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Viral Video Ads

Last weekend, The HuffingtonPost.com started showing video ads produced by J. Walter Thompson in a week-long pilot program. I haven't seen the ads, but Marketwatch's Bambi Francisco calls one of the ads, for Scruffs Hardwear, "salacious." Apparently there's a lot of skin going on. Who cares? What's the point? you might ask. Well, the point is--it's early days in online video, so ad agencies--like everyone else--are trying to figure out what they can get away with, and what sticks. Right now there are no standards--no rules and regulations about appropriateness and online video advertising, partly because no one's really involved yet. eMarketer says video ads accounted for just 2 percent, or $225 million, of the $12.5 billion spent on Internet advertising last year. By the end of the year that should rise to $385 million. Do these ads make you want to go out and buy underwear? Maybe, maybe not--but that probably isn't the purpose. Sharing is the key: word of mouth, as anyone in advertising knows, pushes more product than anything else. When your friends recommend a movie, or a restaurant, you listen. When they send you video, you probably watch it. That's where online video can score big, provided the agencies can come up with compelling creative.

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