• by Rich Routman , Op-Ed Contributor, August 8, 2013

As time spent on digital platforms, with a focus on video, begins to surpass time spent on television, what’s the best sell-side and buy-side approach?  Content, context and audience all carry some value in the assessment of digital video opportunities, but much like measuring television, captive audience is still the most reliable valuation metric.

Content

Premium digital video content often lacks scale and in most cases, remains overpriced when sold by portals on a CPM basis.  However, the perfect content and brand alignment can provide lift to both parties -- lift that cannot be measured by CPM efficiencies.  When movie companies work with sports cable properties to integrate action film trailers into top moments from a live event, a richer media experience comes to life.  Conversely, content can go completely in the wrong direction for both the brand and the content producer, with TV show “Undercover Boss” feeling the brunt of this burden on several occasions (one example here).

Context

Some would refer to “in context” as product placement. However, digital video has changed the nature of this definition, with innovation and rich media executions that TV cannot seem to duplicate.  CPG brands have far surpassed other vertical categories when it comes to in-context advertising, leveraging video metadata and page level data to tailor custom messaging to audience segments.  This is particularly successful when the brand’s contextual alignment has purpose and is entirely authentic.  For example, Dove for Men (a previous client)  “Comfort Series” ads, run during sports programming, featured well-known sports talent sharing contextually relevant experiences (e.g., nervous, sweating moments) from crucial moments in their lives.  However, the opposite can be said about a recent Ad Council / US Army initiative, where spokesperson Lebron James urged kids to stay in school.  It would have created a more fluid alignment by using an athlete who actually grinded his way through college like LeBron’s Miami teammate Shane Battier, who graduated from Duke University with a 3.5 GPA.

Audience

How many times have we seen great pilots on television tank due to lack of audience engagement?  And, how many times has the perfect reality show concept (with heavy marketing partner participation) shut down after 3-5 episodes?   Video consumption is a world where numbers do not lie. Those properties capable of delivering quality and scale stand at a significant advantage in all video discussions.  Simply put, audience drives the video advertising business -- and, when executed properly, content adjacency and contextual alignment serve as the perfect forms of added value.