For example:

• A band put QR codes onto a T-shirt. People who scan the codes download an MP3 of one of the band’s songs.
• A library replaced some printed signs with QR codes that lead to digital maps of the book stacks.
• Which Wich sandwich shop increased cookie sales by including a QR code on their sandwich bags that delivers a free cookie coupon.

But QR codes can also be used effectively to extend digital ad campaigns from one platform to another. Read on to see a proof-of-concept example of a QR code incorporated into a VideoAd.

How QR codes work

Scan code for Mixpo office location

QR codes look like this. Smartphone users with a barcode scanning application (free apps are available for most smartphones) can scan the codes using their phones’ cameras to quickly access information, such as coupons, maps, files, videos, and more. (For a crash course on QR code tools, tactics, and best practices, see Top 14 Things Marketers Need to Know About QR Codes.)

QR codes are often black and white but, as this code shows, you can also customize them to reflect brand colors or a special promotion.

Try it Have a smartphone with a barcode scanning application? Scan this QR code for a map to the Mixpo offices.

Anyone can generate a QR code using one of several free applications online (we created this code using qrstuff.com). Advertisers can track how many scans QR codes receive, which types of devices scan them, and more.

Proof of concept

We added the QR code displayed above to the following VideoAd as an overlay. We set up the overlay to pause the video. This gives viewers a chance to scan the code or click continue.

In addition, we added a Print action to the QR code overlay. Viewers who prefer to scan a printed version of the code can easily print it out.

To see the QR code overlay in action, roll over the VideoAd to play it.

Our proof-of-concept example illustrates how QR codes can easily be included in VideoAds. It also hints at what makes QR codes truly effective.

Effective QR codes offer something of real value to people who scan them. And, just from a practical perspective, the reward must be optimized for display on a mobile phone.

Here are a few ideas, besides map locations, for how you might use QR codes in VideoAds:

• Offer a mobile-users-only coupon.
• Open a virtual business card.
• Provide detailed product specs.
• Purchase tickets.
• Provide a PayPal “Buy Now” link.

OK, so QR codes work in VideoAds. But, just because you can include them, is there any reason you should bother? A February survey revealed that 32 percent of smartphone uses have scanned a QR code. Of those, 72 percent said they were more likely to remember ads that include a code.

More information

QR code overlays are just one of many interactive and dynamic features you can include in online video advertising. For additional examples see:

• Features-in-action: Video Redirect
• Features-in-action: Social media integration
• Features-in-action: Flash widgets

What kinds of intelligence can these intelligent overlays contain?

• Animation
• Live feeds
• Custom search queries

While animation plays a role in making ads entertaining, in this post we’re going to focus on live feeds and custom search queries.

Incorporating these kinds of intelligence into ads goes well beyond entertainment. Intelligent overlays are powerful because they make video ads more relevant.

For example, intelligent overlays:

• Keep ad content current and meaningful over time by providing a constant stream of up-to-date information.
• Make content meaningful on a viewer-by-viewer basis by personalizing the video ad experience.

Relevance appears to be one of the most important determiners of how well an ad performs. Studies comparing length and relevance have shown that targeted 30-second ads outperform untargeted 15-second ads in both clickthroughs and video completion rate.

Example: Live feed

You can associate an intelligent overlay with almost any type of live data feed for which you can specify an account name or URL.

For example:

• A TV station can include a live feed of weather-related tweets in a tune-in ad for its nightly weather forecast.
• A financial institution can keep viewers up to date by including a live feed of the latest interest rates.

Video ad with live Twitter feed

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

Example: Personalized ad experience

You can associate intelligent overlays with dynamic search URLs to provide viewers with personalized results.

For example, viewers of a:

• Fast food restaurant ad can click an intelligent overlay to see map directions from their current location to the nearest franchise.

• Financial services ad can type a zip code into an intelligent overlay to see a list of local agents.
• Retail ad can type a product name into an intelligent overlay to see search results in the retailer’s online catalog.

VideoAd with widget overlay

Play the VideoAd represented by the thumbnail. Type a western Washington zip code (such as 98101) into the overlay and click Go.

Video ad with map directions overlay

Play the VideoAd represented by the thumbnail. Click the Map overlay to see personalized map directions.

Intelligent widget overlays are just one of many interactive and dynamic features you can include in online video advertising. For additional examples see:

• Features-in-action: Video Redirect
• Features-in-action: Social media integration

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.

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.

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.

VideoAd with Facebook Like button

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

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.

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.

Make the most of social media integration*

The lines between social media and online marketing are blurring.

It doesn’t take an article like Blurry Lines in 2011: Social + Search + Media to tell us that. We see the blurring everywhere in the form of Facebook Like buttons, Twitter feeds, and other icons.

But article author Harry Gold’s point goes beyond awareness. The founder/CEO of Overdrive Interactive urges marketers to “add octane” to their online advertising by making the most of social media integration.

How do advertisers benefit from effective integration? Through the multiplier effect. An advertiser’s messages get distributed further with no additional media costs, and they reach more of the advertiser’s target demographic.

The dynamic social media features included in the Mixpo platform make it easy for advertisers to add social octane to their video ads.

Using these features, advertisers can:

• Send viewers to their social media sites.
• Encourage viral sharing.
• Earn more Likes.

Send viewers to social media sites

In the Mixpo stock media library, you have access to a collection of pre-made icons for commonly used social media services, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Digg.

This means that adding and customizing a social media icon so it links viewers to an advertiser’s social media sites takes less than a minute.

In the stock library, you can also find pre-designed Twitter feed widgets. In a live Xspot, the widget automatically displays the latest tweets from the advertiser’s Twitter account.

Features-in-action

Watch an ABC 7 Eyewitness News tune in Xspot: At the end of the Xspot, click the customized Facebook and SMS icons. See live weather-related Twitter updates in the widget.

Encourage viral sharing

The power of social media is not just in social connections but also in social sharing. That’s why it’s important to make it as easy as possible for viewers to share an advertiser’s Xspot with friends and followers.

By adding a Share action to an overlay or a Share icon to the INFO menu, a tweet or Facebook post is just a couple of clicks away.

Feature-in-action

Watch a Phoenix Raceway expanding display ad: Expand the display ad, and then click the share-enabled custom Facebook overlay.

Earn more Likes

Earn more Likes for advertisers and their products by including a Like button in an Xspot’s INFO menu.

When viewers click the Like button, another Like is recorded on the advertiser’s Facebook page. In addition, an entry is added to the viewer’s Wall, and advertiser posts begin appearing in the viewer’s News feed.

Feature-in-action

Watch a Mixpo Xspot: Place your cursor on the playing ad. Pause over MENU to expand the INFO menu. Click the Like button. Replay the ad. The button changes to a display of the total number of Likes, preventing a single viewer from recording multiple Likes.

While you’re watching the ad, click the overlays to see other dynamic features, such as a survey and map directions, in action.

Follow Gold’s advice. Take advantage of Mixpo’s dynamic features and make the most of social media integration.

More Information

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

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

*Image credit: fredcavazza on flickr.

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.

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.

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:

• Interpublic Makes World Wide Web A Local Buy, Will Serve ‘Micro Targeted’ In-Banner Video Ads
• Geomentum, Mixpo Create Zip-Level Video Ads

*Photo from the Flickr collection of mag3737.

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.