Online video ads that roll immediately before the video content are better branding vehicles than other types of online video ads--but "transitional" formats, where ads stream between page views, are more likely to drive purchases, according to new research by rich media company Viewpoint and Dynamic Logic, scheduled to be released today. For the study, dubbed "All Things Video," Viewpoint streamed 40 million 30-second online video impressions for four separate campaigns, across a variety of sites including About.com, CBS News, CBS SportsLine, America Online, ESPN, iVillage, and Weather.com. The ads, streamed over a period of eight weeks, included "pre-roll," in which ads stream before content, "in-page" formats, in which ads stream next to static text, and "transitional" formats, where ads stream between page views. Dynamic Logic then surveyed about 3,800 online viewers who were exposed to the ads. Overall, pre-roll, which in many ways is the most similar to television ads, was the most effective at increasing brand awareness. "For people who respond to advertising, full-screen is the most effective, because there's no competition on the page," said Allie Savarino, vice president of Viewpoint. But transitional video was found to be 20 percent more successful than both of the other two formats when it came to having an impact on intent to make a purchase. Video ads that ran embedded within banners were the least effective of the three formats. "If you stick something in a banner, it's still a banner," said Savarino. "It's a great reminder message, but not something that advertisers should really talk about investing a high portion of their budget in, if it's at a premium." Viewers also reported relatively less irritation with online ads than television ads. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they found the online ads annoying--far lower than the proportion of consumers who reported annoyance with television ads.
Carat Interactive is expected to announce today the hiring of two new top managers: Greg Pomaro, who will be filling the position of group media director at Carat's San Francisco office, and Gordon Abel, who will be filling the newly created position of director of marketing. Pomaro comes to Carat from Grey San Francisco, managing the online media programs for Oracle, Sun, and Teleflora. As director of marketing for Carat, Pomaro will oversee their media operations and media planning, and will manage new and existing technology initiatives. Pomaro said he plans to make only minor changes in the agency's media planning and practices. "Obviously, they've had a rock-solid practice for a long time, so I don't really anticipate any major changes," he said. "There will always be small things, and it's an evolutionary industry--I expect there will be some things that will change, but they won't be major, sweeping renovations." Another of Pomaro's responsibilities will be growing the agency by signing on new clients. "I'll absolutely be involved in new business initiatives. The first priority is always to service existing clients, but I'll be part of the team that's tasked with overseeing the growth of the overall agency." Abel comes to Carat from Euro RSCG Worldwide, where he managed accounts for Barclay's Global Investors, Wells Fargo Online, and Yahoo! Premium Services. He is also a member of the board of the Bay Area Interactive Group. He will be responsible for managing Carat's brand positioning, and he will work with the company's senior executives to plan Carat's marketing and communications, including public relations, events and corporate communications.
Last year, the proportion of Web site visitors rejecting third-party cookies increased threefold, from around 4 percent in January to 12 percent by December, according to new research by analytics company WebTrends. The third-party cookie rejection rate remained at around 12 percent through the end of last month, according to the report. For the report, "Accurate and Actionable Web Analytics," WebTrends looked at records of about five billion visitor sessions a month across thousands of clients' Web sites, said Jeff Seacrist, WebTrends director of product marketing. The report comes at a time when the industry is still reeling from other studies showing that consumers delete their cookies far more frequently than had been imagined. One report issued last month by Jupiter Research showed that 40 percent of consumers deleted cookies at least monthly. The WebTrends research showed that third-party rejections occurred most frequently rn the retail category, in which 16.7 percent of visitors now decline third-party cookies. Other categories with high rejection rates include telecoms (15.4 percent), health care (14.7 percent), manufacturing (13.3 percent), transportation (13 percent), and media (12 percent). WebTrends also intends to launch an upgrade to its product at the end of the month. One of the new features is an offering that will allow publishers to do more analytics using their own first-party cookies, rather than third-party cookies placed on the site by an outside company.
Dennis Publishing today plans to announce the formation of the Dennis Digital division, bringing its online, video, and mobile departments together under the direction of newly appointed President Todd Anderman. Roger Munford, who is presently the general manager of Maxim Online, will take on expanded responsibilities, as he is taking the same title with Dennis Digital. The intention is for Dennis Digital to have a greater impact on its target audience--18- to-34-year-old men--said Anderman, who will report directly to Dennis Publishing U.S. President and CEO Stephen Colvin. "It was intuitive to bring these departments together as everyone--our [readers], our advertisers--expect more and more integration all the time," Anderman said. "Now we'll have to do our best to leverage each property against each other." Men's magazine Maxim provides free video programming on-demand to Internet users via MSN's video streaming service. Maxim screensavers and wallpapers were the wireless industry's first to go platinum, according to a spokesman, who said that Sprint PCS Vision customers have purchased more than one million of them. Under the Dennis Digital banner, the Web sites of Dennis Publishing's music magazine Blender and news publication The Week will be overhauled and built-out. Dennis Publishing's four Web sites--maximonline.com, stuffmagazine.com, www.blender.com, and theweekmagazine.com--collectively draw 4.5 million unique viewers a month, according to a company spokesman. All 36 employees who made up the separate departments will remain, and will now represent Dennis Digital, confirmed Anderman. Maxim Mobile, which is made possible through a partnership with Airborne Entertainment, drew 1.2 million downloads in first-quarter 2005, a company spokesman said. Todd Anderman comes from AmericanGreetings.com, where he served as senior vice president of sales and business development. Before that, Anderman was with eMusic, where he had a similar role at the online versions of such publications as Rolling Stone and Source magazine.
In an effort to increase visibility with advertisers, WeatherBug said it plans to launch a print and online trade campaign today. The campaign is priced at more than $250,000, and will run through the summer in publications including Advertising Age, AdWeek, and MediaPost's publications. The first of a number of print and online ads to be released over the summer features a cup of coffee with a hurricane satellite image floating on top like swirling cream. The site attracts some 18 million unique visitors and 700 million page views per month, according to a company statement. WeatherBug is one of many non-browser applications competing for the 106 million consumers who, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, connect to the Internet regularly without the help of Internet Explorer or Firefox. Michael Rosen, senior vice president of media sales and marketing at WeatherBug, said plans for the campaign began about four months ago when he came over from Bloomberg, where he served a similar role as senior vice president of sales and marketing. The centerpiece of WeatherBug's new offering is its BrandWrap creative unit, which allows advertisers to completely integrate their brand with WeatherBug's tools and information. Sponsor Select is another format being promoted, which encourages users to select from a list of sponsors listed by personal interests such as finance or health and beauty. The type of ads that users are served is an option they've never had, explained Rosen. But, for this premium complete-buyout, advertisers can certainly expect to pay a premium, said Rosen, who described the deals as "six-figure programs." "This is a one-of-a-kind service, not to mention the advanced targeting we offer advertisers because our site requires registration, which includes user's ZIP codes." WeatherBug also asks people for their name, income, and occupation, among other personal information, and 80 percent of their campaigns are targeted by demographic, Rosen said. Baskin-Robbins, the Campbell Soup Company, AstraZeneca's anti-ulcer drug Nexium, Blockbuster Inc., and Marriott are some of the advertisers already signed on, Rosen said. The campaign was developed by Huey Partners, a spinoff of the recently dissolved Huey Paprocki, which has handled projects for Mizuno USA, Hitachi Power Tools, and COX Media. Huey Partners--formed by Huey Paprocki, co-founder Ron Huey, Michelle Montgomery, and Scot Crooker--signed WeatherBug as their first account.