Forrester Consulting’s online video engagement report , conducted for online video company Veoh, reveals that while some online video viewers still only “snack” on short clips, there is a growing audience of “young, influential, engaged viewers who watch a great deal of long-form online video and pay attention to the brand messages delivered to them in online video environments.”

As Veoh reports: “The study found that Engaged Viewers (viewers who watch more than an hour of online video a week) make up nearly 40% of all online video viewers and watch nearly 75% of all online video. Of these Engaged Viewers, those who spend the most time consuming and sharing long-form content:

• Are more likely to watch videos all the way through
• Pay more attention to online video more than they do TV
• Interact with and rate the videos they watch more frequently
• Are twice as likely to recall in-video ads and post-rolls than non-Engaged Viewers
• Agree more readily that advertising is fair and helps pay for their free experience
• Consider banner ads and ads that come in between videos (mid-rolls) most effective”

The takeaway? Veoh concludes that, “As online video viewing matures, advertisers can take advantage of the unique opportunity to reach valuable Engaged Viewers by starting with the following:

1. Think Advertainment, not Advertisement. Engaged video viewers are more open to enjoying the advertising they watch giving marketers an opportunity to create ads that are as entertaining as the video clips they are paired with. Make the advertising a part of this engaging environment by telling compelling stories rather than consistently repeating the same 30-second spot.
2. Active mindset = greater action…. Consider having multiple creative units depending on the mindset and propensity to engage with the medium.
3. Think about all the ad units on the page as a team. All viewers feel advertising can be annoying. But none of them said it had to be annoying. Engaged viewers respond to ad formats that don’t intrude unfairly. Their preference for banner ads supports this. But banner ads can be supported by a comprehensive ad experience that ties display ads, sponsorships, and in-video ads together into a coherent package.
4. Target it and they will come. As more viewers spend more than an hour a week viewing online video, it’s time for advertisers and the sites that enable them to start matching ads to viewers more intelligently. The easiest place to do this is with long-form content, where the choice of programming - an episode of one’s favorite tv show - says more about a viewer than a short clip about a dog on a skateboard ever can.”

Tags: Forrester, online ads, online advertising, online video, online video advertising, Veoh

Posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 9:17 am under Marketing, Technology, Video.

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