Video analytics is not a term that strikes excitement in the hearts of social media fanatics. It’s far too enmeshed in advertising lingo like “impressions” and “views” to appeal to the average Web 2.0 fan. But few among us can deny that ads fuel our beloved social tech economy. Further, I doubt many would object if our favorite sites and brands could find a more integrated, targeted and relevant method of ad delivery. In order to do this effectively, companies must turn to sophisticated measurement tools that deliver a deep level of insight about user habits and behavior.
The subject got a bit of attention this week when BrewPR’s Brooke Hammerling called for industry-wide standards in video analytics in a post for Silicon Alley Insider. She argued that terms such as “views” are too open to interpretation and manipulation. One commenter, Greg Stuart, former CEO of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), parried back that the “view” term has been clearly defined – “at least as it’s defined for advertising” – by the IAB. The Washington Post weighed in on the topic yesterday, reiterating the lack of industry-wide standards. It’s also worth noting that advertisers are fickle bunch; they go where the results are. If there is no ability to measure results effectively, and no way to connect views with specific actions, then advertisers have no meaningful way to directly evaluate their online video ad spend. Thus, the huge opportunity in this space: not just for effective tools, but to define the terms of the competition.
We featured Visible Measures at DEMO 08, a company that interprets user behavior at significant intervals of viewing. As we said then, views – however you define them – are the easy part; understanding exactly how viewers interact with a video is a tougher nut to crack. With an average of 20-40 different events occurring during viewing, including rewinding, fast forwarding and the like, a rich field of user behavior would lie fallow without services like Visible Measures.
To evaluate effectively, you have to follow your users across all viewing platforms and mediums, which brings us to Divinity Metrics, a company whose product chases your video around the Web, delivering analytics on all occurrences of a video across the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »
