Online video ads running against professional content are a premium product, and command higher prices than display as a result. For the online video industry to continue to grow, however, advertisers need to be able to include video in media plans confidently. That confidence has been threatened by the proliferation of publishers and networks peddling “online video” and then delivering a product that looks and performs more like rich media display (autoplay, below the fold, often in-banner pre-rolls).
The IAB has taken an important step to preserve advertiser’s confidence and ensure that online video continues to deliver excellent value for advertisers.
Today we released our December Video Ad Metrics Report based on the more than 3 billion ad impressions we have served from January 2009 through November 2009.
In this month’s report we took a close look at the relative performance of 15 and 30 second pre–roll units, and also broke out pre–roll click–through rates by demographic to help answer that age old question “who’s clicking on ads?”
As you can see below, younger viewers (ages 6-14) and older viewers (ages 35 and up) clicked through pre-roll ads most frequently. You can download the full report here.
YuMe was a sponsor of this week’s iMedia Connection Agency Summit, and a few YuMe team members were able to make it to Arizona for the event (photographic evidence below).
As usual, the folks from iMedia put together a fantastic conference. If you weren’t able to make it, you can check out all of the coverage on the iMedia site, including photos, news coverage, and presenter PowerPoints.
Michael Mathieu and Lindsay O'Neill at the iMedia Connection Agency Summit
Michael Mathieu, Jeannie Abraham, Bethany Mach, and Joseph Porcellini at the iMedia Agency Summit
Today we announced a partnership with Hearst Magazines where we will be providing in-stream video advertising technology and sales for Hearst’s portfolio of web sites, including Cosmopolitan.com, GoodHousekeeping.com, RealBeauty.com and HarpersBazaar.com.
“As the popularity and consumption of streaming video content continues to thrive, the digital team at Hearst is focused on helping its loyal advertisers take advantage of this engaging and dynamic communications medium,” said Chuck Cordray, SVP and general manager of Hearst Magazines Digital Media. “With the help of YuMe’s video ad technology, we’re able to ensure that our visitors are presented with the most relevant advertising messages and that we realize maximum revenue opportunities across all of our online media properties.”
Check out the story that Mark Walsh of MediaPost wrote.
The YuMe team was in Chicago last week at Starcom’s ACT! fundraiser for Feeding America and Christopher House. Everyone had a wonderful time at Martini Park, and one lucky attendee won a YuMe-donated Nintendo Wii just in time for some Thanksgiving Wii Tennis with the family.
Thanks to Starcom for hosting us and supporting such wonderful causes!
This morning we announced that YuMe is working with Ooyala to monetize live video streams for publishers using that company’s online video platform.
At YuMe we have always been excited about the potential of live streaming video—that’s why we started offering publishers the ability to insert ads into live streams back in 2007. TV advertisers love live events like the Super Bowl where they can reach highly engaged audiences that can’t wait to see what happens next, and we think live streaming video has the same potential. Publishers like Fox News have had great results using our ACE platform to monetize their live streaming content.
In the past year, live streaming has exploded in popularity with consumers, and we are excited to help Ooyala publishers profit from their live content going forward.
YuMe works with many of the major online video platform providers, including Brightcove, Ooyala and thePlatform.
You can check out the full press release here, or see what some reporters aresaying.
At its best, advertising in online video lets marketers present their most engaging creative to attentive consumers. That’s why pre-roll and other in-stream video advertising sells for substantially higher CPMs than banner ads (which a user may not even notice, let alone click on). In the past few weeks, though, there has been quite a bit of discussion about the risks that advertisers face when buying online video inventory, particularly about the danger of ads that run in videos located “below the fold” on webpages or ads associated with content that starts playback without requiring any user initiation.
These days consumers can find video running on TV network websites, embedded on blogs and social network profiles, and even on mobile phones. This explosion of content syndication has been wonderful for consumers, letting them watch their favorite movies and shows wherever and whenever they want to. Unfortunately limitless choice for consumers has led to confusion and uncertainty for marketers.
Now that even the major broadcast networks are syndicating their prime time shows across multiple websites and allowing users to embed them anywhere they choose, everyone working in online video needs to have a firm grasp of the different contexts that video can appear in, and the relative value of any resulting advertising impressions.
To that end, we’ve put together a whitepaper that provides concrete definitions for many of the terms that people use to describe video syndication and lays out some of the steps we’re taking to ensure that advertisers only pay for video impressions when a real person actually watches a video on purpose. We’d love your feedback.
