This dramatic spend shift, has certainly been a major component of the closure of 1 in 2 newspapers in the USA over the last 12 months, as advertisers realise they can deliver results (enquiries, sales and branding) at a fraction of the cost online, vs. the tradtional media channels they have been using.

For local business these kind of statistics should be re-enforcing marketing planning into online media. Viewing the detail shows the key areas of growth are search (effectively Google in New Zealand), directories – increasingly new local offers (see NZS.com and Hotfrog.co.nz here) and vertical directories (good local examples menumania.co.nz for restaurants and equinetrader.co.nz for the horse market).

Online Video is clearly identified as a growth driver through businesses advertising with video online and ensuring their listings in directories and in search engines are re-enforced with video to both stand out and increase conversions.

Unsuprising that search, directories and video are fundamentally changing local advertising behaviour. The old channels did work, they were just expensive and media companies ran obsene proft margins for these, well done to them. They have not adapted fast enough and now small businesses can reach their market more effectively, efficiently and affordably.

If you are small business that is not or is considering changing your marketing mix, drop us a line, we’ll add some distinct value to ensure you get more bang for your hard-earner buck.

The important metric is the report that digital video continues to experience robust growth with a 38% increase from the first half of 2008. This is a dramatic rise given the recessionary pressures on traditional media spend to some extent parts of the online advertising sector.

The report reveals an audited video spend of US$477m in the first six months of 2010. With economic conditions easing, the Christmas reatail period ahead, and further embracement of video by advertisers compounded by more online options we can see online video advertising spend hitting $1bn in the USA for 2010.

Here in New Zealand our local IAB is considering breaking out further detail of spend so we can also see which formats are rising faster.  In 2Qr the NZ IAB / PWC reported one of the highest ever spends – $52.49m. The Moving Annual Total is now at an all time high of $199.8m. In New Zealand online advertising spend is ahead of outdoor and cinema and is likely this year to overtake magazine advertising spend.

Locally we are seeing a signifcant rise in online video marketing with numerous adverisers and publishers embracing online video advertising, video content and many our using services such as Silverlinemedia.tv to power small business video and classified video content.

1. What is the role / objective of the video.
2. What’s our success measurement / KPI.
3. What longevity do we need.
4. Does our brand / service best suited by a funny creative.
5. What is our customers expectation of our brand message.

Most importantly to the question ‘does the video have to be funny?’.  My personal view is funny videos / viral videos are the exception, terrific when they come off, which is rare, but in most cases are risky ground for brands and business.

More interestingly is to review factual data on what actually makes video engaging.

Encouragingly the recent Emarketer/Nielsen survey re-enforced our thinking that interest and purchase desire is driven by video that is informative and emotionally pulling. For our customers their video can hit these drivers.

Reviewing the table above, you will see that the segment that reacts best to informative video is the under 20 age group. Another blow to those media commentators pedlling the story that the youth of today are dumbing down, though apparently this has been a view through-out the history of man-kind.  Unders 20s react well to all styles of video but over half are engaged by information and educational content.

As we approach our 2000th video at Silverlinemedia.tv results from our customers prove that good informative and passionate website video improves conversions and through online video distribution and marketing is attracting quality customers at a fraction of other marketing channels. We had a client today, Sportaloosa.com, which after one day has received enough response to pay for the video four times over. A really informative video about the Spotted Horse Breed. Fascinating.

According to a survey by the webtventerprise in the UK Media buyers will be increasing online video advertising budgets by 50% over the next 12 months.  

The survey of 101 media buyers currently booking pre-roll advertising campaigns and found that almost all (97%) were planning on either maintaining or increasing video advertising spend. Over half (54%) were looking at a 50% budget increase in the coming year; while a further 10% said they would be doubling spend.

Despite online video advertising being a relatively new advertising medium, along with brands’ restricted budgets in 2009, Web TV Enterprise’s research revealed that a quarter of buyers are currently spending between £25,000 and £50,000 on a video advertising campaign. 44% of the sample said they spend between £10,000 and £25,000.

Almost 70% of buyers questioned stated a preference towards bespoke, premium ‘solus’ pre-roll adverts; with 82% agreeing that solus spots were more valuable than shared ones.

General survey feedback also suggests confidence in the online video advertising space is high, despite budget cuts and a lack of client understanding being two of the prominent issues facing the industry at present. Many agree that online video advertising will have a strong presence in schedules over the next twelve months.

Jamie Estrin, Director of Web TV Enterprise and IAB Video Council member said: “As one of the largest players in this evolving market, we have seen the appetite for online video advertising grow exponentially since launching our premium online video ad-network in 2007. Our feeling is that we are now at a tipping point in the UK market. We base this on the fact that media agencies are, for the first time, considering online video advertising as part of the media mix on the majority of campaigns where there is a TV ad creative – this was not the case 12 months ago.”

The survey did of course talk to those buyers who are already purchasing online video advertising, nevertheless, a clear indication from the UK, a very strong online advertising market, that online video is moving along to or ahead of the global forecasts posted in our research category.

Pre-roll ads in particular are gaining ground and at Silverlinemedia.tv we have seen solid results from our client tests in this area.

The obvious venues are listed i.e. the mall, the cinema, waiting rooms but interestingly emerging areas include restaurants (14% of Americans have seen and 7% at the health club). Clearly we are going to surrounded by screens, and increasingly intelligent ones targeting demographics of those venues and later who knows! Ridley Scott defintately got it right in Blade Runner.

We are seeing a number of out of home digital media solutions in New Zealand emerging, often for major brands, and often in-store. However there are a number of companies out there doing exciting things at a local level which small medium business will be able to take advantage of. We are testing with some of these companies at the moment, as all our online video content is also made for both outdoor display and mobile.

For an advertiser or business online video is a terrific value proposition, content can be repurposed for so many channels – own website, online advertising, social sites, mobile, OOH Digital. This means that the creative investment can be re-used in so many forms to reach different audiences. This is something print media is simply unable to achieve.

Dynamic Logic has run a comprehensive and scientific survey to further support the obvious logic that filling an ‘ad space’ on a screen with dynamic and engaging content works, and offsets the banner blindness argument. Getting your content / message across using video is highly affordable, and I know that locally here in New Zealand the Silverlinemedia.tv video production and marketing cost is often cheaper than basic gif banner costs from certain suppliers.

This evidence is overwhelming video is becoming the most compelling and effective advertising medium online (and offline). Are you in the game?

Over the course of twelve weeks, online ad campaigns with an average reach of 40 percent of their target segment successfully grew retail sales of the advertised brands by an average of 9 percent. This compares to an average lift of 8 percent for TV advertising. The detail of the survey is rich – The comScore dunnhumbyUSA research was conducted by examining the retail purchasing behavior of members of the comScore panel of 2 million Internet users who have given comScore explicit permission to monitor their online behavior. The studies focused on the 200,000 comScore and dunnhumbyUSA panelists who were members of supermarket loyalty programs and whose retail buying behavior was measured through point-of-sale UPC scanners at the checkout lanes of participating supermarket stores.

An obvious conclusion here is advertisers were able to reach their target audience online at significantly better prices than TV, and were able to deliver a better result. Now that’s value. As online advertising offers improved presentation and engagement using online video, the advertiser receives an additional benefit of cheaper creative costs vs. the traditionally heavy cost of television ad creatives.

There are of course holes and angles in research, I cannot see any compounder or cross-media detail in here but the volume of audience behaviours tracked, deliver a compelling piece of evidence. Still using TV and not onlne? View the online advertising vs tv advertising research release.

A key objective and finding in the recently released Interpret Survey  was that high engagement levels translate into high satisfaction for viewers, high brand recall for advertisers, a greater inclination for consumers to seek product information, and potentially more money for publishers.  An obvious sequence of events, but critical for publishers for  proof for online video investment and sales pitches as ‘traditional’ online advertising is under pressure,

According to the study:

• 27 percent of respondents who recalled a high engagement video searched for more information about the product.
• 28 percent visited an advertised brand or product’s website after viewing a high engagement video.
• High engagement videos account for nearly half (47 percent) of ad recall.

“This propensity for sharing and ad recall translates into improved viral ‘buzz’ for advertisers and their ads – if they take advantage of online video opportunities properly,” said Liz Huszarik, senior vice president, Warner Bros. Media Research.

This is the reaction and feedback that we are getting from customers of Silverlinemedia.tv. In our view many websites are complicated, and word heavy. Online video gets the message of the business and product across in multi-sensual and dynamic way. Its not suprising a good video ad gets cut-through and generates further interest vs. the decreasing return of the traditional banner. See Eyewonder for examples of quality video creatives from leading worldwide agencies .

This survey also supports the Comscore Survey in May which we reported in which suggested a 40% uplift in buying from watching online video.

Survey  by  Interpret (in conjnuction with  Yahoo, Havas, Warner Bros and Media Research and PHD)

Below is a good example of some our customers videos at http://www.silverlinemedia.tv optimised to appear on top of long tail searches on bing. We have certainly seen Bing take a 15% share of video search referrals vs Google for our customers, and this is producing enough return for our customers to invest more time and energy into dominating for Bing. 

  At Silverlinemedia.tv we disitribute our clients contents across the 12 major video sharing sites and several video search engines as well as the definite Google and emerging Bing. Optimising (video seo) and positioning online video (keyword/phrase targeting) is critical and for small businesses can ensure that their content is top of and/or dominating  search engines for targeted terms.  

Drop us a line on your Bing SEO Video success.