The ability to automatically display video ads based on a video's content would be a boon to networks like ABC because right now they have to do a lot of work to line up sponsors for their online features. If they were to put all of their content online with the old way of finding sponsorship, whose job would it be to find ad sponsors for every episode of The Jeffersons and all of their other classic shows? But if automated contextual ads could run against any video content, why shouldn't ABC benefit from all of their properties? While there may not be as much demand for The Jeffersons as there is for Lost, there is some demand. Just as almost all of Netflix 70,000 titles are in distribution to one degree or another at all times, someone somewhere is longing to watch The Jeffersons right now. In fact, just one upload of The Jeffersons title clip has been viewed 15,535 times on YouTube since April 16, 2007. Unfortunately for ABC, instead of people watching it from them so that they could reap the advertising revenue (it's their property after all), people are illegally uploading and watching it on YouTube. But imagine every episode of The Jeffersons and every other show ABC ever produced were accessible online. Multiply that by all of the other networks' shows--there's a lot of content and a lot of advertising opportunities that are being missed.

But what about Clorox's perspective? How would they benefit? If ads are automatically displayed based on video content indexing, how can a brand get maximum exposure? One answer is that any brand that wants to spend money to reach a mass audience will always have opportunities to do so. It may take new forms--product placement is one being used now--but if you have the bucks, the opportunities will be available. But while mass advertising is easy right now, no marketer wants to pay for more advertising than they need to increase sales of their product. If it takes a million views to sell a thousand units, that's what they'll buy. But if they can sell a thousand units, and only pay for ten thousand views--all the better. And the Internet's ability to connect content with relevant ads definitely maximizes an advertiser's spending.

There's one other problem from the brand's perspective. If ads are automatically indexed based on video content there exists the possibility that their brand is displayed against inappropriate content... like when Verizon's video ad was the pre-roll to the New York Times video of the hanging of Saddam Hussein. Verizon was not too pleased about that. But in the same way that technical indexing can identify content matches, it can also filter out inappropriate ad placements. ScanScout, another company bringing video content indexing software to market, has thought this through and includes a brand protect feature in their video indexing solution.

But to really maximize advertising relevancy and efficiency, there's another capability the Internet offers--and it has to do with you.   next >