• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 23, 2008

Pre-roll and other in-stream video ads have always gotten a bad rap. And new research from Burst Media proves that the ad model deserves it.

About 78% of respondents surveyed say in-stream ads in online video are intrusive. According to the online survey conducted in December of some 2,600 adult Web users, half say ads in video content disrupt their Web surfing experience.

Women were more likely than men to say advertisements in video content disrupted their Web surfing experience, 53.1% versus 48.1%.

A little more than half of respondents stop watching an online video once they encounter an in-stream advertisement. Ominously, 15.3% of respondents report they immediately leave the Web site once they encounter an in-stream advertisement in an online video.

"That could be disastrous for a Web site," said David Cooperstein, chief marketing officer at Burst. "It's one thing to lose a viewer's attention; it's another to lose their business."

Regarding an ad's effectiveness, in-stream advertising in online video did not always make a lasting impression. In fact, more than two-thirds of respondents (69.1%) say they paid about the same or less attention to in-stream video ads than they did to standard creative units on the same page.

For better or worse, consumers did remember seeing in-stream ads in online video, as more than half of viewers (53.6%) recalled seeing in-stream ads in content they watched.

Respondents 18-24 years were the most tolerant of in-stream ads with over one-half--57.6%--saying they would watch an ad in an online video and 38.5% saying they pay more attention to in-stream video advertisements than they do to standard creative units.

The Burst survey found significant differences between age segments and the types of online video content consumed. Music videos did very well with respondents 18-24 years, as over half--53.1%--said they seek it out online.

Music was followed closely by comedy video--46.9%--TV show video/clips--44.4%--and movie trailers/ads--43.0%. Entertainment was also the most popular video content viewed by respondents 25-34 years. Beyond the age of 35 years, respondents clearly made news their leading choice of video content.