Thursday, February 22, 2007

Seeing beyond clicks with online video ads

I’ve never been a great fan of online video ads.

And this is NOT because the ad format is inferior. But rather, it’s the execution.

One cannot help but notice that very little effort has been put into creating online video ads for people who actually use the internet for its unique character and capabilities.

I won’t bother pointing out what makes a badly executed online video ad here. Suffice to say, the outright conversion of a TVC to accommodate a 300x250 pixel space does not add any tangible value to the online user (more so when the TV ad is bad to start with!) nor the advertiser.

Given my sentiments on this, I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled into the new Xbox online video ad that uses clips from the Blue Dragon game. Why so?

Well a major reason being, the ad lets the advertiser track customer interaction beyond clicks. A simple polling element within the ad allows for the collection of quantitative data which can be translated into a meaningful piece of information. Giving the audience an option to continue with his or his viewing experience also allows the advertiser to measure how sticky or engaging the ad is. It’s definitely more polite than trying to shove an entire block of TV ad down the throats of the viewers!

I’ve always believed that performance is a function of 3 things - Product, Execution and Media. And this rings even more true now that I’m on the other side of the fence. With every available measure of ROI being important, I find myself looking for more meaningful information other than simple clicks.

So whether it’s about getting that customer info, finding out what they like or dislike, etc - immediately before they click on the ad to visit my website (which may then be more costly and troublesome to execute) - I’m definitely getting my creative and media partners even more involved from now on.

John Ng, Assistant Vice President, Business Development, iBanking

DBS Bank

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