As with most people, when I start the New Year I can’t help but think about what the next 12 months will have to offer. When it comes to the Internet Video world, these thoughts are filled with optimism and hope. So today I am going to give you both my optimistic thoughts and hopes for 2010…
My optimism for the Internet video space comes off the heels of an incredible year at Jambo Media. We saw record breaking website sign ups, platform clients and new advertisers coming into the marketplace. This is extremely reassuring for all of us here and for the industry in general. Site owners are realizing that implementing some form of video player and content on their site is essential to the evolution of their product. Visitors to web sites are not only looking for text and pictures anymore. They would also like to see a relevant video clip coupled with the article they are reading. They really enjoy a video section with content that compliments the theme of the site.
Advertisers are finally taking that next step from “testing” Internet video to actually allocating significant portions of their budget to Internet video. This medium offers an advertiser the ideal option of presenting their brand message using audio and visual tactics to grab the attention of a prospective customer. We feel strongly that this area is a main growth spot for our industry. Having more advertisers join the space, of course, is better for all of us.
My last reason for great optimism in 2010 is that the Jambocast platform is receiving a wonderful response from advertising networks and portals. The reason this is not just a good thing here at Jambo but also for the industry is because the main weakness of Internet video right now is scalability. Scalability is important for both content owners and advertisers. Well, in our opinion the quickest and best way to generate a large scale video audience is to help display advertising networks create video networks from their existing publisher group. These companies have already networked tens, hundreds or thousands of websites together successfully. By utilizing our Jambocast video network platform, they can instantly create a video network from their current site list.
Our main goal at Jambo Media is to grow Internet video inventory by placing video players on sites that currently have no video solution. With the help of advertising networks this will happen quickly. When this happens, all sides of the Internet Video landscape will benefit.
Happy New Year!
Imagine this, you go to a site, you see a clip that you are really interested in watching. You click on it and a pre-roll advertisement begins. You accept the fact that there is a commercial before the free content. Then your clip is shown and you are happy. In this example at what point would you ever want to click away and go somewhere else? Think about it, a few seconds ago you just clicked on the thumbnail to watch a clip, now you are going to click on an advertisement instead of the clip you just selected? It doesn’t make sense. You made the conscious choice to select something to do and then seconds later you choose something completely different? That seems more like interference than performance.
Factors to look at could be; did they see the ad, did they watch the entire ad and was that the audience you wanted? Those are the questions that a marketer should be asking in order to measure the effectiveness of Internet video. This applies for overlay ads as well. Overlays are much better for the users' experience because there is no interruption between selecting the content and viewing. Now you have an ad on the lower 1/3 of the screen during your clip. This is more subtle and the user will be more likely to see the advertiser. However, in this scenario a click is still not the way to evaluate this unit. Now I will admit a click on an overlay is a lot more likely, not to mention more logical, than on pre-roll but there are better ways to evaluate this unit, too. Did the user X out of the ad? Did they allow it to be visible or Interact with it? Those are the criteria that should be used to make a judgement about the effectiveness of these advertisements.
I think the marketers out there buying pre-rolls and overlay ads need to consider other factors than the click when they evaluate these purchases. It is not a banner, it is not a pop-up, and it is not a text link. This is video, it involves a full audio and visual experience. A person has selected content to view for entertainment, education or many other reasons. They will accept ads but let’s not expect more than what makes sense. The message is conveyed directly to that user. They may not click on it, but they still got the message.
After the Michael Jackson farewell, I found myself asking the question, does Internet video need to be live? My experience was unsatisfactory on every website. From one major news site to the next, from one portal to another, I was noticing slowness and erratic video behavior. As someone who is involved with video every day, I cannot help but wonder this question.
By simply delaying the video 5-10 minutes or so, the user experience online would have been so much smoother. I had a similar experience during the Obama Inauguration. I realize that not everyone had this experience and there were many success stories during both of these telecasts, but those positive moments were not experienced by all. The entire Internet, not just video, but major web pages for large sites were running a bit slower. MJ stopped the Internet! It sounds crazy but he really did. If you noticed, the moment the ceremonies were over everything was back to normal. There have not been many moments like this to date.
I do realize the one big difference so far when comparing Internet video and TV is that TV has the moments of major tune in and they are live too. I believe that even if these same moments are 5-10 minutes delayed online the audience will be there and will be even happier if the experience is smooth and enjoyable.
Small sites are important too. That's what we think at least. Is a user that goes to Yahoo or Google any different than a user that visits itsamomsworld.com, dailygame.net, babycrowd.com or jocklife.net? People are people, aren't they?
It seems sometimes in the online advertising world there is too much emphasis on big name sites instead of focusing on the audience itself. Reaching unique users should be the main goal. Any user on a site, regardless of whether it is Top 10 or 200,000th in ranking, is still a unique person. Larger websites have the revenue and resources to pay for major advertising on billboards, newspapers, TV and radio. In many cases they are publicly traded companies or well funded organizations. They can in many ways buy their audience to build their sites traffic up. Small sites don't have that opportunity. In general the small site community is driving traffic by search engines, social networks and from reputation. Their visitors are loyal people who have visited the site before or had the site recommended from a friend. In many cases they feel a closeness and respect for the site because it's not a major media destination.
The online video industry is growing and one of the biggest issues when compared to television is about reach. Syndicated video players help to solve that issue. A syndicated video player provides a safe, trackable solution for content providers to reach a new audience with existing content. Advertisers also benefit from this reach by presenting their message and offers to an audience that they could never reach before.
If you can track the site, the person, and what they are watching, does it really matter where they are? You delivered your content or ads to a new person and have now made a connection. That's what really matters.
Whether you are a small entertainment website, a retail store, a law firm, auto dealership, a blog or any other company or individual that owns a web site; online video is inevitable. More and more consumers flock to the Internet to watch video in order to receive news, information or simple quick entertainment.
Manifest Destiny was the 19th-century belief that the United States had a mission to expand, spreading its form of democracy and freedom. Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only good, but that it was obvious ("manifest") and certain ("destiny"). For more visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny
Online video’s growth and expansion is also "obvious" and "certain". Jambo Media believes this deeply and we are focused on enabling the Internet community with all the tools necessary to display video content on their various websites.
Our JamboCast video management system was created to be simple and easy for any site owner to use in order to display video clips in a good looking video player, track, deliver advertising, and syndicate video content that they own to other websites. Jambo Media uses the JamboCast platform for our own web properties so we are not only the owner of the product but a client of the product as well.
When I visit many websites that offer video, many just have links to a video clip that will open up a huge ugly Windows Media Player, or Real Player, or other companies will direct users to free user generated systems like YouTube. All of these options work but they lack the professionalism and easy functionality that your website visitor deserves. Furthermore, options like these sometimes require the user to download more software or they are sent to another website to watch the video.
JamboCast’s various embedded video players keep the visitors at your site and provide the video content to them in an easy to control and view format. The players are slick and fit right into your site. We also allow for various customization options such as color, font, style and more.
Our one goal is to enable every website with video. It is Internet video’s Manifest Destiny, so grab your stake and claim your land in the exciting world of online video.
