Latest Atlas Study Reveals Cross-Promotion As Key Component To VOD Advertising Success
Case Study Shows Nearly 25 Percent of VOD Advertising Viewership Driven by Branded Navigation Unit (BNU) Promotional Spots
SEATTLE - (Nov. 1, 2006) – A key risk in long-form video-on-demand (VOD) advertising is producing and hosting content that nobody ends up seeing.
Atlas, a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise, and an operating unit of aQuantive, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQNT), today released a case study revealing the importance of cross-promotional spots to increase VOD viewership. The study also shows the impact of those cross promotions based on when they were delivered. The new research study, “Cross Promotion is Critical to VOD Success,” was conducted by the Atlas Institute. The complete Digital Marketing Insight (DMI) report is available here.
Free VOD is still in its infancy and many users know neither of its existence nor how to access it. Therefore, many VOD advertising campaigns include “Branded Navigational Units” (BNUs): thirty-second promotional spots that run on standard cable channels and promote the free VOD content that the cable operator has placed on its service. For example, an advertiser may place multiple five-minute free programs describing their products on the operators’ platforms and also run BNUs teaching how to access the long-form ad content.
The study found that in this specific case, nearly 25 percent of VOD views to this retailer’s audience were driven by BNUs. Atlas was able to estimate both the impact of BNUs overall and how efficiently BNUs increased VOD views during different times of day. For example, research proved that a BNU shown during prime access (the one hour “daypart” directly before prime time) was worth six times more than a BNU shown during the daytime daypart.
“The key message here is that BNUs matter – advertisers should not treat these as an afterthought to their campaigns, but rather take a more strategic, planned approach,” said the study’s author John Chandler-Pepelnjak, Atlas principal analyst. He added, “It is imperative that advertisers test the efficacy of BNUs during various times, for each targeted audience.”
According to Chandler-Pepelnjak, “This case study, the first of its kind, validates that cross promotion significantly contributes to an increase in VOD viewership, and that time of day is just as critical as the content running.”
About Atlas Institute
The Atlas Institute is the research and education arm of Atlas, an advertising technology provider and creator of the Atlas Digital Marketing Suite. The Institute publishes Digital Marketing Insights, a series of publications by Atlas's senior marketing analysts and digital marketing experts that help customers improve their digital marketing effectiveness. Many of these findings are also made available to the digital marketing industry at large. Each Digital Marketing Insight report is designed to help marketers more successfully build value with their customers, throughout the customer lifecycle: from awareness to acquisition and from retention to growth. The Atlas Institute also provides education in digital marketing to Atlas customers and partners. To view a full listing of the Atlas Institute's Digital Marketing Insights, please visit http://atlassolutions.com/institute_marketinginsights.aspx
About Atlas
Atlas www.AtlasSolutions.com is a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise. Atlas offers agencies and marketers integrated solutions for video on demand, online campaign management, in-stream video, rich media, search marketing, landing page optimization, reporting, and analysis to maximize their online ROI, and provides a highly scalable ad-serving platform to help online publishers increase revenue. Atlas delivers the industry's most complete service and support, serving its clients from offices in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Denver and London. Atlas, an operating unit of aQuantive, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQNT), is a member of the NAI, adhering to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC, and is the first third-party ad server to complete the auditing process and achieve ad measurement accreditation by the Media Rating Council (MRC).