Season or no, the shoes still need to be sold. With the NBA season already delayed (and unlikely to start anytime soon) thanks to a labor dispute, Adidas is prepping a new marketing campaign featuring last year's league MVP Derrick Rose as it launches his signature shoe, the adiZero Rose 2. Plans for the shoe's debut were made well in advance of the current lockout, although the marketing strategy around it has always been to focus on Rose and his status as a top player recognized around the world. "We wanted to tell a story of Derrick Rose and ... get you excited about him regardless of where he plays and when he plays," Ryan Morlan, Adidas' global director of brand marketing, tells Marketing Daily. "We wanted to show consumers his speed and his skill in a way that's unforgettable, so we picked a venue that would reflect him as the ultimate bull." A 60-second commercial from 180LA uses Rose's team, the Chicago Bulls, as a visual metaphor. The spot takes place in a bullfighting arena with Rose playing the part of the bull. As he enters the arena, he crouches as a bull would and eyes the matador suspiciously. Then in a burst of speed (intercut with slow-motion photography), Rose avoids the matador and picadors, basketball in hand, before delivering a monster dunk. The end of the commercial encourages people to "get more d rose" at Adidas' Facebook page. "We want to start the conversation with broadcast, but [the campaign goes] across the entire marketing mix," Morlan says. "[All the elements] go on the notion of Derrick Rose and we want to sell the content in the way that makes sense. When you move into the digital space it's about rewarding the consumer with the time they spend with that content online." Indeed, the commercial's online debut (it's currently viewable on YouTube) began through the company's Facebook page, where fans could view the commercial first before Liking it. At 100,000 Likes (a mark hit after only 16 hours), the spot was made available to the general public, Morlan says. The company is also beginning another Facebook promotion, giving fans in Rose's hometown of Chicago the chance to play against him in a game of one-on-one, Morlan says. Adidas will also be offering behind-the-scenes and other special content through its Facebook page. The ad is currently viewable on YouTube and will make its television debut on Oct. 5 on ESPN programming and NFL broadcasts on CBS, NBC and ESPN. The spot will also air on Cartoon Network, which provides significant bang for the buck with the target audience, Morlan says. "They are a network programming that has overwhelmingly efficient reach with our target audience," he says.
Internet ad revenue rose 24.1% to $7.7 billion in Q2 2011, contributing a 23% uptick to $14.9 billion in the first half of the year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. stats. Display-related advertising-banner, rich media, digital video and sponsorships rose 27.1% to more than $5.5 billion in the first six months of 2011. Breaking it down for the first six months, display-related advertising revenue totaled $5.5 billion or 37% revenue, up 27% from the $4.4 billion reported in 2010. Banners took 23%, or $3.4 billion; rich media, 5%, or $763 million; digital video, 6%, or $891 million; and sponsorship, 3%, or $467 million. Aside from display ads, paid search ads continue to take the majority of the media buy. Search -- which remains the leading format since 2006 -- accounted for 49% of Q2 2011 revenue, up 47% to $3.8 billion. Search revenue for the first six months of 2011 totaled $7.3 billion, up 27% from $5.7 billion in 2010. Brands also spent more on video and lead generation. Digital video rose 42.1% to $891 million. Lead generation grew 25.4%, compared with the first six months in 2010, accounting for 5% during the first six months of 2011, or $805 million. While some ad formats continue an uphill climb, others slid. The dollars spent on classified ads fell 2%; and email, 34.2%, only contributing 1%, or $79 million, to revenue. Ads using performance-based models increased faster than ads using impression-based models, rising to $9.6 billion. In Q2 2011, approximately 64% of revenue came in priced on a performance basis, up from 61% reported in Q2 2010. About 31% of Q2 2011 revenue was priced on CPM or an impression basis -- down from 35% -- and 5% of Q2 2011 revenue priced on a hybrid basis, up from the 4% reports in the year-ago quarter. The study identifies the retail sector as the biggest spenders online. Retail advertisers accounted for 23% during the first half of 2011, or $3.5 billion -- up from $2.5 billion in the first six months of the prior year. Telecom companies followed, contributing 14%, or $2.1 billion, up from $1.7 billion; Financial Services, 13%, or $1.9 billion, up from 12%; and Automotive advertisers, 11%, or $1.7 billion, up from $1.3 billion. When it came to the computing sector, revenue rose 10%, or $1.5 billion, up from $1.2 billion; leisure travel, 8%, or $1.2 billion, up from 7%; consumer packaged goods, 6%, or $866 million, down from $980 million; entertainment, 4%, or $556 million, up from $508 million; media, 4%, or $660 million, up from $498 million; and pharma/ healthcare, 4%, or $608 million, up from $576 million.
YouTube will launch Google AdWords for video in beta on Wednesday. The tool aims to simplify online video ad campaigns and allow advertisers to use a dynamic, auction-based platform to place and manage ads on YouTube and the Google Display Network. The platform, built on top of AdWords technology, uses the same pipeline to serve ads. It's the same product, but presents video first. In the platform, advertisers will have an option to create one campaign from a selection of video assets and pay only for a video views, rather than impressions using a series of four TrueView video ads. With the launch, YouTube rebranded Promoted Videos to TrueView in-search and TrueView in-display. Aside from in-search and in-display, YouTube also added in-slate and in-stream. It turns out that in-stream video ads boost brand recall. eMarketer points to a study by Break Media that finds viewers not only remember seeing in-stream ads, but also recall the subject. Forty-seven percent said they remembered the brand or product advertised after viewing a pre-, mid- or post-roll video ad. Lane Shackleton, product manager, YouTube, said the new formats simplify the ad-buying process. In the display format, advertisers will have an option to run click-to-play ads. The in-stream option does not require advertisers to pay for the ad unless the viewer watches more than 30 seconds before skipping through. A dashboard in the Google AdWords for video platform allows advertisers to set budgets, as well as monitor impressions, views, average cost per views, total costs, and Web site clicks. Advertisers enter a headline, description and thumbnails, display URLs, destinations and more. A preview window gives advertisers a view into where and how the video will run. "We made it so advertisers can link YouTube accounts," Shackleton said. "It allows advertisers to populate the list specific to the brand." Advertisers complained in the past that ad campaigns in YouTube lacked the targeting capabilities similar to AdWords for google.com Advertisers can now define a target group, set bid amounts for each of the four formats, and search and set target suggestions by keywords. For example, the targets include topics like Art & Entertainment; Audiences, males from 18-24; and Interests, hiking & Camping. The targeting capability uses logged-in user data provided by the users in YouTube accounts and some inference data. Advertisers also can target by content, such as Spanish-speaking content or sports. A call-to-action overlay makes an offer to viewers, shares more information about businesses and drives traffic to Web sites. The overlay appears as a display ad over the TrueView in-search and in-display videos that play on YouTube. Similar to an analytics platform for paid-search ads on google.com, Google AdWords for video offers reporting capabilities such as monitoring length of time for views. Advertisers can see who views the videos, how long they watch and what other actions they take. For advertisers, it aims to improve the campaign's performance. Some use information on view-through rate for campaign-split testing, where they can test multiple ads to determine the one that resonates best with their audience. Along with the launch, Google is running a promotion for new AdWords advertisers who sign up for the AdWords for video beta program. Google will extend a $100 coupon to video advertising customers who are new to AdWords for those who want to give it a try.
It's one thing to comment on your social media page about TV shows, and it's quite another to be on TV with your comments. A new social media/TV network --- in partnership with veteran TV reality producer Mark Burnett -- will do just that. One of Burnett's companies -- VIMBY (Video in My BackYard) is joining forces with Youtoo, a cable network of 15 million homes that launched this week. Youtoo says it has developed a revolutionary technology that allows viewers to record and submit videos, which are "filtered" for content and broadcast on TV. It says this automated process enables anyone, from anywhere, with Internet access or a mobile device to be on TV within minutes. "Since millions of people want to be on TV, we have an app for that," stated Chris Wyatt, chief executive officer of Youtoo. "Think of it as Facebook meets TV, it's the evolution of the social network. In addition to interacting with your friends and followers, you can be on national television and interact with millions of people." Youtoo says it will start with putting some 500 people on TV each day in "Fame Spots." The spots can be recorded from an Apple, Android smartphone, tablet or computer. Each Youtoo program is wrapped around a popular television or Web series, creating interactive content in which the host discusses the episode and invites viewers to be on television. Mark Burnett's VIMBY will produce 250 short programs for the effort. Youtoo TV launches with older TV series, such as "The X Files," "Batman" and "Green Hornet," as well as some Web-based series.
Social seems to be making its way into every medium across the advertising industry. The ad exchange adBrite has partnered with the video advertising company Jivox, allowing advertisers to build in sharing tools that enable consumers to share content through Likes, tweets, email and blog posts. Aside from building sharing ads, advertisers can place long-form videos in the ad unit, insert coupons and documents for consumers to download, link to a store location or provide real-time Twitter feed updates. Rather than build these tools internally, partnerships around licensing or sharing technology continue to accelerate as online advertising becomes more sophisticated and complex. "There's logic to interweaving the tools, said Iggy Fanlo, CEO, adBrite. adBrite has integrated with about 30 demand-side platform companies -- both video and display. The road map for 2012 includes mobile and connected devices. There are technical issues related to how to handle cookies, device IDs, browsers and operating systems for devices, such as Kindle, IPTV, tablets. The exchange can identify the type of device, but the technology cannot separate ads to serve on specific devices. Different ad units are required for each device because the pixel count varies. Jivox holds all five IAB certifications for in-banner and in-stream video ad formats, as part of the IAB Compliance Seal Program. The Video Player-Ad API definition (VPAID) and Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) certifications standardize the process of serving in-stream online video ads, creating a communications protocol between ads and players. This helps publishers standardize on one in-stream video advertising platform. adBrite also works with 16 data partners and other companies, such as Blue Kai, AlmondNet, TARGUSinfo and DoubleVerify.
Amazon.com officially entered the tablet race Wednesday with the long-awaited launch of its answer to Apple's dominant iPad -- the Kindle Fire. The device will retail for $199. At a packed press event in New York, Amazon unveiled an Android-powered tablet with expected features, including a 7-inch touchscreen that runs a customized version of Google's Android operating system with access to the retail giant's app store, streaming media, books and other content. But the Fire also boasts a new mobile browser optimized for the device called Amazon Silk. It's designed to speed up page-loading by splitting computing tasks between the cloud and the tablet. Separately, Amazon rolled out a new color touchscreen version of its popular e-reader dubbed the Kindle Touch. The Wi-Fi-only version will sell for $99, while the 3G model will cost $149. Both feature Amazon's EasyReach technology for turning pages by tapping the screen in specific areas. In addition, the company introduced a new non-touchscreen Kindle model that will retail for $79. Previously, the lowest-priced Kindle, featuring ads, was $114. The Kindle Fire will ship Nov. 15 and the Touch models on Nov. 21, in time for the crucial holiday-shopping season. The new basic Kindle is available now. Amazon's aggressive pricing will present a challenge both to the iPad and Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader. The Wi-Fi-only Fire, priced at $199, is $300 less than the 10-inch Apple tablet and $50 less than the 7-inch Nook Color. "We're selling premium products at premium prices," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos repeated as a mantra during his presentation today, clearly aiming to undercut its chief competitors at the register. Despite its smaller size, Amazon's existing customer base, pricing and online marketing muscle could make the Fire the most formidable challenger to the iPad so far. It also has the track record of developing the world's best-selling e-reader in the original Kindle. If the Amazon tablet catches on with consumers, it will succeed where many other would-be iPad rivals have failed. Among the most high-profile tablets to fall short of expectations has been Research in Motion's PlayBook, the Motorola Xoom and HP's TouchPad, which the company is discontinuing at the end of October. The Samsung Galaxy Tab -- the iPad's nearest competitor to date -- has captured only a fraction of the market. (Samsung announced Tuesday the latest version of the Galaxy Tab, starting at $469, will be available in the U.S. Oct 2.) Research firm Gartner estimates Apple, which has sold about 29 million iPads to date, will account for 73.4% of media tablet sales worldwide in 2011. It also projects Apple will command more than half the tablet market through 2014. Bezos emphasized that the Kindle Fire will draw on the company's expanding array of digital content services. That includes access to 17 million MP3 songs, 100,000 movies and TV shows, a million Kindle books and hundreds of top magazines and newspapers from publishers. Earlier this week, Amazon announced a partnership with News Corp.'s Fox, with brings TV shows such as "24" and "Ally McBeal" and movie classics like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" to its Prime streaming service. Amazon has already struck deals with Sony, CBS and NBCUniversal for video content. The Fire also comes with a 30-day free subscription to Amazon Prime --the company's two-day shipping service -- and a pre-installed Amazon shopping app. On top of that, the new custom-built browser, Amazon Silk, which interfaces with EC2, Amazon's cloud server, promises to improve mobile Web performance. Another new wrinkle the Fire brings is extending Whispersync -- the feature that allows a Kindle user to continue reading from one device to another -- from books to video. So someone watching a TV show or movie on the Fire can pick up where they left off on their living room TV when they get home. Amazon is also offering free storage for all digital media via its cloud service. Amazon has declined to comment on rumors it also plans to introduce a 10-inch version of its new tablet to go head-to-head with the iPad. Even so, it should take some share from the Apple tablet, as well as eat into sales of other manufacturers' tablets. Forrester analyst Sarah Rottman Epps predicts the Fire could sell at least 3 million units in the fourth quarter alone. In a blog post today, she said the Amazon tablet will be a strong No. 2 to the iPad and doesn't expect any other serious competitors to emerge until the rollout of the Windows 8 tablet next year. She added that the device should also boost creation of Android tablet apps, which lag far behind the more than 100,000 for the iPad. "The rapid-fire adoption of the Kindle Fire will give app developers a reason -- finally -- to develop Android tablet apps," she wrote. The Kindle Fire may pose a more immediate threat to Barnes & Noble's Color Nook, which offers Web surfing and applications and sells for $249. The breadth of content and services Amazon is delivering through its tablet, at a lower price, will put the book chain under pressure, after getting briefly ahead with a color e-reader. TechCrunch reported Tuesday that Barnes & Noble is preparing to launch the Nook Color 2 next month, with Gingerbread, a more advanced version of Android than that which the Kindle Fire is equipped with (Android 2.1). The other new, lower-priced Kindle devices will also challenge Barnes & Noble's the Nook Simple Touch Reader, priced at $139.
A seasonal "Got Milk?" campaign from the national Milk Processors Education Program (MilkPEP) is bringing Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and Schroeder together in a print ad for the first time in 15 years. The campaign continues recent years' efforts to make chocolate milk "the official drink of Halloween" -- meaning getting parents to make it the beverage of choice at kids' (and adult) celebrations around the holiday. "The primary goal is building awareness among moms that chocolate milk is a treat that they can feel good about giving their kids," says Victor Zaborsky, marketing director for MilkPEP. "In line with the Halloween theme, the message is that white milk is 'dressing up' as chocolate milk for the holiday -- that just like white milk, it provides nine essential nutrients." And who better to convey the message than the Peanuts gang, particularly on the 45th anniversary of the animated classic, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"? Peanuts Worldwide, which licenses the Peanuts characters, thought the combination made sense -- it brought the idea to MilkPEP, reports Zaborsky. The creative is from MilkPEP agency Deutsch. Starting next week, through the end of October, the Halloween print ad will appear in a large roster of consumer magazines (including US Weekly, Every Day With Rachael Ray and Time), and will also appear as two full-page insertions in USA Today -- one on Halloween. But fans of the Facebook page for MilkPep's iconic "Milk Mustache" campaign (facebook.com/MilkMustache) will get the first peek at the ad, which will be posted there on Oct. 3, says Zaborsky. (MilkMustache also has a Twitter presence.) Peanuts-themed chocolate-milk-for-Halloween creative will also be seen in point-of-sale promotional materials in stores nationwide, in banner ads on mom-focused Web sites, and as one party-invite option among the Halloween invitation motifs offered on Evite.com. The Halloween campaign meshes with MilkPEP's ongoing "Pour One More" Milk Mustache national print, TV and online campaign, which is also targeted primarily to moms (and secondarily to teens and Hispanics) and emphasizes the message that milk delivers calcium, potassium and other essential nutrients that are under-consumed by most Americans, notes Zaborsky. The latest mustache/"Pour" efforts feature actress (and mom) Maggie Gyllenhaal praising the "delicious and nutritious" benefits of the milk in her morning latte -- marking the first time that milk has not been featured as a solo beverage in MilkPEP creative, according to Zaborsky. As with other stars recently featured in the mustache campaign -- including Susan Sarandon and Angie Harmon (and children) -- Gyllenhaal is featured in video clips on the WhyMilk site. In this case, the star shares about how milk in her morning latte is a simple way for a busy mom/actress to get her nutrients. MilkPEP created/owns the rights to the Milk Mustache campaign, but licenses the right to use the Got Milk? tagline from the California Milk Processor Board, an entirely separate organization that focuses exclusively on marketing milk in that state. The California Milk Processor Board is the organization that recently stirred controversy with a campaign that sought to convey that milk can help reduce the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. The campaign's approach, meant to be humorous, suggested that men also suffer when their female partners experience PMS. After extensive backlash on social media, the board shifted (ahead of plan) to a less controversial creative approach for the messaging.
With Pepsi set to feature the winner of Fox's "The X Factor" in a Super Bowl spot, Coke is set to make an amateur dancer the star of an upcoming global campaign for Coke Zero. The open casting call includes uploading a video to a Coke microsite. The contestants need to offer an "interpretation" of a dance with roots in a search for breakout moves linked with a Web series from director Jon M. Chu, tabbed "The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (LXD)." U.S. dancer Joel "Knucklehead" Turman came up with the "Toe Tappy." "We recognize that some of the best performances can come from the most unexpected places, which is why we're taking our casting call outside of traditional venues and allowing anyone with a gift and ambition to share their vision with us," stated Jonathan Mildenhall, vice president, global content excellence at Coke. "We were so inspired by Knucklehead's story -- how he turned to dance as a means to overcome personal tragedy and find joy and purpose in his life -- and we can't wait to find an artist who will embody Knucklehead's journey in their performance so we can share it with a global audience," he adds. The CokeZero.com/MakeItPossible site offers a video with Knucklehead's dance for inspiration. Submissions will be accepted through October.
Yo, check it out: Zeus is starring in what might be called "Lifestyles of the Immortal and Famous." The king of gods is back to show off his houses, his gods and goddesses and his cars. And if the latter are all customized Scion xD and xBs, that's because the hirsute king of Olympus is again spokes-toga for the Toyota Motor division in a digital and TV ad campaign for the brand's Release Series vehicles. This is actually the first year in which Scion has created a major campaign for the limited-edition Release Series cars, which typically comprise a run of between 500 and 2,200 units. Phase one of the campaign was this summer, when Zeus was introduced as a toga-wearing Belushi-esque party animal who can't quite figure out the modern world, its appliances, mores and women. In this second phase of the campaign -- the first touted the Release Series tC car -- the focus is on the xD and xB models, with Zeus showing us both his rides and his cradles, (Zeus malapropism for "crib.") As in the summer campaign, there is a raft of humorous viral videos via San Francisco-based Attik, Scion's AOR since the brand's inception. There is one 30-second TV spot, which will run on channels like Adult Swim, Fuse, Fuel, and Comedy Central, and a pair of long-form videos in which Zeus walks us through his "cradle" where we see his gothic tastes, portraits of his father Cronos (inventor of the open-faced sandwich), and his brothers Hades ("he's very open-minded") and Poseidon. In the kitchen, a slave -- chained to his butcher block counter -- is making him a sandwich. There are also several videos in his car park, where he walks viewers around the Release Series xB and xD, touting the Hot Lava paint scheme for xB, Blizzard Pearl xD, suede interiors, and Scion grill emblem that can light up. The TV spot, which was shot at what was once comedian Don Rickles' mansion in the Valley, also focuses on the cars. All of the video content is at www.scion.com/releaseseries. Owen Peacock, Scion's national marketing communications director, says the campaign serves as a de facto experiment for Scion and Toyota's other brands and that the summer campaign brought some good insights on digital strategy. He says, for example, that there was a surprisingly large contingent of consumers watching :15 versions of the videos on mobile devices. "It's amazing to see how quickly mobile is becoming a platform for this," he says. Another takeaway: when it comes to YouTube, it's better to go long with fewer executions than to stack up six or seven shorter videos. The summer effort comprised six shorter vignettes, while the new effort centers on two three-minute "MTV Crib" style videos called "Cradles" and two 45-second walk-arounds of Zeus' cars. All of the videos will again be on Scion's YouTube channel. "On YouTube you can monitor when people are 'falling off,' when they are rewinding and watching again. It's tough to have them watch six short vignettes; after the third is when they check out. But you can produce the same content and compress it into two episodes and they will engage longer. And there are things you wouldn't think were important that make a big difference: when we posted them on Facebook we learned if we didn't change the thumbnails for each video, people don't know its new content." Peacock says the initial summer campaign has garnered 400 million impressions and 850,000 cumulative views, and Facebook follows went up 16%. But the more salient point may be that in the first two weeks of the campaign -- in June, before Scion began supporting the videos with a TV ad or other communications directing consumers to YouTube -- the company got 86,000. "It's a cascade effect. People read about it, watched them, and passed them on, so for us it was a great experiment to see what happens if we get the right people to talk about it. Once the broadcast kicked in, we saw a rapid increase in impressions and views, but that initial thing was amazing." The company will make about 800 of the special-edition xD cars and 1,500 of the xBs. As for introducing other Olympian gods into future iterations of the campaign, Peacock says that's not likely, since the campaign is about the cars, not ancient Greek theology. "It's tempting but you can't jump the shark; you can't over play it."
Audiences continue to have an insatiable demand for online video content. In July, Americans had more than 6.9 billion viewing sessions for the first time, with 86% percent of the U.S. Internet population watching video. Audiences also viewed more than 5.3 billion video ads in July. Despite this growth, online video advertising is expected to account for only 6.9% of all web advertising spending in 2011, and there is still a huge gap between the $70 billion currently spent on TV advertising and the $2.16 billion projected to be spent on online video ads this year. This gap can be attributed to marketers' hesitation to run ads on online videos because of perceived lack of visibility into the content, and lack of measurement data. So how can media buyers be sure they are targeting the most relevant, appropriate online video content? Clarity First and foremost, clarity is of utmost importance to media buyers. Brands have been damaged in the past by running advertisements on questionable content they didn't have visibility into. Media buyers need to know the context of the online videos to ensure the content is safe and relevant. This is crucial to the effectiveness of a campaign. Granularity Media buyers rely on grain size, or depth of granularity into content, for targeting. To achieve the desired grain size, three basic methods are used for online video: channel, behavioral and contextual targeting. Channel targeting is the broadest level based on classifying content by category. Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual's web browsing behavior and buckets "behaviors" into targetable segments. Contextual targeting scans the video stream for specific content within the video -- for example, advertisements for digital cameras make a lot of sense for people watching product reviews of digital cameras. Each campaign has different goals and requires different targeting tactics, so there isn't a standard for the level of granularity media buyers require to effectively run campaigns. For example, one brand may prefer expanding its reach as much as possible by running ads on every sports video available in a channel. Another company, however, may seek to limit its targeting by layering audience or "in-market" data -- seeking more specific targets. Campaigns are most successful when media buyers use channel, behavioral and contextual targeting, and combinations thereof, to determine the right grain size. Scale Finally, scale must be determined to ensure ads are reaching the highest number of appropriate viewers. Marketers need to take into account that the ability to scale will change from campaign to campaign based on the level of targeting. Finding balance is key. If a campaign is too narrowly targeted, the scale will be tiny and may not reach enough audiences. If a campaign employs mass targeting, the scale will be huge, but the ads could reach some completely irrelevant audiences, ultimately wasting money and time. Recognizing the impact varying targeting levels have on scale will allow media buyers to successfully execute their campaigns. Using clarity, grain size and scale in tandem, media buyers can achieve the ultimate goal: helping their clients reach the right users at the right time and in the right place.
What's in the future for the video sector? I don't have a crystal ball, but as CEO of a company that's pioneered online editorial video, I do have a vision for the evolution of the digital media industry, especially with regard to online video and its place in the marketing and branding toolboxes. As an advertising vehicle, video will most certainly take a page from every medium that has come before it. Mediums start simple, as a single advertising choice, and then multiply. Take radio. Pittsburgh's KDKA might have come on the air in 1920 to broadcast the results of the Harding-Cox presidential election, but 10 years later it emerged as an advertising medium. At first, shows were named for the sponsor -- like the Champion Spark Plug Hour, the Lucky Strike Hour or the King Biscuit Hour, which made stars of Hank Williams and Sonny Boy Williamson. Advertisers owned and controlled entire programs, even hiring and firing the talent. Since then, the options for buyers have multiplied. Today, you can buy national, local, or network. In any language. You can even buy straight spots vs. various forms of promotional sponsorships. And so it went with television. Today's advertisers have so many more options -- network or cable, national or spot, programming or commercial time -- than Bulova had when it place the first TV ad in 1941 before a baseball game. Search is splitting, too. Today's advertisers now have to consider the choice between paid or organic and the various buying/servicing channels, which are forcing advertisers to clearly assess their objectives before investing. What does this mean for the future of online video as an advertising medium? It, too, will split. Two years from now, when a big brand decides to spend money in online video, the first question it will have will be: ads, or content? Should we pay for pre-roll, or achieve views of the content? To date, most marketers have viewed online video through the advertising lens and focused their attention on how to apply the TV ad model to the digital world. Simplicity is migrating that model (and the creative that goes with it) over to the Internet. But what a shame, to leave the best the Internet has to offer on the cutting room floor. What about engagement? Conversion? If you want reach, engagement AND conversion from online video, it's now there for you. And that's where it's déjà vu all over again. As the medium splits, the questions facing marketers multiply. Twenty years ago, the question was network or HBO? Today it's online video ads or online video editorial? Then, as now, the answer depends entirely on what you're trying to achieve. Online video ads and online editorial do different things and elicit different responses, so they need to be used for different purposes. With one you're in it, and with the other you're around it. Online video advertising interrupts, while online editorial -- done right -- engages. Advertising ramps up faster, but the content piece works over the longer term because it offers consumers a richer experience. Know your objectives for your digital media campaign, and you'll know whether your budgets are best directed toward online editorial video or online advertising. And while I don't find myself channeling Yogi Berra very often, his words prove as appropriate for a closing thought as they do for a title. "If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else."