Chrome Auto Pause on Adobe Flash Means Video Should Shift to Social

Google will now automatically pause many Adobe Flash videos, and while that will be good for saving battery life, it could mean many autoplay ads will never be seen.

Google and Adobe have teamed up to produce an update to the Chrome Internet browser that will prevent the occasionally load-heavy Flash software from auto-running and draining battery power. The Flash pause feature will be automatically enabled, but users have the option to disable it or only run it when using battery power.

The best way for marketers to make sure videos are still seen, according to Matt Rednor, chief executive (CEO) and founder of Decoded Advertising, is to make the move to social media. “Marketers should definitely shift to social channels,” Rednor says. “Autoplay on videos incorporated into newsfeeds or pre-roll are more effective anyway and will continue to be over the next few years as platforms like Facebook transition to mostly video content.”

And while social media videos are normally muted, marketers are increasingly finding ways to get around those limitations. Social media videos are becoming increasingly integral to the social experience, Rednor says, so marketers should naturally shift to the channels where users are likely to interact with, rather than be annoyed by, video ads.

“Video is just getting started,” Rednor says. “Social platforms, which are where most people are spending their time anyway, are all rolling out video ad units that are more organically incorporated into the experience, and the Chrome extension won’t block those. Video ad spending will continue to rise, and for Google it’ll mean pushing more YouTube.”

Chrome beta desktop users will get the ad-silencing update first, before it’s rolled out across the wider user base.

 

This article was originally published on V3.