The Video View
- About
- Video news elsewhere
- formats in search of audiences
- how short is short?
- Is Hulu more important that Time Warner Cable?
- last.fm and smartclip tie the knot
- MLB.com added to Little Roku
- pre-rolls to help YouTube turn a profit
- UK Commercial TV viewing shows an upswing
- what are the differences between in-stream and in-page video ads?
- why the JK wedding is a successful viral
- Why you need to be using video on your site…
- YouTube finalises revenue share for video partners
- YouTube to turn profit?
Archive for category creative
Where’s Waldo…I mean…Dexter?
This is an ad for the new season of Dexter – a TV show in the US. It allows users to click on the video to locate the star of the show and move on to the next level. If you fail to spot him you get to try again, if you do spot him and manage to click on him in time then you get to go to the next video in the series. It can be highly frustrating – especially if like me you are unable to locate him on level 4 and give up in the process.
Games are well proven to increase a user’s engagement with advertising – the in-built human need to solve a puzzle gets drawn out in all of us, couple that with video footage and we can’t help ourselves, the mouse finger gets twitchy and before you know it you’ve spent half an hour chasing a guy around a video and you still can’t see him. You win this time Dexter but wait until I am hangover-free and then we’ll see who is the quickest on the video-clicking draw.
Video advertising – not just for the big boys
Posted by vaughan in creative, technology providers on September 23, 2009
I saw an article on Ad Operations Online about a company called Jivox who have a nice way of helping local businesses to get a video ad online.
In a simple process you can upload your video, add some calls to action and specify how much you want to spend on media costs. Of course the creatives are basic but then if you are a small business advertising on local sites then maybe you don’t need an incredible creative – just a way to get your message across.
If you click on the image and watch the video then I guarantee that you’ll want to go and visit iFly next time you are in Hollywood – that looks like a lot of fun! The message can only really be delivered through using video, text with a still image just wouldn’t cut it. It will be interesting to see if the service has longevity, the long tail can yield great results when managed effectively i.e. not managed at all but entirely self service so I think that it should do well. The challenge will be to make sure that the results are what the advertiser needs in order to justify the money that they’ll have to spend on using it.
Sony Ericsson bounces into Barcelona
I came across this jolly little site today. It is part of a campaign from Sony Ericsson which centres around building your own Space Hopper. I received a space hopper for my 7th birthday and it was my main mode of transport for some time afterwards so I have a special interest in the Space Hopper. The site is simple to navigate and the campaign is visible on digital outdoor screens around London so I have no doubt that it will get some attention. The problem that I have with it is that I don’t know what they want. I didn’t register for anything, I didn’t see any products and the only reason that I know it is Sony Ericsson is by reading the small print on the site.
I attended a session this evening called ‘How was it for you?’ where talented panel members from the agency, TV, culture and content worlds bemoaned the fact that it was hard to define success and even if they had got that far then it was hard to measure it across multiple channels. It would be really interesting to see what the success metrics are for this campaign, but then again maybe it is just a teaser for something bigger. If the aim is just to create buzz for Sony Ericsson then they may need to be a bit more explicit.
As a viral piece of content it has a few of the essentials
- It is cute
- It is short
- It is set in a well-visited place which enables recognition
- It has the essential – how did they do that factor
- With the ability to create multiple versions of the hopper – you have a reason to come back
I hope that it is a success (by whatever metric they are using) but I can’t help but think that it is a bit weak as a campaign since the user doesn’t know what it is for even though it is lovely to look at. Have a look at the Hopper Invasion site for more.
p.s. in a nice twist, if you grab the embed code from the site you end up with a preview clip of their new handset, this clip was taken from their YouTube brand channel, clever huh?
The Break Up – between advertisers and consumers
This is a good educational video for advertisers to start thinking about the dialogue of social advertising. Unusually – it is for Microsoft and yet is funny, charming and informative.
Uniqlo brings the online catwalk to life
The fashion industry has long been held as one of the great opportunities for interactive video. Campaigns by Nike, Agent Provocateur and John Lewis have all demonstrated a willingness to get involved with video that allows users to see what they want to buy when it is moving or in combination with other items.
This new site from Uniqlo allows users to see certain looks on the catwalk, click them, get more information and then go through to the store to buy them. It is nicely put togehter but after a few minutes the music can get a little painful.
Give it a whirl – see what online video persuades you to buy. Even if you don’t want a pair of skinny jeans or a fake leather hoodie – I am sure that you can find something that you like and you’ll be able to see what it goes with.
(The Creative Social twitter stream brought this to my attention)
Nike SB has another good day…
Thanks to the Amazing Raisin for pointing it out over on Brand Freak.
I posted a little while ago (here) about the way that Nike SB had turned to skate video model around to provide free high quality skateboarding footage online. It seems that they are set to continue producing the same high quality feel but this time in a more conventional 1 minute slot which you can see here. The extended version is embedded above.
This ad has some great footage, a fantastic sound track, humour and above all the coverage of the shoes is as subtle as a skateboard shoe brand can be. The extended version was released after the TV version which made it an online event drawing even more viewers. Well done to Nike SB they really seem to be on a roll.
good creative + good format + good media = good advertising
A recent piece over on the E-consultancy site got me thinking. Good advertising happens when a good creative idea is delivered in a interesting and appropriate format in media that makes sense for the message. This is not rocket science – it has been happening since God was a boy.
Some of this is still getting figured out though for online video advertising. Unlike TV where depending upon location the ad is a 10/15/20/30 second long message or regular display advertising where a banner usually has to fit the IAB guidelines, there are maybe still too many variables when it comes to in-stream advertising that it is hard for the industry to get it’s head around them, what format, what length, pre/mid/post roll. Do you want companion banners? What if the video is played full-screen? How much interactivity should there be? Is it long-form or short form content? Is the content professionally produced? How many times should the user see the ad? Should we allow them to skip the ad after seeing it once? ad infinitum…
The best creative can often be found where the constraints are narrow – not broad, display advertising has come on leaps and bounds since the market figured out that having thousands of pop-ups was a bad thing. This has been a growing period during which the media owners have had to decide upon the value of their media and to try not to de-value it with too many ads. The creative teams have had to work with what they had and maximise the use of the space, the creative gallery from the IAB shows how this can work (although in my humble opinion the default answer of ‘pumping the majority of the effort into a microsite’ is a bit unadventurous). The media buyers often play a numbers game where they have to splat as many people as possible to get the required response rate but this is getting more focussed and targetted as the industry develops and advertisers get more sophisticated moving on from the altar of the click-through rate.
With in-player video advertising (as opposed to in-banner) the different parties need to pull together to see what works, what doesn’t and what is the most efficient way to use the space, what constraints to impose and what metrics are important (check Dean Donaldson’s blog for more on that). Maybe when that is all decided upon we will be able to stop talking about the technology and the formats and start talking about the creative idea which is what good advertising should be about.
you’re in the army now…
The armies on both sides of the Atlantic have been having something of a recruitment problem for a few years now, the US Army some time ago introduced a video game which would allow you to play out missions with one of their regiments. The scores were then posted on the internet and those that demonstrated a high aptitude and the correct demographic were encouraged to sign up.
In a current campaign created by Publicis the British Army uses video that is common across the TV ads and the online ads to draw a user in through a series of encounters all tied together through the tagline ‘Start Thinking Soldier’. Through a series of problem solving, strategic thinking and steady-hand challenges you can find out about the jobs in the army and the weapons that they use.
Through using real video footage with the flash games the whole experience is one which is interactive and makes the most of all the technologies available to it. This action can really get the heart pumping and provides the merest glimpse into what goes through the mind and body of a soldier in combat.
The fact that this is an integrated campaign featuring outdoor ads on phone boxes, press, TV and online means that it is hitting it’s target audience wherever they are and driving them to the site where the real action begins. There is obviously a need to collect data from this for finding the real potential recruits and this is done through gathering thie rinfo and then assessing their performances. According to my performance – I shouldn’t be a sniper.
Whatever your views on military action – the campaign works and it works through having a strong idea that is carried through across all media. The technology isn’t the story but it does help to tell it.
