Viral Video Marketing Budgets To Increase
Feed Company, a Los Angeles-based online marketing agency, has conducted an online viral video survey of 40 executives at top U.S. creative ad agencies and media buying firms. The outcome: faced with a tough economic climate, marketers are seeking new methods to reach web audiences in the most cost-effective manner: viral video!
Marketers across the board say they won’t be cutting budgets for viral video production in 2009. In fact, 70% of ad-agency and media-buying executives plan to increase budgets for viral video marketing in 2009, according to the study.
One of the outcomes is that respondents lack the adequate tracking and reporting of viral videos, which makes campaign success difficult to measure. More than half (52.6%) point to this as an area that needs improvement, and as many as 21.1% said that it needs a lot of improvement.
For those who see tracking and reporting as improvement, I recommend ViralTracker, which tracks over 250 videoportals in 40+ countries and reports the data in clear and easy to understand charts for marketers. See a ViralTracker demo here.
Other Survey findings:
- Brands and agencies are both aware of and interested in viral video.
Eight in ten marketing and advertising professionals are “very familiar” with viral video, and just under half of agency clients (48.8%) are “interested” in viral video, with 23.3% expressing high levels of interest.
- Exponential views and brand engagement are greatest benefit. More than nine out of ten (92.3%) marketers labeled “exponential views” as the leading benefit to viral video marketing, followed closely with 87.2% choosing “brand engagement.” Online reach and the brand seen as “forward thinking” were also rated as highly positive factors.
- Viral video campaigns are likely to produce desirable results.
56% of ad execs reported being “pleased” or “very pleased” with the results of a viral video campaign, while less than 3% say they were not pleased. - Marketers still have not established a benchmark for success.
Some 27.8% say a video must get more than one million views to be considered a success, but 22.2% would say so if it was viewed 100,000 times, 250,000 times, or half a million.
Participating firms include BBH, Cutwater, Draft FCB, Digitas, DDB Chicago, DDB LA, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, McCann SF, Ogilvy, OMD, 360° Digital Influence/Ogilvy, Proximity BBDO, Tribal DDB, Wieden + Kennedy, Young & Rubicam and other US agencies.
The survey took place between August 1 and September 12, 2008.
Download “Viral Video Marketing Survey: The Agency Perspective” (pdf).
Source: Feed Company, MediaPost, MarketingCharts
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Thanks for the stats above, Paul – and tracking / reporting tips. Great post. I’ve just blogged about the Don’t Vote viral video at http://beyonddigitalmedia.wordpress.com – this has been a major success heading into election 08 thanks to its total strategy approach. Creating a viral strategy is more than creating compelling content. Cheers, Chris
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Many thanks for the stats… still figuring out how to produce my 1st viral video on YouTube
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[...] Feed Company, a Los Angeles-based online marketing agency, has conducted an online video survey of 40 executives at top U.S. creative ad agencies and media buying firms. The outcome: faced with a tough economic climate, marketers are seeking new methods to reach web audiences in the most cost-effective manner: viral video! [more] [...]
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