I recently had an interesting question from a customer I created a television commercial for. It was a 30 second spot for a text messaging service, and they wondered if they should run it as an online video ad first, as a ‘tester’ (their term, not mine).
I thought this was a pretty ingenious idea, for quite a few reasons, so I offered the following insights and suggestions:
1. Running the commercial initially online, as a video ad, will save money because it’s free.
2. The online video ad will generate interest and create brand awareness at the same time…for free.
3. The video ad can be watched over and over again, sent to friends for them to check out, and the viewer can even bookmark it to return to the page later for information about this text messaging service.
4. It’s FREE – FREE- FREE
5. The viewing audience for this customer’s product (text messaging) is friggin’ built in…It’s the same demographic that watches video ads (18-44).
6. You can literally track views in real -time if you are the compulsive type. No more waiting to see how well your commercial effects sales. Now you can track who sees it, how much of it they watched, where they live, what they’re wearing, and whether they’re democrat or republican…ok, I made those last two up – but the rest is true!
My suggestions were:
1. Run the video ad on video sharing websites, as well as their website as a ‘click-to-play’.
2. Create a YouTube channel and send their video ad to current subscribers
3. Definitely add the video ad to Revver and BlipTV
4. Create a MySpace page for the product, and use PimpMyPage.com to make it really pop…connect with their audience
Now keep in mind, I create TV commercials as much as possible…it pays more and I still believe in the medium. But I gotta say, this online video ad stuff is starting to make a whole lot of sense! If you’re looking to cash in on the online video ad rush, here are some of the premier companies that I think create the best video ads at the best prices:
CommercialMaker.com (video ads, TV commercials)
Video4site.com (Video ads, Virtual spokespeople)
Overweb3d (virtual spokespeople)
InnovateAds (video ads, Virtual Spokespeople)
Hope this helps.