Getting Your Feet Wet with Online Video

I was reminded of the Digital Click benchmark studies this morning when I had to double check the performance benchmarks for new media spurred on by a blog article, The Best Of Both Worlds: Making Online Video And TV Work Together by Brian Mandelbaum in which he advises:

Respect the new medium. The most important aspect to remember when planning an in-stream campaign is that online video is neither simply an extension of TV nor Display. It is its own unique medium that deserves to be respected, studied and understood. Take note of the subtle and overt differences when you plan and use all of its capabilities to make your campaign truly succeed.

He also noted that "video is still primarily a branding vehicle, so invest more heavily where you see brand lift."  From a direct marketing perspective, online video is a perfect response medium, so if your video is awareness bound time to change the way you are thinking about it and get back to the offer, offer, offer - click for something a little better as this ad goes (from folks at Eyewonder who also publishes ad specs).

Then there continues to be the challenge of being found through search as finding precedes engagement, making the online world a challenge for smaller companies with limited budgets because there are three fronts, not one, when it comes to online advertising: Search:Placement:Creative.
With creative comes the challenges mentioned herein and complicated by the need for offer, offer, offer.

As to the Double Click benchmarks (2009 are latest available with 2010 I expect to be published shortly), the rich media benchmarks*, page 5, contrast and compare rich media and video ad performance. Rich media performance improved over video from 2008 so it will be interesting to see what happened for 2010.  Here's one of the excellent charts from the Double Click benchmarks:





*With rich media, you can have ads that expand when users click or roll over, for example, and there are extensive possibilities for interactive content, such as HD video or even the ability to click to make a phone call.