As Facebook readies to roll out 15 second video adverts within its news feeds,offering it a whole new revenue stream, The Drum gauged some reaction from varying agencies as to what the move meant for the marketing and media sector and its clients.
Nick Adams, head of digital development at Mindshare UK
Facebook have offered video ads in the past and these were sold as premium ad units on a CPM basis which could be targeted at specific audience segments. If they are now looking to sell their new video unit at a high entry cost of $2.5m it sounds like the targeting will initially be very broad. This might well appeal to some brands who are looking to target mass audiences at scale – and a GRP-based currency would certainly help to bring those advertisers on board.However, it would be a shame if advertisers cannot also use the new video ad unit to micro-target multiple video creatives across multiple smaller audiences. Surely the true potential of the Instagram/Facebook combination is in the opportunity to instantaneously create video (via Instagram) and rapidly distribute (across Facebook) – which could all be delivered in a matter of minutes if the back-ends of these two platforms were fully integrated. Will brands be offered this ‘adaptive video’ model initially be Facebook? Probably not. But this is where we would like them to get to with their products.
Nick Reid, UK managing director of TubeMogul
It is harder than ever to reach certain audiences with conventional TV advertising, especially the coveted 18-34 demographic which often spends more time streaming videos and interacting with friends within social media than they do on TV. Facebook's launch of TV-style ads targeted by age and gender and similar offerings for VOD like our own BrandPoint help advertisers bridge the gap between TV and online with common metrics.In time, we expect Facebook's launch of TV-style ads will help move budgets online. Video is the only medium that can do that in a meaningful way, since it mimics the branding power of TV. The challenge has been the need for a common metric or tool that lets advertisers compare digital to TV directly. The concept of targeting on gender and age and measuring the results using Nielsen Gross Ratings Points lets advertisers plan across both mediums. In essence, this was the thinking behind our own offering, BrandPoint, which lets buyers accurately buy digital video on a GRP basis.
Rebecca Mahony VP global marketing at Ebuzzing
As veterans in the field of online advertising we welcome Facebook’s rumoured move into video, online video is proven to be one of the most effective advertising formats. In a survey this year 75 per cent of respondents said online video ads were equally or more effective than traditional TV and 90 per cent that they had equal or greater impact than display ads.The introduction of 15 second Instagram for Video ads have already been very popular with brands, which is why we have developed technology that allows these to be seen on the web away from the Instagram platform.We see this move by Facebook as an attempt to get ahead of the market as current trends show that more and more of TV adspend is being taken up by online video, eMarketer has stated that three quarters of marketing professionals plan to increase spend on branded video content and video ads next year and half of this group said the additional budget would come from their TV and display budgets. Therefore it is logical that Facebook wants to maximise the amount of this budget it can command.Another great plus for Facebook and brands taking advantage of such ads is that as a social platform, brands will receive extra earned media from organic shares of such ads from a socially engaged audience with a sharing culture.
Tim Palmer, digital creative director at Inferno
It's true that Facebook's members continue to rise, but more members are finding advertising on their wall more and more intrusive. This extra intrusion will be a step closer to the decline in active membership that management predicts. Moreover, do advertisers really want to be that intrusive brand that is forced in front of members eyes, in what members regard as 'their' space, because it likely to have a erosive effect on the brand.
