I just got back from a meeting with a traditional media publication who’s starting to test online video content as part of their offering to readers (and soon to be viewers). Like most traditional publications they have taken a very conservative approach, but I can’t fault them for at least trying and to have actually gone out and purchased the necessary video equipment and licenses to produce the content. One of their team members shared that they struggle on how to best monetize the content and how to bring the ‘right eyeballs’ that advertisers want to reach.
The same type of concerns were also discussed during a panel discussion yesterday titled, “Online Video: Beyond the 30-second spot” as part of Marketing Week. The discussion was lead by Ryan Hystead, Sales Strategies at Yahoo! Canada who shared that 78% of Canadian Internet users consume some type of video content. Part of the benefit that we have here in Canada is our large broadband penetration which hovers just above 50%, as well technology standardization has also played a big factor. It has become easier for users to consume the content with players such as Real Player, Windows Media Player and Apple’s QuickTime. Social media tools have turned the web into a social platform where content can now be discovered, shared and expanded through comments from the community.
Marketers, you have a great opportunity ahead of you, this is still the “early days” of online video content, the rules of the game are still being written in front of us which means that you have an opportunity to partner with content creators and or more than just buy ads and pray for an ROI. Countless examples were shown of online video content that was created where the ads were part of video to create a user experience. As Troy Young, CMO of VideoEgg said “to say it is a good time is optimistic, it is a time of change. People expected the same experience they were used to from television, it isn’t about a 30 second piece of humour. It has been hard to get people to adjust their reality.”
The days of the stand alone television program are gone! People on the Internet (of all ages), want a better experience, IPTV is getting closer to a being a reality, the most important thing to understand is choice, give users choice of the length of video, experiment with different options.”
So the answer is yes, online video can be monetized in 2009, whether or not it will depends on the ability for both sides of the equation to think outside of the both and start to experiment until the right formula based on the defined audience helps create an experience to give an ROI that everyone can agreed to – content creator, advertiser and most importantly consumers.
