What does it really mean to engage with your consumer? At Firefly Video it means combining the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web. It means recognizing that the media technology and communications revolution that is in full swing is causing a shift from one-way to two-way advertising and from mass market to one-to-one messaging. Firefly Video is designed to help TV and pre-roll advertisers better manage this exciting transition.

The first level of engagement takes place when the consumer actively requests to see the ad. Our approach is based on the tenet that a consumer who self-selects in a non-incentivized manner is far more interested, and therefore, valuable to an advertiser than a consumer who is passively shown an ad. Video ads served through Firefly Video run initially in standard IAB display ad units and when a consumer requests to engage further, the ad unit unfolds to cover the entire web page, ensuring the viewer's total and focused attention (Ad Gallery). Differing from pre-roll ad impressions, there is no other content on the page to draw attention away from the ad.

This directed and fully-focused consumer attention is especially valuable to TV advertisers where significant creative resources are applied to building emotionally engaging TV ads that are designed to connect consumers with their brand.

A second and deeper level of engagement takes place within the fully opened video ad unit itself via a range of interactive features that enable the consumer to view additional videos, share videos on social networking sites, see additional advertiser messaging, answer survey questions, look up a store location or conduct other customized activities.  This level of interactivity turns one way advertising into a rich branding experience that results in more sales and greater brand loyalty.

We are so confident we can deliver fully engaged consumers, our pricing model is based on cost per engagement (CPE).  That means that advertisers only pay when a consumer engages with the video ad, and not on a cost per thousand CPM basis as is the norm with pre-roll or in-banner video.  Since advertisers only pay for self-selected consumers who choose to view the video ad it eliminates media waste on this portion of the buy and complements the rest of the TV and pre-roll spend.