• by Tom Hespos , July 11, 2006

Those who know me well know that I have a rather controversial stance on online video ads: I think a lot of people will make a lot of money in the short term on preroll and standalone online video, but I don't think that trend is sustainable for the long haul. I believe this because at its core, the Internet is not a passive medium, so dispel any visions you might have of people leaning back in front of their PCs for significant lengths of time. The Internet's attraction comes from its interactivity.

That issue aside, online video ads are making a big splash right now. As the preroll format in particular seems to be getting bigger and bigger every day, I see a few additional problems that I think ought to get fixed pretty quickly:

The "video outta nowhere." Folks, it's fairly well-established Netiquette to let people know if you're linking directly to a video asset. I don't know precisely when this guideline was abandoned, but I've been noticing a disturbing trend lately, particularly on news sites. A link spawns a video player with no advance warning, and I'm left thinking, "Hey, where's the text? I didn't want to watch a video now." Back button ensues.

The thing is, it's completely obvious why some sites are doing this now. They're doing it because they want to drive more traffic to their videos so they have more video ad inventory to sell, and some sort of visual cue that a video is on the other end of the link would decrease traffic to it.

But what about the people on handhelds, slow connections or incompatible devices? Forgot about them, did we? Videos outta nowhere are rude. Cut it out.

Contextless prerolls. Speaking of videos without warning, could we please provide some context for the people who click to see a video of, say, three guys smashing a network printer to bits with a sledgehammer, and end up seeing an Acme commercial? As much as we'd like to think that people have an expectation of preroll ads before they get to see content, that just ain't so.

It's certainly not the expectation for YouTube videos, or clips from sites where video prerolls don't underwrite the content. And last I checked, these guys were serving more video than the folks running the prerolls do. So let's give these preroll ads some context so that people don't end up thinking they've clicked on the wrong link. How about something along the lines of "The video you selected will begin in a moment, after a word from our sponsor"?

Lack of creativity with the preroll format. Joseph Jaffe puts together a much better creative rant than I do, so I won't step on his toes. That said, allow me to point out that no one ever said :30s and :15s were the preroll standard. If you can get your message across in 17 seconds, why not do it? Your online buyers will find a way. And if you can't cram everything you need to say into a :30, why not try a :43? By all means, get your point across as quickly as possible, but don't simply shovel your TV :30s online because you don't feel like taking advantage of what the interactive media can offer.

Expectations of viral infection. Just because a video exists online doesn't mean there should be an expectation that the video takes off virally like the next "All Your Base" or Jib Jab political spoof. Ads have to offer something of value before they're passed back and forth in any volume. It might be humor value, informational value or something else entirely, but by and large viral passalong doesn't really happen to run-of- the-mill commercials. I mention this only because quite a few of my online advertising colleagues have mentioned to me lately that their clients' expectations involve some sort of viral component, as if viral success is some sort of magic pixie dust that agencies can sprinkle on creative to make it infectious. I've said it before and I'll say it again: There is no creative agency that can consistently induce a viral effect when their client has 100 percent control over the message. That's just how it works. Sorry.

Online video will continue to be hot for at least a little while, so let's try to keep these things in mind as we shape this ad offering.