NEWS VIEWS AND INSIGHTS ON INTERACTIVE VIDEO ADVERTISING POWERED BY: hawthorne direct
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HVR Farewell: An Interactive Fall Lineup, Back to the Future Footwear HVR Farewell: An Interactive Fall Lineup, Back to the Future Footwear
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Stein Mart Love at First Find Stein Mart Love at First Find
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CBS Fall Preview CBS Fall Preview
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Marty McFly’s Closet Marty McFly’s Closet
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HVR Blast from the Past HVR Blast from the Past
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Back 4 the Future Back 4 the Future
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Dear Sophie Dear Sophie

Are There Enough Ad Dollars To Support All Of This Online Video?

Beth Comstock is President of Integrated Media at NBCU. Awhile back she suggested that the ad dollars for online video inevitably will dry up: "I'm getting to the point where I feel like every answer to every business development pitch is ‘We're going to be advertiser supported.' ... There are not going to be enough advertising dollars in the marketplace. No matter how clever we are, no matter what the format is."

Is she right? I personally tend to agree, though the result will not be any sort of end to online video. It will be the end of a number of websites, I suppose. But such is the nature of free enterprise.

Separate the hype from the opportunity

I agree there is a lot of hype, but there are also real opportunities. Opportunities from disintermediation: middlemen adding no value or value that technology makes unnecessary can be cut out. Perhaps the biggest opportunity lies in targeting and interactivity to increase the value of impressions to both the viewer and the advertiser: this is a real increase in value for the important parties. Instead of paying $1000 to reach 100 people with the same ad which only 5 of the 1000 are interested in, pay 20 x $250 to send 20 ads to each group of 5 out of the 1000 who are interested in that ad.However, it seems the greater the opportunity, the more hucksters, hype artists, middle men, and all-talk-no-action pundits gather like moths to a flame to suck the opportunity dry without adding any real value.



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