A Big Day for Maven Networks
October 15th, 2007 | Posted by Kristen Fergason
Today is a big day in the life of Maven Networks. It’s true, I’ve been here just shy of 90 days. There may have been other big days before this one. But for me, a recent roster addition here at Maven, it’s the biggest day I’ve experienced.
It’s not everyday you get to:
- announce a breakthrough online video advertising product,
- announce an industry-supported online video advertising forum,
- watch a major media customer launch a highly anticipated video-centric web site served up with your technology.
What’s even better is that these announcements barely break the surface of what’s going on here at the Maven offices in Cambridge. The online video industry is uncharted territory - fresh and full of innovation. There is an incredible amount of excitement surrounding every inch of progress that is made.
Yes, it is a big day for Maven Networks.
I bet you can’t wait to see what’s coming next.
IBM Using Maven for US Open Sponsorship
August 30th, 2007 | Posted by Kristen Fergason
In what is an extraordinarily unique use of Internet TV, IBM this week launched its video channel off of the US Open’s home page which combines content, advertising, and sponsorship. And it’s really interesting.
If you go to the US Open site and then click on the ibm.com/usopen link, you’ll see organizers of the US Open and well as fanatical fans being interviewed regarding their passion for tennis. In addition, you’ll learn how IBM has enabled the US Open to innovatively deliver up-to-the-minute tennis news using tools such as ”point tracker”.
You’ll also learn a whole lot more about how IBM is enabling other innovators to realize their technological ambitions.
And it’s all being delivered to you via Maven’s player and publishing platform for the richest end-user experience available.
Advertising gets personal
June 12th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
There are a lot of interesting online ad-related reports being written lately. Today is no exception. Media Post wrote about eMarketer’s recent online advertising report - “Behavorial Targeting: Advertising Gets Personal”. The report predicts that behavorial targeted online advertising will nearly double from $575 million in 2007 to $1 billion in 2008 - and almost quadruple to $3.8 million in 2011. Wow.
The author, eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman, explains that more analytical technologies that go beyond one-to-one relationships are needed. He’s quoted as saying…”Instead of an assumed direct correspondence between consumer actions and preferences, target audiences will be identified based on subtler and more effective extrapolations from behavior to intent.” An example in the report from Dave Morgan, chairman of Tacoda: “These methods can determine that if you’re looking at reviews of romantic movies, and you live in an urban area, you’re likely to rent a car that weekend.” That’s pretty cool.
The Table of Contents lists that the report discusses Factors that would make online video ads more “pleasurable” according to consumers, which is useful information. It would also be interesting to learn how the more pleasurable online video ads will become behavorially targeted.
Effective Use of Online Video Advertising from OPA
June 7th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
paidContent.org published an article today about Online Publishers Association’s recent study regarding the effectiveness of online advertising. The first thing to note is that “online video ads work” so that’s great news. “Of the 80 percent of viewers that have watched a video ad online, 52 percent have taken some sort of action, whether it’s checking out a website (31 percent), searching for additional information (22 percent), going into a store (15 percent), or making a purchase (12 percent)” - those are some strong numbers.
The article states that the report lists the results of these ad attributes: length (15 vs. 30 sec.); placement (pre-roll and post-roll); companion ad (with/without); and, advertising type (original online vs. repurposed TV). But the article doesn’t tell us about the “advertising type” results - I’m very interested in learning more about that piece. Up until this point, advertisers have just repurposed their television ads, not taking advantage of the interactive possibilities of the internet. I wonder how consumers feel?
You can find more information on OPA’s site.
Internet Advertising Hits a Record Close According to the IAB
May 23rd, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
The IAB issued a report today with some very interesting internet advertising revenue statistics. It’s definitely worth the read. A couple of things that are worth pointing out…
According to Randall Rothenberg, the President and CEO of the IAB…“Interactive advertising revenues continue to show solid growth as advertisers and agencies recognize that it is a medium that can uniquely affect consumer behavior from product awareness, to purchase intent, to actual purchase and then brand loyalty. We have every confidence that this growth trend will continue as marketers allocate more of their total marketing dollars to interactive and the industry delivers effective and innovative platforms for connecting with consumers.”
Scroll down the report to check out the initial year growth comparisons for internet advertising vs. broadcast and cable television, for their first 12 years.
I would agree with David Silverman, partner, Assurance with Pricewaterhouse Coopers who says in this report that…“The continuing strong growth of interactive advertising as evidenced by the full year 2006 survey results proves the importance of this medium to all types of marketers.”
Video Dead-Enders
May 14th, 2007 | Posted by Patrick O'Connor
James McQuivey’s latest Forrester report declares paid video download a “dead end” in favor of ad-supported models. It is pretty clear that ad-supported video predominates now and paid download has a significant number of hurdles to overcome including business as well as technical, but ultimately he overstates the long term prospects for paid video download.
The paid audio download business is not the success that the average iPod user believes given that Apple has sold just 20 iTunes songs for each iPod sold meaning that the majority of iPods hold music ripped from CDs or obtained from illegal file sharing sources. But at least the audio paid download business has the critical mass of hardware to be able to succeed. iTV and video download can not even get off the ground right now since ripping DVDs is substantially harder than ripping CDs (and no doubt the average number of DVDs per user being lower than CDs) and illegal video file sharing sources much less trafficked.
Eventually though, the desire to own video free from ads will take hold for online distribution. No one watches movies on free TV any longer opting instead for DVD rental, premium cable, and cable PPV. The means of distribution will not change the basic fact about how people want to watch.
Skipping ads watching on-demand, or not?
May 8th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
ESPN and ABC have teamed up with Cox to deliver football games and select ABC series on-demand with mandatory commercial viewing. Isn’t one of the reasons viewers embrace on-demand is because they don’t have to watch the commercials?
Today’s Multichannel News article explained that Cox will disable the fast-forward option in what’s being called an “on-demand trial” for access to ESPN and ABC’s content and the test is expected to roll into additional markets.
While online…ABC.com’s broadband media player will be syndicated to Cox.net but the information about the ad platforms that will be used is not yet known. It’s sure to be a platform that requires viewing.
It seems that advertisers are growing more demanding about their ads being watched, even in this on-demand world.
Speaking of measuring viewership of ads…
May 4th, 2007 | Posted by Patrick O'Connor
Our friends at Lost Remote blogged this week about YouTube rolling out video ads saying…”jamming a 10-second ad into most user-video clips would be a big turn-off”. For YouTube’s content, I tend to agree. Further to that, how would YouTube know where to incorporate the ads, at what spot in the video? And what about which ads to associate with which clips?
YouTube is going to have to closely measure the viewership of their videos in order to satisfy both their viewers and their advertisers. A 10 second pre-roll in front of a 1 minute clip is not going to be watched. And they need to have a system in place that determines which ads goes with which video…it doesn’t seem as if a Clairol ad would fit well in the middle of the Pour Quoi video, does it?
How will new creative TV ads impact online ads?
April 30th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
NPR aired a story this evening about a new set of Nielsen ratings that will help measure viewership of commercials during this year’s up-fronts. The story explains that as digital video recorders make it easy for viewers to skip ads, the networks are under pressure to ensure that advertisements are being watched.
This has encouraged networks to introduce new ideas such as ten second entertainment-only clips mixed in with the ad break, such as Scrubs’ recent “pod-buster”. Alternatively, the CW network has created two minute entertainment blocks that are merely sponsored, a mention of the advertiser is subtly incorporated.
It seems that it’s not just YouTube who has to be creative in order to get their advertisments viewed. And I wonder what kind of new online ads will come out to ensure viewership?
Will YouTube’s new ad model fly with viewers?
April 27th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
In an effort to generate big revenue, YouTube plans to roll out ads this summer. It sounds interesting, but of course, lots of questions linger. How will the millions of devoted YouTubers react? Will this developing ad model ever eventually rival big media? Will the likes of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and others shake in their collective boots?
As noted in a recent Red Herring article, YouTube believes its rabid users will watch ads “as eagerly as so-called noncommercial content.” Maybe some of them will, but what about the myriad others, those who watch YouTube exclusively for the wacky, creative, original content? Will the new ads be exclusively wacky, creative and original? And more importantly, will these myriad others want to watch ads to begin with, even brief non-traditional ones that precede videos?
It’s way too early to predict, but summer’s just around the corner.
