12 Nov 2008

Online Video is a Different Medium than Television

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Interesting article in the WSJ today about online video viewing patterns between men and women.

Don’t read it. I’ll sum up the results for you right here: women like to watch Oprah/US Magazine stuff and men like to watch YouTube. Online. By really, really big margins. Truly a ground-breaking study.

But this part was interesting:

“Online video viewing has become a standard Web activity — Nielson Online says 73% of active Web users watched online video last December — but marketers are eager for more information about viewership patterns to help them decide how to advertise alongside this content.”

“Viewership patterns”, “advertise” and “content.” What does all this mean when it comes to online vids? it means marketers want to hack up the stuff we watch online with recycled TV commercials.

“No,” Jeremy says. “This presents a problem.” I would like to recommend a study and propose the results at the same time. Here it is: Web Video is Different than Television (said 100% of those polled).

Online video shouldn’t be thought of as something you have to advertise OVER or AROUND to reach people and make more money. Online video is something you CREATE to accomplish that.

Tell a story. entertain. Make an audience appreciate and care about your product, service or cause, and they’ll invest in it to the point where they actually care about your success (see Apple). who woulnd’t want customers like that?

Marketers, stop thinking “old.” Don’t associate with the message. BE the message. YouTube’s getting lame, anyway.

if they stop and learn their clients’ businesses, marketers know what types of content attract the right people. so get segregated. Define your business’ target audience and give them what they want.

(Submission by Jeremy J. Dodd)

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