Music Video Sites Now Add Pre-Roll Ads

Many of the music video sites have gone to pre-roll advertisements  before they display the video you want to see.  Some are smart enough to know you have been on the site for a while and don't show the ads with every video.  Many just randomly "throw up" the ad.  I use that term figuratively of course, although quite frankly I am sick of seeing the shampoo ads on MTVN.  We all need advertising to support the freely available music content on these sites.  And we need the advertisements to be effective - but there is a much better way to do this than a pre-roll video advertisement that interrupts the entertainment.  

Imagine going to the grocery, and before you can open the refrigerator section to pull out a carton of milk, you have to watch a 15-30 second advertisement for cheese.  You stand there pulling on the handle but the door doesn't unlock to give you access until you finish watching the ad.  Live through that once and you will walk out of the grocery thinking - "Oh hell no - I will find some place else to buy milk."   Now you wouldn't mind seeing an ad plastered to the floor in front of the dairy case promoting cheddar, and might even welcome an arrow on how to find the cheddar - but it shouldn't stand in your way when you are trying to get milk.

The same is true for short music videos.  Advertising that is adjacent to the video player that displays the advertisements is great.   It is even better if these ads can be targeted based on who is watching, and have a brief graphic that you can click on to watch a video that has more information.   Music videos are too short to apply the typical pre-roll television advertising approach.  If you are sitting down to watch a 30 minute show, you don't mind listening to a 30 second commercial.   But that is 1.6% of the time you are planning on watching the show.  A 30 second pre-roll on a 4 minute video is 12% of the time you plan on watching.   That is a huge overhead.

youTube has started adding an overlay text advertisement that covers the bottom third of the video while it is playing.   This can be dismissed, and has much less impact on the entertainment experience, in part because they have done some level of targeted advertising based on what you are looking at.

Flash widgets within the web page have the ability to communicate.  It is possible to display targeted advertising elsewhere on the page based on the viewers interests.   It just takes a bit more development.  No doubt Pantene, and Herbal Essence pay handsomely for the pre-roll advertisements.  Unfortunately MTVN traffic over time may pay the price as well.

We try to avoid integrating music video sources that add a pre-roll ad.  We have many places we can add their static advertising next to the video built into our application.   Creating a fluid entertainment experience is difficult if every track includes a 15 second interruption.