46% of Consumers Confirm They Made a Purchase After Watching a Branded Social Video. As video marketers, we tend to love data which shows that our market is very large – because far too many of the companies and clients that we work for are still trying to reach lots of eyeballs – just like they did a generation ago during the heyday of network television. Well, the branded social video market does reach a lot of eyeballs these days. But, these days, you need to tailor your video content and advertising for YouTube, Facebook, and other social video platforms. The market that you’re trying to reach isn’t fragmented; it’s segmented. Highlights of the report include the fact that: Consumers spend around 6 hours per week watching video content on social media networks 67% of respondents said that watch more video on social networks than they did a year ago 46% of consumers said they’ve made a purchase as a result of watching a brand video on social media 76% of people said they were more likely to watch a social video if recommended by friends or family In September 2016, Brightcove commissioned a research firm, to interview 5,500 consumers aged 18 years old and over in five countries: Australia, France, Germany, the UK, and the US. If this seems surprising, then it’s worth reminding ourselves that over a billion users watch YouTube videos, 500 million users watch Facebook videos, and many of the users of the other, smaller social media networks may be looking at photos instead of watching videos. But, none of these metrics measure the impact of a social video on the buying process. Video marketers can do better than that. The report also said videos that were between 16 seconds and 2 minutes long had “53.8% of all YouTube views” and were among the most engaging.
As video marketers, we tend to love data which shows that our market is very large – because far too many of the companies and clients that we work for are still trying to reach lots of eyeballs – just like they did a generation ago during the heyday of network television. Well, the branded social video market does reach a lot of eyeballs these days. But, we sell ourselves short if we don’t make the extra effort to explain to the aging Baby Boomers who run most of the companies and clients that we work for why the social video market isn’t a mile wide and an inch deep like network TV’s audience once was. (The prime time audience for network TV peaked back in 1978 – before, first, cable TV and, then, social video started reducing it to only half-a-mile wide and half-an-inch deep today.)
That’s why it’s useful to get our hands on independent data that shows just how diverse and complex the social video market has become even as it has grown larger. Yes, in the old days, you could run the same 30-spot on ABC, CBS, and NBC. But, these days, you need to tailor your video content and advertising for YouTube, Facebook, and other social video platforms. One-size does NOT fit all. That’s why repurposing your YouTube video on Facebook doesn’t work any better today than repurposing your 30-second TV spot on YouTube did a decade ago. The market that you’re trying to reach isn’t fragmented; it’s segmented.
Branded Social Video has an Impact on Consumers
That brings me to a new report entitled “The Science of Social Video: Turning Views into Value” that you should read before you pass the ammunition around to get ready for the next big battle to shift the social video paradigm. Now, I want you to know that I’m a skeptic – so I checked out the methodology for this research before summarizing it for you below. Here’s why I think that it’s well worth reading. Highlights of the report include the fact that:
- Consumers spend around 6 hours per week watching video content on social media networks
- 67% of respondents said that watch more video on social networks than they did a year ago
- 46% of consumers said they’ve made a purchase as a result of watching a brand video on social media
- 76% of people said they were more likely to watch a social video if recommended by friends or family
In September 2016, Brightcove commissioned a research firm, to interview 5,500 consumers aged 18 years old and over in five countries: Australia, France, Germany, the UK, and the US. The survey examined consumers’ changing social video engagement habits and preferences. The goal of the research was to find out how branded social video in particular is driving, or has the potential to drive, behaviors across the buying cycle. So, the people who conducted the survey are reputable and the research methodology is sound. What did it find?
For starters, the survey found that consumers are spending an average of six hours per week watching video content on social media networks alone. And 67% of respondents said they watch more video on social networks, like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, than they did a year ago – and 60% expect the amount of social video they watch will continue rising over the next year.
Consumers told researchers that 50% of their social video views currently take place on YouTube, 36% on Facebook, and the remaining 14% is split over networks like Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. If this seems surprising, then it’s worth reminding ourselves that over a billion users watch YouTube videos, 500 million users watch Facebook videos, and many of the users of the other, smaller social media networks may be looking at photos instead…
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