Research: Engaged Viewers and Male Behavior

What do you do when the economy is in crisis and your online video startup relies on advertising as its business model? Commission a study to show the world just how valuable web video is! Both Veoh and Break Media recently released separate research reports to let marketers know that Hey! Advertising online works and is much better than that stupid ole television.

Veoh worked with Forrester Consulting on a study that revealed so-called “engaged viewers” watch a lot of long-form video and (most importantly) pay attention to the ads delivered in online video environments. Engaged viewers are people who watch more than an hour of online video each week. They make up 40 percent of all online video viewers and watch 75 percent of all online video. The engaged viewer is also young, (35 percent of them are between 13 and 24 years old), pays more attention to online video than to TV, and, according to the study, doesn’t mind advertising.

Elsewhere in the online video world, Break Media, in conjunction with Hall & Partners, came out with its own study that revealed 70 percent of men 18 – 34 would rather give up television than the Internet. The research found that nearly 50 percent of the men in that age range spend 22 hours a week online and roughly half purchase something at retail after watching an online ad.

Now, just because these studies have to be taken with a grain of salt doesn’t mean that they are completely without merit. They both reaffirm previous studies showing that the web is more important than TV to a younger generation, and the Veoh study is another data point illustrating that online video watchers continue to move beyond snacking and into longer video consumption.