• by Joe Mandese , June 15, 2010

I didn't catch the name of the plucky gal from Yahoo who is doing the pre-opening "Sponsor Breakfast" at OMMA Video in New York this morning, but she's pretty keen on the ability of online video to "scale" for advertisers.

In fact, she rattled off a few stats about the rapidly emerging market – like the fact that two-thirds of Americans, or about 146.6 million persons – are now actively engaging in online video content. "It's taking over where TV is," she boasted, citing some examples of some big online video hits like Will Ferrell's Funny Or Die video "The Landlord."

The problem, she said, with those hit videos is that they generally don't scale for marketers. They open with big numbers, but then begin to level off over time. "The Landlord," for example, is only getting about 1.5 uniques a month, she said. Which is not enough to get big national marketers really excited.

"That is where science ad technology is going to come in to help," she said, flashing through a number of examples of other successful original online video content, including Howcast, etc.

She showed some examples of overlay ads, and even full microsites – online video advertising formats that are generating relatively higher degrees of consumer engagement. And of course, Hulu's Ad Selector format.

"Audiences like choice. Audiences also like themselves," she said showing a creative execution from Sprout that enabled users to superimpose their own face in a video ad featuring Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter character from Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland."

"Innovation is all being driven by the science and technology behind it," she concluded, citing a range of breakthrough content – from Subservient Chicken to "The Landlord" – "Those all got to where they are because someone understand the human behavior behind it."

The Landlord