New Form of Video Advertising: The Clickable Canvas

For all of you who hate pre-roll, this article, which takes a look at the launch of an array of new video ad formats, from interactive product placements to video billboards, is for you. The USP of Innovid, the Israeli company behind the developments, is the “clickable canvas,” whereby the viewer sees entire surfaces within a video transformed into a 3-D interactive canvas. Pretty cool stuff.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/22/innovid-launches-new-form-of-video-advertising-the-clickable-canvas/

- Sam

Google Launches In-game Advertising

Along the lines of Microsoft’s Massive and IGA, Google has stepped into the market of in-game advertising. The in-game ads will be sold via Google’s AdSense team and will initially target web games only, reports Brand Republic.

AdSense for Games, which is currently in beta and open only to publishers with 80% or more traffic from the UK or the US, will allow video, image or text ads to be displayed at any point in online games.

The news come on the back of the release of Comscore research which shows that more than 25% of internet users play online games per week, amounting to over 200m users worldwide.

Google's AdWords team will sell ad placements to top brand advertisers and games manufacturers will be able to see contextually targeted text and image ads based on content and demographic information. The first big name brands said to be taking part in AdSense for Games include eSurance, Sprint and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/Digital/News/852103/Google-enters-in-game-ad-market/?DCMP=EMC-Digital-Bulletin

- Sam

UK Government Backs Controversial Phorm

The controversial ad targeting technology platform, Phorm, has announced it has received crucial backing from the UK government in response to regulators’ concerns over whether Phorm and its OIX (Open Internet Exchange) conforms to EU data laws.

Phorm, whose approach of behaviourally targeting consumers via personal information used in signing up to their ISP has concerned media and consumer groups, is partnering with major ISPs to carry out trials across their network of users. So far only BT has confirmed it will be starting a trial, but soon Phorm hopes to roll out trials across all ISPs once successful discussions have taken place.

Users will be given power to opt-in or out of the scheme and Phorm states all future trials will be done with the full consent of users. Phorm, which states its approach actually protects rather than infringes consumer privacy, has said it is working with the media, regulators, government and bloggers to ensure full transparency of all aspects of the OIX and has already agreed terms with several leading UK ad agencies, publishers and ad networks.
As an advertiser Phorm presents a wealth of opportunities in targeting consumers in terms of fully tracking user journeys, but as a consumer it still raises questions and objections over privacy.

- Sam

Facebook's new ad format

Latest news from the Facebook camp is that they are trialling a new advertising format called ‘engagement ads,’ dovetailing off three of the network’s common user features, ‘commenting,’ becoming a ‘fan’ and giving ‘gifts.’

Dubbed an ‘engagement ad,’ Facebook is hoping that these ads will prove to be more interactive for users than those in the standard format. The idea is that advertisers will become part of the community, interacting with users in the same way users interact with each other.

Engagement ads can be broken down into 3 categories:

Comments:
For example if a new movie is advertised, users will be able to comment in the space beneath the video, and when the ad is then served to the user’s friends, they can see the comment and add to it; also their news feed will show that their friend has commented on the ad.

Fan:
While it’s nothing new to be able to visit a brand page and become a fan, this simply allows the brand to go out across Facebook in order to draw in fans.

Gifts:
Facebook is differentiating between offering standard gifts (such as a teddy bear) and those created by advertisers. The ad-created gifts will only be distributed through the engagement ad format and will be charged on a CPM basis, plus additional fees for the level of targeting required by the advertiser.

Our initial reaction is a positive one, especially to the ‘comments’ option, as we see advertisers and publishers working harder to deliver relevant advertising to the target audience and encouraging user interaction. It will be interesting to see how advertisers choose to incentivise users to leave comments, thereby personalising future impressions.

Initial beta tests are being carried out with a select number of advertisers during September so we’ll keep an eye out for timing and development updates.

- Sam