The vast majority of online video viewers are watching pre-roll and overlay ads, a study released today by Break Media and Panache shows. Completion rates for 15-second pre-roll ads were 87 percent, and 77 percent viewed campaigns with overlay ads for at least 15 seconds.
Break Media used Break.com’s monthly audience of 17 million 18-34-year
old men as guinea pigs for the 11-week study, and advertisers Honda,
T-Mobile, and truTV ran the test campaigns. The three advertisers
chosen represent a cross-section of the different brands on the web,
hopefully making the study results relevant to an even broader array of
advertisers, Break Media CEO Keith Richman says.
Panache, a video advertising delivery platform, placed the ads and supplied the technology to measure engagement.
The study tested the success of the four standard formats for in-stream video advertising established by the Interactive Advertising Bureau in May: pre-roll, interactive pre-roll, non-overlay ads and overlay ads.
The study demonstrated that all of the ads are effective and have different value for the advertisers, Panache president Steve Robinson says.
—Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer
Update: Tremor Media announced today that 80 percent of its viewers are completing 15 and 30 second pre-roll ads. Michael Learmonth at SAI just published a post analyzing the numbers from both studies.
