Why quality matters
Quality counts. That’s the message that thousands of brands broadcast on an almost continuous basis. So it’s too bad so many companies don’t apply the same maxim to their online video buying each day says Dave Randall, commercial manager UK at Videology Group. So Newsline asked what works for his clients?
Considering that buying quality online video delivers the same benefits as it does in every other area of life – invest in better and you get better results – it makes very little sense that so many brands fail to make the right sorts of investments.
We perceive that brands looking to shift TV money towards online video need to look for quality in three key areas: management, content and results. Get the first two steps right and the third comes naturally, but each is a vital part of the targeting equation.
Quality management: when we look at the publishers we work with we have a checklist of key management details that we need to be satisfied.
We, of course, have to make sure that cookie and data policies are compliant with EU legal regulations and that the publishers are reputable in the industry but the vetting cannot end there.
Source URLs are checked for brand suitability and once each has been manually checked, publishers are told of the approved site-list and contracts establish that ads only ever run across those sites.
We also encourage the set up of a white-list with most partners we work with to further protect both the advertiser and publisher. (Executed real time within the ad call, creating an automated verification check against the white-list, ensuring accurate ad placement).
Quality content: with most pre-roll advertising revenue and creative coming from traditional TV budget, there’s an absolute need to make sure that the site where an ad appears has the same quality environment as the brand content.
This applies not just to the design of the site itself and the quality of the engagement of the people who visit but also to the video content that pre-rolls precede. We will only work with publishers whose content is professionally produced and never run on user-generated content.
This policy does somewhat restrict our access to inventory but it’s far more important to deliver brand assurance on the right content than to risk advertiser integrity because inventory is cheaper.
In TV, when you buy an ad spot you know that the surrounding editorial content will be of a certain quality. We extend this expectation to online video as well. How would Porsche, for example, feel if their brand advertising started appearing on casual gaming sites?
Quality results: our research shows that brands that appear in quality environments provide not just reassurance but also better results.
Analysis of more than 500 million UK pre-roll impressions in 2013 shows that broadcast quality content delivers a seven percentage point increase on view through rate compared to professionally produced web-based content.
There is plenty of evidence demonstrating that digital advertising (in all formats) appearing within trusted media environments is more likely to drive view through rates and brand metrics such as awareness, recall and purchase intent.
The fact is that consumers surrounded by or consuming editorial in marque media environments are more receptive to brand messages. The stamp of approval of a premium media brand creates a halo effect around all the content on that page – be it editorial or advertising.
Whatever the KPI being used, click through or impact on brand metrics, quality delivers a powerful ROI that more than justifies any premium for space.
We have to be professional and adhere to the standards that brands expect. If we take a step away from advertising and look at the importance companies place on their product packaging it speaks volumes.
Businesses such as P&G employ staff specifically to check the quality of the product wrapping before it leaves the factory. Is there a smudge to the typeface? Don’t release it. Is the creative symmetry wrong? Don’t release it. Is the colour out of specification? Don’t release it.
We represent companies with strict brand guideline bibles and we package their ads with the best quality wrapping.
This crucial step helps us help our advertisers see strong results.