Online video ads were once much more effective at increasing brand awareness than other formats, but this advantage has diminished over time. However, online video still drives purchase intent more than rich media or simple flash ads. While awareness for video has declined as its novelty wears off, purchase intent from video ads continues to rise. Custom video ads targeted towards specific audiences can be even more effective at influencing purchasing decisions compared to repurposed television ads.

1. Dynamic Logic: Beyond the Click
®
Novelty Might be Wearing Off, but Online
Video Still Drives Purchase Intent More than
Other Online Formats
With ad spend for online video expected to exceed $3 billion by 20141, the
importance of engaging creative, relevant targeting, and ad effectiveness
measurement is becoming increasingly critical to the success of online video ads.
Analysis of Dynamic Logic's MarketNorms® database Purchase Intent Trend Line
reveals that video ads are losing their edge at increasing 2
Online Video Rich Media Simple Flash
certain brand metrics compared to other ad formats*.
While still an effective form of advertising, their once more
Percent Impacted
than 100% lead in Online Ad Awareness (average
1
percent impacted of 15.8 for video vs. 7.9 for overall
MarketNorms in 2007) has diminished over the past
three years and is now on par with overall norms. But
there's good news for video. A trending analysis of 0
Q3/06- Q4/06- Q1/07- Q2/07- Q3/07- Q4/07- Q1/08- Q2/08- Q3/08- Q4/08- Q1/09- Q2/09-
Q2/07 Q3/07 Q4/07 Q1/08 Q2/08 Q3/08 Q4/08 Q1/09 Q2/09 Q3/09 Q4/09 Q1/10
Purchase Intent levels reveals another story — a steady
4 Quarter Rolling Average
increase in the persuasion impact of online video.
Source: Dynamic Logic MarketNorms; Last 3 Years through Q1/2010;
Overall Video N=323 n=382,3 3; Rich Media N=1,207 n=1,5 2,406; Simple Flash N=1,1 n=1,485,83
1 1 79 1
The decreases seen in awareness likely reflect the
wearing off of video's novelty, a trend similar to that seen
in the early stages of rich media advertising. While other As shown above, video is still the most effective online
factors certainly play a role in the effectiveness of online format when it comes to increasing consumers' likelihood
creative (check out Dynamic Logic's Online Creative Best to purchase — likely a result of many factors. For one,
Practices), novel formats seem to outperform others early marketers are beginning to embrace the fact that the
on, particularly on awareness metrics, but decline in online environment is different from TV, and many are
effectiveness as penetration increases. pre-testing their ads to determine which creative will
generate the biggest impact online. In a recent study, which
explored the role of creative content in video, Dynamic
Logic found that although repurposed TV spots result in
higher brand awareness metrics, custom, made-for-Web
creative is far more likely to influence purchase decisions.
The trend is especially true among females and younger
age groups. Of 18-34 year olds who saw an ad with
June 2010 1
Forrester Research

2. Dynamic Logic: Beyond the Click
®
2
custom creative, for instance, 2.8 percent of viewers were About MarketNorms®
influenced to make a purchase decision, compared to 1.1 Advertisers, publishers and agencies use MarketNorms to understand
which aspects of online advertising have the greatest impact on brand
percent for repurposed TV ads.
lift. Dynamic Logic’s MarketNorms database of over 6,000 campaigns
across more than a dozen industries has branding lift metrics, ad and
In addition to quality creative execution, video is becoming brand attributes, environmental/site data, audience data and other
increasingly impactful as more engaging and efficient campaign information collected in over 8.2 million surveys.
targeting methods are utilized in the online space. As new www.marketnorms.com
innovations (such as tickers or overlays) continue to
emerge, pre-testing and in-market measurement will be About Beyond the Click®
Since 1999, Dynamic Logic's Beyond the Click® newsletter has provided
even more critical in helping advertisers determine how far
marketers with actionable insights on the branding impact of digital
to deviate from the more traditional pre-roll formats. advertising. Based on research from MarketNorms®, our normative
database of over 6,000 online campaigns, as well as experience
measuring the effectiveness of mobile, video, social media and other
emerging platforms, Beyond the Click continues to be the leading source
* Online Ad Formats, as Defined in MarketNorms: for the latest trends, opportunities and best practices for navigating the
digital landscape and beyond.
• Online Video: Encompasses all ad formats utilizing
some form of video, regardless of delivery method: Dynamic Logic, A Millward Brown Company
in-page, in-banner, in-stream, in-player, etc. Linear +1 800 245 2455
www.dynamiclogic.com
and non-linear formats are included.
• Rich Media: Units with which users can interact within
a web page. Elements such as sound, video, or Flash
may be implemented. May appear in ad formats
such as banners, buttons, transitionals, floating,
take-overs, etc.
• Simple Flash: Ad unit with animation frames; multiple
click-through buttons or points may be implemented,
but without interactive elements
• Static/GIF: Units that have no animation frames, or
simple animation without interactive elements. Only
a single click-through point may be implemented.
©2010 Dynamic Logic, A Millward Brown Company