Apart from Michael Jackson’s death and the Iranian elections, two news stories that greatly increased total time spent for online video in the month of June, July continued to prove to be a strong month with 21.4 billion videos viewed during the month.

According to comScore Video Metrix, 158 million US Internet users watched videos in July, it’s an audience record hit. In addition, the duration of the average online video was 3.7 minutes and the average viewer watched about 500 minutes of video.

Also in July, Google websites ranked as the top U.S. video property with 8.9 billion videos viewed, while YouTube accounted for more than 99% of all videos viewed.

Here are some more facts from the comScore research:

- 120.3 million viewers watched 8.9 billion videos on YouTube.com (74.1 videos per viewer)
- 48.2 million viewers watched 518.6 million videos on MySpace.com (10.8 videos per viewer)
- The average Hulu viewer watched 12.0 videos, totaling 1 hour and 13 minutes of videos per viewer
- The duration of the average online video was 3.7 minutes

What do these results tell us? Well, for starters, these are all positive signs for the online video industry. Both the quality and amount of content being uploaded online is greatly increasing as well as the audience watching it.

Moreover, trends show that people are accessing the internet more and more while the average time spend watching TV is declining. In fact, Microsoft predicts that internet consumption is set to overtake TV by 2010 as the most used form of media.

It is very important for advertisers and marketers to take these predictions and statistics into consideration and brainstorm on any alternative strategy in which the two (TV/online videos) can converge in order to take advantage of both consumer audiences.

And most importantly, don’t forget to optimize your online videos for YouTube or any other website to achieve a good position on the search results!

According to Martin Sorrell, WPP’s CEO and advertising guru, in an recent interview for one of Italy’s most read journals, Corriere della Sera, the first half of 2009 will be one of the hardest as traditional media will see the worst declines particularly newspapers, radio and TV specially in USA and Europe.

Perhaps the most comforting remark he made throughout the interview was that he didn’t believe the economic recession would simulate that of an ‘Apocalypse Now.’

However, the online shows a strong performance for 2009 as email, search and social media show the highest expected change in budget allocation with an increase of 58.5%, 54.4% and 43.9% respectively while offline media is expected to reduce at a 34.9%.

As part of the selected advertising goals for 2009 the highest degree of importance went to new customer acquisition, followed by increased customer retention and increased brand favorability- all of which could be effectively attainable through the implementation of the right online strategies and social media as a marketing/networking tool.

Towards the end of the interview, Sorrell switched to a more optimistic view of what the Internet landscape will be like post-crisis affirming it will increase its market share from 12% to 20-25%.

I guess we can all agree it is quite a quest to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. It’s officially the biggest challenge for all advertisers.

The segments that came relevant to this study include:

Ads on emerging media vehicles- ads delivered using new media channels (ie: mobile)

Ads on the road- billboards, outdoor advertising, etc.

Ads in mass media- ads that have the highest reach, vehicles include magazines, TV, Internet.

Ads on paper- ads delivered through print.

Ads at events- product placement ads at shows, events, sports or through TV programs.

Ads averse- or plainly ‘ad blinded’.

I’d like to highlight the 9% of US citizens pertaining to the ‘Ads on Emerging Media Vehicles’ segment. This is a reflection of the individuals who have been hit with the new ways of the Internet and advancements that enable users to access the online world from devices other than a personal computer.

Traditional advertising seems to be preferred by 17% of US adults, while 13% get driven by product placement in public environments or over TV shows.

A high percentage of US adults, however, seem to just ‘tune out’ the advertising.

The chart above also shows you which statement, 9% of US adults who fall under the ‘Ads on Emerging Media Vehicles’ category, mostly agree on.