Meta-Movies: Consumers Watching More Online Video Than Ever
New research from Frank N. Magid Associates finds consumers watching more online video than ever. Half of Internet users now say they watch Web video at least once a week, up from 43% who did so a year ago. Among the 18-34 group, 67% view Internet movies weekly, and 20% watch daily. Professional short-form video is still the popular choice: music videos, movie previews, news stories, sports highlights and clips from TV shows. And to top it off, 55% of those surveyed say they find ads in online videos to be just as okay, or even more so, than ads on TV.
To capitalize on that audience, Web entertainment portal Metacafe has launched Metacafe Movies, an online destination with exclusive and original content about movies. The site offers trailers and behind the scenes footage from upcoming releases, including “redband” trailers featuring mature content. And both entertainment producers and brand advertisers will have a central place to reach those movie-fan audiences.
“We’re betting that everything about content sites is changing, and we want to own the video segment,” says Metacafe marketing vice president Michelle Cox. The site launched a Facebook page in March and now has 40,000 fans, more than the social pages for movie sites like Yahoo Movies, Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango.
In brand marketing, Metacafe offers in-line video (mostly pre-roll) but is also seeing more brand interest in site sponsorships like a “Fresh Pick of the Day” feature branded by Tic Tac and a branded entertainment integration with Butterfinger at last month’s Comic-Con. At press time, the site was linking a “Summer Blockbuster” movie showcase with a contest from JCPenney’s American Living apparel line.
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