The wave of video use among consumers is rising, and it shows no sign of cresting anytime soon, according to new research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Marketers, are you watching?
As of this May, 71 percent of online Americans polled said they viewed videos on a video-sharing site such as YouTube or Vimeo –that’s up from 66 percent last year. The use of video-sharing sites on any given day also jumped five percentage points –from 23 to 28 percent.
In addition, the survey showed that rural internet users are now just as likely as suburbanites and city-dwellers to have sampled video at video-sharing sites – though they are less than half as likely to visit video-sharing sites on a typical day.
African-Americans, Hispanics and other non-white internet users are more likely to use video-sharing sites than white internet users, and parents visit video-sharing sites more often than do non-parents (81 percent vs. 61 percent). Interestingly, parental use went up while non-parental use dropped. Pew says this may be because parents are younger than non-parents, or more likely, because they watch video with, or at the suggestion of, their kids.
A major driver of video use is the growth of content on sites like YouTube, which make it easy for anyone to create, upload and share their own videos, which are spread virally by friends and others who share the links through email and social media.
I also found the research on mobile devices and video particularly intriguing. When Pew polled cell phone users about mobile devices and video, some 34 percent said they have shot video with their phone, 26 percent have watched video on their phone and 22 percent have posted videos or photos online.
Also noteworthy: Men are more likely to watch videos on their mobile devices than women, but both are equally likely to record and post videos. Blacks and Hispanics view video on their cell phones more than whites do. In addition, they are more likely to record a video, and more likely to post one, too.
With video becoming increasingly commonplace on video-sharing sites, online media sites and in rural communities, it makes sense for marketers to consider it an integral component of an online branding strategy . . . and based on this research, those who are targeting non-whites and parents may benefit most.
[...] certainly provides some proof to those who believe online video marketing sales messages can come across as more trustworthy to prospective buyers than, say, tweets or email [...]
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