ADOTAS

Unruly plans to use the funds to expand globally — it already has offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Sydney, and in a phone conversation today, CEO Scott Button cited Miami and Toronto as a couple of other cities the company’s eyeing. In general, he said, Unruly’s looking to reach into continents it hasn’t reached before. The company has “great relationships in North America and Europe, but not [Asia-Pacific],” he explained. “It looks very different over there,” because of a social media landscape that isn’t dominated by Facebook hegemony. Being present in varied geographical locations is important, he said, because “we’ll build up local media relationships on the ground. Our model is to hire teams that are embedded locally.”

Founded in 2006, Unruly Media has executed over 1,400 video ad campaigns, and its “greatest hits” roll boasts the Old Spice “Man Your Man Could Smell Like,”  the T-Mobile “Life’s for Sharing,” the Coca-Cola “Happiness Factory” and the Evian “Roller Babies” campaigns. The company claims 2.7 billion views in 2o10 and over 8 billion in 2011, and it projects 20 billion in 2012. That’s a lot of visibility, but because of the nature of its business, a lot of people probably didn’t hear the company’s name at all until earlier this week, when it was implicated in what we could call the Google Chrometroversy. In a sentence or two, it’s like this: On Monday, while most nine-to-fivers were out of the office, SEO Book and Search Engine Land pointed out a Google search for “Google Chrome” pulled up over 400 pages of content bearing the phrase “this post is sponsored by Google” — disclosure that Google requires for any sponsored posts — and that one of them failed to include a required “do not follow” link back to Google Chrome. Turns out digital media agency Essence Digital was working with Google on a Chrome video ad, and Essence brought in Unruly to carry out the campaign. The whole Chrometroversy hinged on the fact that Google had penalized other companies — including J.C. Penney, Forbes, Overstock and BeatThatQuote.com, a company Google owned and subsequently banned – for improper disclosure. And Unruly naturally caught some of the heat. It wasn’t the best timing for a black eye, as today’s funding announcement demonstrated. But Button was adamant that Google had acted properly, Unruly had acted properly and that the rumblings would die down shortly. “If it were any other brand, there would be no story here,” Button said. “The narrative is, ‘Will they, won’t they?’ Well, they have. Google’s behavior here has been exemplary.” In fact, Google went ahead and demoted Chrome’s PageRank for 60 days. And criticism of any links in the video ads, Button said, is unwarranted. “Because [the video] is embedded in Javascript, it’s completely benign.

“It’s really unfortunate,” Button said of the rogue blogger’s failure to insert a “do not follow” link. “We should have caught it through manual vetting.” As it is, he said, Unruly’s platform is set to scan websites for these kinds of issues. “That’s one of the reasons our platform is so strong and so safe,” he said. “We’ve always been on the leading edge of best practice, and best practice evolves constantly.”

In retrospect, it appears the Chrome blog flap didn’t indicate a broader, systemic issue, and as we’d mentioned earlier, it’s crummy timing for Unruly to implicated just as the company was set to announce its plans for global expansion. In this case, the only thing unruly about the video ad platform was its name.

• On Dec. 10, Amazon gave shoppers discounts if they used the Amazon price-comparison app in a brick-and-mortar store. This week, Groupon took the inverse tack — they’re offering $10 in Groupon Bucks to Groupon users who buy any of the site’s daily deals in a physical store. The Wall Street Journal quotes Groupon senior vice president of global marketing Rich Williams as saying, “We think it’s unfortunate that there’s this meme that people believe they have to make a difficult choice between supporting local businesses and great price.” … Zing?

• Speaking of “zings,” we came across a couple across the web today, in which commentators took advertisers to task for creating online ads that, they say, relay the wrong message or the wrong part of the message about a company. At MediaPost, Larry Dobrow gives it to GE for a recent promotional video in which, he says, a feel-good take on the culture of the company comes through more clearly than most information about what the company makes. (For example, Dobrow refers to a bit in which an “enormous Jenbacher gas engine generates no excitement, focusing on environmentally sensitive tomato wrangling rather than on rockets and turbowheelies and all the cool stuff it can surely fuel.”) Meanwhile, at ZDNet, “SEO Whistleblower” Stephen Chapman lays down a warning about online reputation management, relating it to an ad he’d seen frequently on Facebook that featured a confounding bit of text next to a preposterous image. He uses, admittedly, an extreme, hyperbolic case, but the underlying issue seems to be about how placement is still nothing without useful content. But what do you think about the cases Dobrow and Chapman call out?

• Google Chrome has become the most widely used version of a browser, according to StatCounter. It was a close shave; Chrome 15 came in at 24 percent, with Explorer 8 at 22.9 percent. Firefox 8 weighed in at 14 percent. Taken with all versions lumped together, Explorer still comes out on top, though, at 39.5 percent to Chrome’s 26.5 percent.

• Pretarget has come out with a new infographic. It’s called “Trading Desks Are the Stock Market of Digital Advertising.” Check it out:

In the Beginning

When Hastings founded the company in 1997, the idea of renting DVDs online and delivering them through the mail was novel, to say the least. Netflix ended up toppling Blockbuster and other giants of the rental industry. Blockbuster went bankrupt, while Netflix grew to 24 million customers. After becoming the dominant rental service, Netflix, led by Hastings, tackled another industry-changing innovation – streaming media. For less than half of what people were paying for premium television services, subscribers now had access to hundreds of thousands of DVDs through the mail and thousands of hours of movies through computers, home TVs and other personal media.

For many years, it looked like Netflix was unbeatable. Its overwhelming popularity continued to grow and led to an all-time stock high of $304.79 per share on July 13th. But within just a few short weeks, all that changed due to some poor choices and re-branding missteps.

Change Without Communication

In mid-July, an announcement on the official Netflix blog spelled out the company’s new DVD-and streaming-only plans. Rather than pay one price for both services, subscribers would be billed twice. The price change represented a 60 percent increase for many users who were getting the DVD-plus-streaming plan. Before the changes, these users would be paying $9.99 for both services. After the increase, their price would be $17.99 per month. Subscribers were not happy, to say the least. The announcement post itself received thousands of angry responses.

Sure, the price increase made sense from a Wall Street point of view. After experiencing years of market dominance, Netflix was poised for some deflation. Analysts theorized that the stock price was overvalued, that it was based mainly on Hastings’ reputation as an innovator and visionary. In addition, early content deals that provided streaming media for their industry changing service were going to expire. Content costs were going to increase from $3.5 billion from $2.4 billion in the next few years — and customers were already grumbling about the limited choices on their streaming service.

The price increase would also help support Netflix’s continuing expansion plans. During 2010 and early 2011, the company expanded to 43 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and it had planned an expansion into the United Kingdom and Ireland.
But from the consumer’s point of view, the changes were unwarranted and unnecessary. In the radically transparent marketplace, Hastings and Netflix had committed the ultimate sin – not listening to or considering their customers.

Too Little, Too Late

To make matters worse, before the dust settled on the rate increase news, Hastings issued a “half-apology” that explained the reasons behind the price split and increase: a new “analog” DVD service that would be separate from Netflix. Instead of logging into one platform and having access to streaming and DVDs, customers would need to visit two websites and have two separate charges.

The new DVD-only service, Qwikster, was met with about as much enthusiasm as the rate increases themselves. Within just 90 days, Netflix lost 800,000 subscribers and $12 billion in market value. The company’s stock plunged 70 percent by October, and at that time, Hastings announced, not surprisingly, that they’d be abandoning the Qwikster concept.

The Fallout

Now, Netflix is faced with trying to maintain its current subscriber base while also going through with the expansion to international markets. As a result, the company is eliminating jobs in the fourth quarter. They also stopped share buybacks, on which they had spent nearly $1 billion since 2007.

Analysts question whether or not Netflix should continue expanding internationally. Online video viewing hasn’t caught fire, and they theorize that revenue could be better spent on maintaining the company’s smaller U.S. market share. But as CEO, president and chairman of the board, Hastings’ vision is being carried through. He told the New York Times that while the Qwikster concept became a sign of the company’s failings, expanding abroad will cause streaming video demand to take off internationally.

As a result of Netflix’s fumbles, the company now has about a quarter of its previous $4.2 billion market capitalization. With the competition closing in and taking advantage of this exec’s gaffes, Netflix will need to fight hard in order to gain back just a fraction of what it had before.

ADOTAS – Adobe

For Auditude, this acquisition is a great outcome. The deal occurred at a very healthy multiple of revenue and sends a clear signal to the market about the significance and value of online video advertising technology.

The rationale behind the deal seems clear. Adobe wants to move upstream and provide more sophisticated value-added services on top of their core infrastructure technology. Just like the telecommunications companies, Adobe doesn’t want to be merely the “dumb pipes” responsible for cheaply providing the infrastructure on top of which other companies make their fortunes. As internet-delivered video continues to explode and slowly work its way toward replacing traditional broadcast TV, Adobe clearly sees an opportunity to put their technology at the heart of TV 2.0.

For proof of the march toward connected TV, look no further than the recently announced partnership between LG and YuMe, where the latter company is helping Toyota serve ads to consumers who use a connected TV app store or search screen. By purchasing Auditude, Adobe is getting a roster of premium customers that translate very well to connected TV, including Comcast and Major League Baseball.

Adobe is already dabbling in connected TV with its Adobe Pass software, which is widely used by content owners to authenticate their video streams across connected platforms. As more networks look to monetize their content on internet-connected TVs, Adobe can now offer them ad serving and access authentication in one shop.

Then there’s Adobe’s already massive role in the online video space. Flash powers the vast majority of online video, yet Adobe has received relatively little financial benefit from the ubiquity of its format. Adding advertising capabilities not only provides potential opportunity to monetize Flash’s enormous footprint, but potentially defends the platform long-term against commoditization and eventual replacement by HTML5.

Although this all makes sense in principle, Adobe may initially face some challenges attempting to get publishers and advertisers to adopt its new integrated solution. The addition of Auditude to its Adobe Marketing suite would give premium publishers a stack that contains video ad serving, analytics and data management, but this is unlikely going to generate the “1 +1 = 3″ math that Adobe is going for. Most publishers already have analytics tools and DMPs, and for those looking to expand into video, it’s far simpler and more cost-effective to find a stand-alone video solution, rather than tear everything down and overhaul the entire system with an integrated suite.

While they may be newcomers to this space, Adobe’s reputable brand and integrated tools, combined with Auditude’s technology, is sure to push the boundaries of what online video can be. While they will have an uphill battle at the start, it’s very likely that the trusted Adobe name will encourage more premium publishers and advertisers to explore the segment. If anything, this will lead to increased competition, which will surely drive increased innovation in the space.

According to a new study of online video viewers (PDF) by Frank N. Magid for Metacafe, 68% of males aged (physically) 18 to 34 cited their PCs/laptops as the entertainment consumption device they couldn’t live without. Fifty-three percent said the same about their televisions and 39% about video game consoles.

The Magid Media Futures 2011 report, built on an online survey of 2,482 people aged 8 to 64, found that 39% of males 18 to 34 consider their computers their primary entertainment console, compared to 28% who said the same for TVs and 14% for video game consoles.

Online video viewing on the whole was up, with 23% of survey respondents watching online video content daily (up from 13% the year before) and 57% watch at least weekly (up from 50%). People that watched online video content at least on a weekly basis watched an average of 5.6 hours a week, up an hour from the year before; males between the ages of 18 to 34 watched an average of 7.8 hours weekly, and were estimated to increase this viewing by 10% over the next year.

In general, 31% of those between the ages of 18 and 34 watch online content daily while 71% watch it weekly. The average rates for males in this group were higher:

“Today’s young male consumers are entertainment enthusiasts who live online and consider their laptop or PC the center of their universe,” concluded Erick Hachenburg, CEO of Metacafe. “For those of us in the content business, this means we need to deliver an experience that feeds this voracious appetite for short-form video entertainment. For brand advertisers, this means that the young male audience is getting harder and harder to reach if online isn’t a primary part of media plans.”

According to a Metacafe viewership study, 79% of the network’s users are men between the ages of 18 and 34, and Metacafe viewers spend an average of 10.4 hours watching online video weekly.

Other findings from the survey:

• 66% of online video viewers regularly watch premium short-form content, such as music videos, movies trailers, TV clips, sports highlights, web originals, etc.
• 24% of online video viewers watch content on a mobile device.
• 25% of online video viewers access the Internet through their TV set.

It also, however, reflects the power of online video as a promotional engine for today’s TV marketer. The entertainment discovery experience that is uniquely made possible by short-form online video is changing the way people find, watch and share their favorite television shows – resulting in fans who are more enthusiastic than ever before.

According to the 2010 Magid Media Futures study, half of Internet users now watch online video weekly – or even more frequently. And clips from TV shows are among the most frequently viewed videos online.

The fact that broadcast and cable networks alike are now making so many more clips, outtakes and extras from their shows available online is, of course, contributing significantly to this trend. But it’s not the mere access to this content that is driving online consumption – let alone TV viewership and engagement. The magic of online video as a promotional engine for TV shows is in the curation of this content into compelling editorial packages.

For example, a package of online video content that features clips from several of the most-anticipated shows of the season is a great way for people to pick which new series they want to check out. But, even more interestingly, curation of online video content throughout the season can create deeply immersive entertainment experiences for viewers once they become hooked on a show.

By creating multiple pathways for viewers to explore their favorite series, episodes, actors, storylines and back-stories, online video helps to create and sustain a dialog with viewers – which in the social media world often translates into those viewers becoming ambassadors for their favorite shows.

In short, following a TV show is no longer about tuning in once a week. It’s about finding favorite clips online to watch, re-watch and share. It’s about digging deeper into the history of a show or an actor’s career. It’s about discovering other similar content and creating a personalized entertainment experience that makes that once-a-week episode all the more enjoyable – and engaging.

Today’s savvy TV marketers know that their audiences – especially the influential group of 18 to 34 year-old entertainment enthusiasts – live online. For these viewers, online video is the primary source for access to and information about the entertainment content about which they’re passionate. They do still watch TV, of course. But they figure out what to watch – and keep tuning in – in large part due to what captures their attention online.

With mid-season replacement shows gearing up now, keep an eye out for an influx of great short-form video content online – as well as advertising designed to drive tune-in. This combo of earned and paid media reflects a savvy approach to TV marketing and is testament to the fact that online video is a powerful promotional engine for today’s TV marketers.

Advertisers on the exchange will be assured their campaigns are reaching the intended audiences through comScore’s third-party validation. In addition, clients will have access to comScore’s digital GRP “overnights,” allowing them to make comparisons to offline campaign spend.

“[W]e’re committed to developing relationships with key organizations like comScore to leverage the highest measurement standards, enabling us to validate our clients’ campaigns and ensure they are performing effectively, thus making it easy for them to draw comparisons to traditional media buys,” said BrightRoll CEO Tod Sacerdoti.

The company also announced it is committing more than $1 million throughout 2011 to advance market and innovation research in the online video space.

To help address this, it’s time for advertising agencies, in fact all marketing agencies, to start to get their arms around crowdsourcing and take advantage what it has to offer.

If you’re an agency, you will still be the strategic lead for the marketing activities of your client. You’ll still get to do that Super Bowl and primetime spot. And the media buys remain all yours. Crowdsource providers are not trying to take that away from you. What they can do is help.

Crowdsourcing can provide clients with a wide variety of low-cost, high-quality creative work to choose from to round out their marketing activities in the ever increasing number of online media hitting the scene. To be truly effective, many of these videos need to be custom made to optimize a brand’s presence in these emerging areas.

For example, many agencies are starting to use crowdsource video providers to fill out their microsites with high-quality videos. Crowdsourcing gives you the quantity of unique videos you need, without sacrificing the quality.

Take Alcone Marketing and their work with their client, a global electronics product company with a major television and movie comic serving as spokesperson. The folks at Alcone purchased a total of eight different crowdsourced videos to highlight safe texting practices in a humorous and entertaining way, filling up their microsite with great content to keep folks coming back.

Producing these videos using traditional means could have cost millions of dollars, an expense that wouldn’t have made sense for use on a microsite. However, crowdsourcing kept the process economical for Alcone and its client and retained the brand equity being established for the client in its parallel and much more expensive “traditional” video ads.

Got a fabulous marketing idea that you need to pass on because of the high cost of the video production?

“Embracing crowdsourcing allowed us to offer a unique, cost efficient and very effective new service for our client base,” said Alan Mates, president of the Robinson & Maites agency.

Robinson & Maites was doing some great work for their B2B client, and they wanted to push the envelope just a bit further. The idea: utilize highly targeted email, including an embedded video with solutions-based messaging about product/service offerings. And send out a different video each month to keep the campaign fresh.

All of the videos were also housed on various video and social media sites. Each one was entertaining, engaging, and appropriate for the brand. Robinson & Maites ended up selecting three times the number of videos originally intended to run during this program, all for a fraction of the cost of traditional video production… not to mention the agency time and effort that would have been associated with that type of a major production.

Similarly, what would you do if you were faced with a unique opportunity to test-run commercial videos on TiVo in conjunction with some pre-Super Bowl specials? Don’t tell me you’d pass this chance up because you didn’t have enough videos to field the test?

When presented with a unique opportunity to engage their football-hungry audience on television for much longer than the usual 30-second increments, Coors Light jumped at it.

Working with agencies Razorfish, DraftFCB and MCMedia, the popular beer brand sought to connect more deeply with NFL fans and developed a multi-pronged content strategy. They went behind the scenes of their long-running “Coaches” TV campaign, producing three reels of bloopers and out-takes from the actual TV shoots. And, to deliver even more great video content, the brand crowdsourced six entirely new spots to round out the campaign’s presence on TiVo.

“Some people are afraid of crowdsourcing, but we think it can make for a compelling way to extend a great idea,” said Jeremy Lockhorn, VP Emerging Media at Razorfish. “For us, it’s not an attempt to replace the creative department, but rather a way to engage the community and complement other tools, ads and ideas we’re working with. It can help expand the pallet, so to speak.”

It’s time to wake up and smell the roses. Crowdsourcing can provide agencies with high-quality creative that will meet the many new and unique needs of clients, all at a price that won’t break the bank. And while these needs are being met by crowdsourcing, you, the agency, are free to spend your time on the next top-ten Super Bowl spot.

ADTECH ‘s video solution is VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) compliant and has been designed to easily adapt to changes in market standards and guidelines. VAST is a standardized template for the online digital video advertising business.

Standing tall behind Facebook and Google, Quantcast took the title of third-most innovative web company of 2010 from Fast Company, which called the private company the go-to source for audience measurement with nine of the top 10 U.S. media buyers banging at its door. In addition, Quantcast entered the general 50 Most Innovative Companies list, sliding in at a respectable 46.

On Tuesday, Quantcast announced a partnership with MTV Networks to offer advertisers demographic and lifestyle targeting within MTVN’s online video inventory. Online video is a bit of a new area for the company, but it should feel ambitious after closing a series C round of funding with $27.5 million raised in the beginning of the year to bring its total fundraising to $53.2 million.