EVENT

Marketers are restating John Wanamaker’s famous lament that “half the money I spent is wasted…the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Today, the question isn’t just about what budget is wasted, but also whether the advertising placement itself was even seen, let alone viewed, engaged with and consumed.

This question puts CMOs in a precarious position. Mandated to drive growth and revenue, CMOs must take steps to drive engagement while simultaneously reducing waste. This quest for optimized performance has never been more intense than on the impact on customer engagement through online video investments. When it comes to investments being made in online video, some marketers are wondering if half of the problem is underestimating the amount of unknown waste or impact. But on a more basic level, marketers are questioning whether their videos are even being viewed—or whether they are viewable at all.

From assumptions that the value of video is as a cheap television replacement to headlines announcing flawed measurements and inaccurate placements, video has emerged as an effective channel with ineffective measures and controls. Viewability is table stakes, but according to the IAB, a video is “viewed” and is considered to be an “impression” when only 50 percent of a video’s pixels appear on screen for at least two consecutive seconds…sound off. The industry has celebrated recent averages that indicate online video advertising has a click-through rate of 1.84 percent—the highest rate of all digital ad formats. But can video advertising be successful if only half of the screen could be seen by someone for just two seconds? 

Marketing’s response to these performance numbers is most often to invest time and resources to improve targeting and segmentation, seeking out an audience that best mirrors a brand’s ideal customer or an audience that is predisposed to watching videos. If that doesn’t work, many raise a finger to blame the content…after all it must be bad content at the heart of the performance issue. But what if the problem isn’t the content? What if it is the fundamental strategy behind the targeting? What if we are trying to get the wrong segment to view our videos?

The CMO Council has partnered with Vuble to gather senior marketers for an evening of discussion and debate around online video performance and leveraging the the halo of the “attention effect” by shifting strategies to target attention, not just views. 

Joining the discussion will be Laurent Bury, CEO, and Art Zeidman, Chief Revenue Officer at Vuble, who will challenge thinking about how we strategize, implement and even pay for online video investments. Are marketers paying for what we want and expect? Are all views equal, or can we drive greater value and engagement by focusing on engaging with the most attentive segments? What is transparency in today’s video age, and do we really understand the difference between visibility and attention? Are we wasting budget on viewers who just aren’t paying attention?

If you are interested in attending or have any question, please reach out to Ashley at ahaight@cmocouncil.org.