Marketers may like the new ASq ad format being adopted by many video platforms that lets users choose which ads they want to see.

Marketers know the online video platform is steadily growing, with a Nielsen report showing that 70 percent of global consumers watch video content online. Moreover, online video ad spend is predicted to increase by more than $10 billion over the next four years, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. With this in mind, some marketers may like the new ASq ad format being adopted by many video platforms that lets users choose which ads they want to see.

The ad-selecting tool stands to improve consumer targeting by letting video viewers decide which of three sponsoring ads are most relevant to them. This means marketers may have the chance to catch the eyes of consumers who will more readily convert into buyers.

ASq was developed by VivaKi, the digital media branch of Publicis Groupe. Reportedly, a research study of the format on Hulu – the web property currently delivers the most video ads – shows that users are twice as likely to click ads when they are given a choice instead of having an automatic video ad played.

This is something a number of video publishers in addition to Hulu are jumping on. Beth Uyenco Shatto, global research director at Microsoft, told BusinessWeek, “When you give people a choice, they tend to love you because you’re showing them respect.” Video properties including Microsoft sites, Hulu sites, Yahoo sites and others will be using ASq to deliver this respect to consumers. Notably, sources indicate Google’s YouTube is still studying ASq to determine whether it will adopt the format.

Marketers may want to plan their video ad campaigns for platforms that will help them advance targeting through the ASq ad-selector. Still, the potential power of video ads on Google sites cannot be ignored. ComScore’s latest online video rankings shows that Google sites had the most unique video viewers and the most video-viewing sessions in June. Video ads on Google also reach an impressive 15.4 percent of the U.S. population.  

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.