Watch Out For Online Video Companies

I attended the Cross Media NYC event at the Scholastic Theater on Broadway @ Prince.  It was produced by Jumpwire Media, a media consulting company that specializes in helping traditional businesses build strategies to profit from the emerging digital market place on the mobile, social media, gaming, and web video platforms.  I don't know the newly formed Jumpwire but appreciated that they have a lot of fellow Canadians on staff and that they kept things interactive and informative during the event. See here for program details.

We heard some interesting insights on the rising importance of transmedia storytelling, defined as the conveying of messages to a mass audience across multiple media platforms.  One often cited example of transmedia storytelling is the Matrix where "key bits of information are conveyed through three live action films, a series of animated shorts, two collections of comic book stories, and several video games. There is no one single source where one can turn to gain all of the information needed to comprehend the Matrix universe." See here for reference.

Jeff Gomez, a strategist for the Coca-Cola "Happiness Factory" story, submitted that transmedia storytelling creates the following benefits for a brand:

• Increased loyalty, owing to the interactive communication that happens
• Lifespan of media property extended
• Invites vs. interrupts
• Brand centric
• Story becomes timeless

What about online video, then?

Big brands appear to be catching on to the fact that apparently 43% of people watching Internet TV actually pause, yes, pause, to watch a video advertising. Contrast that to how many peope fastforward during a commercial on regular TV.  Video ads are clearly gaining momentum, too. 2.3 billion linear video ads are served across the Web every month, reaching the average online viewer 19 times during that month.

As advertisers explore how to interconnect transmedia storytelling with online marketing, video content producers, aggregators, and technology players are getting more attention

GroupArgent expects that the pace of acquisitions in the video content and technology sector will pick up significantly in the next 12 months.  We'll provide an update on this topic.