Autoplay video is invasive, controversial — and immensely popular. Blame Facebook.
Thanks to the embrace of autoplay video by Facebook and sibling Instagram, automatically playing video, with the sound off thankfully, is the new normal. Publishers like Bloomberg, CNN and ESPN have rushed to embrace the tactic, which has the advantage of goosing view counts and helping them milk the cash cow of video advertising. And some agencies are wondering if publishers are being too aggressive.
“Autoplay absolutely makes sense when the consumer mindset is about checking out different things,” said Charlotte Cochrane, svp and managing director of digital at Horizon Media, in reference to Facebook, where autoplay video has become ubiquitous. “When it’s distracting the consumer or preventing them from getting the content they want, it doesn’t.”
