Online video ads are most effective when they don't interrupt a viewer.  When consumers can opt in and choose the ad to watch from a couple options, they both appreciate and recall the ad more, said John Lowell, Starcom's SVP and director of research and analytics during a recent interview. Starcom is working with clients like All-State and Capital One and sites [...]

With more than one million iPad's now in consumers' hands, a number of publishers are looking to serve up ads across those tablets and other mobile devices that are not in the Flash ecosystem, which is the standard for most video advertising. One solution comes from mobile technology platform mDialog, which recently introduced real-time, dynamic ad insertion tools on mobile devices. [...]

Women-centric network Oxygen has seen ratings growth of 70% for some of its shows year over the year, resulting from social media engagement with its audience, said the network's General Manager Jason Klarman.  I caught up with him at the recent NAB show where he shared some insight into how Oxygen is harnessing social media. This is an important trend to [...]

Online video news service TubeFilter.TV plans to launch its first research-driven product in the third quarter -- a database that will operate as a sort of IMDB for Web content, Beet.TV has learned. The product will be called "FilterBase," and it will track Web programming by financials, advertisers, cast, crew, and metadata, said Brady Brim-DeForest, CEO of TubeFilter, during an [...]

Later this summer, we can expect to see wider implementation of Microsoft Silverlight as two of the bigger online video platform companies Ooyala and Kaltura ready video players for their customers. One of the first out of the block will be Ooyala's implementation for the AVP, the popular beach volleyball league.  Kaltura tells us that they have several implementations underway. For an [...]

Last week, the San Francisco-based, video ad solution provider FreeWheel announced an additional venture round of $16.8 million from venture and institutional investors, including the venture units of Time Warner and Disney. We caught up with CEO Doug Knopper last week at Will Richmond's video event for this interview.  Doug talks about international expansion, new products, and the industry's opportunities as [...]

While several brands have created video programs around products, a few, like Monster Energy Drink, have created a fan-based video site as a primary marketing platform. The high octane fan site for music and sports mixes professionally produced video and user-generated content.  The site has been created by Monster's interactive agency Level Studios.   We spoke with Curt Van Inwegen, VP of client services, about the [...]

Congrats to the team at the BBC for winning this year's Webby People Award as best news site.   The New York Times won in the "official" category of Best News Site as judged by the panel. In March, in London I interviewed Mary Hockaday, who heads the BBC newsroom.  We had a wide-ranging conversation about online video and her view of [...]

Apple said Monday that it sold one million iPads in the first 28 days of release, reaching that milestone for the tablet computer faster than it did for the iPhone. One of the biggest benefits of the device for advertisers is that it's highly measurable, said Chris Anderson, author of "The Long Tail," when I caught up with him at the [...]

Online video consumption has become pervasive around the globe as nearly 80 percent of all Internet users watch some video, according Tania Yuki, who heads online video product management for comScore. As video becomes increasingly popular, comScore is introducing more tools for advertisers to track video consumption.  Too keep up with global growth, the company has expanded its operations into [...]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Brands that are having some of the greatest success in online video are aggressively pairing their video campaigns with earned media, said Brian Shin, the CEO of online video measurement firm Visible Measures. We caught up with him at ad:tech San Francisco where he discussed how the top performing video advertisers are leveraging both paid and earned media. [...]

While video applications over stable Wi-Fi connections look terrific on the iPad, some video applications, including the popular ABC Television, do not run on the iPad.    See our photo below.As content creators scramble to get video onto the iPad, they have to deal with issues of how big a file should be delivered to the end user.  This is [...]

SAN FRANCISCO --  As the online video field becomes more crowded, a number of new technology players are emerging who say they can guarantee audiences for Web videos. One of those companies is ShareThrough and we caught up with the company's CEO Dan Greenberg at the recent ad:tech San Francisco conference. He explained that ShareThrough is aiming to be the "Ad [...]

The Washington Post, the first and most innovative major U.S. newspaper to use video as part of  its online news offering, is launching a platform for hundreds of reporters to host their own programs live from their desks on Webcams, via a simple interface with the Post's content management system. The videos will appear in sections and in the paper's archives.  [...]

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif -- Online video is the fastest growing sectors in advertising, with spending expected to be up nearly  35 percent this year, says Geoff Ramsey, CEO of market research firm eMarketer.  Despite its rapid rise, he adds that the medium faces challenges in technology and content quality. I caught up with him at the ad:tech San Francisco show.  The [...]

In its annual rankings of the world's most eco-friendly companies, Cisco ranked first, knocking IBM from the top spot in last year's rankings. Greenpeace cited Cisco for its efforts around connected technology and other factors.  You can find overview on today's rankings by Camille Ricketts at VentureBeat's GreenBeat. The news was released earlier today at the GigaOM green conference in San [...]

Kyte, a San Francisco-based online video platform company, announced today the integration of its video player and tools into Facebook with a product it calls the Facebook Application Framework. Earlier this month, we spoke with Gannon Hall, COO of Kyte about the opportunities and challengers for marketers and publishers in posting and monetizing video on the big social network.  He [...]

New online video syndication service Alphabird recently inked a deal with FremantleMedia to push out the studio's new branded entertainment series, the company's CEO Chase Norlin told me last week at ad:tech San Francisco. San Francisco-based Alphabird follows a different model than other syndication services because its focus is on syndicating via editorial placements, Norlin said. That means Alphabird reaches out [...]

The Financial Times, which has been ramping up its online video services, has integrated Brightcove as its online video provider, the publisher announced today. The FT.com had been using Maven, which is being phased out by its owner Yahoo. Word of the FT/Brightcove engagement was first reported last month by Journalism.co.uk.We spoke with Robert Grimshaw, who heads up digital operations for [...]

The tablet market is likely to be a successful one overall, but it's far too early to tell what the principal drivers for consumer use will be on these devices, said researcher Mike Bloxham from Ball State University.As the director of insight and research, he surveyed consumers before the iPad was released and is now going back to consumers for [...]