Online Video

Online Video

As more and more users are capable of viewing online video, its use as a marketing tool becomes more and more viable. Two issues then begin to surface: how does a marketer effectively communicate a message in this new environment and how is that message distributed in content that has both reach and relevance? In the Friday’s (4/7) MediaPost Publication’s “Just an Online Minute”, author Tobi Elkin discusses the “reach and relevance” issue. She profiles an online broadcast company called The Fifth Network.

In My Opinion
Traditionally, advertising on broadcast television provided an advertiser’s message with reach almost inherently. Television is, after all, a reach medium. But the relevance was not always there. Television programs appealed to a broad audience and advertisers understood that there was always going to be waste in an untargeted medium. Still, the benefits of building their message with the core strengths of television – sight, sound, motion and emotion – outweighed the lack of targetability.

Now, online video can take those core strengths of video and direct them to a very targeted audience. But how can you be sure that the message is getting out to a large enough audience? That is where companies like The Fifth Network and others come in. By aggregating and segmenting the video available on the web, they can deliver a number of very targeted sites in a package that offers the necessary reach without losing any of the relevance.

What This Means to Advertisers
Aggregation of this type makes the interactive space a little less intimidating for those just dipping their toes in. It could be a daunting (perhaps never-ending) task for an advertiser or its agency to seek out enough of the most relevant sites to reach a large enough audience. It might just be easier the do things “the way they’ve always been done”.

Content aggregation is nothing new on the web. But by providing the reach advertisers are accustomed to off-line and adding the targeting and accountability they expect from online, clearly one hurdle has been lowered in the race to online video.

It is the agency’s responsibility to walk the client through this transition. If the client is shifting money to a new medium, they’ll want to be assured they are not shifting effectiveness. By understanding the off-line metrics the client has relied on for so long, the agency can translate the traditional metrics to the evaluation of the online campaign.

More on the ad message and content later!