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.

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