Superpages Introduces Video Ads

Citysearch recently rolled out video advertising (via a partnership with TurnHere). Dex (RH Donnelley), Smalltown and MojoPages have had video ads/video on their sites for some time. Now Idearc has introduced video ads on Superpages.com:

The 30 and 60 second ads will roll out first in Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Production is being outsourced to a number of third party vendors:

When you purchase a Superpages Original Video, a team of video professionals will come to your site and work with you to highlight those special qualities that make your business standout from your competitors. The team will shoot up to an hour of video to capture these standout aspects of your business and then craft a compelling thirty-second or sixty second video which will then be highlighted with a special video icon in your advertising.

You can expect that every yellow pages publisher and most local search pure plays will eventually have some sort of video ad option or the ability for businesses to upload their own video to directory sites (and/or video reviews). Publishers will want to syndicate those video ads (as with listings or reviews) and so many of them will wind up on Google and potentially elsewhere.

There’s lots of research to confirm that users are interested in and pay attention to video and that video ads perform better than conventional online ads. The quality and tone of the ads will matter however.

Professionally produced video can be a premium IYP advertising product that commands a higher SMB spend and helps boost the value and revenue from online ads (compared with traditional online listings products). And, as mentioned, the growing prevalence of video will mean that every local publisher will have to consciously confront whether and when to add it.

As a powerful production resource, TurnHere becomes an acquisition target. And locally focused rich media ad providers such as AdMission (which integrates video and real-time inventory/classifieds) or EZ Show become more important in this new online video environment.