There is currently a huge shift happening in the manner that Rich Media advertising is being approached. The swing is happening due to technological developments that are being driven by innovation and new ways of thinking about advertising online as a whole. At this current stage in the progression I am going to call this new order - Dynamic Adverts - although I'm sure once it finds its feet that a name will declare itself.
Currently Creative Agencies and Media Agencies are having to create multiple variants of adverts depending on language, video, text, text changes and various other factors. In the past the best way to deal with this was to use XML (or even better some sort of chain of XML) but everyone learnt very quickly that this can have issues. Firstly the servers the XML needs to be on must be so robust it is rare that anyone except the large companies could host them without the server crashing due to the amounts of requests. So therefore the XML was ultimately not as quickly up datable as people would have liked. Then there is the ability to pull in dynamic content on RSS feeds so that the updates would happen without any work required to the advert.
The way the industry is currently moving is into the realms of Dynamic Adverts. This in simplest terms means that an advert could be created that is in essence a shell with all the content ready to be pulled into it. You can then set up as much text, video, images and audio as you want and reference which ones you want to use. It is then possible to swap all the elements of the advert over at the touch of a button (with acceptance from the client, media agency and creative agency if required of course!). This then makes all creatives instantly up dateable whether it is a simple price change, date change or if the entire video has been re-shot and re-edited. It also gets rid of the need to re-make the creative again for this change or for sites to re-test anything as technically it already works.
This then opens up whole new ideas in terms of booking and buying media space and planning campaigns that will run for much longer terms but are still optimisable and updateable during the lifespan of the campaign. For example I could soon see media space being bought in big bulk deals over the space of a few years and then being resold for more money, actually becoming investable space. You buy with the plan to fill the slots and then if they are not getting the desired results, sell the space on for profit. It also means that you can leave the ad tag in the page for a long period of time and the sites need to traffic far less saving them time and money.
Ultimately it means that advertising becomes far less transient and yet more so all in one step, you get the opportunity to use it as you wish rather than being confined by others. You can also start planning much better combined camapigns and swapping elements around to test them and see what gets the best results. Of course everything is completely trackable and so you can see what works best in all areas of your camapign.
Ultimately the whole process of advertising online will change but hopefully away from the more laborious tasks and into giving everyone more time to think about better targetting, niche marketing and inventive ways to utilise the medium. This will be especially true for Creative Agencies as it will allow them much more time in the thinking stages rather than the making stages. Also they can plan to update as more content arises. This should lead to a huge step up in the online advertising world from all apsects and finally a far better grade of creative setting the benchmark.
Friday, November 28, 2008
The Future Of Online Video
Yesterday I attended a conference (Amplified 08) where one of the main sessions was a group discussion about the future of online video. There were people from all areas of the online industry from the BBC & Reuters to start up companies and freelancers. There was quite a heated discussion about the new IP TV companies and the way that the larger Old Order companies (BBC, ITV, Channel 4......) were dealing with the future of video online. However everyone seemed to me to be approaching this question from the wrong angles.
All the discussion and points raised related to how to move the structures that already exist over into the online domain. However, I personally feel, that everyone seems to be asking the wrong questions. The reason that Online excels so dramatically is in its ability to include interaction. I know from so many advertising campaigns in the past that linear video works on the internet far less well than non linear - allowing people to choose their desired content or make bespoke versions of other peoples work is what online users expect and is what the community feels is a pre-requisite in most areas.
What I mean by this is that people need to start looking at online video as a different medium to TV or film video as there is a wealth that can be achieved in new and dramatic manners that will engage the audience in a far stronger way. As one example - Adobe are releasing a new tool that gives you the assets (full scenes) so that you can choose how long you want scenes, which camera angles you wish to use, what sort of size you would like to render the video out to (depending on your requirements, online, TV, HD, projections etc...) so you can tailor the content to exactly what you want. This then runs alongside all the new technology that enables you to embed video or 'widget' it to your social network. Users can then make their own bespoke version of videos and therefore build a far stronger bond with the Band/Brand/Clothing range that the video is for making users feel part of that brand which is what they are doing with YouTube videos through their own conviction without anyone making anything new to provide this ability. What the audience wants we should give them.
This copies over into all areas of video for example if you are watching sport you can decide which camera angles you want ie: keep a close view on your favourite player. Or choose to have multiple windows open watching different views that you can drage to resize as you watch. Or have an action replay open while you still watch the over all game to see if it was a good decision by the referee. Even this example seems very un-inventive when you actually start questioning what is feasible with video online.
This mentality then needs also to be applied to other online areas such as Music, Text and as all the cultural movements within Art over the last half a century have been moving far more into 2nd level artistry than originating ideas and this is a shift that everyone has become accustomed to culturally. Therefore we all need to embrace others taking our work, bastardising it and making something new from it, feeling complimented that it was of a standard and style good enough for others to want to evolve to a new level themselves, rather than fearing that they might do something better than you did originally.
Ultimately it all come back to the thinking that "recording songs from the radio" never killed the music industry and when you can record something in one programme as you listen to it in another then this worry really does become redundant. We all need to shift our thinking into seeing these things we create as tools for others to use - in the same way Kraftwerk did for hip-hop in the early years of sampling or Andy Warhol did with house hold items. Feel proud that part of your work has influenced another into doing something similar and then take from others work and evolve those. As a wise Buddha once told me - "The amateur borrows, the genius steals".
So ultimately we need to stop trying to shoehorn the old ideals into online and embrace what is so amazing about this new media. We need to start to utilise these progressions in video that will lead the way in making online video excel at the same time as actually offering something new that means revenue creation, rather than doing something not quite as good as you could get from tv (and I don't even want to start talking about tracking and fullscreen that then pushes tv to the side completely and makes it increasingly redundant).
I personally think this is the direct future of online video and we need to start catering for it now.
All the discussion and points raised related to how to move the structures that already exist over into the online domain. However, I personally feel, that everyone seems to be asking the wrong questions. The reason that Online excels so dramatically is in its ability to include interaction. I know from so many advertising campaigns in the past that linear video works on the internet far less well than non linear - allowing people to choose their desired content or make bespoke versions of other peoples work is what online users expect and is what the community feels is a pre-requisite in most areas.
What I mean by this is that people need to start looking at online video as a different medium to TV or film video as there is a wealth that can be achieved in new and dramatic manners that will engage the audience in a far stronger way. As one example - Adobe are releasing a new tool that gives you the assets (full scenes) so that you can choose how long you want scenes, which camera angles you wish to use, what sort of size you would like to render the video out to (depending on your requirements, online, TV, HD, projections etc...) so you can tailor the content to exactly what you want. This then runs alongside all the new technology that enables you to embed video or 'widget' it to your social network. Users can then make their own bespoke version of videos and therefore build a far stronger bond with the Band/Brand/Clothing range that the video is for making users feel part of that brand which is what they are doing with YouTube videos through their own conviction without anyone making anything new to provide this ability. What the audience wants we should give them.
This copies over into all areas of video for example if you are watching sport you can decide which camera angles you want ie: keep a close view on your favourite player. Or choose to have multiple windows open watching different views that you can drage to resize as you watch. Or have an action replay open while you still watch the over all game to see if it was a good decision by the referee. Even this example seems very un-inventive when you actually start questioning what is feasible with video online.
This mentality then needs also to be applied to other online areas such as Music, Text and as all the cultural movements within Art over the last half a century have been moving far more into 2nd level artistry than originating ideas and this is a shift that everyone has become accustomed to culturally. Therefore we all need to embrace others taking our work, bastardising it and making something new from it, feeling complimented that it was of a standard and style good enough for others to want to evolve to a new level themselves, rather than fearing that they might do something better than you did originally.
Ultimately it all come back to the thinking that "recording songs from the radio" never killed the music industry and when you can record something in one programme as you listen to it in another then this worry really does become redundant. We all need to shift our thinking into seeing these things we create as tools for others to use - in the same way Kraftwerk did for hip-hop in the early years of sampling or Andy Warhol did with house hold items. Feel proud that part of your work has influenced another into doing something similar and then take from others work and evolve those. As a wise Buddha once told me - "The amateur borrows, the genius steals".
So ultimately we need to stop trying to shoehorn the old ideals into online and embrace what is so amazing about this new media. We need to start to utilise these progressions in video that will lead the way in making online video excel at the same time as actually offering something new that means revenue creation, rather than doing something not quite as good as you could get from tv (and I don't even want to start talking about tracking and fullscreen that then pushes tv to the side completely and makes it increasingly redundant).
I personally think this is the direct future of online video and we need to start catering for it now.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
If You Were Reincarnated As An Animal, What Would You Be?
You may think this question falls into the realms of the 'first-date-awkward-silence-filler'. Oh! sweet ignorance! how wrong you are. For a start, everyone knows that the pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre is a topic which lends itself perfectly to such moments where conversation is needed. But what you might not be aware of is that this question is actually bedfellows with the long-running debate of where to direct your media spend. Let me explain.
Standard media. It's cheap. It's nasty. And much like pigeons, it's everywhere. Of course you'll sometimes be lucky enough to see a Wood Pigeon or Collared Dove, but for the most part it's taking every opportunity to use its one good leg to stagger around, defecating on your browser. When it comes to impressing the lady-folk (i.e. 'convert'), the Pigeon's only game-plan is to rely on there being so many of its type that the law of probability states it will eventually garner some interest. Mass exposure to this poor creature does little to enamor you to what it represents; saturation leads to visual immunisation. When was the last time you remember seeing a Pigeon? I mean really seeing a Pigeon?
Rich media. It's complex. It's engaging. It's the Bowerbird of online advertising. Some Bowerbirds are more beautiful, more graceful than others - it doesn't matter. What matters is that the Bowerbird knows how to impress. It doesn't rely on large numbers to entice prospective suitors like it's more numerous but less impressive cousin the Pigeon. It does this through nest building. And it's not just about how nice the nest looks - it's about what it contains as well. The nest may look like a small hut (MPU with overlay), or like a maypole (expand skyscraper), but its contents will be of a similar colour to the female Bower it's trying to engage with (like DoubleClick's Page Scraping technology, enabling ad content to change dependent on page context). This is the evolution of the species and if you're lucky enough to have ever seen a Bowerbird, you'll definitely remember seeing it. And I mean really seeing it.
So, back to the question: "If you were reincarnated as an animal, what would you be?". Well if you want to get as many impressions as you can for as little money as possible, throw your stale breadcrumbs all over the internet and come back as a Standard pigeon. At least you won't go hungry. But if you want more bang for your buck-shot, you'd better start aiming for Rich Media and return to this World of Online Advertising as a Bowerbird. A Bowerbird with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Internet Advertising First Rather Than An Afterthought: Part 2
Something I have been advising people on when about to depart on a video campaign is the overall process of the filming that will have to happen. What is currently happening is, 1: The TV advert is being used for the online ads and stays in this staid linear fashion and is shoehorned into the ad slot, or 2: After all the offline advertising is planned and executed the online team have to go and film something completely different wasting time and money.
I have been trying to persuade the integrated agencies to start planning their online adverts at the same time as the offline adverts. One way this can save money is by adding a small amount of time to the filming schedule, editing schedule and post production so that ultimately it will save time and money in the long run (I am also persuading more and more to cover off their viewfinder when filming so that the video is filmed perfectly to the size of advert it will be displaying, whether expand or not, and this has made for some far more interesting and valid video adverts). This also means the over all campaign will be far better integrated and not leave online as the poor cousin to the offline adverts when so much more can be gained in return than from any other format.
To go back to my first point the other reason that this is becoming more and more necessary is that the new generation of online users (the // generation as they are quickly becoming known as) do not respond well to linear style videos and are becoming used to having a certain amount of second level artistry that they can apply to videos. Through YouTube and other platforms they are making pastiches of videos or re-editing and changing videos to make their own bespoke version. If the advertisers don't realise this change in the mentality of the younger generation soon and how they want to interact with videos then there is a whole section of the younger generation that they will lose out on passing their message to.
I have been trying to persuade the integrated agencies to start planning their online adverts at the same time as the offline adverts. One way this can save money is by adding a small amount of time to the filming schedule, editing schedule and post production so that ultimately it will save time and money in the long run (I am also persuading more and more to cover off their viewfinder when filming so that the video is filmed perfectly to the size of advert it will be displaying, whether expand or not, and this has made for some far more interesting and valid video adverts). This also means the over all campaign will be far better integrated and not leave online as the poor cousin to the offline adverts when so much more can be gained in return than from any other format.
To go back to my first point the other reason that this is becoming more and more necessary is that the new generation of online users (the // generation as they are quickly becoming known as) do not respond well to linear style videos and are becoming used to having a certain amount of second level artistry that they can apply to videos. Through YouTube and other platforms they are making pastiches of videos or re-editing and changing videos to make their own bespoke version. If the advertisers don't realise this change in the mentality of the younger generation soon and how they want to interact with videos then there is a whole section of the younger generation that they will lose out on passing their message to.
Internet Advertising First Rather Than An Afterthought
Since entering this industry I have only seen a few campaigns planned in a manner that seems entirely sensible in my opinion. The idea was to use a small, very intelligently targeted, pre launch campaign to determine the best way to launch a product or campaign. For example one campaign had four case studies within different sections of the advert and timers associated to each of the sections. The adverts were targeted very precisely to the target audience and then the timer metrics were used afterward to decide which case study had the most interest and the most people looking at it. From there the highest ranking case study was then used in all the offline adverttsing (TV, Print) as they knew it would gain the best response.
In another case three versions of the products packaging were lined up against each other, the goal information and clickthrough results determined which package pushed the consumer to purchase and therefore defined which packaging would work best when the product was fully rolled out.
I think this sort of intelligent planning and use of resource should be utilised far more in camapigns and in the overall plan from the client when launching any product as the internet is the only place you can get these sorts of results pre-campaign and the only place you can target to your exact audience in this manner. Ultimately it will save a lot of wasted money in the long run with a little more forward planning and enable you to get instant results from true market research without any of the bias opinions that most market research usually has to deal with.
So hopefully the planners and the buyers out there will start working far more closely with their clients and creative agencies and start implementing these highly useful pre campiagn testers which gain true results from the real consumer, without swaying their opinions through the knowledge that they are taking part in market research.
In another case three versions of the products packaging were lined up against each other, the goal information and clickthrough results determined which package pushed the consumer to purchase and therefore defined which packaging would work best when the product was fully rolled out.
I think this sort of intelligent planning and use of resource should be utilised far more in camapigns and in the overall plan from the client when launching any product as the internet is the only place you can get these sorts of results pre-campaign and the only place you can target to your exact audience in this manner. Ultimately it will save a lot of wasted money in the long run with a little more forward planning and enable you to get instant results from true market research without any of the bias opinions that most market research usually has to deal with.
So hopefully the planners and the buyers out there will start working far more closely with their clients and creative agencies and start implementing these highly useful pre campiagn testers which gain true results from the real consumer, without swaying their opinions through the knowledge that they are taking part in market research.
Full Screen & HD Video
I am still at a loss as to why the world of internet advertising has not jumped more strongly into using full screen videos. As it is just a flash function that will enlarge the video to fill the screen and seeing that everyone is getting more used to this functionality from sites like YouTube, I still wonder why this feature is not enabled on every video advert that is ever served.
This is even more true for any film, tv or computer game that is advertised. It enables the advert to have equally as much, if not more, impact than a television spot and when you then couple this with the ability to actually know exactly how this video has been interacted with and by exactly which target market then you are learning so much more about the users interest in the product than you ever could from any offline advertising.
I then start to question why all film studios are not running all their adverts in full screen HD using the H.264 compression which is readily available from Adobe. They really should be making sure all their trailers are in this manner as now anyone who is interested in film is running their computer through their 1080P televisions and having the opportunity to watch the trailer in full, true HD, is such as strong selling point that I am shocked that this has not become the standard for all online film adverts.
This is even more true for any film, tv or computer game that is advertised. It enables the advert to have equally as much, if not more, impact than a television spot and when you then couple this with the ability to actually know exactly how this video has been interacted with and by exactly which target market then you are learning so much more about the users interest in the product than you ever could from any offline advertising.
I then start to question why all film studios are not running all their adverts in full screen HD using the H.264 compression which is readily available from Adobe. They really should be making sure all their trailers are in this manner as now anyone who is interested in film is running their computer through their 1080P televisions and having the opportunity to watch the trailer in full, true HD, is such as strong selling point that I am shocked that this has not become the standard for all online film adverts.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Really Grinds My Gears
In the words of the legendary Peter Griffin I just wanted to write a note about what really grinds my gears in the world of Rich Media advertising.
I personally believe that the process behind nearly all online campaigns is undertaken in the wrong manner. I spend so much time speaking to creative agencies who have been given a media plan that has been defined before the idea has even been generated and therefore ends up not fitting the campaign. The worst example of this being when a film campaign has had loads of 468x60 placements bought and then it is expected that a 4:3 aspect ratio video will be squeezed into it.
I think this process needs addressing throughout the entire industry so that the client and the creative agency plan the ideas and THEN the media agency goes and purchases the placements to fit the idea perfectly. This would ensure spend is used in a far more succinct, worthwhile manner and would be more wisely allocated. I also think that then it would enable a lot more niche targeting of campaigns to ensure a far better response from that campaign and give room for far more innovation.
I know there are one or two examples of campaigns being run in this correct fashion however it takes so much strength from the creative agency to literally force the hand of the client that it can sometimes cause a rift between these three elements who need to work as one fluid entity. We somehow need everyone in the industry to start altering their mindset and hopefully we can get all campaigns to be as efficient and outstanding as the few exceptions to the rule that run their camapigns in the correct order end up winning all the online awards.
I personally believe that the process behind nearly all online campaigns is undertaken in the wrong manner. I spend so much time speaking to creative agencies who have been given a media plan that has been defined before the idea has even been generated and therefore ends up not fitting the campaign. The worst example of this being when a film campaign has had loads of 468x60 placements bought and then it is expected that a 4:3 aspect ratio video will be squeezed into it.
I think this process needs addressing throughout the entire industry so that the client and the creative agency plan the ideas and THEN the media agency goes and purchases the placements to fit the idea perfectly. This would ensure spend is used in a far more succinct, worthwhile manner and would be more wisely allocated. I also think that then it would enable a lot more niche targeting of campaigns to ensure a far better response from that campaign and give room for far more innovation.
I know there are one or two examples of campaigns being run in this correct fashion however it takes so much strength from the creative agency to literally force the hand of the client that it can sometimes cause a rift between these three elements who need to work as one fluid entity. We somehow need everyone in the industry to start altering their mindset and hopefully we can get all campaigns to be as efficient and outstanding as the few exceptions to the rule that run their camapigns in the correct order end up winning all the online awards.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Poke Wins Another Award
Last week i went to numerous creative agencies in London and discussed the future of Rich Media, I just wanted to say a big hello to the guys at Poke and congratulate them on another award win. They deserve everything they get and I am really pleased for the entire team. Here's to many more wins in the near future!
Rich Media Love
Vaughan finally won out and persuaded me to set this blog up for the love of rich media, it will be filled with the wonders of technology and all the interesting things happening in the world of online advertising. If anyone has anything they would like to know from me about this vibrant and interesting area of design please feel free to contact me!
For my first post i will point you in the direction of Doubleclick's Innovation Gallery for Rich Media advertising. This showcases all the most innovative creatives served through their platform and updates regularly on a monthly basis so go back and see the new additions regularly.
http://innovation.doubleclick.com
For my first post i will point you in the direction of Doubleclick's Innovation Gallery for Rich Media advertising. This showcases all the most innovative creatives served through their platform and updates regularly on a monthly basis so go back and see the new additions regularly.
http://innovation.doubleclick.com
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