Direct Response Marketing

Consumer Views of Social Video Double in 2011

22 Feb, 2012 By: Jackie Jones

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BOSTON – In a pleasant surprise to marketers, consumers actually choose to watch advertisements more than 2.75 billion times in 2011, according to data from Visible Measures.

That number is up from 2 billion social view views in 2010, and 830 million in 2010, data showed.

“These are active, lean-forward, user-initiated views where a real person needs to press the play button with the intention of watching an ad,” Visible Measures said. “Audiences are directly responsible for 1.5 billion of these views for brand marketers by copying, mixing, mashing, spoofing and reposting their ads across the Web.”

More than 500 campaigns topped 1 million views last year, the highest number to date, according to Visible Measures. Additionally, the average campaign launched in 2011 drove more than 765,000 views, and the threshold to make the Ad Age Viral Video Chart, Visible Measures’ benchmark for social video performance, also reached a historic high.

To date, consumers have now chosen to watch ads more than 5.6 billion times, with social media videos nearly doubling in 2011 alone. A sense of humor continues to fare well for most advertisers, and the day of the week also came into play when determining campaigns’ success levels, according to Visible Measures.

“Humor was the preferred creative choice of agencies, however, campaigns that spoofed real events were the most efficient creative approach. The automotive industry was the most active industry in social video, though the cell phone industry was the most popular on a campaign per campaign basis,” Visible Measures said. “Monday was the most popular day to launch a social video campaign in 2011, however Thursday was the preferred day of the top 100 campaigns. March was the starting point for the most campaign launches overall, but February, home to the Super Bowl, served as the starting line for many top 100 campaigns.”

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