• by Wayne Friedman , May 28, 2010

Internet advertising network VideoEgg's pro-bono promotion of the HBO documentary "The Lazarus Effect," which follows four Zambian people with AIDS, offers some unusual insight into the campaign media buying metrics -- real-time impressions. 

VideoEgg's campaign is for RED, a worldwide charity started up by U2 singer Bono to help those with AIDS in Africa.

Display ads on business media sites -- including MediaPost -- offer a running count in "seconds" of campaign awareness. The display ad in red background says: "Action Starts Attention. Watch VideoEgg delivery Attention for (RED)." It then reveals the "attention" of the ad, which at press time was 312 million seconds of attention.

Clicking on one business display ad goes to a page revealing even more -- average time by user (24.3 seconds); impressions delivered (6.9 million); "discrete" engagements (89,878); total video views (101,027); and secondary actions taken (2,676).

While the ad is pro-bono, the effort also touts the positives of VideoEgg for advertisers. There is a segment on the page for their "media strategy," explaining that its objective is to "drive awareness, content consumption and social network engagement" with a target to broadly reach people 13+.

Troy Young, president of VideoEgg, says: "It's an absolute win-win. It shows what VideoEgg can do for brands. It shows our skill and ability to deliver attention, using our talents for good."

But this kind of revealing media metrics campaign wouldn't be for everyone. "RED is a sophisticated marketing organization," says Young. "You probably won't do this for P&G," who adds many big marketers would be concerned about the propriety of their private information. The target of the business-to-business marketing plan is get to media influencers, he says.

On the consumer-marketing side, a video campaign running on a dozen sites, including ABC News, Current and Red Orbit, features a number of celebrities -- Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and others -- showing what 40 cents can buy. Forty cents is average, priced to buy two pills that can save those with AIDS.