Avenue A/Razorfish predicts that advertisers will embrace web video in 2005 and that total Internet ad spending will surge between 20 percent and 40 percent this year to more than $10 billion. That figure includes paid search listings and display ads.
"There is a huge opportunity for video-based programming on the web," DoubleClick executive Doug Knopper said. "We haven't figured out as an industry what the model is just yet, but the experimentation will be on the video side."
For the first time, Internet portals are competing with traditional mass media such as television. And with improved technology and tracking devices, more companies are drawn to the web.
"Yahoo, AOL and MSN are like the old television networks and the home page is their hit show," said Jeff Lanctot, vice president of media at Avenue A/Razorfish. "I would not be surprised if every one of the Internet portals has video as one of their top two focuses in 2005."
The Avenue A/Razorfish study also noted that more consumers are obtaining pop-up blocking technology to cut down on unwanted advertising, thus spelling the slow demise of that marketing trick.
"While [pop-ups] have been an effective low-cost, high-volume vehicle, they are rapidly losing steam," the Avenue A report said. "Marketers who have been dependent on pop ads should be testing alternative formats and inventory."