The New York Times has an interesting report about companies that offer customized video advertising, such as Spot Runner and Visible World. Marketers are excited about this technology, because it means they can utilize demographics to deliver targeted advertising across several platforms - including television and the Internet. It's also less expense than traditional TV advertising and in some cases means they can route around traditional ad agencies, by creating the ads themselves using the tools offered by services like Spot Runner and Visible World.

So what does this all mean for the advertising world, the media industry and the ever expanding Internet?

What Spot Runner and Visible World do

Not only is it becoming far cheaper to produce video ads, it is also becoming cheaper to distribute and customize them. This effectively is making videos easily stored and re-used, much like digital photos and music have become in recent years. It removes a large chunk of production costs, as marketers no longer have to film the commercial themselves - Spot Runner allows you to mash-up an ad from their ad library. It also allows the creator of the content to reap the rewards for each customer that chooses their ad.

Spot Runner

How the technology is being used

This simplified process of targeted advertising is ideal for small companies that want to appear big, and for big companies that want to appear small. In that sense, the world becomes a little flatter. Small businesses can operate within their budget to get a professional ad; while large companies can tailor their ads to appeal to consumers across the board, varying the product they sell or the spin their ad takes.

The format of these commercials makes them easily spread via television, or the internet - and I'm sure mobile devices aren't too far behind in becoming another mainstream platform for distribution.

A Ford commercial from Visible World

The Long Tail of Video Commercials

Services offered by companies such as Spot Runner and Visible World cater to a broad base of marketers, and create a platform for creativity and replicated data. The ability to operate over the Web makes editorial accessibility an afterthought and increases the number of niche markets an advertiser can display their product for. The media world has departed from so many traditional models; and the Internet has enabled the majority of those changes. Now the world of video marketing is following suit, catering to the long tail of social networks and specific demographics - fragmenting themselves in the same manner.

Essentially this allows marketers to take advantage of targeted marketing in ways they've always dreamed of.

Implications

What's the larger picture here? And what does it really mean for marketers to not only gain increased access to demographic data, but to use it for more and more targeted advertising?

Privacy issues are and will continue to be raised regarding the use of targeted marketing. Much of our activity on the web, and even with our television's remote control, gives companies data to feed their advertising strategies. Also the advertising job market will shift in reaction to the oncoming automation options, which are becoming more available to marketers.

The Internet and mobile devices will become extremely important for the future of this type of advertising. It will also become integrated within the widening Internet video culture, and probably closely associated with user-generated content. This means consumers may have a larger role in the distribution of these commercials; perhaps customizing ads to be played along with their own videos, even becoming the most powerful channel by which these commercials are distributed.

What are your thoughts on customized video ads -- are we in the midst of a sea change in video advertising, enabled by Web services like Spot Runner and Visible World?