Why should I care if local T.V. sites are catching fire?

Until 2005, local T.V. web site revenues were akin to the character Tom Hanks plays in the movie Castaway where he tries in vain to start a fire. That is to say initially unfruitful. But just as Hanks’ character masters creating fire by rubbing sticks together and promptly builds a bonfire, local T.V. revenues and content are following suit and everyone from local advertisers to recruitment marketers stand to benefit.

Content was weak initially (unless you count weather radar) because T.V. stations didn’t have good technology to broadcast all their content and users didn’t have the bandwidth or PC speeds to make viewing video very practical.

While local T.V. has a long way to go to catch up to other local online revenue share leaders like newspapers, their recent doubling of revenue in 2005 (now $283MM) and predicted growth of 39% in 2006 is worth taking note of. Local T.V. now accounts for 6% of total local online ad spending, as compared with newspapers that command a 43.2% share.

But that’s not the point – we have our eye on the opportunity here, and not the past.

You’re reading about the growth in local T.V. station revenues because online video is blowing up this year – as are other online enabled video distribution vehicles like video iPods. Consumer desire for video content has been there all along but is just now being satiated by the aforementioned critical mass of broadband connections and fast PC’s.

In the online rich media advertising category, which includes ads like expandable banners and the floating flash ads that dance across your web browser, online video ads represent the fastest growing rich media advertising format. Online video ads have already proven themselves to be the most effective brand building ads you can purchase online. They’re no slouches at driving traffic via click-thrus either. Online video combines the richness and emotional hooks of broadcast commercials with the targeting, delivery control and measurement that has made the web such an effective advertising tool.

For recruitment advertising, online video might finally open up all the benefits of broadcast video to lure passive candidates to employer’s doors.

Visualize this (oh, too bad I don’t have a video plugin on our blog *yet* because this would be so much better in video).

A programmer is working late at the office and checking their favorite coder site for clues on fixing their programming bug that has had them stymied for the last 12 hours. They’re tired, they’d like to go hop on their Vespa, drive home and kick back for some quality time with Current.

What would you rather have represent your employer brand for this programmer?

A text link on their favorite coder site that reads ‘Tired of late nights at the office?’ or a video ad on the same site that starts out with a voice over saying the same thing while extolling the virtues of company X’s work/life balance while panning through the company gym, on-site child care and showing an employee riding their Vespa home while it’s still light outside?

So, next up we just pay for video production and we’re in business and we don’t have to shell out $50,000 for a small T.V. ad campaign that we can’t target with anything more accurate than a blunderbuss.

Still want the ad to run on real T.V. and not the web? There’s a new solution for that as well that’s been enabled by the Internet. Look for our next post on EXCELER8ion featuring Spot Runner. update: the post is now online here.