Chip Shots by Chip Griffin

Online Video Advertising Finds an Answer from the 1950’s

OK, so today seems to be advertising day on Pardon the Disruption as this is now the third consecutive item on online ads of one sort or another.  But wait … this one has a funny video embeded, so stick with it.

Fred Wilson pointed to a recent Wallstrip Video as an example of how good video advertising might be done in the future.  (Aside: Wallstrip is a much more fun way to get stock information than by reading boring analyst reports.)   And if you like geeky Wall Street humor, the whole video below is worth watching.  It’s only a few minutes long.

 Essentially, as Fred notes, it conjures up the 1950’s where TV shows integrated sponsorship within the content itself.  In some ways, it is much like sports stadiums today where there are ads on the field, ice, court, boards, scoreboard, outfield walls, and even the arenas themselves are named for sponsors.  Even sports TV integrates sponsors within their broadcasts as you have things like the “Aflac Trivia Question.”

Fred is particularly excited because he doesn’t think “pre-rolls” (ads shown before the ultimate content is displayed will work.  And nobody thinks “post-rolls” will work because there’s no incentive to stick around and watch ads after the fact — if you even make it all the way to the end of the video in the first place.

I agree in general with Fred on this one, especially for professional web video content.  My concern is it doesn’t really answer the question of monetization of consumer generated video, since integrated sponsorship requires additional production cost — not to mention the relationship with the advertiser must be more direct.  He’s probably right that “mid-rolls” will be the real answer in this area once the technology matures.

Similar Posts