Have No Fear, the Pre-Roll Is Here

Today Break Media and video ad platform Panache released preliminary research suggesting that pre-roll video ads do not depress video usage as much as we suspect. Since the Interactive Advertising Bureau issued guidelines for ad length and delivery methods, a high percentage of viewers stick with the ad to its end. Testing four in-stream ad units over 11 weeks, the companies found 87% of people completed the pre-roll and 77% of viewers stayed at least 15 seconds with videos having overlays. The videos, which ran exclusively on Break.com, had an astonishingly high click through rate of 10%.

In another study from Jupiter, the research firm says that pre-rolls discourage video viewing only 5% of the time. This study is based on European usage, but even without understanding the EU context Jupiter’s number seems unbelievably low. Some of the research is covered at AdAge here, and more at Epicenter here.

Some may see this as the positive effects of the IAB’s guidelines. Others will argues that publishers overstated the effect pre-rolls have on video viewing. I would argue that the study is not comprehensive enough to prove much except the strength of Break.com and its relationship with a young male demo audience. One of the ways pre-roll advertising depresses usage is simple avoidance altogether. Users come to know which sites run lengthy pre-rolls or suffer under clunky delivery systems with lots of lag. The user experience, good or ill, translates to re-use. Anyone who goes to a major TV news site (whose name I will not mention) knows they still may get ridiculously long pre-roll ads attached to tiny clips. As a user of the site I think twice and thrice before clicking on any of their videos. As much as I like the rest of the site, I think their ad-to-content ratio just sucks.

The best video ad experience I have seen is at Hulu.com. There is a fair exchange of value that lets users taste the content they crave before getting hit by an ad. Sidebar ad units keep the brand in view until a short commercial message comes only after the publisher offers something of value. In the end, however, the best ad experience on TV, digital video, on iPods, phones, or whatever, are just good ads. Sure we need smarter and more responsive ad formats and technologies. But in the end what we really need is ad creative that engages the user either because it is relevant or just plain artful.