Industry Takes First Steps Towards “Hypervideo”
The entertainment industry is taking its first steps towards a marketing program that resembles portions of Red Band’s “Hypervideo” advertising model. Various online video sites, such as Hulu.com, have begun releasing web episodes of current television programs which are supported by some of the advertising elements proposed by Red Band’s “Hypervideo” model.
According to an article in Advertising Age:
At present, Hulu is running traditional 30-second ads in long-form video — albeit with only 25% of the ads one might have to sit through while watching TV. When it comes to short-form video, Hulu allows a 10- to 15-second video overlay, which viewers could click if they want to interact further with the advertiser. During a beta test, which began in October, the clickable “advertising bugs” began sprouting on screen.
The Hulu model includes the use of an invisible, clickable layer which resides “above” the image, allowing viewers to click on corporate logos which appear in the corner of the image. This concept is only one part of Red Band’s Hypervideo ad model, which includes a persistent watermark, such as the one adopted by Hulu, but also animated 5-10 second branding at the bottom of the screen, and limited commercials between acts.
To date, Red Band continues to lead the industry in its model for Hypervideo, however, with a feature that is likely to prove massively popular with viewers: the entire episode of any Red Band program will be clickable, allowing viewers to click on characters, background objects and sets which resolve to DVD-like “extra content.” Red Band plans that every 30 minute program will have at least 45 minutes of such Hypervideo-embedded extra content, including outtakes, deleted scenes, flubs, shooting scripts, additional music, or any type of media that can be embedded in a traditional web page. Because the invisible link layer is the only element embedded in the video, and the links resolve outside of the video, there is no noticeable increase in video file size when using the Hypervideo technology.
Red Band plans to include advertising content within its clickable content, as well, allowing viewers to purchase clothing, food or other items that are seen within the video itself.
For more information on Red Band’s “Hypervideo” ad model, click here, or contact the company directly.