User-generated content sites have been the hot thing on the internet over the past year, but advertisers hoping to use web video to connect with consumers might be better off spending their money elsewhere. That’s the suggestion of a new study released by the Online Publishers Association, which finds that those who view internet video advertising on sites for traditional media, such as magazines, newspapers and local television, are more likely to take action than those who see the ads on UGC sites. For example, 45 percent of those who saw such an ad on a magazine site visited the advertiser’s web site, compared with 35 percent for UGC sites, while 29 percent went to the store to check out the product, compared with 14 percent for UGC sites. A big reason for this disparity is that people have developed a trust in media brands that they’re also familiar with offline, a trust that hasn’t yet built for newer sites like Digg or YouTube. Pam Horan, president of the Online Publishers Association, talks to Media Life about why media sites are so trustworthy, what their users have in common, and why longer web ads can be more effective than shorter ones.

 
Why is environment so important to driving action for video ads?
 
It certainly makes sense that if you’re on a site such as About.com or Weather.com because you trust and value their content, you’re more likely to trust and value their advertising content. In the section entitled Frames of Reference, we found this to be absolutely true for video advertising. 

In fact, the study shows that if a consumer has a positive attitude toward an advertised brand and likes the video content that the ad appeared within, brand consideration jumps 61 percent. If the consumer’s initial attitude toward the brand is neutral or even negative, brand consideration still rises 21 percent if they like the adjacent video content. 

Why are media sites such good places to drive consumers to action?
 
The answer is in part related to your first question – that consumers value and trust the content on a quality, branded media site such as NYTimes.com or a respected online news provider such as Tribune Interactive. This affinity carries over to the advertising and leads to a much stronger consumer response. 
 
In addition, our previous research has also found that consumers on media sites have a great demographic profile. They tend to be somewhat better educated and have higher incomes than consumers of key products on portal sites. These demographic characteristics are very important to a marketer trying to drive someone into their store or get them to place an online order.
 

What sites are not as successful in this area? Why?
 
We haven’t found that certain sites are unsuccessful. Our research simply shows that media sites are more successful than portal or user-generated content sites at driving consumer action.

Plenty of people are taking action based on video ads they see on  portals, but it’s clear that more people respond to video ads on newspaper, online news, radio, magazine and TV sites.
 

What's the most rampant misperception about web video advertising?
 
Frames of Reference didn’t study misperceptions, but it did take an important first step in identifying some key factors to making video advertising more effective.

For instance, 15-second preroll ads are often said to be better than 30-second ads. While there may be some truth to this, our study showed that it is not as simple as many people suggest.

Thirty-second ads actually prove to be more effective than 15s at lifting certain key advertising metrics and for some advertisers, may make a lot of sense.

Why is ad length such an important factor in ad likeability?
 
More time allows a marketer to tell a more robust and compelling story, and therefore means a greater potential to engage with the viewer. And because environment plays a key role, marketers will take into consideration the length of the adjacent video content to ensure it is complementary with the ad. 
 
As marketers are considering video advertising, it’s also important to understand that publishers have unique data that provides an important perspective on their audience habits. This information, along with research such as our Frames of Reference study, will help marketers build successful programs.
 

What's the most important thing buyers or planners can take away from this study?
 
There are two key points we think are important. The first is that site environment absolutely matters, and media sites have again proven to be more effective at driving consumer response than portals or user-generated content sites. 
 
The second is the fact that, although there is a lot of buzz around YouTube and user-generated content, the top two most-viewed video categories are news/current events and weather. 
 

Was there anything you found surprising about the study?
 
From previous research we knew about the ability of media sites to drive ad response, and it was interesting to see how strong that ability is with video advertising. When we looked at ad effectiveness, it is hard to say we found anything surprising because no study quite like this has been done before.

Our findings about the effectiveness of 30-second ads or the important role of companion ads should be viewed as contributing to the increasing – and increasingly important – data about how we can make video advertising work online.