A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

The flower smelled like a rotting corpse. I'd spotted the headline in my Google portal page and was hooked. Since I was at work, I was way too busy to read the story. Fortunately, they had video. "Great!" I thought. "I can listen to the video and code at the same time."

I clicked "play video" and minimized the window. Rather than hear about this unique botanical event, I was treated to a fifteen second spot for Staples. It was a vicious pre-roll!

Advertisers are looking to take advantage of the booming online video phenomenon. But like the Web of the nineteen-nineties, they just aren't sure how to cash in. Pre-roll is a popular technique that has some consumers fuming. It inhibits the user from getting to the content, hurting both the advertiser and the content provider. In fact, the technique is just as annoying as pop-up windows, with the same woeful long-term repercussions.

That isn't to say that advertising in online media can't be done to great effect. There are two techniques which online audio and video providers are finding increasingly successful.

The first is post-roll. Online video habits have changed remarkably over the last decade. Rather than segmented watching, users tend to follow content to its finish; a change having largely to do with increased bandwidth and video availability. Because of this, most users do not skip over post-roll. This is especially true in cases where the final frame of the video includes navigation such as YouTube.

The second method is taken straight from the world of public broadcasting; announcements. These spots have more the flavor of an underwriting spot than a television commercial. The idea is to let the viewer/listener know who is bringing them the content, or at least who paid the bill. If you've listened to Car Talk or This American Life - both programs with a devout following - you'll understand how effective this can be.

The point is to make the spots brief, to the point, and as unrestricting as possible. This allows the deeply interesting, if odiferous, content to add value to your message.

You can view the video, with the nasty pre-roll, at http://www.kcci.com/video/13331455/index.html?source=CNN