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May 19, 2009
Article

New Chart: Online Tests for Video Ads Still Not Common

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SUMMARY: We asked marketers currently creating video advertising for television or the internet to tell us what information they use to inform the design of new ads. We found that previous results and market research are used by the majority of respondents, but those actively testing video ads online before they roll out big-budget TV campaigns are in the minority.

Online Tests for Video Ads Still Not Common


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Marketers airing just a few TV spots have an easier time attributing sales to ad activity, but big-budget TV ad campaigns tend to have big-budget research to go along with them. Many marketers employ services like Nielsen’s Media Tracking service, or Nielsen IAG Engagement Measurement service to see how well their TV ads fared. While this is certainly a valuable service, and far better than any reporting available just a few years ago, it still requires a significant spend on both media and measurement.

One tactic that many boot-strapping video marketers have tried is to create a portfolio of relatively inexpensive video ads, then test them online before committing major media dollars. The easiest way to do this is to simply post an ad on YouTube and sit back to see what the reaction is. YouTube provides a public forum where your ad can be watched by anyone, commented on, lauded, or mocked. For marketers more concerned with the bottom line than with guarding their reputation, this can be an attractive option. For marketers that do need to protect their brand, however, there are a lot of options for online video testing that won’t result in possible PR disasters.

The availability of cheap ad impressions within online airings of prime-time TV shows offers an excellent opportunity to pre-test TV ads in a safe online environment that most closely approximates the audience and experience of the actual TV program. By using pre/post ad effectiveness surveys instead of public postings to gather results, only the marketer sees the praise or backlash, protecting herself from copycat competitors or bad publicity. Judging by the abundance of house ads and PSAs (a.k.a. unsold inventory) within shows like House, The Daily Show, and The Simpsons on the TV site Hulu.com, buys on these sites will still be relatively cheap. Only 3% of the marketers we surveyed are already doing this, so there’s not likely to be much competition yet either.

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Comments about this Article

May 20, 2009 - Shari Altman of Altman Dedicated Direct says:
Apparently we're not talking here about DR ads. Frankly the fastest way to test DR video ads is test them on TV, at DR rates on stations where similar products or category items have run DRTV ads repeatedly. It's the only way to get a valid, reliable result. Testing a DRTV ad on TV programs run on the web is not representative of the results one would get on TV because the nature of the mindset of the viewer is not the same. In addition, the same programs such as House which are cheap on Hulu, would be unaffordable on TV. Finally, the impressions of YouTube visitors matters not to a DR marketer unless the visitor clicks through to buy the product in the video!


Jun 04, 2009 - Christian of Double Loop Marketing LLc says:
One of the simplest ways to test your video ads online is using YouTube's analytic data. Here's an example of what I mean: http://www.christiansarkar.com/2009/03/how_to_use_youtube_for_market.htm


Jun 21, 2009 - post video online of MBD says:
Thanks to technology online videos are becoming more and more popular.They are great tools to promote products or services,as well as using them as video tutorials .The popularity of You Tube has proven that short video clips return great benefits if done properly.In your marketing effort for a product or a service you have to offer,posting short video clips on multiple video sites and using your ads as video classifieds will return great benefits.As most of those sites are free to use spreading your video on multiple places will save you money and offer more exposure.



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