How Are Ad Agencies and PR Firms Going to Make Money in Online Video?

In an article out today in Adweek "Twenty-eight percent of (ad agancy) respondents considered 1 million views successful; around 22 percent each would settle for 500,000, 250,000 or 100,000 views.

What? Obviously ad agencies, media buyers, brand marketers and PR firms are not connecting with online video content creators who get millions of views on a regular basis or they don't want to.

What do you mean Tim? Of course Ad agencies would want to help their clients out and connect with existing viral video series that would reach an advertiser's targeted client.

Would they? What's in it for them?

Tim, they would be a hero to their client saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Ah, last I checked ad agencies aren't in business to save clients money. Advertising agencies are in business to make money and if they can't make money on the creative because some kid is making videos out of his bedroom that get millions of views and they can't make any money on the time buy because there's no time to buy cause you just post it on the Internet, how are advertising agencies going to make money in online video?

The way ad agencies are going to make money with Internet video is to embrace it. Embrace it like it's their long lost cousin cause right now with the economy in the crapper they are going to have to find cost effect ways of saving their clients money in order to help their clients make more money so that when the economy recovers they can hit their clients up with higher rates and remind them of what an effective job they did for them in the lean times.

Ad agencies will have to be careful that they don't fall into the "Smoke and Mirrors" trap that several people in the advertising and public relations industries are falling into now with online video. Where they fan a bunch of smoke about how great the creative is in their online video and then use a bunch of mirrors to talk about how effective the over all outcome of the campaign was even though their "viral video" only had 800 views on YouTube.

Ad agencies are going to need to reach outside their comfort zone of working with the "gods of media" known as commercial directors. TV commercial directors walk on water in the advertising world but TV commercials don't play that well on the Internet. The Internet has a new bread of content creators who live on the web and understand the nuances, culture, and what it takes to emotionally engage an audience online. Sure commercial directors will learn these things but the huge day rates that they command in TV commercials won't be there waiting for them on the Internet so they won't be motivated to really dive in and become an online video creator.

Ad agencies are trying to create their own online videos but they will soon learn it's easier to jump on to a moving train than it is to build your own train and lay the tracks it's going to ride on.

How are agencies going to make money in online video? Ad agencies and public relations firms will make money in online video by buying placement on video sites that will feature their sponsored or co-branded videos so that they get millions of views. But the real way agencies are going to make money in online video is by partnering with existing content creators who have relevant content with emotionally engaged audiences already in place. In some cases we will even see ad agencies and PR firms pour money into building up the audiences of small online video shows so that their reach will make a dent both nationally and globally and be affective as well as effective in creating ROI for their clients.

Wow that sounds greatt Tim, but what the hell does that mean?

Okay, let's take French Maid TV for example. Say there's a SCUBA diving resort or SCUBA diving equipment manufacturer that wants to reach young men and they don't have an online video campaign launched already. Their ad agency could go create their own SCUBA Diving viral video and hope for the best or these SCUBA people could partner with French Maid TV to do a "How To Skin Dive" episode or better yet they do a series of French Maid TV Skin Diving Tips where the French Maids explain different SCUBA or Skin diving techniques for beginners and for the pros. These videos could then be placed in an ad buy on relevant video sharing sites as well as SCUBA diving sites around the world reaching more than just the 1 to 5 million views French Maid TV episodes get. This would increase awareness for the SCUBA vacation destination or SCUBA manufacture as well as French Maid TV and be of value to everyone involved.

Are your online videos getting millions of views?

Tell us about them.

When Do You Want Someone to Give You "The Business?"

You want someone to give you "The Business" when that person is the Los Angeles Bureau Chief for Advertising Age, former staff reporter at Variety/Daily Variety and writer for Premiere, The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles, Entertainment Weekly and Us Weekly as well as an occasional contributor to the daily public radio business program, Marketplace and they are the host of NPR's, titled, "The Business", Claude Brodesser-Akner.

Claude's quick wit and sharp, "tongue in cheek" personality shine through in his audio program / podcast called the The Business and have made me a big fan.

According to NPR's own website, "The Business looks deep inside the business of entertainment. A half-hour of thoughtful and irreverent dialogue with Hollywood's top deal-makers, filmmakers, moguls, artists and agents, The Business will clue you in on who's making pop culture pop and what's keeping Hollywood's Blackberries juicy."

Beyond all the general Hollywood news and information Claude manages to stay on top of the cutting edge and discover as well as expose new business models that many of you should pay attention to like his epsiode that involves the two-way street between American television and British telly where he talks to TV producer extraordinaire Caryn Mandabach ("That '70s Show","Cosby","3rd Rock from the Sun" and many more) about her dealings across the pond.

In this episode Claude unearths how Mandabach is developing, piloting and launching TV shows in the UK's Independent Television community that get incubated for very little money as table reads, stage performances and radio shows before they make it to TV. The best part about her TV development model is that she owns the rights to her shows and can then license them to the good old US of A. Something you should pay very close attention to!

In listening to Caryn Mandabach talk about the British TV community I can't help but think of what we are all doing in our little Online Video community and how we are all helping each other incubated new shows.

I was lucky enough to meet Claude Brodesser-Akner last week at Advertising Age's Madison + Vine conference and I look forward to Claude giving me more of "The Business" very soon.

To add The Business to your iTunes visit iTunes Podcasts

"Agencies Don't Get It"

AdWeek's Brian Morrissey

Reports that according to a TNS/Cymfony study that polled more than 60 marketers, Agencies don't get social media and that they only concentrate on closed media where they cam make money.

Looks like an opportunity for those of you that do get the open media and social media space.

I'd love to hear if you have any stories to share on things you have done for corporate clients that advertising agencies couldn't, wouldn't or didn't know how to do.

Time To Build a Market Place

Right now if you are an advertiser or a media buying looking to spend a million dollars in online video and see a return on your investment you might have a hard time spending your money but tomorrow that will change - or at least it will begin to change. Tomorrow the Association of Downloadable Media will be announcing their newly elected leadership.

The next steps for the ADM will be to work with advertisers, and advertising agencies to establish standards to downloadable audio and video.

Once these standards are established advertisers and advertising agency media buyers will know what they can buy and content creators will know what to start calling their advertising inventory. Unfortunately it's going to take some time for all this to happen but I'm sure that one way or another it will all come together just the way that banners, buttons, skyscrapers and cpc text links did for web page advertising over that last ten years.