Standardizing Video Ad Formats
Speaking of ROI, a great story on video advertising hit the wire last night. “The Pool” – a consortium comprised of marketers such as Allstate, Capital One Financial, and Applebee’s; and technology firms such as Microsoft, Yahoo, CBS Interactive, and Hulu.com – is making moves to standardize online video advertising formats.
Disparate ad formats between online video platforms create a huge barrier that The Pool hopes to demolish. Imagine trying to make a $50mm online video ad buy (keeping in mind the entire market is projected to be $850mm in 2009). In order to secure competitive pricing, the buyer will want to allocate portions of that buy to Hulu.com, CBS Interactive, Yahoo, etc. However, without a standardized format, the buyer will have to allocate a sizable chunk of the outlay towards customizing his ads to each platform. In the words of Applebee’s Exec VP of National Marketing, “Right now we put so much time into re-creating unit sizes, the content and the pricing for every site.” Enter The Pool.
The Pool is currently testing five formats (narrowed from the original 30) in focus groups. The two highest-scoring formats will be whisked into beta testing at the video sites.
A standardized online ad format will remove this inefficiency from the market, and enable meatier buys on sites such as Hulu.com, where, we can’t help but mention, Dorm Life is the number one all-time web series, six months running.
