Archive for the ‘TV and Xspots’ Category

Features-in-action: Social media integration

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Fuse online advertising and social media.

That’s the advice WebAdvantage.net president Hollis Thomases gives brands who want to target moms.

While Thomases’ ClickZ article focuses on moms, the specific fusing strategies she recommends seem relevant for most audiences.

For example, Thomases suggests:

  • Including special offers and discounts in ads that your audience can easily share through their social media accounts.
  • Bringing branded social media efforts alive in ads.
  • Providing direct calls to action that encourage your audience to connect with your brand.

As the following examples illustrate, with dynamic online video advertising, it’s easy to integrate social media into the overall ad experience in all of the ways that Hollis Thomases recommends.

Include special offers that are easy to share

If an ad includes a good enough deal, viewers will want to share the ad with their friends. But, whether or not they act depends upon how easy it is to actually share.

Expanding display ad

Special offer that's easy to share

Play the expanding display ad represented by the thumbnail. At the end of the ad, click the Share icon to easily embed the VideoAd in your Facebook News feed or include a link to the ad in a tweet.

Bring branded social media alive in ads

It doesn’t get any more alive than a real-time Twitter feed.

Video ad with live Twitter feed

VideoAd with live Twitter feed

Play the tune-in VideoAd represented by the thumbnail to see a live Twitter feed of eyewitness news weather alerts.

Provide direct calls to action that encourage brand connection

These days, one of the most direct and ubiquitous calls to action is a Facebook Like button.

It’s exceptionally easy to incorporate a Like button into a dynamic VideoAd and customize the Like button link.

For example, to keep a running tally of how many viewers Like a VideoAd, associate the ad’s landing page link with the Like button. Viewers who click the button not only Like the ad. They also automatically embed the ad into their Walls.

Advertisers who want to encourage viewers to Like their Facebook pages can associate the page URL with the VideoAd Like button. When viewers click the button, their Likes are added to the tally for the page and they become eligible for special offers available only to the advertiser’s Likers.

Video ad with Like button

VideoAd with Facebook Like button

Play the VideoAd represented by the thumbnail to experience a Like button associated with the ad’s landing page.

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Brand building with rich media display

Monday, February 14th, 2011
eMarketer chart - Online Ad Spend by Objective 2009-2014

eMarketer chart - Online Ad Spend by Objective 2009-2014

The majority of online ad campaigns have been designed to generate direct response. Advertisers have been slow to recognize the potential of the medium for brand awareness and recall.

That’s slowly beginning to change. As the eMarketer chart indicates, the percentage of online ad spending devoted to branding is expected to grow from 36% in 2010 to 42% by 2014.

In a blog post about the future of display advertising, Google is even more optimistic. By 2015, Google predicts, 50 percent of online ads will be video ads aimed at brand-building.

Google bases its optimism on two primary factors:

  • Rich media ads work. The creativity that they enable results in more memorable ads that promote social interactivity between viewers and advertisers.

  • As advertisers deliver ads tailored to specific audiences, the ads become more relevant and, thus, more likely to increase brand awareness as well as generate response.

No matter how effective rich media ads are, however, if advertisers continue to anticipate prohibitive cost and complexity barriers, they’re unlikely to change their marketing behaviors.

That’s why it’s so significant that technology is now available that eliminates the barriers to creating, running, and modifying online rich media campaigns.

This technology makes it easy for advertisers to:

  • Re-purpose existing TV creative to run as in-banner online video ads.
  • Dynamically deliver different creative and messaging to different viewers based on where they live, who they are, and what interests them.
  • Include interactive and social features that encourage viewers to engage.
  • Update creative on the fly and automatically optimize campaigns while they run.
  • Measure and track brand-related success metrics, such as view rate, engagement, and exposure, that go beyond the click.

To encourage advertisers to seize the day and start running effective, easy-to-implement, locally-relevant online brand-building campaigns, this introduction represents the launching pad for a series of posts that demonstrate online video ads in action. Start exploring now.

Features in Action: Video Redirect

Features in Action: Social media integration

Features in Action: Flash widgets

Features in Action: QR codes in VideoAds

Learn more about dynamic video advertising technology.

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Features-in-Action: Video Redirect

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Expose viewers to additional and increasingly relevant branded content within the same ad experience without making the original ad any longer.

What advertiser wouldn’t leap at that opportunity?

That’s precisely what Video Redirect allows advertisers to do.

(Learn more about brand building with rich media display)

A few examples will make the benefits of Video Redirect more concrete:

  • Politics/Advocacy In a campaign video ad, a politician provides voters with the option of redirecting to videos where she elaborates on her budget deficit and health care reform positions.
  • Tune-In A tune-in video ad promoting a sitcom presents viewers with the opportunity to redirect to three interviews with different actors.
  • Auto An auto maker runs a national campaign to promote a new vehicle model. At the end of the standard video, each viewer is redirected dynamically to a short video from the viewer’s local dealership.

As the examples illustrate, Video Redirect is both an interactive and a dynamic feature that has the potential to substantially increase engagement and exposure.

  • Redirect engages viewers by giving them choices and/or providing them with targeted content relevant to their specific situations.
  • By integrating additional branded content into the same ad experience, redirect informs and educates viewers by presenting them with more of an advertiser’s message.

Video Redirect in Action Watch this Jeep Cherokee ad. Be on the lookout for four green overlays. Click an overlay to redirect to in-depth content about specific and powerful features of the vehicle. Return to the original video and click a different overlay.

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Tune-in video ads: The time is now

Monday, December 27th, 2010
Child watching television

Child watching television*

“Numbers don’t lie,” said Dale Lockett, director of creative services at KHOU-TV, Houston.

He was referring to an online video ad tune-in campaign the station ran recently on its own and other websites. “Engagement rates,” Lockett went on, “were between 7% and 10%,” 40 to 50 times higher than the clickthrough rates he typically sees for banner ads.

KHOU is living proof that the barriers to promoting programs and newscasts on the Web have disintegrated. Recent advancements in dynamic video advertising technology have made running tune-in promotions online easy, fast, and cost-effective.

Easy

No need for already-overloaded creative services teams to design new video creative specifically for online distribution. Stations, networks, and syndicators can upload existing TV spots and easily re-purpose them for the web.

For example, by adding pre-designed, customizable interactive elements on top of the uploaded TV creative, broadcasters can:

  • Build viewer lists and loyalty programs with lead capture.
  • Generate and complement news content with in-banner polls.
  • Provide real-time data updates through live Twitter and news feeds.
  • Make it easy for viewers to share the ads through their social media accounts.
  • Redirect viewers to videos featuring more in-depth content, such as anchor interviews, investigative reports, and more.

Fast

Timeliness is the key to successful tune-in promotions. Advertising morning or evening newscasts or prime time programs requires content that is updated sometimes on an hourly basis.

Lockett admits to being skeptical at first that online video ads could keep pace with the rapidly changing evening news topics. But, within a week, the team mastered the process and could switch out creative in a matter of minutes without having to re-traffick any ad tags.

In addition, features such as dayparting allow broadcasters to schedule a series of ads to run at specific times and days. By trafficking one ad tag, a station can schedule an entire week’s worth of promotions.

Cost-effective

Dynamic video advertising platforms make it easy for broadcasters to re-purpose creative originally designed for television to run online as interactive video advertising. This eliminates the high cost of developing separate creative to run on-air and on the Web.

In addition, stations and networks typically have their own web properties with display inventory that often goes unsold. They can fill this inventory with their own tune-in video ads to promote their valuable programming assets.

Because the ad tags are flexible enough to meet the requirements of virtually all ad networks, broadcasters can easily extend the promotions to run on any sites they have purchased as part of a standard media plan.

The time is now

Dynamic video advertising offers stations, networks, and syndicators the opportunity they’ve been waiting for: to easily and inexpensively extend their tune-in promotions online. The technology is in place. The time to act is now.

Learn more about dynamic video advertising.

*Photo credit: Aaron Escobar.

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Pre-roll disrupts. In-banner invites.

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

Advertisers are investing in online video advertising at an astonishing rate. Video is now the fastest growing form of online advertising. eMarketer predicts that online video ad spending will grow 48 percent this year to $1.5 billion. By 2014, spending is expected to reach $5.5 billion.

When it comes to ways to invest their online video ad dollars, advertisers have choices:

  • They can follow the disruptive television model by including pre-roll video ads that viewers must watch to get to the video content they actually want to see.
  • They can embed user-initiated video ads in banner ad spaces on websites that viewers have chosen to visit.

While some studies have found that only a small percentage of unique visitors actually watch video pre-roll ads to completion, both formats play an important role in a holistic online video advertising strategy.

Key to understanding the strategic role that in-banner video ads play is “user-initiation.” To use in-banner video to the best advantage, advertisers have to ask themselves a question: What is it that makes viewers actively choose to watch an ad online?

  • Viewers recognize a familiar brand or product and want to know more.
  • The creative and message (promotion, benefit, etc.) are too compelling to ignore.

How do these answers inform advertisers? An unknown brand trying to establish itself might not want to invest primarily in in-banner video. To build notoriety, the brand probably needs to be more disruptive than that. For established brands focused on increasing brand favorability and purchase intent, however, in-banner video just might be the ideal tool of choice.

By combining compelling creative with the interactive power of dynamic video advertising technology, established brands can invite viewers into an engaging, two-way conversation. Here are a couple of examples:

TV news tune-in promotion

A popular local TV station might increase program viewership by featuring in-banner video ads on its website that:

  • Leverage existing creative.
  • Are dayparted to promote programs shortly before they appear on air.
  • Target viewers based on their geographic locations.
  • Allow viewers to telescope to more detailed video content.
  • Include live feeds of the station’s Twitter posts.
  • Make it easy for viewers to share the video ad through their social media accounts.

Political advocacy campaign

A well-established, issue-oriented organization might use in-banner video ads to publicize an event. Viewers of the video ads could:

  • Sign up to attend the event.
  • Contribute to the organization.
  • Take a survey to help organizers zero in on the best speakers.
  • See a map with directions from each viewer’s zip code to the event location.
  • Make it easy for viewers to share the video ad through Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites.

Read more about how video ads can drive the best results online.

Get started today with your own in-banner dynamic video advertising campaign.

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Addressable advertising made easy

Monday, November 15th, 2010
Target image

Addressable advertising targets viewers by location*

For decades, the cable industry has been working on a solution for dynamically targeting TV ads to specific regions, zones, and even households. What’s holding the industry back?

According to an article by Steve McClellan, this addressable type model turns the existing TV sales model on its head, leaving networks and other distributors concerned about how to fully monetize inventory. In addition, the technology is extremely complex and different hardware deployed by cable operators creates incompatibilities.

But national advertisers eager to take advantage of addressable advertising don’t have to wait. A simple solution is available now that allows these advertisers to dynamically deliver locally relevant video content to viewers in specific spot TV markets.

Dynamic online video ad technology makes it easy for national advertisers to re-purpose existing TV spots to run as in-banner video ads online. Locally relevant content, such as links to local websites and social media fan pages, sign ups that send leads to local email addresses, decision-tree videos that feature local employees, and more, can be delivered dynamically in response to each viewer’s zip code.

Example: National pizza chain

A simple example illustrates how elegantly dynamic video ad technology solves the addressable advertising problem.

Goal Run a national brand awareness campaign that also drives traffic into specific local franchises around the country.

Process Create an engaging 30-second TV spot that includes logos and messaging common across franchises. Within a day, re-purpose the spot to run as an in-banner video ad that includes three dynamically targeted calls to action:

  • Find us!
  • See Our Menu!
  • Click to Order Now!

Results A Seattle resident and a Boston resident visit two local online publications and watch the in-banner video ad. When these viewers click:

  • Find Us!, each viewer sees a map that shows directions from her own zip code to the nearest franchise.
  • See Our Menu!, each viewer sees the menu for the local franchise with its pizza specials that cater to regional preferences.
  • Click to Order Now! and fills out an in-video order form, the order is sent to the email address of the local franchise.

Ultimately, the cable TV industry will find ways to remove the procedural and technological barriers to addressable advertising. In the meantime, advertisers can take advantage of dynamic online video ad technology to run targeted national-local and regional-local campaigns.

Read more about solutions for dynamically delivering locally relevant video ad content:

*Photo from the Flickr collection of mag3737.

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Familiar and effective move TV budgets online

Thursday, November 4th, 2010
Image conveying data

Mixpo technology uses campaign data to optimize automatically on the best performing ad*

How do you break down the barriers that stop advertisers from extending their TV advertising online? Make it familiar. Make it effective.

Familiar Build on what’s familiar by incorporating many of the techniques, such as dayparting and ad sequencing, that advertisers are already accustomed to using in the TV world.

Effective Advertisers new to online are unlikely to know how to take full advantage of the dynamic nature of online advertising and the ease with which performance can be tracked and measured. Building automatic optimization into the process of running live online campaigns not only delivers the best results. It also educates advertisers about the creative and calls to action that are most effective online.

Auto optimization defined

Auto optimization means randomly rotating different versions of an ad through the same Player. After a specified number of impressions, the platform automatically stops running all versions except the best performer.

Advertisers have control over various aspects of the auto optimization process, including:

  • The number of versions to rotate.
  • The creative and calls to action in each version.
  • The number of impressions after which auto optimization occurs.
  • The metric on which performance is judged (for example, view rate, clickthrough rate, or percent viewed).

Auto optimization applied

To illustrate how auto optimization works, here are three different examples of the process in action.

Retailer: Optimize on view rate

A workout equipment retailer promoting a semi-annual sale wants to move as much merchandise as possible by attracting people into the store. The retailer comes up with a couple of different StartFrames (the image viewers see before they play a video ad) to determine which attracts the most views.

  • Version 1 describes the sale this way: Semi-annual Sale! All inventory discounted.
  • Version 2 describes the sale this way: Merchandise must move! First come, first served!

After the two versions rotate through the same Player for 75,000 impressions, Version 2 has the highest view rate. The platform automatically stops running Version 1.

Auto dealer: Optimize on clickthrough rate

An auto dealer wants to generate more local leads and get more car buyers into the show room. The dealer wants to test two different calls to action:

  • Version 1: Sign up for a test drive!
  • Version 2: Schedule a test drive today!

After the two versions rotate through the same Player for 100,000 impressions, Version 1 has the highest clickthrough rate. The platform automatically stops running Version 2.

Political campaign: Optimize on percent viewed

To garner votes as the election nears, a political campaign wants voters to view as much of the candidate’s message as possible. The campaign develops two versions of a video ad that approach the candidate’s platform in different ways.

  • Version 1 presents the message by attacking the candidate’s opponent.
  • Version 2 ignores the opposition and focuses on the candidate’s five-point program for change.

After the two versions rotate through the same Player for 50,000 impressions, Version 2 has the highest percent viewed. The platform automatically stops running Version 1.

More Information

New to Mixpo? Explore our website today to learn more about dynamic video advertising.

Read a MediaPost article about Mixpo tools that move TV ad budgets online.

Mixpo customer? Learn more now about optimization by signing in to your account, opening the Client Resources home page, and then searching for “auto optimize.”

*Photo taken by bionicteaching.

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What's next for auto dealers online?

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Automotive Internet Roundtable Conference image

At the recent J.D. Power Automotive Internet Roundtable conference in Las Vegas, we heard from speakers and panelists who pointed to a number of challenges facing auto dealers. Some of these challenges include:

  • Going beyond the obsession with simply moving cars off the lot by telling great creative stories that build fans and generate brand enthusiasm.
  • Integrating creative and messaging in cross-platform advertising campaigns.
  • Taking full advantage of social media trends for reputation management and consumer control in ad campaigns.
  • Expanding key performance indicators to define and measure engagement.

A recent AdvertisingAge article supports the idea that great creative and integrated messaging may well be the key to increasing sales. While many advertisers blame media mix and placement for poor ad campaign performance, marketing experts claim—and studies confirm—that creative has a major impact on price premiums as well as sales.

In an October OnlineVideoInsider article, Anupam Gupta challenges auto marketers to move beyond simplistic FLASH ads. These marketers, claims Gupta, already understand the power of sight, sound, and motion so they are ideally positioned to lead the charge into video with dynamic creative.

Dynamic video ads represent an opportunity to deliver immediacy and relevance to each viewer. By leveraging a single TV video file, auto marketers can maintain consistency across platforms while achieving two separate goals online, building brand enthusiasm and generating demand.

What do you think? Are these the challenges facing auto dealers? Will dynamic video advertising help auto marketers address the challenges they face?

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Ad sequencing in the non-linear Web world

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
Photo of John Steinbeck quote

Use ad sequencing to tell stories*

Consumers typically progress through a single TV program or a series of episodes in a linear fashion. Advertisers have taken advantage of this linear progression to build brand awareness and tell stories through ad sequences.

For example, Budweiser served a progression of popular beer ads to football fans watching the Superbowl. Taster’s Choice promoted its coffee using an ad sequence that traced the progress of a developing romance. The Energizer Bunny sequence not only won a best-commercial-of-the-year Obie award but also resulted in Energizer pulling ahead of Duracell in sales.

Because ad sequencing works on television, advertisers who extend their campaigns online want to tap into that same sense of motion and momentum. But, they face a challenge. How is it possible to capture the repetition and story-telling potential of ad sequencing on the Web, an inherently non-linear medium?

As part of its goal to remove barriers to online video advertising, Mixpo recently released its Dynamic Suite. Included in the Suite is a message sequencing tool that provides advertisers with one of the easiest, most effective ways to deliver in-banner video ad sequences on the Web.

Ad sequencing described

With Mixpo’s user-friendly ad sequencing tool, advertisers can:

  • Build in a progressive viewing experience by basing ads that a consumer sees on ads that same consumer viewed or encountered previously (through an impression).
  • Fine tune that experience by controlling the number of impressions or views that trigger the delivery of a different ad.
  • Set up as many ad sequences as necessary to deliver the optimal brand awareness or story-telling experience.
  • Preview the ad sequencing experience to make sure it performs as expected before the ads go live.

Ad sequencing applied

Automotive: From the general to the specific

An auto dealer runs a sequence of ads based on views. Consumers who have actively chosen to view a general video ad about the new hybrid SUV will automatically be shown a more detailed ad about some of the model’s hottest features.

Retail: Upping the incentive

A sporting goods retailer runs a sequence of ads based on impressions. Consumers who have been exposed twice to a startframe that shows a re-designed elliptical machine will see a new startframe on their third visit that offers a 10% discount coupon to first-time customers.

More Information

New to Mixpo? Explore our website today to learn more about dynamic video advertising.

Mixpo customer? Learn more now about ad sequencing by signing in to your account, opening the Client Resources home page, and then searching for “sequencing.”

*Photo taken by Jill Clardy.

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Dayparting works – on TV and online

Thursday, October 14th, 2010
clock image

Target audiences through dayparting*

Advertisers want to extend their TV campaigns online, but often fear the expense and labor involved in creating or editing video for online audiences.

To remove barriers to the TV-online transition, Mixpo not only makes it easy to re-purpose existing TV creative for use on the Web. Our platform also incorporates tried-and-true TV programming strategies, such as dayparting, into our dynamic feature suite.

Dayparting enables advertisers to deliver content at a specific time of day or day of the week, when it is most likely to be relevant to particular viewers.

Dayparting described

Advertisers accustomed to running dayparted campaigns on television will find it easy to take advantage of this feature on Mixpo’s platform. Using an intuitive interface, dayparting is simple to implement and supports:

  • Running different ads during select dayparts, with no limit on the number of dayparts.
  • Setting up customized dayparting schedules for different days of the week.
  • Copying schedules from one day to another.
  • Previewing dayparts to ensure functionality before the ads go live.
  • Trafficking one master ad tag that controls an entire dayparting schedule.
  • Generating custom reports that track the individual performance of each dayparted ad.
  • Changing creative or adjusting daypart times mid-campaign without re-trafficking any ad tags.

Dayparting applied

Here are a few examples of how dayparting can help your ad campaign:

Fast food: The right message at the right time of day

To bring customers into the store, a restaurant can run its breakfast burrito ad from midnight to 10am, its tuna melt ad from 10 am to 2:30 pm, and its four-piece chicken dinner ad from 2:30 pm to midnight.

Tune-in: The right message on the right day of the week

To queue up viewer interest and drive viewers to its nightly broadcast, a TV station can run ads a few hours in advance of air time that preview the most exciting news segment.

More Information

New to Mixpo? Explore our website today to learn more about dynamic video advertising.

Mixpo customer? Learn more now about dayparting by signing in to your account, opening the Client Resources home page, and then searching for “dayparting.”

*Image taken by David Sky

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