Pre-roll inoculates against viral risks

Kylie Minogue writhing provocatively, drumming gorillas and a man fighting a bear for salmon - the one thing they all have in common is that they are successful viral video adverts, for Cadburys, Agent Provocateur and John West respectively. These classics are instantly recognisable; but there are hundreds of viral videos which languish in the depths of the internet, never to be seen. If viral videos are the flashy, fading face of internet advertising pre-roll adverts - short, un-skippable clips which appear prior to online videos – are the ambitious rising stars. Pre-rolls have played crucial roles in campaigns for FRANK, the Metropolitan Police and T-Mobile, and Cisco’s prediction that 90% of web traffic will be video by 2013 means eyes are increasingly turning towards their marketing potential. Pre-rolls success has led to interest in developing other forms of online video advertising, and increased focus on assessing their effectiveness.


Pre-roll advertising is targeted predominantly at the younger demographic as they form the largest percentage of online video viewers. Content providers like Channel 4 capitalize on this by featuring demographically-sensitive pre-rolls before the videos hosted on their sites. The “on-demand” format of these websites means that these videos target an engaged user; accountability is also increased as viewers cannot normally skip the advert. However, the biggest benefit of online pre-rolls is their interactive component: links they provide mean ad-viewers can take direct action on the videos they watch.

There are limitations in the pre-roll format, the most obvious of which is that users may resent being forced to watch an advert. YouTube’s ‘biz blog’ says as many as 70 per cent of viewers abandoned a video when confronted with long, non-skippable pre-roll commercials. However, the majority of YouTube is user generated content, meaning there is less demand for it and thus less impetus to watch the pre-roll. Companies like Tremor Media have recognized this limitation and only include pre-rolls on high-demand premium context. To avoid the viewer becoming bored their adverts are only 15-20 seconds long, acting as a 'teaser' and offering the viewer the possibility of viewing the full-length ad or visiting the advertiser's website. Proctor & Gamble, Universal Pictures, Microsoft, and Ubisoft have all participated in Tremor Media's beta test of these new pre-roll formats.

Many companies are anxious about investing in pre-rolls. As Viral Advertising’s Matt Smith highlighted in a recent NewMediaAge article,”A lot of people in agencies still think online equals cheap as far as film is concerned,” despite advances like YouTube HD. AOL Media Network’s Janet Balis highlights the limitations of corporate imagination when it comes to pre-roll advertising, arguing "Most are looking to buy 15- or 30-second pre-roll, not because it's the most interesting thing people want to be doing, but because there are real challenges to transitioning online. A lot of people want to innovate, but it's challenging to do that on a broad scale".

There is a lack of quantifiable data on the effectiveness of online video advertising. Evaluation normally comes from “last-click” measurements – counting how many people actually clicked on the link - which only reflects people who directly reacted to the advertisements. United Internet Media’s Head of International Business Eric Urdahl says that, “[The internet] is still considered by a lot of brands to be more of a direct response medium than for branding. The problem is measurement, which has been established for performance-based campaigns... But brand advertising affects the entire purchase funnel and you can’t measure the effect of the campaign just by the last click.” Research shows that audiences respond to 10% of all rich-media ads, compared to the 0.4% they actually click on, meaning relying on clicks isn’t necessarily reliable and companies’ fears may be misplaced.

The unpredictability of what will and won’t become an internet sensation means viral videos are a risky approach to online video strategy. For every drumming Cadburys Gorilla there is something like Sony’s faked 2006 Christmas campaign for the PSP, which saw the brand condemned by as “a hideously soulless marketing company”. Pre-roll provides a far safer alternative whilst still having the potential for as much creativity and impact. One reason the potential of “pre-roll” isn’t being capitalized on, is succinctly summed up by Tremor Media UK’s Managing Director Adrian Lacey, “Creative companies are proving to be rather uncreative about the potential of online video”. His proposed solution can apply to the advertising industry as a whole: “[Companies] need to be less conservative and think about the fun they can have by creating online video ads, as well as understanding the engagement and interactivity offered by the formats”.