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Rechtman slams lack of creativity in video media

Rene Rechtman, chief executive of GoViral and AOL Advertising, has condemned the lack of creativity in online ad formats and criticised the industry for a lack of innovation in its business model.

Speaking onstage at the 2011 Video Advertising Summit, Rechtman berated the media industry for transferring what he called the “broken model of TV” to online channels. In his presentation ‘The New Online Business Model’ Rechtman outlined the future of video advertising as relying on branded entertainment, as opposed to the current model which fails to match the patterns of online behaviour, despite the fact that online video is “growing because of social media and broadband technology”.

Rechtman also encouraged advertisers to “think like publishers” and place greater importance on the viewer experience. Citing a recent experience where he had to watch six advertisements to experience 17 seconds of video.

Rene Rechtman launched GoViral in 2008 and sold the branded video content distributor to AOL in January 2011 for $96.7 million. In June 2011 he was listed as one of the Wired Europe Top 100 most influential people.

Presentations from the 2011 Video Advertising Summit will be available on the M&M website from next week.

Mark St. Andrew