We strive to create uncommon, memorable messages and give customers what they crave. Did you know the hottest medium online today is video? These brief, easily consumable content clips educate and entertain, making brands stand out.

That's why it's key to learn about outstream video and how this popular digital marketing technique can make campaigns run smoother for both advertisers and publishers.

Car lots have grown quieter in the past decade. As any dealership owner can testify, salespeople used to spend their Saturdays selling vehicle after vehicle. And yet, car sales are up: Americans purchased more than 17.5 million cars and trucks in 2016, according to a report from Autodata and reported on by the Los Angeles Times. This was a new record for an industry that's experienced seven years of steady growth.

How are successful dealers tapping into this thriving market? The answer is online video advertising. But why do consumers love videos? And which types of videos are most likely to drive shoppers to buy?

What is outstream video? If you find yourself asking this question, you're not alone. According to a report from Teads, 63 percent of brand professionals hadn't known about it before spring 2015. If you're not already aware of this relatively new marketing tool, familiarize yourself with it soon, as it's projected to take off in a big way. Here are three things you need to know:

1. Learning Outstream

Simply put, this new video advertising format is a type of display ad that takes the form of an auto-playing video inserted into a traditional display ad space, typically between paragraphs of text or images. This ad type benefits from being much more flexible than its in-stream counterparts, which generally play pre-roll or mid-roll on videos hosted on YouTube and other streaming video services. In most cases, the result of this flexibility is a much more viewable ad format, as these video ads are designed to play only when in view of the browser.

Though you may not have heard the term just yet, chances are good you've come across an outstream video ad while browsing the Internet sometime during the past year. This new type of display ad takes the form of an auto-playing video that is inserted into a traditional display ad space, typically between paragraphs of text or images.

This ad format is quite different from the preroll or midroll ads that have been used extensively on YouTube and other streaming video services, as it does not require a publisher's video for placement, making it a far more flexible ad format to use. And that's not its only benefit.

Knowing the value of digital video ads is hard, and yet, with video a growing and highly engaging form of online content, video advertising can't be ignored. Marketers are forced to accept an imperfect circumstance: They aren't sure they're getting the value they're expecting from digital video ads, but they can't afford to not invest in the channel.

It's not a lost cause, though, largely thanks to the rise of digital ad ratings — but many advertisers don't know how they can be helpful (especially for pre-roll ad campaigns). Here's a quick primer on what digital ad ratings can do for you and your next video advertising campaign.

You've heard the term thrown around here and there, and you know it's an important metric, but what is viewability? It relates to impressions, and whether or not your audience can see them. This may sound like a straightforward concept, but a lot goes into determining viewability. Understanding how it's determined and why it matters is key for marketers looking to make sure their online campaigns are running as efficiently as possible.

There are some great benefits to creating educational videos as part of your marketing strategy. Schools have been using educational videos for some time, and TeachHub has reported benefits from expanded reach to higher student engagement. Even the Smithsonian is expanding is virtual reality education program to reach students in classrooms across the world.

What does this have to do with your marketing strategy? We know from a recent Cisco report that 80 percent of internet traffic will be video in 2019. Techcrunch recently reported that Facebook had reached 8 billion video hits daily.

So how can you get ahead of the curve in when it comes to your video marketing strategy? How do you get beyond simply delivering pre-roll teasers?

The numbers behind online video's rapid rise are staggering. If your company's neglected its video marketing strategy, check out this quick overview, and you'll definitely want to reconsider that position.

According to Syndacast, 74 percent of all online traffic will be video in 2017, and 52 percent of marketers name video as the content offering the best return on investment due to its natural shareability. As video creation proliferates among brands, the costs become more reasonable every day, allowing marketers to leverage video in a number of ways — from incorporating new digital technologies to developing advanced advertising strategies — to increase engagement and spur conversions.

If you want to learn more, read about these top features of successful, branded video content:

Cisco predicts that, by 2020, IP video traffic will account for 82 percent of global consumer internet traffic. However, as Search Engine Land notes, high-quality video, though its value is apparent, comes at a high price. They advise against investing in online video ads if it means pinching money from paid search. Do you think you can't afford to get on the bandwagon? Think again.

Several weeks ago, YouTube launched a new app called YouTube Director, which allows businesses to create video ads directly on their smartphones. But can a free smartphone app really replace traditional video production tools previously used to create ads?

After spending some time with YouTube Director on the iOS platform, I think it would be a great tool for small and midsize business owners — and here's why:

TV advertising has long been held as the gold standard when it comes to advertising platforms, reaching millions of consumers and allowing marketers to cast a wide net that almost always ensures a return on investment. However, online video advertising could be in a position very soon that will put it on par with its broadcast big brother. Marketing Land reported on a recent Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) study where industry professionals touted the benefits of video advertising. Sixty-eight percent said they believe digital video will become as important as TV in the next few years. So what's behind this trend? Turns out there are several benefits of video advertising that put it in a very competitive position.