Video is killer app for mobile advertising

Video advertising has proved it can move products and heighten brand awareness in measurable ways, so it will be an integral part of the mobile medium going forward, according to industry experts.

Although mobile video advertising has been in the wings for some time, it now finally feels like it is becoming more of a reality. The rise of smartphones and new platforms like the iPad are moving mobile video forward.

“It is evident from our customer demand that the iPad will indeed be an important driver of mobile video advertising,” said Xavier Facon, chief technology officer at Crisp Wireless, New York.

“The HTML5 video support is mature on all mobile devices sold by Apple, but it is particularly well implemented on the iPad, because it is easy to embed the video window in other content and there are API’s to control and track the events related to the video play,” he said.  IPad and similar devices are expected to drive a significant growth for ads that embed video. Already brands are using mobile video.On smartphone devices, the click-to-video ad unit will be increasingly used because it is a great rich-media ad unit for mobile.

PepsiCo drove awareness and participation in its "Pepsi: The Game" program via a mobile video campaign (see story). During Super Bowl XLIV, NFL Players ran a multichannel campaign featuring mobile video to create awareness and interest in the NFL Players Association and its players out of uniform (see story). In January, in-application mobile video ads from Coca-Cola Co.’s Coke Zero, Miller Brewing Co.’s Miller Lite and Warner Bros. Entertainment’s New Line Cinema outperformed their online counterparts (see story). BMW was able to generate test drives through a mobile video advertising campaign (see story). With more advertisers interested in mobile video and seeing great results, it is logical that there will be more brands moving into the space. “