B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

Video is coming into its own as an online ad vehicle

June 23rd, 2008 Posted by: Bill Gadless

We’ve relayed a number of forecasts showing a continued rise in online ad spending for this year, despite the economic uncertainties.  One of the latest comes from researcher eMarketer, showing online ad spending reaching $27.5 billion, up 28.5% over 2007.  No surprise, this spending will be driven largely by paid search engine advertising, which is expected to total $15.5B this year, up 31.9% over last year.

Within the huge online spend number, there’s a new kid on the block – video …and its kissing cousin, social networks (which feast on video and facilitate viral marketing).  Spending on online video advertising is projected to reach $1.4 billion this year (up 74%), and advertising on social networks is projected to reach $1.6 billion this year (up 70%), according to eMarketer.  We found these data points – and much of what follows here – in Kate Maddox’s worthwhile B2Bonline piece, “Video in play as ad vehicle”.

“There will be a lot more use of online video ads by B-to-B marketers,” said Lisa Phillips, senior analyst at eMarketer.  “Video is becoming a way for people to find out about a product and how it works, particularly for B-to-B products (italics ours).”  Many B2B marketers are using online video ads in innovative ways – including banner campaigns, outdoor ads and viral marketing – to drive viewers to their websites, where they can learn more about the company and its products.  Some are incorporating games or contests, a natural fit with the social-network context.

Making the intangible real…
For example, China’s PC maker Lenovo launched an integrated ad campaign last July, driven heavily by online video ads.  Their “Best engineered” campaign, developed by Ogilvy North America, included online videos of engineers testing Lenovo notebooks in extreme conditions. Its five videos were used in online ads as well as airport advertising, driving viewers to a microsite at www.insidelenovo.com.

Viral campaigns featuring online video are producing excellent results for marketers …certainly in terms of traffic.  IBM’s campaign resulted in click rates four to five times higher than typical email campaigns and twice as high as average banner ad campaigns.

Back to the future
Pardon the oblique pun, but… we’ve seen this DVD before, haven’t we?  Only a couple of years ago, blogs were seen as the domain of blowhards with a deep need to inflict their musings on others, and podcasts were suspected by some to be a devious plot hatched by Steve Jobs to make iPods even more indispensable.  Yet today you have to look pretty hard to find a B2B that isn’t using both as a matter of course.

So video is already looking like a train that you don’t want to be the last B2B to catch.  Your Web marketing consultants should be able to help you evaluate this vehicle and determine its fit to your business.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Driving Traffic