• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, June 16, 2009

The before-lunch panel looks at what it takes to make online video ads watchable--a tall order. Panelists including execs from CBS Interactive, BofA, Starcom and the Digital Innovation Group (u.dig) agreed more effort has to go into making ads engaging and taking full advantage of the interactive nature of the Internet. "We keep treating it as one-way medium, acknowledge u.dig's Alan Schulman. One of the challenges is getting ad creative that can scale across multiple platforms and properties.

Starcom's Tracey Schleppach said the majority of ads lack a key aspect of the Internet which is empowerment. But a scalable model is needed to make that make that possible. I think that means the pre-roll is getting the job done for online video. But that format remains the equivalent of the 30-second spot of Web video advertising.