• by July 25, 2012

. “Premium to us is something that is going to stand out,”  said Doug Neil, SVP, Digital Marketing, Universal, as he answered the question of the day at OMMA Premium Display. Neil has overseen the online marketing of more than 120 different films, and has worked at AOL, Disney, Hollywood Ventures, and also was one of the founders of TMZ.

Interviewed by Media Post West Coast editor Wayne Friedman, Neil said, “We are  selling movies. Movies are sight sound and motion. The sampling mechanism for us is to see a clip or see a pre roll.”

And in marked contrast to the scarcity situation that Mike Rich spoke about, Neil said,  “The reality is that there’s not enough inventory available for that. Any time we can take a display ad and make it more animated, it’s of more value to us.”

Lately, he launched the Lorax.  “We created tool kits of different types of animation,” he said. "We have the Bourne Legacy, but it’s hard to have Jeremy Renner racing across the page.  

Neil added that his view is to  “take the standard ads and make them as impactful as possible.  We could put up the orange of the Lorax and people knew that.  On FB with marketplace ads, you’re limited. but the orange look of The Lorax had a huge response.  It just broke through the clutter. “