EveryZing CEO Tom Wilde recently spoke on the show Online Marketing with RSS Ray, a weekly Internet talk radio show that brings advice and information from world-class online marketing experts to listeners. The show covers many topics including online marketing, blogging, podcasting, videocasting, and RSS plus social networking.

Tom talked with the host about how EveryZing works for content providers and consumers as powerful search and publishing solution. Listen to the show here or at everyzing.com. You can also visit the RSS Ray blog.

Online video makes up an increasing component of Internet user activity. According to a comScore Video Metrix report, Americans viewed more than 9 billion videos online during July 2007.

The report also notes:

• Online viewers watched an average of more than three hours of online video during the month (181 minutes).
• The average online video duration was 2.7 minutes.
• Nearly three out of four (74.2 percent) U.S. Internet users viewed video online.
• More than one out of three (36.7 percent) U.S. Internet users viewed video on YouTube.com.
• The average online video viewer consumed 68 videos, or more than two per day.

The report highlights that nearly 75 percent of U.S. Internet users watched an average of three hours of online video during July and 134 million Americans —or approximately three in four U.S. Internet users—viewed online video. Google Sites ranked as the top U.S. video property with nearly 2.5 billion videos viewed (27.0 percent share of videos), 2.4 billion of which occurred at YouTube.com. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 390 million (4.3 percent), followed by Fox Interactive Media with 298 million (3.3 percent) and Viacom Digital with 281 million (3.1 percent).

While some have challenged the report’s data and language, we can take a few away from it. For one, the comScore findings are further evidence of the growing online video trend; Americans are spending a large portion of their time online watching video clips. Second, the report demonstrates that Google and MySpace are continuing their successful audience aggregation in the video segment, which has implications for big media companies. Some of these media companies, such as ABC and NBC, seem to be catching on and looking for ways to ensure that their content is accessible and appealing to Internet users. The question remains however, can Google replicate its own financial success, leveraging audience aggregation in the video category as it has done so profitably with search?

A new report from the Radio Advertising Bureau highlights the continued growth of non-spot revenue in the industry. Non-spot activity—largely in the form of innovative brand extensions to the Internet and enhanced event sponsorship packages—remains a focal point for Radio. This strength, evidenced by 16% gains in the second quarter of 2007 for non-spot, helped to offset the slight dips in local, national and network revenues.

According to Jeff Haley, CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau:

The average monthly non-spot revenue growth rate for the last two years has been 10%. At this rate non-spot revenue will be over $1.5B for 2008 and approach $2B by the end of 2009.

Haley acknowledges that radio stations’ online efforts are bringing in the majority of this revenue, and many in the industry expect such efforts to accelerate in the coming years. The question will be, how quickly and gracefully can the radio industry step up online offerings?

Noted for localism and targetability, radio is poised to capitalize on a major share of advertising spending. To draw listeners and therefore advertising dollars online, radio will need to successfully leverage offline multimedia content. Radio offers great brands, great content, and a massive industry, however as it stands today the brands and content are not yet being leveraged to capacity. Radio’s vast and varied content must be made available, accessible and navigable online for the industry to capitalize on their valuable brands, radio names and programs. The success story for radio will be both a reaction to and a continuation of the growth of non-spot revenue and the expansion of stations online.

Advertisers are clearly taking note of the power and popularity user-generated content enjoys online today. Tremor Media has recently partnered with ExpoTV in order to embed user-generated product testimonials into ads, while Italian-American start-up Zooppa—which launched its new site last month—synthesizes two Web phenomena, user-generated video and online social advertising. Tremor and Zooppa are two intriguing examples of how experimental the frontier of online video remains—particularly when it comes to creating successful advertisements and brand awareness.

The partnership between Tremor Media and ExpoTV allows Tremor ads to exhibit unique ExpoTV Videopinions reviews, which ExpoTV describes as “short, unbiased, consumer-generated videos of products and services.” The companies see such reviews as a new advertising vehicle that will, ideally, leverage the influence of brand ambassadors to get the word out about products. The appeal of user-generated reviews is that they should resonate with Internet users, as the production by another consumer lends a greater air of authenticity than a typical, company produced ad. Videopinions reviews also get advertisers off the hook when they lack creative assets suited for the online environment; the reviews provide ready-to-use video with full usage rights. Tremor Media CEO Jason Glickman calls this:

…a new twist on blending advertising with user-generated content that leverages the power of social media that is safe for brands.

Glickman is not the only one looking for creative, safe ways to leverage social media for branding purposes online. Zooppa describes its site as “an innovative platform for advertising made by users and sponsored by companies.” The start-up aspires to conduct business in a creative and rewarding viral context. By providing designers and video makers the opportunity to bid on contests from big brands to create commercials, Zooppa simultaneously fosters competition and creative collaboration. The production of ads in such an open, social environment lets companies get a glimpse of how people see a brand. The subsequent viral spread of the most popular, creative videos also works wonders for brand building.

Both the Tremor/ExpoTV partnership and the Zooppa business model demonstrate an interesting, viral yet controlled direction for online video advertising. Could blurring the lines between consumers and content creation be the next big thing in online branding?

Advertising.com recently issued a report with some intriguing findings from the company’s bi-annual video study. The study consisted of a survey which assessed consumer perceptions and usage of streaming content. Gathering data from a sample of 500 consumers over the age of 18, the survey used a series of questions related to when, what and why consumers view video online.

The study indicates that the majority of consumers are viewing video online; 62 percent of respondents claim to watch videos on the Internet. Another interesting finding shows that, contrary to popular opinion, these viewers are not simply young adults viewing user-generated videos. The majority of viewers—69 percent—falls into the 35 and older group. And that 69 percent prefers viewing news clips over YouTube videos. Lynda Clarizio, president of Advertising.com believes this preference highlights that:

The internet is still seen first and foremost as an information resource. With news clips remaining the most popular type of streamed content, video viewing habits reflect that status.

Where is the online video trend headed, and what can consumer behavior tell us about shifting preferences?

Clarizio adds that:

…it will be interesting to see how viewership evolves with the rise of social networks, more diverse video content, increased interactive gaming, and other such advances in online entertainment. I think we may see a shift in usage toward recreation; these latest figures certainly hint at that trend.

Will there be an evolution in usage as Clarizio predicts, with the focus on web video as entertainment taking a firmer hold?

Whatever the outcome, advertisers will need to pay close attention to the way consumer preferences for online video consumption develop and shift. Advertising.com’s report shows that consumers accept video advertising as part of the video experience and even prefer ads to subscription fees. The shorter the ads, the better they performed for advertisers in terms of percentage of ad played. Shorter ads also make the experience more pleasurable for consumers engaging with the video content.

Online video advertising has yet to find its equivalent to TV’s 30 second ad spot however. Video advertising online may be a more complex beast, but much of that complexity could work to the advertiser’s advantage. While online video provides a rich context for analyzing consumer behavior and closely targeting ads to viewer preferences, marketers and content providers have not fully tapped this resource. Video search will begin to play a major role, as more advanced video search engines provide transcripts of video files which enhance search results, heighten user experience and allow deeper analysis of consumer behavior and preferences online.