Along with the praise Google bestowed upon itself for their click-to-play video advertising spots, Google took credit for boosting the awareness and attendance for Google advisor Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth.
One thing the typical web surfer won’t see from a Google video ad will be an autoplay feature.
“If you were thinking, ‘Just play the video when the page loads!’ research has proven that this is a total turn-off — er, ‘bad user experience,'” Emma McKeithen posted at the Google CPG blog. “It’s far cooler to have people who choose to watch, engage, share and repeat your video ad.”
Google is willing to sacrifice the extra views an autoplay feature would generate in favor of gaining a “quality viewer.” Someone who actively engages the video advertisement will be more likely to act based on its content.
McKeithen illustrated this by discussing the Gore-backed film, An Inconvenient Truth. Paramount Vantage bolstered its promotion through the use of a video ad appearing through the Google Network. This helped “build awareness of the film” and “drive viewers to the theaters, particularly on opening weekend” so they could take in Gore’s discussion of a need to reverse the effects of global warming.
(As a public service, we’d like to link to this very direct approach to reversing global warming. Will Al Gore call Lowell Wood? Magic 8-Ball says “Ask again later.”)
Google touts the video ad solution as presenting advertisers with the potential to reach the most desirable audience, one with a higher likelihood of delivering conversions than alternatives. McKeithen pointed to Fox Home Entertainment’s experience with promoting the DVD version of The Simple Live 3 – The Interns with video ads as part of a broad marketing approach.
Fox Home Entertainment executive director Duncan Plexico said in a case study that Google Video Ads has an advantage over TV ads. Unlike TV, Google’s product offers a measurable and trackable solution that can be tweaked mid-campaign as needed to reach their desired demographic.
Google’s next trick will be making video ads part of the television experience. As company CEO Eric Schmidt opined several months ago, he shouldn’t have to see ads for women’s products while he’s watching TV.
That achievement, and the disruption of the Madison Avenue advertising industry, will be a remarkable one to see, if Google can pull it off.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
