Despite a tough year all round for the advertising industry, local online advertising in 2009 continues to grow in the USA to US$14.9bn, according to Borrell. Driven by search, local directories and video advertising local business has been and continues to plan to pull spend from traditional channels such as newspapers, cable, and radio into online.

This dramatic spend shift, has certainly been a major component of the closure of 1 in 2 newspapers in the USA over the last 12 months, as advertisers realise they can deliver results (enquiries, sales and branding) at a fraction of the cost online, vs. the tradtional media channels they have been using.

For local business these kind of statistics should be re-enforcing marketing planning into online media. Viewing the detail shows the key areas of growth are search (effectively Google in New Zealand), directories – increasingly new local offers (see NZS.com and Hotfrog.co.nz here) and vertical directories (good local examples menumania.co.nz for restaurants and equinetrader.co.nz for the horse market).

Online Video is clearly identified as a growth driver through businesses advertising with video online and ensuring their listings in directories and in search engines are re-enforced with video to both stand out and increase conversions.

Unsuprising that search, directories and video are fundamentally changing local advertising behaviour. The old channels did work, they were just expensive and media companies ran obsene proft margins for these, well done to them. They have not adapted fast enough and now small businesses can reach their market more effectively, efficiently and affordably.

If you are small business that is not or is considering changing your marketing mix, drop us a line, we’ll add some distinct value to ensure you get more bang for your hard-earner buck.

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) released the US IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the first half of 2009 on 5th October. U.S. Internet advertising revenues were at $10.9 billion in that six month period.

The important metric is the report that digital video continues to experience robust growth with a 38% increase from the first half of 2008. This is a dramatic rise given the recessionary pressures on traditional media spend to some extent parts of the online advertising sector.

The report reveals an audited video spend of US$477m in the first six months of 2010. With economic conditions easing, the Christmas reatail period ahead, and further embracement of video by advertisers compounded by more online options we can see online video advertising spend hitting $1bn in the USA for 2010.

Here in New Zealand our local IAB is considering breaking out further detail of spend so we can also see which formats are rising faster.  In 2Qr the NZ IAB / PWC reported one of the highest ever spends – $52.49m. The Moving Annual Total is now at an all time high of $199.8m. In New Zealand online advertising spend is ahead of outdoor and cinema and is likely this year to overtake magazine advertising spend.

Locally we are seeing a signifcant rise in online video marketing with numerous adverisers and publishers embracing online video advertising, video content and many our using services such as Silverlinemedia.tv to power small business video and classified video content.

We are often asked at Silverlinemedia.tv, what makes an engaging video. Many of our clients initially want a ‘funny video’ or a ‘viral video’.  There certainly have been some terrific ‘funny online videos’ but the key questions we work through with our customers at the start of a brief include :

1. What is the role / objective of the video.
2. What’s our success measurement / KPI.
3. What longevity do we need.
4. Does our brand / service best suited by a funny creative.
5. What is our customers expectation of our brand message.

Most importantly to the question ‘does the video have to be funny?’.  My personal view is funny videos / viral videos are the exception, terrific when they come off, which is rare, but in most cases are risky ground for brands and business.

More interestingly is to review factual data on what actually makes video engaging.

Encouragingly the recent Emarketer/Nielsen survey re-enforced our thinking that interest and purchase desire is driven by video that is informative and emotionally pulling. For our customers their video can hit these drivers.

Reviewing the table above, you will see that the segment that reacts best to informative video is the under 20 age group. Another blow to those media commentators pedlling the story that the youth of today are dumbing down, though apparently this has been a view through-out the history of man-kind.  Unders 20s react well to all styles of video but over half are engaged by information and educational content.

As we approach our 2000th video at Silverlinemedia.tv results from our customers prove that good informative and passionate website video improves conversions and through online video distribution and marketing is attracting quality customers at a fraction of other marketing channels. We had a client today, Sportaloosa.com, which after one day has received enough response to pay for the video four times over. A really informative video about the Spotted Horse Breed. Fascinating.

Britain’s top free-to-air commercial broadcaster is claiming to makes more money per viewer streaming talent show ‘The X-Factor’ to computers than broadcasting it into homes.

“We are hugely pleased with the numbers for ITV.com on revenue,” ITV’s director of online content Ben McOwen Wilson said at the Edinburgh Television Festival. “We get 8 pence per hour on TV. Online, we are getting more than that.”

An interesting metric for doubters that you cannot fund online broadcasting. Through into the mix this is the beginning of the curve, with the obvious environemental conditions improving from bandwidth to advertiser acceptance, online video / TV on demand is the place to be for media, advertisers (brands) and consumers alike.

Add to the mix the micropayments scenario, surely TV’s ITunes moment, then clearly business models are going to adapt rapid;y to support the terrific levels of targeting and engagement that the online video medium can offer.

From our perspective, this is the interesting piece. We are in for an explosion of online content worldwide, with the amazing targeting and creative options for advertisers. We are already testing top quality TV online brands off-shore using IP targeting New Zealand for medium sized businesses and getting results. Very exciting.  More on that soon.

Read more informed TV online opinion from reuters.

According to a survey by the webtventerprise in the UK Media buyers will be increasing online video advertising budgets by 50% over the next 12 months.  

The survey of 101 media buyers currently booking pre-roll advertising campaigns and found that almost all (97%) were planning on either maintaining or increasing video advertising spend. Over half (54%) were looking at a 50% budget increase in the coming year; while a further 10% said they would be doubling spend.

Despite online video advertising being a relatively new advertising medium, along with brands’ restricted budgets in 2009, Web TV Enterprise’s research revealed that a quarter of buyers are currently spending between £25,000 and £50,000 on a video advertising campaign. 44% of the sample said they spend between £10,000 and £25,000.

Almost 70% of buyers questioned stated a preference towards bespoke, premium ‘solus’ pre-roll adverts; with 82% agreeing that solus spots were more valuable than shared ones.

General survey feedback also suggests confidence in the online video advertising space is high, despite budget cuts and a lack of client understanding being two of the prominent issues facing the industry at present. Many agree that online video advertising will have a strong presence in schedules over the next twelve months.

Jamie Estrin, Director of Web TV Enterprise and IAB Video Council member said: “As one of the largest players in this evolving market, we have seen the appetite for online video advertising grow exponentially since launching our premium online video ad-network in 2007. Our feeling is that we are now at a tipping point in the UK market. We base this on the fact that media agencies are, for the first time, considering online video advertising as part of the media mix on the majority of campaigns where there is a TV ad creative – this was not the case 12 months ago.”

The survey did of course talk to those buyers who are already purchasing online video advertising, nevertheless, a clear indication from the UK, a very strong online advertising market, that online video is moving along to or ahead of the global forecasts posted in our research category.

Pre-roll ads in particular are gaining ground and at Silverlinemedia.tv we have seen solid results from our client tests in this area.

As the New Zealand property market shows signs of movement you should be considering internet video as part of your marketing mix to help create excitement about your listings.

Internet Video is the most popular activity on the internet, ahead of social media (i.e. facebook) according to a recent US study from Pew/Yahoo.

In New Zealand Property Video continues to emerge. Here at Silverlinemedia.tv our property videos were played nearly 15,000 times across a range of websites in August.  Unlike page views which can have low time spent on the actual page, video plays present a highly engaged viewer 75% of whom, have watched the entire property video. These are truly interested buyers, not tyre-kickers.

The video property marketing solution distributes the video across agent websites, real estate portal websites, video sharing websites like YouTube and buzzed through social media websites.

Silverlinemedia.tv has been busy in expanding property video marketing and distribution to drive response for property video and now all video is also available for mobile and plasma/kiosks.

Expanding the distribution of online video to mobile and screen media exposes the video to further marketing channels and offers agents different techniques to get their vendors videos exposed to engaged potential buyers.

The Arbitron Out-of-Home Digital Video Display Study 2009 study reveals that approximately 155 million (67 percent of) U.S. residents aged 18 or older have seen an Out-of-Home (OOH) digital video display in the past month at one or more of the 17 types of public venues examined for the report.  The general audience for OOH digital video displays represents a cross-section of American consumers, and closely mirrors the average U.S. population.

The obvious venues are listed i.e. the mall, the cinema, waiting rooms but interestingly emerging areas include restaurants (14% of Americans have seen and 7% at the health club). Clearly we are going to surrounded by screens, and increasingly intelligent ones targeting demographics of those venues and later who knows! Ridley Scott defintately got it right in Blade Runner.

We are seeing a number of out of home digital media solutions in New Zealand emerging, often for major brands, and often in-store. However there are a number of companies out there doing exciting things at a local level which small medium business will be able to take advantage of. We are testing with some of these companies at the moment, as all our online video content is also made for both outdoor display and mobile.

For an advertiser or business online video is a terrific value proposition, content can be repurposed for so many channels – own website, online advertising, social sites, mobile, OOH Digital. This means that the creative investment can be re-used in so many forms to reach different audiences. This is something print media is simply unable to achieve.

Excited by our new video distribution model hosted, video sites, social sites, mobile, kiosk, local media, video SEO http://bit.ly/wNY0P

Research released  by Dynamic Logic, the leaders in measuring digital advertising effectiveness, reveals that ad campaigns using Rich Media with Video created the strongest brand impact (across most branding goals, including aided brand awareness, online ad awareness, brand favorability, and purchase intent) compared to campaigns using Simple Flash and Rich Media without Video formats. (See chart below.)

Dynamic Logic has run a comprehensive and scientific survey to further support the obvious logic that filling an ‘ad space’ on a screen with dynamic and engaging content works, and offsets the banner blindness argument. Getting your content / message across using video is highly affordable, and I know that locally here in New Zealand the Silverlinemedia.tv video production and marketing cost is often cheaper than basic gif banner costs from certain suppliers.

This evidence is overwhelming video is becoming the most compelling and effective advertising medium online (and offline). Are you in the game?

Entertainment Weekly (owned by CBS) will on September 18th run the first video ad inside a magazine promoting Pepsi Max. The revolutionary technology comes from Americhip.  

The technology for the battery-powered ads can handle about 40 minutes of video. The screen, is 2.7 mm thick with a 320×240 resolution screen which uses thin film transistor liquid crystal display technology.  View the video demo of the video magazine. Interesting insights on future marketing and the senses from Americhip at their YouTube channel. Good video journo piece from AdAge on this story supporting the demise of static advertising.

This is a very exciting innovation from CBS and Pepsi Max in taking the power of video into the high loylaty engaged environment of magazines. Over time this technology will become increasingly affordable. With the rise of ‘Kindle’, power mobiles and other digital signage, online video communication is going into the traditional mainstream. Here at Silverlinemedia.tv we are currently driving our online video markting solutions to mobile, kiosk and other local digital signage and can’t wait to test this kind of targeting and interaction to our customers.

I started my career in magazines and have many launches in my portfolio across Europe and New Zealand. The majority of magazines truly do have a strongly engaged audience, with readers (customers) often paying significant cover prices to obtain the content. The strength of magazines is compounded by strong pass-on rates which crucially increases both readership and shelf-life of the advertising. Generically in recent years circulations for the majoity of titles have been falling. This media integration innovation will be actively reviewed by publishers and advertisers alike, to re-stimulate a terrific medium.