Email more popular than social networks for viral video

Over half of people (60%) prefer to forward viral videos via email rather than post them on social networks, according to Yahoo’s latest online video research.

The report, which looked at the online video viewing habits of 2,000 UK adults, focused on short-form videos under five minutes in length.

It found the preferred average length of video ad that appears before a video clip is 22 seconds.

Unlike linear TV, which has strict time restrictions on the length of TV ads, there’s no standard for online video. However, the Internet Advertising Bureau recommends people stay within certain parameters when deciding the length of online video ads – that short news and music videos should be kept between 5 and 20 seconds.

Respondents said they were willing to participate in ’pull’ ads, which offer additional or interactive content to encourage people to engage with them, for an average of two minutes – four times the average length of a TV spot ad.

Yahoo’s head of UK research Patrick Hourihan said currently people have a “low acceptance” of ads around user-generated video content, but that over half of those surveyed (52%) said they expect to have to pay for more quality video online.

“Whether this would be subscription-based or more ad-funded isn’t clear yet, but it shows more potential for brands,” he said. “That has huge implications for publishers in terms of what content to develop and how best to use advertising since the rise in online video has effectively created a whole new ad platform that is growing incredibly quickly.”

In total, more than 25m of these short-form videos are watched each month, according to the report.

Published by: newmediaage

Published 1st April, 2011

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