Mashable article on video and SEO really struck a chord with me http://mashable.com/2010/02/01/web-video-seo/
We have been seeing huge interest in our affiliate video product recently launched with our partners at buy.at. This interest has been driven in main by our ability to add affiliate links to hotspots within the video but also because of the impact video is having on search results. I expect to see a lot more on this in the coming months

In the brave new world of online advertising we are able to break convention to deliver great pieces of creative that our target audiences actually want to see and enjoy, so much so that they will seek them out and then share them. This is a world apart from our TV brethren for whom the 30 second rule is indeed golden, if you haven’t sold what you’re selling in 30 seconds then you may as well give up the ghost and go and print something in a newspaper or something even more archaic.

Being free from the old rules means that you can make creative like this piece from Grey London for Toshiba

700,000 people have opted to watch the clip it lasts over a minute and gets across brilliantly the fact that Toshiba are doing some pretty wondrous things with technology. It is a piece of creative that is perfectly suited for online and the 100,000 people who have watched the ‘making of’ video in all of its glory (over 3minutes) probably agree.

Does this mean that everybody should now stop making 30 second spots for TV and now concentrate on making multi-minute masterpieces? No. Of course not, there are still billions of pounds being spent on TV advertising every year and for good reason – it works.

But what happens when that 30 seconds of cinematic glory is re-used online? More often than not it attracts 35 views from the advertiser’s marketing team and then gathers digital dust on the shelf and is never talked about again. The received wisdom is that you simply shouldn’t re-use a TV ad online because it doesn’t work and marks out your advertising as passé. Personally – I think that it is absolutely fine to get the most out of your hard work as long as you make it work for online!.

At Coull we specialise in adding interactivity to a video, making a TV ad as online friendly as possible makes it work harder for you and our recent work for TDC seems to hold this up. Their series of naturist advertisements are generating almost as many interactions as views and that is a stat that any online advertiser would be happy with.

If you haven’t seen enough of them then you can see them all here – http://tdc.dk/reklamefilm/

The acquisition of StudioNow by aol makes a lot of sense to me.The content strategy currently being driven by Tim Montgomery needed the video solution. The issue now is how do they monetise it?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/25/aol-studionow-ted-cahall/

Coull Activator – the first fully integrated video technology for affiliate marketing launches at Affiliate Summit West to drive more income to affiliate programmes

15 January 2010, London, UK – buy.at, the affiliate marketing network, has announced the launch of Coull Activator – a new video affiliate platform developed in conjunction with Coull, the interactive video technology company.

As online video usage soars to its highest ever level[1], Coull Activator will launch at the Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas 17-19 January 2010.

The Coull Activator launch secures buy.at’s position as the first ever global affiliate network to offer online interactive video functionality across its entire affiliate marketing channel.

Available as a free member benefit to the many thousands of buy.at’s merchants and affiliate partners worldwide, including the likes of Ticketmaster and Sky, all videos used through the service will be managed by Coull.  This ensures that affiliate links stay with videos when they are passed around social networks and blogs.

The launch of Coull Activator means that all buy.at affiliates will be able to include interactive video footage on their sites – to further engage and retain customers online, and increase sales.

Key Coull Activator features will enable affiliates to:

• Make any video content interactive on their sites, including their own video footage and approved videos taken directly from YouTube
• Tag individual products and items within videos clips enabling visitors to click through to a dedicated affiliate page
• Generate increased sales and earn commission every time someone clicks on their links within a video
• Access detailed analytics to measure the effectiveness of their videos and affiliate campaigns
• Promote video content across marketing channels, including websites, email forwarding, ad-serving sites and social networks to drive increased visitors, commissions and sales.

To support merchants and affiliates once they start using Coull Activator, buy.at will also be making a library of pre-approved video content available for affiliates to access and upload.  This content will include its advertising back catalogue and sponsored sport interviews.

Paul Fellows, MD of buy.at, said: “In rolling out Coull’s interactive video technology across LittlewoodsDirect.com’s affiliate campaign last year, we saw first hand the impact it can have on product placement and sales.

“Online video directly influences website visibility, encouraging visitors to stay longer, engage and convert.  By teaming up with Coull we are taking the very best in online interactive video right to our affiliates front door.”

Irfon Watkins, CEO of Coull concludes: “Engaging content, especially interactive video is an essential element in generating income for affiliate programmes.  By making sites more interactive, Coull Activator delivers real SEO benefits and will ensure that buy.at’s affiliates are far better placed to increase the visibility of their sites and convert more sales.

“Online video usage is at an all time high around the world.  In the UK alone, the number of online videos viewed in the UK is up 47% compared to last year[2].  As a result, it’s great to team up, yet again, with such a great player in the affiliate market to help their affiliate partners capitalise on the growth and increasing importance of online video, especially when it comes to the bottomline.”

but.at merchants and affiliate partners can sign-up to beta test Coull Activator up until the end of January 2010 by visiting http://www.coull.com/affiliate/register

Coull CEO, Irfon Watkins @Irfonw will be available for interview at Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas where demonstrations of Coull Activator will also be taking place.  Irfon will also be available on Skipe, tweeting and blogging from the event.

Affiliate Summit West is the premier affiliate marketing conference.  Taking place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas, the three day conference includes an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.

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[1] comScore Video Matrix (January 2010) November sees number of U.S. videos viewed online surpass 30b for first time on record.

[2] conScore Video Matrix (July 2009) 4.7b videos viewed online in the U.K. in April 2009 up 47 percent versus a year ago.

Coull and buy.at launch the first fully integrated video product for affiliate marketing.

The Coull Activator lets any buy.at affiliate generate income from any approved video even those from YouTube. It gives your site more interactive content and the SEO benefits that video can bring. The tool is free and easy to use, Coull host and stream the video and your affiliate links will stay with the video when it is passed around social networks and blogs.

Come and see us and buy.at during the Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas 17th-19th January 2010 for a demo or register here to be included in our beta program.

E-marketer posted an article on the mechanics of how a viral video is spread yesterday, you can read it here. It turns out that the most effective way to get someone to watch an online video is to get their friends to tell them to.

Distributing a viral and making it a success is something of a dark art, sure you can seed it in the right places but nothing beats a personal recommendation. After all – The JK Wedding was not seeded, it got an extra bounce when a couple of celebrities started talking about it but the main way that it spread is simply by people talking about it.

The trick that marketers hope to repeat is to get people talking about a video in a way that builds their brand values into the viral. This is a current campaign for TDC in Denmark that our partners GoViral are running. It really doesn’t matter if you can’t speak Danish – it is funny and makes people want to watch, it is obviously an ad and the mechanics are in place to make it easy to spread and share. Have a watch – see what you think and if the mood takes you – go ahead and send it to your friends by clicking the ‘del film’ button. Danish bacon may never seem the same again.

I’ve recently been talking to a lot of agencies about our products and one of the recurrent themes seems to be that advertisers using video are happy as long as their video is viewable on YouTube. In Coull’s opinion – this is missing one of the largest opportunities in online video advertising. If you have a product that you want to sell or an action that you want the user to complete then build that into the video. If a user is interested – allow them to satisfy that interest and if they are at the right point in the purchase funnel then allow them to go and buy without the need to go elsewhere.

Advertisers can be nervous around this concept so to prove that we believe what we preach, we have changed our business model so that the only charges come when a user clicks on the video after it is already playing. We hope that this will encourage agencies and advertisers to make all of their videos work harder for them. After all – if your video isn’t interactive then you aren’t taking full advantage of being online and your lovingly created video will only be as good as the one below for Milky the Cow.

Just read this study, late I know but the numbers are impressive

http://digital-media.net.au/article/online-ad-engagement-25-times-higher-than-click-rate/493542.aspx

“Video saw a 30% lift in engagement over non-video banners with dwell time nearly doubling from 37.37 to 71.51 seconds. With more than one in ten users spending over a minute, video banner advertising may be a popular alternative to intrusive pre-roll advertising.”

eyeblaster have done a great job on this report but why are they and other still charging on a cpm basis?
Surely paying for engagement is the way forward?

Digital Mission to New York is scheduled for 15th – 20th November 2009 and will coincide with the renowned Web 2.0 Expo (16-19th Nov 2009), New York.

This will be the second Digital Mission to visit New York and it’s shaping up rather nicely, building on existing relationships with New York-based entrepeuners, VC’s, agencies and digital practitioners to create a cracking line up of activities.

http://chinwag.com/digitalmission/nyc09

Really looking forward to this. We are just starting to work with clients in New York and I believe interactive video advertising is about to explode.

An interesting article on Ecommerce Journal this morning about Google’s accquisition of On2 Technologies for $106.5 million.  The article makes a lot of relevant points. On2 video’s 8th generation (VP8) brings bandwidth savings far beyond any other format available.  Currently most online video content is Flash using VP6.  Google will be saving a lot of money as the article states in bandwidth costs and license fees alone.

However, we have to assume that most times Google thinks bigger and wider than just the dollars and cents, it thinks in terms of infuence, disruption and market penetration as well.  Google continues to make strategic moves in the video space, it has to.  This accquisition may give Google an immediate edge in terms of cost and quality, it also shows Google’s continuing desire to engage in the video space and to try and diversify and increase its market share.

YouTube may at times seem like the white elephant in the room at Google, but existing video is just content (a canvas) waiting to be “re”created, repurposed, re-energised and monetised.  When the time comes and we have learned and taken up what online video can be, YouTube is going to be another little cash cow for Google, that just ticks in revenue with every impression or the possibility of revenue for every impression.

Google opening and releasing VP8 for general public use or charging fees for it’s use?  Interesting question, but Google will probably see that the benefit of allowing everyone to use their format will profilerate it and therefore profilerate them.

The future is not bright, it is interactive and may be VP8….

How much difference is there to the quality?  See for yourself below.  They do recommend that the video be viewed in fullscreen.  The average internet user is not going to notice much difference really, but it is improvement and we will always strive to improve.

7 August 2008 – Gary Wilson