The results a the recent study called “Frames of Reference: Online Video Advertising, Content and Consumer Behavior,” reveals that assumptions about embedded video ads aren't universally practiced.
It's been communicated just about everywhere that Web surfers won't sit through a 30-second ad while waiting for a video to roll. While that is still true in some cases, it's not true in all.
For example, the study found that in reference to user-generated clips, the shorter ads will continue to be the best way to offer them. But in the case of news, for instance, people don't mind having longer pre-roll video ads before the clip.
"We went into the study thinking that [15s] would do a better job. The people who had actually viewed the [30s], those ads had more of an effect in brand consideration and relevance," said Pam Horan, president of the OPA, a not-for-profit trade organization. "What we have found is if you're trying to drive one of the key metrics, which is brand consideration, the :30 ad turned out to be very effective, although it may be counterintuitive."
The study found that length of ads, as far as measuring relevance of ads and brand consideration, 30 second ads definitely outperformed the others. With the 30 second ad, relevance increased by 30 percent, with brand consideration increasing by 23 percent.
Of those particpating in the survey, 80 percent said that they've viewed online video ads, and a little over 50 percent said they took an action as a result of the ad they viewed. Of those actions, 31 percent visited the advertiser's website; 15 percent went to their physical store; and 12 percent ended up purchasing something.
People were also more apt to take actions on branded media sites with video ads, than they were on user-generated sites or portals with video ads.
Part of what this tells me is people have been socialized into expecting ads on news related video from their television days, so it seems it is expected and accepted online as well. At the same time, user-generated media started with no ads, and so probably won't respond to much more than short video ads embedded in their favorite short-form videos.
The other thing is that early adopters in relationship to technology are usually young males, who are notorious for their short attention spans. Now that the general population is also getting more involved with watching online video, they bring their personal characteristics with them of longer attention spans, and being used to watching ads in relationship to professional content.
We need to be very careful at this stage of online video ad growth to assume anything at all. We're really at the birthing process of the trend, and it will take years before we really find out how it all shakes out.
I do think it's safe to assume that shorter, user-generated clips should have shorter ads, and longer-form, professional content can use longer ads.
More than likely, once more professional content comes online, and experimentation with user-generated clips becomes prevelant, we'll get a better picture on how things fragment from there.
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