• by Bill Todd , April 8, 2008

Video advertising is not just about pricing pre-rolls or overlays, inventory accessibility, sales lead cycles or debate over when critical mass of advertiser uptake will occur. Video advertising is about performance, whether an advertiser measures it by awareness, traffic or converting site visitors to sales or leads.

The emergence of elaborated companion banners, animated overlays, repurposed text or product feeds and the ability to run non-video creative are just a few of the more recent innovations that should convince any remaining skeptics about the benefits of video advertising online. Whatever the format, media placement or product features of a particular publisher or network, campaigns should always be supported by an intense focus on performance, which is driven by three key factors: campaign execution, traffic quality and technology.

Campaign execution: create creative creatives. Advertiser-generated content represents the ultimate branding solution, wiping out the line between advertising and programming. Consumers love it, and advertisers who leverage the "lean-forward" experience by adding interactivity or calls to action are clearly getting higher performance than from repurposed 30-second television commercials.

At this point it is clear why advertisers should leverage the interactivity video formats can add to their creative. While television offers established ways to monitor performance, the measurement capabilities provided in the online world are even greater. Television advertisers focus on branding during the day and direct response late at night, but only online can offer both to reduce the overall cost of customer acquisition. Instead of the old adage "repeat the message as often as you can, for as long as you can afford to do so," advertisers who embrace online video ad creative should now be striving to "get that click in less than 10 seconds!"

Traffic quality: diamonds in the rough. On the inventory side, publishers have an opportunity to increase their audience by offering video programming, but quality publisher brands do not always correlate to quality video content. Some premium publishers may display non-targeted user-generated content. Conversely, niche sites have access to premium content by way of syndication from traditional broadcasters who are encoding years of footage to create new advertising opportunities.

This makes life more complicated for media planners who now need to understand the inventory where their brand will be displayed. But all of that is heading the right direction. Content and metadata need to be reliable. Content must be properly labeled and categorized to ensure transparency, accessibility and campaign performance. There is such a thing as excellent UGC, just as there is poor premium content -- it's all about knowing the audience composition of the viewers and understanding the true measure of performance based on each advertiser's stated objectives.

Video advertising allows true distribution balance between premium brands (major advertising budgets) and niche content sites (bottom line results). Excellent content can be found in places you wouldn't normally think of first. So target the right audience, and the right content will be there.

Technology: behavioral, contextual, phenomenal. Video is expensive, so it better perform. And there is plenty of technology to support advertisers' performance objectives.

High CPMs justified by delivering high performance is one thing. Delivering high performance to justify high CPMs is another thing. Advertising in video content would be simple if it was just about leveraging one's display advertising experience. In reality, campaign delivery is more complicated, and technology will make the difference. The timing and sequencing of how ads are displayed in a video player window can be tricky, but is not insurmountable. Leadership expertise will come from granular targeting capabilities. Think about behavioral targeting applied to pre-rolls. Think about contextual targeting applied to product placement. It's all possible today.

Despite some limitations in the campaign execution process, advertisers should rely on proven ad serving, trafficking and targeting capabilities. Targeting and campaign delivery are available not only at the publisher or the page level, but also at the video content level. Behavioral and contextual targeting are a new El Dorado for television buyers because profiles are based on consumers' real activities, not rating points. Campaign performance is accountable, trackable and immediate, making video advertising a very innovative, yet mature solution for traditional and online advertisers. And that's phenomenal.