Verizon's Video Plans; Mobile's Impact On Search

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Mining The Video

Reuters’ Malathi Nayak reports that Verizon is mulling free video packages. Though yet to be confirmed, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo says the company is considering an “‘advertising-type’ model, ‘not necessarily a consumer-pay model.’” The service, which is set to release this year, will also include original programming from outlets like Dreamworks and Verizon’s own Awesomeness TV. Shammo adds that Verizon sees online video as a way “to increase data consumption on mobile devices and increase revenue.”

For Google, Mobile Is Prismatic

Google dominates the search game, but mobile has rewritten that game’s rules. “Smartphone users spend most of their time in apps rather than browsing the Web, and they conduct fewer searches than personal-computer users,” notes the WSJ. Social media is compounding the challenge, with Facebook “a potent rival, touting its more precise data on users.” On the upside, Android ran 80% of smartphones sold in 2014 and Google hosts more search queries on mobile than it does on desktop.

Golden Age Of Viewability

Speaking to Beet.TV late last week, GroupM’s John Montgomery calls much of the clamor around viewability “apocryphal” and based on “self-interest.” He counters, “We’ve seen viewable ads increase by nearly 30% year on year,” Montgomery said. “Other agencies I speak to have seen the same thing. Web designers are redesigning their pages to make them much more viewable. Marketers are responding by paying premium rates for more viewable ads. So there’s a huge good news story to be told.”

On Cross-Device Attribution

In an interview with eMarketer, Tapad’s SVP of global strategy, Nick Jordan, says cross-device is the key to successful attribution. “Multichannel, cross-device attribution is still largely a talking point,” Jordan said, responding to the point that AOL and Google both bought attribution firms last year and Facebook is delving into cross-device capabilities with Atlas. “But with companies like Google, AOL and Facebook hopping on board, adoption should hasten at least a little bit.” The challenge, he noted, is that buying is siloed. “The folks at agencies who buy display and mobile still think about their attribution needs from a display and mobile context,” Jordan said. “The same goes for the search and social teams and the television and offline teams.” If buying is siloed, so too is attribution.

Video Ad Cash

Innovid raised $10 million, and new investor Cisco Investment joined the round. Innovid works with advertisers to create, target and measure video ad campaigns and has banked a total of $37.6 million to date. Speaking to TechCrunch, CEO Zvika Netter said television and digital video are converging, and the rollout of Google Fiber and Apple’s forthcoming web TV service will quicken that convergence. Innovid will use the cash injection to build out its product offering for brands and media agencies, and grow its cross-device personalized video capabilities. Read the release.