Though mobile marketing is the talk of the town recently, mobile video advertising has not exactly done as well as everyone has expected it to. As always, results vary, but most marketers have not been incredibly impressed with the performance that mobile video ads have brought for their brands or businesses. Plus, there is really only one way of advertising with videos on mobile platforms, and it is with the relatively new mobile pre-roll ads from companies like YouTube. YouTube gets all the recognition in the world when it comes to video advertising, but of course there are other options. Although not as popular as YouTube, there is a very new company called Showyou that has announced a partnership with the media agency called OMD, accompanied by a new advertising opportunity that changes mobile video marketing in a significant way.
Showyou and OMD are calling their collaboration a new form of “social video advertising.” Unlike the familiar pre-roll ads that are all over YouTube today, the new platform allows mobile video advertisers to place video ads alongside other content. The Showyou app advertising will function similar to the way that Sponsored Posts in Facebook News Feeds or Promoted Tweets do. In Showyou, there will be a list of 20 to 30 of the top videos being viewed by popularity, and among them, marketers will be able to place their video ads. It will be a great way for advertisers to place their video advertisements among the most popular videos, instead of the random placement that YouTube offers. Plus, all results will be genuine, as in order to view an ad a user must first click on it themselves. With YouTube, the ad is forced upon a viewer, and many of these ads are not viewed completely.
Michael Carney, a writer for the news website PandoDaily, wrote on the subject of the partnership and what it will bring;
By making everything opt-in, the company is taking a fairly user-friendly approach. Brands are following suit, according to Showyou founder and CEO Mark Hall, by trying to be creative and engaging, rather than just taking television commercials and uploading them for mobile consumption
As for the “when and where” of the partnership New York Times writer Tanzina Vega writes that
The partnership, which will begin this month, will run for a 90-day trial period. Depending on its success, Mr. Cohen said it “could mean a longer-term partnership with deeper relationships.”
Already, Showyou and OMD have been inviting brands to join in and in a way, test the success of the new mobile video marketing method. Some of these brands include Doritos, Monster, Brooks, Levi’s, Showtime, and Mountain Dew.
As a mobile video app, Showyou will surely be competing heavily with YouTube, but the two offer different features, so there will be user preferences between the two. Mobile video ads are still relatively new, so coming up with new marketing methods for them early in the game is a smart decision by Showyou and OMD. Now, we will just have to wait for some results from Showyou in the near future.
