By Joe DiSanto
Go interactive. I’ve made it my mantra these days, and it should be yours, too. I really took notice several years ago when full-motion video infiltrated rich media banners. It was pretty amazing — ad units were expanding like mini TVs with endless possibilities of games, functionality and multi-use display areas. Then it hit me, like a pop-up window in the face: Everything we do as a traditional post company can be applied to interactive as well!
I learned from agency creatives that the companies doing a lot of this work were being challenged by requests for more sophisticated techniques to enrich the media. Often it wasn’t these companies’ forte to do editing, visual effects and graphic design. They had capable programmers but not the creative muscle. A gap existed, and it marked a perfect opportunity for a company like ours, a traditional editorial and post-production company, to take on interactive work and merge traditional content creation methods with the new media outlets.
I’m sure you’ve noticed, too, that advertising campaigns are integrating more interactive components than ever before. Here’s a fun forecasting tidbit for you: According to estimates by eMarketer, U.S. online advertising spending will reach $25.1 billion in 2010, representing 10.8% growth over last year. Furthermore, eMarketer predicts worldwide online advertising growth will be double digit each year through 2014! As this trend continues, I think we will see a role reversal, with the leading elements of a campaign residing online and television and radio playing a supporting role. This is just the nature of advertising — adapt to the newly available marketing opportunities or risk your message fading into the background. The same holds true for post-production companies drinking from the agency’s well — adapt to the needs of the integrated marketplace or fade away.
While it’s clear that whatever goes online is no longer an afterthought, agencies are not yet spending millions of dollars to shoot and do visual effects for banner ads or other online media. Nevertheless, clients want quality entertaining content and are willing to spend more money for these online marketing efforts. By aligning traditional broadcast techniques with interactive development, we can utilize the talents of our editors and designers for a price that fits within the agency’s interactive budget. Agencies can expect the same slick, high-level result that they would for a broadcast commercial. For example, a handful of funny videos we recently created for a Carl’s Jr. iPhone app required us to bring humor and retro design to the table while understanding the requirements of the format.
As agencies look for vendors to provide interactive services, we’ve positioned ourselves to be on their list of companies that have a strong understanding of the technical components while excelling at the creative editorial, design and VFX work, too. We also want to serve as a source of reliable information for integrated production. Recently, we hosted an Interactive Digital Roundtable to educate agency- and production-company producers on current interactive, mobile and digital production processes. (Download our interactive and digital production glossary from our Facebook page here.)
The future is clear. Whether we view content on our TV screen, computer monitor or phone, one day soon it all will come through an Internet-connected, computer-like device. We’ll constantly be taking advantage of interactive capabilities and creating unparalleled multi-dimensional experiences for consumers. And, as virtual reality continues to evolve, we may eventually be living the majority of our lives online — I can only imagine what advertising will look like then! Go interactive, my friends, and I’ll see you there.
Joe DiSanto is cofounder and executive producer of creative post house Therapy in West Los Angeles.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More