Video advertising is rapidly replacing pop-up ads on the internet as the way to reach potential buyers. The technology produces television-quality video and audio without the technical problems usually associated with streaming media across the internet (Lyman, 2004). The video commercial online format delivers full-screen, broadcast-quality video over the internet in the form of 2-megabyte, 30-second video spots from companies and advertisers such as Pepsi, McDonaldÆs, AT&T and Honda. The full-screen advertisements use a patented precached delivery method whereby the ad is prepared during idle user time, and launched when the user transitions between two websites. The developers see the transition time between pages as the logical time to run the advertisements, which can be closed at any time by the user by just clicking on a close box the way normal Microsoft Windows are closed. The only fear is that these ads might annoy users if they interfere with normal online routines.
One of the major benefits of video ads is the replication immediacy and emotional appeal of broadcasting, and the reinforcement for viewers because the ad is presented audibly as well as visually, so you can see and hear the advertisement at the same time (Alarilla, 2004). As more and more people switch over to broadband, advertisers are presented with more options for sending their message to potential buyers. The only limitation to video advertising is the creatorÆs imagination. Online video ads also allow for integration between traditional advertising campaigns by cross-media promotion. Television advertisers can now retool their 30-second commercials for presentation to a new audience on the internet. A Video Commercial is a pure video product and does not need to be reformatted for internet presentation. A collaboration between Microsoft and Unicast produced the first video commercials for the internet. Advertisers can use a full-screen ...