Digital video struggles to break the 50% viewable benchmark
Last week saw two new reports on the online video market, each depicting a remarkably stagnant quarter for the young format. TubeMogul’s Q2 quarterly report on the Canadian video market showed pre-roll inventory volumes dipping 17% from Q1, suggesting publishers were reserving more inventory for direct sales.
CPMs rose 25% as a consequence. Mobile video fared better – a lot better – with mobile inventory volume ballooning 281% since Q1, the latest in three consecutive quarters of triple-digit growth. TubeMogul reported that Canada’s overall pre-roll video viewability rate was 45%. While disappointing, that rate is apparently the highest viewability rate of any market TubeMogul surveyed. Ouch.
A separate report from competing video platform Vindico pegged global video viewability – not just pre-roll, but all video – at a remarkably similar 45%, noting that viewability levels have stayed relatively flat since the global adoption of the MRC’s new video viewability guidelines. The 55% non-viewable inventory may well be a result of the fact that 60% of video ad impressions are delivered through low-quality small-player video ads, with only 13% of all available inventory being pre-roll.
The good news is that only 10% of video impressions overall were fraudulent, which runs counter to claims about video’s runaway fraud and piracy problems.
Read more about Vindico, about TubeMogul
YouTube gets praise, and a honking big pricetag
Analyst firm Jefferies has estimated YouTube’s market valuation at between $26 billion and $40 billion, or 7-11% of Google’s total market value, making it potentially worth more than all of Twitter. The report talked up YouTube’s TrueView performance product, premium inventory through Google Preferred, and direct integration with measurement tools like Nielsen OCR. YouTube also earned a nod from AOL’s attribution-focused subsidiary Convertro, which highlighted the video platform in a report on social advertising. It found YouTube was the most effective platform for both introducing a product to customers and closing an online acquisition.
Read more at Adweek
Facebook’s latest 9-figure media deal is with UM
IPG’s Universal McCann is planning to shift a big chunk of client budgets from TV and digital video onto Facebook’s new premium video ad format, according to Ad Age. The media agency has signed a two-year agreement with Facebook for early access to premium video ads, preferred pricing, and real-time data, which will be integrated directly into UM’s analytics platforms. The first clients on board will be Sony Pictures and BMW, which launched a premium Facebook video campaign the same day of the announcement. The deal follows on the heels of multi-year Facebook deals with Publicis and Omnicom both announced in March.
Read more at Ad Age
Microsoft’s not done with MSN
Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella may have decided that content production is beyond the company’s mandate, but apparently he’s still planning to revamp Microsoft’s flagging MSN content portal. According to the WSJ, the site is due for a major makeover, that will incorporate bigger images, premium content, and direct integrations with social media and e-commerce tools. Microsoft plans to do all that without the big focus that competitors like Yahoo and AOL have had on original content. It will be shuttering or selling joint-venture original content channels like Glo, Wonderwall and Fitbie, focusing instead on aggregating content from publisher partners such as CNN, the Guardian and the WSJ. Company VP Brian MacDonald said the idea is to aggregate only “best in class” content. The challenge will be to differentiate the portal when everyone else has access to the same material. After all, that’s why Yahoo and AOL have shifted their focus to original content – to make their sites more than just a flashy homepage.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal
Big Deals
Acquisitions and partnerships shaping the ecosystem
- Yahoo buys “AdSense for images” Luminate
- IPG buys minority stake in mobile attribution firm Placed
- Hootsuite buys competing social management platform Brightkit
- Mobile location data provider xAd gets a not inconsiderable $50M
- Video ad platform Mixpo acquires social specialist ShopIgniter
- Social media company Sprinklr marks 3rd acquisition in a year with influence marketing firm Branderati
Around the Web
Must-read features and opinion
- Marketers avoid agency trading desks in search of transparency (Wall Street Journal)
The WSJ talks to key marketers behind the surge in independent trading desks - “Ad tech” companies are selling more ad tech (Wall Street Journal)
Analyzing the shift from service-based programmatic trading to software-as-a-service
