The Pool, the new advertising research and development think tank created by Publicis' VivaKi unit, Wednesday evening released the second wave of research testing emerging online video advertising
formats, and once again found that the most optimum ad models are ones in which consumers select the brands messages they want to receive.
The second wave, which tested ad formats for
short-form online video content, found that users prefer to select the ad they are ultimately exposed to from a group of advertising options prior to viewing short-form online video content.
The
VivaKi team coined the new ad model ASq, and said it basically is an "evolved version" of a similar format it determined to be the most ideal for long-form video content during its first wave of
research. The first wave, which was disclosed last year, determined that Hulu's Ad Selector model - a system that enables online users to select from one of three pre-roll ads before watching online
video content - was the best for long-form video programming.
The second wave covered a year-long research project involving marketers including Bank of America, BlackBerry, Denny's, Disney
Pictures, General Mills, Kraft Foods, Mars, Procter & Gamble, U.S. Cellular, Walgreens and Walmart, and publishers including AOL, BBE, CBS Interactive, Comcast Interactive Media, FoxNews, Microsoft
Advertising, Tremor Media, Warner Bros. Digital Media, YouTube and YuMe.
Research companies participating in the test included Alternate Routes, comScore, Knowledge Networks and VINDICO, which
helped evaluate more than 13,000 hours of research covering 28 ad models and 48 unique executions.
In a statement, VivaKi said the ASq was chosen, because it, "provided click-through rates for
advertisers that were 204% higher than the pre-roll industry benchmark. Additionally, the lift in top-of-mind and unaided awareness was 288% higher than pre-roll.