Over the next month or two, I'll be writing a series of technical articles on video advertising. You'll learn more about how the ad lifecycle, the standards that have emerged for video ads, and what's in the video ad future. If you're a developer who doesn't know much about advertising, this is a great time to learn! So, before you install Adblock on this series, here's a few reasons to read more:
- As a web developer, you've certainly already worked on a website that uses advertising. Why not understand what's really going on underneath it all? It helps to know about the HTTP protocol, even if you aren't writing a webserver, and I think that a similar case can be made for advertising. The Law of Leaky Abstraction makes us all dig deeper from time to time, and an understanding of what's under the covers with ads will come in handy someday.
- Even if you don't deal with video ads, this series will be useful to you. There's a lot of banner ads and rich media ads that are needed as part of a video player experience as well, and much of the articles are applicable to the rich media ad market and some to display ads. Google's blog has an excellent description of both rich media ads and display ads.
- Although I'll be writing a lot about Brightcove, almost all of the items I will cover are not specific to Brightcove. The IAB standards and advertising approaches are industry-wide; and we'll just happen to be using a Brightcove player when talking about them.
- Video advertising is an area that's expanding rapidly, growing more than 40% last year and projected to do the same this year.
- This is being written by someone who has an inside look at how video advertising is coming together. I've been dealing with advertising at Brightcove for more than two years now, and I've written many of the pieces in the ad SDK. And, if I can persuade them, you may also see a post or two from others on the advertising team here at Brightcove in the future.
Have I convinced you? I hope so, but if you need any more persuasion or just want to ask a question, write a comment here or send me a message on twitter.
Here are links to the published articles: