The Digital Video Committee (DVC) at the IAB released VAST 2.0 in November 2009, wishing it would take the video advertising market a vast step forward. At first glance, the list of VAST 2.0 compliant companies might seem a bit slim so to set the record straight on adoption rate and where VAST really stands, here’s the latest lowdown.

Does today’s momentum reflect a good adoption rate for VAST? The list of VAST 2.0 ready companies seems a bit short, but when you consider the amount of players in the digital community, it’s important to remember that this list only includes companies that already implemented VAST 2.0 and overlooks those that are committed to incorporating VAST 2.0 by the end of 2010. Based on conversations with different parties in the video advertising market, we expect this list to look completely different within the next 9 months. From an adoption cycle perspective, it’s not surprising that a majority of the companies are technology vendors and ad networks as we expect them to be the early adopters of the VAST standards. The next step in the adoption chain will be for publishers. Just a few days ago, ADTECH – AOL advertising’s ad serving platform, announced it implemented both VAST and VPAID standards. Moreover, although the list is short we see that some key companies already implemented VAST 2.0. – Hopefully this will lead everyone else to follow.

Can we afford to take our time? Not really. As ad spending for in-stream video is expected to grow and more dollars are shifted from TV to digital channels, VAST and VPAID will play a critical role and the adoption of these standards will increase momentum.

With VAST and VPAID now published, there’s a small window of opportunity to build momentum and reach an adoption level that can open up the online video space. It is in our hands now…

What’s the word outside the US? Historically, the IABs in Europe adopted the IAB US standards. Just last month, the IAB’s video council in the UK, announced it had received the backing of publishers and broadcaster members to enforce the VAST 2.0. More specifically, UK publishers including BSkyB, Channel 4, Microsoft and Telegraph TV have already committed to incorporating the VAST 2.0 standards into their video players in 2010. The adoption from these publishers will result in increased investment from advertisers running campaigns across multiple sites as well as greater efficiency with online video advertising being trafficked and tracked like traditional online display. Get the skinny on the full list of companies in the UK committed to the initiative here. Furthermore, we suspect that global publishers (and technology vendors) like Yahoo will implement the VAST across different operating countries where in addition to the local IABs efforts in Europe, they will set the tone for standards.
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While the business of operating an airline has remained more or less the same in the last decade, the business of selling airline tickets and filling up the seats has changed dramatically. In the past, travel agents typically acted as intermediaries between passengers and airlines. Nowadays, many ‘in the flesh’ travel agents have been replaced by browsers, online travel agents and airline websites.

In a recent survey, about 34% of US internet users indicated that they used the Internet to research airfares. According to the survey, this is the most popular travel related research done online. An industry study indicates that 2007 was the first year in which online spending on travel in the US has exceeded offline spending.

What better place to advertise airlines than right at the point of sale—online? Airlines are responding quickly and are expected to double their spending on online marketing from $2.5 billion to over $5.0 billion in five years, according to Forrester.

For the purpose of this study, Eyeblaster Research crunched the results of hundreds of millions of airline impressions worldwide. The results suggest that using Rich Media more than doubles the direct response effectiveness of airline campaigns, both in terms of CTR and of Conversion Rate. Homepages, travel, news and finance have the best performance in terms of conversion rate.

For branding campaigns, news, travel, finance, and instant messaging are the best performing environments in terms of Dwell Rate. This is good news for airlines, as news, finance and particularly travel tend to draw more affluent crowds.

Analyzing the frequency of Standard Banners suggests that the optimal direct response frequency for airlines is ~4 impressions. Still, about 82% of users were underexposed, which means that there is still room to improve targeting and increase the size of campaigns.

Regardless of the aim of the campaigns or the formats and placements, online display advertising offers an indispensable strategic advantage for Airlines. Display advertising is a flexible tool to generate instant demand for yield management. It is now easy, with tools such as Smart Versioning, to align ads and messaging with empty flights, even at the last minute. With the economics of airlines, occupying an empty seat on a flight that is about to take off contributes directly to the bottom line. With this in mind, online display advertising can bring ROI to new heights.

For the full research Digital Advertising for Airlines: Book Every Seat – Even the Middle Ones, click here to download.

Ariel Geifman, Research Analyst

We are pleased to bring you an illuminating interview with Matt “Coop” Cooper, Partner at Neoganda who shares insights on how to improve engagement with users and the challenges facing creative shops in today’s market.


What needs to be changed in order to achieve ultimate engagement with users?
As a creative shop it’s important that we listen and clearly understand what our clients want to hit their campaign objectives. By the same token, advertisers have to watch closely to what the users are actually doing online so they can most effectively advertise and market their product. This last decade was full of so many technical innovations that with many it’s created the expectation, in the digital world, that good work must be predicated on some type of technical gimmick. Sometimes I feel a certain unit may have so many features packed into it that it only serves to dilute the message or simply confuse the user. Unlike print or broadcast, in digital, we have so many options for engagement that it can become somewhat overwhelming.
So to answer to the question, keep it simple and keep it focused. Firstly, exclusive video. Lately there’s been a trend to drop the 15 second TV spot as an initial banner. But, if people are skipping ads on the television, where it was meant to be shown, then why would they watch it online smaller and at a lower quality? We think online ads should feature, video that already exists but can’t be found anywhere else, or custom tailored content. For example, we did an ad for Good Luck Chuck where we featured a 7 second clip of Jessica Alba introducing the trailer to her new movie. With that footage running as the initial banner we were able to triple the interaction benchmark.
Secondly, define your campaign objective. When we look at the metrics we tend to see high video completion rates but very low interaction rates with any other items on the nav. That seems to indicate a couple of things. One, that users like to watch video in online ads, and two, users tend to look at what is put right in front of them, i.e. the default panel. What that means is that we the creative agency and the client need to make an informed decision at the outset of the campaign about what we want to achieve, presenting exclusive video or highlighting a special feature, promotion, or sweepstakes. Then, make this the focal point of the ad and the default panel upon expansion.
When incorporating these two points, we can generate two types of ads. One that creates a unique experience for the user that features video which cannot be found anywhere else, and the other is a more immersive or interactive based ad that gives the user an opportunity to feel like a part of the experience. Ultimately, these two executions will create both a better experience for the user and a higher interaction rate for the advertiser.


What is your favorite brand experience and why?

We just did the international campaign for Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 and really enjoyed developing the units in Workshop. Eyeblaster’s API has just 15 methods. The thought and restraint that the Eyeblaster team used when creating the EB object has made the learning process so much easier for me and my team at Neoganda. Workshop and the API have a certain economy that is hard to find in a mature product. I know that wasn’t an accident so thanks for meeting us half way. One last favorite thing would be that we can actually get you guys on the phone if there’s ever an issue. Answers to our questions came back in the form of a friendly voice, not a color coded email from support staff in another state. Thank you!

What is your idea about the perfect working day?
Any day that you’re working is a good day. With so many people struggling right now I’m sure it sounds corny, but I appreciate my clients and have a lot of gratitude for every project that comes through the door.

Your muse best comes when?
This is risky to admit as I’d hate to set myself up, but the best ideas we’ve had have many times been the result of a pure lack of assets. When the entire job is handed to you on a silver platter—which can happen if you’re strictly digital—you tend to treat the project as more of a craftsman and less like a creative. Your goal becomes more about porting established creative into bite size pieces that can be easily digested online. When a client comes to you with a real problem, that’s when the muse comes. Well, at least that’s what you hope after you hang up the phone!

Do you think the recession is still having an impact on your business?
The business, as we experience it, has adapted to something far more fast paced. I think it always felt like a mad dash before, but lately we are working on a lot of campaigns that allow just 3 to 5 days for production. The entire timeline has collapsed, not just with the creative agency, but with the media company, rich vendor, and even the publishers. I can’t see how we’ll ever go back so it’s going to be important for us all to build in as much efficiency into the system as possible.


How did you start working in digital advertising?
Years ago, I was a comedian and traveled around performing my act on cruises and at colleges around the country. I built my first self-promotional website in 1995 after Netscape 1.0 was released. “The Net” magazine (now defunct) nominated my site as one of the top 100 websites of the year. I was hooked. In 1999, I was ready to settle down and get a real job so the choice was obvious.

Who is your mentor/who do you admire?
Anyone who creates.

As Facebook works feverishly this year to hammer out its business model, it should consider that the three most profitable online media companies in the U.S. (Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!) all rely on advertising revenue for their businesses. Moreover, advertising has furnished a reliable business model for every electronic medium in U.S. history and there is no reason to think that online social networking platforms will be the exception. With this in mind, Facebook should look into different ways to enable advertisers to place rich, engaging content on the site that users could share with their friends. Allowing brands to place shareable rich content on the site could also play into the company’s recently launched virtual currency program (“Facebook Credits”). The company could permit advertisers to “sponsor” Facebook Credits of users who share the sponsor’s ads with their friends. In this way, the company could generate revenues from both advertising and its virtual currency while more effectively monetizing the myriad of social interactions that occur between users on the site.

Currently, Facebook allows only site-served ads and a strictly limited set of formats. Facebook’s rationale behind its decision to limit the creativity of advertisers in this way is that it ensures a sleeker user experience. Moreover, the company clearly believes that the enhanced relevancy of the ads (since they’re served by the site which has access to all user profile data) will make them engaging despite their rudimentary content. However, relevant does not equal engaging. People share content because it’s entertaining. Conversely, people will often fail to notice boring content, even if it’s ‘relevant.’ The narrow range of creative formats Facebook offers allows little room for truly rich engaging user experiences. Thus, in its effort to create less intrusion, Facebook has in fact enabled the placement of boring content that actually clutters the user experience – despite the fact that it’s targeted for relevancy.

In conclusion, as it searches for a profitable business model, Facebook should proceed as follows. First of all, it should look to emulating profitable online media companies in the U.S. market. Second, it should remember that relevant does not equal engaging and users will ignore even the most targeted ads if they’re not entertaining. I have suggested one strategy the company could use to monetize content sharing by allowing advertisers to place rich engaging ads on the site that users could, by sharing the content, use to earn Facebook Credits sponsored by advertisers. However this is just one approach among many other, equally valid, and equal in quantity to the myriad of ways that users interact on Facebook.



Sean Gelles, Manager, Product Planning

While data drives display advertising and allows advertisers to serve specific ads to specific users and change messaging to users who have viewed your message before, advertisers are still relatively blind to users behind search. This is one of the topics discussed at i-com International Conference on Online Media Measurement in Portugal this week.
According to Chris Copeland, CEO of GroupM search in the US, the problem of lack of visibility to the searcher is still masked by the outstanding Direct Response performance of search. “One of the problems is that without the third party ad serving, there are extreme limitations in attribution and bidding. Without third party serving it is hard to attribute the search to other media and to value the consumer based on the information that we know about him.”
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