Versaly Entertainment

A.     Pre-rolls are easy to technically implement. 

B.     Consumers hate pre-rolls.

Hummm…then why are so many online and mobile video programs offering this ad model.  Sounds like another situation where tech companies develop products in a vacuum.

The current online and mobile video audience is part of the instant gratification generation and pre-rolls make them wait.

There are three main media outlets that consumers access daily — television, the Internet and mobile.  Of course there are others, but let’s focus on these three main ones for now.

The television is always on and provides “passive” viewing.  The television being on does not guarantee anyone is watching.  Ads are run in numerous time spots.

The Internet is always connected, but the viewing of videos is “active”, similar to VOD on television.  I mean, a consumer actively selects a video they want to watch.  There is still no guarantee anyone is watching, but the probability that someone is watching is close to 100% since a person had to actively select it – based on title, genre or other factors.  This is why advertisers like pre-rolls from an “eye-ball” point-of-view.

Watching videos on your mobile phone is very similar to the Internet or VOD on television.  A consumer selects a video based on title, genre or other factors, and the likelihood the consumer watches the video is high.  However, I feel the mobile video consumer has a shorter attention span, due to the small screen and active lifestyle.  The mobile video consumer may watch videos in a relaxed setting like their home, but they can also watch videos “on the go.”  Possibly while riding public transportation, waiting in a doctor’s office, hanging out with friend during lunch or other situations where time is limited.

This limitation on time is why pre-rolls are disliked.  In today’s world of instant gratification, when a mobile video consumer actively selects a video to watch, the buffering time or progressive download time is hitting the limits of the wait-time to start watching the selected video.  Adding a :10 second or :15 second advertisement only adds to the frustration of waiting for the selected video to start.  A typical reaction would be for the mobile viewer to swing their arms in frustration taking their eyes off the screen…which nullifies the ad placement and invalidates the impression count.  And no advertiser wants their advertisement to annoy the consumer or create a negative feeling with the consumer.

So…that’s why Versaly, through Vmbc.tv, its mobile video-on-demand network, offers two excellent alternatives to the archaic pre-roll.  The first is a mid-roll, much like a standard 30-minute television program.  The video starts immediately, and then :30 - :45 seconds into it, fade to black, inform the consumer that the mobisode will return after a brief ad, show the ad and then return back to the mobisode.  If the viewer is enjoying the mobisode, they will continue watching.  If not, they will stop the video and search for another video, but will not get annoyed.  However, the time it takes for the viewer to stop the video is about the same length of time the advertisement runs, thus, the viewer ends up watching the ad anyway.

A second option is the digital overlay.  This is a non-interruptive ad placement that appears at the bottom, like a “ticker”, and provides great eye focus while not upsetting the viewer by stopping the selected video.  There can even be multiple digital overlays per mobisode.

So…for advertisers, is an unwatched pre-roll more valuable than a watched mid-roll?  I doubt it, but there is a difficulty in reporting accuracy.  Here lies the slow adoption of mobile video advertising over television, VOD and the Internet.