Last week I missed the announcement of “The Pool,” a new initiative to help build standards in online video advertising:
Media companies including Microsoft, Yahoo, CBS’s CBS
Interactive and Hulu.com are joining forces to attract more money to
the fledgling online-video advertising marketplace by testing ad
formats.The project, dubbed “the Pool,” is the brainchild of Publicis
Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest, which buys roughly $16 billion in U.S. ad
time and space annually for big advertisers like Procter & Gamble.Starcom MediaVest and sister agency VivaKi say they are trying to
create standards in the online-video market, which is popular with
consumers but hasn’t turned into a serious money maker.The Pool, which includes six media companies and several marketers,
such as Allstate, Capital One Financial and DineEquity’s Applebee’s,
met in November, drew up a list of 30 online ad formats and whittled it
down to five, which will be tested in focus groups this week. The two
highest-scoring ad formats will be put into beta testing on the media
companies’ sites. The Starcom MediaVest clients involved in the Pool
have agreed to use the winning ad format and buy time on the media
sites involved in the research.
This is a very exciting development and likely will be a great catalyst to help boost the online video market. The IAB put out their online video standards in August and the Pool is further momentum towards the standards that will drive this market forward. It’s very good news.
Next I hope we see a “pool” for social media, perhaps around engagement advertising?
(For more from Jeremy, go to his blog)
(Image source: getpaidforphotos)
