This post was going to be called “The blurring lines between old school TV and online video” but actually i don’t think that just because there are some similarities in appearance that online video is becoming normal tv or behaving like it. It’s just that some things that are familiar and that work really well are being adopted. Like overlay ads.
Overlay ads are almost invisible on traditional tv, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work. it’s subliminal, they drive the message in over many viewings. And they can get away with being seen over and over exactly because they’re almost not even seen.
This is old, this is simple, this is going to be very successful. Not to mention incredibly appealing to tv companies that already get it and therefore can continue to do what they do really well already. If you can enable another company to do more of their current core business, then it’s an easy sell. There is no learning curve, no new technology, no new production costs. They do what they do well already and reap the rewards.
Yes there is still a middleman, in this case the video site (or channel?) and/or the ad networks. But the role of that middleman is different. Automation of the implementation of this kind of service makes it a streamlined process for the advertiser who is much more in control of their advertising and can then respond quicker and react in an agile fashion. Automation also means lower costs, on both sides.
There is an example if you click to continue reading below from VideoEgg of how overlay ads might work. Or in fact, do work, although I’m yet to spot one in the wild.
I’ve also seen examples of being able to actually just “steal” a video from YouTube and put a wrapper on it that directs links to your chosen URLs instead of YouTube pages. This is going to happen, probably a lot. It’s up to the video provider sites to create some clever tracking that doesn’t allow this, or better, allows it under an agreement.
Video advertising is an interesting subject to follow, post some examples in the comments. What do you think is acceptable? How much intrusion on the content would you tolerate?
note: Collegehumor have been doing framed video ads that do a lightbox style effect framing the video and blacking out the page itself. The ads then wrap around the video, very effectively. I had a screenshot of this, but I can’t find it. I’ll update if I find it.
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