The market for distraction
is never saturated

Video search firm blinkx launched Un-roll, an ad unit that lets brands engage users while they're watching streaming videos.

The Un-roll experience starts with a "branded curtain" that draws back, revealing the video, which in turn is framed by a branded video player.

When the media plays, overlay ads and logos appear at "contextually relevant" moments, giving users things to click on while watching.

Each video concludes with a call-to-action and an invitation to visit the brand's website.

Pressed for the logic to this method, founder/CEO Suranga Chandratillake explained, "Click-through rates for pre-roll advertisements tend to be positive, [but] some viewers are reluctant to watch 30 seconds of advertising for videos that sometimes last only one minute."

For those concerned about deluging viewers with clutter, Chandratillake soothes: blinkx tested 40 different formats before selecting Un-roll for launch, ensuring it had the lowest "annoyance factor" and strongest brand identity "stickiness" (that is, users exposed to Un-roll were most likely to remember the sponsor after the video ended).

Un-roll reportedly maintained a click-through rate of between 2% and 12% in tests. Fewer than 20% of users clicked away from the video before it concluded, and a mere 15% left because of the advertising.

Hedging its bets, blinkx estimated Un-roll would maintain a click-through rate of 3% to 5% over time.

The offering is available via blinkx AdHoc, a contextual ad platform for online video. Agency MediaCom and petrol brand Shell Oil were among the first to deploy the new format.