Who is Carl Fremont? Digitas’s EVP.
Why do I love him? According to SAI:
“I was surprised there wasn’t as much focus on digital as in the last two years,” he says. “It feels like digital got the short-shrift.”
The result, Fremont says, is the networks could be leaving money on the table. What’s Fremont looking for? His advertisers want to integrate their wares into original Web shows, but he hasn’t seen anything resembling a strategy from the networks. Fremont doesn’t consider Hulu or other outlets that show digital streams of broadcast shows an option, because his advertisers want to integrate into shows rather than sponsor them or place 30-second spots.
“Just placing ads like pre-rolls are not a big interest to us, frankly,” he says. “That’s just taking the old TV model and adapting it to a new screen. We would rather work with a producer and develop custom content.”
Why is this familiar? See what I wrote… yesterday:
Three out of four TV viewers prefer product placement over commercials.I think this is even stronger online.
Like it or not, you will seeing more and more product placement and integration in online video content where there is even more resistance to ad placements.
At WatchMojo.com, we’ve been exploring this with more and more advertisers and ad agencies; so long as it’s done tastefully and neither party is trying to mislead users, our results show that indeed users prefer that to ads, pre-roll etc.
I expect to see more and more of this, but few will be able to pull it off programming and distribution-wise, those who can will have the advantage over those who can’t.
Of course, there are other considerations, like being able to create low-cost programming until online ad sales really scale and take over TV revenues… but this is starting to be a no-brainer: performance and engagement-style ads are doomed to fail; pre-rolls will probably go the way of pop-ups (with post-rolls being as effective and welcome by advertisers as pop-unders) and by sheer market force, product placement and integration will have to be addressed, fine-tuned and mastered.
This is where tact and grace will come in play… admittedly.
PLAY
