Online Video - Are Your Prospects Watching?

Many business owners of my (Boomer) generation have the impression that online video is consumed by younger folk, the generation that never used phones that plugged into the wall. Those of us selling custom video for online marketing and sales purposes are frustrated by this belief. So comments by Jim O’Neil, delivered to my inbox this morning, couldn’t have been more welcome. Mr. O’Neil is the editor of FierceOnlineVideo, one of a portfolio of online publications from FierceMarkets.  A boomer himself Jim describes his personal collection of gadgets, states his former belief that he was “more techie” than his peers and then reveals the research that corrected his misconception:

The Baby Boomer generation spends more on technology than any other single group, according to Forrester Research, which said Boomers spent more on monthly telecom fees, gadgets and devices and even on online shopping than Gen X or Gen Y.

Jim points out that this should not surprise us, given that for every teenager who asked for an Xbox or Playstation for Christmas there was a dad willing to convince a mother that it was the right thing for junior. Today, of course, devices like the Xbox stream Internet video and play DVDs when they aren’t playing games.

Ten years ago, a quarter of Boomers (those aged 46-64) used to get on the Internet daily; today it's seven in 10; Boomers also increasingly are watching online video. An eMarketer report this summer said 58 percent of 45- 54-year-olds watch online video, saying that number will rise to 68 percent by 2014.

As I've been pointing out in multiple posts this year, the Internet is increasingly being connected to the family flat screen TV, with recent announcements by Google TV and Apple TV joining existing enablers like Roku in promising a convergence of multimedia on the biggest screen available. This is a terrific opportunity for small and medium sized businesses to take a first step toward realizing the benefit of engaging with visitors through the medium they expect. To learn more about the opportunity visit the new NetVideoMaker site.