Pony Up To The Video Snack Bar
By Jaffer Ali

A realization struck me just a couple days ago: I was
thinking about the steady dose of critical assessment that
characterizes my weekly musings and my propensity to use
a rather large and heavy sledge hammer to bang away at
what passes for conventional marketing “wisdom.”

But amidst the headlines on torture, stock market
uncertainties and rising unemployment, perhaps it’s time
to point to some positive things our industry offers. Just
as there are more and more critical articles surfacing
that challenge the online status quo, I want to turn the
other cheek—or at least give it a try. Why? Who knows.
Maybe I’m just growing tired of preaching to the coterie
of folks who agree with me!

I recently was asked to speak at the CMMA (Chicago Media
and Marketing Association) monthly gathering. Together
with a video SEO expert, we discussed online video and
its enormous potential. I was struck by how few had heard
of the term “video snacking.” Given that nearly 80% (77%
to be exact) of all video viewing online is the result of
“video snacking” rather than search, we should talk about
this.

So what exactly is video snacking?

Simply put, it is spontaneous video viewing that occurs
while doing something else. It could be a link to a video
sent by a friend or a link inside a news story. Or it
could be viewing some editor’s picks on a video site like
YouTube.

Video snacking stands in direct contrast to actually
searching for, and then viewing a particular video clip.
And again, for anybody doing the math, more than three
times as many video views occur through random video
snacking than through purposeful search.

Yet most of the trade ink surrounding online video is
geared to search technology, SEM, SEO. But if we really
want to understand online video and how to harness its
innate power and appeal, it behooves us to examine how
people actually consume it.

Advertisers, in particular, should pay closer attention to
how video is consumed. Why? I think my friend, Tom Cuniff,
VP of Marketing at Combe, Inc. (Just For Men, Cepacol,
Grecian Formula, Vagisil, and about a dozen other brands)
may have the answer. Here’s how he replied when asked why
video snacking was important to him and his company:

I really like marketing within the video snacking mindset
because I have the opportunity to intervene into his/her
awareness much easier than if they were doing purposeful
searching… unless they were searching for my brands.

Tom is a savvy marketer. He understands that creative
“intervention” is what advertising and marketing is all
about. Intervening while people are “snacking” is a chance
to tap and satisfy this insatiable appetite for distraction
in a very positive manner. Besides, why try to intervene
with the 23% of consumers whose video attention is other-
wise focused? Those searching for a particular video clip—
their minority status notwithstanding—have already
“declared” their intention, described nicely in this
analogy from Mr. Cuniff:

Say someone is walking across the room to get a fire
extinguisher. They are focused on getting to the fire
extinguisher and I really will have a hard time getting
that person’s attention. But with video snackers, I can
get their interest more easily. It’s just common sense.

What Tom is saying is another formulation of what Bill
Bernbach said many years ago. Bernbach spoke of advertisers
creating “environments to buy.” Video snacking presents an
opportunity to resonate with those 77% of video-hungry
consumers looking for a satisfying video snack. In essence,
this proven behavior and the mindset that fuels it combine
to produce the ultimate environment to buy.

The wonder of the Internet is that we now have a virtually
unlimited supply of tasty video snacks to share. And we
definitely have the appetite. So advertisers, what are you
waiting for? It’s time to pony up to the nearest video
snack bar!

Jaffer Ali is CEO of Vidsense, the Web’s largest video
advertising network. With more than 80,000 advertiser-
friendly video clips licensed from major film and TV
studios, the Vidsense network of more than 50,000 safe-
for-work partner websites delivers millions of qualified
visitors directly to advertiser websites on a pure
Pay-Per-View (PPV) basis.

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