EyeView's Blog

comScore's Digital Year In Review

I know this report came out a week or so ago, but it's essential reading for anyone with more than a passing interest in the interwebs.

There is so much analysis produced these days that you need a report detailing the best reports to read. With all this noise, comScore continue to produce clear and informative statistics that always seem to answer the question someone in your office just asked you.

Some of the highlights from this report are the first-ever decline in annual growth rates for ecommerce as well as the unstoppable expansion of online video.

The report also captures the birth of Bing and the rise and rise of Facebook as it became the thrid largest display ad publisher in the US after Yahoo! and Fox Interactive Media (which includes MySpace).

You can download the entire report here, but you will have to give comScore some details first. It's well worth filling in the form to get to the report.

Enjoy.

Online Video Stories Of The Week

Over at Online Video Watch, Corey Kronengold comments on Brightroll’s announcement that they have been profitable for the past 12 months. Corey is not entirely trusting but he acknowledges the positive message this sends to the industry.

At comScore, December’s video viewing figures showed a new entry in the top ten video content properties as how-to syndication platform, 5min.com, hit 30 million US uniques for the month.

Fierce Online Video’s Jim O’Neill satisfied continued demand for iPad stories with a piece on Hulu’s rush to become iPad-friendly in time for the tablet’s launch or soon thereafter. There’s no doubt this story will run and run and the implications for the future of online video have yet to be fully determined.

At ReelSEO, Mark Robertson was delighted to report on the efforts of many of the online video platforms to support SEO as part of their offering. YouTube has been the de facto search engine for video until now, so it’s great to see these platforms supporting the indexing of video across all search engines.

Finally, today, no review of online video this week would be complete without mentioning the Superbowl. In what was a fairly lackluster year, the stand out commercial for me was this one for Snickers featuring Betty White (now with added Abe Vigoda). Geriatric genius!

The iPad and the Future of Print Media

The announcement this week of the iPad brings with it some mouthwatering possibilities for the further advancement of online video and video advertising in traditional print media.

The iPad is more portable than even the simplest notepad computer. It's a leisure device first and foremost, not a work tool. I think we will finally see streaming video move out of the home office and into the leisure experience. Browsing on the couch or in bed means that users coming across video will relate to it in a different way.

The iPad might introduce video advertising into leisure time as early adopters flick through apps while sipping on their coffee and eating breakfast. It just looks like a more accessible tool than a formal laptop.

Part of the iPad’s strategy is to take on Amazon’s Kindle and other ereaders. With a comprehensive range of books and periodicals for sale from iTunes, there is a perfect opportunity to subsidize the cost to the reader of a magazine or newspaper subscription with the insertion of targeted video ads or at the very least video sidebars with extra information about a story and links to other upselling opportunities.

It’s not that these possibilities don’t already exist, it’s that the iPad is the first device in a long time with a good shot at changing the way we consume print media.

I’ve never been an Apple evangelist, but the thought of having all my magazine and newspaper subscriptions waiting for me in easy to browse apps makes this a very tempting proposition.

Am I overstating the fact? I’d love to hear what you think.

6 Predictions For Online Video For 2010

The end of the year is always a time for reflection. This year I left behind my life with a major online video sharing site and started working for a company that is just as enamored with online video but approaches the medium with higher expectations. If video sharing sites represent the youthful excesses in the life of online video, then the next iteration is all about online video growing up, taking responsibility and earning its way.

Here are my predictions for the coming year in Online Video. I hope you enjoy my perspective.

1. Video Sharing sites will continue to grow in size but diminish in importance. In other words YouTube will be huger than ever but the story will be even more fragmented than it was this year. Apart from unpredictable viral hits like Susan Boyle, no YouTuber will ever again achieve the prominence that subscription grinders like Fred, Hot For Words and Michael Buckley have. YouTube has taken over from MTV as the number one place to watch music videos. YouTube is already more relevant as a search engine than as an entertainment destination site. It’s almost like Google could see into the future when they bought it.
2. Some small and medium businesses (SMBs) will embrace video more than ever before. The cost of entry for online video has been so reduced that every commercial site will experiment with the medium. Most will do so with no way of measuring whether the experiment was successful.
3. Some large businesses will continue to invest large sums in telling their stories with video. They will continue to be happy to do so despite not knowing how effective these videos are because however large the budget they are still cheaper than creating and buying airtime for TV ads.
4. Some SMBs and some large businesses will demand that their investment in online video brings a measurable return. They will operate under the assumption that marketing spend needs to be justified and they will seek out video solutions that combine analytics with video creation and implementation. They will find such solutions and they will be very happy.
5. Video will become a more important weapon in the affiliate marketer’s arsenal. As affiliates acknowledge the persuasive power of video over less dynamic media, they will push advertisers towards supplying video versions of banners and other collateral. Affiliates will be a major force driving video to becoming more accountable in the sales funnel.
6. Everyone reading this blog will appear in at least one video posted on the internet between now and this time next year. Happy New Year.

Three Types of Online Video For Business at ReelSEO

I've been thrilled by the response to my guest blog over at ReelSEO. The post is called Three Kinds of Online Video for Business and it really tries to identify the different types of of video that companies are making and the struggle each one has to justify its budget and place in a world overcrowded with content.

Quite apart from the interest this post has generated, I should have mentioned Mark Robertson and the work he does at ReelSEO a long time ago. In a relatively short time he has established one of the best forums for thought pieces and in-depth articles about all aspects of online video. It's a well managed site with a terrific range of posts. If you have any interest at all in online video and its applications, you should add ReelSEO to your feed.

And if I'm giving shout-outs here, I should also thank Nalts for being polite enough to ask permission before plagiarizing the bits of my post that he likes best.

As I continue to try to provide value and depth with my posts, it's gratifying to have the support of people like Mark and Kevin to inspire and encourage me further.

Thanks guys. More to come.

 

Photo Credit: psd

Decline in Digital Ads Offers Opportunity for Online Video

Online newspapers, once thought to be the only viable future for news media are no longer providing the comfort they once did. As offline ad revenues decline and cover price wars continue to cause major worries for print newspapers, publishers turned to their online siblings to help pick up the slack and for a while it was working. At first, many of the advertising dollars that left offline media just migrated online. It was the same media buyers talking to the same ad-sales personnel just about a different medium. In other words there was no advertising crisis, just a movement away from a tired medium towards a fresh and exciting one.

But, like the wrapping for today’s fish and chips, that is all yesterday’s news. In the UK the continuing depression in the property market combined with ongoing uncertainties in the job market has hit ad sales right where it hurts – in the classifieds. For too long now, newspaper publishers have depended on a booming property market and a healthy turnover of staff in key areas to ensure that they meet their targets. This report shows the problems facing the UK’s largest newspaper group, Trinity Mirror.

While the forecasts for the next few quarters are no brighter, I like to think that this downturn represents an opportunity for publishers rather than their end. No can say for sure whether the property market will return to its former heights, but publishers can use this time to regroup and think about what they really have to offer online. One of their key investments should be in video. No other online medium has the same power to persuade and encourage users to act.

I believe that as online publishers emerge from the current funk they will embrace video as the best solution for their advertisers knowing that it is the medium most likely to convert and provide value to those advertisers. At the same time, advertisers are turning to video as the most effective way of delivering a branded message with a precision-targeted call to action to each and every viewer.

Online video is the right solution for advertisers and publishers alike as they try to make sense of the current turmoil. The implementation of online video ads with measurable ROI will establish new models of publisher integrity which will rebuild confidence across all advertising sectors.

When the dust settles, people will be watching video and increasing numbers of them will be clicking on the embedded link.