Keep in mind that this is the firm behind such viral hits as Evian Roller Babies and Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like (not to mention the campaign that got Chrome’s PageRank penalized):

“Notably, it was found that viewers are far more likely to recall a brand name and engage with an ad’s message if a branded video has been recommended to them by a peer,” an Unruly spokesperson tells WebProNews.

The firm points out the following highlights from the research:

• Brand recall and brand association rose 7 percent among viewers who had been recommended the videos versus viewers who found it by browsing;
• 73 percent of respondents who viewed a peer-recommended video recalled the brand when prompted versus 68 percent of viewers who had browsed to the video directly;
• There was a 14 percent increase in the number of people who enjoyed the video following a recommendation versus those who had discovered it by browsing;
• People who enjoyed a video were 97 percent more likely to purchase the product featured in the video

Here’s a closer look at the enjoyment comparison between recommended vs. non-recommended videos:

As Unruly notes in its report, the enjoyment level is important because it has a direct impact on key brand metrics:

The entire report is available in white paper format.

Need some pointers on what makes a video go viral? Here are some good points made by Robert Knorpp at the BlogWorld and New Media Expo in November.

One is “The Playbook Guide: YouTube for Good”. This is described as “a how-to resource specifically targeted at nonprofit organizations, with sections on how to create content, raise funds, connect with other community members and more.”

The donate button has also been made more prominent.

“Nonprofits are an important part of the YouTube community, and their videos have educated and inspired audiences since the early days of the site,” says YouTube’s Valerie Streit. “There are hundreds of nonprofit organizations with millions of views on YouTube, and dozens with more than ten million views, like Greenpeace, Khan Academy and UNICEF.”

There are over 16,000 nonprofit organizations that are involved in the program.

We brought you some funny tweets about it yesterday, but here’s some video of the performance itself:

This particular version of the clip already has over 2 million views itself.

According to Forbes, the new channel will be called the Huffington Post Streaming Network and will kick off with a preview held in AOL’s HQ in New York City on February 2nd.

The new network will structure itself like cable news networks and provide real-time news and discussion. This means that Huffington Post reporters and editors will appear on camera to discuss events as they happen throughout the day. The channel is also prepared to feature on-air editorial meetings and social media integration, to give viewers an up close and personal look into how the news passes through HuffPo and out to consumers.

It’s not going to be a 24-hour news network, according to the sources. Live footage will be cut and re-broadcast to fill some time. But apparently the new HPSN will have more live coverage than competitors like the New York Time and the Wall Street Journal have with their streaming web programming.

To advertisers, video content is becoming a key priority, and that’s the big motivation behind this move. Huffington Post’s newsroom sports over 300 members, so the new project is most definitely feasible.

Can Huffington Post leverage this new channel to compete with traditional cable news outlets? Let us know in the comments.

U.S. internet denizens watched a lot of online video in December – 23.2 hours per viewer. Throughout the entire month, a total of 182 million users watched a whopping 43.5 billion videos.

As far as unique viewers go, Google sites led the charge nearly tripling up the next closest competitor, VEVO. Google claimed 157.2 million unique viewers who watched 21.9 billion videos in December. Google sites also held high viewer engagement with about 7.9 hours of watching per user.

Hulu, who finished in 8th place in terms of unique viewers with 31.2 million, also had impressive engagement. Hulu users spent a little over 3 hours on average watching videos on the site.

Americans also viewed a total of 7.2 billion ads last month, spanning 3 billion minutes. These video ads accounted for 14.1% of all the online videos viewed in the month of December. Hulu was tops in terms of video ad impressions with around 1.5 billion. They were closely followed by adapt.tv with 1.1 billion and Tremor Video with 900 million.

Finally, VEVO is still the top YouTube partner with 53.5 million viewers. They also had the highest engagement numbers with 66.9 minutes per viewer over the course of the month.

A couple of bonus figures: 85.3% of the entire U.S. internet community viewed online videos. The length of those online videos averaged out to 5.8 minutes, and the average ad was only 24 seconds long.

Thanks to a partnership with Disney UK, LoveFilm will offer on-demand streaming access to ABC Studios’ library of network and cable series.

This includes shows like Castle, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Happy Endings, Grey’s Anatomy, Ghost Whisperer and Brothers & Sisters. Shows will be launched as full seasons after their first run on UK pay and/or free TV, Amazon says. Previous seasons of some series will be available to members before the next season airs in the UK.

“LoveFilm members want top class TV shows, as well as movies, to watch instantly as part of their subscription. Today’s deal with Disney brings them access to some of the best American TV content ever produced. LoveFilm’s unique combination of world class movies and TV shows ensures that LoveFilm is the first and only port of call for those who want subscription entertainment on demand,” says LoveFilm CEO Simon Calver.

“ABC TV On Demand is home to high quality, compelling US drama, produced by ABC Studios, and launching this service with LoveFilm means we are able to offer viewers more choice and flexibility in how and when they can view full seasons of these gripping shows, through one easy-to-use service,” adds Catherine Powell, senior vice president / general manager, Media Distribution, The Walt Disney Company.

Other recent LoveFilm streaming deals include Sony, BBC and ITV.

Now, competition is significantly higher for LoveFilm, as Netflix just entered the UK market last week.

Netflix announced earlier this month that it would be launching a new show called Lilyhammer in February. This is the second exclusive show for Netflix, though it will actually premiere ahead of the first (House of Cards).

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Hulu will “roll out two new shows between now and summer, while bringing back a third it debuted last year. The new shows include a half-hour scripted comedy about a dysfunctional Senate campaign, dubbed ‘Battleground,’ beginning in February, and a travelogue show from director Richard Linklater.”

The other show would be the Morgan Spurlock vehicle “A Day in the Life,” which will reportedly return in March.

Hulu recently announced it would be investing half a billion dollars in content for 2012. The service has grown significantly in the past year, having hit $420 million in revenue.

It’s probably fair to say that we’re only going to see more and more original programming coming to the web’s major online video providers (including YouTube).

It’s clear that a lot of people (who haven’t done so already) are about ready to “cut the cord” from their cable companies, and offerings like these will only give them less dependence on cable and satellite providers.

Others of note: 51 million viewers per month globally, and 49 million hours of video viewed per month.

They’re calling it an experiment, and a way for YouTube users to discover the next “Charlie Bit My Finger”.

“This is the place for discovering talented amateur singers, the most adorable clips and the craziest videos on YouTube,” it says on the YouTube Slam site. “Watch pairs of videos and vote for your favorite. Videos are scored based on your votes, and the best videos are featured on the slam leaderboard.”

Each week, they put up a new crop of videos, and users can earn points for predicting crowd favorites.

Users can also subscribe to the Slam channels, which include: Bizarre Slam, Cute Slam, Music Slam, Dance Slam and Comedy Slam.

I can see where this could be addictive. It should be a good discovery tool for YouTube. It will be interesting to see if they integrate it into the YouTube experience itself.

Peter Kafka at AllThingsD reports that Motorola Mobility has acquired SetJam, which provides online video listings and data.

It includes Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Cartoon Network, MTV, Disney, Nickelodeon, Adult Swim, Spike, iTunes, TBS, CBS, WB, FX, South Park Studios, Comedy Central, CrunchRoll, FOX, TNT and Crackle as its sources.

SetJam offers web widgets, a downloadable database (XML), REST API and custom intergration for various players via data partnerships, product strategies, interface design, custom data and custom development.

“At SetJam, we’re fully dedicated to making online TV as simple as traditional TV,” the company says. “That’s why, in addition to our 3 product lines, we’re offering custom integration services, to help you bring the power of online TV & movie content to your device or application.”

As we discussed when Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility was first announced, Google would be getting much more than just a phone maker. Motorola offers set-top boxes, for example. The SetJam acquisition would appera to play into this.

According to its site, SetJam itself is currently hiring.