Written by Rob Hudson
Posted in Relevance

I attended an eMarketer webinar today to get updated on the video advertising world. eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey spoke about "Online Video as the Internet and TV Converge". It has been a while since I lived it day to day as part of the AOL Video team. In a nutshell, here is what I learned. I'll paraphrase until I get the official preso from eMarketer with the details and then I will update this post with sources and clarifications.

An ANA / Forrester study found that 62% of marketers surveyed believed that the effectiveness of video advertising declines online. However, personal video recorder (PVR) usage is taking a wack at the traditional TV ad models.

Online video usage is growing, but has not yet eclipsed the broadcast video realm even with the most likely demographic, youth.

• TV viewing averages a whopping 4.7 hours/DAY while online video averages <4 hours/MONTH.
• 28% (studies range from 21%-44%) of online video viewers watch full length shows online. This is a big change over the last few years due to offerings such as Hulu (and AOL Video?).
• Hulu, with over 38 million subscribers and growing, exceeds Time Warner Cable's audience at 34 million. Comcast and DirectTV still lead with 62M and 48M, respectively .

An Advertising.com study showed that 94% of online video viewers would rather watch ads than pay a subscription fee for ad-free videos.

Effective use of video advertising online demands that the videos are:

• Highly relevant to the viewer. Viewers expect to see messages that relate to them and are entertaining.
• Engagement must meet a higher standard of  "voluntary engagement". Users can click away easily.
• High production values make a significant difference. Spend the money to get the creative right.

One example provided was the Evian skating babies ad that garnered over 14 million views in the first few months.