NBC.com Rolls Out Some New Video-Ad Options
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Since online video is the only advertising segment showing any real health these days, NBC.com is giving that area a little more concentration lately. It hopes to woo more sponsors to its site, especially as the network upfront season approaches, with a few new ad options for marketers and agencies.
A little something for everyone: Advertisers will have the choice of six different placements for their video sponsorship. Among NBC.com's new offerings are the pushdown, which lets users click to expand; the push-back, which begins as a 300x50 rollover and can also be enlarged to 300x250 with a user's click; the homepage framing rail ad; a photo slide show unit; and pop-out ad player. And for some light targeting, there's the "choose an ad," which will showcase an array of different product lines from one advertiser. The user can select which specific ad would be most interestingor least annoyingto see during a long-form episode. That last unit is part of NBC.com's gamble on full-episodes, as it has added a long-form widget to its existing short clips player. More after the jump
No Hulu: It's more of a question of ability than desire, but NBC.com execs aren't kidding themselves about coming close to matching Hulu. And according to the sources I've spoken to, the network has made peace with that. Still, it would be nice to crack the top 10 video site rankings (PDF) by Nielsen Online, which in March had Hulu at number two with 348.5 million streamsand 8.8 million uniques. NBC.com has the right to buy back the inventory that goes unsold on Hulu. And advertising has played a back seat to the user-experience on Hulu so far. NBC execs expect Hulu to ramp up its own ad integration. How these ad units perform could serve as a test case for Hulu's upcoming ad plans. Release
By David Kaplan