(As if unskippable video ads were not scary enough)

In keeping with the season and our aversion to traditional advertising tech, we have collected several advertisements that have been produced over the years, many of which were NOT skippable. Imagine sitting at home watching TV with your family and one of these came on the screen. You couldn’t skip it, remote controls didn’t appear until the mid 80’s so one of the kids had to be forced to run TOWARD the TV to turn the channel…ah the good ole days.

Consumer Advertising Survey: Paid Services

YouTube has joined the forces in moving towards a paid-subscription model just like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. This means that you, as a video consumer, may have to endure more ads as a ploy to get you to sign up for their paid subscription.

Recently, we asked general consumers to share their thoughts on paid video services as alternatives to having less ads and if that played a role in those decisions.

During a ten minute video, what’s an acceptable amount of ads for free content?

CatapultX recently sent out a survey to leading advertisers, brands, and agencies in the video advertising space. As CatapultX is preparing to flip the video advertising world upside down, we wanted to get a feel for the current practices, perceptions and ideas for the future.

If you’re interested in learning more about our research, you can download the Survey Results Summary for free.

Advertisers Know They’re Not Pleasing Everyone

It’s no surprise that 80% of advertisers/brands surveyed stated that conversion is the most important KPI when video advertising — but what else comes into play when building an advertising strategy? …

Publisher’s Thoughts on Video Advertising in 2020

Recently, we surveyed prominent video publishers on their thoughts and current experience with video advertising. With a majority of publisher content being published on primarily free platforms, it can be hard to monetize video content.

We know that we have to understand publishers and advertisers in order to better serve them. The survey showed us that publishers are having trouble monetizing their videos. They are facing low ad inventories and lower CPMs.

The most surprising finding was that of those surveyed, 100% stated that they publish content on their website, but 42.9% have trouble monetizing it. …

“I don’t pander, but I’m like, wow! That’s actually really cool, like legitimate goosebumps.” -Leo Morejon after being introduced to the power of CatapultX

Google “Oreo Tweet” and what will you see? Superbowl Lights Out 2013. The tweet showing the world how social media, news-jacking, and contextual marketing can be executed flawlessly. It’s a tweet that was heard around the world. Even today, seven years later, people are commenting on it. One recent petition was that it should be in the Louvre. Talk about a tweet aging well!

And right next to it (ok wait, go to the next page)…

Breaking the 4th Wall in Video Advertising

We all complain about ads on videos — but sometimes a shining star pushes through and we think to ourselves “If they are forced to exist, at least they are admitting it…” Like during the SuperBowl, when some people only watch the SuperBowl for the ads (and maybe the half-time show depending on the star.)

While we see much better click-through rates from contextually relevant ads that do not interrupt or cause you to wait for your video content, Farmer’s Insurance has been doing a great job of making the experience a little more enjoyable, as well as testing something…

Generally speaking, as a video consumer, we think of YouTube as a FREE mecca for information, entertainment, music, and more. As we’re sure you’re aware, everything free comes with a price. The video viewers pay their way in the form of advertisements watched. The creators pay for their access to the platform by allowing ads to be served on their videos — which is a catch-22 because the video viewers don’t really want to watch ads.

A business without a brand identity is like a roll with no butter (and you know how we feel about pre-rolls). When building and growing your brand, it’s important to create an approachable brand identity.

Your brand is in literally everything you do — it’s the WHY behind your WHAT and as Mayur Gupta, Chief of Marketing and Strategy at Gannett/USAToday, recently stated on LinkedIn, no one single person or effort owns your brand, it’s collective. Your brand is your business’ soul. So why would you sacrifice your brand’s identity on antiquated advertising?

If you haven’t kept up with our…