Hey there, digital crew. My name is Nate Gosselin and I’m an account manager here at the social video mothership. Over the next few weeks I’ll be joining my fellow Sharethrough homies in chatting up the blogosphere about the experience transitioning from major advertising and media agencies to startup land.
“So, why are you so excited to be on the frontlines of digital advertising?”
Glad you asked, rhetorical friend. Aside from a general tendency to geek out on tech (along with music, good food, design and Arsenal FC), I have also spent the majority of my career elbow-deep in digital.
Before Sharethrough, I was an account guy at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for the better part of 3 years. While I was there, I spent my time driving the business and creative strategy behind Sprint’s digital forays in the sports world. We produced a wide variety of creative work, from banners to microsites to (you guessed it) long-form video content. It was exciting stuff, but eventually I had to scratch the uniquely San Franciscan itch of working at a tech startup.
Enter Sharethrough.
One of the things I love about working at Sharethrough is that we are helping to build and define a growing (and increasingly vital) avenue for brands to interact with the public. There is so much conversation between brands and devotees in the social video space that it often feels that there has been a shift from brands just influencing culture to brands and the public creating it side by side. It’s exciting to be at a place that is not only on the cutting edge of media technology but also constructing a forum for culture creation.
Plus, our kitchen is stocked. Truth.
So that’s me in a nutshell. Can’t wait to get into the nitty gritty with you all.
So, our last two blogs covered 1) me and 2) the birth of video online. In this blog post, I’m going to dig deeper into specific types of emerging digital video types. This is a fun blog topic, so, if nothing else, you can just watch the videos and laugh, then forward them along to your friends and take credit for their awesomeness.
Webisodes
Webisodes are a series of short videos that are produced for the web specifically. Today, webisodes are seamlessly integrated into our weekly (or daily, for most of us) video consumption online. We probably watch webisodes often, and don’t even realize it. But, there was a time when the concept of a webisode was super duper novel. And that time was in 2004. Red vs. Blue is a series of comic science fiction videos and is credited for introducing the information superhighway with “webisodes.” Let’s skip down Nostalia Lane with the first ever episode of Red vs. Blue:
Since then, many producers have been creating webisodes, as well as dedicated websites for web-only video content, such as FunnyOrDie.com. Here is my most favorite webisode series of all time, ever ever, called Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. Please do enjoy, the please proceed to watch the entire series for the next two hours of your oh-so productive work day…
Digital Shorts
We love digital shorts. They are distributed digitally, and they are short, which makes them perfect for daytime “video snacking”. We 9-5ers out there don’t have time to watch a full 30 minute show, but a 5 minute short? Yes please. Bring on 6 of them, even.
SNL is a master of the digital short phenomenon, with hits including Dick in a Box, I’m on a Boat, Jizz in my Pants, and a gazillion more. Their first big one (by first, I mean, in my world anyways), was Lazy Sunday. Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious.
Brand Videos
Brand videos are like digital shorts, but created by a brand advertiser. This is the air we breathe at Sharethrough. If produced (and distributed) well, brand videos can create cultural impact at the same level of non-branded Digital Shorts. Companies are now increasingly turning to online video to help re-brand and re-introduce their brands into the mainstream conversation. Lego is a great example; they have developed a number of incredible short videos, including Cl!ck and Brick Thief. Captain Morgan also gets a best-in-class nod with their hilarious brand videos like Workout and Glass.
Some of the most popular brand videos from this year were from Old Spice, Smart Water with Jennifer Aniston, Capital One with Justin Timberlake, and this one from K Swiss featuring Kenny Powers (which gets my vote for “most likely for Davina to bust open a laptop and play this video on her laptop during a dinner party since it’s THAT entertaining” category). Mind Kenny’s words of wisdom: “Don’t smell like shit.”
UGC Videos as Ads
The idea of a UGC video is nothing novel, we’ve been making UGC videos since Little Jimmy made a funny face while he pooped himself in 1972. But, the idea of UGC videos for brands…now that is pretty novel, don’t you think? For a brand to trust users to deliver a brand message, is high-five worthy. Then again, as you can imagine, most videos end up being just like Jimmy’s diaper, poopy.
Some brands have dabbled in UGC ad contests, such as Kraft Foods, Unilever and Heinz. Here’s some highlights:
There you have it. And…
Welcome back to our blog series featuring Sharethrough’s former media agency superstars. Today, Davina Chall walks us down memory lane and covers the advent of video advertising for media buyers.
To give you a sense of just how much of a digital marketing O.G. I really am, I’m going to do a quick history lesson on online video advertising. Join me, will you?
First things first, before video came along, marketers advertised on the internet using pay-per-click text links and banner ads. Wanna know a fun banner fact? The 468×60 banner ad was the first banner placed on the internet, and it is now largely obsolete ever since the bigger and better leaderboard started kicking so much 468×60 ass. These days the 300×250 is the Chuck Norris of the internet banner space…but I digress. Banners transitioned into pop-ups and pop-unders. Remember those annoying little buggers? Incidentally, it was in/around the “pop-up” era that I actually decided to join the online advertising world; I guess I’ve come a long way on what I deem “fascinating.”
But, we all agree the pop-up model was annoying, and doomed to be a quick, dying trend in the online ad space. And it was.
Now, onto video…
Introducing online video advertising into digital media plans was an exciting time. It was like trying to play Super Mario Brothers without a Nintendo console. We had the game, everyone was stoked about the game, the game was all that anyone talked about, everyone was ready to throw all their old games away, and we all wanted to play the game SO bad, but…we didn’t have the NES to play the game on.
The pioneers to adopt video prerolls (and mid and post rolls, which are the less popular kin of online video ads parents) were premium publisher sites. Since these sites already had video content online, introducing video advertising alongside their content seemed like an easy enough sell. It was and it wasn’t. Either way, it happened.
Autoplay preroll had been the leading video ad format for years and years. Advertisers ran :10 or :15 or :30 video ads, most of which were repurposed TV ads for the internet. (Future Blog Post Spoiler: Why using repurposed TV ads for the internet has major disadvantages). In fact, today, preroll is still the predominant video ad format online.
But guess what? Pre-roll advertising formats were developed before the web had fully gone social. Guess what else? New video ad placement types have been created and they get along a lot better with today’s social web.
And, what a tease, I’m going to end on that note. In the coming days, get excited as I break down a bunch of new video trends and examples.Disclaimer: I know there are a bunch of ad formats I missed along the way, such as this little niche market of media called AdWords. But….you get the point.
Friends of the Sharethrough Blog,
Inside the hallowed walls of Sharethrough HQ we boast a wealth of former media agency veterans. Social video advertising is a complicated new animal for media agencies and thankfully Sharethrough has these media experts in the house to help guide our way and communicate our vision and services. While they might have moved on from their media agency careers, the experience of working in media is far from forgotten, so we thought we would introduce a new series on our blog to talk about their past experiences, lessons learned, lessons un-learned and whatever else pops into their heads.
And to kick it off, we’ll introduce Davina Chall.
Hi, Davina Nazarian Chall here, and I work in Sharethrough Marketing. I’ve been around to see the full history of Online Video Advertising Online; and am looking to forward sharing my thoughts on the history, trends, creativity I’ve seen in this space. I know what you are thinking. But who IS Davina? What’s her background? Why am I going to grow to love her? Well, here goes…
