Video Dominates Rich Media Investments

March 15, 2010

Video is the most adopted rich media marketing tactic today, according to [pdf] a new study from marketing technology provider Unica.

Marketers Engage in Varied Video Tactics
When asked which rich media marketing tactics their company is using or plans to use, global marketers favored video tactics by a wide margin. Fifty-five percent of marketers are currently using videos created by marketing, with another 20% planning to use them in the next 12 months and 8% planning to use them beyond the next 12 months. Only 11% have no plans to use videos created by marketing, and 6% are not sure.

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Streaming media, the second-most-popular rich marketing tactic, is currently being used by 41% of marketers, with 20% planning to use streaming media in 12 months and another 7% planning to use it beyond the next 12 months. A higher percentage, 15%, have no plans to use streaming media, and 17% are not sure.

YouTube features the same current usage (41%) and planned usage in the next 12 month (20%) rates as streaming media. However, a slightly lower percentage (6%) plan to use YouTube beyond the next 12 months, and a slightly higher percentage (18%) have no plans to use YouTube.

Current usage rates for podcasts (32%) and ads within online video (29%) drop off from the top three rich video marketing tactics, but planned future usage rates are slightly higher for podcasts (a combined 34%) and roughly equivalent for ads within online video (29%). Ads within online video had the highest percentage of responses for having no plans to use it (24%) among the five video tactics.

Unica analysts indicate that Google’s purchase of the YouTube online video site in 2006 is the likely catalyst for the strong growth in online video as a rich media marketing tactic.

Gaming is Less Popular Tactic
Relatively few marketers show interest in using gaming as a means of delivering rich media marketing. Only 18% of marketers currently use in-game ads/products placements, while 14% currently use virtual worlds and 15% currently use advergames. Planned future usage rates for these three tactics in the next 12 months are also lower than planned future usage rates for the video tactics in the next 12 months, although beyond the next 12 months, planned future usage rates are fairly close.

However, gaming tactics have much higher rates of respondents saying they have no plans to use them. Thirty-eight percent of respondents have no plans to use in-game ads/products placements, 39% have no plans to use virtual worlds, and 38% have no plans to use advergames.

Americans Watch 32.4B Online Videos in Jan. ’10
The popularity of online video as a rich media marketing tactic makes sense considering that US internet users watched 32.4 billion videos in January 2010, according to the comScore Video Metrix service. Google Sites ranking as the top US video property with 12.8 billion videos, or 39.5% of total online videos viewed. YouTube.com accounted for nearly 99% of all videos viewed at the property. More than 173 million viewers watched an average of 187 videos per viewer during the month of January 2010.

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