Internet video consumption trends

Worldwide consumption of Internet video continues to skyrocket. According to ComScore 1, U.S. users streamed 41 percent more video content in August 2009 than they did during the same period in 2008, and the average time-per-viewer was up almost 39 percent. Additionally, in a survey by Eccolo Media 2, 76% of BtoB buyers found video to be moderately, very or extremely influential, while 49% watched video while considering a purchase. Other studies by MarketingSherpa conclude that online video is only second to word-of-mouth for its ability to influence decision makers in every stage of the purchase cycle3. It’s clear that demand for engaging, educational content delivered online, presents some unique opportunities for BtoB marketers to both change the way content is delivered, and accelerate the adoption of their products.

If you are looking at just pure video consumption, it begs the question: Is there a need to create interactive multimedia including video, graphics, animation and information gathering, when basic video-only content is so popular and is driving the majority of the consumption? If your goal is to educate or increase awareness about a complex product or service, then the answer is yes. You need to get your message across quickly, you need to engage viewers and you need to assess *how* they are interacting with your content.

Interactive multimedia allows you to combine visual elements in any arrangement to create and support a higher level message, and to collect data from multiple interactions throughout the program to build a profile of that viewers’ experience. When using video as your only media element, your options are much more simplistic and are typically limited in terms of how you convey content and engage the viewer. Unless you have a very large production budget, video alone is not sufficient for communicating effectively about complex products that require diagrams, charts and other info-graphics. Plus, with video alone, the only metric you may have to consider is streamed minutes from anonymous viewers.

Purely looking at time spent is one measure but the data becomes much more meaningful -- especially for lead generation programs -- when you look at various viewer activities in aggregate. Interactive video not only stimulates engagement, it provides unlimited data collection opportunities to assess things like what content are people most interested in? What have they learned from watching my video? What other resources did they download? Where are they in the buying cycle, and are they ready to buy my product?

Interactive multimedia fuels engagement and measurement opportunities

Linking the results of an activity to the bottom line ROI is more important than ever. And if a video experience is not measurable, it won’t provide the statistics companies need to determine the effectiveness of the program, or even the information needed to guide future program content. Alternatively, interactive multimedia can play a key part in giving companies deeper insight that greatly enhances ROI through:

• Content branches that enable viewers to navigate based on their information needs and provide insight about the viewer’s interest or knowledge level. This allows marketers to reach contacts at multiple stages in the awareness – consideration - purchase chain with one program.
• Survey questions determine even more specific information and/or demographics from the viewer, and potentially helps identify the greatest influencers
• Polling questions engage the audience by echoing back aggregate results and can provide deeper insight on market perceptions and knowledge levels
• Q&A interface enables immediate information exchange, and provides insight on those that are highly engaged
• Registration data fuels the lead generation pipeline and provides aggregate demographics to profile an audience
  

When armed with data from multiple interactions like these, a detailed profile of the viewer experience is possible. For example, by examining time spent + interactions + registration data, you’ll have a more fine-grained understanding of the behavior of viewers and the affect or influence your program actually had. These engagement metrics can be applied to a lead scoring system, used to identify the most powerful influencers, or roll out new content and campaigns that address the interests more specifically. That kind of intelligence simply can’t be achieved with video only content.

At Accela Communications we are passionate about using interactive multimedia to drive measureable results from your products and services. To learn more about how we do this, contact us.

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