Mar 062013
 

Recently, we reported that videos uploaded via Facebook have a higher Engagement Rate than YouTube links. You asked us how these two methods of uploading videos affect their reach – here are the results!

For the purpose of this study, we have chosen videos that brands have shared across Facebook during the last three months. As you know, there are two options – to either upload the video natively from your computer or to share a link to your video from YouTube. Apparently, admins prefer the latter, with 4 731 YouTube links posted vs. 554 Facebook videos, from December 4th – March 3rd 2013.

Facebook videos tend to have a higher Engagement Rate than YouTube links (0.22% on average compared to 0.10%). As already mentioned in the previous study, this could be due to the fact that you can play Facebook videos directly from the mobile news feed, which is increasingly becoming a preferred way of social update consumption. Interestingly enough, both YouTube links and Facebook videos generate nearly the same fan interaction, with about 77% of Likes, 16% of Shares, and 7% of Comments.

READ MORE:  Facebook Videos Have a 10x Higher Viral Reach than YouTube Links 

 

 


 

Sep 282012
 

 

This ain’t your Uncle’s Atom processor. Don’t believe Intel’s newly announced Atom Z2760 has the chops to run a Windows 8 at speed? Acer’s Iconia W510 runs Windows 8 Pro pretty damned fast.

 

Sep 202012
 

Swedish web developer Anders Andersen recently tackled the problem of responsive embeds and came up with a solution that works with both YouTube and Vimeo movies. Andersen’s solution is to wrap any embed code, whether it’s an actual embed tag or an iframe, with an extra div and then scale that div. Naturally you’ll need to strip any fixed dimensions out of the YouTube or other embed code for this to work.

For the full details and the CSS that makes it work, be sure to read Andersen’s whole post.

The core of Andersen’s method lies in the CSS, which uses this handy trick to preserve the intrinsic ratio of the video even as its container element scales down.

Andersen has tested this technique with YouTube, Vimeo and SlideShare embeds, though it may work with others as well.

MORE:  How to Scale Embedded Media in Responsive Designs | Webmonkey | Wired.com.

 


Aug 232012
 

It hasn’t been an especially felicitous year for the founder of file-sharing site MegaUpload: his domain name has been seized, his assets have been impounded, and Kim Dotcom faces potential extradition to the U.S. on criminal charges of copyright infringement.

That’s a fate that RapidShare is determined to avoid. The Swiss company says it wants to be a legitimate hosting service that not only responds promptly to removal requests from copyright holders, but that goes far beyond what the law requires.

RapidShare’s “responsible practices” policy may have pleased Hollywood when it was announced in April, but it nevertheless remains controversial. The U.S. advocacy group Public Knowledge responded by saying the policy “implies that cloud services that choose to merely comply with copyright law” are “somehow morally deficient or in favor of copyright infringement.”

RapidShare says it employs over 50 people and has over 400,000 files a day uploaded by its users to over 1,000 servers.

CNET spoke this week with Daniel Raimer, the company’s general counsel, about the techniques RapidShare uses to detect piratical material, and how far it’s willing to go.

MORE:  RapidShare: We’ll help Hollywood, but ‘not at all costs’ (Q&A) | Politics and Law – CNET News.

 


Aug 202012
 

Brands and their marketers would like to shift more budget to online video — really. They know perfectly well that consumers are there waiting. But online will never have the gravitas of TV advertising until one very important change takes place.

It’s not technology or inventory (or lack of it) that’s the problem. It’s not the sites or the screen size or the devices. And it’s certainly not measurability.

It’s how video is sold online. And until it changes, TV will rule.

Digital video, specifically in-stream, is marketed as a TV-like experience. Indeed, like TV, viewers must watch the entire ad to get to the desired content (although they rarely do in either medium). What’s fundamentally different, however, is the connection between the programming and the ad — the emotional or thematic link that captures a viewer in the right frame of mind for a specific product or idea. And it’s totally missing online.

MORE:  Why online video remains in TV’s shadow – iMediaConnection.com.

 


Aug 152012
 

When it comes to exercising the advertising muscle of political campaigns, candidates have a new set of tactics at their disposal. This political season, campaigns are expected to spend a whopping $9.8 billion in political advertising. Beyond the increased campaign budgets, the advertising technologies fueling the campaigns have also evolved in the last four years for both TV and online advertising. Heres how:

MORE:  7 political ad tactics every marketer should know

 


Jul 242012
 

Now, there are three data points that are publicly available for developing a lousy scale for YouTube brand channels: video views, subscribers, and uploaded videos.

I quickly decided against using “video views.” This seems like a more appropriate metric for comparing individual YouTube videos.

“Subscribers” is a more appropriate metric for comparing YouTube channels. Users subscribe to channels to receive updates and stay informed when something new occurs. Subscribers are consistently more engaged with a brand’s content and watch a brand’s videos on a regular basis.

VidStatsX provides a list of the top 2,000 most-subscribed YouTube channels. It also provides lists of the top 100 most-subscribed YouTube channels in 16 categories.

But, some YouTube brand channels were launched earlier than others, giving them a head start in adding subscribers. And is a channel lousy simply because it hasn’t made it to one of these lists yet?

On May 20, 2012, the YouTube Blog said there were “tens of millions of channels on YouTube.” So, even if a YouTube brand channel doesn’t make it to bottom of the top 100 most-subscribed YouTube channel’s list in its category, it might still be pretty good.

This is where “uploaded videos” factors into the lousy scale.

A very good YouTube brand channel should be able to generate more subscribers per uploaded video than other channels in its category. This means that a really bad — or lousy — channel would be one that has generated fewer subscribers per uploaded video than its competitors.

This methodology lets you calculate the equivalent of the batting average for a YouTube brand channel.

A pretty lousy branded YouTube channel in the auto and vehicle category

To take my new lousy scale out for a test drive, I started in YouTube’s automotive category. To my surprise, here’s what I found:

 Brand  Subscribers  Videos  Subscribers/Video

Audi Deutschland  95,173  893  106.6

Chevrolet  81,799  1,321  61.9

Mercedes-Benz  72,126  112  644.0

Ford  68,966  347  198.7

Honda  68,018  289  235.4

Cadillac  43,762  198  221.0

Hyundai USA  40,256  333  120.9

Toyota Deutschland  39,651  214  185.3

Volkswagen USA  36,535  211  173.2

Buick  2,059  434  4.7

Based on this data, Buick’s branded YouTube channel is pretty lousy. It has the lowest number of subscribers per video in the autos and vehicles category. By comparison, the Mercedes-Benz channel has generated 137 times more subscribers per video.

MORE:  3 lousy branded YouTube channels

 


Jun 042012
 

The latest entry in agency self-promotion comes from Fort Worth, Texas-based GCG Marketing which just released a beatnick poet/rap-style video that’s filled with all the usual superlatives and buzzword bingo you’d expect from an agency pimping itself. It’s not necessarily the fact that anything said in this video is untrue. The problem is that it, and other work like it, simply brings to light the mostly inconsequential, insignificant and irrelevant nature of an ad agency and what it stands for. In the greater scheme of things, advertising is pure puffery when compared to the important things in life that really matter.

And when an agency calls attention to the inconsequential, the insignificant and the irrelevant, it simply devalues the subject matter even further. It’s akin to watching two siblings fight over an heirloom your grandmother left you until it is torn apart into pieces that slowly fall to the ground as you all, bickering children included, realize the memory it represented is now forever tarnished. It’s truly that painful.

So please, agencies, do what you do best: create sustainable, inspiring ideas for others. The result of that creativity are what should act as your ongoing self-promotional effort. Not a platitude-filled music video.

 

 

 

SOURCE Agencies Continue to Embarrass With Self Promomotional Videos – Adrants.

 


May 212012
 

Are you constantly hitting refresh on your favorite site or spend countless hours surfing the web? If you answered yes, you may be depressed.

Internet usage was shown to vary between people who showed signs of depression and people who had no signs of depression. People who had symptoms of depression were more likely to use file-sharing programs and seemingly cruise around sites at random.

Researchers led by Sriram Chellappan from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, collected internet usage data from 216 college students enrolled at the university. The usage data was collected anonymously without interfering with the student’s normal internet usage for a month.

The students were tested to see if they had symptoms of depression and analyzed internet usage based on the results. Depressed students tended to use the internet in much different ways than their non-depressed classmates.

Depressed students used file-sharing programs, like torrents or online sharing sites, more than non-depressed students. Depressed students also chatted more and sent more emails out. Online video viewing and game playing were also more popular for depressed students.

SOURCE Medical Daily: Depressed People Surf the Web Differently.

 


May 162012
 

With the cosmetics and hair care brand, they did a deep dive into data to discover what women were actually searching for when they thought about beauty and discovered a huge number of people were typing specific questions into google, like “how can I do my makeup like Lady Gaga?” In response, Demand worked to produce 1,126 videos in a matter of months and on a budget, each addressing a common “how to” search query.

Some key takeaways from this panel presentation:

– Search queries are getting longer – often ten words are more. People are looking for very specific content when they search, and if you can provide it, that’s a huge service.

– The best videos for this sort of marketing are “evergreen” – that is, they remain relevant for a long time (3-5 years) by containing generally useful content, rather than being attached to a trend, celebrity, or launch. A light touch on the branding also helps the videos feel authentic, and not tied to very specific products so much as the brand.

– If your brand is traditional, start with a test – produce just a few examples of the new content type and see how they perform in search and on your site. Success is your best shot at convincing the old guard to try new tactics.

– Social listening is of the utmost importance – in fact, L’Oriel has changed their call centers into customer listening and insight hubs. Understanding what people are saying about your products, and the surrounding industry, allows you to channel feedback to the right people and meet actual demand.

– Data is the key to staying on top as trends change – know where the landscape is headed, not just what’s working now.

SOURCE: How Brands Can Meet Consumer Demand With Content – Adrants.