In a recent post we discussed ways to skip online video ads and why SkipIt is fair for everyone – consumers, publishers and advertisers.  Now we want to compare how SkipIt stacks up to another ad skipping technology called TrueView.

You might have heard of YouTube.  You might, in fact, watch tons of videos on YouTube.  If so, you have probably skipped a video ad on YouTube courtesy of their service TrueView.  Here’s the difference between theirs and ours:

TrueView – a product that is available on YouTube only

• What’s not to love about ad skipping?  We get that.  But we also know that ad skipping can hurt websites that are just trying to make money from the content they offer for free to the viewer.  You Tube can afford to offer free ad skipping because YouTube has more than 4 billion video streams per day!   YouTube can afford to experiment with their 4 billion a day video streams — it’s not a big revenue risk if they offer ad skipping and lose that small percentage of revenue.  Most publishers don’t even come close to that volume of video streams.   Since most websites are not YouTube, they need to make money from every visitor.
• On YouTube with TrueView, ad skipping comes at no cost to consumer, which encourages the habit of always skipping for free.  But free in this case means getting “something for nothing.”  When TrueView was first rolled out, only 30% of viewers were skipping ads.  Now people are skipping 70% of the time, but without regard for how the “free” part of that equation negatively impacts their favorite publishers.  Over the years, advertising has paid the bills for radio, TV and now online content – and some consumers are willing to bear the costs to skip (satellite radio, DVRs, premium subscriptions, etc).
• TrueView claims that its ad skipping solution should help promote more creative video ads.  But will laundry detergent EVER be interesting?

How SkipIt is different than TrueView

• SkipIt is fair to publishers!   Most publishers don’t have billions of video streams, so they must maximize value of each and every video ad opportunity.  SkipIt pays publishers MORE than what they would have been paid had they played the video ad for you.  They love it because it keeps their websites clutter-free and creates a better user experience.  They’re rewarded for that.
• SkipIt does cost a small fee to the consumer, but that fee helps pay publishers to keep their websites clutter-free, and advertisers don’t have to pay for skipped ads.  More importantly, there are ways to earn free skips at SkipIt.com, so for those who want to pay to get to the front of the line – they can pay for SkipIt.  Others might want to earn free skips to keep skipping, and SkipIt offers that too.
• SkipIt isn’t limited to one website.  Soon SkipIt will be everywhere beyond YouTube, and we want to ensure you can skip there too.

We are glad that ad skipping is becoming more mainstream.  But we also love our free content online and know that it’s not free.  SkipIt helps give consumers the choice of when they want to skip, where they want to skip.  And is fair to everyone to boot.

SpotXchange is the largest global marketplace of video ad inventory, reaching 110 million unique visitors each month in more than 35 countries.

So who was behind the concept of letting consumers control their online experience by skipping video ads when they want to?

Would you believe it’s a video advertising marketplace?    What the what?

SkipIt was created to address high abandonment rates in onlinve video advertising.  Essentially people are bailing on video ads because they don’t have time or patience to watch the ad before they get to their content.  Some folks don’t mind watching ads, some do.  That’s why SkipIt gives folks a choice.

Read more here about how SkipIt came to be, why SpotXchange launched SkipIt, and how a video advertising company led the way to give consumers more choice online.  This letter is from the CEO of SpotXchange, the company that launched SkipIt.   He explains to advertisers and publishers why skippable ads are needed.