People taking up the matter of online video advertising for the first time usually try to understand which format is better and in what context so as to make the right choices when the time comes and they have to advertise their brand. However, in their long years of practice, marketers have discovered that there is no question of which format is wrong or right, but which one is best suited for a certain situation.
This means that, although a comparison between in-stream and in-banner forms of online video advertising may be futile, it is still a great way of finding out more about each of them and of better understanding them. Learning more about the mechanisms behind these formats can help us put them to better use.
Before setting off on this semi-academic quest to define the online video advertising formats, let us start by clarifying the perspectives. It is best to differentiate between the way in which marketers see these ads and the way in which they are perceived by viewers. What viewers may perceive as being less invasive, marketers may think of as being inefficient and vice-versa.
In the eyes of marketers
To marketers, the most important aspect consists in getting the message out there. Some of the methods they prefer may be irritating to viewers. This means that the points of view about what is a good way to advertise will differ considerably.
Marketers will also benefit from websites whose policy implies that the ads are not skippable. This means that most users have no choice but to let the ad play in the video and most of them simply learn to disregard the ads completely. This, however, does not mean that they will be completely oblivious to what the ad says.
Online video advertising specialists consider that in-banner ads are much easier to traffic. Therefore, they are able to build a different type of relationship between consumers and brands, in a more subtle way. After all, it can still reach the same places a video can and even more.
The thing about in-banner ads is that the hook must be pretty interesting for viewers to want to click on the ad and follow the links to places where they can purchase, fill forms, sign up etc. This is the real catch! Coming up with something interesting, purely visual, as the sound option must be user initiated, and that will make viewers click on it.
Stay tuned for our next post and see how viewers see in-banner ads, followed by a comparison of the two formats of online video advertising.
