Treepodia – The leading Product Video solution for e-commerce

Everybody knows video is on the rise - but how much?...

A recent study published by Tubemogul, a video distribution and analytics startup, in partnership with Brightcove, a video platform, provides some interesting insights and statistics regarding the ways and places we’re all finding, viewing and sharing video content.

Before diving into some of the cool numbers shared in the study It’s important to note that the study is based on numbers garnered from both companies’ data, which means that it only represents a certain segment of video consumption. This isn’t to say that the data isn’t valid – only that it’s partial and should be viewed as such. For example, data regarding Youtube, which alone accounts for ~40% of the market, is not covered by the study.

Video Engagement Statistics

• Broadcast networks take the lead in terms of viewing time per stream
  Online video content from broadcast networks is watched on average 2:53 minutes per stream. The networks are followed by music labels (1:50 min.) and newspaper publishers (1:41 min.)

• Newspapers and magazines lead in terms of video viewing completion rates
  Interestingly viewers are most likely to watch an entire video when they are consuming it on a newspaper’s site. Newspapers and magazine publishers video viewing completion rates are about 40% each closely followed by broadcasters (38%) with music labels bringing up the rear with 29%.

• Twitter leads in terms of referral engagement
  Twitter referrals generate the highest level of engagement, when compared to other referral sources, for broadcast networks, music labels and magazine publishers. Interestingly newspaper publishers enjoy their highest engagement rates with viewers referred from Yahoo.

Facebook’s shameful share

Another interesting statistic published in the study is Facebook’s share in driving online traffic. Although Facebook’s community has increased by 2% in April alone, and despite the fact that over 34% of the entire adult demographic in the US is already using Facebook, accounts for only 0.40% of video traffic.

I think that if nothing else this number, if correct, speaks volumes for the relatively poor experiences Facebook delivers in terms of video viewing and upload. Considering how popular video is, and considering Facebook’s incredible adoption levels, Zuckerberg’s social behemoth – a leader in almost every other online field, should account for more than %0.40 without even trying!

I’m pretty certain that when Facebook chooses to address it’s video usability issues its market share will improve dramatically almost immediately.

Join the video bandwagon with Treepodia Video Distributor

All these numbers are good and well but how does this reflect on your business and your day to day marketing efforts? Well, although I’m hardly what you’d call objective, I believe the joint Brightcove Tubemogul study provides further validation for our Video Distributor product, which syndicates etailers’ product videos to video sharing sites (Youtube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, etc.). Since we released Video Distributor in February we’ve consistently seen consumers searching for, and learning about our clients’ products on the video sites, and then coming in to make their purchases on our clients’ sites. This trend was confirmed by all the pilot partners who helped us test Video Distirbutor before we made it publicly available.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ndevil/3491395689

The silver lining of our recent bad weather? Great online sales!

The numbers are officially in. According to marketing research giant comScore the 2009 Christmas season 2009 (i.e. November and December) was, despite the economy, a success for online retailers in the US.

The $29.1 billion generated in sales marks a 4% growth from the previous year, exceeded analysts expectations, and helped salvage what was otherwise a sluggish year for retail.

$913,000,000 In 1 Day

To further increase optimism (and we do like to bring you encouraging news), the period also contains the single largest online spending day recorded in history. On Tuesday, the 15th of December, an astounding $913 million was spent shopping online.

What were we all buying?

Unsurprisingly perhaps, classic gift items did very well during the period.

The products that saw the highest increases in sales were consumer electronics, watches and jewelry, which turned out to be the single highest performing category.

Event tickets, computer hardware and books also made a strong showing.

Let’s talk about the weather…

So what made the difference?

According to comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, it’s a combination of factors including,

“[A] strong late season spending surge, propelled by effective retailer promotions, guaranteed shipping and a major snowstorm on the eastern seaboard that convinced many to shop from the comfort of home”.

That’s right, every cloud has a silver lining and for online retail the devastatingly bad winter weather has definitely paid off.

Getting lucky is fun but can’t be counted on

Of course we cannot control (or count on) external factors like the weather to drive business, nor would we wish continued bad weather on anyone. But it’s interesting to note the variety of factors that drive consumer behaviors – not all of which are in our own hands.

There are always surprising external events one can’t take into account when planning and making predictions (despite the popular expression “expect the unexpected”). What we can continue to do, is work with the more stable elements that have indeed proven successful and keep our business in a state of readiness for quick capitalization of arising opportunities.

What to do in 2010?

While unemployment remains high, and people are still watching their wallets, it’s more important than ever to deliver the best online shopping experience possible, with the highest value to consumers.

Interactivity, a feedback forum, great customer service… these are a few of the things today’s conscientious shoppers are expecting of us. Other than that, in 2010 you must continue to invest in bringing your customers the products they want, in a format that’s accessible to them and at the best prices possible. Remember that price comparison and your competition are always only a click away.

If you’re an online retailer looking to do something new this year, we suggest adding product videos – it may be our business, but video is also the hottest thing going on online these days…

Image credit: vinayshivakumar

While the main gist of my writings here have to do with the world of video and eCommerce, I think that the overall world of online video, and how people are using and relating to video as a medium, is very relevant too.

That’s one of the reasons I enjoyed the Marketing Sherpa blog post “Blogger Video Sharing Data.” It delineates, in detail, how, when, and where bloggers are using video in their posts.

Marketing requires analytics as much as content

What I like most about the article, however, is the attention given to measurable metrics.After all the need for good statistics in any marketing effort, i.e. how are viewers interacting with the content, is probably as important as the absolute need for good content itself.

One of the biggest benefits of advertising (or doing anything) online is the ability to generate statistics. How many people actually saw the page on which your video appeared? How many clicked on it? Where do they live?

Detail from the Youtube Insight panel - more on the video at the bottom of this post

The level of detail that we have access to these days is unbelievable. All one need do is look at one’s Youtube Insight panel to obtain demographic data that would have been completely impossible to collect even 3 years ago. According to the Marketing Sherpa post this was exactly what was done in order to generate the report discussed, but on a very grand scale:

“Sysomos analyzed over 100 million blog posts from July to September 2009 to measure bloggers’ video sharing. The report breaks down the bloggers’s demographics and the services they use.”

What the data reveals about video sharing

The information delivered includes amazing facts such as that in the US, “81.6% of bloggers use YouTube to embed or link to video.” Well, that maybe we could have guestimated, but there’s no way we could have guessed New York is the top city for video sharing via blog, followed by Los Angeles and Chicago.

Interestingly, when ranked by state, California ends up as the most video-sharing-via-blog state, followed by New York, Texas and Pennsylvania.

How old are video blog sharers?

The age breakdown wasn’t very surprising to me – turns out that almost 63% of those sharing videos on their blogs are young adults between the ages of 20 and 35, followed by a very distant 25.9% for those 35 to 60.

Back to the basics

But beyond these trivia details my greater point is that online EVERYTHING is measurable. This is perhaps the most amazing promise online marketing delivers on: no more stumbling in the dark, no more “Maybes”, “Perhaps”es or “Possibly”s – just simple measurable and actionable figures that anyone can obtain and use.

This is more than just interesting, it’s the kind of stuff advertisers must know to remain effective and reach their target audience as it migrates online in ever greater droves.

PS

Never checked out Youtube’s Insight?
Why not get the lowdown by watching this 2.5 minute video from Before and After TV: