VIEQUES, Puerto Rico — Last week, thought leaders in online video advertising came together to discuss the problems, the challenges and the opportunities of the industry at the Beet Retreat 2013.  In this wrap-up video Ashely Swartz, CEO and Founder of Furious Minds, discusses the main thematics that came through in the panels and conversations.

Swartz says, "This is a time about collaboration and co-creation—platforms are proliferating and there are new media formats and new types of interactions, and performance metrics are changing and are still sort of undefined.  We really need to partner across the ecosystem of advertising and online video, from the creative agencies to the media buying agencies."

She also discusses the trends that she sees for the year ahead saying, "we are going to see more and more proof points—less firsts, but more actual critical mass moving towards online video holistically, [and] native advertising being an endemic part of the media mix of most marketers."

Swartz says that, rather than seeing interactive ad units and new rich media formats being part of brands’ innovation budgets, we’ll see them "actually tapping into or cannibalizing dollars of television" because online video advertising is becoming "the television of today."

Swartz explains that "large media companies are starting to get their head around the fact that [online video advertising] is going to be a tentpole of their business over the next three to five years.  They’re investing, they’re paying attention and, most importantly, they’re learning and they’re stepping up to be a part of the agenda for driving the industry."

For more coverage of the Beet Retreat, visit this page.

Megan O’Neill