• by Corey Weiner , April 12, 2011

I recently wrote about what goes into a great social video. In that article I mentioned that distribution is as important as a video's content. This time round, I thought I'd expand on that thought by exploring various placement options and how they affect people's perceptions of the video.

Pre-roll is currently the predominant form of video distribution. It's inexpensive, it offers broad reach, and it's significantly better and more targeted than television. It's still an interruption, though, and should be considered mainly for reach rather than real engagement.

Expandable ad units are less interruptive, but people see them as one step up from traditional banner ads. Plus, expandable units are accident prone. A good portion of their "engagement" comes from users tripping over them on their way to more interesting fare.

And then there's the real cheap stuff: the fraudulent auto-plays and pop-unders that are being run behind-the-scenes by unscrupulous ad networks and passed off as "views." These bogus ad units are more prevalent than most people know. They have been getting some attention recently, and it's good to see the issue finally coming to light because it's harming the entire industry.

In any case, just about everyone agrees that user-initiated views are by far the most valuable interaction online video can deliver. It's the proverbial home run, where users watch the video because they are actually interested in it. But how does one consistently deliver opt-in video views from jaded consumers who have plenty of real stuff to look at?

A new crop of social media agencies offer outreach and seeding programs that leverage influential bloggers and Web communities to drive video views. This approach can work well for certain types of videos, but the content better be good (however you wish to define "good") and even then, success is not assured. Editors, bloggers, and other influencers have their own agendas and they will not always be cooperative. Unfortunately, we've recently seen some social agencies resorting to the aforementioned pop-up/auto-play scams to bump up their numbers and make anemic campaigns appear more successful.

Advertisers entering this space have the right to demand predictable, guaranteed results. They're spending good money! One of the most promising ways to deliver these results is through social games. Here, users choose to watch videos in exchange for virtual currency. Our company has been seeing amazing completion rates, and significant post-view social actions with this approach.

According to Facebook, more than 200 million people play social games. Ninety-six percent of these users play once a week, and 68% play daily, according to an ISG study last year. Not only that, the audience is diverse. Our recent study revealed that the average social gamer is a 27-year-old woman.

Mobile is another big driver of opt-in video views. 1.6 billion smartphones were sold last year, according to Gartner, with sales growing 72% over the prior year. The vast majority of mobile ad traffic comes from apps, which provide a great vehicle for targeting consumers. Videos play full screen when users select them, and advertisers only pay for views.

P2P networks are also a reliable source of opt-in video views. By placing links atop key entertainment searches, millions of consumers can download, view, and share the videos.

Going forward, as the Internet continues to socialize itself, we think video advertising will do the same. Advertisers' tastes for obtrusive ad units will fall more closely in line with their consumers, and the bar for online video will continue to rise.