LOS ANGELES — As the popularity of live video continues to grow, advertisers, brands, creators, and publishers, are seeking new ways to reach audiences and evolving proven business models in the process.
One current example comes from Twitter, which in response to an ongoing increase in video viewership has introduced “a new opportunity for publishers and creators to monetize their content, and for brands to advertise against it,” using pre-roll ads on Periscope video within Twitter.
According to Periscope Group Project Manager Mike Folgner, pre-roll video ads enable brands to marry their message with specific broadcasts from creators and publishers.
“The same control that brands have to design their campaigns through the Amplify program will be extended to the new opportunities created with these ads,” Folgner explains. “The experience will mirror how ads currently appear on all Twitter video: when consumers scroll through their timelines or search for content from a specific publishers or creators, Periscope videos — live and replay — can start with a short ad.”
Folgner says that ads on Periscope videos are a new way to use live and on-demand video to reach audiences at the most relevant moments.
“Periscope’s authentic and interactive nature brings people immediately into compelling live experiences and the conversation that surrounds them,” Folgner adds. “From 360 degree and professionally-produced broadcasts to spontaneous mobile live video, stories can be shared through a range of video content.”
Folgner says pre-roll ads present a new way to monetize live video content.
“For marketers, they have a new source of brand-safe video advertising beyond what was previously available,” Folgner concludes, “including ads during live streaming programs from select premium publishers, Promoted Tweets with Periscope video and custom Amplify campaigns with premium content creators.”
Although Periscope video ads are currently only available to select advertisers, expanded availability is set to roll out soon, however there is little chance that overtly adult oriented content will be welcomed.
Beyond Periscope’s specific offer, and despite the brash claim that “pre-roll ads present a new way to monetize live video content” (this, in reality, is a tried-and-true advertising model that dates back nearly a century to the earliest days of live television broadcasting), the use of pre-roll ads on live video feeds is an underutilized approach for adult marketers — even for those that have long embraced pre-rolls on pre-recorded “tube” videos.
Combining the increasing trends of live video and free, ad-supported content, it is likely that both pre- and post-roll ads are coming to a live cam site and ad network near you.