The future of online video is a myriad of creative possibilities allowed by the development of new technologies outlined in this handbook. The opportunities these present to the world of advertisers is already immense, and as technology improves and develops, so will the power and reach of online video advertising.

There’s no need to fear the new ad technologies on these platforms; in the ten years or so of web advertising a lot has been learnt about what works and what doesn’t work. By applying this knowledge to the new online landscape, campaigns will achieve a higher level of standout and allow delivery of consistent user experiences.

Online video advertising itself has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Though re-purposing TV ads into banner type formats has its place the really exciting campaigns bring together the latest ad format and video technologies with the interactivity only online can provide. There is a similar coming together of interactive designers and film-makers; an explosion of creativity where concepts, scripts and storyboards are created to shoot and produce footage specifically for use in interactive ads.

Online advertising and video technologies are developing fast at a time when it seems everyone wants to get involved in video. As the new platforms take hold through your laptop, television or mobile, you can be sure that engaging video experiences allowed by online ad technologies will become part of the everyday advertising landscape. Let’s take a closer look at some key areas of development in the future of video:

No limit to file sizes

The new millennium began with the majority of everyday internet users on dial-up speeds of 56kbps; now broadband speeds of over 8MB are the norm. Internet connection speeds will continue to rise, and with them more opportunities to stream larger video files. Eventually leading to a point where file size no longer matters and restrictions no longer apply.

Full screen

Following on from the previous point; for advertisers faster speeds mean more freedom, impact and clarity in their video adverts. No file size restrictions remove the need for limits to the size of the video player window. Some companies already offer high quality full screen streaming video and this trend will spread throughout the industry.

Format neutral

At the moment there are a number of different video players to choose from such as Windows Media Player, Real Player, Quicktime and Flash. This can complicate online video advertising because marketers have to cater for different file sizes and for each of these players. Whether one video player becomes dominant or all video players eventually play the same video file formats remains to be seen, but in the future the player itself will not matter.

Digital rights management

Currently ownership of video is incredibly difficult to control as internet users are able to share copies of online video with ease. This remains a problem area for video content producers but eventually this won’t be an issue because online security, distribution and video technology will continue to improve. For advertisers this will mean that their video ads can be attached to programming and not be removed from illegally distributed copies of the programme edited by internet users.

Interactivity

As discussed earlier in this handbook, video interaction is already happening using in-video links. As computers become more powerful and download speeds increase, so will the level of interactivity within online videos. In the future viewers will be able to interact with and manipulate video in a multitude of ways offering a totally new experience for them and new opportunities for advertising to engage the user directly with the brand.

Convergence

Campaigns are already being produced which are initiated on television and finished exclusively online. It is becoming more than a novelty to integrate the available mediums and formats to capture today’s multimedia-savvy audience – it is a necessity.

The future of online video and video advertising is convergence; marketers will produce marketing campaigns that use mobile, TV and the internet to target their video advertising at consumers.

Television distribution is already being launched online by the likes of the large broadcasters (BBC, ITV and Sky) as well as new online TV software (Joost). It won’t happen immediately but the result will not be to replace television; television programming distribution will move online.