The next wave of online video ads-an instant ad-to-purchase model-will be truly revolutionary. This strategy will allow consumers to see an ad, and instantly purchase the product or service without having to click through to a separate website. In 2014, a few companies tried this approach, including Hulu Plus' in-stream purchase units with partner Pizza Hut that allows viewers to order pizza without ever leaving the Hulu platform.

The over-the-top devil is in the details. While OTT services are rapidly rising in use, so is consumers' savvy in piggybacking onto their friends' and family's OTT subscriptions. More than 57% of all broadband homes use over the-top video subscription services, but the sharing of such services is also on the rise, to the tune of 11% of homes exclusively using a buddy's account for OTT viewing, said Parks Associates in just-released research.

Female empowerment and body issues campaigns have been big winners lately, scoring top video views. But in April one of the biggest surprises came from an auto brand: Hyundai. Hyundai's "Message from Space" is the brand's most viewed branded video campaign of all time. Less than two weeks after its release, it had generated more than 30.4 million views

Consumers are snipping the apron strings to the TV. That doesn't mean they're cutting the cable cord, per se. But it does mean that, with each passing quarter, TV viewers are growing more comfortable with watching their programming on other screens. Viewership of long-form programming on demand has grown 50% year over year, and more than half of the long-form and live views originated from TV Everywhere authenticated streams.

An important shift in online video advertising is ushering in a new era of video consumption. Some of the biggest online media platforms, including Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter, have made headlines by announcing autoplay video products that appear within environments previously confined to display.

Multichannel video providers can relax -- at least for this quarter. The top 10 multichannel video providers added 54,800 subscribers in the first quarter of this year, according to informitv Multiscreen Index. That is a welcome uptick from a loss of 232,100 in the prior three quarters. Of course, MVPDs might not want to rest on their laurels yet given the trajectory of recent quarters.

A well-produced and engaging branded video like Metro Trains Melbourne's "Dumb Ways to Die" can live forever. It is the single most-awarded campaign in the history of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, winning a record 28 awards at the 2013 Cannes Lions. And as of this year, it is the single most-viewed branded video campaign of all time, having generated more than 284 million views.

Last year, the ad world had three major sporting events to rally around: the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, and the World Cup. This year, there is only one major sporting event, the Super Bowl - which already occurred. Still, there's at least one more major event for brands to try to leverage this year. For the first time in a decade, a new "Star Wars" film is going to be released and that's something to get excited about.

Marketers dream of buying video and TV as a single channel. From the perspective of consumers, the two fields are already becoming one. More and more consumers can watch video on any device, so their concern is the content itself, rather than the TV, PC or smartphone that brings it to them.

Mobile viewers are busy, on the go, and often don't have much time to pay attention to ads on the small screen. These are some of the long-held beliefs about the mobile consumer, but they might also be myths. That's because the personal nature of the device -- which makes it powerful for programmers -- can also work well for marketers, according to research conducted by Ipsos MediaCT and YouTube.