55% of Online Video Viewers OK with Web Ads - eMarketer

It’s almost unimaginable that it its early days, the internet was text based.
But the majority of people are more interested in watching rather than reading, so along came the pictures, animated content, sound and video. The latter is conquering fast, growing audience day by day. The good news for advertisers is, that according to eMarketer, these people have a high tolerance towards advertisements within the video content. We tend to have a predisposition thinking that ads are intrusive, but according to a research conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates, more than half, that is 55% of online video viewers are ok with web advertisements.

source: 55% of Online Video Viewers OK with Web Ads – eMarketer

The 'book-buyers' and the value of audience research

I saw a clever advertorial (or if not, fabulous free advertising) on Kmart slashing book prices in time for the Christmas shopping (ACA, Channel 9, 28/10/09) last week. Apparently books make a great gift. But why would any retailer slash prices so much where it's hardly profitable anymore?

Well, Seth Godin helped me understand. Because 'some people are better than others'. That is better customers. Kmart is discounting books to draw in a desired crowd: book-buyers, who are cashed up and tend to buy other products as well. So they know who their lucrative audience is. But how? Via research.
This is exactly why audience research in media is so important, and why marketers want to know who they are, what they consume, when and how often.

In fact, one of the first things that you learn when you start working in media sales is the value of research. Because you are not really selling the column cm's, page impressions or 30 seconds of airtime, but you are selling the audience, preferably the most suitable, and most lucrative one for your client. And to know where to find this audience, we need research.

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