-By Shahnaz Mahmud

NEW YORK New research appears to demonstrate that new video ad format standards established by the Interactive Advertising Bureau are effective in engaging consumers.

The IAB's new guidelines were tested by Break Media, an entertainment community for men, and Panache, a video advertising delivery platform.

The joint research involved tested ads run under the IAB's guidelines using four popular in-stream video ad platform: non-interactive pre-rolls; interactive pre-roll; non-overlays (which invite consumers to engage with content, but reside outside live video frames); and overlay ads (which invite consumer participation and display full video in the window).

Key findings included:

-- Pre-rolls offered a strong call to action, with click-through rates averaging 10 percent.

-- Non-overlays demonstrated muscle in building brand awareness -- 78 percent of those surveyed viewed such ads for more than 15 seconds more often than not.

-- 77 percent viewed campaigns with overlays for at least 15 seconds and click-through rates were five times the industry average for standard in-page media. Click-through rates were four times as high when the entire ad was clickable vs. just the call to action.

Honda, T-Mobile and truTV signed on for the research, running campaigns on Break.com over an 11-week period.

For Keith Richman, CEO of Break Media, the test shows: "You can be somewhat intrusive and still get user satisfaction."

Added Steve Robinson, Panache CEO: "In order for the in-stream advertising market to evolve the efficacy of ad formats -- whether IAB standard or new emerging formats -- needs to be understood in order for our industry to scale."

Jeremy Fain, senior director of industry services at the IAB, emphasized that the standards were implemented in order for marketers to reach larger audiences with digital video and to encourage innovation. "Marketers can make one pre-roll ad or one overlay ad and have it trafficked across all media partners. That takes out a lot of the friction in the operational piece of the business," he said.

Amendments may occur in the future. "We believe that our guidelines are living documents. And we will on a periodic basis revisit any and all of our guidelines," said Fain.

Chris Allen, vp, video innovation director at Starcom USA, foresees definite change: "As technology advances and people get more comfortable and test some of the new models, we may start to see other things emerge."