Where Do You Want That Commercial?

In late January, YouTube reached 4 billion views per day. That’s pretty close to a view per person in the entire world’s population (and history tells us that number will only continue to grow).

It seems kind of funny to still be talking about YouTube like its new 8 years after it was first launched, but that just speaks to how quickly its changing and the new ways people are finding to use it everyday. I want to talk about all online video viewing, but it’s impossible to talk about that and not start with the site that made that medium what it is.

This year, CBS charged between $3.8 and $4 million for a 30 second spot to air during the Super Bowl.

I’m no accountant, but I know a waste of money when I see a waste of money. And it’s not just the Super Bowl that I think precious advertising dollars are being wasted on (keep in mind that number value doesn’t even include the production costs of the commercial).

Media buys are expensive. Sure, you can produce and air a commercial for a couple thousand dollars as opposed to one that would air nationally for $400,000, but would that even be worth the couple thousand? A commercial with average (at best) production value airing at midnight between infomercials? Why do people continue to spend their money on that when they could put more money into production quality and find a place to advertise online?

In a study done by Google, The ARF, Nielsen, Stanford & Wharton in 2011, it was found that online video ads drove 1.5x the brand breakthrough of TV ads.

Why do they think that was? It’s kind of simple, really: Clutter.