’ve seen good success running 15- and 30-second video campaigns within Smartphone applications, although the mobile infrastructure to deliver ads at scale has yet to be fully developed. I joined BrightRoll earlier this year to help the company make an even more concerted push into the space by capitalizing on our initial traction and building out the architecture needed to support mobile video at scale. As you’ll see from some of the figures below, mobile video is poised for explosive growth, and I’d love to take a step back and talk about what this change means for both publishers and advertisers.

First, let’s review some key stats. The Smartphone market (which includes the iPhone, Android, RIM, Nokia and Microsoft) is exploding, and for the first time, in 2011, smartphone sales will outpace feature phone sales. Today, smartphones comprise 26 percent of the market, but that percentage is increasing rapidly. At the same time, the usage of applications by iPhone and Android users has exploded. There have been 10 billion apps downloaded on the iPhone platform since July of 2008, and the app business is expected to generate $58 billion by 2014, according to Gartner. Partially as a result of this new app ecosystem, the mobile advertising market is expected to grow from $800 million in 2010 to $5 billion by 2015.

So what are the implications for publishers? Most importantly, publishers will be able to generate significant new revenue streams and achieve better CPMs than they are getting with banner ads today. BrightRoll offers publishers its client SDK, allowing them to easily monetize mobile applications with video ads. We plan to work with individual publishers to fit the ad to the user experience. This includes publishers who use video ads as an incentive for virtual goods: typically a publisher will present the user with an opportunity to watch an ad in order to receive virtual currency. And because we work with advertisers who have already budgeted for these types of campaigns, this is a huge boon for the publishers in our network.

And what about advertisers? Anyone who has worked with BrightRoll in the past knows our track record of proven success in the online video advertising space, and we plan to leverage that expertise and experience in mobile video. Today, we see two important things missing in the mobile space: scalability and technical prowess. We feel that we can offer these along with the best reach of any company in the space.

The bottom line? We’re committed to building the mobile video business and continuing to be a great partner for the publishers and advertisers we work with.