Midrolls Key to Online Video Advertising Future: FreeWheel Marketing VP JoAnna Abel

I recently sat down with JoAnna Abel, FreeWheel's VP of Marketing, to discuss FreeWheel's Video Monetization Report at her company's San Mateo offices.

JoAnna spoke about the rise of mid-roll advertising, among other interesting online video data points.

First, some background on FreeWheel:

"We're a video technology company and very focused on building technologies, services and solutions for the largest entertainment companies out there."

On the growth of mid-rolls:

Mid-roll growth is being driven by two major factors. One, there's more long-form video content being made available online. As more episodic TV content and movies move online, there's more room for advertising because the content is longer.  And two, as more premium video publishers become more comfortable with higher ad loads, you will see more online video advertising within this longer content.

On where online video advertising is headed:

The first order of business is coming up with formats and structures that allow online ads to scale. The online world needs to be able the biggest brand advertisers the scale that they see in television.

Finally, she spoke about the timing needed until online video achieves parity with TV.

"It's going to be a little while untile we" get there. We need to scale first.

Thanks so much to JoAnna for taking the time to speak with me, and share her monetization data with our viewers.