Swisscom reveals ad-funded video trial results

Tim Green December 10, 5:06pm

Nearly a third of people using Swisscom’s ad-funded videos had never consumed mobile video before.

This is one of the key findings released by Swisscom and its ad partner Ad Infuse following a pilot programme based around ad-enabled streaming video channels on the Vodafone live! portal. The first was offered free comedy videos, called Nur zum Spass and the second offered music video clips at a reduced price, called Musik Videos für 50 Rappen.

Other highlight findings of the trial were:

* 82 per cent of the users viewed the pre-roll ad to the end versus 67 per cent for the post-roll ads.

* Recall rates were as high as 29 percent depending on the ad

* WAP banner click-through rates averaged 8 per cent
More than 80 per cent of the users rated the model of ‘free video content in return for advertising’ positively.

* 50 per cent of the users claimed they would not have viewed the videos on the ad-funded Nur zum Spass video service if it wasn’t for free.

* 85 per cent of the music videos published on the Musik Videos für 50 Rappen service achieved higher revenue compared to the same video file being published as a streaming music video clip.

Swisscom used Ad Infuse’s adInMotion platform to insert real-time, language targeted pre and post-roll video ads in streaming video sessions. It also placed WAP banners on the WAP service pages. Participating advertisers
included Adidas, McDonalds, Migros, Swiss Airlines, Peugeot, Sony Ericsson, Canon and Opel.

“This case study is a great endorsement of the consumer acceptance of mobile video advertising,” said Stephen Upstone, managing director of European business development for Ad Infuse. “We are really excited by the ad effectiveness witnessed by brands and the strong results that we saw for click-through response on WAP banners associated with the video ads featured.”