Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Video Ads Won't Fade Away

While I agree with some of his points, I disagree with Tom Hespos' assessment that video ads will be a passing fad.

He says that unlike TV, the Internet is an active medium, and people won't sit through 15 to 30 second spots. While the Web is undoubtedly more participatory (those millions of American Idol voters aside), people are watching full length movies, reading 1,000 word articles, or playing games online for hours and hours at a time, so their attention can be held for a quarter of a minute.

The point he doesn't emphasize enough is that videos should be both interesting and interactive. The technologies are there for video ads to contain hot spots within the video stream or otherwise engage the viewer to jump to action. Advertisers who use Web 2.0 and Javascript can ask for input within the stream to pull in the viewers to their websites.

Poorly done video ads won't last, but clever video ads are here to stay.

Posted By Jason Dowdell at 01:50 PM
Permanent Link: Video Ads Won't Fade Away | Comments (1)

(1) Comments on Video Ads Won't Fade Away

Hi Jason:

Your third paragraph nails it. Video ads can't be completely passive. They need to leverage the interactive properties of the medium to be truly effective. One of my favorite video ads (done by Carat, I believe) features Tiger Woods and an interactive putting game. It uses video clips, but it does so in a way as to create a lean-forward experience.

I think if more agencies and advertisers take a similar approach, online video can morph into something that makes sense within this medium. If it's 100% passive, though, I'm not sure it's sustainable for the long term.

Comments by Tom Hespos : Friday, August 04, 2006 at 09:29 AM

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