Mobile Radio Simplified. Accessible. Relevant.

AR&D’s Terry Heaton makes some very great points about a new report from Burst Media about online video consumption habits. In reading this piece I of course am looking for its relationship to online audio and radio trends in particular.

Let’s start with the relevant parts of their conclusion and work from there:

Understand The Mindset Of Video Consumers: Video content is a vast treasure-trove of information and entertainment for web surfers. It is also a potential advertising treasure trove for marketers. However, marketers must tread carefully as they weed their way through the video content advertising forest. Online video consumers are not yet willing to exchange their uninterrupted viewing experience for advertising messages. For online video advertising to be truly effective, advertisers need to use approaches that fit this consumer mindset. Using shorter spots distinct from offline creative is one way of capturing consumers’ attention; and garnering greater consumer acceptance of advertising placements within online video content.

First, the key thing about video vs audio is that, while embedded within web pages, the consumer is already trained to wander and navigate here and there on a whim. Watching video must overcome a diffused level of attention to begin, so therefore an ad blows the whole experience. They are used to seeing ads on a peripheral sidebar rather than in a linear committed fashion. Audio consumption on the other hand is less of a foreground experience unless you are doing it while mobile. That makes the advertising paradigm more tolerable whether it comes from the radio, computer, or portable device.

That being said, the big consumer factor that transcends video and audio alike is the time factor. Clearly, today’s consumer is much less tolerant of advertising that interrupts. That is why we advocate and are pioneering a win-win between today’s audio listener who has a 12 second threshold, and the advertiser who wants to put out more information. It is called interactive advertising. Just give them a short message with a one button call to action and let “part B” of the ad give them the rest of the story. Let them press 8 for a text message to be sent to them, and let them press 7 again to buy the book directly over their phone. At the end of this user initialted diversion, let them be dropped right back into the programming where they left off, missing nothing. That is the kind of solution the study eludes to, and that is what we are working to deliver.

Get your interactive checkbook ready.