Hasta La Creative!

Pre-roll ads: You either love them or hate them. Online video ad network ScanScout hopes to cash in with its new Super Pre-Roll ad. For those not familiar with pre-rolls, let me explain: These are the ads that run before you watch an online video. If you want to watch a video, then you also have to sit through the commercial. There is no escape.

However, ScanScout is making things interesting by making these ads interactive. These spots use existing TV spots and then attach multiple interactive “overlay” placements. The Super Pre-Roll’s overlay appear at various positions on the screen and are designed to correspond with an ad’s content. This format could then be easily adopted by advertisers to conduct polls, provide coupons, and collect user data. The question that remains is whether this will encourage active viewer participation, rather than passive consumption.

I think this technology also issues a wake-up call to creatives: It’s time to generate content worthy of our captive audience. We live in an age of DVR’s, where our audience would rather gouge out their eyes than sit through invasive messaging if they don’t have to. We need to engage the viewer and allow he or she to take ownership of the brand, and this might be the way to do it.

Sara Barton is a copywriter, social media strategist, and avid blogger in search of her next opportunity. Contact her via Twitter, LinkedIn, or her blog.