Written by Brady Dukart: Client Relations Intern

On February 14th 2005, just a year after the invention of Facebook, YouTube became a trademarked logo and changed the world as we see it. The world could enjoy videos of all kinds, from the addicting videos of cats getting into hijinks to forgotten music videos from the ‘70s to important political information in almost real time. It wasn’t until August of 2007 that YouTube decided to cash in one of the most common marketing formats we see today: streaming video ads.

Prior to implementing video ads Youtube primarily used small banner ads that appeared after 15 seconds into a video playing and remained onscreen for 10 seconds. YouTube may have held back from using video ads for a few reasons. Perhaps they didn’t have the technology when they started? Perhaps they didn’t want to annoy people in the first couple years of the wonderful relationship between YouTube and the rest of the world? Or perhaps they didn’t think that video ads would be effective enough to be worth the time of their developers? Whatever the reason may be YouTube can rest easy knowing that not only has the use of the website skyrocketed regardless of ad usage, but also that their video ads are seven times more successful than banner ads. Yes, seven times.

So how do these compare to the traditional interrupt-your-sitcom television ads? It certainly seems that TV ads are still on top. But, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration. Television has been around for generations, however, Internet ads are still 20 years old at most. Television advertising is dying its grey hairs to their original colors, and Internet advertising is still wet behind the ears. The demographic using the Internet is also a major factor. Most people ages 18-34, which would be primarily millennials, are spending about one third of the time they are watching TV on the Internet using a computer. Not bad for something that became a public tool only 30 years ago.

The technology behind each medium is another factor. Until the invention of DVR, which has only been around since 1999, advertisements were literally shoved consumers faces; the positive impact was inevitable. The Internet is a completely different and much more difficult medium thanks to a little piece of consumer software – Ad Block. Pop-Up ads in theory would be similar to the TV ads we all loathe so much. Installing software on a TV is (well, maybe not anymore but it was) impossible, but on a computer it’s a series of simple clicks. If we block out the ads on one of the two mediums it’s a much easier fight for the other. If we took out the ad blocks perhaps we’d have a much more even match.

No matter how you look at it, TV advertising is still on top. How far into the future will that change? It’s still hard to tell. But we can be certain that there is no doubt Internet advertising is an up-and-coming contender to the TV advertising giant that we are used to.

Looking for a partner to help promote your business using the power of video marketing? Give us a call at (701) 478-1111 or email us at absolutemg.com/contact. We would be happy to help.