Author Archives: Clara Reese

Video and the Moments That Matter

Today’s consumer spends more time in digital than any other media, often while fluidly moving across screens. In the past three years alone, multi-screen media consumption has jumped by 500 percent, with 90 percent of consumers moving between one device and another to complete a task, whether it’s to shop, plan a trip or browse content. And the growth rates are stunning: on YouTube, more video content will be uploaded today than all three major networks created in the past five years.

Today at CES I announced two really exciting developments that will help turbocharge the future of video advertising:
  • First, more than 30 mainstays of video advertising--broadcasters, premium publishers and major brands--have joined our premium video marketplace, Google Partner Select and;
  • We’re rolling out viewability reporting across our ad platforms. This will, for the first time, inform brands whether their video ads on digital channels were actually seen or not (as opposed to, for example, appearing off-screen, going unwatched or being swiped past).
Our goal with both of these updates is to help marketers succeed in today’s world of media abundance by connecting them with consumers at the right time in the right place and enabling them to measure what truly matters.

An update on Partner Select
In June we introduced you to Google Partner Select, a premium video marketplace that brings together the best of brand advertising with the best of programmatic. Our goal was to create a marketplace of top-quality video content from the best producers. Today, we’re happy to share some of those partnerships.
Since launch, more than 30 broadcast and premium publisher brands have signed on including CBS Interactive, Fox News, Discovery, Animal Planet, TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel, Hearst Television, Rolling Stone, Us Weekly, Men’s Fitness, and PGA Tour. These publishers are helping brands discover a wide range of their premium video content including full-episode shows, live sports & news, and short-form content across a broad range of audiences and content categories. And all of this inventory is exclusive to Google Partner Select.

We’ve also seen strong traction on the advertiser side with over 20 major brand advertisers, including iconic brands like Allstate, BMW and Netflix, and their agencies having signed significant commitments to buy through Google Partner Select. In our early tests, we've seen video ads running through Google Partner Select driving significant audience engagement with 74% video ad completion rates, demonstrating that when brands pick the right moments, engagement follows.

Viewability for Video
When it comes to impact, being seen is not just important, it’s fundamental. That’s why this time last year, we set a goal for ourselves to help make viewability a common currency across the industry. I’m encouraged that this issue is staying top of mind for so many and hope that marketers and publishers continue to push for the full transparency and accountability they deserve.

In our latest of ongoing investments in this area, in the coming days, we will start to offer viewability reporting for video campaigns available to all marketers and publishers using our DoubleClick platforms, as well as for the DoubleClick Ad Exchange. We’ll soon have this capability for reserved inventory on YouTube as well (including all of Google Preferred) across desktop and app views, a significant addition with so much viewership now happening in mobile. In the coming months, we’ll start offering the ability to target viewable impressions in DoubleClick, as well as the ability to buy only viewable video impressions across the Google Display Network. Later in the year, we also plan to report on audibility for video ads, as well as the total amount of time an ad was viewable.

We’re adhering to the industry definition for video viewability (as set by the MRC and Making Measurement Make Sense): 50% or more of the video being on screen for two seconds or longer.

Viewability, though, is just the starting point, not an end in and of itself. With the confidence that their ads can be seen by a real person, marketers can then go on to strive for--and measure--what really matters, impact and engagement. Along with our commitment to viewability, we’ll continue our investments in other ways to help marketers drive engagement, like our TrueView format (where advertisers only pay when consumers engage) and Brand Lift surveys, which help marketers measure the impact of their campaigns on their branding goals.

I’m incredibly excited about the future of digital video for brand building. No other medium brings together sight, sound and motion--and incredible measurability. This is the start of what we expect will be a year of leaps forward in the industry in making digital work for brand advertisers. So watch this space for more to come.

-- posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President, Video & Display Advertising

CES: A keynote on building brands with video

With 2014 drawing to a close, we’re getting excited about what’s ahead in the new year. We’ll be ringing in 2015 at the International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) the first week of January. If you’re planning to go too, we’d like to invite you to come by C Space, the new destination at CES for publishers, advertisers, agencies, and content creators.

On the first day of the event (Tuesday, January 6th), Neal Mohan, Google’s VP of Display and Video Advertising Products, will be headlining C Space. In his keynote he’ll talk about how brands can make the most of video in a climate where consumers are easier to reach but harder to influence. He’ll discuss not only how to drive engagement but also how to measure the impact that it has on brand metrics.

Following his keynote, Neal will join Meredith Levien, EVP Advertising at The New York Times, in a fireside chat.

Learn more about C Space and check out the full agenda here.

Hope to see you there!
Tuesday, January 6th 2015
1 - 2 PM PT



CES: A keynote on building brands with video

With 2014 drawing to a close, we’re getting excited about what’s ahead in the new year. We’ll be ringing in 2015 at the International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) the first week of January. If you’re planning to go too, we’d like to invite you to come by C Space, the new destination at CES for advertisers, publishers, agencies, and content creators.

On the first day of the event (Tuesday, January 6th), Neal Mohan, Google’s VP of Display and Video Advertising Products, will be headlining C Space. In his keynote he’ll talk about how brands can make the most of video in a climate where consumers are easier to reach but harder to influence. He’ll discuss not only how to drive engagement but also how to measure the impact that it has on brand metrics.

Following his keynote, Neal will join Meredith Levien, EVP Advertising at The New York Times, in a fireside chat.

Learn more about C Space and check out the full agenda here.

Hope to see you there!
Tuesday, January 6th 2015
1 - 2 PM PT

with DoubleClick: The promise of programmatic

This post is part of the with DoubleClick series, highlighting stories and perspectives from industry leaders about how they’re succeeding with an integrated digital marketing platform.

You may have seen the research we shared with you last month that looks at how programmatic buying is changing advertising. Today’s with DoubleClick episode takes a personal spin on that study, focusing on a few of the people who are both seeing and driving those changes.

We talked to leaders from Universal McCann, VivaKi, MAGNA Global, and The McClatchy Company to find out how they’re thinking about the shift to programmatic. Reach and relevance were top of mind. With greater efficiency and richer audience insights, they’re achieving both goals across screens and formats. As Deborah Gaudette, SVP and Group Partner at UM, points out, this ultimately helps create advertising that consumers want to be part of. That’s a promise we can all get behind.


For ideas on how to adopt a programmatic strategy, take a look at last week’s webinar with Aaron Fetters, Director at the Kellogg Company.

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Beyond the Living Room. Powering Television Anytime, Anywhere

Two years ago, Felix Baumgartner’s attempt to skydive from the edge of space became the highest viewed live event online. The Red Bull Stratos mission, live-streamed by YouTube, delivered 8 million concurrent viewers.

In 2014, we have become even more comfortable streaming live sports and events. It is no longer uncommon to start watching a football game on the TV in your living room and switch to watching it on your smartphone as you hop in a cab to get to a viewing party.

We are in the midst of a major transition, where traditional TV is shifting to IP delivery over a highly fragmented landscape of connected devices. Consumers shifting between these devices and screens makes it increasingly complex to deliver the same reliable viewing experience as traditional TV -- all while honoring the same business rules as TV, serving relevant ads and avoiding that dreaded buffering wheel.

In June we announced the launch of Google Partner Select, a programmatic marketplace built for premium publishers. We followed up this launch with the acquisition of mDialog, a company working with leading media companies to manage, deliver and measure video advertising across live, linear and VOD streams at TV scale. These efforts are part of a broader aim to unlock value for our TV Broadcast and Cable partners.

This morning we had the pleasure of speaking at the AdMonsters Publisher Forum. As we talked about there, we’re focused on building DoubleClick’s video solutions around four key areas to empower our TV partners:

Engage audiences everywhere
Viewers have become accustomed to a high-quality viewing experience on TV and demand the same across their smartphones, tablets, smart-TVs, laptops and other devices. The opportunity here isn’t simply in replicating TV quality in streams delivered to audiences but also in layering abilities unique to digital like true 1:1 addressability for live streaming at TV scale.

Enhance value to brands
Bringing TV-style audience measurement to the DoubleClick Video platform is just the beginning. The vision is ensuring that every impression you deliver is viewed by the right person, in real-time and without wasting impressions in order to deliver guarantees. Brands reach their audiences, the value of your content increases and everyone wins.

Unlock new revenue potential
As viewing extends beyond the living room, we are committed to ensuring that you can replicate the same business rules and deals from TV across video. Beyond this, with premium initiatives like Google Partner Select, we are unlocking untapped revenue sources for Broadcasters.

Simplify publishing
When the technology gets out of the way, you can focus on building content that your audiences love and brands want to buy. This is why we are committed to building an end-to-end video solution that is a part of an integrated cross-format publishing platform.

-Rany Ng, Product Management Director, Video

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