Tags containing: "digital video"

3 Things the Experts Taught Us About Online Video in 2014

December 18, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

While television still dominates video viewing, Americans ages 18 to 64 have doubled their digital video viewing in recent years to nearly 27 minutes a day with almost two-thirds of U.S. adults watching videos online. Given that educated, affluent, and younger Americans are the largest consumers of digital video, it isn’t a big surprise that ad dollars are following these attractive eyeballs. Digital video advertising is growing at a rate of 43.5% year over year. And, by 2017, it is predicted that digital video advertising will make up 15% of the digital advertising market.

There are audiences to be found and revenue to be generated in online video and brands of all types are upping their video offerings. Here are some insights from industry experts to guide the way:

Video is Everywhere (or Should Be).

It’s our responsibility to know our audience, provide engaging solutions across devices, and then optimize delivery based on the real behavior impact each is having.
— Greg Jackson, Chief Data Officer, Everyday Health
@everydayhealth

Millennial women want to consume information…on whatever device suits them – tablet, mobile and, increasingly, Connected TV.
—Laura Rowley, Vice President, Video Production and Product for the Meredith National Media Group
@LauraRowleyNY @MeredithCorp

While the functionality might change based on screen size and capability, the interactions and design should be familiar and cohesive. We conceive of products and experiences as capable of being multiscreen and part of a larger product portfolio / offering.
—Ryan Spoon, SVP Digital Product, ESPN
@ryanspoon @ESPN

We have the ability to be with our audience all day, every day, everywhere. We are literally in the reader’s pocket. It is incredible. We used to think in terms of one deep experience a day. Now we think about delivering a core reader that deep experience plus making ten other touch points a day. We are holding their hand in line at the grocery store and keeping them company on a long subway ride.
— Kate Lewis, VP, Hearst Magazines Digital Media
@kcwl @HearstCorp

There is a shift away from TV to online, set top boxes and mobile. Sooner or later, it will hit a point of no return, where video is not just the domain of what is happening on TV.
—Andrew Lipsman, Vice President of Marketing & Insights, comScore
@comScore

All of the experiences, from one screen to the next, need to act in concert with one another, resulting in an overall experience that is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
— Rob Hayes, EVP Digital Media, NBCUniversal
@NBCUniversal

Be Creative with Creation.

Taking it across four typical distribution paths – TV, OTT, Web, Mobile – will yield a different approach to how the content is developed and produced. Within each of those distribution paths there’s also an additional layer of UX that will inevitably dictate how audiences interact with that content; the key is to be as far upstream and as aware of your goals as possible.
—Gabriel Lewis, EVP Development & Strategy Maker Studios
@TheGabrielLewis @MakerStudios

When it comes to reaching your audience on a medium like YouTube, you have to be more creative and work with the existing talent.
—Claire Tavernier, Managing Director, Channel Flip Media
@CTav @channelflip

It is still early days for this play in digital video and we are eager to learn from our audiences what they want and what works. That’s the great value digital brings: We get immediate feedback and we can continue to learn and experiment.
—Molly Baldwin, Director of Editorial Operations for GolfDigest.com
@GolfDigest

Hire a video team with TV and analytics experience to collaborate with magazine editors instead of just telling the magazine staff to “do video.”
—Laura Rowley, Vice President, Video Production and Product for the Meredith National Media Group
@LauraRowleyNY @MeredithCorp

The entire BI team is involved in creating video now. Find universal, evergreen topics that will appeal to your audience and make videos people want to share.
—Justin Maiman Executive Producer of Video, Business Insider
@JMAIMAN @businessinsider

Video is a Millennial Must.

Video is a natural communication medium for anyone under the age of 25.
—Jim Louderback, GM of Discovery Digital Networks
@jlouderb @DiscoveryDN

We’d be crazy not to do a deep dive into digital video. We know that it is how millennial women want to consume information.
—Laura Rowley, Vice President, Video Production and Product, Meredith National Media Group
@LauraRowleyNY @MeredithCorp

Millennials want a seamless, any-screen, digital-first experience with analytics-driven personalization—all priced significantly lower than pay TV.
—Todd Beilis, Managing director for the Media & Entertainment, Accenture
@Accenture

For younger and international audiences, mobile video has been an opportunity for us. We do see that our video skews younger so it introduces new audiences into NYT premium journalism.
—Sara Poorsattar, The New York Times’ Director of Video Products
@saraparveen @nytimes

Perspectives | Video

Get a Good Picture of Your Video Audience

December 1, 2014 DCN

Over the past several years, there has been a rush to create ever more digital video content by those you’d expect—traditional broadcast companies such as A+E Networks and NBCUniversal and multiplatform companies like Bloomberg and ESPN—as well as a slew of “print-” or “text-based” companies such as Conde Nast and Business Insider. Yet with companies rushing headlong to heed the siren song of booming digital video viewership and ever-increasing demand for video advertising, it is so good to read a level-headed evaluation of video audiences by way of Chartbeat Chief Data Scientist, Josh Schwartz.

He writes:

There’s significant momentum for publishers toward increasing the production of video content, on account of both the strength of video as a medium for storytelling and high video CPMs as advertisers begin to move their TV spends online (see the Chicago Tribune’s coverage for one example). An increase in video content across the board, of course, means that it’s all the more important that we have a sense of which parts of our audience we can hope to reach with video…

When visitors land on a text-based article, in almost all circumstances they read some portion of the article’s content… With video consumption, though, the situation is entirely different: Excepting sites that automatically start videos when a visitor lands on the page, there’s massive attrition between the act of visiting a page with video on it and the act of actually pressing play. Of course, if someone doesn’t even play a video, the quality of the content is moot – we can’t possibly hope to win them over with a video that isn’t watched – so our first goal must be to identify and understand who the best candidates are for pressing play.

His piece “Video Production Is on the Rise – But Who’s Watching?” PBS Media Shift is well worth a read for those making a move into, or seeking to optimize their investment in, digital video.

Innovation | Revenue | Video

Video Day Provides a Look at the Opportunity and Experimentation in the Online Video Market

November 12, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

eMarketer estimates that 142.5 million people in the US—56.3% of internet users and 44.7% of the population—will watch digital TV shows at least once a month this year, and this will tip to the majority of consumers in 2016. And 22% already watch original video online each month, according to the IAB. Both firms report that flexibility of viewing is one of the greatest drivers in online video viewing, which isn’t surprising given the evolution of video consumption from on the couch, to on-demand, to on-the-go.

The opportunity this creates has not been lost on media companies of all types. Certainly, traditional broadcasters increasingly offer web-based or app viewing (TV Everywhere) options. But even organizations that have a print-legacy or began as text-based online are adding video to their content mix. A wide range of these offerings were explored on November 6^th at Digital Content Next’s Video Day..

Opportunity Knocks
Todd Beilis, managing director for the media & entertainment industry at Accenture, was certainly bullish on the opportunity for online video saying “Cord cutting is real, which creates a genuine opportunity for the people in this room.” He specifically focused on the incremental opportunity which sits between amateur video and online delivery of broadcast television fare. He said that Accenture has identified between 20-25 million household where there will be a prime opportunity by 2018 and as many as 8.6 million households where there is already an opportunity for an incremental offering that competes with Pay TV.

Beilis pointed out that key ecosystem players are already starting to reposition to address this growing market. Though he said that the 35-49 demographic is the fastest growing audience for online video, Accenture believes that this new market will be dominated by Millennials who want a “seamless, any-screen, digital-first experience with analytics-driven personalization—all priced significantly lower than pay TV.”

Growing Online Video Innovation
Meredith Corporation is already making strides to address this market. According to Laura Rowley, VP of Video Production and Product, Meredith reaches more Millennials than MTV, boasting 60% of that coveted population. While she points out that the company has “a long history in sight, sound and motion” including local TV and a nationally syndicated daily lifestyle show, the company has been on the move to build up its video inventory for all of its editorial titles, with about 10 thousand videos in their library so far and a recent Connected TV launch. Despite this, the company is still best known for its magazine brands, which include Better Homes and Gardens, Fitness and Family Circle. Thus, when she began Meredith’s video push, Rowley said she “hired a video team with TV and analytics experience to collaborate with our magazine editors instead of just telling the magazine staff to ‘do video.’”

When Justin Maiman joined Business Insider (BI) in the newly-created role of executive producer of video about a year ago, BI was producing three to five videos a week. Today, the site boasts about 25 new videos per week and 10 million views a month. How-to videos represent a about 20% of the videos BI produces and Maiman offered a few tips on how to make them, which included finding universal, evergreen topics that will appeal to your audience and making videos people want to share. For his audience he focuses on jobs, career, strategy and technology, but has also has had good success in videos about life in general as well, such as “The Truth About ‘The Most Interesting Man in The World’” and “Scientists Discovered What Makes Someone a Good Dancer.”

Maiman says that the entire BI team is involved in creating video now and that field shoots or animation work well. His over-arching strategy: Keep the video length short, to 90-seconds or so; put the video together in a day or two, post it on a Monday but know that in six months or so, it can be shared again.

At Time Inc., which is producing 700-800 videos a month, J.R. McCabe, the company’s senior vice president of video, says there’s no one length that works for their brands, which appeal to both lean-in and lean-back audiences. While they’ve done well with shorter videos that complement text-based content, they have also seen success with short-form documentaries. McCabe said that Time is “putting a model in place to monetize video on our own sites and create the ability for demand-side marketing to capitalize on the shift from TV to online video.” Given the company’s recent hiring of Mark Ellis in the newly created role of senior vice president of corporate sales, monetization is clearly high among its online video priorities and they are exploring a wide range of solutions to that end.

Demand for video far outpaces supply at Slate, according to Anthony DeMaio, the company’s associate publisher and vice president of national sales. However, rather than invest further in video creation, the company has taken a different route to increase its video-related revenue by partnering with Teads to incorporate “outstreaming” advertising into its text-based content, which runs between paragraphs on article pages. The video ad only plays when 50% or more of the ad is in view and sound is user-initiated. For Slate, this addresses viewability concerns and gives the site “life beyond pre-roll”.

NewsBeat Social, on the other hand, went all-in on video from the start, producing more than 50 “snackable news” videos a day that are not more than a minute long. And, according to the company’s Director of Operations, Tyler Peterson, “something amazing happens when you put relevant engaging video down someone’s newsfeed… you get engagement by real people, not bots.”

Hurdles Remain
Given that the majority of digital marketers plan to increase their digital advertising spend by 22% and, in particular, plan to migrate a portion of lucrative TV ad budgets to digital, and the fact that 90% of consumers are already watching video content online, it is no surprise these companies—and many others—are exploring ways in which to meet the demand from both marketers and consumers alike. Beilis from Accenture also said that video advertising supports higher eCPMs that are two to ten times greater than general display ads.

However Beilis also pointed out that inventory is not the only issue with growing online video revenue. Audience measurement remains a challenge, he says. He also advises organizations targeting this growth market to create robust first-party data and analytics infrastructure and employ market-leading ad delivery capabilities.

More coverage of DCN Video Day:

Facebook Likes Publishers, But Will They Like It Back? (November 10, 2014, AllFacebook.com)

Innovation | Video

Reuters Offers a Look at its Vision for the Future of News: Reuters TV

November 11, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

It’s not the nightly news. It’s not search-and-click web news. It’s not a fleeting stream of headlines in a social feed. It’s something new: Reuters TV.

On November 10, Reuters previewed its forthcoming video news service, which has ambitions to create an entirely new category for digital news, according to Managing Director Isaac Showman. While many types of media organizations are making a foray into digital video, Showman points out that most avoid the TV moniker. However he embraces it. Television has traditionally been a lean back medium and Showman noted that the Reuters TV team aligned that behavior with the experience they plan to deliver in the New Year.

This product should not be confused with traditional television experiences, however. “We wanted to create a television-quality experience but the difference is that you can consume your news at the right moment for you.” The world of media as a whole is changing radically, as are consumers’ consumption habits. “An on-demand experience doesn’t really work for news,” Showman points out. “A recording of the nightly news isn’t particularly useful hours later.”

Thus, Reuters leveraged the resources of Thomson-Reuters and a talented group of technologists to reinvent its process for the creation and delivery of news. The goal is to provide consumers with a complete picture, optimized for their interests and time constraints, whenever and wherever they want it.

There are two primary components to Reuters’ new service:

Right Now: Rather than create finished linear programming, Reuters’ vast network of global editors will produce segments that are continuously updated to cover top national and international stories. These segments will then be algorithmically assembled using a proprietary technology that allows users to create an on-demand news show that maintains the flow, pace and elegance of a traditional broadcast. Right Now allows Reuters to customize each broadcast to the length, location and interests of each subscriber. At any moment, they can watch a news show that will be to be up-to-date, relevant to their interests and of the length that they choose.

Live Feeds: Gives subscribers access to the world’s news events as they take place. From presidential addresses in Tennessee to public protests in Tahrir Square, viewers can choose the events they want to watch, in high-definition from wherever they are.

Reuters TV is slated to launch January 15^th, be priced at $1.99 a month and include very limited advertising, such as one brief commercial per break. Despite the wide array of news available online, the company firmly believes that there’s an audience for its new service.

As Showman points out, those under 50 are least likely to watch television news. And while many media companies are chasing the millennial segment of that audience, Reuters TV is aimed at what they are calling the “realists.” This is a psychographic group comprised of what Showman describes as those who need to be in-the-know: “They are affluent, intelligent and globally minded. They remember life before the internet but today live their lives through connected devices. They demand visual storytelling on their terms and that fits into the busy lives they lead.”

These are not people you’ll find scheduling their lives around the nightly news broadcast. At the same time, Showman believes they can be better served than by the existing web news experience, which requires searching and clicking in the hopes of cobbling together a full picture of world events. Even if you only have five minutes, the Reuters TV offering is designed to provide high-quality streamlined versions of all of the key stories of the day. Those with more time will receive a deeper perspective on these stories. Given the audience target, time was a key component. This can also be seen in the offline viewing feature, which allows the user to set daily times for automatic downloads—say at morning and evening commute times, during which internet access might be spotty, but one has a predictable block of time to stay informed.

Because social media increasingly plays a role in how we learn about, share and participate in breaking news the Reuters R&D team included social integration features, including a tool that reads Tweets in real time, gleans their meaning and then organizes and displays them within Reuters TV. This allows viewers to see all of the social conversation about an event they are watching.

Reuters, says Showman, has always been an organization with a business model to produce content once and make it available to a variety of users, as widely as possible. This effort, he says, is simply an “extension of what we do; one we hope will have scale.”

The challenge he sees is that creating an entirely new category of news requires “educating the market,” a process Reuters kicked off at its reveal party last night. Reuters TV will be launched on iOS, but it has been designed for adaptability with an eye, no doubt, to keeping pace with the changing way that consumers consume the news.

Innovation | Video

Meredith Builds its Multiplatform Strategy with Debut of Better Homes and Gardens on Connected TV

September 5, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Meredith reaches 60% of millennial women adults across its platforms. That’s more than MTV or Netflix. And, just over a year into her tenure as Vice President, Video Production and Product for the Meredith National Media Group, Laura Rowley plans to deliver content to this audience exactly when they need it and where they want it. To that end, Meredith recently announced that its Better Homes and Gardens brand has made its way onto Connected TV.

According to Rowley, this is a natural progression for Meredith, given its significant push into video over the past two years (the company now boasts more than 10,000 video titles across its sites). That progression, she believes, was a necessary one given the preferences of younger audiences. “We’d be crazy not to do a deep dive into digital video. We know that it is how Millennial women want to consume information. And they want it on whatever device suits them –tablet, mobile and, increasingly, Connected TV.”

The launch of the 30-minute Better Homes and Gardens streaming program marks Meredith’s first foray into Connected TV. As Rowley points out, Connected TV is rapidly growing in popularity, with three-quarters of TV’s predicted to be internet-connected by 2017. “So extension to this platform is key.”

The Better Homes and Gardens show will air twice a month on Net2TV’s Portico TV service, which is distributed to more than 30 million screens via smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sharp and Philips; on Roku-connected TVs; and on Toshiba tablets and notebooks. The shows will also available online at www.portico.tv.

Rowley feels strongly that among Meredith’s 14 magazine titles and nearly 100 special interest publications, the Better Homes and Garden brand was the right title to begin with. “It is an ideal launching pad for Connected TV because it not only has the widest potential audience, but also the best content for a lean back experience.” That, she feels, is the sweet spot for Connected TV, as opposed to lean-in moments that are better suited for desktop or mobile.

After looking at “a whole lot of possible hosts,” Jackie Tranchida
(NBC’s First Look) was chosen to host the new Better Homes and Gardens show because of her genuine, personable style, one that Rowley feels is consistent with the brand. Maintaining that brand authenticity is essential as Better Homes and Gardens continues to build out its multiplatform strategy. Collaboration with the editorial team is a key factor in ensuring this consistency. “Meredith is one of the most collaborative companies I’ve ever worked for,” says Rowley. “Our editorial team is at the heart of our video creation strategy.”

She also credits Meredith’s emphasis on audience understanding as a crucial component in building out its content strategy. “I come from the Huffington Post, so the marriage of science and inspiration is natural for me. At Meredith, we have hundreds of data points on our audience of women and we are already at the center of the conversation they are having about better living and style.” Connected TV, says Rowley, “is the next step in a multiplatform strategy to empower her passions.”

She also says Meredith is continuing to experiment on content including quality, subject matter, duration and delivery. Next month, as part of the Meredith Originals strategy, the Parents brand will debut a web-based reality show called Baby Sleep 911. The series will follow a baby sleep-whisperer who offers tips and expertise for sleep-deprived parents.

Meredith has an “incredibly connected audience and we want to do everything we can to help her needs in the moment,” says Rowley. For her, the opportunity to lead this strategy is even more personal, “it is a thrill to create video for an audience so deeply invested in these brands. There’s so much video out there, but we are someone these women can trust.”

Perspectives | Video

IBM Plays Up Reusable Content

September 2, 2014 DCN

Although TV still prevails among media platforms, audience screen time is shifting as digital video becomes more prevalent. Ann Rubin, vice president of branded content and global creative at IBM, spoke with eMarketer’s Danielle Drolet about how best to reach the fragmented viewers on any screen.

“Today in the industry, content is becoming more and more
important. And it’s targeted, individualized and personalized…

It’s becoming less about creating some TV spot or advertising content. Instead, create content that could be reused and repurposed.”

From content creation to optimal delivery, Rubin Ann Rubin offers some terrific insights on making the most of your content investment. Join us at Content All Stars September 18th to hear how Rubin and IBM approach their content marketing initiatives.

Revenue | Video

Q&A: Beth Lawrence, EVP Digital Sales, Scripps Networks Interactive, on Video Ad Innovation

July 23, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Q: To drive success in video advertising, what are the most important things to consider?

A: A successful video business can be driven from two metrics: The first is that quality content matters. High quality production delivered in a well-lit environment is what marketers are looking for.

The second is scale. When clients look to extend TV reach, it’s important that enough users can engage with the message. It’s one of the reasons Scripps Networks Interactive launched a premium lifestyle video portal and distributed network last year called uLive. Comprised of both full-episode play and short-form programming from the Scripps Networks library along with original video, it’s a way to distribute our content—coupled with the ad message—so the viewer can “discover” vs. being sent to a particular destination only.

Q: Describe a video advertising campaign that you think is particularly innovative or effective:

A: I really like what we did with the video content we created for Buitoni for Food Network Star. This content included the on-air in-show integration of Buitoni and the custom on-air short form that ran as Buitoni’s TV commercial, as well as its digital pre-roll and VOD offering. Additionally, it contains an excerpt from the Star Salvation webisode series with Robert Irvine that ran on FoodNetwork.com, Food Network VOD and on Food Network’s YouTube channel. Star Salvation offers contestants the chance to “come back to life” after earlier elimination from Food Network Star on TV. I like this example because it is fun, it’s engaging and it provides a web-only solution for these previously eliminated contestants to jump back into the Food Network Star mix, integrated seamlessly with the sponsor’s brand.

Q: What is working in video advertising and what do we need more of in order to drive success in this area?

A: Consumers are demanding great quality video on any device at any time of day. So for Scripps Networks, that’s a beautiful thing and we love the audience wherever we find them. Come on, you can never get enough of HGTV’s Property Brothers! As an industry, we need to be able to answer reach and other needs that arise so that video buying can be seamless like it is in the television business.

Also, I think we’re ripe for ad product innovation in video. We shouldn’t just assume that standard TV ads must travel to digital video and that’s the end of the conversation. With social media tie-ins like Twitter Amplify and second screen solutions that drive the viewer deeper into the content online from TV, the sight, sound and motion experience only gets better.

Beth Lawrence serves as executive vice president of digital sales for Scripps Networks Interactive. In this role, she is responsible for growing revenue streams for Scripps’ portfolio of lifestyle media brands – HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel and Great American Country – and their respective websites, as well as uLive, Scripps’ premium lifestyle video portal and distribution network. Lawrence also guides the company’s ad sales efforts relating to its mobile, broadband and video-on-demand offerings. In a stellar career with notable media companies including The Weather Channel, Yahoo! and DoubleClick, Beth has proven to be an outstanding leader with strong industry relationships.

Note: This interview is part of our “Three on Three” series in which we ask three executives the same three questions to uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A: Aaron Broder, CEO & Co-Founder Evolve Media, on Video Ad Innovation

Research | Video

comScore Looks at Multi-Channel Media Consumption to Reveal Real Value

June 12, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

While the proliferation of digital media devices and its effect on consumption patterns presents challenges for media and marketers, it also creates opportunities for increased reach, according to a new comScore White Paper, “From TV to Total Video: How Integrated Video Planning Can Transition Advertising from Upfronts to Allfronts.” While comScore finds that “rampant digital media proliferation is a value-creating event” the research also shows that there is “considerable value currently being left on the table.”

“We’re all very familiar with the way the consumer is transitioning to more and more platforms,” says comScore Vice President of Marketing & Insights Andrew Lipsman. “Fortunately, much of this activity has been incremental so far; one platform is not taking away from each other.” However he also points out that in younger demographics, new habits are developing that may indicate bigger shifts to come. “Particularly among millennials, there is a shift away from TV to online, set top boxes and mobile. Sooner or later, it will hit a point of no return, where video is not just the domain of what is happening on TV.”

The good news is that there’s time to prepare for the shift so that everyone within the media ecosystem can maximize the full range of content delivery channels. “Right now we’re at a point of transition and we have a period of time here where everyone can manage this transition before we have to worry about any possible cannibalization crisis.”

In the meantime, Lipsman says that it is important to continue to develop cross-platform measurement so that media companies “get credit for the full audience they reach” but also so that marketers can more effectively address those audiences. Currently, much advertising buying and selling remains channel focused—desktop, mobile, television, print. However many believe that the most effective initiatives are user-centric, finding the right audience wherever they are with the appropriate message.

“One of the most important, critical points in this whole debate is that, to optimize GRPs, you need to be able to look at all of the channels together to optimize for reach and frequency goals,” says Lipsman.

comScore’s study examined the incremental reach by channel for the duration of a given campaign. In a frozen vegetable brand example, the campaign’s cumulative reach via TV hit a plateau halfway through the campaign, providing no significant additional reach despite continued spend. However, the incremental reach provided by digital platforms (in this case, web and online video) continued to increase even after TV reach had flattened, resulting in a 12.2% increase over the course of the 14-week campaign. As Lipsman points out, this level of multichannel awareness will provide a way for marketers to address audiences more efficiently and to spend more effectively given limited budgets.

Large shifts such as these take time, though. And while comScore has already invested five years of R&D into the issue of cross-platform measurement (with new Video Metrics 3.0 and a Total Media Planning System offerings rolling out this Fall), Lipsman foresees a period of transition akin to the shift from click-through to view-through metrics. “Maybe I’m a bit biased being part of a measurement company, but one of the things we’ve seen is that the big paradigm shifts have happened when there’s been measurement to support the changes. We need to be able to provide the data and insights to help make these decisions more effectively so that media can do better monetizing and marketers can work more efficiently. If we can bring buy and sell side along at the same time, that will change the industry.”

Innovation | Video

Scripps Networks Interactive Continues ulive Momentum with Three New Shows

May 23, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

This week, Scripps Networks Interactive’s online lifestyle channel ulive announced the launch of three new series, marking the continued expansion of the digital network’s original programming. Lisa Choi Owens, COO of ulive says the channel “has not only seen growth in the network and publisher partners, we’ve seen tremendous growth in our programming, with well over 100 original series, many returning from last year,” including the two it renewed this week, EstheKitchen and Sick Kitchens with Nadia G.

Owens was instrumental in the launch of ulive last October when she and Jeff Meyer, now the President of ulive, realized that they had significantly more demand than supply for Scripps’ video inventory, which boasts popular brands such as HGTV, DIY Network and the Food Network. As Owens says, “It is also hard to see hockey stick growth from established websites.” The two recognized they were “sitting on a demo where a lot of content was not available in the market.” ulive was launched to fill that gap, as well as to expand Scripps’ existing lifestyle dominion from food, home and travel to include “all those things the average female viewer is interested in” including wellness, exercise, pets, parenting and more.

The ulive network has been particularly successful with the 25-39 female demographic, which Owens describes as “both fortuitous and planned, given that this is a desirable demographic for us, but also that this type of content will naturally resonate with that audience.”

“This audience goes online to be informed, entertained, and inspired,” says Lauren McGrath, Development Coordinator at ulive, who cites recent research undertaken by ulive and POPSUGAR as confirmation. She and Owens agree that the new shows in the lineup fit the bill perfectly:

In Dear Buddha, comedian Carey Reilly explores non-traditional roads to wellness, like sound therapy, equine therapy and reiki;
5 Minute Relaxation Anywhere features fitness guru Natasha Lloyd as she helps viewers chillax, as the title promises, anywhere, anytime;
In Fit Nonstop, SoulCycle instructor and YouTuber Kym Perfetto shows viewers how to adopt her no-BS approach to fitness, no gym required.

McGrath says that “last year’s 5-minute Workout Anywhere with Craig Ramsay was a huge success,” which she attributes to the optimal content, format, and delivery—suited to the audience’s busy lifestyle. The newly announced programming will all be short-form, running three to five minutes per episode. Owens says that ulive’s research clearly shows that “for our categories, short form works best.”

According to McGrath, what also works well for this audience are hosts that both entertain and inform, “Carey perfectly encapsulates our demo. She is a real life mom that brings comedy and entertainment value, but is always striving to learn more and better herself. That authenticity makes her incredibly fun to watch.”

Given its growth trajectory, ulive is in the market to develop new programming. And this week, the company announced a partnership with the New York Television Festival as a development partner. The two have also teamed up, along with fellow Scripps Networks Interactive brand the Travel Channel, to award a digital series to an independent artist participating in this year’s New York Television Festival. Original concepts will be vetted from the NYTVF’s 2014 class of Official Artists who participate in the NYTVF Pitch this fall. “This is a great way to partner and incubate talent,” says McGrath. “We feel that the talent pool of independent artists is incredibly deep and we look at the NYTVF participants as the future of content creators in our industry—including talent, producers and production companies.”

As ulive continues to develop its programming, Owens emphasizes that it isn’t a question of volume. “We’re dedicated to creating very focused content that continues to be useful, but also entertaining and authentic.”

Research | Video

Infographic: Online Video Advertising Insights

April 24, 2014 DCN

With nearly all of our favorite websites now featuring video content, online video advertising is no longer a market for just YouTube and Hulu. The market for online video advertising, while young, is already enormous and it’s growing rapidly. Last year eMarketer forecasted that digital video ad spending will grow to $9.1 billion in 2017, and nearly one third of marketers are already shifting budget from online display and television advertising into online video ads, according to a 2013 study from Adap.tv and Digiday.

For publishers and advertisers there are still many challenges and questions about how to best capitalize on online video advertising. For example: What is the ideal duration for a video ad? What are some sophisticated ways to package video with traditional digital advertising to increase brand visibility?

To begin to answer these questions and gain insights into the online video advertising market, MediaRadar analyzed thousands of online video ads across more than 100 websites between November 2013 and January 2014. The study revealed some very interesting trends.

A few quick takeaways:

While the vast majority (79%) of online video ads are either 15 or 30 seconds long, 30 second ads are about 10 times more likely to have a skip option than 15 second ads. Perhaps counter-intuitively, shorter ads can deliver more brand messaging than longer ads.
When it comes to the high-impact packaging of online video with various forms of display and rich media ads, there are opportunities to be an early adopter within certain categories. While 52% of video ads on food websites are accompanied by display ads, just 11% of ads on tech sites also feature an accompanying display ad.

The findings are summarized in the infographic below:

Innovation | Video

Conde Nast Entertainment Tees off Sports Video with Launch of Golf Digest Channel

March 20, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Condé Nast Entertainment launched its first sports video channel yesterday with the debut of the Golf Digest Channel. According to Molly Baldwin, Director of Editorial Operations for GolfDigest.com, “We see a really big future in video—particularly when it comes to instruction,” which is something the brand has long focused on.

While Baldwin is enthusiastic about the opportunities to create more effective learning moments for the Golf Digest audience, she believes that video gives the brand ways to deepen audience relationships as well. “The fact that instruction works well in video is very natural for our brand, but any brand would be remiss to think they could only rely on print. Every brand has to evolve and go to where audiences are, which is increasingly in front of a screen.”

Not only does Golf Digest find itself with content that effectively transitions from the page to video—such as the “Hungover Caddie” column, which will become an animated series—Baldwin says they’ve got a wealth of talent that already shine on video. Among these is Ben Crane, who Baldwin describes as “a comedic genius… in addition to being on the PGA tour,” who will host #GolfSecrets with Ben Crane. This increased emphasis on video content will also afford Golf Digest a means to further develop its editorial staff on screen.

Unsurprisingly, Baldwin says “There’s been a wealth of demand for video advertising,” which is certainly a driving force behind Condé Nast Entertainment’s continued expansion in video offerings. This is its ninth digital video channel since its 2011 launch and the second this year. The Golf Digest channel launched with Callaway as its sponsor, leveraging pre-roll and in-stream video overlays. And Baldwin says that they’ve already had “great interest from both endemic and non-endemic brands” and have had early discussions around product placement and custom content. “This is a space advertisers want to play in.”

“It is still early days for this play in digital video and we are eager to learn from our audiences what they want and what works. That’s the great value digital brings,” says Baldwin, “we get immediate feedback and we can continue to learn and experiment.”