An explosion of online videos has created an enormous opportunity for brands to reach their customers with engaging ads, according to Yahoo!.
The number of online video views has increased by 259% in just three years according to Comscore. Today Yahoo! launches major research into how consumers interact with short form video online and what this could mean for brands.
Patrick Hourihan, Head of UK Research at Yahoo! said: “Short form content – clips under 5 minutes – are being consumed by more than 25 million users every month. What we are seeing is the genuine evolution from the internet user to the internet viewer.
“That has huge implications for publishers in terms of what content to develop and how best to use advertising, since the rise in online video has effectively created a whole new ad platform that is growing incredibly quickly.”
Yahoo!’s research looked at short form video of up to five minutes in length. Its key findings for advertisers included:
• Online TV clips showing sport, news, film, music and comedy are the main genres of interest for consumers
• 22 seconds is the ideal length of time to view an advert before a video a clip
• There is advertising opportunity when short form video is viewed in a trusted environment and brought to the viewers by a credible brand
• Consumers are also willing to participate with ‘pull advertising’. Here users are served with advertising that offers interactive content or a narrative which invites the users to actively engage with the ad and sought out additional content – Yahoo!’s research showed the optimum duration for this type of additional content is 2 minutes – which is four times the average TV spot length
• Video content as advertising needs to be of high quality if consumers are to be willing to view it
• Consumers are more likely to share online video by email and not through social media
The research also examined how, where and when people watch videos online. The desktop computer remains the way that most people watch online videos, typically around the beginning of the working day with viewing split between news, sport and TV catch up sites. Laptops are mostly used to watch video later in the day (7-10pm) and the majority of people access video content through general online browsing sessions. Mobiles are typically used at the very beginning of the day or later at night and often whilst the user consumer is in bed!
Findings also revealed that consumers are 60% more likely to forward video clips via email as opposed to posting them on a social network site and 52% think they will eventually have to pay for more quality video online.
Patrick said: “Viewing short form video is now a common element of the internet experience. The key message from our research is that the best place for advertisers to engage with consumers is where broadcast quality content is offered at trusted destinations and by credible brands – this is where the real opportunity lies.
“Yahoo! helps advertisers to engage with consumers through short form video as it has the science to understand and segment an audience, the art to create lasting engagement with consumers through context, and the scale to reach the right person in the right setting in meaningful numbers.”
Source: www.yahoo.com