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29-Jul-2010
by Philip Hunter
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Overlays help advertisers maintain visibility
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Advertising
Overlays may not be the most dynamic or creative branch of advertising, but could come into their own in association with targeting by helping create narratives for particular target groups and enforcing the message delivered in the video. They could also find an important niche filling in the time gaps created by trick-play applications, such as fast-forwarding, having already been proven in this regard on the web while pages load.
“I think we will see that more in the developed markets around new types of media such as time-shifting, putting on an ad every time you pause, rewind or fast-forward,” predicts Gideon Gilboa, Product Marketing Manager for Advertising Solutions at Conditional Access and middleware vendor NDS. This could lead straight in to click-to-purchase where relevant, and revive the whole field of interactive advertising started with lukewarm success by the Red Button. “I think it could be more appealing than Red Button because it does not interrupt the programming unnecessarily,” Gilboa comments.
As well as featuring in their own right for trick-play, overlays will also enhance video adverts, enabling specific targeted messages to be inserted and helping convey narratives without necessarily having to change the core content. The banner could also be used to localise a generic advert. For example, the details of nearby dealerships where a test drive can be booked for a new model of car could be inserted.
The ability to perform such insertion in the network rather than relying on STBs and client-side software will make it more feasible and cost-effective. That is the view of Nabil Kanaan, Senior Director for Product Marketing at RGB Networks, vendor of video delivery solutions for cable, IPTV and Internet operators.
“Client-side technology is now complemented by network-based technology that can “burn in” overlays in the video streams, all in the compressed domain, and can target ads with overlays down to a zone or micro-zone level,” says Kanaan. “This eliminates the dependence on client technologies and set-top boxes with their varying processing capability.”
The message could still be targeted because knowledge of the client will reside in the network on the basis, for example, of behavioural details that might identify what action, if any, to recommend in association with an advert. For example, if it was known the person watching was a member of a particular retail loyalty card scheme, points could be offered for making an immediate purchase.
Overlay advertising could also become important in emerging markets such as India and perhaps Eastern Europe where Internet penetration is relatively low on a per capita basis, Gilboa at NDS believes. In this context, the TV would operate like a surrogate Internet, conveying messages that in much of Europe, North America and the Far East are delivered online.
You can find out much more about next-generation advertising at the 2nd Annual Future TV Advertising Forum.
About the author
Philip Hunter is a leading specialist writer on the business of delivery and consumption of digital entertainment. He writes widely for both technical journals and specialist web sites, as well as more general interest publications such as Prospect Magazine, conveying complex ideas and subjects in a clear but not condescending manner. In the multimedia content and TV arenas, Philip combines in depth technical knowledge with appreciation of the business models that will bring success in the new age of on-demand content consumption, identifying the opportunities and pitfalls facing operators, broadcasters and content providers as they embrace new platforms beyond the traditional end point of the set top box.
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