By Ken Liebeskind
NEW YORK --Two of the conclusions DoubleClick has reached from the Video Ad Benchmarks data it released last week is that broadband video advertising can be used by direct marketers and that the available data on online video engagement metrics surpasses similar data available for TV.
“Online video ads are excellent for branding, with the opportunity for sound, motion and story,” said Rick Bruner, DoubleClick’s research director. “But when judged on the basis of the direct response metric for online advertising–the click through rate, online video ads perform extremely well.”
The study found that the click through rate for online video ads is much higher than static image units. While the overall click through for static ads is 0.1 to 0.2 percent, the rate for online video ranges from 0.4 for standard video ads to 0.74 for in-stream ads. “It’s more than three times the click through than static ads, so direct advertisers should give a second look to videos,” Bruner said.
Click through isn’t the sole metric available for video ads. The DoubleClick study produced another: video view time. It found that viewers generally watch two-thirds of a video ad — 18.5 seconds for a :30 and 10.5 seconds for a :15. The study also found that the rates are virtually the same for standard video ads and expandable ads.
The study also reported that eight percent of the video ads played were interacted with in some way, which includes everything from mouse overs to clicks to pressing stop, play or mute.
The study was based on 301 campaigns that produced 2.7 billion video ad impressions from June through September, 2006. The campaigns were served by Klipmart, which DoubleClick acquired in June, 2006.
Not only is the data favorable for online video, it demonstrates its availability, which is superior to other media, including TV. “The engagement metrics to track interactive video are unknowable for TV,” Bruner said. “The percentage of video viewed is one statistic that is unavailable to TV, which doesn’t know how much of a commercial viewers watch. The advanced levels of customer engagement are an advantage to advertisers.”
In NBC’s “Brilliant Minds,” Zachary Quinto Plays Doctor–In A Role Inspired By Physician/Author Oliver Sacks
There's a great moment in the first episode of the new NBC medical drama "Brilliant Minds" when it becomes very clear that we're not dealing with a typical TV doctor.
Zachary Quinto is behind the wheel of a car barreling down a New York City parkway, packed with hospital interns, abruptly weaving in and out of lanes, when one of them asks, "Does anyone want to share a Klonopin?" — a drug sometimes used to treat panic disorders.
"Oh, glory to God, yes, please," says Quinto, reaching an arm into the back seat. The intern then breaks the pill in half and gives a sliver to the driver, who swallows it, as the other interns share stunned looks.
Quinto, playing the character Dr. Oliver Wolf, is clearly not portraying any dour, by-the-rules doctor here — he's playing a character inspired by Dr. Oliver Sacks, the path-breaking researcher and author who rose to fame in the 1970s and was once called the "poet laureate of medicine."
"He was someone who was tirelessly committed to the dignity of the human experience. And so I feel really grateful to be able to tell his story and to continue his legacy in a way that I hope our show is able to do," says Quinto.
He's a fern-loving doctor
"Brilliant Minds" takes Sack's personality — a motorcycle-riding, fern-loving advocate for mental health who died in 2015 at 82 — and puts him in the present day, where the creators theorize he would have no idea who Taylor Swift is or own a cell phone. The series debuts Monday on NBC, right after "The Voice."
"It's almost as if we're imagining what it would have been like if Oliver Sacks had been born at a different time," says Quinto. "We use the real life person as our North Star through everything we're doing and all the... Read More