Buzzworthy Wednesday Video: Google Chrome “You & Your Browser”
Google recently invited people to create short videos about their Google Chrome web browser, and Chrome Shorts features a collection of short films about the browser. Here was my favorite of the bunch which has just under 300,000 views since being uploaded 3 weeks ago.
However you would have thought with the media push Google has put on promoting Chrome that they could have pushed at least one of the eleven videos they created over a million views by now. They have been plugging the browser on their front page and running television ads and let’s not forget the fact that they OWN YouTube. Should they have staggered the release of the videos? Embedded the videos on the Chrome landing page? Just goes to show that even the company that owns YouTube can’t force a video to go viral.
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Comparing Video Sharing Sites
We all know that YouTube is the gorilla in the room but is it the right video sharing site for you? Maybe you’re a video blogger? Maybe you like to create short “How To” videos?
Luckily there are niche video sharing sites for virtually every type of video content out there. More than I could possibly profile here. Thanks to TubeMogul Research & Quantcast for providing much of the data needed for this profile. Here’s my breakdown with statistics and demographics for 15 of the more popular sites in alphabetical order:
5 Min.com
Description: Short “How-To” videos (under “5min”) that answer practical questions.
Gender Demographic: Male 55% / Female 45%
Age Demographic: 17% – 12-17 yrs / 33% – 18-34 yrs / 28% – 35-49 yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: Unavailable
Monthly US Traffic: 366,ooo
Blip.tv
Description: Publisher-friendly video sharing and distribution site with an integrated video blogging platform.
Gender Demographic: Male 57% / Female 43%
Age Demographic: 33% – 18-34 yrs / 33% – 35-49 yrs / 28% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 1.8 million
Monthly US Traffic: 766,000
Brightcove
Description: Great quality video with an easy to use, quick, user interface. Largely high-income and college-educated users.
Gender Demographic: Male 50% / Female 50%
Age Demographic: Evenly distributed between 18-34 yrs and 35-49 yrs age brackets.
Monthly Global Traffic: Unavailable
Monthly US Traffic: 1.9 million
** Should be noted that Brightcove is no longer a video sharing site (as mentioned in the comments) as of December 2008 and now is focused exclusively as a video hosting and distribution platform since January 2009. You can utilize their platform to upload to sharing sites such as Veoh.**
Crackle
Description: Easy to use but video quality could be better particularly since it is positioned as a multi-platform next-generation video network owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Gender Demographic: Male 50% / Female 50%
Age Demographic: 19% – 12-17 yrs / 39% – 18-34 yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: Unavailable
Monthly US Traffic: 2.5 million
Dailymotion
Description: Dubbed the “YouTube of Europe,” it’s a fairly simple and straight forward user interface but hasn’t developed a real community in the US…yet.
Gender Demographic: Male 59% / Female 41%
Age Demographic: 12% – 12-17 yrs / 40% – 18-34 yrs / 29% – 35-49 yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 48.2 million
Monthly US Traffic: 7.2 million
Google Video
Description:Why would you go to Google Video when there is (and Google owns) YouTube? Poor video quality leave this a brand for video search, not really for new video discovery.
Gender Demographic: Male 53% / Female 47%
Age Demographic: 26% – 12-17 yrs / 32% – 18-34 yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: Unavailable
Monthly US Traffic: 7.5 million
Metacafe
Description:One of the world’s largest video sites that specializes in short form video content from both new emerging talent and Hollywood’s heavy hitters. Uniquely controlled by the user community so if you have a good community, you can get your videos on the front page.
Gender Demographic: Male 58% / Female 42%
Age Demographic: 16% – 12-17 yrs / 36% – 18-34 yrs / 28% – 35-49 yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 43.5 million
Monthly US Traffic: 13 million
Motionbox
Description: One of the few video sharing sites that offers an option to securely share your videos with friends & family. After AOL Video shut down, they recommended their users to transfer their videos to Motionbox.
Gender Demographic: Male 52% / Female 48%
Age Demographic: 26% – 18-34 yrs / 31% – 35-49 yrs / 23% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 268,000
Monthly US Traffic: 144,000
Revver
Description: Revver pretty much started revenue sharing for video content providers. They connect makers, sharers, and sponsors of internet video in a free and open marketplace that rewards them for doing what they do best.
Gender Demographic: Male 57% / Female 43%
Age Demographic: 36% – 18-34 yrs / 30% – 35-49 yrs / 23% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: Unavailable
Monthly US Traffic: 779,000
Ustream.tv
Description: Live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size.
Gender Demographic: Male 55% / Female 45%
Age Demographic: 34% – 18-34 yrs / 33% – 35-49 yrs / 22% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 6.6 million
Monthly US Traffic: 1.4 million
Veoh
Description:Focused on full-screen video programming for anyone with a broadband connection. Site lacks a sense of social community.
Gender Demographic: Male 56% / Female 44%
Age Demographic: evenly distributed audience across all age brackets.
Monthly Global Traffic: 12 million
Monthly US Traffic: 4 million
Viddler
Description:Coolest player interface with features like comments tied to a particular time in the video and automatic webcam synch.
Gender Demographic: Male 56% / Female 44%
Age Demographic: 39% – 18-34 yrs / 28% – 35-49 yrs / 20% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 2.1 million
Monthly US Traffic: 726,000
Vimeo
Description:Completely user-generated content used heavily by videobloggers and podcasters. Really quick upload and very hip interface. Largely high-income and college-educated users.
Gender Demographic: Male 65% / Female 35%
Age Demographic: N/A
Monthly Global Traffic: 9.5 million
Monthly US Traffic: 3.6 million
Yahoo! Video
Description: Entertainment-oriented video site. Unfortunately not yet fully integrated with all of Yahoo!’s community destinations and so really missing out on the social aspect to their service.
Gender Demographic: Male 55% / Female 45%
Age Demographic: 16% – 12-17 yrs / 41% – 18-34 yrs / 25% – 35-49 yrs / 16% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 3.2 million
Monthly US Traffic: 1.8 million
YouTube
Description: Unless you live under a rock you know who YouTube is. Their strong user base and community offers the greatest opportunity to both go viral in a big way…but also to get lost quickly.
Gender Demographic: Male 50% / Female 50%
Age Demographic: 19% – 12-17 yrs / 36% – 18-34 yrs / 23% – 35-49 yrs / 19% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 80.6 million
Monthly US Traffic: 69.3 million
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How many views make a viral video a success?
This is a question that was recently asked by Feed Company in a survey of 40 executives at top U.S. creative ad agencies and media buying firms. Almost 28% considered it a success if a viral video got more than 1 million views followed closely by about 22% each evenly saying it was successful if it was viewed 100,000, 250,000, or 500,000 times. A meager 2.8% each considered it successful if it was viewed 25,000 or 50,000 each. I’m telling you that of all these numbers the 2.8% were the closest to being correct. It’s not about the cumulative total of those views, it’s about getting that video in front of the right eyeballs.
“The benchmark of success for viral video depends on the campaign creative and brand goals. Of course everyone wants more views and reach, but the quality of engagement and conversation matter too.” – Josh Rose, Senior Vice President, Creative Director, DeutschThis was a quote I pulled from the Feed Company’s Viral Video Marketing Survey “The Agency Perspective” The last part about the quality of engagement and conversation — that’s the real key to the success of a viral campaign.
Here’s an example that we utilized for ourselves using word of mouth or viral marketing as a self-promotional piece in a B2B environment with measurable results. Last September I was named by the Worcester Business Journal to their 40 Under Forty list. So to celebrate this we created a funny movie poking fun at myself. We set very clear goals to:
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Increase our brand recognition within the Central Massachusetts region served by Worcester Business Journal.
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To open a discussion which would hopefully lead to a working relationship with Worcester Business Journal.
First, we sent it to our contact at Worcester Business Journal to get their “blessing” before sending it out to our e-newsletter subscribers. The Business Journal’s editor-in-chief called us within 15 minutes to say that it had already been forwarded around their entire office and they wanted to show it at the awards banquet the next night with over 500 attendees. At the event the owner of the Business Journal (and several other regional business newspapers) came up to me and asked if they could send it out on their e-newsletter to their list of over 5,000 subscribers.
Within about two weeks after the event our e-newsletter subscriber list doubled and from that event we have created videos for two of the event attendees, we produced videos for all three business journals owned by the parent company of Worcester Business Journal and have all three business journals set up to resell our online marketing video product. As with any word of mouth marketing campaign, it needs to grab people’s attention and be easily passed on.
Based upon our website views of this video and the video views on sharing sites such as YouTube, we had a little over 12,000 total views. That’s it. But we were able to target our demographic specifically to decision makers in businesses in a select region. So all the right people were viewing the video that we wanted to engage with it.
So what’s the moral to this story? You can have 50 million views of a video but if it ultimately doesn’t lead to the desired brand interaction you were looking for how effective was it really? Be more targeted in your distribution and don’t worry about cumulative views if it is engaging the right people.
Most recent blog posts:
How Much of a Typical Online Video Is Actually Watched?
5 Questions Interview: Mike Langford of Tweetworks
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