DIGIDAY has released the results of a recent survey sponsored by YuMe (but conducted independently), and the news for online video advertising is decidedly good. More than 45% of the 225 agency and advertiser respondents said they expect to increase their digital video ad spend this year. Even better, if you work out the calculations, roughly 5%  of those 225 respondents are adding money to their overall spend in order to hit digital video. That’s instead of stealing the dollars from somewhere else. Extrapolating out from this (admittedly) small survey, we should see more revenue from online video ads and the ad market as a whole in 2011.

Most advertisers are looking at digital video ads to increase brand awareness and engagement, and that certainly jives with the way we’ve seen video successfully used in marketing campaigns. However, some publishers aren’t on board with video advertising yet because they’re afraid it still lacks reach. That may be true now – although it’s arguable – but adoption is growing. More connected media devices, including smartphones and tablets, mean more opportunity for consumers to watch video online. And even though publishers have to support a number of platforms in order to reach a wide mobile audience, that too is not an insurmountable challenge. In fact, it’s rather easy if you have access to the right tools.

As a side note to the DIGIDAY study, a recent survey of 415 smartphone users conducted by ad agency MGH found that consumers are increasingly using QR codes to access information about products. A full 32% of respondents to the survey had used a QR code, and nearly a quarter of that group had scanned a QR code in order to access online video.

One of the big challenges in the multi-screen entertainment era is how to package content effectively for different devices and consumption modes. The topic took center stage this morning in a breakfast panel hosted by Will Richmond and VideoNuze in New York. While everyone is still feeling their way to see how TV should interact with mobile and social applications, the panel had some interesting insights on what’s proven viable in early experiments.

Jeremiah Zinn from MTV Networks, for example, talked about the use of social and interactive apps during program repeats. Overlaying commentary and contests on TV reruns extends the life of that content and can make it relevant even during a second or third airing. Zinn also acknowledged that it’s impossible for a programmer to control where a social conversation about content takes place online. MTV isn’t going to try to keep a discussion about the latest music celebrity gossip on one of its websites. If the conversation grows organically on Twitter, so be it. MTV will try to make the most of the conversation and audience engagement wherever it happens. You know the famous MTV VJs? Well, for the Video Music Awards this year, MTV had a TJ, a Twitter jockey who monitored Twitter trends among viewers and highlighted select tweets during the actual TV broadcast.

Meanwhile, Olivier Manuel from Samsung brought up the issues of windowing content and offering content clips. Release windows established a firm foothold in the entertainment industry when DVD rentals were at their peak, and now the concept is applied to VOD, online, and mobile content as well. With so many delivery channels available, one way to manage distribution effectively is to offer premium, first-run content where it’s easiest to monetize. Then after the first run, the content can be extended to other channels over the longer term.

Another way to manage distribution is to separate content clips from full-length videos. Clips can be offered for free online, or in the mobile channel, while premium, full-length content is held behind an online pay wall, or saved for higher-revenue television distribution. Because video clips are particularly well-suited for mobile viewing, sometimes even this short-form entertainment can be profitable in distribution. We learned this from our own work with MTV Networks, and the success MTV has enjoyed with The Word, a paid mobile app featuring daily Stephen Colbert clips.

Content providers are still figuring out how best to deliver video to multiple screens, but beyond the challenges, some clear opportunities are emerging as well.

Mobile advertising is still in its infancy, but with smartphones and tablets on the upswing, the market is destined for rapid growth. Which is why Jumptap, a Limelight Networks partner, is bulking up on new ad services now. This week, the company announced the addition of video to the Jumptap Premium Ad Network. Limelight Networks will deliver that video for in-stream, pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads.

There are numerous stats illustrating the benefits of rich media advertising online, but publishers are only beginning to investigate how video can impact mobile advertising efforts. On the one hand, publishers want to monetize their content in every way possible. On the other hand, the technical and integration challenges are not insignificant. If big guys like MTV Networks have taken a careful and measured approach to mobile video, it suggests the industry as a whole is still trying to figure out a workable strategy for mobile delivery. The process isn’t getting any easier either. With a new handset launch or mobile OS update virtually every week, publishers have an exploding list of mobile platforms to contend with.

There is good news, however. Mobile video quality is improving by leaps and bounds, and the early pool of companies taking advantage of the new channel for advertising are getting access to consumers that their competitors are missing out on. As an example, if you’ve seen the app for The New York Times on the iPad, you know that one particular watch manufacturer has rich media ads plastered across every section of the online newspaper. No doubt the company’s competitors have not yet figured out how to integrate iPad advertising into their ad strategies. Score one for first-mover advantage.

For the partnership with Jumptap, Limelight Networks is pushing out mobile video that is automatically formatted for whatever device a consumer may be using. That doesn’t take away the challenge of managing complex advertising buys across multiple channels, but it does significantly reduce the technical headaches for companies ready to move forward with mobile video advertising. Since the mobile channel is only going to expand, that’s no small consideration. It may also be a good catalyst for more companies to jump in to the mobile fray.

It’s official. Limelight Networks has closed on our acquisition of EyeWonder. And if you’re wondering what that means, the result is that we now have expanded capabilities in online monetization through innovative, targeted advertising solutions. In short, we’ve got a really cool new interactive ad platform and ad formats to offer.

As background, the team from EyeWonder specializes in developing interactive digital advertising and has over a decade of experience in creating and optimizing the effectiveness of online ad campaigns. With recent shifts in where content consumption occurs, we saw an opportunity to combine their expertise with our world-class delivery services. Content is everywhere now, on every Internet-connected device, and by using our combined company strengths, we can help publishers, advertisers, and agencies capitalize on that trend by capturing and engaging audiences.

If you’re not familiar with EyeWonder already, take a few minutes to browse through the EyeWonder site. The section with work samples showcases some truly innovative campaigns. (EyeWonder has direct relationships with more than 800 creative, interactive, and media buying agencies worldwide.) Favorite samples here include the decorate-your-own-cookie interactive ad for Sprint, the Jackson Five Holiday album special with embedded sample tracks for Amazon, and the OneRepublic album teaser with embedded music video for Target.

Many of today’s TV and video dilemmas are at least a decade old. Take interactive television. Stop in at any iTV event today, and you could easily mistake it for an industry confab in the 1990’s. The same is true for talk of monetizing older content beyond a straight syndication model. It doesn’t go back quite as far as the iTV days, but you might remember hearing the example of Martha’s Stewart’s turkey-carving demonstration earlier this decade. The idea was that there ought to be a way to make money from people wanting to access Martha’s turkey demo after its original air date. Sounds reasonable, right? And yet the Martha Stewart dilemma still hasn’t been adequately solved.

Guvera is a company out of Australia and a Limelight Networks customer. The company is currently running a beta service in the land down under that matches targeted advertising with music libraries from Universal Music Group, EMI, and IODA. The music is completely free to consumers, but brings in revenue to the music studios through branded channels. Once a consumer logs in, he or she can search for a song, artist, or genre, and then click through to a branded page with free downloading and streaming available. Download files are all DRM-free.

Often there’s a chicken-and-egg problem of trying to line up content agreements while also getting advertisers on the hook. However, Guvera has top-notch music studios signed on in Australia, and an impressive list of advertisers including Johnson & Johnson, Dominos Pizza, Pepsi, McDonalds, and Nestle, among others.

Guvera’s ability to target brand sponsorships is what potentially gives it the ability to revolutionize content monetization. However, they couldn’t make the content delivery work without a little help, and that’s where Limelight Networks comes in. Much of the free-content landscape today is based on slow or best-effort content delivery, meaning the user experience can range from adequate to unbearable. The Guvera team knows that to make their business work, they have to start with a higher quality experience or risk losing users and advertisers alike. Limelight Networks is Guvera’s exclusive platform for delivering that experience with music streaming and downloads in Australia. And come March, we’ll also be their exclusive partner when Guvera launches in the US. More details to come, but Guvera has plans to launch video and television content by the middle of the year as well.

In the meantime, Guvera held a pre-launch party in New York last week. Several pubs have posted celebrity-laden photos from the event. We’ve got more screenshots from the service below.