Tumblr is releasing an autoplay video ads feature this month. Before an official big universal launching to all advertisers, selected companies such as Lexus, Ax, JC Penney and Universal Pictures are testing out this feature until mid-November.
Before that, brands had the possibility of purchasing promoted posts that did include videos but the new offering would now consist of an updated video player that would start automatically as the user lands on a page. The video would be muted by default until the user decides to turn on the audio. The video player would play the ad in a loop and it can be docked on the side so that the user can keep on watching while scrolling through other posts.
Online video ads are gaining an increasing importance in online marketing efforts. It is estimated that advertisers in the U.S will invest almost 6 billion dollars in online video advertising in 2014. Tumblr’s parent company Yahoo is expecting to generate over a hundred million dollars in revenue in 2015 and a large part of that could come from the autoplay videos.
When advertising on this new video advertising platform from Tumblr, advertisers would be charged for each view that lasts for more than two seconds. Videos that loop or are shared by users would not be charged to advertisers. Ads will target users based on information that Tumblr has gathered such as their location, gender and interests. Tumblr has not set any limit regarding the length of videos for the time being.