Ad-Choice Boom: More Viewers Choosing To Watch Online Video Ads

Visible Measures has released their Q2 2011 report on choice-based video performance, and the results are pretty interesting, even while they're not all that surprising. Audiences are choosing to watch online video advertisements more than ever before--as much as 600 million times in Q2, which is up 15% from the previous year. 

Ad-choice, in this context, refers to videos viewers willingly subject themselves to. That means: no pre-roll, no post-roll, and no auto-play video ads. Visible Measures looked only at video ads where viewers had to click a "play" button in order to see the ad... thus, "ad choice."

This is the kind of branded social video we've been talking about for a while here--where brands skip traditional television commercial-style ads in favor of entertainment content. There's typically less of a hard sell in these ads, with the branding being subtle or even completely unnoticeable. These videos are designed for more long-term engagement and brand awareness rather than achieving an immediate sale.

So... which brands are having the most success with this kind of video?

The Top 5 Video Ad Campaigns

The first thing in the report is the breakdown of the Top 5 Ad Campaigns of Q2 2011, broken down by views. Here's how it looks--I'm guessing you've seen most of these ads already:

Top Brands For Online Video Ad Views

Those numbers are for specific campaigns, but which brands have the most views overall across all campaigns? I'm glad you asked, because Visible Measures has that data to share as well:

Top Industries For Online Video Ad Views

Some industries seem to do better with online video ads than others. And Beverage brands appear to be at the top of the heap. Here's how the rest of the top five shake out:

Wrap-Up

T-mobile is killing it lately. And that's because they've fully embraced this new form of online video advertising--content creation. Entertain your audience and they're more likely to watch your entire video... and forward it to friends. Stick with the old-school sales-pitch video ads, and prepare to see your views and your sales take a dive. The future of online video advertising is in branded content. And as this report shows us, some brands have figured that out a little faster than the rest.

You can download the full Visible Measures report here.