Consumer products companies account for only six percent of the total U.S. interactive spend today, but there will be a compound annual growth rate of 36 percent through 2012, with a 50 percent rise this year, and with online video growing faster than any other platform, according to a Forrester Research IM Spend study, released May 2.
The “declining effectiveness of television ads, recession-tightened marketing budgets and better ways to execute and measure online ad campaigns against branding goals” are the major reasons for the increased interactive spend.
The online video spend will jump from $110 million in 2008 to $208 million in 2009 and $834 million by 2012. The main reasons for the increases are the ads “work for branding goals like awareness and customer engagement and they have a low cost of entry.” Online video ads can be bought on a cost per impression basis, which is “a model friendly to CP firms since it’s similar to offline media buying models, offered by media players with whom most CP firms already have relationships, and can be launched with repurposed existing video assets.”
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More