Archive for the ‘Research and industry data’ Category

Can dynamic video ads solve pharma’s side effects problem?

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
A variety of pills

Pharma online advertising slow to grow*

Online ad spending by pharmaceutical companies has been slow to take off. While eMarketer predicts that 2010 healthcare and pharma online ad spending will increase 10.6 percent over 2009 levels, it also acknowledges the hurdles these companies face.

One such obstacle is the ambiguous guidelines issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). eMarketer’s optimism, however, is related to the agency’s statement that it expects to release “one-click” rules by the end of this year. One-click refers to making disclosure about a drug’s side effects just one click away and within easy reach of consumers.

WSJ Health blog reports that healthcare marketing agency Digital Health analyzed recent FDA responses to a Novartis social media campaign. According to the agency, one click will no longer be an option. Drug companies will be required to offer information about risks “at the same time and in the same manner as the benefit information.”

Amid these developments, dynamic video advertising may have an elegant and simple solution that will satisfy both pharma marketers and the FDA.

In an earlier blog post, we described how easy it is to integrate printable coupons directly into dynamic video ads.

Coupons are just one example of the information that advertisers can make available to viewers using a print overlay action. Here’s how it might work in a pharmaceutical video ad.

After re-purposing a 30-second TV spot to run as an online in-banner video ad, a pharmaceutical company:

  • Creates a high-quality branded image file that lists the drug’s risks and side effects.

  • Adds an interactive overlay to the video ad, which invites viewers, using language such as “Click for possible side effects,” to examine the risks and side effects file.
  • Associates the overlay with a print action.

The result? Viewers who click the overlay in the live video ad are immediately offered the opportunity to print the side effects file. There is no external website to visit, and no reason to leave the video ad they’re watching.

This elegant solution has the potential to satisfy even the FDA’s “same time in the same manner” requirements.

New to dynamic video advertising? Learn more.

*Note: Image originally appeared on the supersimbo blog.

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Five dynamic video tips for seasonal digital success

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
Trees in all 4 seasons

From Aunt Owwee's Photostream on Flickr

Seasons present opportunities. They present all of us with opportunities to celebrate. And, because we celebrate, they present marketers with opportunities to connect with customers.

A recent ClickZ article by Robin Neifield, CEO and cofounder of NetPlus Marketing, a top 50 interactive agency, lists a number of tips advertisers can use to “maximize the opportunity [seasonal advertising] presents.”

In this post, we’ll use five of Neifield’s tips to demonstrate how advertisers can take advantage of dynamic video advertising to gain a year-round seasonal campaign edge.

Grow your customer base

As Neifield points out, many seasonal holidays put consumers into a buying or gift-giving mindset. While this increased receptivity may make them more likely to play your video ads, you need to take full advantage of their presence once you get them watching.

An excellent way to convert seasonally-motivated first-timers into loyal customers is to give them something of value, something they can use. One of the best ways to do that is to integrate a printable coupon or giveaway into a video ad. For example:

  • A delicatessen before Labor Day: Capitalize on picnic season by including an exclusive printable buy-1-sandwich-get-1-free coupon available only to video ad viewers.
  • Kitchen goods store before Thanksgiving: Include, in a video ad featuring a cookware sale, a printable cranberry sauce or stuffing recipe from a well-known chef.

Grow your customer email list

As you attract the seasonally-motivated to your video ads, give them an incentive to join your email list. For example:

  • National auto manufacturer with a spring sale on several new models: Drive new customers to local dealers by including a geotargeted Sign Up For A Test Drive! overlay in a nationally-branded video ad. The sign-up email messages are sent automatically to each viewer’s local dealer.
  • City-wide pizza chain: Generate orders and grow customer lists by including Order Now for $5 Off! lead capture overlays in a video ad. By geotargeting the ad by zip code, automatically direct orders (and leads) to the franchise closest to the viewer.

Learn more about your customers

Take the opportunity to learn from as well as sell to seasonally-motivated viewers by including real-time surveys in your dynamic video ads. Giving customers a chance to weigh in builds relationships and brand loyalty and helps advertisers improve their offerings.

In dynamic video ads, advertisers can incorporate surveys into their video content. Survey results are available in real time. Questions can be updated on-the-fly, and updates go live immediately. For example:

  • A politician during primary season: Learn which issues your supporters care the most about.
  • A coffee chain at the beginning of summer: Discover how to expand your seasonal beverage lineup (iced tea? blending fruit drinks?) by polling potential customers for their preferences.

Adjust your creative and messaging

Seasonal marketing succeeds or fails on the ability to switch creative and messaging on a dime. Quick shifts, Neifield says, from non-performing to high-performing elements can mean the difference between “acceptable and exceptional performance.”

With dynamic video ads, advertisers can change creative and messaging in real time.

  • Want to change a holiday weekend offer the second the Labor Day weekend ends? Edit the text on an overlay.
  • Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is on the way. Replace the stuffing recipe overlay with the frosted cookies one.
  • Not getting the survey response you expected? Change the call to action.

These, and most other, modifications go live immediately without re-trafficking any ad tags.

Accelerate your optimization schedule

Neifield advises advertisers to accelerate their optimization schedules—if they can afford it. With dynamic video ads, cost simply isn’t an issue.

In a dynamic video ad platform, it’s easy to copy video ads, modify the versions, and rotate them randomly through the same Player.

This gives advertisers a couple of convenient, cost-free optimization options:

  • Manually optimize: Remember the kitchen goods store? The store might rotate three ad versions with three different printable recipes through the same Player. As viewers gravitate toward the most popular recipe, the store stops running the other versions.
  • Auto optimize: Remember the auto manufacturer with the geotargeted video ad? The manufacturer might create 2 versions of the video ad, each with a different start frame (start frame is the creative viewers see before they play a video ad). With auto optimization enabled, the video ad with the worst views-to-impressions rate is automatically dropped after a specified number of impressions.

The flexibility and interactivity that dynamic video ads offer make them the perfect vehicle for advertisers who want to realize seasonal digital success all year long.

More Information

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

For Mixpo customers: Learn more about using the features described here by signing in and visiting the Client Resources home page.

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Online video ad barriers disappear

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Online ads can move poll numbers. Barriers to online video advertising are disintegrating. Now is the time for politicians and advocacy organizations to shift 10% of their TV ad spend online.

These were the major points presented by Political Online Video Advertising panelists Anupam Gupta, Michael Bassik, Michael Beach, Josh Koster, and Alex Skatell at the recent Personal Democracy Forum conference in New York.

Disintegrating barriers

Many political advertisers blame structural barriers for their hesitation to invest in online. They point to:

  • A lack of inventory for in-stream video ads.
  • The expense and labor involved in creating and/or editing video for online audiences.
  • Incentive and pricing structures that favor TV.

These barriers are more perceived than real.

  • While in-stream video ad inventory is low, inventory for in-banner video ads is virtually unlimited. By running video ads in standard display ad banners, advertisers have access to millions of online impressions.
  • Running in-banner video allows advertisers to target viewers, either by selecting the sites the ads run on or by taking advantage of the geographic and demographic targeting tools available through ad networks.
  • Studies increasingly show that online viewers are willing to spend time watching engaging video content. This means that 30-second TV spots can be easily and economically re-purposed for use online.
  • TV + online creates a synergy that is more than the sum of the two parts. Yahoo!’s analysis of Nielsen IAG data showed that a 10 percent to 15 percent shift from TV to online increased reach and significantly lowered cost per point (CPP). In addition, the frequency of online ads improved TV brand recall by as much as 50 percent.
    Source: Nielsen IAG

    Source: Nielsen IAG

Online advertising can move poll numbers

A recent study conducted by Russell Research on behalf of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association confirmed that online ads can move numbers. The study measured the ability of an online display and video ad campaign to raise awareness.

Comparisons of baseline polls and post-campaign surveys showed significant increases in awareness (from 42 to 56 percent for some audience segments) as well as strong ad recall.

The time is now

Only 5 months until the 2010 elections. Extend your TV ad campaigns online now.

Learn more about dynamic video advertising for politics.

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People ARE choosing to watch

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

You’ve no doubt encountered the commonly-held perception that 30-second TV spots are too long to run on the web.

New Mixpo data, however, contradicts that perception. People ARE choosing to watch political and advocacy TV spots online.

An analysis of performance data based on 90 million video ad impressions across 17 2010 political campaigns reveals that viewers averaged more than 24 seconds of view time.

In addition, the view rate for the ads (2.41 percent) was slightly higher than the industry standard DoubleClick benchmark rate for rich media ads with video (2.29 percent). And, active viewers (those who actively chose to play a video ad) were 24 times more likely to click in a video ad compared to the standard click rate for static banner ads.

Another recent study overturns a related assumption: that the shortest ads will have the highest completion rates.

Based on a sample of 100 video ad campaigns that spanned 19.7 million views, video ad and analytics firm TubeMogul found that the completion rate was highest for mid-length (30 seconds to 1:30) stand-alone video ads.

On average, 32 percent of viewers watched mid-length ads all the way through. Only 17 percent completed ads shorter than 30 seconds.

Findings like these, in combination with new purchasing options for online in-banner video placements, make this an ideal time for politicians and advocacy organizations (as well as other advertisers) to extend their TV campaigns online.

Advertisers can:

  • Reuse 30-second TV spots online without editing them down to 15 seconds.
  • Achieve multiple goals (for example, raise donations, build lists, recruit volunteers, and gain Facebook fans and Twitter followers) with a single, re-purposed ad.
  • Build an even stronger brand and messaging impression by redirecting engaged viewers to more in-depth or locally relevant video content.
  • Deliver millions of impressions by running video ads across the Internet in existing display spaces.
  • Target specific audiences by publication and through ad serving networks that deliver ads based on demographic, geographic, and other characteristics.

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What’s Dwell and why do you care?

Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Source: Eyeblaster Research. Data: Q1 2009 to Q4 2009. Worldwide.

Source: Eyeblaster Research. Data: Q1 2009 to Q4 2009. Worldwide.

In a previous post, we talked about approaches to measuring display ad effectiveness that go beyond clickthrough.

In this post, we’ll look at one of those approaches, the concept of Dwell, in a little more detail as it’s described in an Eyeblaster Benchmark Insights paper. And we’ll touch on how you can measure Dwell performance for your own Xspot campaigns.

What exactly is Dwell?

Dwell as a performance metric was developed, in response to research by Eyeblaster, Microsoft Advertising, and comScore, to capture the branding effect of display ad campaigns.

You calculate Dwell in two different ways:

  • Dwell Rate measures how successfully an ad captures viewers’ attention. Dwell Rate equals the number of viewers who physically touch an ad divided by the number of ad impressions served.
  • Dwell Time measures how long viewers were exposed to an ad. Average Dwell Time equals the total amount of time all viewers spent engaging with an ad divided by the total number of viewers.

What does Dwell affect?

Based on comparisons of high and low Dwell campaigns, researchers found that viewers exposed to high Dwell campaigns are significantly more likely to:

  • Search for brand-related keywords.
  • Visit advertiser websites and, during those visits, spend more time and view more pages.
  • Convert.

What produces better Dwell?

Given Dwell’s affect on branding and conversion, advertisers may want to take concrete steps to improve Dwell performance for their campaigns. The research data provides advertisers with some specific actions to take:

  • The Dwell research found a direct correlation between the length of time an ad is presented and Dwell Rate. This means advertisers are likely to see higher Dwell Rates with ads placed on pages, such as news sites, where viewers spend more time.
  • Video ads perform better than ads without video. On average, adding video to ads increases Dwell Rate by 29 percent and also nearly doubles Dwell Time.
  • Polite and expandable banners typically have relatively high Dwell Time but relatively low Dwell Rate (as compared to commercial break and floating ad formats). To increase banner ad Dwell Rate, make the starting images that initially load as engaging as possible.

How can I measure Dwell for an Xspot campaign?

Dwell Rate In the Mixpo platform, Active View Rate is equivalent to Dwell Rate. Active view rate is calculated by dividing the number of times viewers play or replay an ad by the number of impressions served.

Performance statistics in the Mixpo Dashboard

Performance statistics in the Mixpo Dashboard

Average Dwell Time In the Mixpo platform, you have three ways to measure time spent with an Xspot:

  • Avg. Viewed = percentage of an Xspot viewers are watching averaged across all viewers.
  • Percent Completed = percentage of viewers who watched the entire Xspot.
  • Exposure = the total number of minutes all viewers of an Xspot spent watching it.

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Three ways to increase video ad views

Monday, May 3rd, 2010
Graphical display of views/impressions ratio

Graphical display of views/impressions ratio

The data is in.

Video ad views result in a lift in branded search queries and visits to and time spent on advertisers’ websites.

That’s the conclusion of recent research studies by comScore, Microsoft, and others.

So it’s in any advertiser’s self interest to make sure that the online video ads they run attract as many views as possible.

Based on data that tracks hundreds of campaigns across numerous industry segments, here are 3 tips for increasing any video ad’s active view rate:

Use a compelling starting image

The starting image is the image that viewers see before they play a video ad. The more compelling that image, the more viewers the video ad attracts.

  • Video ads in the tourism and politics/advocacy segments with compelling starting images have attracted active view rates as high as 4.3 percent (compare to an industry benchmark view rate of 1.43 percent for tourism and 1.77 percent for politics/advocacy).

Beckon viewers with words

Include words on the starting image that make viewers an offer they can’t refuse. Or, ask viewers a question they can’t resist answering.

  • Video ads in the financial segment with compelling starting image text have attracted active view rates as high as 7.3 percent (compare to an industry benchmark view rate of 2.98 percent).
  • Video ads in the auto segment with compelling starting image text have attracted view rates of 3.38 percent (compare to an industry benchmark view rate of 2.54 percent).

Auto-optimize

The way to squeeze the best active view rate out of a video ad campaign is auto-optimization.

Auto-optimization means rotating different video ad versions through the same Player. After a specified number of impressions, the platform automatically runs the version with the best active view rate.

This gives advertisers the opportunity to effortlessly test different creative within the context of running a campaign. For example, an advertiser might compare the performance of:

  • Three versions with different starting images.
  • A version where the starting image includes an offer and a version where the starting image poses a question.

Auto-optimization not only helps advertisers improve video ad performance. It also gives them valuable information to carry forward into the design of subsequent campaigns.

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When is a video ad campaign effective?

Monday, April 26th, 2010
Chart showing viewer engagement over the length of a video ad

Chart showing viewer engagement over the length of a video ad

As studies increasingly show (for example, see comScore’s Whither the Click in Europe?, this .Foxnet-comScore study, this VideoEgg-comScore study, and these reported results of a Nielsen IAG-Microsoft study), engaging video ads, even in the face of minimal clicks, effectively drive visits to advertisers’ websites and increase the number of trademark searches.

Given this data, click-through rate is not a terribly meaningful measure of an online video ad campaign’s success. But if not click-through, then what?

Here are some ways researchers are answering this question.

Dwell time

Using data sets from comScore and Eyeblaster, Microsoft found a “clear connection between the amount of time that a user spends actively engaging with an online ad and a consumer’s subsequent online behaviour with that brand.” Higher dwell scores mean more branded search queries and more visits to and engagement with the brand website.

Engagement mapping and view-through conversions

For several years, online marketers have been struggling with the disconnect between the knowledge that consumers visit multiple sites before conversion and metrics that focus on the last-seen or last-clicked ad.

For example, a study conducted by Microsoft’s Atlas Institute of advertising campaigns run by 250 advertisers across thousands of sites showed that most consumers make contact with advertisers months before they actually convert. Using a 90-day history window, consumers experienced a median of 18.5 ad events.

In response, Atlas introduced Engagement Mapping technology that allows advertisers to fold all types of events, including passive events such as views and impressions, into their ROI calculations.

Google recently announced view-through conversion reporting on the Google Content Network, which allows advertisers to tie conversions to display ad views within a 30-day window even when no clicks occur.

Engagement rate and conversion activity

In a June, 2009 benchmarks review, DoubleClick suggested that “the objective of rich media ads isn’t always to drive clicks.” Therefore, engagement metrics, such as interaction rates and times and video completion are important success measures.

In addition, DoubleClick argued, conversion activity can happen within an ad unit itself. For example, while watching a video ad, viewers might open and submit a lead capture form, take a poll, locate the nearest retail outlet, or play another video.

A wealth of data

In the Mixpo platform, you have access to a wealth of real-time data related to the performance of video ad campaigns. For example, you can:

  • See how much of your video ad viewers watch on average and what percentage of viewers watch the entire ad.
  • Track clicks, views, and interactions individually, or see an overall engagement rate that divides the total of all of these measures by the number of impressions to calculate an engagement percentage.
  • Track conversions, either by counting actions viewers take within a video ad or subsequent visits they make to the advertiser’s website.

How do you see it?

Let us know what you think. What results should advertisers expect from video ad campaigns? What metrics should they use to judge campaign effectiveness?

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Yahoo credits display ad revenue

Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Yahoo CEO - Carol Bartz

Yahoo CEO - Carol Bartz (from MediaPost News)

As reported in MediaPost News, first-quarter 2010 earnings for Yahoo more than doubled last year’s earnings for the same time period.

Describing the quarter as “solid,” CEO Carol Bartz credited a 20 percent increase in display ad revenue for at least part of the rise. “Advertisers’ purse strings are starting to loosen up,” she said.

As those strings loosen and as data continues to demonstrate video ad campaign effectiveness, advertisers are shifting their online advertising dollars away from search and toward display advertising.

Read more: Google on the future of display ads.

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Video ad exposure drives brand engagement

Monday, April 19th, 2010

A recent .Fox Networks and comScore study shows that exposure to video and display ads, even without clicks, increases consumer:

  • Visits to advertiser websites.
  • Searches for advertiser trademarks.

Compared to consumers exposed to display ads, consumers exposed to video ads were 28 percent more likely to visit brand sites and twice as likely to conduct trademark searches.

This study, which examined 4 2009 campaigns that delivered 300 million impressions to UK Internet users:

  • Proves the value of the video advertising format.
  • Demonstrates how important it is to measure campaign effectiveness using behavioral metrics that go beyond clicks.

Download a PDF about the Value of the Mixpo Xspot.

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Google on the future of display ads

Monday, April 19th, 2010

In mid-March, Google began a series of posts on The Official Google Blog about the future of display advertising.

In the first post, Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management, introduces the series by describing Google’s belief “that display advertising, as a category, can grow dramatically,” a belief that has spurred a number of Google acquisitions, including YouTube, DoubleClick, and Teracent, as well as the development of new and enhanced advertising technologies.

Wojcicki attributes the renaissance in display advertising to the evolution of display ads “from a series of simple, static images to the incredible creative units that we see today,” units that include complex animations, stunning videos, interactive and social elements, and more.

Google’s display ad investment is supported by 4th quarter 2009 online advertising data from comScore that shows display ad spending growing at 4 times the rate of search spending.

comScore’s Gian Fulgoni speculates that perhaps “the search industry has begun to reach maturity, pricing has become an issue for advertisers, or they realize that clicks on ads don’t produce relevant metric….”

Now is the time, as Wojcicki points out, for agencies, advertisers, and publishers to take advantage of technology that makes it easy to run media across the web at scale, create engaging ad formats, measure the impact of ad campaigns, and deliver relevant ads to the right audiences in real-time.

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