Digiday and Adap.tv have found some interesting feedback from brands, advertisers, agencies, and publishers about how and where the money is spent in online video advertising. The study reflects the rise of the private video ad marketplace as advertisers find more and more convenience with such services. And, is a "guarantee" a good thing when it comes to ad metrics?

Award winning Toronto based digital agency John St. have come up with some of our favorite viral video ad campaigns over the years. They've produced great campaigns including "Rethink Breast Cancer: Your Man Reminder," a swan song social media campaign for Canadian mass merchandiser Zeller's, ...

Adap.tv put out their latest State of the Video Industry 2012 survey for Q4 and there's some interesting things that have changed. Remember, just last year, when it was TV vs. Online Video for all the ad dollars? Well, that's not the case any longer and now it's all about integrating the two into a cohesive and successful campaign. There's a lot more in the report and I'll cover that in other articles.

As always I like to start with the methodology to show you how the data was collected.

Q4 2012 State of the Video Ad Industry: Methodology

A survey of 700 digital marketing and media professionals was conducted in October 2012 on current attitudes and practices regarding digital video advertising. Participants were contacted via email, and asked to take an online survey. Participants were first asked to identify their companies as brands, agencies, trading desks, publishers, ad networks or DSPs. They then answered a survey of roughly 20 questions regarding their perceptions and practices relating to the buying and selling of digital video advertising. Some of these cohorts were later combined in some cases in the subsequent analysis when they were asked the same question and we didn’t find revealing differences in their answers. In other cases, results were cross-tabbed, to identify differences in each constituents’ viewpoints and practices, as a way of identifying industry disconnects that could hold back the emerging digital video advertising market, or reveal opportunities to improve everyone’s overall satisfaction and ROI.

So it's a small cross section of the industry but it can be used to glimpse the larger picture. 51% of respondents were at an agency while 19% were publishers, 11% were brands and another 11% were ad networks. 6% were DSP and 2% were trading desks.

TV and Online Video Complement Each Other

Whoa! Stop the presses! TV and online video ad campaigns are now being aligned with each other? Yep, that seems to be the case as the majority of respondents said that online video should be more aligned with TV than with display advertising. It seems that the industry is catching on to that whole "it's actually video" thing. In fact, this year the largest budget hit to make room for online video advertising, was display which saw a 37% reduction in spending moved to video. Second on the hit list to pay for video? Print, followed by broadcast TV which saw a 27% reduction.

97% of respondents said that online video ad budgets increased and it averaged out to a 27% bump for it. They're predicting that it could see another 20% increase for next year as well. Good news for content creators who are looking to monetize by showing ads against their library. Cable did hold out fairly well this year though with just a 13% drop and the old reliables of search and direct response maintained most of their budgets instead of handing it over to video.

So broadcast took a hit, cable didn't really, but the major thing I think to take away, is the fact that 58% believe that they are going to be planning TV and online video ad campaigns together, a 10% rise from Q1. There's definitely been a change in the winds it seems. In fact, 67% believe online video to be a direct complement to TV. It's also predicted that 80% of all ad buyers will be planning TV and online video together.

What this all means is that there's going to have to be drastic changes as some places in regards to planning because a whopping 54% believe that TV and online video are too "siloed." The majority of that majority say the digital group does the digital video ad buying separate from the TV buying. Almost half of the publishers say they've been dealing with TV buyers directly, so things certainly are changing these days.

So it seems that a cease fire in the video ad war has been called and a truce signed. TV buyers are seeing the potential of doing more integrated buys with online video and that should mean more money flowing more freely into online video advertising on the whole. It should also mean that we might start seeing some super cool cross-platform video-based advertising campaigns. So dust off that content library and start shopping it around for ad placement because it seems the buyers are coming, the buyers are coming!!

You can also watch the debut of the report with commentary from Adap.tv’s president, Toby Gabriner:

Brightroll did some research over in the UK to see how video advertising is getting on there and it seems that stiff upper lip mentality is working for them as things are really picking up. The second annual survey and report, the 2012 UK Video Advertising Report, gathers insight from more than 100 top decision makers and media buyers at leading UK advertising agencies and shares their unique perspective of the UK video advertising landscape.

As with all Brightroll surveys, things should be weighed carefully before making any decisions. After all, it's a survey and included a small fraction of the industry as a whole. With that said, let's get onto the numbers.

Video Advertising Reach Rises in the UK

Around 63% of the UK population watches a video online each month. That's a pretty good reach. Meanwhile, about 65% of that audience sees video ads monthly which is around 28.6 million people who are seeing a billion ads a month (comScore).

Part of why those numbers are all on the rise is because more advertisers and agencies believe in its efficacy. 87% surveyed believe it more effective than display and 52% believe it better than TV. Brightroll attributes some lower numbers to a confusion as to what digital video is. Maybe more ReelSEO reading is necessary?

Some of these beliefs could be attributed to the often made assumption that VOD (video on demand) and digital video are one in the same. However, digital video encompasses more than just VOD and includes in-app, user-generated content, gaming, or anywhere video can run.

When it comes to digital video advertising, many UK advertisers may spend their budgets specifically on VOD, working directly with broadcasters. In fact, when asked who they are most inclined to buy video inventory from, 41 percent of respondents indicate they are most likely to buy video inventory from a broadcaster with 22 percent who are most likely to buy from an ad network.

Where Are UK Video Advertisers Placing Inventory?

A lot of those UK companies are advertising outside of the country. A good amount of ad networks are placing ads in the US and Canada, while publishers are looking to Germany and the US for their main purchasing areas. Broadcasters are the ones doing the most buying in the UK itself followed by ad networks.

Considering that a lot in the UK think of digital video in terms of VOD it's not all that surprising that the broadcasters are leading the ad buys there right now. It must be them trying to lure the online video viewers away from the short-form online content they're watching because the average time spent with a video is 5 minutes and only 5% of videos online are from the UK broadcasters. Clearly they might feel threatened.

What Matters to UK Video Advertisers?

When looking at the how and why of ad placement, targeting tops the requirements with over 50% saying that's most valuable. Reach was just around 37% and then everything else was minimal, including price versus TV.

Meanwhile, ad spend is usually based on cost-per-view (CPV) with CPM (cost-per-impression) second and engagement third.

It seems that if you're offering video ad placement and hoping to reach UK advertisers you've now got a pretty clear picture of what to offer them and pique their interest. CPV with excellent targeting would be the ideal one-two punch of features for them.

In fact, demographic targeting is the most often desired form of targeting at 35% while behavior is used by 25% and contextual is around 20%. Data and geographic were lower at 15% and 5% roughly.

Measuring the Success of Video Advertising

Determining the success of an online video advertising campaign is usually campaign or company specific. In the survey they found that for the most part it's views (30%) that are the measurement. Hovering near the 15% point are conversion, brand uplift and CTR with Sales impact at about 10%.

GRP isn't all that popular there which is telling since most of the ads seem to be placed by TV broadcasters. I suppose that goes hand-in-hand with that targeting over reach from the previous graph.

UK Taking Shots in the Dark? Need Guidance

The odd thing is that it seems like the UK online video ad industry is groping blindly to figure out what works best. 90% of respondents said research is vital to success, but 70% stated they had done no research. To me it almost seems like throwing money down a hole and are simply following the trend without bothering to figure out how to do it right.

The crazy thing is that when talking about barriers to online video advertising, the cost of video is the largest one for them. Just over a third cited that as the most limiting factor. Clearly, they didn't do any research because they would have found great video ad creation platforms like ViddyAd (in beta) and places like Poptent for crowdsourced video creation, just to name a few alternative options to production company made video content.

There are far more insights in the full 2012 UK Video Advertising Report which you can pull from the Brightroll Industry Report page.

These are truly exciting times for marketers. With 4 billion connected consumers willing to share branded content, there has never been a better time for a brand to invest in creating and distributing content that causes people to laugh out loud, tingle with anticipation or feel the hairs on the back of their neck stand on end.

Social video advertising campaigns generated more than 8 billion user-initiated views in 2011. This figure is set to double in 2012 as more brands invest larger shares of budget in a format that delivers engaged audiences, starts authentic conversations and creates opportunities for advocacy and earned media.

However, as with any relatively new and innovative form of marketing, there are many questions to be answered and many myths to be dispelled. Here we separate the facts from the fiction.

Myth #1: Social Video is a Fad

Think social video is just the latest, shiny new thing that will be tossed away as soon as the next ‘big thing’ arrives? Think brands are better off sticking to the same tried-and-trusted marketing methods? Think again

Social video is fundamentally changing the rules of advertising. Long gone are the days when all an advertiser would need to do is buy the airtime, create the spot and blast it out to a captive audience. Today consumers pick and choose what they watch with a nonchalant flick of their DVR remote.

Advertising has changed from a 30-second slot you avoid on TV to a piece of video content which you’re willing to share with your friends online.

And share they are – in their millions. According to data collected by Unruly’s Viral Video Chart, shares of video ads over the last 12 months have increased ninefold to a staggering 1.1 billion – a rise which far exceeds the increases in Twitter and Facebook users.

People’s attitudes to advertising has changed forever. Far from passive, consumers now actively search for content to post and discuss with their peers.

Myth #2: Predicting Social Video Success is Impossible

Recent research has found the number of shares a video attracts – commercial or not – is linked to the strength of emotion it elicits from its viewers. The stronger the emotion, the more likely it is going to be shared.

So by measuring the level of emotions people feel while watching an advert, and comparing it to the number of shares it attracted, we can predict a video’s shareability before it is even launched.

At Unruly, we have come up with the Social Video Meter, which ranks a video from 1-10. The higher the ranking, the more likely it will become a success. The average score is 5, so brands still have a lot of work to do to get their ranking higher. And it is worth it. For every point, there is a 39% increase in the possibility of the video being shared.

Myth #3: Keep Branding Discreet

Research carried out by a University in Australia found that the number of times a brand appears visually or verbally in a commercial has little or no impact on its popularity online.

The study, led by Dr Karen Nelson-Field and her team at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, used data from Unruly’s Viral Video Chart and compared non-branded content 400 of the most shared commercial videos of all time.

The result? People share commercial videos with their friends for the same reasons they share non-commercial clips.

Myth #4: Surprise but Don’t Shock

Advertising videos are nearly always keyed towards positive messages but some of the most powerful branded videos can harness the power of negative emotions such as shock and anger.

Public bodies and charities can use these emotions to great effect – think about public safety videos such as Embrace Life and Dear 16-Year-Old Me, designed to shock people into wearing seat-belts or using sun cream.

Click here to watch this video.

Shocking videos are sharable and the right brand, targeting the right audience, can harness this power.

Myth #5: Social Video Doesn't Deliver ROI

So your video has over a million shares, so what? Well, a recent study by research company Decipher and Unruly found that viewers are far more likely to recall a brand name and engage with an ad’s message if it has been recommended to them.

In fact, brand favorability and brand association rose by 57% for consumers who had viewed the ad after receiving it from a peer.

There was also a 14% increase in the number of people who said they enjoyed the video following a recommendation versus those who had discovered it by browsing. Those who enjoyed a video were 109% more likely to purchase the product featured in the video.

You only need to look at the top of the Viral Video Chart to see how success can impact sales. Nike’s Write The Future (15^th) resulted in a 7% global sales increase when it was launched in 2010, while Volkswagen’s The Force saw sales of the new Passat increase by 116%.

EXTRA Myth #6: TV has it covered

The advertising landscape has changed. According to research carried out by Unruly and Decipher, trust in traditional media channels is waning, while social networks, blogs and friend’s recommendations are now the key influences when it comes to purchasing decisions.

It is something advertisers are starting to pick up on. A study carried out this year by research company Advertiser Perceptions found that almost three-quarters of brands and agencies plan to migrate some of their TV ad budgets across to digital video over the next 12 months.

It proves social video advertising is no longer the nerdy TV sidekick, but one worthy of equal billing.

A couple of months ago, ABC's "Nightline" did a piece on trying to get a video to go viral.  They hired ad agency and online viral video specialists Mekanism for the job: they would take reporter Dan Harris and a cat named George through a video shoot for the ASPCA.  Now, "Hovercat" is not a huge, huge, superhit (a little over a million views), but the process ends up being successful and the behind-the-scenes is something that is very well worth watching.  It gives you an idea that virality is more of a science than a circumstance.  It requires work outside of making the video and merely publishing it, and hoping people will see it.

The Process of Hovercat, ASPCA Viral Video as Seen on Nightline

First, let's take a look at the finished product:

Click here to watch this video.

And here's the behind-the-scenes:

Click here to watch this video.

Now, this is a good video but I have a feeling that there were numerous short deadlines that everyone was trying to meet, and perhaps this doesn't come out as polished as it could be.  But what's important here is how a video gets "picked up" and shared.

The first thing we see is Mekanism and Harris looking for the right kind of video.  They reject a couple of pretty good ideas before settling on the Hovercat concept.  Here's where I think perhaps a reporter who wants to be taken seriously actually prevents the better ideas from being done.  It's understandable.  If you're a brand or personality, you don't want to be associated with something that might harm your image.

What happens next is Mekanism creates a spreadsheet of a number of "influencers" that could propel a cat-related video to a great number of views.  They push it towards Veronica Belmont and I Can Has Cheezburger? and probably a great many other sites we don't see in the piece.  This is a technique that is covered exhaustively in the YouTube Creator Playbook and Advertiser Playbook.  You want to share the video with people who are most likely to post it on their sites.  If you have a prevalent theme, you want to find sites with similar tastes.

After the video gets to 300,000 views, there is concern.  Mekanism has hooked top influencers into posting the video, but they've peaked here, so what do they do?  They send it to media influencer sites, including Mashable, who picks it up, and suddenly, major newspapers are following suit.  The video takes off from there and jumps up to 500,000, ending up with 800,000 by the time the story aired.  Since then, it's gotten another 200,000 and it hit the million mark.  With all that coverage, including being featured on "Good Morning America," I have a feeling that a million is considered disappointing.

What is missing from this piece is the idea of why it doesn't take off in a particularly special way.  I think the forced nature of the content is why–this isn't a cat that really looks like it's hovering, and the cat isn't doing anything with his skill other than looking awkward.  If he used this skill to say, fly out of the house and save another cat out of a tree, or reach a particularly tasty treat on a high shelf, or anything other than, "Hey, it's fun to hover," I think this had the potential to do much more.  Like I mentioned before, it looks like a lot of things, like time and possibly money, conspired to limit the views on this one.

What's missing from all this is the idea of people sharing the video through e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  And that might have been part of the problem: it wasn't.  It was getting views through referral sites but not very likely getting shared on a large scale. To have a cat video struggle to find an audience is curious.

I mean, look at this video of a cat singing the "Game of Thrones" opening theme:

Click here to watch this video.

I'm not sure how many media outlets have picked this video up, but in a little more than a month, this has 1.9 million views.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't given the massive amount of coverage that "Hovercat" got.  But in this video, we see the leveraging of a popular TV show and a hilarious, spot-on delivery of the opening theme with cat meows.  There's a lot of character in this that people are willing to share.

Views aren't everything but you can tell a lot by the amount of backing a video has and how many views in which it translates.  Hovercat had every advantage in the world and could only cash in a small amount relative to its coverage.

However you look at it, it's worth taking a look at the Hovercat story just to see how ad agencies like Mekanism try to get a video seen by a mass audience.

Tags: ABC, agencies, case study, influencers, video seeding, viral, viral video, Viral Video Marketing, ^Featured Insights

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Brendan Gahan, Director of Social Media at Mekanism, a digital ad agency that works with brands to tell stories with their video ad campaigns.  The mission to convert brands to a storytelling kind of marketing, rather than a pure advertising, has been an obstacle for forward-thinking ad agencies over the years, but a huge shift has begun to break the ice, and more and more brands and agencies have started to get it.

So here's Brendan Gahan talking about the process of storytelling, and how brands can use it.

The Key to Branded Social Video Campaign Success: StoryTelling

Click here to watch this video.

So let's highlight what Brendan says in this video:

Storytelling = Entertainment Value:

It's important to create something relevant to the brand, but overall it needs to be entertaining.

I think a lot of times when we talk about "how videos go viral" we lose the most obvious one: is it entertaining?  We've discussed many times before that usually the signs of an entertaining video is that something highly unusual, shocking, embarrassing, funny, and/or sexy are the usual triggers.

Leverage Social Media & Engage with Calls to Action

Marry your strategy of engaging people and leveraging the platforms in the best way possible.

Finding a way to use your social media platforms to get people talking about your video is a huge step towards getting a mass audience.  This is done usually with, of course, great content, but it's important to issue calls-to-action that get people to talk about it in another way: voting on something, or creating a topic of discussion, or running a contest or handing out giveaways.

Influencers are Critical to Social Video Ad Campaign Success

Quite honestly, you need help getting your video seen, and why not use those with large audiences already?  When you share your video with relevant blogs and websites, and they bite (because your video is so entertaining, remember), the audience for your video dramatically increases.

Check out the Mekanism site and take a look at the stuff that they've done.  Check out this video from ABC's Nightline which profiles an interesting viral video ad project with Mekanism for 'Hovercat':

We'd like to thank Brendan Gahan for his time!

Tags: ad campaign, agencies, branded content, branded video, influencers, interview, social media, social video, strategy, tips, video ad, Videos About Video, viral, viral video

While advertising and public relations agencies work with client campaigns on social networks, many of these agencies are not taking advantage of advertising for themselves in a social setting.

Digital marketing agency lonelybrand asked senior marketing executives from agencies about their work in social networks and only 17% said their companies currently purchase ads in social networks to assist in digital lead generation.

However, of those companies that do advertise on social networks, many are spending several thousand dollars a month on purchasing ads. Among agencies that purchase advertisements on social networks, 23% said their companies spend more than $10,000 a month on ads. On the other end of the spectrum, 32% spend less than $1,000.

One plus to outreach via social media is that there are options for almost all budgets. Companies can focus on free social media marketing, through Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, but can supplement those tactics with paid advertisements, spending as much or as little—in paid media, at least—as the company prefers.

The lonelybrand data also found that Facebook was the most popular social network for advertising, which is unsurprising given its broad user base. Of all agency respondents, not just those who said they advertise on social networks, 13% said their companies purchase advertising on Facebook, compared to 4% who purchase ads on LinkedIn and 2% on Twitter.

Overall, most companies prefer to focus on marketing on social networks, rather than spending money to advertise. But those that do demonstrate that companies with a wide range of budgets can take advantage of ads to supplement campaigns and generate leads on social sites.