As more media companies shift their resource to the Web, the battle for dominance in online video is growing.  Businesses ranging from traditional broadcast networks to newspaper and magazine publishers to pure-play Internet companies are posting online video streams. Brightcove and TubeMogul are two companies who have begun to analyze the state of the online video industry. The findings in their most recent report can help industry players and watchers figure out which trends are taking hold.

For example, advertisers will want to know how consumers are engaging with online video. The report findings indicate the following:

• Broadcast networks command the most viewing time per video.
• The highest completion rates for online video occur at sites owned by newspaper and magazine publishers.

When it comes to determining how consumers locate online video, consider these statistics:

• Google is king and “generates the highest volume of referral traffic to online video content”.
• Yahoo drives viewers with the highest level of engagement to newspaper publishers that provide online video.
• Twitter is responsible for driving traffic to online content offered by broadcast networks, magazine publishers and music labels.

Currently, only 33% of companies that post online video on their sites say that their top reason for doing so is to increase advertising inventory. However, the need to monetize these efforts is becoming important. As a result, more effort will go toward attracting marketers to advertise in this format. For the rest of the year, these operators say they will employ the following strategies to monetize their video efforts:

• In-stream advertising 31%
• In-page advertising 22%
• Sponsorship 34%
• Subscription 18%
• Pay per view 16%
• Pay to download 12%
• Other 11%

As more of these companies expand inventory for online advertising and competition increases, it will be interesting to watch the effects on pricing.

[Source: Online Video & The Media Industry. Brighcove & TubeMogul. 6 May 2010. Web. 17 Jun. 2010]

Like operators in many other industries, insurance companies are feeling economic pain. And they are looking for better ways to market and deliver their services. In large part, insurance companies across the globe are planning to move more operations online.

Insurance companies are responding to the general shift of consumer engagement with the Internet. However, Serge Callet, global managing director of Accenture’s Insurance practice cautions that  “[c]onsumers are not simply replacing one channel with another, but are diversifying and using more channels than ever for all of their needs.” So insurers need to be cautious with the changes they are making to their business models.

The recently published Accenture study found that insurers will make the following changes  in the next few years:

• Make quoting, underwriting, billing, claims and account management available online:  63%
• Develop relationships with independent agents and brokers: 75%
• Develop specialized tools and sales support: 73%

In addition to changing distribution models, these companies are also looking at increasing their investment in mobile commerce. Specifically, insurers expect to:

• Create mobile capabilities 19%
• Improve digital marketing: 34%
• Integrate channels: 36%

Accenture’s findings also indicate that insurers plan to take advantage of the latest technology to market to unique customer segments. About 14% of insurers currently engage in this type of targeting but up to 26% will improve their target marketing capability within the next three years.

[Source: Accenture Global Survey Finds Insurers Will Invest $84 Million, on Average, Over the Next Three Years To Improve Distribution Strategy. Accenture. 24 May 2010. Web. 14 Jun. 2010]

More than one recent study has shown how B2B marketers lag behind their B2C counterparts in the social media arena. A new study by White Horse indicates that while 28% of B2C operators have looked to outside experts for help in this arena, only 10% of B2B operators have done so. Similarly, the number of B2B operators who have taken no steps to engage with social media stands at 18%. Only 14% of B2C operators have completely ignored social media to date.

The White Horse study tries to explain why this difference exists. In large part, the hesitation on the part of B2B marketers to embrace social media is linked to the way they operate. For example, B2B marketers say they are not as concerned about key problems that face B2C marketers: “Loss of brand control and negative customer feedback.” In addition, B2B marketers  engage in more consultative sales processes.

When surveyed about key obstacles in the path to rolling out social media programs, B2B marketers list the following:

• Insufficient personnel to maintain 50%
• Lack of organizational knowledge 45%
• Preference for traditional marketing  45%
• Perceived irrelevance to the specific field 45%

To succeed with this new media format, White Horse analysts suspect that B2B marketers must “map new social venues to traditional tactics in order to show how social media simply provides new ways of ..building relationships.”  As B2B marketers make this change they may shift from the one-to-one relationship between sales reps and clients that has traditionally proven so successful.

[Source: B2B Marketing Goes Social: A White Horse Survey Report. White Horse. May 2010. Web. 8 Jun. 2010]

Social networks are growing more popular and, as a result, government organizations are considering passing new laws to protect consumer information. This development could negatively affect marketers trying to reach  consumers.  How much will restrictive legislation change the nature of online advertising? Two academic researchers recently published their findings on this topic after they studied the changes in privacy laws made in the European Union.

These researchers surveyed over 3.3 million users and studied their behavior as they were exposed to 9,596 display ad campaigns. In general, the findings were as follows:

• When marketers are restricted from behaviorally targeting consumers, purchase intent is significantly affected.
• Web sites that are general purpose, such as news sites, experienced a bigger drop in effectively influencing purchasers once behavioral targeting was enacted.
• A higher loss of influence was also associated with small ads and ads that lacked interactive features once behavioral targeting was enacted.

The researchers also attempted to quantify the dollar impact on U.S. marketers if behavioral targeting is restricted. Goldfarb and Tucker, the study’s authors, say that such restriction is 65% effective. In dollar terms this means that marketers who now spend $8 billion on display advertising would have to spend up to $22 billion to achieve the same reach they’re currently getting from display. Goldfarb and Tucker called these projections a worst-case scenario and suggest that marketers and content sites would likely find other ways to advertising online.

However, the potential restriction on online advertising looms large on the political landscape. And the about-face move taken by Facebook last month in an attempt to appease its user community suggests that social networks and online marketers shouldn’t assume that they can play fast and loose with consumers’ personal information. Expect marketers to closely watch the national discussion on this topic.

[Source: Privacy Regulation and Online Advertising. Goldfarb and Tucker. University of Toronto and MIT Sloan School of Management. May 2010. Web. 1 Jun. 2010]