New Comscore Online Video Numbers
There was a nice Valentine’s Day present for the online video marketing industry from comScore Inc., a company that reports on digital measurement and analytics.
On February 14th they released the 2013 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report, which “…examines how the prevailing trends in social media, search, online video, digital advertising, mobile and e-commerce are defining the current digital marketplace, and what these trends mean for the year ahead.”
The 48-page report begins by predicting a rocky economic transition for the digital industry, as consumer behaviour leans towards mobile, from shopping to media to search. They think that marketers are going to have to scramble to stay ahead. Last year was also pivotal for online video, comScore said, as viewers increasingly seek the ability to watch video when and where they want. Watching TV shows online, especially during the Olympics last summer, helped break viewing records in 2012.
Over 75 million people a day watch online video in the U.S., and we stream 40 billion videos a month. A lot of this viewing is driven by YouTube.
No surprise there.
Ad Spending Making the Move
But here’s the better news – there has also been a turning point for video ads over the past 12 months. Last year 23 percent of videos were accompanied by an ad, up from 14 percent the year before. More TV ad dollars are coming to online video, according to comScore.
You’ve got to like that trend. Desktop search, on the other hand, is trending downward. More and more people are shifting to vertical-specific searches and mobile platforms.
Purchasing on mobile phones is beginning to make a dent in e-commerce, comScore said, with mobile shopping accounting for 11 percent of e-commerce in the fourth quarter of 2012, up from 3 percent in the same period two years earlier. In other words, a great marketing video will grab more viewers on the way to making a purchase in 2013.
One more quote from the report: “Because the demand for high-impact video advertising exceeds the available inventory, look for continued momentum on the advertising side – particularly as targeting improves.”
You can read a short summary of the comScore report here.
About Ted Schellenberg
Ted Schellenberg has held positions in communications in the corporate, academic and public arenas, with specific experience in IT. Ted contributes a twice-weekly post on the online video marketing industry to LDRK Media's blog.