Don’t use online ads with older business people

I have never been a great fan of in-stream video ads. Looking at this analysis I shouldn’t be surprised since neither are most others of my age group.

If this type of advertising is something that you are considering then it might be a good idea to read this article in eMarketer. Dick Stroud

A do it yourself guide to video marketing

This guy has just been on a course about video marketing and relates what he learnt. Talks a lot of sense. Dick Stroud

An offer you cannot refuse from Adobe

When Adobe makes a claim like this..

Get the definitive guide for deploying video to maximize your online business!

...you cannot refuse.

Adobe claims that retailers deploying the Adobe Scene7 video solution have reported more than 2X sales increases, 30% conversion lift and 19% higher average order value among shoppers who view videos.

This must be worth 30 secs of your life to download. Dick Stroud

Executives embrace the non-text Web

Forbes has done some research to understand manager’s attitudes towards receiving information in a non-text format (i.e. in a video stream).

You can read a summary of the document on eMarketer or if you want the original document you will need to register on the Forbes web site. If video is your thing then it is well worthwhile.


This is what Forbes had to say

A majority of the businesspeople surveyed by Forbes in October 2010 said they watched more online video than a year earlier. Nearly 60% of all respondents said they would watch video before reading text on the same webpage, and 22% said they generally liked watching video more than reading text for reviewing business information. Three-quarters of all executives said they watched work-related videos on business websites at least once a week, and more than half did the same on YouTube.

As you can see from the image, there was a considerable difference in the attitude of the respondents depending on their age.

But hold on a minute. In the methodology section it states that the number of people interviewed was 300. These are spread over three age groups. It doesn’t say how these were split by age group. Let’s say that the divided the sample equally (i.e. a hundred per age group) then these conclusions are based on 100 people aged 50-plus.

Now we know that there is a big difference in the way older people react to technology, from the age of 60-65 onward. So what we have is an average that will cover the tech savvy younger and less tech aware older old. This makes me think you should be careful in drawing too many conclusions from the results. Dick Stroud