This summer promises to be one of the most buoyant for advertising in recent years, with brands jostling for attention during events including the Jubilee, Euro 2012 and the Olympics.

But with millions of consumers tuning into online video channels to see Pippa Middleton’s latest outfit, Rooney failing to make an impact against a dogged French 11, or to hopefully watch Usain Bolt smash his own world record, advertisers can really capitalise.

In fact, you could say online video advertising has never had an opportunity to be so impactful.

So what makes a video really stand out? The debate continues to rage about how long videos should be to ensure audience engagement and retention. Traditionally, the web has always been dominated by short video clips. These may be the advert around the content (no doubt the one made for a TV market that orbits around 30 second thinking) or the content itself (kept brief due to bandwidth, upload restrictions, perceived attention spans, or assumed behaviour). However, as consumers become more comfortable with the internet as a primary source of entertainment we have seen longer formats become far more common.

Recent research from the ad management platform VINDICO revealed that completion rates for video ads in long-form content averaged about 88% last year, compared to 76% for short-form content. This would suggest that viewers are more than happy to watch video content longer than five minutes or so, and both numbers are pretty lively suggesting the audience wanted to be there in the first place. We must also remember that these numbers are an average – good ideas and execution attract audience, bad ideas and execution do not. (Unless they’re really, really bad…).

Read VINDICO’s Insights Report here.

So this begs the question for advertisers: does it really matter whether the content is long-form or short-form, and therefore how long the advert is around it? As long as the content is creative, relevant and memorable, and the audience engaged, does it matter if a video is 20 minutes or 20 seconds long?

Take the Johnnie Walker ‘The Man Who Walked Around the World’ video for example; it’s six minutes and 27 seconds long, but at last count it has had 1,666,710 views on YouTube and has won numerous advertising awards. The ‘Walking Man’ advert was a huge success because it was filmed creatively and it’s beautifully scripted and well cast. Crucially though, it reflects the brand and appeals directly to Johnnie Walker’s key target market.

Similarly, a recent advert to raise awareness of the OCD Foundation has captured the imagination, despite being / because of the fact it is only one second long. It demonstrates perfectly the unique nature of the symptoms people with OCD suffer from, while keeping viewers engaged as you have to play the video over and over again to work out what it actually says.

Ultimately then, what it comes down to is creativity. If you match the right content – of whatever length – to the right audience in a unique, imaginative and inventive fashion, you can create powerful results that don’t require vast budgets.

Brands, along with their agencies and media partners, are the people with the motivation, resource, technology and creativity to do just that – and in the possibilities offered by the audience for online video this summer and beyond, we have a rich canvass.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in MediaTel.

The spread of broadband and more viewing devices means more people watching online videos and more opportunity for the advertisers who want to reach them. Nearly half the U.S. population and 65 percent of Internet users watched online video in 2010. Accordingly, online video/rich media was the fourth-biggest category of online advertising in 2011, representing $3 billion, and the category is expected to grow rapidly through 2014. One big reason for advertisers to like online video ads: consumers seem to be watching them. Eighty-eight percent of ads placed in long-form content (10 minutes or longer) were watched to completion, while 94 percent of those played mid-roll are watched to completion.

Click here to view the Data Points Infographic.

Read VINDICO’s Insights Report here.

More than 25% of all video viewing in broadband homes in the U.S. is taking place on venues besides the TV, according to fresh data from research firm, Parks Associates. That includes PCs, smartphones and tablets, and that’s also a weekly figure, underscoring that off-TV viewing is becoming a regular behavior for consumers. What’s more, about one-third of homes said they’d streamed a TV show in the past 30 days.

Given this not unexpected, but still encouraging data, it’s even more vital for marketers and agencies to track the success of their ads in such shows. Ad management platform Vindico said that completion rates for video ads in long-form content averaged about 88% last year, compared to 76% for short-form content, based on an analysis of impressions served for its clients including GroupM, Havas, IPG, Publicis, Omnicom and others. Based on these findings, Vindico expects different creative will be developed for different lengths of content in 2012.

Mid-rolls, not surprisingly, have the highest completion rates at about 94%. Vindico’s next prediction? Expect the amount of long-form content online to grow this year, and the number of mid-roll ads to also grow.

On the creative front, the ad platform’s analysis showed that while 90% of all video ads in 2011 were standard ad types and usually repurposed TV spots, some progress is being made toward new creative. “In 2010, 1% of video ads were custom video environments; such as overlays, billboards and tiles, and 1% were interactive, with little money going to mobile video ads. In 2011, 6% of ads were custom video environments, 2% were interactive, and 2% were mobile,” Vindico said.

Look for interactive and custom spots to rise in use this year.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in MediaPost’s VidBlog.

Web-video producers have been waiting years for TV dollars to move where the eyeballs increasingly are — online. But what if TV dollars were to stay where they are and online were to become TV?

That question will be asked repeatedly as big sellers of digital media unveil slates of original programming during the Digital Content NewFronts, which begin this week. They want marketers to think about digital programming in the same way they think about TV.

“To talk about TV as a piece of hardware isn’t meaningful or helpful anymore,” said Hulu Senior VP-Content Andy Forssell. “What it is useful for is a symbol of the quality bar — what content stands up to the best of what was on TV last night?”

While Yahoo, AOL, Hulu, MSN, YouTube and others are staying tight-lipped about the particulars, expect the quality and length gaps between web video and TV to collapse.

Traditionally, web video has been dominated by short clips, about three to five minutes, which suited the web’s fractured interactive environment as well as its thin economics. YouTube once capped video uploads at 10 minutes.

But episodes of shows made for the web are getting longer. People are certainly watching longer. In February 2011, the average viewer watched 5.1 minutes per video; by February 2012 that had risen to 6.2 minutes, according to ComScore.

“The main goal for all video companies is to bring TV buyers to the table,” said AOL Senior VP-Video Ran Harnevo.

In a bid to do just that, AOL is expected to announce this week that it will sell video ads using gross ratings points provided by Nielsen, the same currency used to buy TV. Converting to GRPs will be a first among publishers, which mostly sell video based on views or impressions.

Mr. Harnevo argues that “the differences between the Bravos and the AOLs are becoming vague.” Though the majority of what AOL unveils next week will be short-form, its Huffpost Streaming Network is perhaps most TV-like in its ambition: 12 hours of live programming each day.

Hulu is expected to introduce a slate of long-form series that look and feel like TV, along the lines of its “A Day in the Life” with Morgan Spurlock, and its first scripted series, “Battleground,” a 30-minute political drama that, though TV-length, didn’t fit the formats and strictures of broadcast or cable. Hulu’s originals will make it to traditional TV when they are sold into international syndication through a deal with Fremantle Media.

YouTube will show the work of some of its new “channel” partners at its presentation for advertisers, and even though the predominant form is short, some producers of scripted and unscripted content are going longer. For example, the “Bammo” channel’s debut of the drama series “Sync” checks in at nearly 10 minutes, and an episode of “Chris Harris on Cars” on the “Drive” channel lasts more than 11.

There’s an economic reason to go longer form online. Longer video makes ad breaks possible, which means additional ad inventory. Additionally, marketers like to use their TV creative online. A recent study by the video ad server Vindico found that 98% of the video ads on its network are repurposed TV.

“The proliferation of tablets and the iPad have changed consumer behavior around video,” said Yolanda Lam, senior VP at Publicis Groupe’s MediaVest. Paul Kontonis, VP at Digitas, a NewFront organizer, echoed that. “If the iPad functions as a first screen, people will watch longer,” he said.

Even portals, usually the homes of short-form, are getting bolder with programming. This spring Yahoo is airing a comedy series, “Burning Love” starring Kristen Bell, with episodes running about 10 minutes. And this fall it will introduce Anthony Zuiker’s “Cybergeddon.” Mr. Zuiker also just bowed a 15-minute-long episode titled “Perfect Night” on BlackBoxTV, a YouTube Channel.

“What you’re going to see is a massive commitment to long-form programming, TV quality at scale,” said John McCarus, senior VP-branded content at Digitas.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in AdAge.com.

A report published by ad management platform VINDICO states that users who watch entire ads are more valuable to advertisers then users who actually click on video ads. VINDICO say their data suggests that click-through rate should be regarded as the ‘King of False Positives’, while more value should be given to ‘completers’ who are more likely to engage with a brand.

“People who click on a video ad often do so just to ‘make the ad go away,’ but those who watch an ad through to the end are highly likely to engage with the brand,” said Matt Timothy, President of VINDICO. “Advertisers need to seriously reconsider their view of click-throughs as some kind of golden metric of ROI in video advertising. Our data indicates that video ads based solely on click-through rates are inaccurately measuring the impact of their campaigns. Completion rate is a far more accurate indicator of success.”

VINDICO’S report was conducted in-house and was based on the analysis of 30 billion video ad impressions delivered by VINDICO in 2010 and 2011. Of viewers who navigated beyond the brands’ landing pages, 96 percent had previously completed the brands’ video ads without clicking it. That contrasted strongly with clickers; only 4 percent of deeper brand page traffic came from users who had clicked on the ads.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in VideoAdNews.com.

Forget about click-through rates. When it comes to online video advertising, it’s the “completes” that count, according to new research from Vindico.

“Click-through rate was created in a neophyte ad world dominated by display and search,” according to the video ad platform. “It should play a small part in measuring the success of a video campaign alongside other more powerful measures, like completion and engagement.”

Rather, advertisers should evaluate a range of variables when evaluating performance, such as whether their video ad ran as in-banner alongside content or “below the fold.” These situations would likely account for high impressions with low CTR as viewers are most likely not viewing the ad when it’s playing at the bottom of a page.

Read VINDICO’s Insights Report here.

Judging by “completes,” mid-roll is the clear way to go, as they achieve the highest completion rates (94%) of all ad positions in 2011, Vindico found, based on tens of billions of ad impressions served in 2010 and 2011.

Video ads placed during long-form content had a higher completion rate — 88% — than those placed with short-form content, 76%.

In other words, a viewer who makes the commitment to watch a 30-minute episode is more invested in watching the associated ads, while a comparatively less-invested viewer “snacking” on short-form videos is somewhat more likely to click away when presented with an ad, Vindico finds. Completion rates across site types indicate that premium content on video centric sites yield higher completion rates.

Overall, 2011 was a year of massive growth in online video ads, according to Vindico — as it saw a 134% growth in digital ad volume and 16% growth in average campaign size.

Ad-served impressions also rose last year as marketers pushed for ad-serving to be used on their digital video ad campaigns. Year-over-year, Vindico saw a 92% increase in ad-served impressions, with ad serving making up nearly half of all total impressions delivered.

That said, attention spans remain short, Vindico finds. As such, 15-second ads remain the most successful (78%) with audiences; while 60 seconds are the least (54%).

Also, despite the growing prominence of online video, marketers are still unlikely to splurge on platform-specific content. In fact, all but 2% of video ads were repurposed TV creative in 2011.

A well-strategized digital campaign always takes into account video ad frequency and its effects on viewers, Vindico notes.

Studies by the ad platform have shown that there is a frequency “sweet-spot” for marketers to keep users most interested and engaged. After frequency reaches this point, the completion rate for a campaign may drop. Ad serving helps advertisers control the number of times a user is exposed to the video ad, thus preventing “viewer fatigue.”

Editor’s Note: The article first appeared in MediaPost’s Online Media Daily. Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/172275/evaluate-video-ads-as-completes.html#ixzz1sQPy1359

Read full report here.

VINDICO’S first comprehensive research report on the digital video advertising market was based on the analysis of 30 billion video ad impressions delivered by VINDICO for brand advertisers across diverse industries in 2010 and 2011. The report found that of viewers who navigated beyond the brands’ landing pages, 96 percent had previously completed the brands’ video ads without clicking it. That contrasted strongly with clickers; only 4 percent of deeper brand page traffic came from users who clicked the ads.

“People who click on a video ad often do so just to ‘make the ad go away,’ but those who watch an ad through to the end are highly likely to engage with the brand,” said Matt Timothy, president of VINDICO. “Advertisers need to seriously reconsider their view of click-throughs as some kind of golden metric of ROI in video advertising. Our data indicates that video ads based solely on click-through rates are inaccurately measuring the impact of their campaigns. Completion rate is a far more accurate indicator of success.”

The impact of these findings is critical for brands as agencies look to improve the performance of their large-scale video advertising programs. In 2012, more than half of all marketers will have deployed digital video campaigns – up from 20 percent last year. Spending on digital video campaigns will rise 40 percent over 2011 to reach $3.1 billion in the U.S. and is expected to reach more than $7 billion by 2015.

Key findings of the report include:
• Ad-Served Impressions Rise: In 2011, marketers pushed for ad-serving to be used on their digital video ad campaigns. From 2010 to 2011, VINDICO saw a 92 percent increase in ad-served impressions, with ad serving making up nearly half of all total impressions delivered. Using first- and third-party tags, ad-served impressions include detailed tracking metrics so advertisers have more insights into and control over their campaigns.

• New Video Ad Types Gain Steam: While 90 percent of all video ads in 2011 were standard ad types – often repurposed TV creative – advertisers are beginning to see value in alternatives available in the digital space. In 2010, 1 percent of video ads were custom video environments; such as overlays, billboards and tiles, and 1 percent were interactive, with little money going to mobile video ads. In 2011, 6 percent of ads were custom video environments, 2 percent were interactive, and 2 percent were mobile.

• Short-Form Videos Deliver High Click-through Rates: Ads placed in short-form video content had an average click-through rate of 1.31 percent, while ads placed in longer-form content had an average .83 percent click-through rate.

VINDICO delivers one third of all online video ads in the United States. The company provides video advertising management solutions to over 200 brands through their leading agency groups such as GroupM, Havas, IPG, Publicis and Omnicom. The VINDICO solution reduces complexity for advertisers by providing an efficient and reliable way to serve video ads across multiple networks.
Download the full report at vindicogroup.com/products/analytics.

About VINDICO
VINDICO is the first ad management platform dedicated exclusively to video and sits at the center of the digital video ad eco-system, serving more than one-third of all digital video ads. VINDICO’s video ad management platform gives brands and agencies a single solution to serve, track and measure all of their digital video ad activity. Since 2006, VINDICO has been the gold standard in digital video platforms and works with top media agencies and their clients. Through continued technology innovation, VINDICO also helps companies increase engagement with their customers and boost results of their video ad investments. For more information, please visit http://www.vindicogroup.com or follow us on twitter at @vindico_group.

The web has become a lot like TV in one respect: The vast majority of video ads on the internet are simply repurposed from TV.

A study by video-ad platform Vindico found that all but 2% of videos ads that flowed through its platform in 2011 consisted of repurposed creative from TV commercials as marketers look to extend their TV campaigns to online.

“I often say it’s like taking a banner ad and putting it on a billboard,” said Matt Timothy, Vindico’s president.

Obviously, original video ads are much more expensive to produce than display ads. For advertisers, it’s tough to invest in original video creative for the web when the plumbing is just getting laid to make large-scale buys anything less than a challenging exercise. However, Mr. Timothy sees promise in the fact that half of Vindico’s impressions delivered in 2011 were ad-served (vs. site-served), compared with 9% in 2010.

“Last year, the pipe was screwed in between publishers and advertisers,” Mr. Timothy said. “Innovation hasn’t really begun.”

The study also found that viewers tend to watch video ads to completion more often when they appear within longer-form video programming. Vindico found that the average completion rate for ads that appear within videos that run fewer than 10 minutes came in at 76%, compared with 88% for video clips that typically ran longer than 10 minutes. Not surprisingly, a viewer who has made the commitment to watch a long piece of content is more likely to consume an accompanying ad.

Vindico’s findings also touch on the hot topic of skippable ads. The research revealed that a decent percentage of online-video viewers ( 31%) chose to watch an ad to completion when given the option to skip, compared with an average of 77% for nonskippable ads. It remains to be seen if the 31% is enough to convince publishers that they can build a business model on the back of higher CPM rates for skippable ads that are watched to completion.

Editor’s Note: Original article appeared in AdAge.com

Guest expert Danny Brent spoke to a number of U.S. based companies that now have European operations, including VINDICO. James Grant, Head of UK, spoke of the growing market and what is driving the growth.

Click here to read the full article.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in ReelSEO.com

According to the IAB, the Association representing the Advertising sector, 78% of Spaniards see video content on their computers or mobile devices. Brands can benefit greatly from this opportunity but, as explained by Sonia Fernandez during a meeting with journalists, it isn’t the publisher who must negotiate the advertising but the media agencies, who have the possibility of providing an integrated offering that brings together multiple communication devices and not just buy a space in a single stand.

Read the full article in Spain’s PRNoticias.com.

In an interview with Spain’s Expansion.com, Fernandez talks about the type of metrics that can be found in digital video. Read the article here: Multinational VINDICO Positions Itself in Spain for Its European Expansion.

Fernandez spoke with Spain’s MarketingDirecto.com about the opportunities available to advertisers and brands as well as the unique challenges digital video advertising presents. Read the full article here: VINDICO: The New Solution to Create, Launch and Monitor Video Advertising Online.

The ability to measure the effectiveness of the video ad campaign is a focal point for media agencies and advertisers. Fernandez explains to Spain’s El Periodico de la Publicidad about VINDICO’s measurement capabilities. Read the full article here: VINDICO Measurement Platform Takes on the Challenge of Video Advertising.

TV has so far been the key for big brands to communicate to their consumers. The high cost of producing a spot of 20 or 30 seconds has traditionally been the reflection of brand communication very carefully and costly, conceived and designed for television, where consumers are comfortably seated on the couch passively consuming it. This conventional advertising model is being applied to the world of online video advertising. Companies use the same spots 20/30 seconds as if we were on that couch. However, in this environment, the end user in front of the screen, ready to escape the advertising if the ad is not relevant and does not capture their interest. We face the same target, but with a spectator who consumes advertising very differently.

Sonia outlines seven tips to improve the user experience with brands in online video advertising. CLICK HERE to read the tips.

Editor’s Note: The article is written in Spanish and originally appeared in Spain’s El Publicista.com

Speaking at Specific Media’s The Value of Video event earlier today, Grant said the overload of data available in display and search advertising is preventing video data from being leveraged to its full potential.

“Advertisers are overloaded with data in search and display, both more mature than video, so the challenge is more around how best to analyse the available data,” he said. “Video on the other hand, is being totally undervalued because advertisers are focusing all their attention on display and search data.”
click here

Advertisers, namely media buyers, are not drilling into the more granular data around video ad viewing, including view-through rates, with the result that they are not optimising their video campaigns to the maximum potential, according to Grant.

He called for advertisers to change their mindsets and pay more attention to ad serving and stop opting for free ad-serving packages offered by many publishers. “[Advertisers] need to stop treating ad serving as a commodity,” he said. “If you don’t have the data or haven’t looked at the data how can you extract the value from it?”

Advertisers that opt for free ad serving offered by publishers need to think about what they are inadvertently giving away in terms of data insight. If leveraged fully, video data can open up opportunities around frequency serving, according to Grant. This would mean that an advertiser could still run multiple ads across a particular channel, but that it would serve different ad creatives in each slot, to ensure the viewer does not get frustrated with seeing repeat ads.

If advertisers don’t recognise the need to closely monitor their video data, the control will remain with the publishers, said Grant. “Don’t be afraid of data, know how to use it,” he said.

Grant was previously head of video product sales and strategy at Microsoft, where he helped launch MSN’s video-on-demand player.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in New Media Age.

CLICK HERE to read the full post by Scarlet Strategic.

That situation is drastically different now. My television alone can offer me more content than I’m capable of watching. It has 30+ channels dialed in automatically, it has a ‘smart’ area where pre-chosen brands try to showcase me their content AND I can connect it up to the web in order to find my own content.

That’s without getting started on the number of boxes I can throw money at in order to get more content pushed onto my big screen. In fact, even though I work in the industry I can honestly say it’s all a bit over-whelming… I’m more often than not inclined to hand the TV over to the my son’s Fireman Sam DVD and just get on with my own content choices on a generic tablet device.

And therein lies the issue – people are buying the devices to consume the content, but we are struggling to properly monetise the interest. A report out this week from Deloitte indicates that targeted and interactive TV advertising will not have a significant impact on the current TV marketplace in the next five years.

On top of this the UK video industry is still reluctant to implement IAB video standards, which are commonplace in more advanced markets such as the US. And let’s not get started on common media currencies.

Yet amidst all the treading water in the current environment it’s clear that consumer habits are changing… and fast. Netflix, Amazon, Tesco and now Sky have all announced significant moves in the online TV/film content distribution space in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, Apple has sold more iPads in two years than it sold Macs in 21, and connected televisions continue to quietly gain share with another 1% of our homes added in December.

Consumers are changing the way they access, watch and share content on their small screens and their big screens, and it is exciting! I can now genuinely watch what I want, when I want it, where and how I like, and the best thing is that I know I’m not the only one in ad-land currently walking the walk.

As an industry we should be pushing industry standards, and educating and encouraging innovation. Consumers are moving faster than the industry and those who expect ‘little change’ to influence traditional TV advertising by the time the Olympics in Rio come around, are, I suspect, going to get caught out. As Warren Buffet once said: “When the tide goes out you get to see who has been caught swimming naked”.

We need to push for change across the marketplace and I think the adoption of IAB video standards is a good place to start – maybe we can still avoid baring all and sundry to our marketplace friends and foes.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in MediaTel.

In fact BBC iPlayer carried on releasing great stats and pointed out that December saw over 7m programme requests on connected TVs, over 1000% up YOY (I know, small base…), but mobile and tablet requests also hit triple-digit growth YOY.

Other publishers aren’t letting BARB get in their way either – Sky announced a new cloud-TV service to launch in 2012 and ITV announced plans to create new story lines for audiences watching and following online. Finally and admittedly not UK-based, but the US Superbowl achieved higher CPMs on the live online broadcast (the first legal, online broadcast of the event) than the linear TV advertisements.

Phew! Stellar stats all round, and for those of us who work in this part of the industry, it’s nice to see the numbers stacking up behind the theory. So what’s the key to realising the potential of connected TV? Personally I think that the plethora of devices now available is making the difference. New TV sales across December added another 1% to connected TV household numbers, Apple saw massive growth in iOS device sales and has now sold more iPads in two years than it sold Macs in 21 years – these devices make online viewing easy, and in some cases more enjoyable. For a long time now the William Gibson quote referenced in the title of this post has been used throughout the industry, but I think it’s time to get rid of it – I think the future IS becoming evenly distributed, now we as an industry need to make sure the way we deliver, measure, track and report online video doesn’t see us left in the past.

Editor’s Note: This blog originally appeared in MediaWeek’s Media Blogged.

An amazing idea executed beautifully. Now don’t get me wrong, I can see in the Twittersphere that ‘Star Wars’ themed ads are hitting overload – but this a nice follow-up to VW’s excellent ‘Dark Side’ video last year.

The Bark Side: 2012 Volkswagen

Energiser

Moving from real animals to stuffed ones is this Energiser ad, Gift of Life, from the Philippines. A hauntingly beautiful ad that while paralleling Romeo and Juliet, but with toys, managed to be more heartfelt and lovely than many big budget romantic films. Pass the tissues because this is a bona-fide tear-jerker.

A Toy Love Story – Energizer

The AA

Third is a horror film, Who’s going to stop Jack Frost?, courtesy of the AA – surprisingly! In pushing the 3 and half minute barrier this is an ad that is crossing into advertorial territory, but the growing tension and jumpy moments kept us peering over the top of our keyboards in terror.

Who’s Going To Stop Jack Frost? – AA

WWF

Next up is a clever ad from the WWF in South Africa, Hand Drawn. On face value it is a nicely art directed ad, pushing out well-trodden messages about climate change, but doesn’t set your heart alight – until the pay off. A very clever idea that genuinely made us go, “Oh yeah. That’s good.”

Hand Drawn – WWF

Virgin Money

40 Years of Better is next with a lovely retrospective of 40 years of Virgin innovation. It’s one of the only times we have seen Virgin bring together all of their different brand offerings into one advert. With Virgin Money’s entrance into the world of banking, it seems the brand has grown up, but this ad shows it still retains that little bit of quirkiness that made it famous.

40 Years of Better – Virgin Money

NAB

This home loans ad, The Job Interview, from Australian bank, NAB, really plays on peoples’ fear of job interviews, pushing candidates to the limit. You can often be playing with fire when heading down the real-life route, but the interviewer is so calm as he nails pieces of wood to the door and the interviewees are so genuinely scared that the end result is an authentic video advertisement that really hammers home the message (pardon the pun).

The Job Interview – NAB

End7

Next up is an ad from End7, the campaign to end seven diseases by 2020. The compassion and sincerity of Our Mission in a Minute really worked its way into our hearts, with a simple, but striking message.

Our Mission in a Minute – End7

Lurpack

Lurpack Lightest butter is full of vegetables apparently. Does this mean that butter is now one of our five a day? Well, Be Wonderful and Wise takes an everyday product in a cluttered brand space and gives it a new twist. Similar messaging can be seen all across this brand category, but a great execution helps this to stand out, and might even get you thinking about what you’re planning to cook this evening.

Be Wonderful and Wise – Lurpack

Nike

Apparently there is a big sporting event this year?! This ad from Nike, How will you #makeitcount?, strikes one of the first Olympic efforts and starts the pulse racing for the Summer’s excitement. The monochrome is a clever touch and brings the script to life. As always, Nike stick to a tried and tested format of big name, sponsored sportsfolk shot going about their daily business – and as always, it delivers.

How Will You #makeitcount? – Nike

Audi Ahab

Finally we get to Audi’s Ahab, (possibly our favourite of the month). Audi has a long history of beautiful and inventive work and this pastiche of Moby Dick ticks all of those boxes, while also being funny. It manages to convey the Audi brand truths in a very clever way. Gotta love those eyes.

Ahab – Audi

Editor’s Note: This blog first appeared in The Wall.

The “Big Game” sets the stage for advertising (and creativity) for the rest of the year. This year is no different – in fact, we’ll argue that this year could be one of the most creative advertising years in history.

Top performing brands and marketers are starting to make more sophisticated plans providing a comprehensive media approach for attracting consumers. It’s no longer enough to just concentrate on TV spots and leave digital as an after-thought…there’s too much that digital can accomplish to not take advantage of it all.

A big trend we’re seeing for 2012 is the strong emergence of interactive digital video ads. And what better time of year to talk about an ad trend than during the most hyped-up advertising time of year!

We looked back on old (pre-digital video advertising days) ads that were shown during the “Big Game” and updated them with interactive element ideas that would have made those ads a perfect accompaniment to a modern media plan.

Let’s start with a classic…

Coca-Cola’s “Mean Joe Green” ad from 1980 is still talked about today. How to improve on a classic? Easy…a simple social dock overlay would allow viewers to quickly share this classic with all their friends via Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. Want to get something viral? Make it easy for viewers do it.

Who can forget the frog trio in this Bud-weis-er classic from 1996? Everyone thought it was great… including kids. We all know the Internet is a wide-open field and it presents challenges for certain types of products. How can companies protect themselves in the digital landscape? With “gates.” Here a layer of protection is added to the digital video ad – an option not available with traditional media outlets.

Next, we turn to a 1992 Magnavox ad starring John Cleese. The goal of that ad was simple… ”We’ve got a TON of products.” So, how would you show off your many products in one ad viewing? Lay them all out there and give the viewer a choice of what they’d like to see!

In this next 1986 ad (a nod to technologies that paved our way today), viewers see the hot, new product from IBM that screams for a call-to-action. For the updated version, an unobtrusive overlay that allows for viewers to enter their ZIP code can get a customer into stores faster.

And last, but certainly not least, we found this Mott’s Clamato ad from 1969, which is still LOL funny. After getting over the giggles, the first question is “What can you make with Clamato?” A perfect situation to engage with the viewer and give a recipe or two – right in the ad environment!

As you can see, it’s easy (and fun!) to be creative and pull your ad out of the “olden days” and into 2012. So, what are you waiting for?!?

- How important is video as a medium in the modern media landscape?

Video continues to grow as the most powerful medium to tell a story online. Increasingly as TVs are IP-connected, the lines between TV advertising and video will be blurred. Whether content is delivered to a PC, to a mobile device or to a TV, the consumer will just see this as a connected screen. Advertisers will need to adjust and think in the same manner. Consumers already entertain themselves across multiple devices and across multiple media – video is set to be a huge part of this modern media landscape.

- How is it best used as part of an overall campaign?

Online video is a great medium to tell a story, to build the brand and to increasingly engage with customers online. Video online no longer needs to be limited to the 30-second traditional TV spot; the online medium allows for interactive formats built into the creative, formats that allow the user to answer questions, learn more about the product or take part in a promotion. We are just now starting to grasp this creative potential and we would love to work with the creative industry on pushing new formats, new executions and new ideas.

- How is client investment in video changing?

Clients are starting to invest in order to understand the potential of video and the opportunity to measure performance. Video ad platforms are giving specific video KPI metrics to clients, which are helping them drive more money on to this medium.

- What are the creative opportunities of video now?

The creative opportunities are extremely exciting for brands, since they can now capture information on clients, which they could not do before. As brands experiment with different creative formats, they will see what best works for the brand – one obvious example that we can perform right now is to execute a different creative per frequency. When I see a Guinness ad on TV, it tells me a story in 30 or 60 seconds, but I see the same story a number of times over a campaign. Imagine if a brand could use the video ad to build out a bigger, greater, more engaging video every time I see one of its ads.

- How is video best deployed – as a standalone medium or as part of a wider campaign?

Undoubtedly, video works best when it is part of a wider campaign. However, we believe video campaigns can be very effective as standalone too. Success really depends on the campaign objectives. Cross-medium campaigns are always going to maximise audience reach and engagement, regardless of media habits, and video is clearly starting to be recognised in its own right within that media mix. At the same time, if we analyse the data, there will be campaigns that work when video is a standalone medium. What is clear is that all broadcast content will eventually be delivered via IP, regardless of screen, and as we get better at understanding consumer behaviour, the industry will get better at deploying video on the schedule.

Editor’s Note: This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk

Established to ensure audience measurement research is valid, reliable and effective, the MRC accreditation process requires companies to undergo rigorous third-party audits to guarantee compliance with industry standards. VINDICO’s accreditation indicates its video advertising platform is compliant with the MRC’s standards for Media Rating Research and the applicable guidelines published by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. MRC members include leading media and technology companies, such as AOL, Microsoft, CBS and FOX, among others.

“VINDICO has taken strides to make online video as trusted and easy to work with as any other measured media,” said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of the Media Rating Council. “Renewal of its MRC accreditation further solidifies VINDICO as a quality leader in the industry.”

VINDICO has deep market penetration, serving almost forty percent of all online video ads in the United States. The company provides video advertising management solutions to over 200 brands through their leading agency groups such as GroupM, Havas, IPG, Publicis and Omnicom. The VINDICO solution reduces complexity for advertisers by providing an efficient and reliable way to serve video ads across multiple networks.

“Video advertising is one of the advertising industry’s fastest growing categories, with eMarketer estimating that online video ad spending in the U.S. will reach more than $7 billion in 2015,” said Matt Timothy, president of VINDICO. “Renewal of MRC accreditation reinforces our commitment of giving advertisers the confidence they need to make larger investments in online video and demonstrates our data remains up to the MRC’s rigorous standards.”

About MRC
The MRC is a non-profit Industry association established in 1964 composed of leading television, radio, print and internet companies, as well as advertisers, advertising agencies and trade associations whose goal is to ensure measurement services that are valid, reliable and effective. Measurement services desiring MRC accreditation are required to disclose to their customers all methodological aspects of their service; comply with the MRC Minimum Standards for Media Rating Research; and submit to MRC-designed audits to authenticate and illuminate their procedures. In addition, the MRC membership actively pursues research issues they consider priorities in an effort to improve the quality of research in the marketplace. Currently approximately 70 research products are audited by the MRC. Additional information about MRC can be found at www.mediaratingcouncil.org.

VINDICO’s European expansion comes as IAB Europe’s AdEx reports that digital display, which is inclusive of online video, has recently overtaken search as the fastest growing online ad format in all of Europe, with an average growth rate of 21.3 percent. In the UK specifically, eMarketer predicts video will see the most growth in online advertising, with ad spend forecasted to reach $850 million by 2015, compared with $150 million in 2011. In Spain, the online video market will reach 33 million euros in 2012, accounting for 3.7 percent of total online display ad spending, according to the IAB Europe.

“Demand for online video advertising is surging in many European markets, and we expect this explosive growth to continue in 2012,” says Matt Timothy, president of VINDICO. “The growth that VINDICO is experiencing in both the US and abroad is representative of marketers’ increasing investment in digital video. With operations in the UK, France and Spain, VINDICO is well positioned to meet the needs of advertisers to reach European consumers through the powerful medium of online video.”

VINDICO has deep market penetration, serving almost forty percent of all online video ads in the United States. The company provides video advertising management solutions to over 200 brands through their leading agency groups such as GroupM, Havas, IPG, Publicis and Omnicom.

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Spanish trade publications recently profiled VINDICO Europe General Manager Sonia Fernandez, focusing on the online video advertising market in Spain as well as Europe, and what VINDICO can bring to the growing markets.

“The aim for VINDICO is to make the whole process simple and effective for clients and provide an insight into fluid and focused action, with minimal investment of time,” said Fernandez.

Read the profile by MediosyMarketing here!

Make sure to follow @VINDICO_ES for the latest online video advertising news from Spain.

Premium Content

YouTube has kicked this trend off early and I expect to see more publishers tying in premium content to their overall video offering. There is a reason the broadcasters have so many streams – they have great content that people want to watch. The business models are still likely to be challenging, which is probably why YouTube is the first publisher outside of the broadcasters to spend significant sums. In the coming year, we can expect to see (and hear) a lot more from a variety of publishers about the premium content we could be watching online.

Technology and Formats

Now, given who I work for, this one may seem a little self-serving (pun intended), but I do think it’s set to feature heavily – 2012 is the year when we will see clients prepared to experiment with formats. There are already a number of format options available from publishers; Channel4 sell format options, as do YouTube and on the agency side Vivaki has been working with clients on their Pool project – a research project bringing together platforms, agencies and clients that is looking to analyse how we consume online video. The time has come to start exploring the creative options (and results) available with video. The re-purposed pre-roll is so last year.

Consolidation

There are a lot of players in the video space. Everybody wants a piece of the pie, but frankly there isn’t enough money for everybody. We are going to see consolidation in 2012, some through attrition, but mainly through acquisition. Panache to WPP this month is a good starting point.

Measurement

Always my favourite bone of contention. Measurement across TV and Video is still not good enough, but there is growing consensus to change it. BARB has asked for industry heads to collaborate and the IAB and UKOM are increasingly looking at options, so there is certainly movement across the industry. I think measurement will be a significant and growing point of discussion and change next year. Its time has come (please!).

Connected TV

Current figures suggest that approximately 10% of UK households have a connected TV (although, not all of them are set-up). I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the UK might reach 20% within the next 12 months. I can see three drivers for this aggressive prediction.

1 – The Olympics. TV sales are clustered around big events. The 2012 Olympics is the biggest event the UK has ever hosted, almost guaranteeing an uptake in TV sales.

2 – Apple. It’s a not a rumour anymore, they are building a TV screen of some description and inevitably it will shake up the existing market, that’s what Apple do. It will also be desirable. So whether they need a new TV or not, people will buy it.

3 – Price. New TVs are not the expensive outlay they used to be. The cost of production is always coming down and the manufacturers are desperate to get share of the living room before Apple turn up. The global downturn has also led to a glut of stock that needs to be shifted. This little cocktail will, I suspect lead to a lot of new web-enabled TV screens in lounges up and down the country…now all we need to do is plug them in.

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared in The Wall.
This post also appeared in MediaTel.