MEET: Google Hard At Work On New Video Advertising Plan

Authored by Jay Baage on October 24, 2006 - 1:50pm.

Producing TV spots and video advertising have so far been costly affairs restricted to big companies with deep pockets. Now that Google has acquired YouTube, the search company wants to help advertisers get more into online video advertising.

“It’s a potentially huge marketplace. Advertisers need help to get into video. That is for sure something we are thinking a lot about”, says Jennifer Feikin, Google’s Director of Multimedia Search at Forbes MEET Forum in Los Angeles.

One theme at the conference on Tuesday, is what I found to be a very healthy discussion of what the media mix will look like in the 21st century.

It is clear to most panelists that professionally produced content and user-generated content are blending together and that there are many opportunities, as well as challenges, involved in that transition.

We have all heard a lot about the challenges. Now, finally, the discussion is starting to focus on the opportunities.

For example, there is a big opportunity for media companies right now to help enhance user-generated content, like many of the amateur videos posted on YouTube. Moreover, there are many opportunities to add user-generated possibilities to professionally produced content. Lastly, we are finally starting to see new creative ways to monetize all the new media that is out there.

Both YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley and Google’s Jennifer Feikin spoke about the opportunities involved with the convergence between television and the Internet.

Feikin acknowledged the fact that it is a problem that there are only a few advertisers who actually have video spots to run. So far, video ads have been seen as costly to produce and therefore restricted to big advertisers:

“Advertisers need help to get into video. It’s a potentially huge marketplace and, yes, video advertising will eventually be part of AdSense.” remarked Feikin.

Ross Levinsohn, President, Fox Interactive Media, tried to downplay the influence of Web 2.0, in particular, as a new challenge for media companies, and said that it is just business as usual for News Corp.: “I hate catch phrases. Web 2.0 is a catch phrase. It’s just about the evolution of the Internet.”

Peter Adderton, Founder and CEO, Amp’d Mobile, pointed out that Cingular messed up the launch of their iTunes phone - a big set back for mobile media in the US:

“The carriers have not driven the growth of mobile media in the US. For example, the whole ringtone business has been driven by people operating out of the trunk of their cars.”

Jim Ryan, Cingular’s VP of Consumer Data Services, did not, of course, agree with that, but said that there is much more that can be done in the mobile space and that it is going to happen.

Mitch Lasky, Electronic Arts’ EVP of Mobile and Online discussed how the mobile gaming market in the US is finally starting to take off, but added that young people are not very willing to pay much for the games. However, embedded ads are emerging as a new way of paying for mobile games.

“We see 15 to 20 times higher click-through rates for in-game ads compared to video ads on the Internet.”

Joakim Baage

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Comments

Joakim, please proofread

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on November 1, 2006 - 9:08am.

Joakim, please proofread your articles before publishing them. Your writings are littered with grammatical errors. At the very least have an editor review your material. On a lighter note, keep up the good work.