in-stream video - it's what consumers want

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In-Stream Video - It's What Consumers Want

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Introduction

Online Video Universe

Metrics

One video – any screen. MediaMind is actually making that idea a reality. One platform and workflow to manage, serve and track your video assets to all the engagement points you want to leverage – that’s MediaMind.

Worldwide, we analyzed more than 1 billion in-stream video ad serving template (VAST) impressions worldwide during the first six months of 2012, which received an overall click-through rate (CTR) of 2.84%. In addition, we analyzed nearly 2 billion video player-ad interface definition (VPAID) impressions. VPAID experienced a lower overall CTR than VAST but solid interaction rates: 1.63% and 9.57%, respectively. VPAID allows, and captures, in-video user interactions; as a result, they don’t always require a click-through.

MediaMind is compliant with the latest Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standards including digital video ad serving template (VAST 3.0) and digital video player-ad interface definition (VPAID), so you know you’re getting the best ad serving technology out there.

Video is an essential part of a marketer’s repertoire, and online and mobile usage is growing. In August 2012, comScore reported that more than 1.2 billion internet users watched almost 200 billion online videos worldwide in June 2012. comScore excludes mobile devices, but other data shows that users are becoming less reliant on TV and computers for watching online video.1

According to Nielsen’s May 2012 “Global Online Consumers and Multi-Screen Media: Today and Tomorrow” report, 74% and 57% of internet users worldwide reported watching online and mobile video in Q3 2011, respectively, a slight increase in both categories over 2010. In addition, more internet users watched video on computers (84%) than TV (83%) for the first time. Other devices with potential internet connections also had significant audiences, including non-phone handheld devices (36%), game consoles (33%) and tablets (28%).2

A lot has been said about the value of different metrics in online advertising. To name a few, CTR, interaction rate, dwell rate, conversions and more all have their strengths and weaknesses, proponents and detractors. In this research we focus on analyzing the common metrics available for each video format. For both VAST and VPAID, we measured CTR and completion rates. In addition, VPAID allows us to analyze the interaction rates at the ad level.

1 comScore, August 2012 http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2012/8/Introduction_of_Online_Video_Measurement_in_Taiwan_Vietnam_Indonesia_and_the_Philippines2 Nielsen, May 2012 http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-downloads/2012-Reports/Nielsen-Multi-Screen-Media-Report-May-2012.pdf

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Data & Analysis

VAST Results

Based on an analysis of approximately 3 billion video ad impressions served across the MediaMind video ad network, we found that both in-stream VAST and VPAID had significantly higher click-through rate (CTR) and interaction rates (VPAID only) than banners and rich media.

As expected, CTR by format stepped up along with the use of video - ranging from 0.10% for standard banners without video to 0.26% for rich media with video.

In-stream VAST ads are commonly seen by online video viewers and have some of the highest CTR rates compared to other online ads. According to comScore, internet users watched almost 36.9 billion videos and 9.6 billion in-stream video ads during July 2012 in the US. Those ads reached approximately 51.6% of the US population.3

MediaMind analyzed a sample of more than 1 billion impressions worldwide during the first six months of 2012 and found that in-stream VAST‘s CTR of 2.84% was 27.4 times the rate of standard banners, and almost 12 times that of rich media.

3 comScore, August 2012 http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2012/8/comScore_Releases_July_2012_U.S._Online_Video_Rankings

Figure 1: Click-through Rate by Format

5.00%

4.00%

3.00%

2.00%

1.00%

0.00%Standard Banner RM without Video RM with Video In Stream VPAID In Stream VASTRM All

0.10% 0.22% 0.21% 0.26%

2.84%

1.63%

Source: MediaMind; Figure 2 excludes EyeWonder and Unicast

Figure 2: VAST CTR Over Time

3.50%

3.00%

2.50%

2.00%

1.50%

1.00%

0.50%

0.00%Q1 2011 Q3 2011 Q4 2011 Q1 2012 Q2 2012Q2 2011

0.77%

1.30% 1.35%

1.77%

3.09% 3.05%

In addition, the data shows that as the industry has standardized the implementation of in-stream VAST ads, CTR increased from 0.77% in Q1 2011 to 3.05% in Q2 2012, and topped out at 3.09% in Q1 2012.

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VPAID Interaction

According to the IAB, the April 2012 VPAID standard attempts to accomplish three goals: standardize video ad supply technology across publishers, ad servers and networks; provide common creative specifications for advertisers; and to improve video ad supply liquidity. 4

Among the ads analyzed, VPAID experienced a lower overall CTR than VAST– 1.63% vs. 2.84%. This can be explained from several angles: the campaigns focus on branding rather than direct response; viewers interact within the ad and don’t always click-through; and they are often served within long-form video content (TV shows and movies) where directing viewers to landing pages or dedicated sites is seen as disruptive to the overall viewing experience. However, while CTR for VPAID may be lower, the format allows advertisers to capture data about how, and how often, the viewer interacted with the ad.

The overall interaction rate for VPAID, or the number of interactions divided by the number of impressions, was 9.57%. Interaction rates peaked at more than 500% (5 interactions per ad per campaign) for some of the most impressive campaigns surveyed, but MediaMind excluded campaigns with an interaction rate higher than 30% in order to normalize the aggregate data.

Figure 3: In-Stream VPAID CTR & Interaction Rate

10.00%

8.00%

6.00%

4.00%

2.00%

0.00%In-stream VPAID CTR In-stream VPAID Interaction Rate

1.63%

9.57%

4 For more information, refer to the IAB’s VPAID guidelines: http://www.iab.net/guidelines/508676/digitalvideo/vsuite/vpaid

All of the video ads analyzed, including Rich Media with Video, VAST and VPAID, were between 10 to 30 seconds in length. VPAID ads registered a higher average completion rate than both VAST and rich media, at 68.14% versus 66.21% and 57.87%, respectively.

Figure 4: Video Completion Rates, by Format

57.87%

Rich Media with Video In-stream VAST In-stream VPAID

66.21% 68.14%

Source: MediaMind

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Online video is becoming an important staple of any marketer’s repertoire. In the US alone, eMarketer estimates that 169.3 million internet users will watch video in 2012, and expects that number to increase to 201.4 million by 2016. As marketers continue to chase those growing number of viewers, online video ad spending will increase from $2.93 billion in 2012 to $8.04 billion in 2016, and includes video ad spending delivered via computers as well as mobile devices.

MediaMind’s analysis shows that online video is more effective than rich media in all three metrics measured: CTR, interaction rate and completion rates. While video may take more investment for the initial creative, the benefits are irrefutable, and our unique positioning provides advertisers with one video solution.

Conclusions

MethodologyFor this report, we analyzed approximately 4200 video campaigns with nearly 3 billion impressions worldwide across the MediaMind video ad network from January-June 2012.

in-stream video - it's what consumers want

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