• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, July 25, 2013

The online video world is hurtling quickly in two directions: targeting and real-time buying. Real-time video buying is on track to comprise nearly 25% of online video ad spend next year, and already we’re seeing positive results from a range of real-time campaigns.

For starters, Honda’s recent summer clearance promotion relied on Twitter and short-video sharing site Vine. If consumers used the hashtag #wantnewcar, the auto maker responded within a few hours to some of those unhappy car owners via a personalized Vine video, addressing their original tweet. Social media analytics platform Socialbakers studied the social media boost from the campaign and reported that there were about a few thousand tweets with that hashtag, and that the brand’s “average tweet engagement” rate nearly tripled in the first and second day of the campaign. Also, the automaker earned 1,020 new followers in the first day, compared to a six-month average of 242, and 2,292 mentions compared to a six-month average of 166.

“This results not only in many new conversations between Honda and its supporters that can help the company engage its audience but also enables a crowd-source of the most common problems car owners tend to have with their mechanical friends,” Socialbakers said.

As with most campaigns, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and whether this results in a sales lift is still unknown. However, this kind of near real-time interaction can create a deeper emotional connection with Honda and perhaps build brand loyalty, Socialbakers posits.

Along those lines, Kellogg’s has boosted its ROI for programmatic marketing campaigns by five to six times by optimizing the campaigns in real time. Using comScore online tools to evaluate metrics such as the percent of impressions reaching the target, the frequency of exposure, and the targeting index, the marketer made adjustments on the fly that improved its overall real-time results.

Other recent developments in the real-time and targeting sphere included online video ad technology firm YuMe’s introduction of multiscreen household targeting tools that deliver interactive ads to various members of a home. Hyundai is on board as a launch partner, and is aiming to elevate overall purchase intent for its cars within a home.