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Opinion: A Critical Turning Point for Online Video Advertising.
In 2010, it became overwhelmingly evident that online video sites had found the right formula for delivering content in a way that earns and retains audiences. For example, if you look at 2010 comScore numbers, the amount of time American audiences spent watching video for the major live video publishers (Justin.tv, Ustream, Livestream, LiveVideo and Stickam) has grown 648 percent to more than 1.4 billion minutes year over year. Short- and long-form content achieved similar success; time spent watching YouTube and Hulu increased by 68 percent and 75 percent, respectively, over the same time period.
Consumer behavior has shifted, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that online video advertising is an effective channel for reaching consumers. Yet, online video represents only 7 percent of the entire ad market, according to eMarketer, which suggests that advertisers are still trying to figure out how to access online viewers successfully with the media buying dollars traditionally used for broadcast.
On the surface, buying online video advertising seems like it should be similar to buying television advertising. However, media buyers have approached online video buys as a one-off due to the perceived lack of delivery and fulfillment mechanisms across publishers. Unlike television, which has defined standards, online video buys require a one-to-one approach. This means every online campaign must be coordinated, engineered, trafficked and tested on a per-publisher basis.
Resources are often bogged down by this intensive process, and there is little time or money for market education or the innovation of new formats. So, media buyers tend to just go with what they know, which is why pre-roll and single-site custom sponsorships are the most common media buys in the space today.
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