Popular video bloggers Rhett & Link (click here for their TubeMogul Marketplace profile) have a funny new weekly series, “Surrogate Sharers,” sponsored by Starburst. As the title implies, the videos convey messages too awkward to deliver in person (i.e. “Dude–I’m dating your sister”). Here’s my favorite:
Since we have almost 30,000 users and a great deal of demographic and viewership data, we are increasingly receiving phone calls from companies looking for “brand integration” (product placement) deals with popular new media shows and vloggers. Often, these companies have a specific demographic in mind and are looking for a popular show with a niche audience (perfect for online video). For instance, we recently connected Church & Dwight, who were looking to promote their new product, OxiClean Baby, with Dad Labs (produced by For Your Imagination), a show that showcases Austin, Texas-based dads talking shop about fatherhood.
Sphere: Related Content1 comment June 17th, 2008
In writing a recent article for Alley Insider, Michael asked us if there are any stealth viral video campaigns floating around out there that he could force out of the closet. After consulting our database (which houses over 25,000 content creators) and clicking around, we think (but aren’t certain) that this video, which conspicuously features Stella Artois (owned by mega-conglomerate InBev), is a total shill (not that that’s a bad thing):
The irony here is that “outing” these videos as ads often gets as much buzz as when the video went viral in the first place.
Many independent filmmakers utilize TubeMogul as a tool to deploy their movie trailers, behind-the-scenes filmmaker vlogs, shorts and even feature films, often increasing their viewership and learning more about their audience in the process. Shotgun Stories is an acclaimed film I recently discovered when a user unofficially deployed the film’s trailer via TubeMogul. Interestingly, this trailer is everywhere, posted and re-posted by many passionate fans, attesting to the viral nature of both online video and independent film. Described by Roger Ebert as “a great discovery,” the movie is currently wrapping up a limited theater tour of the U.S. and is also available on DVD.
Film-oriented readers might also be interested in our partnership with IndieGoGo, an online social marketplace that connects filmmakers and fans to make independent film happen.
Musings and an opportunity from our CEO:
Sphere: Related ContentIncreasingly we find ourselves playing matchmaker between video producers and advertisers, investors and video-sharing sites (i.e., “the money”). Sometimes we are simply helping a friend, and other times we consider this an unofficial service for top content creators. It makes sense that TubeMogul would informally fill this role as we are at the nexus of online video – content creators are our customers, video sites are our partners, and advertisers increasingly rely upon our aggregated analytics.
Today, a well known video producer approached us to see if we could help him get a new project funded – a short web series with committed celebrity talent. The project is not yet public, but suffice to say that the celebrity in question would draw a large and targeted audience. Given this, the proven track record of the producer, and the relative low cost to sponsor the series, is anyone else surprised that the project has been difficult to get funded? Get in touch with us if you are “the money” and want a sneak peak at the project.
Here is an insightful article in MediaPost’s Online Video Insider. In it, SpotXchange CEO Michael Shehan talks to Dueno Group, Publicis’ Senior Vice President Tim Hanlon.
There are many great nuggets from this interview. One thing of note is how Hanlon feels that the new medium’s ability to target allows (or will allow) advertisers to focus on quality rather than quantity, which is a huge sea change.
He notes:
…technology allows traditional programmers and ad sellers to offer advertising in a more sophisticated manner. This unbundling has historically been a tightly wrapped packaged of availability, buttressed by a less than elegant measurement system (example, Nielson) that has given us a relatively crude measurement device called ratings, and demographically oriented at that. We are now able to measure more granularly. That brings an increased sophistication of audience definition that goes far beyond a generic grouping.
Hanlon goes on to say that new technologies provide opportunities that make the game “really less about mass and scale and more about targeting and quality…. the only way to achieve the scale that marketers need to be successful is for agencies and marketers to aggregate numerous audiences on their own.”
Clearly this is what the niche content players and micro-television networks like Next New Networks and Revision3 have been thinking for some time. The big questions are:
- Will media buyers agree with this (and when)?
- Will higher quality audiences through better targeting translate into higher CPMs (and when)?
I’ll let you know as soon as I have the answer. Please do the same.
Sphere: Related Content6 comments January 8th, 2008
We were fortunate enough to speak with Greg Baumann a month ago, right about the time he was launching Web Video Report, the new publication on “The Business of Web Video.” Right on! We like that business.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should. Baumann is the editor and comes over from TelevisionWeek (both Web Video Report and TelevisionWeek are publications of Crain Communications). He has already built up a nice library of case studies.
In this particular report, “Price Survey: What Do Web-Video Ads Cost?” comparisons are made about the cost to place a web video ad on various sites. Most sites noted are in the $10-$40 CPM range, with Myspace at $25 CPM, Break.com and Metacafe both ranging from $10-$35 CPM, No Good TV at $10-$40, and WSJ.com at $90 CPM. YouTube has a $50K requirement within 90 days, with a homepage roadblock at $100K per day.
Great info, Greg!
Sphere: Related Content1 comment December 19th, 2007
WellcomeMat put out an interesting blog post recently titled, “The Beginning of the End for User Generated Video?” In it, they basically state that the reluctance of advertisers to plop down money in UGC will kill the space, and that moves by ManiaTV.com and recently Brightcove.tv are indicators of what is to come.
This is certainly not a bad hypothesis to make. The industry does need ad dollars to survive. However, it appears to us that a growing number of independent content creators are getting better and better at producing quality content, and this trend will continue as better tools become accessible for less cash and the availability of how-to information make it easier to hone one’s film-making skills. There are valuable brands being created as episodic/serial content that are in fact user generated videos. And more are on the way.
In addition, the lack of advertising dollars isn’t just about brand risk - being paired next to unfavorable content. It’s also about a perception that there aren’t enough video impressions to make the spend. This could change, though, if growth in viewing habits continue, if more data comes in on the value of an online video impression vs. impressions in other media, or if advertisers realize the viewership of a single piece of content is far greater than what is seen on one video site. Or maybe advertisers won’t even have to realize these things… maybe they’ll simply need to place bets in online video because the majority viewers they are targeting are found getting video content online.
Sphere: Related Content3 comments December 6th, 2007