New research from marketing and comms giant Ogilvy and online news, talk and entertainment leader The Young Turks (TYT) reveals seven surprising lessons that challenge accepted norms of online marketing—and illuminates a path forward for both brands and online video creators.
The report, 7 Lessons from Established Online Video Viewers, sought to determine how established audiences consume online video content and advertising. One key learning was that online viewers do not just watch videos in a one-and-done fashion. Rather, they stitch together viewing sessions that frequently last an hour or more, curating their own content on the fly.
It therefore seems that the conventional approach of running a pre-roll video ad must be revised and optimized for long, cross-platform video viewing sessions.
Although the industry has matured rapidly over the past few years, marketers’ understanding of viewing behavior has remained nascent—until now
From creative preferences to content and advertising formats, a full reset of conventional wisdom is required.
“While online video is a dominant form of media, we still have plenty of unanswered questions about viewers’ habits, which is why we set out to better understand viewers’ consumption habits,” said Rob Davis, head of digital at Ogilvy USA, in a news release.
“For example, one of the common misconceptions about online video is that only millennials watch online. Our research debunked that myth, among seven others; we found that three out of four seniors and baby boomers believe online video will be their exclusive video delivery method in five years,” Davis added.
“TYT has always believed that online video is critical to our success; we consider it to be our primary media type,” said TYT Network president and COO Deanna Brown, in the release. “We believe the research conducted by Ogilvy will shed light on viewers’ online video consumption and in turn, accelerate the digital video ecosystem.”
