Online Real Estate Technology

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The average online video stream discovered on the Twitter social network is viewed for two minutes and seven seconds , according to a new study from TubeMogul, Brightcove, and DynamicLogic.

Twitter Beats Yahoo, Facebook

Comparing the average viewing time of 103,731,006 random video streams discovered on several leading social networks and search engines, “Online Video Best Practices” finds that the average video stream sourced via Twitter is viewed for two minutes and seven seconds. No other social network or search engine analyzed broke the two-minute mark.

Search engine Yahoo followed with an average viewing time of one minute and 54 seconds, closely trailed by social network Facebook with an average viewing time of one minute and 50 seconds. Search engines Google (1:27) and Bing (1:09) had significantly shorter average online video viewing times.

Online Videos Have Short Shelf Life

Analyzing the average 90-day viewing lifecycle of an online video, the study finds the average online video receives half its 90-day online view total in the first six days, and 75% in the first 20 days.

The shelf life of online videos has dropped dramatically since 2008, when it took the average online video took two weeks to get half its 90-day view total and 44 days to reach 75%.

Repurposed, Made-for-Web Ads Have Different Strengths

There is no one superior production format, it turns out; repurposed TV spots typically result in higher impact on awareness metrics, while made-for-web video content more ably persuades its viewers.

More specifically, repurposed TV ads are slightly better at raising brand awareness (affect 2% of viewers compared to 1.9%) and message association (2.2% compared to 2.1%), and affect a moderately higher percentage of viewers in terms of online ad awareness (4.7% compared to 4.3%).

Meanwhile, made-for-web ads outperform repurposed TV ads in brand favorability (1.6% compared to 1.2%) and purchase intent (1.4% compared to 0.8%).

Custom Content Boosts Purchase Intent Among 18-34-Yr-Olds

Comparing the affect of repurposed TV and made-for-web content on viewers of different ages, the study finds that purchase intent among 18-to-34-year-olds who view made-for-web content (2.8%) dwarfs purchase intent for either type of content among any age group. This percentage is more than double the next-highest purchase intent rate, 1.1% of 18-to-34-year-olds exposed to repurposed TV content.

This age group also has significantly higher online ad awareness from viewing made-for-web content (5.9%) than any other online ad awareness score, although nowhere near double the amount. The highest brand favorability score is among 35-to-49-year-olds who view made-for-web content (2%), while brand awareness is highest among 35-to-49-year-olds exposed to repurposed TV content (3.3%).

8 in 10 Marketers Using Online Video Seek Higher Engagement

Close to 80% of marketers using online video on their sites do so to increase visitor engagement, or time spent, according to other study results. This is by far the most popular reason. Another 60% use online video to strengthen their brand, and almost 60% use online video to increase overall visitors (more than one answer was permissable).

No other reason garnered as much as a 40% response rate. Approximately 30% of respondents said they use online video on their sites to increase available ad inventory.

Most brand managers currently use online video for marketing purposes and will increase their usage in the next 12 months, according to a new white paper from Brightcove and TubeMogul.

Most Brand Websites Feature Online Video
Findings from “Online Video & The Media Industry” indicate that nearly 85% of brand managers surveyed currently use online video on brand websites for marketing products and services. And for those not using video, 75% plan to add online video to their websites in the next 12 months.

6 in 10 Brand Managers Will Up Online Video Spending
In addition, while brands currently devote a relatively small portion of their overall marketing budgets to onsite video initiatives (50% devote less than 10%, 23% devote less than 25%, and 22% devote between 25% and 50%), nearly 60% of respondents say they plan to spend more on their website video initiatives within the next 12 months. Only a fractional amount plan to spend less.

Online Video Promotes Awareness
Two-thirds (66%) of brand managers surveyed said branding/awareness is the primary purpose of their online video initiatives. Another 21% use online video for direct response and lead generation, while 12% use it to drive e-commerce and sales initiatives.

Online Video Aids E-commerce
Many of those using online video to drive e-commerce and sales initiatives find it highly effective at increasing customer engagement and time spent on the brand website (53%), as well as sales conversions (35%). Twelve percent say online video in e-commerce helps reduce product returns, customer service calls and shopping cart abandonment.

Marketers Educate via Online Video
Video is well-used by marketers, mostly for educational purposes, according to a new study from King Fish Media, Hubspot and Junta 42. Data from “Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability” indicates that 61% of marketers use video content on their own websites, while another 56% use video content on third-party video-sharing sites. This indicates that a majority of marketers are willing to sacrifice some measure of control over their video content distribution and management in order to reach as wide an audience as possible.

Marketers also show limited openness to different video platforms. Thirteen percent use video content in emails, and 7% use video content on mobile devices. While the future of email is somewhat unclear, it seems fairly likely the percentage of marketers distributing video content via mobile device should substantially grow in the next several years.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its July 2010 rankings of the top video properties in Australia based on data from its comScore Video Metrix service. The report found that 81 percent of Australia’s Internet population viewed video online in July, with an average viewer watching more than 7 hours of video during the month.

“Online video has evolved to become an essential part of Australians’ daily web experience,” said Amy Weinberger, comScore vice president for Australia and New Zealand. “As advertisers look for ways to engage with consumers in an increasingly fragmented digital environment, online video offers the ability to reach large audiences in an engaging environment where ads tend to perform well.”

Google Accounts for More than Half of Online Video Market

In July, Internet users in Australia watched a total of 970 million online videos, with Google Sites ranking as the top video property with 539 million videos viewed, representing 55.5 percent market share. YouTube.com accounted for more than 99 percent of all videos viewed at the Google property. Microsoft Sites ranked second with 29.6 million videos (3.0 percent market share), followed by Facebook.com with 12.5 million videos viewed (1.3 percent market share).

Average Viewer Watched 90 Videos in July

In Australia, 10.7 million unique video viewers watched an average of 90.8 videos per viewer during the month. Google Sites also attracted the largest video audience with 8.5 million viewers during the month (64 videos per viewer), followed by Microsoft Sites with 3.3 million viewers (9.0 videos per viewer) and Facebook.com with 2.7 million viewers (4.7 videos per viewer).

Top Video Ad Networks by Potential Reach

In July, SpotXchange ranked as the top video ad network in Australia with a potential reach of 5.4 million viewers, or 50.7 percent of the total viewing audience. Adconion Video Network ranked second with a potential reach of 5.1 million viewers (48.1 percent penetration) followed by YuMe Video network with a potential reach of 4.1 million viewers (38.0 percent penetration).

Continuing a trend established in January and February 2010, the videos selected by video-content distributor goviral for March 2010 were universally light in tone.

For the first time this year, goviral did not select any public service announcement videos. Four of the 10 videos selected for March centered on some form of athletic performance or achievement. These include the number one video, which demonstrates a possibly staged trick performed on a BMW motorcycle, as well as a Pepsi video featuring famous soccer players, a Nike ad highlighting the connection between athletes (both famous and unknown), and an Adidas ad with numerous athletic and non-athletic celebrities.

Two videos featured humor mocking other brands. Sony Playstation directly ridicules the controllers used by rival Microsoft’s Xbox gaming system, and SpecSavers directly parodies the sexist ads from men’s body spray Axe that suggest men who use Axe will have beautiful women in bikinis purse them.

In a return to a trend seen in January 2010, most of last month’s videos were global in theme and featured little or no language. Globally famous celebrities and/or simple yet powerful imagery made these videos easily consumed by viewers anywhere in the world. Most of February 2010’s videos required knowledge of the English language and US or UK popular culture and humor to fully appreciate, which partially reflects the inclusion of several commercials aired during the February 2010 Super Bowl telecast.

The top 10 picks for February, with links to view on YouTube:

1. BMW S1000RR – Dinner Table, agency: n/a
2. Pedigree – Dogs, agency: TBWA
3. Pepsi Max – ‘Oh Africa,’ agency: n/a
4. Nike – The Human Chain, agency: Wieden & Kennedy
5. Adidas Originals – Street Corner, agency: Sid Lee
6. Tropicana – Arctic Sun, agency: BBDO
7. Sprite – Spark, agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty
8. Sony Playstation – Move, agency: Deutsch
9. Specsavers – ‘The Specs Effect,’ agency: Specsavers Creative
10. Natural Gas Belgium – Soft Heat, agency: TBWA

About the Rankings: goviral issues a monthly top-10 list of viral video rankings on its site, including additional commentary about the videos, their approaches and why the firm thinks they are viral or likely to become viral in the future.

This past week I’ve spent time in Victoria and NSW visiting real estate offices and I must make a very special mention of Bianca and Neil Brown from Century21 Wentworth Falls, I was in their office yesterday and spent what to me, was a very inspiring morning. Their desire, commitment and dedication to evolve their business on the net actually inspired me. During the morning the subject of video came up, including the use of video for an office profile, on their properties and vlogging, that’s the video version of a blog. My attempt at this just recently astounded me with the results that my little piece got from Viddler.com, Over 200 embeds and 50 views, not bad for a 4 minute piece recorded in a hotel room and then placed only on my blog.

So I thought I would go one step further with this and evolve the process and look at what a real estate agent could achieve with a weekly or daily video update. Technology has made this process so simple now that anyone can record a video and then load it to the web, and you don’t need any real skills to do this, just a camera or webcam and a computer. The idea of communicating in real time by blogging, podcasting and Vlogging is just starting to be utilised by real estate marketers here in Australia, although it is very popular with US based agents. I was chatting to Neil and Bianca about using video on a weekly basis to provide market updates and create a communication tool that could be syndicated via their own C21 web site and also tap into social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube and Itunes.

So lets look further into this and see where it could go, real estate agents could use it to provide information instantly to clients and buyers alike, provide market updates,even market their clients houses via these updates. Record your video after your weekend open homes and provide that information to your vendors or just report on the results of auctions on that weekend. You could even create your own real estate show using this method, interview local people and share information to your audience. Promote your show via your marketing on listings and traditional marketing, add it to your letter box drops etc, this all helps to create an audience for your show.

I know some of you reading this may think you have enough to do now without adding more work to your day and I agree this will not be for everybody, but just think of the niche you could create for yourself with this, being able to provide your clients with real time market information or use it to create a wider market for your business.  I’m going to put my own thoughts on this into action and start to introduce more video into my blog, I’ll add it to Itunes and Youtube as well and see how popular it becomes.

So after having this flash of creativity, I did some research on the power of video and during this research it led me to a Canadian Realtor by the name of Tom Everitt who is based in Vancouver Canada. Tom is a realtor who has created his own TV show and along with his wife Kerrie records and uploads videos to his web site daily. I’ve included one of those videos for you to see his profile after being interveiwed for the local TV news channel.

If after watching this video you would like to visit his web site and look at his videos, here’s the link for you. http://www.thinktom.com/

The concepts and ideas are limitless for this, so get your Video camera ready and start recording!!!!

Ever thought about posting videos to youtube? maybe putting your corporate office video and property videos on youtube? well check out Century21′s US based youtube channel, I’ve spoken about this in an earlier post, for some interesting ideas and thought starters on using the social network sites to distribute and promote you, your brand and product. Youtube is not just for the backyard video though, it is now becoming a very powerful tool in the distribution of educational videos, music videos etc. Even University’s are using it, companies are promoting on it and you should too. Why not start vlogging, the video version of a blog,and then promoting this on youtube. Start promoting yourself in the digital age and by uploading to youtube you will start to market yourself to the new generation of on line researchers.

I’m about to start looking at vlogging and I’ll start to create video versions of my podcasts as well as look at including interviews with industry professionals as part of my strategy. But I thought today I’d show you some very interesting uses of video…. So don’t say you weren’t warned!!!

First up is Century21′s “Agent of the Year”, now here is a very interesting approach to marketing a home:    

And if you really liked that!!! Here’s a more conservative use of the medium:

As I’ve mentioned before, video is portable content and you can use youtube to distribute your little gems.

Quite simple really, so why not start today? Why do you think Google paid $1.65 Billion for it