A new eMarketer study titled “Social Video: The Next Wave in Digital Advertising” analyzes the evolution that is taking place in digital advertising from the hands of the video. Companies and advertisers have begun to leave behind the intrusive model of pre-15 or 30 second ads, entering into new strategies that include videos of longer duration and possibilities for greater social sharing.
These types of videos are designed not only to be consumed, but also shared through social networks, generating coverage and increasing its potential for viral success.
In some cases, the fact of being shared thanks to the social networks, has allowed to exceed generously the initial objectives of hearing. A report by the measurement company Visible Measures reveals that the number of ad views on its network and for English-speaking audiences reached 1.33 billion in the first quarter of 2012, 77.6% growth over the 747 million of the previous quarter.
David Segura, CEO of social video production company GianT Media, said that the difference between this online video model and the previous one, focused on the pre-roll format, is that the goal is transferred from the medium to the behavior of the consumer. “Each new ad achieves the objectives of the brand, but at the same time, it has great possibilities to encourage the consumer to share it,” says Segura.
Most social video campaigns use YouTube, Facebook, or other platforms, as startup points, and include buttons that make it easy for consumers to share and stream videos across the network.
Due to its mastery of video space, YouTube remains the preferred place to launch most social video campaigns. In August 2012, the portal attracted more than 150 million unique visitors only in the US, according to comScore. In comparison, Facebook, the second most popular place in the US for social videos, barely reached 40 million unique video hits in that same month.
Regardless of where companies decide to start their campaigns, most of the sharing activity takes place on Facebook, a logical consequence of their large user base. This has occurred on 72% of the occasions during the third quarter of 2012, according to the company Sharethrough according to the activity that has been developed in its platform. No other network or medium has meant more than 10%, including Twitter, email or LinkedIn, to name a few.
One of the additional benefits for companies is that the use of social networks allows to have a whole series of metrics, many times richer than could be obtained in a traditional campaign. These metrics include number of times the video has been viewed, detailed information of spaces, visits to Facebook generated, links to web pages, download of information, consumer sentiment, etc.