Online video: views from the floor at the IAB's In Demand conference

Online video is "one of the hottest areas of online advertising", said Andrew Moore, managing director, SpotXchange. But indecision as to where the boundaries of the medium fall and who should be taking the reins are the current focus for players in the space.

"The main point of contention," said Liz Duff, broadcast associate director at Carat, "is, should we be looking at VOD (video on-demand) as digital [or] TV?"

"Who should be responsible for it? Who's going to take control of measuring it?"

Meanwhile, Tej Rekhi, innovation strategist at MediaMind - the agency behind Channel 4's Million Pound Drop tablet apps - said that quality of video content was the real issue.

Favouring longer video ads over shorter rehashes of television commercials, Rekhi said brands should consider the multiple platforms video content is now consumed on and how they can create a seamless flow across different devices.

But it is the subversion of online advertising formats that Harry Davies, head of solutions, YouTube said could make a difference to an online campaign.

Speaking about Spanish brand Ecoview's use of a 'Skip behavior' button on its skippable YouTube TrueView ads, Davies said the ads tapped into what is "really exciting" about advertising.

Video produced by Sarah Johnson, Georgina Brazier and Ben Hall

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This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk