Pre-roll Continues to Prosper as Companies Catch On

MTV Networks recently declared pre-roll as the ‘most effective and consumer-friendly’ advertising method within today’s entertainment and media industry. Their general belief is that companies should ultimately exploit online advertising or face falling behind their competitors. Jason Witt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MTV's digital advertising unit certainly seems to think so and urges others to follow suit.


Pre-roll is an advertising technique that has proved to be worth investing in. Companies that have the capability and readiness to exploit new advertising areas seem to reap bounteous rewards. For example, Southern Comfort, having previously spent $6 million on late-night cable TV and a further $1.5 million on magazines announced a change of direction. It has now increased its online advertising spending by 25 per cent, including on online video advertising on Hulu and other websites of NBC, CBS, Fox and FX. Online video advertising is essentially able to reach a wider range of consumers in a more cost-efficient way. Lena DerOhannessian, Southern Comfort’s U.S. Marketing Director said, ‘As we’ve focused more on 21 to 29 [year olds], TV becomes less and less effective at reaching that audience.’ More and more opportunities are to be found elsewhere, namely online.


The online community is continuously expanding with it estimated to grow 85 per cent by 2013. This growth provides the perfect chance to exploit pre-roll to the full. Research shows that out of the 87 per cent of UK Internet users watching online videos, 52 per cent have taken action after seeing a pre-roll ad. Thus far, it appears that short pre-roll ads are the most effective form of online advertising. The web video company, BBE, asserts that pre-roll ads are 8-25 times more effective than other types of online advertising since viewers are more likely to sit through a short ad that is played 10-20 seconds before their desired content. Shorter online advertising, therefore, is able to promote companies in a way that does not ruin viewers’ enjoyment, especially since any pre-roll longer than 20 seconds threatens to send frustrated viewers elsewhere. Compared to TV, where 3 minute long adverts are tolerated by audiences, a pre-roll that lasts even 30 seconds seems like an eternity.


Pre-roll essentially enables the relationship between brands and consumers to develop in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Kent J. Krizik, President of NewsProNet, declared that ‘online media publishers and local and national advertisers know there's no better way to reach consumers than through the compelling format of online video’. Moreover, after positive results from MTV’s study of over 50 million video streams across the US, Sharb Farjami, Vice President of Ad Sales within MTV Networks Australia & New Zealand, praised this form of online advertising as an ‘exciting area that is gaining popularity in this marketplace because it delivers rich user interaction’.


Online video advertising may in fact help companies stay afloat in the current economic climate. Tod Sacerdoti, Founder-CEO of the online advertising network BrightRoll remarks that general advertising revenues for online video are ‘up 217 per cent between the first and second quarters of this year’. He argues that it will ‘rise 50 per cent to 100 per cent for the entire year based on increased volume, even though prices may continue to fluctuate during a down economy’. Of course, the advertising industry has, on the whole, been in a slump for quite a long time which further emphasises the importance of online video advertising.


So, online video advertising is undoubtedly the preferred and wisest advertising method of today.

WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR EMAILS?

You don’t have to be spam to get blocked. One in five legitimate marketing emails fails to get to the receiver’s inbox. That is what Return Path reveals in their new research into European marketers’ knowledge about their own emails. In most cases marketers are ‘emailing in the dark’ not knowing what happens to their sent messages.

Two in five interviewed people still think an email gets delivered if it is sent or doesn’t bounce back. But twenty per cent of messages are being blocked or directed to the junk folder, according to Return Path – the company that helps marketers get their emails into the inbox and read. Email is the cheapest way to distribute your messages but it’s got to be done properly. No matter how many hours you spend creating a really great message, the effort is wasted if it doesn’t get delivered and read.

Many people think that reaching the inbox is the sole responsibility of Email Service Providers (ESPs). But it is ultimately in the hands of the senders themselves to make sure their messages are read. Demanding all-encompassing deliverability reports from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is an excellent way to find out the destiny of your marketing messages. However, very few people do this at the moment, according to Return Path. This report must contain detailed metrics – the percentage of emails being placed to ‘inbox’, ‘junk’ or ‘missed’. Once you have that knowledge you can act upon it, but Return Path warns not to trust unrealistically high metrics. A delivered email is one that not only was sent and didn’t bounce back, but that actually reached the inbox. So why do some emails get blocked?

They either look like spam or are not wanted by the reader. The first one is relatively easy to correct. You might need to change the email’s format and rewrite some of the content. The second one is almost as easy. Readers often mark emails as spam because they don’t want to go through a complicated procedure of unsubscribing. You need to make it easy for people to stop receiving your messages because too many spam complaints will affect your company’s reputation. Putting an ‘unsubscribe’ option at the top of the page should help. To keep your subscribers, try and make sure your emails are relevant and targeted to each individual customer. Special offers personalised with a customer’s name or the like usually work well.
If you follow this advice, you stand a much better chance of getting your message to the customer.

UK Organisations Failing to Follow Email Marketing Best Practice

Have you ever tried to subscribe to a mailing list or newsletter online and found that it took forever to sign up? Or that you needed to create an account first, or you couldn’t even find the box to put your email address in? Well, you aren’t the only one.

New research from the email deliverability services company Return Path has found that two out of every five UK companies make it difficult for customers to subscribe to their email marketing programmes. As Return Path's Vice President for European Operations, Guy Shelton says: ‘Giving subscribers a great email experience isn't just “nice to do”; it is, of course, an essential marketing best practice.’ This great experience doesn’t just cover the sign up process but the content of the emails too.

However, even when customers manage to sign up, out of the companies that successfully delivered a welcome message to the inbox only 45 per cent included a special offer for the new customer. By including a special offer, companies are able to show their thanks and start the relationship well with the customer, meaning they are more likely to read their emails and use the company in the future.

Furthermore, by failing to follow email marketing best practice, many UK organisations risk generating spam complaints. According to Return Path, if a welcome message does not arrive within 24 hours it increases the chance of the subscriber marking the subsequent email as spam. This harms the company’s “sender reputation”, which reflects the likelihood of their emails being delivered successfully.

But is it just too difficult and time-consuming to follow best practice? Not according to Return Path. Guy Shelton explains that ‘The steps that organisations need to improve their sender reputation are quick and simple to take’ and the easy steps can help organisations ‘build strong subscriber relationships, experience better deliverability, increase conversions and improve return on investment (ROI).’

Return Path’s research has pointed out some major problems with email marketing in the UK, and it will be interesting to see how companies react. Return Path believe that it is easy to get right, and with their advice, companies can greatly improve their email reputation and therefore make more money.