Adobe produces the U.S. Digital Video Benchmark Report that highlights trends in online video activity as a resource for marketers and advertisers. This year’s report shows that the majority of online video consumption continues to be of live sporting events and “TV Everywhere” content. However, it also provides useful insight on online consumer behavior that B2B marketers and advertisers can leverage in their online communication efforts.
The best news for online video marketers and advertisers is that online video consumption continues to grow. Q2 2014 saw a new record of 38.2 billion total online video starts, a year over year growth of 43.7 percent. This data validates that online video has become an integral part of everyone’s lives. It also supports what we’ve known for years — marketers and advertisers must develop creative solutions to integrate their message into online video.
Video watched on a mobile device, specifically smart phones, continues to carve out a bigger and bigger portion of all online video starts. Videos watched on a mobile device now accounts for 29 percent of all video views. Smart phones have surpassed tablets as the preferred device for the mobile consumption of online video. Online video starts on smart phones grew year-over-year by 59 percent, while video starts on tablets only grew by 29 percent. For marketers, it is critical to keep this in mind and ensure that the video content they produce is optimized for not only mobile consumption but also multiple platforms and screen sizes.
Fueled by the continued growth of overall online video consumption, there has also been a dramatic rise in online video advertising viewing. Compared to the same time last year, there has been a 25.8 percent increase in online video ad starts, with the average viewer watching 2.08 ads per start.
This is a very encouraging stat for online advertisers but it also raises a concern about the proper tracking, cataloging and measurement of online ads. Even small online video advertising campaigns can be very time consuming and complex to manage.
Unless you have the time and expertise to manage your campaigns its a good choice to leverage the benefits of an outside organization to manage your online media buys.
To read the entire report, click here.