Interactive marketers can’t help but look to online video to take advantage of branding potential richer than that for previous online display ad formats. But like its static display counterpart, banner ads, online video advertising can appear in numerous ad sizes, placements and creative types, making it difficult for marketers to decide where to start.

Research from Yahoo! indicates certain video ad units are better at boosting advertiser and brand recall than others, providing marketers a tentative roadmap for increased online video advertising success. In Yahoo!'s study, video viewers recalled seeing pre-, mid- and post-roll ads more often than any other display ad type. More than half (53%) of respondents who recalled seeing some advertising remembered viewing these in-stream ads.

However, the pervasiveness of an ad unit type can still have a large influence on recall. For example, 35% of viewers were able to recall seeing static banner ads, one of the most common display ad types. In contrast, only 13% of viewers remembered seeing seemingly more eye-catching video banner ads.

This seems counterintuitive when comparing the dynamic nature of video to static creative. But users are much more commonly exposed to standard banner ads than online video banner ads; users can hardly recall ads they rarely or never see. The concept of exposure influencing recall is also echoed in the fact that in-stream units like pre-roll ads—the most recalled ad unit types—are also the most used video units by US marketers, according to Break Media. Viewers not only remember seeing these in-stream units, they also recall the ads’ subjects. Almost half (47%) of respondents said they remembered the brand or product advertised after viewing a pre-, mid- or post-roll video ad. This is not surprising given the often mandatory—and interruptive—viewing nature of these units.

Worth noting is the ability of expandable video banners and pop-up video ads to prompt user action: 39% of respondents reportedly acted after viewing an expandable video ad, compared to only 20% of pre-, mid- and post-roll video ad viewers.

Expandable and pop-up video ads were also more likely to aid users in purchase decisions than any other display ad type. Such findings hint at the potential use of these video ad units for direct response-related campaign objectives.

As the industry continues to mature and new formats undoubtedly emerge, video advertisers will be presented with new ways to engage viewers and enhance their brands. For now, brand marketers are best served leveraging the use of in-stream video ads and investing in the creation of professional, branded content to boost brand recall.

On Thursday, Google and VivaKi, part of the digital agency Publicis Groupe, will announce a two-year renewal of their 2008 partnership that will incorporate a new platform for buying video and mobile display ads in the United States and Europe. The platform, an extension of the VivaKi Nerve Center trading desk, or the Audience on Demand product, would allow companies to bid on mobile and video display advertising space in real time on ad exchanges, including Google’s DoubleClick exchange.

“Marketers have seen the power of addressable advertising; the logical progression is to do this in video and in mobile advertising,” said Curt Hecht, chief executive of VivaKi Nerve Center. “Finding the right person at the right time on any screen or any device is the future of marketing,” Mr. Hecht said.

The vision for the product that Google will co-develop with VivaKi involves building on the existing technology of Invite Media, the ad-buying platform Google bought in June, and the automated display advertising technology of Teracent, the San Mateo start-up Google acquired in 2009, said Neal Mohan, the vice president for product management responsible for Google’s display-advertising products. “It’s a large market today; we believe that it can be substantially larger,” said Mr. Mohan, echoing one of the predictions he made for the future of Google’s display-advertising model at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mixx conference in New York in September.

Mr. Mohan described the feedback from publishers as “extremely positive,” adding that display advertising has so far represented a $2.5 billion business for the company, and mobile advertising a $1 billion yearly run-rate. Mr. Hecht predicts that video and mobile advertising will make up a bigger market than graphical display advertising and that the impact will be seen on the creative side. “The notion of dynamic messaging and advertising is going to be critical,” he said. “The real-time buying aspect of this is going to turn into real-time creative as well.”

Google’s acquisitions of YouTube and AdMob, the mobile advertising start-up, also represent vast inventory pools for advertisers, added Mr. Hecht.

Lately, we have been hearing much about online video and the rise of social media communities, but how could these possibly be a threat to search engines? Yahoo!, MSN, and Google hold the largest share in the online advertising market, but their market share could well be halved if social networks become more popular. With over 65% of internet users now accessing Google to search for goods, services, or just general interest, it would seem like online ads would be best served on the search giant. But beyond this there are other forms of advertising that are starting to knock on the door and give search-based ads a real run for their money. Some of the more traditional online channels have included banner advertising, classifieds, and directories, where you would create an ad, choose the appropriate channel and simply publish the ad. Search engine Google recognises the need for people to â??get what they wantâ? through search and out of this created the paid service Google Adwords, in which people effectively pay to get to the top of Google. This, although potentially quite expensive depending on your industry keywords, it is a very popular advertising channel, and can yield some great results, if done correctly. This model, which is one of Googleâ??s primary monetising services, tries to make search ads as relevant as possible via its various search algorithms. But with online traffic now moving towards current buzz â??social mediaâ?, websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are becoming more and more popular with people starting to publish their material online at a far more frequent rate than ever before.

You can create and account, add friends, create events, uploads images and videos, and almost manage your entire social life online via this application. Online traffic analytics firm Nielson recently concluded that the UKs most used brand was Facebook with 62 billion minutes being spent on the website during April. With vast communities popping up across these networks, it is also the ideal place for businesses and individuals to place targeted ads, and Google knows it. One of the key components of these networks is the ability to upload video content. With technology evolving, allowing us to capture images and video via phone or other handheld devises, we are in position to capture a moment and distribute it for the world to see.

One of the key components of Search Engine Marketing is being able to use a particular channel to distribute/publish relevant content to help push a companyâ??s online awareness. Using video, it is not only possible to publish an advert for a chosen demographic, but it will also be possible for people to have video ads served to them based on their particular needs and requirements. So, if you are into cars, it will soon be possible to have car ads served to you based on comprehensive analytics, which contains details about behavioural activity online. This analytical data is the key to knowing what people want to see and what should be served to them. Thus resulting in highly targeted video ads and saving huge sums of money on traditional TV adverts.

So, could this spell the end for search engines as we know them? Well, there will always be a need for search based applications like Google, even if people use social media more. There is no rule preventing Google from incorporating targeted video based advertising into its applications and currently all of the big three search engines are looking to add this string to their bow.

The online video advertising market is poised for rapid growth over the next few years, according to eMarketer. The research firm estimates online video advertising spending will grow more than 48 percent this year, reaching $1.5 billion. By 2014, it expects the video ad market will top $5.5 billion. "Video fulfills branding objectives better than any other current online ad Format -- with the sound, motion and emotion of TV, but with better measurability and targeting," said David Hallerman, a senior analyst at eMarketer. "The continued development of more professional-quality video on the Web makes the target audience more receptive to advertiser messages and thereby encourages advertisers to spend more for video ads." Still, spending growth does not necessarily correlate with current market importance. While video ad spending growth will far outpace that of any other online ad format from 2009 to 2014, it will still represent only 6 percent of all Internet advertising expenditures in 2010.