Rich media giant Viewpoint began a beta program yesterday in which marketers can compare the effectiveness of their online video marketing versus their television ads.
The All Things Video test, which runs Feb. 28 to early April, will be used by Pepsi, Hyundai, Microsoft Office, 20th Century Fox and 20 other marketers to test concrete distinctions such as click-throughs and more fluid factors like brand awareness.
Viewpoint is using its relationship with Unicast to test various ad types and sizes including transitional, pre-roll and in-page.
“It really gives advertisers the opportunity to say, 'which of these physical placements has the greatest impact on my goal?' ” said Allie Savarino, vice president at Viewpoint.
Advertisers will test overall effectiveness of the campaign, click-throughs, consumers' interaction with the ad, how long consumers viewed the ad and other measurements.
Viewpoint also is providing advertisers with market research on the ads, including the effect of each video ad format on brand awareness, brand favorability and purchase intent.
The program is debuting now in the $12.3 billion online advertising market because the online video market is under more pressure to deliver on its promises to advertisers and agencies, Viewpoint CEO Jay Amato said.
“The All Things Video beta is an opportunity for the Internet to live up to expectations that it can vie for conventional media dollars based on unique creative and cost value,” Amato said.
Marketers agree.
“We see a great opportunity to extend the creative effectiveness we've always seen in using video to promote our brands [on television] to reach online consumers, and are aggressively developing campaigns to this end,” said John Vail, director of digital media and marketing at Pepsi-Cola North America, one of the firms taking part in the beta program.
Christine Blank covers online marketing and advertising, including e-mail marketing and paid search, for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
