No Primetime Costs For Online Video

When advertisers buy ads in prime time on television they pay higher costs. With online video there are no higher fees, but there’s still “prime time” according to a new study.

Yahoo! Inc., Interpret LLC, Havas Digital, Warner Bros. Media Research, and PHD just completed a study on online video viewing. The idea was to come up with some metrics for online video advertisers to use.

“We plan to use this new engagement model to help publishers, including Yahoo!, better identify which videos should be shown online, as well as how they can be effectively measured and monetized,” said Radha Subramanyam, head of corporate and media research for Yahoo!.

The study concentrated on three variables – completion of the video, attention to the video and action taken before, during or after the video (like rating the video, sharing the video, posting a comment, etc.).

A big influence on the results was whether the video was “high engagement” or “low engagement”.

According to the study:

  • 27 percent of respondents who remembered seeing an ad searched for more information about the product featured after watching high engagement videos, versus only 13 percent for low engagement videos.
  • 28 percent visited an advertised brand or product’s website after viewing a high engagement video versus only 10 percent for low engagement videos.
  • High engagement videos account for nearly half (47 percent) of ad recall.

So what did they say about prime time?

The study showed spikes in online video consumption among men, women, students and full-time employees during the hours of 12 p.m.- 3 p.m., and then again between 9 p.m.- 1 a.m. The lowest was around dinnertime from 6 p.m.- 9 p.m. Regardless of time of day, one third of people who watch a video share it with friends, family members and colleagues.

The key here is that one third of the people share the video. That sure beats paying a premium to show your ad once a week on a primetime television show. You get a primetime audience every day at minimal cost to your business.