Merchant video advertising

**Dazza30** · 11-09-08

A couple of years ago online video advertising was going to be the new weapon in an affiliates armory.

Recently ive been contacting merchants i promote to find out what video advertising is available, and to my suprise there's nothing.

Has there been a slow take up of it? or was it a fad that died out quickly?

**scifind** · 11-09-08

There is alot of video advertising online, not sure how many affiliate merchants use it though.
Are there bandwidth issues for the networks?
I know Play.com have produced several creatives with embedded video - but not enough.
I think one of more of the gadget merchants have produced video creatives,
Also PurelyDiamonds use video on their site that really does boost conversions.I would like to see more vide creatives.

**marky** · 11-09-08

Firebox offer it here Affiliate Video Player at Firebox.com - Naomi/Nim-B did have a long post on it a while ago if any help needed.

I think Adam at DeadGoodUndies was looking into it (I could be wrong on this)

**HarveyC** · 11-09-08

IWOOT have a great videobox generator here

Also read in NMA that Littlewoods have videoboxes, not sure what the status is though.

**chrismockford** · 11-09-08

Yes as you say Harvey said the Shop Direct Group (afka Littlewoods) have developed a range of interactive video banners for their affiliates.

Jason blogged about them when they launched here Buy.at & Littlewoods Launch Cool New Interactive Video Ads! | One Little Duck - Affiliate Blog

These are available in the buy.at MA

Thanks

Chris Mockford

**deadgoodundies** · 11-09-08

Marky is right we were looking at it but had to put it on hold
Main reason was just lack of space to do what we wanted.
I.e if we were going to do it I was wanting the model to come on to the set, stop, pose , walk towards the camera, pose, turn walk back and then off the set.
We just physcially didn't have the space at our location to do it :cry

**John Jupp** · 11-09-08

Our new social site will enable merchants to upload video for affiliates to use and also list discount codes.

**nim-b** · 11-09-08

There are a few reasons I think video development has been slower than expected:

- bandwidth issues as Scifind says for either network or merchant, whoever is hosting.
- networks don't have reliable systems for hosting merchant video yet
- working out how to integrate product links etc into video can be difficult. You have to include the info and encourage people to click through without distracting from the video too much.
- smaller merchants who don't already produce video have difficulty finding resources to make good quality stuff, even simple stuff like Justhom found with space can be an issue.

Having said that its certainly picked up recently, and especially in the gadget/gift sector there's a good range with ourselves, IWOOT and Prezzybox all producing stuff.

This thread is where all the updates on the Firebox player are. Thanks marky for the mention. We've added a good few new ones recently, including some for some really hot current products like the USB Microscope and the Zero Gravity R/C Car.

**Dazza30** · 11-09-08

Thanks everyone for your input.

A network recently suggested i use youtube video's, i tried it but the javascript navigation i use has sub menu's which drop down behind the video's.

So untill i solve the problem ill have to put the idea to one side for now.

**HarveyC** · 11-09-08

Dazza, can't you use the z-index css property?

**Spreader** · 11-09-08

Hello Dazza,

Prezzybox launched the video content units this time last year and thought there would be a massive take up (you can see our vidiboxes here).

To be honest take up was pretty small and it does puzzle me as to why this is. I've actually blogged about our video content units (see here) and the increase it has on conversion, but still there's only a relatively small number of affiliates using them.

As Naomi says there's some great video creative available and it really does assist with conversion rates, so I really do think it will give you 'one over' your affiliate competition if you're using video content and they are not.

Cheers,

Zak.

**KimCullum** · 11-09-08

Originally Posted by Dazza30

A couple of years ago online video advertising was going to be the new weapon in an affiliates armory.

Recently ive been contacting merchants i promote to find out what video advertising is available, and to my suprise there's nothing.

Has there been a slow take up of it? or was it a fad that died out quickly?

Hi!

WIth video can come high(er) production costs, which can rule it out for a lot of smaller merchants with very tight budgets, like us at BeCheeky.

However, we were approached by an affiliate team a little over a year ago who were happy to cover the costs of the video production themselves, rewarded with a slightly higher commission value in the initial stages. We have found this has worked very well, and after our exclusivity period ended, the affiliates could attract more merchants to their project, and you can see the results here: knickerpicker.com ? Lingerie, Bras, Knickers, Thongs, Swimwear, Nightwear, Sportswear and other Lingerie it has proved to be an excellent viral campaign for them which has beneficial results for us too.

We are always open to hear from creative affiliates and see how we might be able to work together

kim@becheeky.com
Lingerie, Swimwear, Bras, Thongs, Bikinis, Corsets. BeCheeky.com
BeCheeky.com