The future of video advertising is changing, right before our eyes, into video promotion of products and services by their own purveyors. Why?
1. The Internet is a direct media channel
The Great Recession of 2007-2009 is leading businesses to radically alter long-held assumptions about the marketing and advertising uses of media. To save money and shorten the marketing cycle, companies have started to increasingly use the Internet as a direct media channel to their customers. They are allocating a greater share of marketing budgets to enrich their own Web sites as interactive, lead-generation properties. Similarly, their focus now is on employing embedded video and related forms of digital media in press releases, product promotions, and business communications.
2. Video and TV are migrating to the Internet
Cable and satellite networks are evolutionary dead-ends that cannot hope to match the innovative pace enabled by the Internet.
Consumers are learning to get unlimited Internet access at their TV, most commonly by attaching a laptop computer. The computer’s onboard WiFi links over a home network to the Internet thereby transforming the laptop into an Internet Gateway for the TV. A remote mouse and keyboard provides a lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the screen. While the uninitiated sometimes assume the set-up is too complex, numerous instructional videos demonstrate that it is easier to connect a laptop computer to the TV than it is to attach a TiVo or cable set-top box.
An estimated 10 million Americans watch Internet video on TV monitors via computers. Ultimately it is an intermediate step leading to either (1) browser-centric TVs or (2) TVs, or devices similar to the Apple TV, with their own Apps Store or Yahoo-like widgets. The store would be like the iPhone one, except that its (typically free) applications would enable Web sites like Hulu.com and YouTube to be watched on TV.
3. Product promotion is poised to replace product advertising
The Internet is redefining product promotions to fit into a larger context. Historically, product promotions were nearly synonymous with product advertising. The applicable marketing budget was allocated to agencies and buyers responsible for the creative work and media placement.
Increasingly, sponsors are incorporating their own use of the Internet into product promotion. By utilizing low cost, effective marketing vehicles like us, and also enriching their websites, press releases, email marketing, and corporate communications with the same digital media, they can trigger transactions and generate leads, bypassing the traditional advertising industry.
Where are YOU in this newly configured food chain? How deeply are you involved? What do you need to accomplish NOW to stay ahead of the pack?
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