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14th October 2010

New Canadian Research Shows Online Video Is Promising Channel for Marketers and Content Producers

M ConsultingThe first-ever study on Canadians’ viewing habits of online video conducted by Ipsos Reid and M Consulting finds 80 per cent of all Canadians indicate watching some video content online. Among those that have watched video online 41 per cent watch more online video content than they did last year. A growing audience means a bigger business opportunity for brand marketers and the Canadian film community to produce original online video content.

“A loyalty of sorts is being developed for online video,” says Bill Mohri, president of M Consulting who commissioned the study, which will be unveiled in full at the MergeMedia: Online Branded Entertainment Conference on October 22 at the MaRS Discovery Centre in Toronto. “There is the potential that a critical mass of Canadians could be watching more online video than TV much sooner than experts predicted.”MergeMedia Conference

While males between the ages of 18 to 24 comprise the biggest, most frequent audience, 41 per cent of all Canadians say they watch online video at least a few times per week. And the study found that people who view online video at least once per day are more receptive to branded entertainment, with 18 per cent indicating positive purchase intent for brands that have developed entertaining content online.

“It’s clear that brands have an impact with more frequent viewers of online video. It’s a more engaging, interactive medium,” says Bill Mohri. “Brand marketers and content producers need to pay attention to this growth area because it’s much less expensive than TV advertising and has real potential to reach consumers more effectively than TV.”

More research highlights include the following:

* Almost 100 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 18 to 24 watch some video content online, with 76 per cent watching at least a few times per week.
* Even though the incidence of viewership declines with age, fully 68 per cent of Canadians over the age of 55 indicate watching some video content online.
* 49 per cent of respondents cited poor production quality as a main downside to watching videos online compared to TV.
* Comedy is the most popular online video genre, with 65 per cent of respondents who already watch video on the internet say they watch this genre most often.

The MergeMedia Conference will showcase full results of this benchmark study and explore implications through an interactive presentation by Ray Kong, senior vice president at Ipsos Reid, which includes a group of actual respondents who participated in the study that will be on-hand to answer audience questions about individual online video viewing habits.

The full-day conference will also bring together leading marketers and content producers to provide insights on online branded entertainment. The roster is long and includes Canadian producer Fred Fuchs, actress Illeana Douglas who created and stars in IKEA’s hit series Easy to Assemble, Alison Leung, marketing director, hair care and deodorants at Unilever Canada and Joe LaMuraglia, social media manager at General Motors.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 14th, 2010 at 10:33 am and is filed under Business News, Events, National News, Research Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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