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Video Killed the Pop-Up Star

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By: NMK Created on: August 24th, 2004
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In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone too far... Says Michael Nutley. Kind of. In this article Nutley examines how US users favour online video advertising and questions if it would work for the UK market...



It's long been accepted that the bulk of Internet innovation flows eastwards. Due to a combination of market size, existing infrastructure and a more developed VC industry, what happens in the US today reaches the UK about six months to a year later, and gets to Europe some time after that.

We may have the most advanced iTV market in the world, the Japanese and the Finns can battle it out for leadership in mobile, and Korea has more broadband than anyone, but in e-business, the US still leads the way. But there are areas where this is changing. Not because we, and the rest of Europe, are catching up with the US, but because technology is ceasing to be the dominant factor in certain business uses of interactive media, in particular online advertising.

I first started thinking about this last November, when I was at the Ad:tech conference in New York. Many of the panels there were spilt between those who felt that online advertising was becoming too intrusive, as evinced by the gathering fury over spam and the rise of pop-up blocking software, and those who felt that it wasn't intrusive enough. The latter camp argued that the reason click-through rates were falling was because people were becoming inured to ads and that, in order to cut through, something far more aggressive was required. One panellist went so far as to suggest a format that placed an ad in front of the home page of the site you wanted to visit, staying in place for 20 seconds before allowing you through.

At the time I thought this was ludicrous. Surely online requires people to opt-in to advertising in a way no other medium does, and in order to achieve that opt-in, the advertising has to deliver more value to the consumer than advertising in any other medium?

What made me think again was the response on either side of the Atlantic to the emergence of online video advertising. In the UK the use of the format to run TV ads online was rejected as forcing the thinking from one medium onto another. Charlie Dobres, CEO of media agency iLevel, suggested in NMA that it was like using the technology from singing birthday cards to run 30 second radio ads when you turn the pages of a newspaper. But shortly afterwards a US user survey carried out by Dynamic Logic showed some amazing results. Online video advertising lifted brand awareness by 54%, message association by 144%, brand favourability by 40% and intent to purchase by 47%.

What was even more attention-grabbing was that only 28% of those surveyed were annoyed by the video ads, much fewer than the percentage who typically report being annoyed by pop-ups. This led me to wonder whether the online advertising market had reached a sufficient degree of maturity that technological factors were being overtaken in importance by cultural ones. As anyone whose compared US and UK approaches to advertising knows, the two are wildly different. US consumers tolerate a much greater density of advertising of a type that UK consumers regard as lacking in subtlety. Americans in their turn will have little truck with the more quirky products of the UK advertising industry, believing it to look cheap.

Of course, neither approach is better than the other, however much we might want to believe our advertising in the best in the world. What it means instead is that we need to consider new online advertising formats and technologies on their own merits and adapt them to suit our own audiences. It's not the file size that matters - it's what you do with it that counts.

About the author: Michael Nutley is the editor of New Media Age

Comments

ToyChicken said:

Pop-up Star!!?!? <p>&lt;rant&gt;I'm going to try and keep this short... but advertisers and the agencies that produce advertising should seriously consider this... I am a consumer of the internet, and of real world products that the internet can send to my door. To which brands am I loyal? <br/> <br/>I generally feel that I tend to go for the brands which advertise pretty discreetly, if at all. What they do is provide me with an excellent service / user experience. NMK, B3ta, Amazon, GuardianOnline, Dabs... <br/> <br/>Trust me, I used to think pop-ups were cool, then those Flash interstitials looked pretty neat, and the occasional video will look sh*t hot now, but it all goes the same way. Once it becomes ubiquitous, it just becomes annoying. <br/> <br/>I'm not suggestion that you don't innovate, in fact I'd say bring it on, we'll be distracted for a short while. But if you want to sell stuff, make your website easy to use, tell the customers things they (genuinely) need to know, and make it a good experience. <br/> <br/>&lt;/rant&gt;<br/></p>

JonClarke said:

Common sense, video and putting the user first <p>Now I may be an old new media man but I always thought common sense was a pretty good thing to use in all situations. If a user sees a video on their screen, which to be fair at this moment is quite unusual and also in most cases entertaining, then their senses and interest will be far greater pricked and open to the messages in the advert. After all they are used to TV and Cinema advertising, video is better than simple animation. <br/> <br/>So it surprises me that online commentators feel that internet advertising should not just roll over to a video format and that the fledgling industry push the medium ever onwards with gimmick after gimmick when all the user wants while surfing is a simple non-intrusive format and yes video could be that format, enhanced with bespoke interaction of course (so that's where innovation can be pursued). <br/> <br/>The 1 to 1 medium that is the internet should welcome broadcast. Publishers should realise if they ever want to see TV revenue pour into online then they should support it too. <br/> <br/>The user, the most important player in the game of advertising, needs simple, clear and informative advertising, also one that allows them to choose what they interact with and something that does not interrupt their enjoyment of the sites they choose to view. <br/> <br/>Common sense it would seem that users prefer video over pop-ups, entertainment over annoyance. <br/> <br/>Video may end up being king, but placement and delivery of any advertising format will be the key to the future of the online advertising industry and with that in mind I believe the user should hold the power to initiate the dialogue with the advertiser. <br/> <br/>Eyeconomy.co.uk has produced a new format called a 'Subline' that allows users to initiate the advertising messages but also offers a format that allows them to choose various options which include video, audio, search, XML feed, registration, purchase, download, viral, favourites, live ticker, product reveals each bespoke to each advertiser. <br/> <br/>http://www.eyeconomy.co.uk/pitchblack <br/>http://www.eyeconomy.co.uk/nu <br/> <br/>Response thus far from the public has been fabulous with users stating that somebody at last has thought about their enjoyment of using the internet and they would be open to advertisers much more via this responsible route. <br/> <br/>The internet is a broadcast medium, the user needs to be thought of and common sense is the key <br/></p>

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