The March 2008 report from comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR, Internet video experts as far as digital world statistics are concerned)....

* US Internet users viewed 11.5 billion videos online during March 2008, which is a 13% gain over February 2008 and over 64% gain over 12 months ago.

* 139 Million U.S. Internet users watched an AVERAGE of 83 videos per viewer during the month of March 2008.

* Just over 73% of the total United States Internet surfers viewed video online during the month of March 2008.

* Almost 85 million viewers (84.8 to be exact) watched 4.3 billion videos (Thats "B' as in BILLION!) on YouTube, alone!

With numbers like the ones I just mentioned, isn't it time to start using Internet videos as a marketing tool for your business? Let us help you get your piece of the pie! Call us today at 714-661-5780

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Tolles Ding, das mit der (Online) Videowerbung, neudeutsch: Online Video Advertising. Grade überbieten sich am anderen Ende des großen Teichs die Analysten mit Ihren Prognosen: 1,3 Mrd. $ fließen dies Jahr in den USA in diesen Markt, dreimal so viel wie ein Jahr zuvor, schreiben Borrell Associates . Und damit nicht genug: Forrester Research sieht 2012 ein Volumen von 7,1 Mrd, der eMarketer kommt gar auf 9,444 Mrd. mehr oder minder harte Dollar.

Erst acht Monate zuvor waren die Jungs von eMarketer noch echt bescheiden gewesen - damals sah man in den USA gerade mal 2,1 Mrd. für 2012 voraus und schätzte das Volumen in 2008 auf 260 Mio. Dollar. Kleiner Ausgleich für diese vergleichsweise bescheidene Schätzung: Zahlen für Asien und Europa wurden gleich mitgeliefert. Und für Europa sah man dank Breitband eine noch stürmischere Entwicklung voraus: von 200 Mio. in 2008 auf 2.460 Mrd in 2012. Wo gibt's noch Märkte, deren Volumen sich in vier Jahren mehr als verzehnfacht?

Nun - toll diese Zahlen. Aber wer zahlt? Der Handwerksbetrieb, der Rechtsanwalt oder die Kneipe um die Ecke, die seit zwei Jahren ununterbrochen "Frohe Weihnachten" auf ihrer Internetseite wünschen? Oder die Markenartikler, die immer noch nicht verstanden haben, dass es Festplattenrekorder gibt und weiterhin Geld für klassische TV-Werbung verplempern?

Marketing wird (leider) von vielen sehr konventionell verstanden und betrieben, hat es doch mit Geld ausgeben zu tun. Wie lange mag es dauern, bis es Allgemeingut ist, dass Videos im Internet zur Konvention* geworden sind?

* Wikipedia: "Konventionen definieren mögliche Verhaltensweisen in einer sozialen Situation und geben Verhaltensregelmäßigkeiten an"

Cela fait déjà quelques temps que l'on utilise la vidéo sur Internet à des fins promotionnelles. Mais il s'avère que cette mode est en passe de devenir une grande tendance pour les prochaines années.

La technique de promotion par la vidéo en ligne (online video advertising) est simple. Il est repris les standards de la publicité télévisée mais l'on change de support, le Web. Souvent utilisé pour la promotion d'évènement de "Street Marketing", le online video advertising permet d'utilisr les outils de propagation de l'information web 2.0, tels que Youtube ou encore Dailymotion, le youtube French Touch.

D'après une étude de eMarketer, l'utilisation de la vidéo en ligne à des fins promotionnelles devrait prendre une part de plus en plus importante dans les budgets e-marketing.

Le succès devrait être plus important en Europe et en Asie par rapport au États-Unis. Sûrement dû au fait que le online video adverting est plus largement répandu en Europe, et que l'on commence déjà a l'utiliser sur les mobiles...Enfin en Europe et surtout en Asie, la vitesse de connexion à Internet est sensiblement plus rapide qu'en Amérique du Nord.

Where it takes you is Videoegg, a company that creates and managed online video ad's.  I am intrigued ....  online video advertising is still quite new and hard to do effectively.   You can't just put up your TV ad's online as the royalty fees for the actors, writers and producers would kill your budget. You basically have to create another ad to put up online.  Not only that but, why would you do that? Online you can target your ads to a specific audience, but you have to be careful in not making your ad too intrusive and interfering with the consumer experience with your website.   Does the ad pop-up and blare sound?  Does the ad require flash and a broadband connection .. making you site slow and impossible to load for those who are using dial-up?

If your online-ad's are intrusive people will avoid your website.  Instead of enhancing the consumers experience on your website and providing them with relevant ad's you have annoyed them so much as to force them to avoid your website.  Not only that, but you do have to think of the technology as well - do you want to have a website no one can interact with?

Some articles to check out:

The Future of Online Video Advertising For Online Marketers 

Online video advertisers to-do list

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"This is a pioneering model for the Indian film industry and we strongly believe in advertising supported business models. This initiative will give our plans to offer free online content a tremendous boost and benefit consumers," said Manu Kaushish, senior VP, New Media, Eros Entertainment.

Pioneering it indeed is but the question is whether there is sufficient ad spend out there allocated to online video advertising to make this a profitable venture. I would agree with Manu that it would be prudent to pursue a hybrid revenue model blending advertising revenue with "freemium" (a la Fred Wilson) content until consumer behaviors stabilize in this emerging marketplace.

Last month, thePlatform, a Seattle-based broadband video services company, announced the broadband video industry's largest collection of pre-integrated partner technologies and an open approach for assisting media companies with their online and mobile video initiatives. thePlatform's customers benefit from the widest choice of pre-integrated partner services and technologies to support their unique business needs. Companies participating in thePlatform Framework, the company's premier partner program, span the entire ecosystem of online video, including: advertising campaign management systems, ad sales networks, content delivery networks, content protection, media formats, transcoding engines, payment processors, syndication outlets and video search. In addition, customers can easily use their own in-house digital asset management system, customer relationship management and other back-office applications in conjunction with thePlatform's system.

"Every media company has its own unique vision for online video, and they are becoming less tolerant of technology constraints or specialized vendors that inhibit their growth or agility," said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. "Our customers want the ability to trial new technology and choose the best vendors without dramatically impacting their operations. thePlatform framework addresses this need with a robust menu of pre-integrated solutions that give them flexibility to easily create the optimal solution. No other broadband video management company has our open approach to partners or proven history in the space."

Now I'm not recommending them as I've not worked with thePlatform team yet. But I'll post a review once I have. Here's a run down of the partnership members:

Advertising & Monetization
Adapt.TV
BlackArrow
CSG Systems
DoubleClick
Lightningcast
Panache
PayPal
ScanScout
SpotXchange

Content Delivery
Akamai
BitGravity
Cisco Systems
Edgecast Networks
GridNetworks
Highwinds
Internap
Limelight Networks
MediaMelon
OnStream Media

Playback Experience
Apple Corp.
Adobe Systems
Microsoft Corp
Move Networks

Transcoding
Digital Rapids
On2
Rhozet
RipCode
Telestream

Content Syndication
AT&T
Clearspring
Comcast.net
GoTV
iTunes Podcasts
MobiTV
MSN Video
Sprint
Verizon Wireless
Yahoo
YouTube

Professional Services
Ascertane
Cypress Consulting
Genex
Online Video Service
Schematic

Digital Asset Management
ClearStory Systems
North Plains Systems

Content Protection
Microsoft Corp.
Widevine Technologies

Additional companies will join the partner program in the coming months. Technology companies interested in participating in thePlatform Framework and using its application programming interface (API) should visit www.thePlatform.com.

thePlatform's system manages the entire logistics process behind the publication of broadband video from the content owner to the consumer. Media companies and video sites rely on thePlatform's services to manage their media, generate revenue from their content, syndicate media to outlets and create unique broadband video players. Hundreds of professional media companies use thePlatform for their online and mobile video needs, handling billions of videos requested by consumers.

KEY COMPONENTS FOR A LIVE & ON-DEMAND INTERNET TV SYSTEM:

- Content Ingestion
- Transcoding
- Media Formats/Codec
- DRM
- Content Management System
- Content Delivery Network
- Search
- Syndication and Distribution System
- Ad Inventory Management
- Ad Sales Networks
- eCommerce Engine
- Customer Relationship Management

It amazes me to watch the ferocious pace of media and politics. To be quite honest, it's exhausting. When do these candidates sleep?

We now live in a 24 hour political news cycle that is entertaining, dramatic, tailored to our personal interests, and extremely localized. In response, the candidates and the political action committees (PACs) need to be in all places at all times with a personalized and relevant message. But that's incredibly difficult with the advertising infrastructure that is in place with TV, radio and even, online. The amount of energy, money, and time spent to place a commercial on any of those mediums is extraordinary, because it's outdated and bureaucratic. And it often leads to wasteful, ineffective campaigns.

Here at SpotXchange, we've completely changed the game - at least as it relates to online video advertising.

SpotXchange is a very large self-service online video advertising network comprised of millions of unique viewers. But to campaign managers, it's more than that. It represents a weapon for real-time precision guided messaging. With the SpotXchange network, campaign managers can launch video advertising campaigns, similar to those on TV, literally within minutes of shooting the commercial. After loading their video commercial and companion banners into the SpotXchange tools, campaign managers can target available video ad inventory across the SpotXchange network by region (any country, any state and any city), by context (e.g. - news videos), by demographic and/or by any web site that is profiled in the SpotXchange marketplace. Furthermore, campaign managers can optimize on the fly based on real-time performance stats.

This is important, because online video advertising represents a breakthrough for political advertising.

First, video is the most engaging form of advertising. It transcends words. It's emotional. It's powerful. And it can inspire people to act. That's why so much money is spent on TV commercials.

But as you know, it's more than TV advertising. Online video advertising can engage to the point of action at that moment in time. In other words, video advertisements and their companion banners can be clicked. "Click here to sign up to join the fight." "Click here to donate." "Click here to send to a friend." And clicked they are, as average click through rates for online video advertisements are often 10xs greater than clicks on banner advertisements alone.

There's no better example of this than Senator Obama's online campaign, which does two things. It inspires people to act, and his online commercials (video, banners and web site) always ask you to join his cause by volunteering, signing up to his email list and by donating money (see picture of his website below). And it's working. His campaign just announced they raised $55M in February, which is a record for any candidate. $45M was raised online and 90% of the donations were under $100!! (Read CNN article about his fundraising accomplishments - http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/06/democrats.campaign/index.html)

In addition to the inherent capabilities of online video advertising already listed, SpotXchange also delivers several other advantages to political advertisers over and above traditional TV advertising and other online video ad networks or rep firms. Those are as follows:

• Localized Messaging - SpotXchange allows you to customize the messaging and target your video commercials by region allowing you to deliver a relevant message to the people in that state, region, or down to the district. Don't preach to miners in western Pennsylvania about inner city violence when they are more worried about jobs and our energy policy. (See the SpotXchange Local Ads page, which highlights traffic patterns from our most popular states and cities).
• Damage Control - SpotXchange allows candidates to launch a targeted video campaign in just minutes. Campaign managers can counter any negative news or smear tactics by other candidates by releasing your own fact filled commercial that day, even that hour.
• Real Time Feedback & Real-Time Optimization - Campaign managers can measure the effectiveness of their ads in real-time by reviewing online video ad campaign stats provided by SpotXchange. For any time period, review click through rates on video and banners and average viewing duration of commercials. Correlate this data with measurement of web site activity once they click through on the video commercial. Answer questions like, was this video campaign and its targets effective in driving registrations, donations, volunteers, etc? Take that information and optimize your campaign on SpotXchange to maximize effectiveness - change targets, optimize how much you pay for your campaign, set dayparting or change flight dates.
• On the Fly Creative - In minutes, change your videos and banners to correspond with the changing issues in the 24 hour news cycle we live in. Just drag and drop, and your new video commercials are reaching the masses.
• A/B Testing - Not sure which commercial to show on TV? Test on SpotXchange first and use the one that generates the highest CTR, or the highest amount of donors and volunteers.
• No Spending Limits - Spend as much or as little as you want. Suspend a campaign immediately if it's not working for you or if you need to move funds to another aspect of your campaign.

The possibilities are actually limitless. Combined, online video advertising and SpotXchange represent a change in how campaigns market to the masses. (I hear change is a big theme this year!) Each 24 hour news cycle will bring up something new. If only advertising could move as fast as the news! Well, now it can!

To learn more about advertising on SpotXchange, click here (http://www.spotxchange.com) or contact sales@spotxchange.com.

Their latest thing -- "sequential ads" -- launched this week, and allows advertisers to string together a number of sequentially linked ads over the course of a particular piece of content.

This move was written up by MediaWeek.

Their next new ad product initiative is called "Husky" and will be going to beta in August. Stay tuned!