In their study on The Australian Online Video Market, Frost & Sullivan report there has been an explosion of online video viewing in Australia over the past 3 years with 2 billion videos streamed in 2007 to 11 billion this year. Australians are now averaging 10.2 hours of online video per month and this has been attributed to more & cheaper bandwidth, higher data caps, internet capable TVs & great choice of content. In addition to this, the ever increasing uptake of portable devices (smart phones, tablets & laptops) has lead to an increase in viewing of video on the go and at the office.

Correspondingly, Frost & Sullivan predict that Australian internet TV advertising will grow by 476% over the next 5 years. With an under supply of advertising inventory (long form content being the most popular) and an ever increasing demand, online video advertising which forms only 2% of total online ad spend will continue to accelerate.

While internet video viewing is on the rise, free to air and subscription still remain high. For brands the opportunity lies in supporting their TV spend with and online video investment which has proven to postpone the reach & frequency plateau. A recent Nielsen study on the effect of TV & Digital on the Personal Care sector demonstrated a 4&% recall of brand message for those exposed to online video & TV vs only 17% for those exposed to TV only. Another opportunity for brands is to spend 100% of their TV spend on internet video to achieve optimum reach & frequency when available marketing budgets are too small to support an extended period on TV. Due to the much lower average CPM of online video versus TV advertising, smaller budgets can achieve greater longevity & reach online. According to a cross-media effectiveness study run by TNS Australia on a beauty brand in 2010, internet TV can be just as effective as TV for all stages of the purchase funnel (promted awareness, top of mind awareness & intent to purchase).

Lastly - we love infographics here at TheFARM so I had to share this one: Cutting the Cable: The State of Internet Based TV (these are US stats but relevant none-the-less)

Hot off the press today is the news that Nielsen has released their newly approved multi-screen metric enabling them apply TV-style measurement to online advertising. While digital champions may not necessarily agree that TV metrics are relevant to online, those working with traditional marketers will understand the importance of talking a language familiar to them. If online advertising can be measured in a way that is comparable those mediums that have been in existance for 50 years, we are then in a position to demonstrate the value of digital and what it can add to the channel mix. It appears this methodology may focus TELL communications (TV, banner ads & online videos) and potentially doesn't cover the spectrum of digital (social, e-commerce, search) but is another step in bridging the knowleget gap & understanding of the benefit of online media. Exciting times!

More to come in the coming months on our thoughts on the future of shopping, paritcularly social commerce however in the meantime I came across this clip that it is well worth sharing:

This was shared with we FARMers courtesy of Chrispy - a disposable 'green' USB stick in cardboard form.

With much excitement (and a few sighs of relief) we launched our first iPhone App today.

Go Somewhere Special was created for Moccona, to bring the romance of their beautiful television commercial Candles into peoples’ real lives.

The app allows you to set a romantic journey for your date, and then send them an invitation to follow it to a secret destination. They then follow the augmented reality line of candles, meeting you at your rendezvous point.

It’s really cool!

We originally conceived the idea when pitching for the Moccona business last year, thinking it would be awesome to push the campaign further than the usual online channels, and out into the real world. With a lot of hard work from all the farmers, and support and confidence from our client, it’s been great to see the idea go through concepting, design, research and development, and finally build.

It’s available now on the Moccona Romantics facebook page, and in the app store, and it’s free so you really don’t have any excuse not to give it a go. We’re predicting it will be a really great last minute romantic gesture for those who forget about next Monday (that’s Valentine’s btw).

Here’s the TVC that started it all:

Go Somewhere Special now, and let us know what you think!