• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, August 29, 2005

A wit once remarked on how silly it was for marketers to use pumped-up terms like 'innovation' and 'breakthrough' to describe set product changes, while peacockish fashionistas do just fine with the phrase 'next season.' In that spirit, let's leave the hyperbole to toothbrush commercials -- how many breakthroughs in brushing 'technology' can one stand, anyway? -- and take a sober look at the fall rich media season.

They'll be no shortage of venues, for one. CBS, CNN, and ABC, among others, have all got loads of room for video ads. I mentioned America Online last week, which is about to offer over 30 new formats, from streaming video to ads that wrap a brand 360 degrees around a user's computer screen. I've also previously mentioned the AccuStream iMedia Research report, which forecasts ad revenue for online video to reach $321 million this year, up 75 percent from 2004.

One niche space to watch this fall is sports. Texas U's football team is producing a video magazine with Host Communications. Four issues will cost Longhorn fans $25, but Host also plans to sell advertising. And, because Yahoo! Sports has an existing deal with Texas and 100 other schools to market live audio game coverage, a successful debut could have big implications for following seasons.

Oh, and speaking of sports fans, the first digital issue of Playboy in October will feature girls of the Pac-10 along with video game femme fatales and a George Carlin interview. Hurray for Hef! Do Bunnies blog? I wonder.

All this video has agencies continuing their search for talented individuals with an understanding of the medium -- how to tell a story and so forth. PointRoll and EyeWonder both claim to be well stocked with such expertise. Here's one idea: How about animating those great cartoons featured in Playboy? Those guys are nothing if not superb and concise storytellers, and The New Yorker, which hosts a lot of the same artists, already sells its services to brands like Bombay Sapphire.

In keeping with our non-breakthrough theme, another trend for the fall is sequencing. Not sequins; sequencing! The stuff has been around, I know, but it's more sophisticated. PointRoll's using it right now to add layering to Gatorade's Propel beverage brand campaign. And Nir Shimoni, a product vice president at Eyeblaster, was kind enough recently to walk me through some formats set for release next month. Presented as an ad for MSN Music, I could listen to featured selections of rock, rap, and country on the ad. (Not on another site! Don't take me away from the site I'm on, for Gates's sake!) I tried a bit of everything, but spent the most time with rock, so the next time I saw the ad -- in theory, hours or days later -- it gave me a broader selection of rock musicians. Plus, there's no limit to how targeted these ads can get. One more less-than-innovative trend to watch is the marketer out to prove that the right incentive can overshadow the most brilliant delivery. For instance, did you know that "Someone Will Win An Xbox 360 System Every 10 Minutes" until mid-November? A multi-channel, co-branded campaign by PepsiCo's Mountain Dew, Microsoft's new Xbox 360, and Yahoo! is going to make sure of it.

Excited? Well, maybe hyperbole has its place. I promise next week's column will be, er, revolutionary! Or at least I promise to call it that.