Are Pre-roll Ads Killing your News Web Site?

Graeme Newell

When new technology comes on the scene, the new products often look and act like the old ones.  For example, the first cars had the same form as horse-drawn carriages.  The first refrigerators looked like old-fashioned ice boxes.   As new technology is introduced, we need the comforting forms of the more familiar predecessor to ease us through the transition.

The same has been true in the news business.  When radio was introduced, many of the first broadcasts consisted of announcers reading the paper over the airways.  Many of you veteran television folks may remember "slides" from the bygone days of broadcasting.  A 35mm slide was put on the screen while the announcer talked about the program.  In effect, this was radio on TV.  You would never see this kind of thing today.  TV is about moving video and it took the better part of three decades before the industry finally stepped into its own and got rid of video slides.

Unfortunately, the same thing is happening now as we make the transition from broadcast TV to streaming video over the internet.  We are still following the basic format and tone of TV despite the fact that the internet has groundbreaking features to radically change the experience.   It is just more comforting for us to do TV on the internet than to make full use of the internet's opportunities.

Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the TV web site advertising world.  Most all of the broadcast groups make money on streaming media content through "pre-roll" ads.  We require the viewer to sit through an ad before rewarding them with a news story.  Typically, these ads will be identical to a broadcast ad, despite the fact that the two different media call for radically different advertising strategies.

On television, every second is incredibly valuable.  This means that detailed ads that lay out explanations of features just don't work.  There just isn't time to explain anything in detail. Traditionally,  advertisers who wanted to convey detailed ad information looked to newspapers or magazines.  A car dealer could list the price of every vehicle on the lot.  TV was meant to exclaim - newspapers to explain.  Still, the price of newspaper advertising was very high.  Then, along came the internet, offering detailed product information at no extra cost.  Every scrap of product minutia could be posted to the site with no increase in expense.

Web site pre-roll ads ignore the awesome potential for detailed web site information.  The sole goal of a pre-roll ad should be to get you to click on the links below the ad.  That means all your pre-roll ads should feature detailed advertiser links immediately under the video window. 

The problem is that most stations still see the ad as a part of the video clip, rather than an integrated part of the web page.  We are comfortable with the familiar model of ads and content appearing together because that's the way we've always presented our stories on the evening news.  Video ads that are directly linked to specific web clicks are less familiar.

A typical pre-roll ad for a car dealer will make very general product claims.  "Come down to Billy Bob's Chevy Barn for the Valley's widest selection of Chevy trucks."   Instead, the ad should directly reference the web links surrounding the video box.  "Click on the link below this box to see detailed info on every Chevy truck we have on the lot right now.  Plus, see a side-by-side comparison of Ford and Chevy trucks in every class."  Below the video box will be a link for every class of truck: compact, midsize, full-size, etc.

When we traffic web ads, the links on the web site are typically quite random.  Sure, we may put a client's banner ad somewhere on the same page, but it rarely works in tandem with the pre-roll ad. Our traffic systems for web video need to be dramatically redesigned to allow direct integration of pre-roll video and the rest of the links on the web page.   Many non-broadcast web sites have stepped into this technique and are getting dramatic results.  Those of us in the broadcast world are having a harder time because we're comfortable with the old broadcast model.   The power of pre-roll ads comes from video's ability to get attention combined with a web link's ability to provide specific product detail.  The two must be seamlessly designed, trafficked and delivered to motivate action.

If we hope to make our web sites effective, we need to deliver results for our clients.  It is no longer enough just to re-rack the broadcast ad on the web site.  TV sales people need to work with clients helping them to design and create specific web ads that fulfill the full potential of the internet's ability to deliver specific information.  This will have two big effects:

1) Pre-roll ads can be shorter and less annoying
If the sole goal of a pre-roll ad is to motivate a click, the ads no longer need to contain product detail.  We'll let the link do that.  Those interested in the product will get a full meal of information with just a click.  Those who aren't interested in the product will not be forced to sit through a long dissertation of product attributes that just waste their time.

2) Repetitive pre-roll ads can go away.
Research tells us that one of the biggest complaints with pre-roll ads is repetition.  If I go to a TV web site and watch ten or twelve stories, I may see the exact same ad so many times that I'm ready to get a gun.  At this point the web site experience becomes so bad that viewers are actively driven away.  Once web site trafficking systems get better, we can design the ad experience for each specific customer.

How long is too long on a pre-roll ad?  New research indicates that 15 seconds is the magic number.  Anything past that number and you might as well have a three minute pre-roll ad.  You're going to lose them.  One thing that really helps retain viewers - have a countdown indicator so the viewer knows exactly how long the ad will last.  This can be done with an hour glass or with a progress bar under the screen.

by Graeme Newell, 602 Communications President, is a broadcast and web marketing specialist.  He guarantees that his teasing seminar will immediately increase your news ratings or his workshop is free.  Find out more here.