Tag Archives: eyeblaster

Report finds Aussies dont dwell online

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Eyeblaster’s latest benchmark report has found Australian’s have the lowest average dwell time and dwell rate for online advertisements globally.

The report juxtaposed Australia and New Zealand, North America, East Asia, Europe, South Asia and South America and analysed the results of more than 13 billion rich media impressions globally in 2009. It found a direct link between high dwell rate and and high conversion rate.

When a consumer engages with an advertisement for longer, the chance of conversion increases. On average, increasing dwell from 5% to 15%, increases conversion rate by 45%, from 0.4% to 0.6%. This offers further credence to the importance of engaging creative in the digital space.

The report also analysed the dwell rate by vertical within Australia. The technology and internet vertical performed best at 12.8%, followed by sport at 10.5% and retail at 9.3%. Surprisingly, news and media performed the poorest of all verticals in Australia, at a 2.6% dwell rate and average dwell time of 23.6 seconds [Ed: not even close to Marketingmag.com.au’s much more robust dwell time].

“These metrics are evidence that user interaction with an advertisement increases the dwell time, which directly affects conversion rate and brand awareness. Australian advertisers need to tap into the unique benefit of engagement that online advertising can offer,” said Carolyn Bollaci, Eyeblaster country manager, Australia and New Zealand.

Bollaci offers the following tips for advertisers looking to increase conversions:

  • select advertising real estate around editorial content requiring thorough reading
  • use video (the report found this increases dwell rate by 29%), and
  • be assertive by utilising features such as expandable banners.

Eyeblaster also points to recent research conducted by Microsoft, comScore and itself that confirms digital campaigns with high dwell are more effective for branding. The results indicate that campaigns with a high dwell triple brand related keyword search, increase traffic by 69% and increase brand engagement: number of page viewed and time spent on the advertiser’s site.

The full report can be read here.

Online video ads increase dwell time

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Data released by Eyeblaster has revealed video advertising is performing well when placed next to editorial content, but is lagging in social environments.

The study also alleges that video advertising boosts engagement by doubling dwell time and increasing dwell rate by 20%.

According to Eyeblaster, this means that video yields double the ROI of non-video rich media.

“When it comes to online advertising, savvy marketers are using video to work both ends of the consumer funnel to drive results. Online video advertising provokes engagement and Eyeblaster’s data demonstrates that users are more compelled to play with an ad that contains video. A blend of in-stream, in-banner and floating ads allows advertisers to engage their target audience regardless of where they spend their time online,” said Gal Trifon, CEO and co-founder at Eyeblaster.

The report also indicates that in the last four years, the growth of video impressions has outpaced rich media growth by 60% and suggests that since the beginning of 2006 to Q2 2009, video impressions have increased more than seven times in the US market and tenfold worldwide.

Other findings from the video report include:

  • In-stream video ads have the highest proportion of ads fully played compared to any other format
  • Creative decisions play a significant role in ad performance: rollover user-initiated video performs best followed by auto-initiated video; click user-initiated performs worst
  • Weekdays from 9am to 5pm is users’ preferred time to watch in-banner and floating video ads
  • Relatively few users unmute video ads; auto-initiated video has the highest un-mute rate, and
  • An increase of video length by one second reduces video fully played rate by 2.8% on average.

Top 5 Tips for marketers interested in video advertising

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As Australia limps towards the broadband speeds we deserve, the ability of a wider national audience to stream video over their internet connection increases too. As the technology improves, marketers are going to have to wrap their heads around the power of video content as a way of engaging consumers and delighting them online.

The more video our customers are consuming, the more ordinary our standard banner ads and print creative are going to seem in comparison. As the bar on how engaging our online content continues to be raised, so too do we need to start thinking very carefully about how engaging and entertaining our online advertising is.

With the benefit of my experience here are my Top 5 Tips for marketers interested in employing online video advertising:

  1. Don’t assume that all video is good video.
    Television advertising communicates with a captive audience, which is trained to pay attention to a narrative as it unfolds. 30 seconds is a reasonable time in the TV world, relative to a 45 minute long show. In the online world, 30 seconds can feel like an eternity.

  2. Simply running your TVC is a start, but try a video concept specifically for the digital space.
    The most important thing to take into consideration when creating video assets for the online world is the inherent difference between the two media. TV viewing is a passive experience, while browsing online is active. When incorporating video into ads, creative should maximise the interactivity of the online world and make sure the video is in line with these unique characteristics.
  3. Remember a one video fits all approach is not the best approach.
    Even though almost 90% of Australian’s access the internet through a broadband connection the actual speeds vary greatly. Make sure your technology vendor can automatically create multiple file size options of the video and target them on the fly to suit the viewer’s connection speed. No sense making a low bandwidth viewer wait for a video to play, or reducing the quality for a high bandwidth viewer.
  4. Know your original formats.
    While .AVI files may come straight from the video producer and have the highest video and audio quality, the format is heavy in file size and won’t compress very far. On the other side of the coin, .WMV provides small file sizes and may fit publisher specs in just one shot, but compressed .WMV files may result in over-compression – which can mean choppy or pixilated video and bad audio. .MOV files provide the best combination of high-quality video and good compressibility. Furthermore, .MOV files work smoothly with available third-party software solutions, compressing and converting in one simple step.
  5. Video starting automatically should be muted by default.
    Audio should only be turned on as a user interaction – so include a clear sound on/off button. If the video is user-initiated, then sound can default to on.

And if you want to see what I think are some of the best examples of really engaging and entertaining video advertising, have a look at these three executions:

What do you think?

  • What sorts of metrics do you use to start measuring the success of video ads? Click-through rates alone dont seem to cut it with these sorts of executions.
  • How much should you be expected to pay for serving video advertising? What are standard loading rates for streaming video?

Online advertising now even more engaging for advertisers says MySpace

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Delivering a 99 percent increase on the measurable impact of traditional banner advertising on Fox Interactive Media sites, MySpace.com and IGN.com
rich media advertising has proved its worth for marketers to not only
get the clicks but to truly engage consumers in the online environment.

Recent Australian advertisers such as Disney (Narnia), Sony PlayStation (Folklore), Frucor (V-RAW), Ubisoft (AU Final Fantasy: Crisis Core) and Beyond The Rave have been experiencing the increased click through rate performance on MySpace and IGN.  

Looking at their recent rich media creatives vs std creatives they
have achieved a click through rate from the MySpace standard 0.02% to
0.06%. The standout MySpace campaign was for Beyond the Rave which
registered a 0.12% rate. Even more impressive are the results on IGN,
one of Australia’s strongest and most trusted brands in the world of
online gaming and entertainment, where rich media advertising raised
the standard click through rate of 0.15% to an impressive 0.3%.

Rich media advertising metrics will be further enhanced thanks to
the newly designed MySpace site which gives advertisers new advertising
opportunities and greater immersion potential. In particular, the new
MySpace splash page, where users login, now has massive takeover
potential. By allowing advertisers to take over the splash page, brands
will be given greater real estate and creative scope which will ensure
further engagement of Australia’s over 2.5 million [Nielsen Online, NetView, home and work audience data from panel measurement, Australia, May 2008] users while they are at the gateway of their MySpace experience.

The first Australian campaign, The Dark Knight, which
launched within the newly designed MySpace interface on the marquee
placement achieved a click through rate of 1.74% compared to the
previous standard 0.02%.

The demand for and success of rich media advertising is directly
correlated to the uptake of broadband across Australia, and in May
2008, according to Nielsen Online, the number of Australians that are
accessing the internet via broadband from home, exceeded 10 million [Nielsen Online, NetView, home and work audience data from panel measurement, Australia, May 2008] for the first time.

Industry expert Mick OBrien, managing director of Eyeblaster Australia
explains, What we have witnessed to date is a direct correlation
between broadband speed and the number of users on the net, as speeds
increase so does usage, and video advertising takes the dominant role
in online advertising.

For marketers it’s more than just clicks, as the web becomes
increasingly entertainment centric, in-stream video will ultimately be
the only medium that actually engages three of the five senses
simultaneously – sight, sound and touch.

Mick continued, Lasting impressions are made through
mediums that engage the senses, making a significant impact on brand
recall in the long term. Consequently, new ways of measuring ad
effectiveness have to emerge and be taken seriously – beyond the click.
In the context of online, publishers are shifting their focus to
provide engaging content to keep the viewer on the page for longer
rather than generate as many impressions as possible. This is what
these synchronised formats are achieving, and the metrics tell us its
working. Rich media is becoming increasingly more effective than
standard banners because of its inherent ability to measure user
interactions – much more than just a click through, and is reflected in
the spending pattern of advertisers.

Andrew Cordwell, director of sales, Fox Interactive
Media explains, The leading advertisers in the Australian market are
utilising rich media advertising across MySpace, IGN, RottenTomatoes
and AskMen because the advertising is delivering over seven times the
click through rate as well as allowing enhanced creative that delivers
further consumer engagement. This is set to continue and build with the
growth in broadband, according to Nielsen, now at over 10 million
Australians accessing the web from home via broadband.

Rich media advertising is available across the MySpace homepage,
user homepage, music homepage, IM expanding button, MySpace TV
homepage, IGN and channel homepages, AskMen and channel homepages as
well as the Rotten Tomatoes homepage.

Some of the features of the MySpace redesign that will be of particular interest to advertisers include:

  • The Marquee Roadblock gives advertisers access to the front and
    centre top of the page, making the brand the headline. This high impact
    feature caters for the increasing demands for wide screen video,
    particularly from entertainment clients.
  • The Marquee and skin, offers advertisers greater creative scope
    and branding opportunities and will be available in both static and
    animated versions.
  • The Total page overlay will provide 2.5mb worth of additional
    content download, providing advertisers with the opportunity to create
    rich and engaging experiences on a massive canvas.

Examples of rich media advertising on Fox Interactive Media websites

God of War execution
http://adplatform.unicast.com/fuse/external/preview.jsp?placement_id=0&creative_id=65749

V-Raw execution
http://demo.eyeblaster.com/au/Examples/vraw/vraw_demo.htm

Bad Company Battlefield, Ea Sports
http://www.grupow.com/w_k/banner/alpha/alpha_triple.html – mouse-over the top banner.
http://www.grupow.com/w_k/banner/alpha/alpha_gold.html
http://www.grupow.com/w_k/banner/alpha/alpha_hawaii.html