• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, September 21, 2010

From the time streaming media became a serious business for advertising, ad tech companies and the more forward-thinking guys at creative agencies lamented the ubiquitous repurposed 15 and 30. Give us creative that fits the medium, the screen, the attention span and the content size of online video experience, they said. And yet any cursory look at most major media sites demonstrates that the pre-roll is dominated by familiar TV spots. Now Dynamic Logic adds to the argument with research showing that repurposed TV ads do indeed raise brand awareness more effectively than other kinds of online ads. Perhaps that is to be expected. I always felt that reiterating a familiar TV ad, when it isn't tiresome, that is, actually can have a surround-sound effect on the viewer that amplifies brand awareness. Seeing the ad reiterated on multiple platforms may not satisfy a general desire for discrete creative for the medium, but it can get the job done.

But here is the rub. According to the Dynamic Logic research, despite a better brand lift, repurposed TV spots online do not influence purchase decision as strongly. The brand metrics company found that in the core demo of 18-34-year-olds, custom video creative influenced 2.8% to make a purchase decision, while only 1.1% of those seeing the TV spot online were swayed.

The effect of custom creative is especially strong on sites where video content is a standard part of the online experience, including news and entertainment sites. I would hazard a guess that on sites where people are viewing considerable video, the custom creative also tends to stand out more from the tedium of rehashed prerolls. Ads built for the Web video experience may also be more efficient in the long run, too. Dynamic Logic says that the custom spots show an impact with more people after only one exposure. Again, arguably, the jaded TV viewer who has seen most of the spots on prerolls on air simply gets more engaged when he or she sees something new. TV spots show greater effectiveness with higher frequency of four exposures or more.

Custom creative may take a greater role in maintaining online video ad effectiveness over time. Dynamic Logic's report also shows that the edge video once had over rich media formats in raising awareness has evened out in just the last few years. Video still leads handily other formats in driving purchase intent, but generally the novelty of video is waning and keeping the formats fresh may be more important to maintaining their future value.