by Lauren Mazzaferro

Image via NielsenWire

Online video is growing at a rapid pace and provides a vehicle to engage consumers that cannot be ignored.  In 2010 online video skyrocketed into mainstream with 147.5 million internet users watching at least once per month.  This number continues to grow in 2011 with a projected 70% of all internet users viewing video at least once per month.  Major brands are jumping into the video advertising space, and making an impact.  We have all been witness to the phenomenon of Old Spice and the Evian dancing baby, both of which show the power of viral brand messaging.  As the video landscape continues to grow, the options for advertising do as well.  It is the responsibility of a Media Planner to be abreast of all opportunities and what makes sense for your client.   Below are important considerations when approaching a video campaign:

Evolving Space

The video space is constantly evolving and can be segmented into three categories: Paid, Earned & Owned media.

Paid video media is likely what first comes to mind, and what we are most familiar with as planners.  This media is a partnership with video vendors such as Hulu, ABC or video networks like Tremor or Brightroll.  Here, you pay for exposure and views of your video assets, and cost structures vary including CPM, Cost per view and CPC.    Common video units include pre-roll, mid-roll, in banner, and a clickable overlay.

Earned video consists of video views gained as users share assets from paid and owned origins. These essentially are organic impressions and commonly occur on video portals such as YouTube & Metacafe or within sharing environments like Facebook.

A brand’s managed outlets where video is promoted falls into the owned media category.  Similar to earned media, there are no costs associated with placements for these video views.  Sample owned properties include a brand’s Facebook Page, YouTube Channel & Website.

Making the most of video assets

Many clients produce video with the goal of generating views and awareness of the messaging.  If this is the objective, a holistic strategy including paid, earned & owned components should be followed.  A paid seeding strategy is essential in increasing exposure of the video. This paid media can attribute more than a 350% growth to a previously non-paid video program.  Earned media should be equally valued, as this provides maximum impact for the video at a lower effective cost.  These organic views are non-invasive and respect consumer desire for choice.  Additionally, earned videos have a high influence as users are more apt to receive messaging if shared from a person they know.  Many seeding campaigns can be optimized to the earned media view which provides more legs to a campaign and lowers the effective cost per view metric.  Lastly, it is important for brands to leverage owned media.  Promotion within media outlets encourages user interaction and engagement.

When producing video, here are some best practices that should be kept in mind:

• Videos are most effective when they deliver usefulness, humor excitement or controversy.  In order for a video to be watched by many, and shared to friends, it should provide value to the user.
• Rotating in several versions of creative to allow for optimizations is helpful.  Additional videos drive incremental earned views due to the halo effect when users seek out other relevant videos.
• Ideal video length is 30-90 seconds – maximum length being 2 minutes.

Lastly, when evaluating campaign success, it is important to understand key video metrics.  The objective of these campaigns should be to encourage branding metrics such as awareness and engagement, more so than drive to store or as a direct response tactic.

My Thoughts:

The most exciting aspect of video to me is that as it continues to grow, units must advance as well.   Innovative units provide users more control and can help achieve different goals and objectives.

As previously discussed, video has been primarily used for branding purposes and units have been rather limited.  Now, more inventive options such as the Ad Selector are taking off.  The Ad Selector template allows the user to choose an ad from 3 options, increasing engagement and effectiveness.  Vivaki’s The Pool takes a detailed look into the benefits of this type of unit.

Another trend we’re seeing is that vendors are identifying opportunity for units to include more functionality to an engaged user.   Partners such as Video Egg & Jivox allow for expandable ad units with customizable components including share video, tweet video, Like on Facebook, data capture etc.  These rich video ad units increase the legs of your video campaign, and allow for multiple objectives to be achieved.

Video has been a growing topic across the teams I have worked on, and I’m eager to see how it becomes more of a staple in our client’s campaigns.  The question is: how will it continue to evolve?

Source: (eMarketer, April 2010)

About the blogger:

Lauren Mazzaferro is a Media Planner at Razorfish.  She has worked across several retail accounts at the agency, most recently including Gilt Groupe.  Lauren has experience planning and executing direct response, branding, video, acquisition and social campaigns.  She has a passion for digital media, and is excited by new trends and staying educated in this constantly evolving space.  Twitter @LMazza

Tags: best practices, earned media, online video, video
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by John Koenigsberg

The mind of the digital planner can become easily absorbed with the ever-changing digital landscape, and last weeks’ flurry of headlines about NFL content coming to Verizon-backed tablets as well as news of a 10 inch Motorola ‘Stingray’ Tablet have certainly helped keep a healthy portion of our focus squarely on tablets for now.
A glance at some of our recent posts here at MediaMosaic underscores this preoccupation—I, for one, have written about iPad at length on this blog—and it’s no surprise when the industry’s daily headlines are consistently dominated by the topic. And maybe it’s reassuring to think about the evolution of our industry as a clustering of “pillar” issues, i.e. what new devices do I need to have my eye on? Am I tapping into the best data? How should I approach privacy concerns? Am I leveraging social media effectively? How do I make sense of the highly undifferentiated network space and emergence of Demand-Side Platforms? And of course there’s a multitude of other important, widely-discussed issues we could add to this list.

But what if this focus on the “pillars” of digital progress places too much emphasis on the parts of our world that are already digital? I was fascinated by a recent New York Times article that commented on the still-sluggish sales of in-flight WiFi but highlighted the large investments that are being made by airlines like JetBlue and in-flight WiFi giant Aircell to offer significantly faster, and more dynamic in-flight digital offerings. There’s also the investment being made by Transit Wireless to take New York City subway platforms online before 2011. Surely we need to start to think about how we want to engage consumers in these emerging, highly differentiated digital environments; we are in a position to influence consumer experiences in places and in ways we’ve never considered before.

And yet, in the same moment that we grapple with increasing diversity and fragmentation in the nature of digital experiences, there is an overwhelming sense of convergence (See: Google TV), a feeling that the digital blind spots in our world are being smoothed over. The future is upon us where you can start a Netflix movie on your iPhone, pick it back up cruising at 35,000 feet on your laptop, and finish it off back home in your living room. The content is constant while the environment is variable. As we push forward, we need to be mindful that the answer to the question “where is my media running?” has more answers and requires broader context than ever before.

John Koenigsberg

John Koenigsberg is currently a Media Planner at Razorfish. Since 2008 he has worked to perfect the art of putting “heads in beds” for Starwood Hotels. At present, he oversees media planning initiatives for the Fortune 500 hotelier’s Westin, W Hotels, Le Meridien, and Luxury Collection brands. He brings with him his passion for social media, video game advertising & game mechanics. John was born and raised in Greenwich Village, NYC and has a BSBA from Boston University School of Management. Twitter: @jmko

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by Marion Somerstein, Razorfish Media

For me, the journey into the digital space after years of traditional and direct marketing is like walking into the future knowing that the past will be forever present.  The energy and pace of Razorfish and the digital marketplace makes the traditional marketplace look awfully slow.  We measured media.  We optimized media.  But is has never been possible to do it in absolute real time the way it’s done in the digital world.  Once you obtain this depth of knowledge, it’s hard to turn back.  The past must catch up with the future to survive. I think it will.

Is media planning very different in the digital world?  Not really.  All media planners live by basic tenets:   Address the marketing objectives.  Look at the competition. Define the target.  Develop appropriate media objectives, strategies and tactics. In each plan that goes to the client, whether digital or traditional, these questions must be addressed and answered.  It’s the real time optimization and the opportunity for innovative creative that makes digital so cutting edge and exciting.  Clients need educating and they will follow suit.  Digital planners need to speak both languages of media (digital and traditional) in order to train them.  Give them a winning experience and money will follow.

Then there’s the iPad.  Revolutionary?  Absolutely.  Embraced by magazine publishers?  It seems so. Exciting and accepted by the masses, still in question because it will be about paid content vs. free.  Publishers must search for a viable digital newsstand model to lure young readers accustomed to reading on screens for free rather than paper editions. And older readers who love to hold their magazines in hand need a great reason to switch.  And then there are the ones that like to do both.  How should they be treated?

Depending on how publishers approach the iPad (magazines and newspapers) will determine if ‘tablet media’ is ready for the digital mainstream; as it must go mainstream to be profitable and obtain the reach that advertisers so need without canibalizing its printed sister.  Some magazines are charging a premium of their digital editions which may sway people away from it or the printed edition.  I’m hard-pressed to pay $4.99 for a weekly issue of Time online; however I might be swayed to buy a year’s subscription at a significantly reduced rate vs. the print edition. If you can buy a print subscription at a significantly reduced rate vs. a single copy why not the same model for the online editions.  I also don’t want to pay twice.  If I’m a print subscriber, I want free access to the online edition.  If the online editions have additional and/or different content, then I may be willing to pay a small premium.  Apps on the iPhone work because they are mostly $.99 one time or free. Time (not the magazine) and continuous testing will tell.  I hope a smart resolution comes soon, don’t you?

Marion Somerstein

About Marion Somerstein:

Marion started her career at Ogilvy & Mather (Direct Marketing) as an Assistant Media Planner  and over her 15 years there, she worked her way up to SVP, Group Media Director.  During her tenure, she broke new ground for DR ads by developing upfront and/or franchised magazine positions, and also created the first-ever national inserts in USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.

Marion left O&M for McCann Erickson where she spent 10 years at McCann Relationship Marketing helping to revitalize the MRM Brand and grow media billings on existing business and participating in all new business pitches.  She developed a sizable portfolio of media relationships benefiting clients through cost savings, as well as value added positioning and packages.

A 30-year media veteran, she has also spent time client-side, as well as at a Hispanic agency .

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The Digital Outlook Report is now the Razorfish Outlook Report.

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