According to research by Experian Hitwise, UK visits to online video sites grew by 36% between September 2010 and September 2011, and in September 2011 there were over 785 million visits to video sites from the UK internet population, accounting for over 4% of all internet visits.
With smartphones continuing to grow in popularity, viewers watch more than 400 million videos from mobile devices each day.Research from the US shows people spend 75% more time on websites with video, and 85% of consumers go online before making a purchase. This could be why 57% of marketers plan to increase video advertising in 2012, according to recent statistics from Digiday.
Video production company Visual Domain in Australia are riding this wave of popularity, having grown to a staff of over fifty to cope with demand.
‘We’ve seen enquiries triple in the last six months,’ says Daniel Goldstein, Director of Visual Domain. ‘Many businesses are posting weekly videos instead of newsletters, and there’s strong interest in company profile videos from business owners needing a more effective way to connect with their market.’
Sarah Wood, COO of Unruly Media, explains that as more people watch videos online, advertisers understand they need to be where their audiences are. “More and more brands are realising that, so the budgets are increasing dramatically,” she says. “There are some brands that are making social video the very heart of their advertising strategy and really harnessing the power of the format to engage and make an emotional connection with their audiences and influence them, as well as build relationships.”
James Grant from Vindico attributes the spend increase to the concept that “advertising follows eyeballs”. He says: “Wherever there’s an opportunity to reach an audience, to convey a brand message, marketers will capitalise on that.
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