November 23, 2009

Valuing & Validating Video Online

If video online is any indicator; on the web, seeing is believing. The number of videos viewed on YouTube -- 10.3 billion -- in September 2009 exceeded the number of core Google searches by a full billion. That's billion with a "b". 

Then consider the scale of use. More than 168 million US internet surfers watched nearly 26 billion videos online in September -- an average of 154 videos per viewer. Where did they find the time? That's roughly 84 percent of the total US internet audience (comScore says 81 percent) watching an average of 9.8 hours of video during the month where the average length was 3.8 minutes. Imagine how many of others tasks, demands, attractions and people vie for 10 active hours a month of your time! 

The number of people watching video online is up year-over-year by 46 percent. And the use of video on mobile devices is up 70 percent to 15 million Americans watching 3 hours and 15 minutes of mobile video each according to The Nielsen Company. And all this is going on while TV usage hits an all time high of 141 hours per month. We are more addicted to the tube than ever before but now the tube is following us around, available 24/7 and luring us with more memes every day.

The implications of this data suggest that every marketer better grab a video camera and get cracking. Consider these realities.

Video is the expectation. People expect to see it and hear it. They use YouTube heavily for search and younger people default to YouTube as their first point of web entry. 

Video is ubiquitous. Facebook, MySpace, Hulu and hundreds or thousands of sites feature all kinds of video. Production is cheap as is distribution. Anyone can shoot, produce or edit and grab 15 minutes of fame and many achieve different levels of virility.

Video validates. If you aren't producing video you aren't serious, real or as big as you claim to be. Video is becoming table stakes for online marketers. Presence trumps production values. Marketers are re-purposing all kinds of video assets in service to a growing appetite for online viewing. 

Video varies. Production quality ranges from childish to expert. Angles, animation, narration and new forms of story telling are emerging all the time. Reality can be dissected or distorted in service to abstract points of view or commercial messaging. 

Nov 23, 2009 3:51:15 PM | Media

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Danny Flamberg

I am a veteran marketing consultant working with leading and emerging brands

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