Mike Hudack is a tumblelog.

Each ad skipped costs the viewer $.10, which is automatically deducted from their pre-funded account. When an ad is skipped, the advertiser receives a credit from the publisher who is paid a percentage of the viewer’s fee by SkipIt.

New SkipIt Service Asks: “Would You Pay to Avoid Online Video Ads?”

I applaud SpotXchange for trying to come up with creative solutions for preroll.  But they are solving for the wrong problem here.  As is anyone jumping into the “skip this preroll” game.

We should be figuring out how to make preroll ads better vs. creating mechanisms to avoid them.

We like commercials.  Well, we like good commercials.  We also like to be marketed to.  Advertising works when great creative, solid targeting and respect for the consumer are combined.  All too often - especially when it comes to preroll - this does not happen.

Those of us in digital video - particularly those on the advertising side - need to work together to make preroll better.  Advertising can - and should - always be additive to the content experience.  A great example of media doing this right is fashion magazines.  When polled, readers of fashion magazines often cite the ads as part of the experience of enjoying the magazine.  The ads add to the experience of the magazine.

We need to get to this place in digital video.

Here at Blip we’ve done a number of things to make the preroll experience additive to the content viewing experience.  First and foremost we built Blip Creative Services, a fully-functioning creative agency within Blip.  This team works with our clients to build custom ad units and custom video experiences.

Blip Creative Services has spent a lot of time developing unique preroll formats.  They have created a number of preroll enhancements and interactive features that engage the viewer but more importantly respect their time.  Most viewers are savvy enough to understand the value proposition of free content: they can enjoy Blip anytime, anywhere and always for free and in exchange they need to watch a preroll.  But it’s on us to make that preroll experience worth their time.

This is what is lost on many in the ad world today.  Products like SkipIt are simply the latest entry in a grand race to the bottom.

Content creators work very hard to make their content compelling.  The same ethos should apply to preroll.  Instead of all of these smart people figuring out ways to let consumers skip preroll we should be thinking of ways to make preroll better.  In the end this will add far more value to the digital video ecosystem.   

(via evangotlib)

(via evangotlib)

Frankly, the professional experience I have had with TSA has frightened me. Once, when approaching screening for a flight on official FBI business, I showed my badge as I had done for decades in order to bypass screening. (You can be envious, but remember, I was one less person in line.) I was asked for my form which showed that I was armed. I was unarmed on this flight because my ultimate destination was a foreign country. I was told, “Then you have to be screened.” This logic startled me, so I asked, “If I tell you I have a high-powered weapon, you will let me bypass screening, but if I tell you I’m unarmed, then I have to be screened?” The answer? “Yes. Exactly.” Another time, I was bypassing screening (again on official FBI business) with my .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and a TSA officer noticed the clip of my pocket knife. “You can’t bring a knife on board,” he said. I looked at him incredulously and asked, “The semi-automatic pistol is okay, but you don’t trust me with a knife?” His response was equal parts predictable and frightening, “But knives are not allowed on the planes.

(via auerbach)