• Advertising Age, Monday, September 24, 2007 11:15 AM

If share of budgets matched share of mind for online video advertising, it would be worth a lot more than eMarketer's $775 million 2007 revenue estimate. But much of the attention paid to the ad channel is because there are still so many unknowns. The latest parties to research the space are two of the Web's giants, AOL and Google, which have teamed with TNS to produce a study of video-viewing habits.

They found that online-video viewing steadily increases throughout the day, peaking in the evening, but that the heaviest viewers also watch in the afternoon. As for online-video destinations, most users had requested a video-sharing site in the past month (77%), followed by news sites (55%) and broadcast TV sites (49%). And the study found there are a few important ingredients to online-video ads -- at least in consumers' eyes.

During the past four years, a company called Competitrack has identified more than 4,000 pieces of viral creative, ranging from microsites to videos to blogs, for clients such as Fidelity Investments. It classifies as viral a piece of content that tries to attract or engage an audience and supports mention of a brand, although it can also be a spoof of that brand. The 10 biggest viral brands are: Nike, Anheuser-Busch, Microsoft, Volkswagen, Axe, Apple, Coca-Cola, Adidas, PepsiCo and McDonald's.

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