Top tips: Video sharing- How to be the next 'Old Spice'

The online video industry continues to boom. Comscore’s Video Matrix service shows that a total of 5.5 billion videos were viewed online in the UK in February 2010. That’s an increase of 1.5 billion on the 4 billion views in February 2009. Luke Aviet, MD at Goviral, offers tips on getting the most out of online video engagement…


The total views may be increasing but of course the number of videos being uploaded to the internet continues to grow at a phenomenal pace. For brands, successfully executing an online video campaign continues to present a significant challenge. And let’s be honest, campaigns like ‘Old Spice’ which are an online sensation are very few and far between.
In this very crowded market place and with users becoming more sophisticated it will come as no surprise to readers that online branded videos is becoming less about sharing. Over the past 12 months the average number of times a piece of online branded content is passed on by users, what goviral terms the Video Action Rate (VAR), has declined from 3.9 per 1,000 views to 3.5 per 1,000 views.
Amidst all the noise, getting your video seen is becoming a bigger challenge but even if it is seen, getting the user to engage and interact with it is also apparently becoming a tougher ask. Solving the first problem, that of reach, is a question of planning. The days of sticking a video on YouTube and hoping for the best are of course long gone. Companies like goviral have access to thousands of online publishers and work with media agencies to make sure content is shown on the most relevant sites for the target audience.
But what about engagement? Well, the truth seems to be not quite as simple as the declining VAR would seem to suggest. In fact goviral’s own analytics technology has shown that the declining pass on rate for videos is not necessarily a reflection of users becoming less interested in the content. What appears to be happening is that the move away from the use of services like email to more social online communities like Facebook is resulting in users changing the way they express their engagement with video.
What does this mean? Well, if you run an online video campaign without interaction technology i.e the ability to Facebook or twitter the content, you get a VAR of 3.5. By just adding Facebook this increases to 4.2. Across the board, adding interactive technology can result in VAR increasing by up to 500 per cent as we have recently seen with an automotive campaign.
Facebook is still a minor player in video distribution, and twitter even smaller still. But social media’s importance in the spread of branded videos is of course on the rise. Consumers have now got to the stage where they will show their interest and engagement in a video through social media and for brands to measure the success of their campaigns they will have to make sure their online content is shown with the right technology in place to allow users to express themselves in the way they want to.
Online video consumption continues to grow, and for brands the exciting prospect of engaging a potentially huge audience remains. In fact, despite the mass of videos being uploaded each day, the advances in the planning of online campaigns means that audience reach can be guaranteed. But reach is of course only one measurement for any campaign, and brands need to make sure they stay in touch with how users want to engage with content and apply the right interactive technology to make sure they can really measure audience reaction.
Consumers are not becoming less engaged with online video. They’re just expressing it in different ways.
By Luke Aviet
Managing Director
Goviral
www.goviral.com/
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