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.

Test your knowledge of online video marketing presented in a quiz by EyeView. Not to brag, but we got 5/5….

CLICK TO TAKE THE QUIZ

Hint:

The quiz reinforces popular online video assumptions with stats addressing launch triggers, call to action, auto play, landing pages and voice over accents. What’s important to take away from here is that results vary sometimes in drastic measures based on video presentations. It’s substantial for marketers to understand which video experiences drive the best performance for their specific target audience in order to bring the highest value to their videos.

Yesterday we came across a study that was recently released by Turnhere.com on what the top priorities are (in terms of communication channels) for marketers and advertisers in 2010. As we expected from our own first hand experience in 2009, online video is at the front of the pack for most marketers and shows no signs of stopping. Now, more than ever companies are recognizing the tremendous potential and ROI benefits of web video marketing. Online video’s acceptance into the mainstream marketing fold has been a strange process over the last few years fraught with starts and stops, hype and hoopla and inexplicable successes and failures. But 2010 looks to be the year this medium comes into its own as a powerful brand communication channel.
What this study reveals and what we have always been advocates of, is how democratizing online video marketing can be. The study polled 116 respondents from companies that ranged from Fortune 500 brands, regional brands, digital, and PR. The marketing budgets of the respondents ranged from the tens of thousands to the millions and yet all said that online video was a must have in their communications mix for the coming year and beyond.
So why is the fever catching on now almost four years after YouTube hit the big time and the concept of “viral” became a household term? Well in those four years we’ve had what I call a “maturation of the medium,” experiments were conducted, audiences were tested, the model was built up, torn down, re-built and refined. The end result? Well to put it simply, online video passed the test. It survived the hype and came out the other side as a incredibly powerful medium capable of crossing genres and cutting through the clutter and growing ineffectiveness of print and TV.
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the study was that an overwhelming percentage (81%) of respondents ranked internal marketing teams as being the key players and decision makers in pursuing online video. Not the agencies, not the big PR honchos, but the people inside the companies and behind the brands who know their message the best. 2010 will be the year marketers take back the power and get their message to the consumers. Online video and the genre of branded entertainment will be the way they do it, and VMG will be there to help.

Full review of the study from Reel SEO:

http://www.reelseo.com/video-marketing-top-priority-2010/

via TechCrunch: Veoh is now displaying ads using a behavioral targeting algorithm based on its related-video recommendation engine. This is already being done with traditional banner content on other sites but is new for video portals. Right now it still only tracks user interaction on its own site, but as the article points out, ad relevance could be increased through data sharing partnerships (if the privacy details can be worked out).

-Nick

“…online video is expected to be one of the fastest-growing emerging mediums in 2009, with a growth rate of 45% and spending of $800 million.

“It is the one medium that advertisers are most comfortable with,” [Magna's] Brian Wieser said. “The assets that are required can be the same as those with TV, and there has been an increase in supply of inventory of A-grade content.”

So ended a rather gloomy article from AdAge entitled “Coen Revises ’08 Forecast Down in Face of Grim Economy”.

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