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Is Online-Video Recession Proof?

Online-video advertising is still dwarfed by television advertising. But fear not the recession, online video advocates! Fear not these gloomy photos of the depression that you’re seeing on all of the weekly magazines. And this is according to  Christine Beardsell from Digitas writes in a ClickZ article.

Here are three reasons Beardsell says online video advertising will come out ahead during an economic downturn. Parenthetically, search “recession” on Google Trends to see how freaked people are getting.

  1. No Longer Experimental. Past economic crises often led CMOs to cut back on experimental advertising, and they rely on the skills and responsibilities they’ve traditionally relied upon… as Keith Bobier, senior director of marketing at Unilever, put it: “We are not pulling in the reigns at all…there is nothing experimental about this for us.” In fact, during financial struggles, aren’t the customer-centric things exactly what brands and their customers need most?
  2. Possible, Affordable Optimization: If you’re a marketing executive given the option to either make two new TV spots for the year… or create several video brand content experiences throughout the year that can guarantee measurable, detailed, optimized results and build engagement with your customer, which option would you choose? You get less for more when it comes to TV spots.
  3. Less Buying, More Conversation: While there may be a lot less money to spend when money is tight, that doesn’t necessarily mean people will spend less time engaging with your brand. In fact, frugal spending often means longer hours researching products and discussing those products with trusted friends and family. And with research and conversations now happening predominately online, brands more than ever have the opportunity to join these discussions and help customers make smart purchasing decisions.

I’d add two things. When I tighten my marketing budget, I tend to focus on squeezing down the largest spend, and not starve innovation. So as long as online-video ads provide metrics (see Daisy Whitney’s article on TubeMogul and Visible Measures) then they’re not going to be the first part of the mix that’s cut.

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10 Comments

  1. I’m definitely not worried, I keep seeing more and more advertising and it seems to be less and less annoying.

    Maybe its that I make money from them

  2. Still Sarah Palin’ Week

    Hard to say what will happen – this could be the worst economic disaster in the history of the country and perhaps the world.

    There are the doom and gloomers that say you won’t be able to afford gettin’ on-line, that the infrastructure will break down as companies cut back and we’ll be forced to accept cable TV like packages on the net or worse, the government will co-op the whole thin’ and do to it what it’s helped done to the economy. In this case no people no ads.

    On the other hand advertisin’ on the net is cheap, could end up bein’ self sustainin’ and the bigest boost ever for the state of onlineness

    Television is goin’ digital (we’ll see) Feb 2009 they aren’t ready, many people in tough times won’t shell out money for the converter box, even with a coupon. This could be a boost for the net from those who split their time between TV and on-line activity.

    The upside to connectivity is the net saves gas- prices will probably/eventually fall, but people are already conditionin’ themselves to cut back on transportation and entertainment. The net is much cheaper, easier to justify when job huntin’, substitutin’ for entertainment or even readin’ books.

    After entertainment telephones are the next thing to go, I expect to see cell phone companies go the way of some big banks. Using Telephony will cut your bill to nil.

    Anyone out there who wants to make a splash in online entertainment would look to start a program/show that gives three minute tips on how to cut back and survive during hard time. The Austere Entangle (c) and who ever makes a spoof on that show will make even more money, or do both; good time to start.

    But all this depends on the pendin’ rate of unemployment and how the government reacts to the situation.

  3. I think you need to make a video that makes a tangential reference to Extenze, which is supposed to make your johnson grow. But it’s gotta be an obvious tangential reference, such as opening a drawer while you’re looking for something and oh, we see a box of textenze, an embarrassed look on your face, and then the drawer slams shut.

    I’ve been watching way way way too much middle of the night tv. All they talk about then is impacted fecal matter and extenze. And you would think those topics are mutually exclusive, wouldn’t you.

  4. Speaking of impacted fecal matter, my ex-friend/army buddy Desert Dave in El Paso is salivating for the economic crash. Locked and loaded.

    Where did you find that picture of mom’s family in Winnie, Kevin?

  5. @7 it’s Sarah Palin Week wasamattayou?!

    Say Look Gang! Just in time for the Recession Depression®

    MS is taking part of that $700 Billion Tax Cut Bailout Scam they got and giving us back a bunch of Cheap Chinese Junk, Crappy Airline Seats and Music you can download free on any torrent site if you use their crappy Microsoft® Live Search!

    WOW!

    Look out Google BG is after some of that recession proof ad rev.

    Did MS buy Yahoo yet? or is that Bill’s Christmas Gift to himself this year?

    sorry sorry that was all very mean, I don’t really hate MS just everything, but xp. ok, not everything mostly Vista.

  6. @9 ah, yes, but that free torrented music has the occasional side effect of an RIAA suit. On the other hand, just living comes with the occasional side effect of an RIAA suit, so there’s really no reason not to pirate the stuff, which, by the way, FBI, I AM NOT ADVOCATING PIRACY, I AM JUST SAYING THAT THE RIAA AND THE MPAA ARE A BUNCH OF DUMBASSES!

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