-
Involver Replaces Banner Ads with Custom Video Widgets
July 8, 2008 - 5:00 am PDT - by Kristen Nicole 14 Comments
Banner ads suck. That’s why everyone is replacing them with more interactive marketing campaigns, reeling people in with videos, RSS feed content, and other socially integrated ways in which to merge with a site’s ongoing conversations. Involver (formerly RapOuts), is the latest to replace the banner ad with an interactive video widget that is fully customizable by the brand. Launch partners for Involver’s new video widget ads include Kiva and Serena Software.
Many of the newer, custom video offerings revolve around hyperlinks that can be inserted into clips based on that video’s existing content, but Involver is taking a more familiar approach with its video widget ads. There are menu buttons that can be added to the video, which then appear along the top and the bottom of the clip, similar to video widgets you see from established widget creation services. In fact, Involver’s video widget ad is powered by Gigya, so Involver is able to take advantage of the viral sharing capabilities that Gigya already provides.
But in customizing your Involver video widget, you can edit your player with things like quizzes, an email registration window (collect email addresses for your outgoing newsletter), RSS feeds, petitions, donate buttons, a shopping cart and more. These items are all available as individual add-ons, so you can pick and choose which ones you’d like to add. Such options turn your video campaign into a portable website of sorts, enabling brands to get their message across without interrupting the user experience. What’s worse than actually seeing an ad you’re interested in, but not clicking on it because you don’t want to interrupt the video?
That may be exaggerating the situation a bit, but the core concept that Involver is promoting here is the fact that brands can skip the dynamically changing landing pages and just close the deal, directly from the video widget. What will be interesting about these types of ads that aim to get their message across without necessarily redirecting to a separate page, in the immediate sense, is that it will eventually call for a shift in the way in which ad revenues are distributed amongst brands, networks, and site publishers.For the type of reporting purposes this will require, Involver does have a dashboard where brands can keep track of their campaigns. As the ways in which brands can advertise on the Web become more disparate, the reporting of campaigns will become increasingly important, and will, in the end, have a large impact on the types of ad networks that succeed, regardless of the front-end technology.
-
Related Posts
-
Loading ...
Subscribe to Mashable
Popular Tags
Sponsors
Mashable Rocks
Events
Recent Jobs
The Sun Startup Review
Sponsored By:
Trackbacks
14 Comments
The old expression, ‘It’s like putting lipstick on a pig.’ leaps to mind. My point is, why bother? While this new concept is slick, and will no doubt get a lot of attention initially as a welcome respite from static banner ads and messaging, it’s still just a gimmick. And it demonstrates that companies are still thinking about the advertising from *their* perspective — regardless of how they are trying to integrate with user experience. The assumption is that I, as the user, will care about the content that the advertiser wants to push at me because it’s cleverly packaged. When the thinking behind it should be WHAT does the user want/need, and then deliver on that. I’m inclined to say that they’ve got the HOW down by engaging the user in a more interactive way, but [relevant] content is king (the WHAT), and if companies want to be successful through whatever innovative vehicle they choose, they need to ensure they use it to ignite a two-way conversation with their customer. Advertisers, I may look at your cool ad once, but what will you do to keep me engaged over the long-term? Build a relationship with me; don’t just talk at me through dynamic code!
Gennefer,
I think we agree, and you may be surprised to find that most of the advertisers I’ve met agree with you as well. It’s clear that content is king in this day in age, and maybe even more so a company must be sincere in an offer for 2-way communication.
The Involver platform works because of many reasons, but one of the reasons we’ve kept our pilot program is we want to make sure people understand the requirements of a successful marketing campaign — from good creative all the way to interacting with viewers daily through dynamic plug-ins like the discussion center (which can be added to any video using Involver).
Take a look at the player on our homepage (www.involver.com), I think you’ll see that it’s more than just clever packaging
Tyler Willis, Involver
Tyler,
Thanks for your thoughtful reply to my comment. There is no denying that the technology and delivery platform for Involver are sound — impressive even. But as a fellow marketer, as well as consumer and avid social network user, I’m of the opinion that even a sexy wrapper won’t sustain in the long run, lest of all if the ‘interactive’ features are intrusive (why should I bother taking the time/effort to download a plug-in so that you can push even more sales copy at me?).
Each day on Facebook, there is a new ‘hook’ to get me to look at an ad/click-thru to a website, each containing personal data re: my age, location, psychographics — even my musical tastes. But I gave none of that information to the advertiser. It was all aggregated by information in my profile or from my IP address, and while the ads do effectively target me, they are still just talking AT me. I am not part of the conversation; I am merely a recipient of information. Users are too savvy today and see right through that brand of invasive marketing.
Near as I can tell without a more thorough review of your service, the same is true for Involver. It doesn’t *involve* me any more deeply [save for aforementioned plug-ins that are really just video-enhanced 'talking heads'], it just offers a way to present the content differently.
That being said, I think there are likely many ways in which to harness the Involver tool toward a productive two-way conversation with end users, and sincerely hope that these progressive, forward-thinking advertisers of which you speak will begin leading that charge. But truth be told, I’m not so much concerned with the delivery platform of a message as I am if it is relevant/meaningful to me, and the only way to ensure that is by ASKING me, and then GIVING me what I want/need/value sans your own agenda. I think advertisers get stuck in an old sales paradigm, not fully grasping that it’s about understanding your customers’ needs and fulfilling them. Sales are merely a by-product of that communication. Corporate America calls it ‘consultative selling’ or the like, but it all boils down to humans interacting with humans — not computers or companies, or even flashy, digital delusions designed to distract, detract and deflect from the dollars that are dubiously driving the distribution.
Much luck with your product and I hope that Involver can ignite a new wave of content-focused advertising with the USER in mind.
All the best,
Gennefer
Gennefer,
Thanks for engaging in the discussion! I think we share a view of what’s ideal, and that’s a true, uninhibited, two-way communication between providers and customers.
The advertisers we talk to are starting to understand that as an industry, we are moving towards this, and in some cases they have started to embrace this and make decisions to implement this.
This shift will take time, but are looking forward to watching this change become more mainstream and more permanent, and we are committed to being part of this change.
Thanks again!
Tyler Willis
Gennefer,
I must agree, of course! Kristen also wrote a great review of my company: ListensToYou, which was designed specifically to respond to the truly shocking direction online advertising has taken - which is, to find more and more clever ways to entice consumers to buy rather than to find out what they want.
Check out the site listenstoyou.com and use the code mashable to see what I mean.
Also, I checked out your blog and you are writing some great stuff on topics that mean a lot to my company and me! If you would ever like to talk, feel free to send me an email - the contact-us link on the site goes to me and I’ll email you back.
Regards.
David Rostan
Thanks for the write-up Kristen, I think you really summed up the problem people are facing and the need that exists for truly engaging and interactive marketing experiences.
We think our plug-in approach is a really powerful one, and I think it’s key is in it’s simplicity — it’s a problem that all marketers either have now or will likely have soon and our platform allows them to tackle that issue easily and effectively.
Our clients have seen success in the form of higher engagement with their audience, and I think that will only keep growing.
I look forward to continuing the discussion here on Mashable and sharing new information with you as we continue to innovate in this space.
Thanks Again Kristen,
Tyler Willis
Director of Marketing, Involver
tyler@involver.com
“Banner ads suck.” ?
Meanwhile, Mashable has plenty of banner ads on this site - paying the writer’s salary.
Nice.
@Adam Gives credibility to the articles written here IMHO. There is a line between the advertising and the editorial. It’s a tough thing to do, but it is part of why I trust this blog.
Oh, absolute credit to the writers here - but banner ads are a boon to both advertisers and bloggers. I wouldn’t write them off just yet.
thanks all for the ongoing discussion. engaging users in any and every way possible, for advertising sake, is tough, no matter which way you look at it. even with online social media presenting new ways in which to interject into conversations that take place amongst users, some consumers find such involvement to be unsettling. It will be a long process to fully shift mass market thinking, on the advertiser and consumer end.
And yes, sucky banner ads still pay the bills. As much as I hate seeing the same commercials on TV, I know that I get subsidized costs for my content (in theory) as a result. My point in saying that banner ads suck was to introduce the fact that there’s a very large shift in experimental attempts to move away from them in the long run.
Gennefer-
I would agree that video tools like Involver most resemble lipstick (and maybe also powder and rouge) - but what they do is enable almost anyone to put “lipstick on web videos.” Whatever critter that video resembles is what gets lipsticked. But as always it is about the content - relevant, eloquent, engaging content. If you are sick of being marketed to on Facebook it’s because those people aren’t doing a very good job of engaging you in any meaningful way. If they had great content (relevant to you) and delivered it to you in a pretty wrapper like Involver you might at least less offended - and maybe even engaged to interact.
Besides the beautification angle, the real value proposition here seems be about lowering the barrier to entry for anyone to post and then share or even “campaign” a video message across multiple social networks.
If YouTube first allowed almost anyone to post a video, how cool is this? Now you can post that video, spiff it up with interactive lipstick, and easily get it out to all the potential eyeballs that may/may not enjoy and engage with your message.
@Snowfield, I can defnitely say I AGREE with you. As an avid social networker it is very annoying to see ads pop up everywhere (and I do have to say that banner ads are not working and they do suck). As much as I do not agree with the Involver it may have some potential and it is a step up from the banner ad. So kudos for a little more thought process when you are trying to target the consumer. But I have to say this will not be the big change in marketing online. There has got to be another creative and more engaging way to reach your customer, adn I don’t think that the Involver is it.
I want to thank you all again for getting involved in the discussion. I’m really excited about the fact that we are taking practical steps in what I think we all agree is the right direction.
Hopefully we’ll continue to push in that direction along with help from other people within the industry.
Thanks for supporting us in taking these steps, and please don’t hesitate to ever email me if I can answer a question or if you have a suggestion.
Best,
Tyler Willis
tyler@involver.com
I’m over banner ads.. They are too web 1.0.
Interactive widgets are more powerful. ToldYa.com is a great example of this. Traffic & Content is king. Delivering delicious content for free has a cost. That cost is your PRIVACY!