Since the advent of the television, video advertising has become widespread to the point of becoming an almost ubiquitous way to communicate with consumers and influence consumer behavior.  The importance of video advertising has continued and grown considerably with the growth of alternative platforms for consuming video content available through wide area networks, such as the Internet, and broadband wireless communications networks.  Alternative platforms may include, for example, online video streaming sites and online video downloading sites.  Such platforms may provide greater convenience, choice, and flexible scheduling of video content without requiring the use of additional appliances such as digital video recorders by the consumer.  Both traditional and alternative platforms for video content are commonly funded, at least in part, by selling video advertising to various advertisers. 
The production of video advertising may be relatively time-consuming and expensive compared to other advertising forms.  In addition, effective distribution and targeting of video advertising may add considerable costs to an advertising budget.  Advertisers naturally want to obtain the best possible results for the considerable investment in video advertising campaigns, and the development of effective video advertising is of great and increasing importance to advertisers.  At the same time, factors such as increasing diversity and competition, cultural changes, faster advertising cycles, and technological innovation may make it difficult to predict the effectiveness of a particular video advertisement or campaign.  Therefore, some video advertising or campaigns may not be as effective as possible for a given advertised product or service.