Commentary
Online Viewers Watching Video Ads To Completion More Than 70% of the Time
- by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, April 12, 2012
Most online video viewers are watching in-stream video ads to completion. That’s the finding of a new report from campaign management platform MediaMind that analyzed about 1 million impressions and said about 70% of the ads had been played all the way through, and 75% had been played three-quarters through.
MediaMind said those numbers underscore the strength of pre-roll and streaming video to deliver a brand message. Even at three-quarters of an ad played, that’s a good amount of exposure for a brand. MediaMind also said the average click through-rate for banners is 0.010%, while the average for in-stream video is 2.15%, an increase of more than 200 times. “While clicks are far from a perfect measure of advertising effectiveness, they are a proxy for the amount of traffic that a campaign generates. The data suggest that video can be a phenomenally effective way to drive users to a brand’s website for further engagement,” MediaMind said.
The company also shared results from a major multi-venue brand campaign executed by Dell last year targeting business-to-business users. The computer maker found that rich media and in-stream ads delivered the best results and highest conversion rates across all media, including TV, newspaper, magazines, billboards, airports and online.
It appears the folks at MediaMind can't see through their own smoke and mirrors.
Several weeks ago MediaPost published an article citing a 40%-and-growing abandon rate for pre-roll, which would make a 70% play-through literally impossible. Unless of course, we're talking about 70% of the 60% that didn't abandon from the getgo - which means only about 42% of the original audience actually watches through. But even that's a stretch. What these numbers really tell us is that only 42% aren't abandoning, rendering the conclusion that anybody is actually watching as specious at best. My guess is the only thing being watched in this branding fiasco is the time counter in the corner of the video player, designed with one purpose in mind: to mitigate the torture for those with the patience to hang on for 15 or 30 seconds.
Furthermore, the average CTR for banner ads quoted above is off by a factor of 10x. The average is .1%, not .01%, which means the 2.15% click-through on the in-stream video represents an increase of 21.5 x, not the number quoted above.
The idea that anyone would tolerate a commercial online that they willingly pay extra to avoid on TV reminds us that a MediaMind is a terrible thing to waste.