Q1 has seen nothing but an uplift in online video advertising and there’s no doubt that currently everyone is excited about video ads. Publishers are able to sell an interactive ad format to brands that and brands are able to experiment with a new type of advertising that can engage the user to become part of the experience.

To put in perspective on a global scale, Deloitte predicts a 56.4% year-on-year ad spend growth in the UK, making the market incredibly optimistic. Similarly, Brightroll’s annual video survey revealed last year that 69% of advertisers believed online video advertising was more effective than social media.

So what does this mean for media spending? 

Nielson, a global information and measurement company, produced this graph for a better understanding of the industry.

Online video ad spending is predicted to nearly double in only four years from $4.14 billion dollars in 2013 to $8.04 billion by 2016, a 25% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

One might be quick to jump stating this is the end of TV; however, advertisers are often seeing online video campaigns as an addition to TV advertising and part of an integrated 360 marketing campaign rather than a full-on replacement (See: Gillette How To Series Campaign). To simplify,  display advertising is getting gutted while TV ads are experiencing a thinning and although TV is not going away, the money between the two is getting split from a budget once dedicated only to TV.

Canadians have always been internet savvy, leading the pack and we are still among the world’s most devout users of online video advertising as stated to a new report by Baltimore-based digital advertising firm Videology.

Videology’s report states that Canada continues to outpace other global markets in terms of “cross-device” video advertising. Across all devices, online video advertising in Canada grew 119% on a year-on-year basis, with online video advertising on PCs/computers seeing 63% year-on-year growth.

The industries taking advantage of using online video are diverse; however, it is consumer packaged goods companies who maintained at the top, followed by automotive, beverave alcohol and entertainment.

It’s also substantial to note that popularity of online video contributes to its ability to target not only with age and gender but also location and behavioural targets. This has contributed to 95% of advertisers using some form data-driven targeting in the first quarter, a 13% increase over the fourth quarter of 2012. See VMG’s campaign for Longo’s Leaside launch targeting a 7km radius. 

Additional highlights from the Q1 Canadian Video Market Statistics:

• In Q1 of 2012, 30 second spots accounted for 37% of all online video advertising. In Q1 of 2013, 30-second spots were up over 52%.
• 72 percent of video buyers’ budgets for the medium increased in the last year.
• The average spending increase of those whose video budgets rose was 53 percent, compared with just 20 percent the year previous.
• Of those whose video budgets increased, 39 percent of buyers shifted spending from TV budgets compared with just 27 percent in 2012.  Similarly, 41 percent of buyers shifted money from display advertising to fund increases in online video.
• The average amount of TV spending tapped for the increase in online video was 11 percent.
• 76 percent of marketers plan to add video to their sites, making it a higher priority than Facebook, Twitter and blog integration.

Exciting times for the Canadian online video landscape! 

Expected to launch this summer, Facebook’s new video ad units may be a huge profit for the company at an asking price of $1 million per ad. Facebook is hoping that video-ad units can be a more-than-$4-million daily business out of the gate (or 1 bilion per year) – not a low aim at all.

Without a doubt, expanding into mobile an donline video was only expected from Facebook who are currently in talks with various agencies to secure its first video ad partners. It has also been confirmed that there will only be a total of three video advertisements in users’ News Feeds each day as to not overwhelm the crowd.

Facebook plans to sell four ad spots per day, each of which will target specific demographics that include four categories: women over 30, women under 30, men over 30, and men under 30. The company is said to be capping video autoplay ads at 15 seconds, expanding from the main News Feed to cover the left and right columns on the desktop when an ad is played.

What does this mean for the advertising industry?

1. More video. Everywhere.

If you didn’t have enough evidence that video was increasingly becoming more important in the marketing mix, this is perfect evidence. Video has a 400% higher engagement rate compared to static content (Flimp.net). 
It is said that a picture worth a thousand words and in that case, a video can be worth a thousand conversions since it is through a moving picture that is the most compelling way to share a story. Video is a preferred medium to text across all demographics and industries in unison. Specifically, online video is 5.33 times more effective than text and video is really one of the few strategies that works well regardless of the vertical.

2. Budgets transferring from traditional media to online (even more than before).
Facebook is aggressively trying to bring marketing budgets online, offering tempting targeting features and minimizing the need for traditional media in the mix. By offering video ad units, Facebook will attempt to capture the major TV ad budgets. Only time will tell if the industry will bite at the offered price tag; however, if it does, it’s almost certain that a user backlash will follow, stirring up the online video world.

PROFIT magazine’s second annual FuEL Awards celebrate the top 20 under age 30 for their entrepreneurial acumen, innovation, job creation and community involvement.

This year’s winners included an inspiring group of people, including VMG’s cofounder & managing partner Reid Campbell. Congratulations to Reid!

“The winners of the 2012 FuEL Awards are a group of bright, determined go-getters who are seizing opportunity in a dynamic marketplace,” said Ian Portsmouth, Publisher and Editor-­in-­chief of PROFIT Magazine. “Their ability to succeed in a challenging economy should inspire other young Canadians to make the leap into entrepreneurship.” 

It is said that the most dangerous phase of your business is within the first 5 years as most tend to disappear before their fifth birthday. Here are tips from the  FuEL winner Reid Campbell on what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur:

You have to like it.

There’s a common myth that starting your own business will make you rich overnight and allow you to be on vacations 80% of the year. If that’s your motive, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. Be prepared for late nights, early mornings and emotional investment like never before. If at the end of the day, you’re still enjoying what you do and contributing towards building something you’re proud of then this is for you.

People are the business.

In business, everyone – owners and staff – must feel like they’re working towards a common goal. This comes from effective communication and building a healthy work culture unique to your company.

Don’t burn bridges. 

The business playing field is way too small to burn bridges. You should always maintain top level professionalism. Sometimes things don’t work out and cutting ties has to happen. This is a natural process in business and whether with friends, partners or even clients, successful entrepreneurs know when and how to part ways.

You don’t always win.

As a business owner, you are bound to take hits more seriously. Whether it’s a discouraging comment or an opportunity gone astray, it is never a pleasant experience. Be prepared to get knocked down and know that success doesn’t come without a fight. Don’t focus on the past and think about how you can succeed in the future.

Look for Reid and fellow Canadian entrepreneurial leaders in the December 2012 issue of PROFIT Magazine and online at PROFITguide.com.

A recent scroll through our video library brought to light a notable trend spawned by an underexploited market. It’s an all-too-often overlooked market right here in our very own country.

According to the *IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada) in 2010 out of the $2.23 billion in online advertising revenue (2011 stats were estimated at $2.6 billion), approximately $428 million or 19% were from French websites (2011 stats were estimated at $500 million, 17% increase) with a predicted continued steady growth for 2012. The article also goes on to state that 2010 was the year that online ad revenue officially beat out newspaper ad revenue, therefore bumped up to place second and looking to be number one in the coming years. So basically, if you aren’t creating marketing content for online use yet, that’s your first problem. However, if you are…start transcribing! These stats give an idea into how large of a market French-Canada really is when considering online advertising revenue. The chart below sourced from IAB, shows the French proportion of ad revenue in display advertising vehicles (ie. Banners etc.)

French Canada, mostly of course located in Quebec are some of the top rated Internet users and growing each year. What does this mean? There’s a huge market, not being spoken to in their own language! How can this be? As companies and brands begin to merge their marketing efforts online and get more comfortable using this as an ongoing platform its not that shocking that areas become overlooked or forgotten altogether. A critical mistake being made by many companies and brands worldwide is forgetting to translate their videos and other online content. If I haven’t convinced you yet, here are some more Quebec stats that might get you to say “sacré bleu”.

• 43% of Quebecers have a Facebook account;
• Of those, 49% access it at least once every day;
• Only 3% of Quebecers have a Twitter account, but this number is expected to significantly increase in the next few years;
• 15% of Quebecers follow a company on Facebook and 6% on Twitter.
**source: http://www.adeointernetmarketing.com/news/social-media,-a-growing-movement-in-quebec-59.aspx

Just a few examples pulled from our own library of companies tapping into French-Canada and beyond.

*All IAB statistics sourced directly from: http://www.iabcanada.com/blog/2010-internet-revenue-survey

We hope you all had an excellent March – the online video world sure did!

Things are looking very bright in our industry based on some recent reports from comScore, Google and MediaCT.

If you’ve noticed more videos being shared via smartphones, it’s no coincidence and the trend is looking up. In Canada, video is accelerating in the mobile world with half of Canadians watching more online videos than they were last year. Specifically, 35% smartphone owners, 56% tablet owners, and 75% laptop owners in Canada are regularly watching videos on their portable and mobile devices.

Even further, Canadians watch an average of eight videos per week. What percent of our nation is still not willing to engage? A small portion – only 13% of Canadians do not watch any online video content. This is all pretty remarkable and the diversity and easily accessible nature of online video inevitably makes the medium more entertaining than live TV (according to 26% Canadians to be precise).  It’s all about convenience and on demand content with none other than YouTube leading the way.

For those who are using media dollars for the traditional media outlets – you may want to rethink your strategy as leading networks such as CTV and CBC, were popular with only 25% or less of Canadian online video watchers.

Last but not least, Canadians also don’t just watch videos – they take action. Out of those surveyed, 18% follow up after online video watching whether it’s searching for more information, social networking, sharing, visiting or purchasing.

Also, some great news from our neighbours down South:

US has reached a new record of video advertising impressions in one month! 

It’s true, online video advertising impressions surpassed 8 billion for the first time on the record with 181 million Americans watching video online in March.

YouTube is dominating but take a look at who is next in line:

Great month in our industry!

Let’s keep this up,

VMG Team.

Sources: TechVibes & REELSeo
Images:  DigitalTrends, Klaszter.

It’s safe to say that having online video as part of a company’s marketing efforts is finally universally accepted. 

Measuring online video Return On Investment (ROI) is not much different than a traditional marketing campaign. If anything, it presents opportunity for analytics that a traditional campaign would not be able to deliver with a much more targeted reach. When videos on YouTube are able to receive millions of views within days and Comscore releases reports stating that on average a person watches 14.8 hours of online video a month; it’s not the matter of trying to prove that online video marketing is effective.The quick pace of new media in today’s marketing landscape has us trying to keep up with the latest trends more often than not with C-levels wanting to see numbers justifying these efforts. The C suite wants to know that the marketing dollars are achieving the highest value and ROI while receiving the desired results.

So how do you measure ROI of online video?

No matter what kind of video initiative your company wants to execute – whether it’s internal communications or consumer oriented – you’ve got to be able to show the results. Here are some tips that can help you.

1. Know your objectives.

The most essential component of executing a campaign successfully is having clear goals. The simplest way to measure return on what you’re investing is knowing your target audience and what message you are trying to deliver.

Your objectives may vary. For example, if you’re trying to promote product sampling, your objective may be to have individuals register for a coupon on your website after viewing the video. On the contrary, if you’re executing an online video for internal communications between various offices, your objective may be saving on travel costs. Whatever it may be, figure it out prior to execution.

2. Use Available Analytics.

With various analytics tools, it is easier than ever before to evaluate how others are interacting with your video. You are able to examine which videos are being watched until the very end, at what point others may drop off, the demographic of your audience and how far the video is shared.

You are also able to create a model to calculate what the engagements are worth based on your messaging objective and how others are interacting with your video. If you’re looking to promote sampling and want to calculate what the engagement is worth, assigning a value for each sign up is a great way to measure success. For example, every person who watches your video and engages fully by registering for your sampling promo can each equal to $100 of investment. Working with these numbers will make it easier to draw comparisons between media channels.

Similarly, ROI doesn’t necessarily have to equal a dollar figure. It can be social interactions, conversations around your brand and those very important recommendations by your brand ambassadors. If your video is getting shared by your target demographic and this audience is recommending your video to their friends, the reach and engagement is just as valuable as a dollar figure.

3. Partner up with experts.

There is no point in producing expensive high quality content without a distribution strategy. Online platforms have an advantage over traditional platforms in being able to target the right demographic and this is something your campaign should benefit from.

It’s rare that a video goes viral and is shared without a push and without a doubt, a successful online video campaigns require the same level of planning for a targeted distribution to ensure desired exposure to a relevant audience.

If you are able to, it’s beneficial to partner up with experts to help your campaign achieve maximum return – whether it’s perfecting your analytics or helping your video receive the target views it needs. Video marketing agencies like VMG Cinematic specialize in not only producing broadcast quality content for the web but also ensuring that the video gets in front of targeted eye balls.

Let’s take Canadian luxury fashion retailer, Holt Renfrew, as an example. At one time, The HR YouTube channel hosted 22 videos with a total of 92,000 video views; however 84% of those views came from only 2 of the 22 videos with the help of VMG. Furthermore, these two videos have also accounted for total of 84% of total consumer interaction on brand’s channel. 

Partnering up with online video industry leaders can provide you access to numbers and reports that provide in depth analytics and more importantly, results that justify your online video ROI.

4. Don’t be afraid to get creative.

Measuring online video ROI isn’t always an exact science and with a non traditional platform, you have room to come up with creative and different ways to validate your efforts.

Online video can often drives traffic back to your website and one way is to look at what that traffic would have cost if it had been acquired by a push advertisement.

For example, comparing the pay per click model and the received traffic you can use the following:

Running banner ads on a website with $3 per click which results in 300 unique visitors to your website. This traffic of 300 people to your website is then worth $900.

Although this approach offers an easy dollar figure, it’s crucial to note that the difference in pay per click banner ad traffic and organic post video engagement differs greatly and the value through organic engagement is much higher.

To conclude, online video enhances and creates the most engaging online user experiences. When it comes to ROI, the measurement metrics differ greatly depending on the specific goals. However, success lays in in the ability to target a specific audience based on demographic, geographic and contextual parameters.

I recently read an article from the Wall Street Journal about Viral Video that instantly sparked some interest. It focused mainly around Judson Laipply, or as most would know him, the guy from “The Evolution of Dance” video. The article explains that when he uploaded his video on YouTube in the spring of 2006 he had little to no idea what a viral video was or the amount of success he was about to receive. Without any advertising at all the video spread across the Internet eventually reaching 100 million + views.

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Look at that, a two month gap in between posts… shameful.  On behalf of VMG to our many thousands if not hundreds of millions of loyal VMG blog readers I offer our humble apologies and our promise- nay our easily broken agreement, to put up at least one new, insightful, or at the very least incoherent blog post per month.  In the meantime thank you for your patience and without further ado, Today’s subject: “Viral Hope”

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JCpenny’s “The Doghouse” viral short film

As a rule I generally have a low opinion of buzz words and corporate market speak.  It’s a vocabulary too often used by the uninformed trying to pose as the overly informed and in the end those fancy words we come up with to describe new trends grow stale and wind up ridiculed by just about everyone in the know.  Well at the risk of ridicule I’m going to break my own rule and become a contributor, nay a revivalist to the buzz word lexicon with “Advertainment.”  Sure it’s not my own invention and you’ll find it floating around on the blogosphere here and there, maybe in a few industry articles etc. but it hasn’t really found a catch yet.  I’m using it now because there really is no better word to describe the growing trend I’ve been seeing from big brands experimenting with long-form-video-entertainment-advertising (see why we need a buzz word?).

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This is an article I found yesterday which takes a look at the potential effects the economic recession may have on broadband video.  It is definitely something worth checking out, it has some interesting ideas as to why broadband video will survive in tough economic times despite some labeling the media format as ‘experimental’.  The part I found fascinating, yet not suprising is that the fundamentals of broadband video have been laid down and in tough times, people would rather stop paying for cable TV over broadband internet.  High hopes for our industry in 09′!

-Reid