Advertising “skins” get the bump from CBS
Web video advertising is in its infancy, and it’s trying to find its feet with a number of different techniques and strategies. One recent announcement should help give “skins” the edge over other forms. CBS, in acquiring an online show called “The Burly Sports Show,” will give skins a boost on CBSSports.com.
“The Burly Sports Show” reportedly draws two million visitors per month. As a recent Wall Street Journal article explains, “[The show] covers wacky events such as a failed marriage proposal during halftime of a Houston Rockets basketball game and a baseball mascot’s fall during a running race.” While CBS has claimed “The Burly Sports Show” to re-energize the content on their site, they are also unwittingly putting skins higher on the web advertising totem pole.
Skins are essentially an advertisement that surrounds the video player or page. For example, a poster for an upcoming movie release or a haircare product might provide a virtual “matting” for the featured video. This format, which has been used as backgrounds on blogs and websites like MySpace, is starting to take hold for web video players.
Other ad techniques are also being employed by content providers for promoting products during web videos. The most common, which are used on Hulu, are known as “preroll”, “midroll”, and “postroll” ads, which interrupt the video much like a television commercial. According to the Wall Street Journal, these ads appeal to the traditionalists among advertising companies. “Marketers also like preroll, midroll, and postroll ads because they can take the TV ads they already have created and chop them up to fit the Web.” Other strategies include “bugs”, which are messages or logos that appear in the video or player, and “tickers”, which scroll messages along the bottom of the content, much like a news ticker on CNN or the BBC.
Companies who promote skin ads claim that they are more successful than other forms of web video advertising. The theory is that users are more likely to click on skin ads because of their non-intrusive nature. Because of the growing impatience with banner ads, skin ads are said to have a click-through rate of 1.68%, much higher than banners. Leading skin advertising firm InSkin Media claims, “The InSkin ad format invites users to engage with the advertisers’ content on their terms, whilst giving them a much longer window of opportunity to do so.” While the theory is interesting, many experts have pointed to content as the major factor to determine ad success. Simply put, if the video is entertaining, more people will see it and more people will click on the ad surrounding it.
Whether or not one web video advertising format will win over the others is something that we’ll find out with time. As each of these video ad formats is tested and vetted by various content providers, we’ll be seeing new and unique ways to get our attention and sell us a product.
By Haley January Eckels
