Online video referrals: Facebook catching Google

Newspaper websites are enjoying a surge of traffic from their online video stories, while Facebook is on track to be second only to Google for video referral traffic by year’s end, according to new research.

The study, from Brightcove, the leading online video platform, and TubeMogul, an online video analytics and advertising platform, is called the Online Video & the Media Industry Quarterly Research Report for the second quarter of 2010.
The report examines online video discovery, usage and engagement data from a sample of nearly 2,000 news and entertainment websites representing 3.4 billion video streams.
Notable findings include:
– Increased online video consumption across media websites; Gulf oil disaster boosts video traffic for newspapers
– Online video consumption grew across all media industry categories. In Q2, unique viewers increased on average by 2.8 percent per month, with consumers watching 11 percent more videos month-over-month compared to last quarter.
– Video consumption on newspaper sites grew the most over this period, rocketing to 65 percent more views than the previous quarter due to attention and coverage focused on the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
– Online video discovery shifting; Facebook emerges as key traffic driver for online video
– Referral traffic for online video from Facebook and Twitter is growing faster than from traditional search engines. At current growth rates, Facebook will surpass Yahoo! within the year to be the second only to Google for video referral traffic.
– Engagement is a function of where viewers come from and where they watch video
– Not only are Facebook and Twitter drawing in viewers, but they are also leading to the highest levels of engagement for video on television network and music entertainment websites.
– Consumers watched more minutes per view on official media websites versus online destinations with syndicated video content.
– Brand marketers signal increased investment in online video and mobile initiatives
– This quarter’s report also includes a special feature focused on brand marketing and online video, with findings from a global survey of brand managers and analysis of platform data from marketing and e-commerce websites.
– Nearly 60 percent of respondents said they plan to invest more in online video in the next 12 months.
– More than 65 percent of brand managers indicate that the primary focus of their online video initiatives is awareness, followed by lead generation (21 percent) and e-commerce (12 percent).
– 70 percent of respondents said they plan to add mobile video to their marketing mix in the next 12 months.
– Consumers who find marketing and e-commerce video via Facebook and Twitter have the longest viewing times (1:24 minutes and 1:18 minutes respectively), while traffic originating from Yahoo! search (0:52 minutes) and display ads (0:52 minutes) tied for shortest.
The full report is available here:
http://files.brightcove.com/brightcove-whitepaper-online-video-and-media-industry-q2-2010.pdf
Methodology
The data used for the analysis included in the report was taken from a cross-section sample of Brightcove customers representing media industry verticals. While the sample aggregates a sizable data set, it is not intended to be statistically representative of the online video industry as a whole, or of Brightcove’s entire customer base. Instead, the data analysis is intended to provide a directional snapshot of media trends and inform additional research initiatives focused on the online video industry.
Analysis for the special feature focused on brand marketers and on-site video initiatives includes platform data from a sample of Brightcove brand marketing and e-commerce customers and data from an anonymous survey of more than 300 senior-level brand managers from leading business-to-business and consumer brands, including dozens of Fortune 500 companies.
Source: http://www.brightcove.com.
www.TubeMogul.com
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