March 28, 2008

The Video Search Revolution will be Contextualized

If you've been wondering how online video can be adequately searched or monetized, then video search company Digitalsmiths has some answers for you. At a luncheon hosted by the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association last week, Digitalsmiths CEO Ben Weinberger gave an impressive demo of his company's video search technology. VideoSense is an ad-matching and video indexing system that helps advertisers target audiences. The program uses image and speech recognition to facilitate video search and relevant ad-targeting.

To give people an idea of how powerful the ad matching is, Weinberger showed a clip of the popular NBC sitcom, The Office. Steve Carrell's character was wearing a watch, and the camera zoomed in on his arm. An ad popped up to the side of the video with an ad for a watch. The content was not interrupted and the ad was relevant. As for video indexing, Weinberger said that Digitalsmiths technology can help eliminate redundancies by finding clips that contain the same scenes. Digitalsmiths currently works solely with publishers and ad networks.

With the onset of DVRs and concerns over the slowing ad click rates, companies like Digitalsmiths stand to benefit from providing ads that don't interrupt the user experience. Expect that trend to expand. Weinberger predicted that advertising in online video will eventually become blended into the content. He said that content creators that learn to do this will have a bright and lucrative future.

Posted by Nathania at 7:13 AM | Permalink

February 21, 2008

Google to Offer AdSense Video Units

Google today opened up its 9-month-old pilot program to allow qualified publishers to put video ad units on their sites. The AdSense for video beta will use the InVideo ad units which Google uses on YouTube. Unique to the AdSense for video ads will be a text overlay element, a text ad contextually targeted to signals in your videos and on the page where the video lives.

AdSense for video is now available to U.S. publishers with English language sites who serve at least one million video streams a month. In the near future, Google plans to expand the program to more publishers of various sizes and locations.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:58 AM | Permalink

October 11, 2007

Expect More Finger Pointing on Copyright Protection for Video

In an News Corp stated that Google ’could do a better job’ at preventing illegally copied video from appearing on its YouTube site.” Chermin also stated that there is no reason Google could not track and filter copyrighted material as well as MySpace, which is owned by News Corp and overseen by Chermin. Was this just finger-pointing and corporate sparring? What about Viacom’s billion dollar lawsuit lodged against Google in March over copyright infringement, and all those other pesky lawsuits?

Let me put on my foil hat for just a moment. I can feel some serious vibes coming in. This finger pointing and posturing about who does copyright protection better is going to continue and get even more intense as the promise of advertising on video becomes a revenue-gushing reality.

Tuesday, Google announced the launch of AdSense for Video program which will let publishers embed YouTube videos on their websites using a customized player and then make money from overlaying text ads that fade in and out as the videos play. Watch those dollars winging through the broadband.

Then, Wednesday, following close behind, comes the announcement by video search engine blinkx of a new service that they are offering which allows people to make money when they embed video clips on their Web sites. The Blinkx program, entitled AdHoc, is particularly interesting in that it allows users to monetize, through revenue sharing, video garnered from a number of video-sharing sites including YouTube, GoogleVideo and DailyMotion. The video ad space is clearly booming with the options for advertisers and publishers ballooning. The ground trembles as another revenue gusher is about to blow and start pumping even more revenues toward some well known search engines.

Now, why the foil hat vibes? Isn’t this ‘my copyright detection beats your copyright detection’ just more of ‘my algo is better than your algo’ that we’ve known for years. Not quite. In an article entitled “The Cost of Copyright” Danny Bradbury discusses copyright detection technology, why the various parties do not seem willing to develop and adopt a single detection methodology which would yield a recognizable digital fingerprint for copyright materials. He points out that it’s about the advertising benjamins that await the advertising network that can provide pinpoint targeting based on viewing patterns. Fingerprinting on video has the promise of delivering lots of potential revenue-producing information on viewing patterns.This information will become ever more valuable as advertisers seek to hone in on their prospects. Even without a foil hat, it's easy to see that the finger pointing over who has the better copyright detection capabilities will continue. It is not just my detection routines beat your detection routines, but rather I can target prospects better. In fact the it is now no longer just about the copyright material; it is all about advertising revenues.

Posted by amandawatlington at 6:34 AM | Permalink

September 13, 2007

blinkx and Utarget partners in online video advertising deal

blinkx, the video search engine, today announced its partnership with the UK's online video advertising network Utarget, to place video advertising around its content for UK audiences. Utarget will focus on monetizing blinkx’s video inventory including ITN News and ITN Celebrity.

Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx, says his company is looking to develop more geo-targeted matches between content owners and advertisers to better monetize their output, and that "working with Utarget will offer their partners the simplest way of getting in touch with UK advertisers."

“blinkx is easily the most advanced search engine for users to access video." said Phil Cooper, Utarget CEO. Partnering with blinkx will offer our advertisers quality video inventory and a large, well-informed audience.”

Exclusive: blinkx has also informed me that uTarget's ads will be pre-roll, and run before user-selected video. According to a YouGove study commissioned by Utarget Networks, UK Internet users are far more receptive to pre-roll online video advertising than U.S. internet users. Read the commentary on this story at the Grantastic Designs blog.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 8:31 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

September 7, 2007

Google discusses multimedia ads in Universal Search results

Google executives discussed the possibility of bundling image or video ads into Google Universal Search, during the CitiGroup Technology Conference in New York this past Thursday.

As reported by Tameka Kee at MediaPost, Google's group business product manager Nicholas Fox says that Google has had internal discussions on how to incorporate visual advertisements in search engine results pages (SERPs) that best match search query relevancy.

According to Sundar Pinchai, Google's director of product managment, Images and video have the potential to be more relevant than simple text ads in at least some situations, but cautions that "the images and video ads you see today on content networks are not what will work." Incorporating these type of ads in SERPs could lead to ad blindness and hurt business in the long-term.

While Google's comments suggest that multimedia advertising will eventually be established to some degree in universal search results, they are not something for advertisers to include in their plans for this year. Google says that any approach they undertake with incorporating multimedia ads will be slow, cautionary, and incremental.

Currently, Google allows advertisers to run both video and image ads in their Contextual network, which is separate from search. Those ads, along with text ads, have been claimed by search advertisers of having lower content relevancy than with SERPs. While Google has been making some appeasements with adjustment ad pricing and network placement control advertisers in the contextual program, advertisers already feel their multimedia creatives would be much better suited directly to search.

Will all things considered, Google is correct in determining that ad relevancy for multimedia will have to be higher when showing up on its own search pages than how they currently have them on 3rd party sites.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 12:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBack

August 31, 2007

Tighten the Coupling: Text Ads and Videos

As online videos and their consumption continue ramping up, we should consider this coupling as more than an afterthought. There must be ways to display text ads in a more targeted and user-friendly manner.

Almost all consumers willingly accept ads with their videos. They would rather have free access and put up with any ads. Also they are actively complaining about the length of video ads, and almost a quarter feel ads could be more relevant. All these findings reflect sentiments surveyed from January-June 2007. According to Emily Riley, a Jupiter analyst, many consumers would prefer text versus even a shorter 15-second pre-roll video ad. She says “text ads don't interrupt the user experience as much.”

However, there’s a real gap between accepting text ads and optimizing how they will get delivered -- when adjacent to videos.

-- Ad targeting will need to evolve. Semantic approaches are getting applied, but don’t literally capture the whole experience. Certainly behavioral interests are also important, even when viewers are anonymous. The nature of what’s appropriate for commercial purposes should come into play here.

-- Ads will need to become more dynamic. Think about what to advertise during long-form videos. Some programs stay on topic and appeal to viewer interests consistently, yet showing the same ads seems like lost opportunity. Other videos, like newscasts, vary over time and thus their ads should too.

-- Ad displays will need to change. We’re all used to the flat approach to displaying ads, and that’s a start. However, videos create a more dynamic experience. Should text ads be considered as something that is shown before or after videos? Or are they always about a sidebar?

Let's give our ad opportunities more careful consideration. At least we know that viewers are ready for us, the advertisers.

Posted by debbyr at 8:33 PM | Permalink

July 24, 2007

Superpages Launches Local Video Ads

Idearc's Superpages has launched a beta trial of local video ads on its yellow pages directory. Superpages.com is trialing 30- and 60-second local merchant video ads in Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, with additional cities to be added in the next few months.

"There is a clear trend in advertising as more consumers are willing to engage with videos online," Eric Chandler, president, Internet, for Idearc Media, said in a statement. "Superpages video advertising allows small to medium-sized local businesses the opportunity to tell their unique story in a new medium. These 'documercials' also let consumers take an up-close and personal look at a business before making a buying decision."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 8:01 AM | Permalink

February 8, 2007

Video Advertising Gets Local

The New York Times reports today on a few new video ad creation and placement providers. We've known about Spot Runner for a while, but it seems the idea is spawning a handful of new providers.

It's clear that one of the advantages of Spot Runner and others is to bring television advertising within the grasp of the majority of small businesses (for which it has traditionally been cost prohibitive). But it's also notable how this can also help national advertisers more efficiently reach local audiences.

If you bring in targeting capabilities and content volumes possible with IPTV and web delivered video, a compounding factor could be more favorable economies and a long tail effect of available ad inventory (similar to what online search did for small business and local advertising). All together, these factors bode well for small business advertisers and their ability play in the video advertising sandbox.

B&C meanwhile reports that local television revenues are up 41%. This is mostly due to growth in advertising and more small businesses in auto and real estate verticals coming around to the idea of television advertising. It will be interesting to see if this is an augmentation to, or replacement of, these businesses' traditional newspaper and Yellow Pages ad spends.

On a more national level, eMarketer reports on an Accenture study that shows the growing interest among advertising executives for IPTV advertising and its targeting possibilities.

There is a lot of potential for transforming the local and national television advertising landscape if you look at how all these factors could converge over the next few years. Teleco IPTV rollouts, the fate of net neutrality, consumer adoption of online video, and small business adoption of video advertising, are all vital factors. We'll continue to watch closely.

Posted by MikeBoland at 5:51 PM | Permalink | TrackBack

October 26, 2006

China.com To Run Google's Video Ads

Forbes reports that CDC Corps China.com will be running Google's click to play video ads on its English Channel service. Fang Donglei, COO of China.com said in a statement; "Google's click-to-play video ads and China.com English Channel, working together, represent a significant opportunity in servicing the needs of the foreign community in China."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:04 AM | Permalink

September 7, 2006

How Top Agencies Leverage Video for Online Advertising Campaigns

Search Engine Strategies has evolved from a conference focusing just about exclusively on organic optimization to a forum for discussing the wide range of options available to search marketers. A new panel at the recent San Jose conference looked at the opportunities available using online video, and guest writer Brooke Schumacher covered the session for today's SearchDay article, Online Video Advertising Builds Momentum.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 5:37 AM | Permalink

May 15, 2006

eBay To Test TV Ad System; Not Google

MediaPost reports that eBay was awarded the bid to test an online auction system for buying and selling TV ads. The Association of National Advertisers announced today that they "will work with its membership to explore opportunities around the development of an Online Media Exchange." Those on the testing committee are listed here. Forbes has a nice recent article from last week on the possibilities of this happening. What happened to Google providing this system? I guess eBay was more qualified.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 4:38 PM | Permalink

eBay To Test TV Ad System; Not Google

MediaPost reports that eBay was awarded the bid to test an online auction system for buying and selling TV ads. The Association of National Advertisers announced today that they "will work with its membership to explore opportunities around the development of an Online Media Exchange." Those on the testing committee are listed here. Forbes has a nice recent article from last week on the possibilities of this happening. What happened to Google providing this system? I guess eBay was more qualified.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:38 PM | Permalink

eBay To Test TV Ad System; Not Google

MediaPost reports that eBay was awarded the bid to test an online auction system for buying and selling TV ads. The Association of National Advertisers announced today that they "will work with its membership to explore opportunities around the development of an Online Media Exchange." Those on the testing committee are listed here. Forbes has a nice recent article from last week on the possibilities of this happening. What happened to Google providing this system? I guess eBay was more qualified.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:38 PM | Permalink

eBay To Test TV Ad System; Not Google

MediaPost reports that eBay was awarded the bid to test an online auction system for buying and selling TV ads. The Association of National Advertisers announced today that they "will work with its membership to explore opportunities around the development of an Online Media Exchange." Those on the testing committee are listed here. Forbes has a nice recent article from last week on the possibilities of this happening. What happened to Google providing this system? I guess eBay was more qualified.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:38 PM | Permalink

May 10, 2006

TiVo Getting Into the Ad Serving Business

While TiVo is well known for allowing television watchers to skip advertising, they are hoping they can entice viewers to watch branded advertising that provide entertainment value or user interest within the commercials. The program, called Product Watch, allows viewers to actually search for ads in various categories and there are already has 70 advertisers signed up.

The ads range from cooking advice and how-tos from Kraft to Suze Orman talking about loans by Lending Tree. Some of the ads are quite heavy on the advertising, such as GM spotlighting their vehicles. Ford, on the other hand, has taken the low key approach with Penn & Teller doing one minute tricks on a golf course with a vehicle in the background. The ads are much longer than traditional 30 second spots, instead they range from one minute in length to one hour.

This model is based on pay-per-view, only instead of the end viewer paying to view, the advertiser is paying for each video download. The Wall Street Journal says this approach is attractive for smaller advertisers who may not be able to afford to target an entire audience of a network or show, yet are able to show their ad to those who are specifically chosing to watch it, meaning they are able to target that ad very well to the audience they want.

ClickZ also reports that the next phase of Product Watch will allow viewers to request more information directly from advertisers on a cost-per-lead basis.

Robin Good has detailed screenshots showing the Product Watch interface and implementation on TiVo.

Posted by Jennifer Slegg at 1:06 AM | Permalink

TiVo Getting Into the Ad Serving Business

While TiVo is well known for allowing television watchers to skip advertising, they are hoping they can entice viewers to watch branded advertising that provide entertainment value or user interest within the commercials. The program, called Product Watch, allows viewers to actually search for ads in various categories and there are already has 70 advertisers signed up.

The ads range from cooking advice and how-tos from Kraft to Suze Orman talking about loans by Lending Tree. Some of the ads are quite heavy on the advertising, such as GM spotlighting their vehicles. Ford, on the other hand, has taken the low key approach with Penn & Teller doing one minute tricks on a golf course with a vehicle in the background. The ads are much longer than traditional 30 second spots, instead they range from one minute in length to one hour.

This model is based on pay-per-view, only instead of the end viewer paying to view, the advertiser is paying for each video download. The Wall Street Journal says this approach is attractive for smaller advertisers who may not be able to afford to target an entire audience of a network or show, yet are able to show their ad to those who are specifically chosing to watch it, meaning they are able to target that ad very well to the audience they want.

ClickZ also reports that the next phase of Product Watch will allow viewers to request more information directly from advertisers on a cost-per-lead basis.

Robin Good has detailed screenshots showing the Product Watch interface and implementation on TiVo.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:06 AM | Permalink

TiVo Getting Into the Ad Serving Business

While TiVo is well known for allowing television watchers to skip advertising, they are hoping they can entice viewers to watch branded advertising that provide entertainment value or user interest within the commercials. The program, called Product Watch, allows viewers to actually search for ads in various categories and there are already has 70 advertisers signed up.

The ads range from cooking advice and how-tos from Kraft to Suze Orman talking about loans by Lending Tree. Some of the ads are quite heavy on the advertising, such as GM spotlighting their vehicles. Ford, on the other hand, has taken the low key approach with Penn & Teller doing one minute tricks on a golf course with a vehicle in the background. The ads are much longer than traditional 30 second spots, instead they range from one minute in length to one hour.

This model is based on pay-per-view, only instead of the end viewer paying to view, the advertiser is paying for each video download. The Wall Street Journal says this approach is attractive for smaller advertisers who may not be able to afford to target an entire audience of a network or show, yet are able to show their ad to those who are specifically chosing to watch it, meaning they are able to target that ad very well to the audience they want.

ClickZ also reports that the next phase of Product Watch will allow viewers to request more information directly from advertisers on a cost-per-lead basis.

Robin Good has detailed screenshots showing the Product Watch interface and implementation on TiVo.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:06 AM | Permalink

TiVo Getting Into the Ad Serving Business

While TiVo is well known for allowing television watchers to skip advertising, they are hoping they can entice viewers to watch branded advertising that provide entertainment value or user interest within the commercials. The program, called Product Watch, allows viewers to actually search for ads in various categories and there are already has 70 advertisers signed up.

The ads range from cooking advice and how-tos from Kraft to Suze Orman talking about loans by Lending Tree. Some of the ads are quite heavy on the advertising, such as GM spotlighting their vehicles. Ford, on the other hand, has taken the low key approach with Penn & Teller doing one minute tricks on a golf course with a vehicle in the background. The ads are much longer than traditional 30 second spots, instead they range from one minute in length to one hour.

This model is based on pay-per-view, only instead of the end viewer paying to view, the advertiser is paying for each video download. The Wall Street Journal says this approach is attractive for smaller advertisers who may not be able to afford to target an entire audience of a network or show, yet are able to show their ad to those who are specifically chosing to watch it, meaning they are able to target that ad very well to the audience they want.

ClickZ also reports that the next phase of Product Watch will allow viewers to request more information directly from advertisers on a cost-per-lead basis.

Robin Good has detailed screenshots showing the Product Watch interface and implementation on TiVo.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:06 AM | Permalink