Video viewership continues to increase

Rather than becoming old-hat very quickly, online video just keeps increasing in popularity. According to a new report from comScore, more than 11 billion videos were viewed online in April. The report finds that 71% of online Americans are now viewing videos online.

by Kristina Knight

On average, each person watched more than 200 minutes of videos during the month with each clip lasting a little over 2 minutes. The 18-34 demographic is most likely to watch a video; in this demo, viewers watched an average of 287 minutes of video each.

The primary video viewing hubs continue to be Google Sites (4.1 billion streams), including YouTube. YouTube, alone, accounted for 98% of all the clips viewed from a Google portal in April. Next up was Fox Interactive with 5.5 million videos viewed and then Yahoo sites with 3.5 million streams. Rounding out the top five were Microsoft Sites (2.6 million streams) and Viacom sites (1.9 million streams).

With more consumers tuning in online, it makes sense for advertisers to begin one of two approaches to the online video marketplace: either creating a viral video or sponsoring video streams through popular portals.

The key is to figure out what you are comfortable with. Creating a viral video can be fun but it can also be expensive and time consuming. If you don't have the time or creative energy to create a good video, don't do it. Instead, consider sponsoring clips.

When sponsoring, don't think any old video commercial will do. With online video, advertisements need to be quick and to the point. In many cases, a jingle and quick montage is all there is time for because video ads are expected to fit in a pre- or post-roll position.