Living in a Video 2.0 World

Over the past several months, I've been making my rounds from one conference to the next from NY to LA and an occasional stop in Vegas. Most of the time I'm a participant on panel discussions about the impact of online video and of course, new forms of video advertising are always a hot topic of discussion. Just recently I participated in the Advertising 2.0 show in NY and there were healthy discussions about the latest in video ad formats and how to get users to engage with advertisements. We all know that the interrupt-driven world of pre-roll ads has lost its luster and new forms of opt-in or permission-based ad units are becoming more common and accepted. Interactive ad units make for a good discussion, but very little debate. Who can argue with the fact that pre-rolls can be downright annoying, especially for short form content, and that users would prefer to have no interruptions at all.

It’s great to see such enthusiasm for online video ads, but I question whether the emphasis is in the right place – the ad units instead of the programming or experience? We now have a medium that has the potential to provide the very best of TV and the best of the Web in one experience, yet the discussion around advanced forms of video programming is non-existent. For some reason, we’re ignoring the fact that these highly targeted ad units are playing within a passive, linear video program that’s been repurposed from television or other non-interactive source. If the objective is to get you to lean forward and engage, then doesn’t the content need to encourage that as well?  It is my belief that for this medium to live up to its full potential, the level of interactivity of the video experience must meet or exceed that of the advertising.

I hope to use this forum to create a dialogue and healthy debate with you, not about Advertising 2.0 formats, but about Video 2.0 experiences.

Matt Kaplan

VP, Creative and Client Services at PermissionTV