Outstream video: Five-second waiting period, for who?

© Ar Ducha Misfa'i via 123RF.com.

Most of us want information at our fingertips when we search for it, instant access to information - and we want it for free. Advertising is one of the ways many content producers can use to monetise their work so that your consumption is paid-for by the brands you encounter every day.

Google has partnered with publishers across South Africa to manage and promote non-intrusive advertising so that you can enjoy your content consumption with little distraction while giving the brands a satisfactory viewability.

A few of the biggest publishers are playing in the sandbox environment and kicking around some of the latest features enabled through video technology for better, more efficient and less annoying advertising. This is in partnership with Google’s newest offering, outstream video, which is a term you have probably heard of before, if not, it’s really okay, it just means you won’t have to wait five seconds to skip that video ad!

If you are familiar with the Ad Exchange from Google (the world’s largest online auction), then you will be happy to know that you can now satisfy your brands by purchasing video advertising through the Ad Exchange even if the publisher does not have a video platform such as Youtube.

This means, your target market consumers do not have to wait five seconds to skip, they can consume interesting video as they would native content. This can be over-layed with an audience-based buy, which will only show these videos to the consumers who are looking for it. Programmatic media buying, an automated means of buying and selling ad space on websites, is evolving and adapting to consumer behaviour.

Agencies are beginning to shift budgets from traditional TV advertising to digital mobile and desktop video, as it is more engaging, personalised and creative.

Benefits of outstream video

• All publishers (websites) can now include a video monetisation feature even without video content
• Advertisers can expand their reach beyond standard video players such as Youtube
• High viewability, i.e. as outstream video only plays and starts measuring when in view of readers
• Better optimised for mobile, most people consume content via their mobile phones
• Advertisers benefit from cheaper than normal five-second skippable videos
• Publishers benefit from a healthy revenue lift, from video budget, even without video content