New research has shown that consumers are likely to watch and remember a video ad that they actually choose - as opposed to one that was forced on to them. This research, conducted by Vivaki, was instrumental in the selection of the so-called Ad Selector - an ad placement that allows users to select an advertisers’ video spot to view prior to content - as the winning ad model for long-form online video in an industry contest called the Pool. (via Wall Street Journal).

Ad Selector

That format was created and popularized by Pool participant Hulu. Other Pool participants included ZenithOptimedia, Starcom MediaVest Group, Digitas and Razorfish as well as Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, CBS and BBE. "Having to select an ad makes consumers more engaged," Beth Uyenco, global research director of Microsoft's advertising and publisher solutions group told the Wall Street Journal.

In the end, the ad selector beat out about 30 ad formats now being used by the media companies that participated in the study - including interactive online video ads.

Engagement Still Viable

Yet interactive ads are still very much a viable format, say the companies that are pushing this technology. Indeed with the many variations of this tech being developed, it is unlikely the video advertising will standardize on one format, at least in the near term. One new company launching in this space is Actvertising, which has developed a online video advertising product that triggers a call from the clip to the viewer's cellphone, allowing him to modify what happens next in the ad's story.

Tremor Media recently introduced several new video ad formats and features that focus on engagement, including Pre-Roll Plus Overlay, a format in which the user interacts with a clickable overlay that appears over the content immediately following a standard pre-roll.

Tribal Fusion, a digital marketing company owned by Exponential Interactive, Inc., rolled out a product it dubbed Full Engagement Video - a full-page video overlay ad unit that, according to Tribal Fusion, guarantees user engagement by taking over the entire screen.

Another new ad format was introduced by ScanScout last October - its so-called super pre-roll video ad unit. Now the company is reporting that click through rates from these campaigns were 350% or 4.5 times higher than all other regular pre-roll CTR in the in-stream video advertising provider's network during the same period.

First in Consumer Choice

Of course interactive video ads can always incorporate consumer choice in their campaigns. That is what Google did recently, when it rolled out its own version of the concept: skippable ads, writes Ad Age. Essentially these offer the consumers the choice to skip the ad completely, and go straight to the video. Ad Age speculates that Google launched such an option because it'll be able to command higher prices from advertisers for the ads as the users will actually want to be engaged and watching. “But it also hopes giving people the option to skip will result in better research about what makes people want to watch an ad.”