ADOTAS

VidLogic offers clients access to 95% of available online video inventory through partnerships with exchanges and networks as well as direct agreements with premium publishers. Through AdoTube’s video ad serving technology, clients can deploy proprietary AdoTube units such as Polite Pre-Roll, which accounts for 30% of the company’s served video ads. The unit allows viewers to skip in-stream video ads and had a view-through rate of 45%. Sweetening the pot for clients is the recently opened production arm, A20 Productions, for developing video ad creative.

In addition to AdoTube’s targeting technology — which includes demographic and zip-code-level geographic methods plus its Response-Based targeting tool that employs data garnered from advertiser-composed surveys aimed at target audiences – clients can integrate the plethora of third-party audience targeting services. Finally, AdoTube offers tracking across all inventory sources as well as cross-platform analytics (that can be broken down by ad unit) that measure reach and frequency across online video, mobile and connected devices.

“As an agency veteran, I saw an inherent need for a platform to simplify the extremely complex video advertising process,” said Brian Mandelbaum, AdoTube vice president of Platform Development & Strategy. “With VidLogic, we took it a step further by adding support for nearly all vendors and insights that brand advertisers were eagerly awaiting.”

Just last weekend saw the trifecta, with the release of the remake/comic book hero movie of “Conan the Barbarian” (What was wrong with the Ah-nold version?!?), ”Spy Kids 4″ (There was a “Spy Kids 3″?)  and “Fright Night” (while the original is awesome, I’m actually intrigued by this remake — two words: David Tennant). All of these films had lousy first weekend takes — apparently I’m not the only one sick of celluloid chum.

Well, even if the films lack even an ounce of creativity or charisma, we can be impressed by the ingenuity in the cinematic marketing campaigns. We’ve come a long way from 30-second previews on television. Just check out this infographic from Crisp Media detailing the many ways mobile users engaged with advertisements for films served to their devices — the total interaction rate was a blockbuster 11.4%. Now if only 11.4% of Hollywood movies were any good….

Quick stats:

1. Android users are twice as likely to tap a banner ad than iPhone users
2. iPhone viewers use the swipe motion 143% more than Android users.
3. 57% of mobile users tapped to play a video.
4. Animated banner ads are 4.5 times more effective than static ads.

Sure, TV is still the biggest medium, and where people most frequently watch video content, but with more than 6 billion online video sessions each month (according to comScore), and mutli-screen and multi-platform distribution, the lines are quickly blurring. We can now consume our favorite shows in the home, at the office, on the road, or anywhere and everywhere there’s access to the web.

This brings us to the topic of the “TV Everywhere” experience, one of the first being the HBO Go app that launched this Spring for iPad, iPhone and Android devices. The app generated more than 3 million downloads, and is only available to current HBO cable subscribers who get access to all of their current shows and a library of programs on demand, wherever they have Internet access to stream the shows.

CNN recently launched live streaming video on CNN.com and their mobile apps, also in a walled garden: anyone who wants to view CNN’s video streams must be authenticated as a cable subscriber from one of the participating carriers. For loyal CNN TV viewers, this gives them access to whatever screen they prefer, and cable companies don’t have to worry as much about the threat of “cord-cutting,” or subscribers who would potentially downgrade or stop their subscription, opting to consume content via free (ad supported) online sources.

A recent Experian “New Media Study” estimated that just 1% of U.S. consumers have cut the cable cord, which equals about 1.7 million people. Yet, 16%, or more than 22 million, were seriously considering doing the same.

With other apps and services like WatchESPN and the announcement from Fox last week on keeping their newest programs behind a similar authentication process for online viewing (and not making it immediately available through free streaming services like Hulu), things may change pretty quickly, giving consumers additional incentive to not cut the cord.

This shift could also mean that advertisers will have a unique opportunity to potentially surround those viewers, or segment and target them in even more ways – by device or screen, time of day, maybe even location. The more content producers or distributors that go this route, the greater the potential reach and opportunity.

However, if it’s too difficult to access (only viewable within the home, on limited devices, through select cable or satellite providers, limited content), there may not be enough scale for this to be a viable option or alternative means to effectively build reach against an audience.

Just as with many other things in today’s ever-evolving digital media landscape, this is still a pretty nascent space that will take time to grow and to see how consumers respond. So long as it does not restrict the access on sites like CNN or ESPN that consumers are accustomed to, and enhances the TV and online experience they currently have, it will definitely change viewing behaviors and advertising opportunities.

If we as consumers are already paying what we do for cable and Internet access, shouldn’t we expect more value as technology enables us to have an enhanced experience? And as marketers, shouldn’t we be able to leverage that to improve the ability to target and engage our audiences? The answer is yes — to both. Although it would be nice to pay a little less for my cable bill each month, maybe based on what I actually watch versus what I don’t, but that’s a whole other discussion!

Advertisers need only deliver a 30-second or shorter clip and Greystripe will do the reformatting work — optimizing the ads as full-screen interstitials for iPhone and Android apps or within content for mobile websites and tablet apps. The ads will also feature social media integrations, the ability to show maps and links to mobile websites.

Even more interesting, it appears users will have the ability to close the ads as soon as they appear. During the three-month beta testing, Greystripe reported a 57% completion rate compared to a 42% completion rate for similar mobile video ads. In addition, Greystripe offers analytics that show how many users completed 25%, 50% and 75% of the video ads.

Appealing sells itself as the largest mobile video network in Europe and boasts clients such as ESPN, IPC Media, Bauer Media, and Universal McCann. The company’s “Interactive Video Player” ad format took the Grand Prix prize at MobiTech Europe in 2010. Appealing founder and CEO Owen Hanks will bring his senior management team to YuMe Europe.

“As smartphone and tablet adoption takes off, the mobile video market will grow considerably both in complexity and reach,” said YuMe CEO Michael Mathieu. “And the advertising on these platforms needs to be relevant and smart, especially for premium brands.”

In March, YuMe introduced version 3 of its ACE for Publishers video management platform.

Last week, Fox furthered this hypothesis by announcing that the online versions of its TV shows would feature just as many commercials as the broadcast versions. And dammit, I have to see what happens on “House” — you never know what kind of crazy procedure that lunatic doctor is going to order next….

With increasing amounts of long-form content available online, expect more “mid-roll” ads. In analyzing data from 5.5 billion ads served during online videos from premium content makers like Turner, ESPN and (of course) Fox, FreeWheel noted a 30% increase in mid-roll video ads, most-often placed in long-form content, between 1Q 2011 and 4Q 2010. The company attributed this hike to higher levels of long-form content online as well as increasing ad loads.

Notably, mid-roll ads have the highest completion rates — but in general video ads in long-form content have high-completion rates because consumers are more engaged and likely to finish viewing both the content and the ads tied to it. Yup, mid-roll reaches that captive audience many television programs enjoyed before the advent of TiVo.

Another interesting finding in FreeWheel’s just-released first-quarter video monetization report, mobile video views account for less than 1% of all video views, and 80% of mobile views are from Apple devices.

According to Coda Research Consultancy this is only the beginning. In 2014, smartphone traffic will make up 98% of all mobile handset traffic, leaving feature phones with a 2% share.

With a compound annual growth rate of 117%, U.S. mobile handset data traffic will increase from 8 petabytes (that’s 1,00 terabytes) month in 2010 to 327 petabytes per month in 2015. Excluding SMS charges, 87% of carriers’ data revenue will be from mobile.

Video is going to be the big data consumer, as Coda estimates that in five years 95 million out of 158 million U.S. mobile users will be ogling vids on their handsets by 2015. An estimated 68.5% of data usage in the U.S. will be from video.

Nielsen sees smartphone domination even sooner — although 21% of wireless subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2009 were smartphone users, Nielsen believes penetration will skyrocket in 2010 and smartphones will outnumber feature phones by the third quarter of 2011.

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 allows mobile platforms to run the standard Brightcove player with the same features as desktop platforms. The Mobile Experience features controls specially designed manipulating videos on smartphone screens and includes audience profiling and analytics as well as 120 media player plug-ins

The solution allows the video to optimize in real-time to the playback environment smartphones running Flash 10.1, such as devices with the Android, Palm or Research in Motion operation systems. AOL, The New York Times, Atlantic Records and several other high-profile names have already signed up with the program.

The top draws on the mobile Internet in the U.S.:

Event results (66.3%)
Medal Counts (44.3%)
TV Schedule (43.7%)

The top draws on mobile video in the U.S.:

Gymnastics (61.7%)
Swimming/Diving (58.5%)
Track and Field (54.4%)