Music Videos Are Great for Pre-Roll Ads, Study Finds
— Preroll ads shown before music videos perform quite a bit better than prerolls shown before other types of videos, according to numbers shared by TubeMogul, the video advertising platform for brands. In an analysis of 20.5 million impressions from top brand campaigns run this year, and comparing identical ads, TubeMogul found that music videos are better at driving clicks than other types of video content.
Here are the numbers that show how music outperformed other content for a range of advertising categories. For restaurant ads, music videos had a 3.1% click-through rate compared to 0.5% for all other content. For consumer packaged goods the spread was 1.9% for music to 1.0% for other content. For telecom/mobile the difference was 2.7% for music to 2.1% for other content.
People Prefer Online Video Over All Digital Music Formats
— If you thought YouTube is the lone killer app in digital music, here are some numbers to back up your opinion. Online video is the most popular form of engagement with digital music, according to a recently released white paper from Nielsen and Midem. Fifthy-seven percent of people surveyed had watched online video in the previous three months. The only other form of digital consumption in that ballpark was “downloading a song without paying for it” at 49%. The online survey of 26,644 online consumers in 53 markets and was conducted in September 2010. Nielsen did not break out the responses by market, so remember these numbers are for consumers in a variety of countries.
After #2 there is a sharp drop. “Streamed music from my computer” landed at #3 with 26%, “watched music videos on mobile phone” at #4 with 21% and “streamed music on my mobile phone from a music mobile application” at #5 with 21%. Paying for downloads were the bottom two forms of consumption on the list. About 18% of consumers had “paid to download a music track to my computer” and just 9% had “paid to download a whole digital album to my computer.”
While music videos have the highest levels of engagement, consumers are more likely to access music files on a computer each week (49%) than use an Internet video service several times a week (44%). ( Midem.com)
Nostalgia for Chain Stores
— Brick-and-mortar record stores – and stores that carry physical music – may be disappearing from the American landscape, but the Atlantic Cities’ post titled “Why Americans Love Chain Stores: A Psychological Perspective” is still worth a read. After all, chain stores and mass merchants represent 50% of all album sales year to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The Atlantic Cities is a new blog at The Atlantic that’s about, well, cities. Academic/author/speaker/though leader Richard Florida is a contributor.
So why do Americans love chain stores and shopping centers? Here’s an explanatory excerpt from an article in last month’s issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology titled “Residential Mobility Breeds Familiarity-seeking”:
“Our main thesis is that residential mobility, the very factor that allows Americans to pursue their individual desires, ironically facilitates the uniformity of American landscapes. This is because a move to a ‘strange land’ evokes the desire for familiar objects, including national chain stores. Although starting a new life in a new city is exciting, a residential move also causes a significant amount of stress and anxiety. … This general state of agitation, stress, and overload is expected to lay the foundation for familiarity-seeking behaviors among movers.”
Indeed, Americans are a mobile people. In 2006, about 16% of us moved within the previous year (it’s likely that number has changed since the housing crisis has reduced Americans’ ability to relocate). Oishi and other researchers performed experiments to see what types of stores people would prefer to shop. It turns out there was a significant correlation between preference for chain stores and the number of times a person moved. ( American Cities)