Online video - where's the new money - applying an old ad model to a new medium (Adage column by David Carson)

A must-read column on Online Video, by David Carson, CEO of heavy.com, over at adage.com. Here are some highlights and comments (but do yourself a favor and read the whole thing!)

"Online video now boasts a bigger audience than cable television, but its $1 billion in ad dollars is a fraction of the $70 billion in broadcast wealth many assumed would be redistributed..."

Yes - clearly because Online Advertising has so little in common with traditional advertising, after all.

David Carson goes on: "Imagine if Google's search business didn't include AdSense but marketers paid a CPM or flat fee to be listed within search results -- just like the Yellow Pages, or a newspaper. This does two things. First, it makes the search results unusable to users because it's placing paid-for hits above anything more relevant. Second, because the search is now not as useful, its future audience potential diminishes. We would have never experienced the incredible benefit that Google eventually provided to users and marketers. They could have easily gone down this road, but they didn't. They knew their medium was fundamentally different from print and used a new ad model that suited it better"

Great example.  Here is the real nugget, imho:  "People use them [TV or online video] differently. TV attracts watchers, while online video attracts users. When I mention this to people, they always take issue with it. They say that people are, at the end of day, watching video. And I counter that just because TV and online video use moving images doesn't mean they're the same. It's like comparing Google to a magazine, or a newspaper..."

Comments

[Jonathan Marks]

Part of the reason for the difference is the format. TV is a continuous stream and will continue whether you watch or not. Most on-line video is presented in such a way that the user needs to do something (click to continue, or click for a new selection) at least every 10 minutes or so.

I am also amazed at how crude electronic programme guides are on cable TV. It is like the early text-only websites of 12 years ago....welcome to our table of contents.