In an interesting article in the Sunday New York Times, Miguel Helft described how YouTube has evolved from a video hosting and sharing site to become the second most popular search tool on the Internet.
According to comScore, in November, 2008, Americans conducted almost 2.8 billion searches on YouTube, about 200 million more than on Yahoo.
Helft describes how 9-year old Tyler Kennedy turns first to YouTube for school- and hobby-related research. “When they don’t have really good results on YouTube, then I use Google,” said Tyler.
The increased popularity of video doesn’t necessarily mean a decline in the consumption of text and other formats. It does, however, signal a trend: people are now turning to video not just for entertainment but also for reference.
This has implications for how you use the Mixpo platform, especially in two respects:
Syndication to YouTube
We make it easy for your advertisers to benefit from the emerging search and research activity on YouTube.
From within the Mixpo platform, you can easily publish any VideoAd you create to YouTube and then monitor the number of views the YouTube version receives.
YouTube publishing options in the Mixpo platform. (Click to see a larger version).
To give a VideoAd the best chance of being discovered through YouTube search, be sure to fill out the VideoAd’s title, keyword, and description fields on the Description tab in the Studio.
Description tab in the Studio
If you update the fields later, you can pass the updates to YouTube with the click of a button.
VideoAd content
If more and more people are indeed turning to video for reference as well as entertainment, advertisers can take advantage of this trend by going beyond slick 15- to 30-second promotions.
Consumers seeking solutions are looking for informative video content. This opens the door for VideoAds of 1 to even 3 minutes in length that demonstrate how a product works or explain the benefits of a service.
In the flexible Studio, it’s as easy to compile a series of pictures and video clips into a substantive product story as it is to upload existing TV footage.
I’d like to know more about uploading photos and video clips.