"This survey clearly demonstrates that businesses of all sizes consider online video to be an integral part of their marketing mix," said Bud Rosenthal, CEO of TurnHere. "Online video is the number one priority among all online marketing tools for 2010, and that finding directly ties into the high satisfaction levels for video implementation and its return on investment (ROI)."

- Online video is the top marketing priority for 2010, edging out both email and search marketing

- Companies are experimenting across a wide range of video marketing: 57% have created branded video; 40% have used video for product or service demos, and 37% for customer or employee testimonials

- Branded content is the preferred online video type with the highest use among all video formats, the highest overall satisfaction levels and the highest likelihood of future use

- The top reasons for video include: branding (60%), exposure on sites like YouTube (54.7%), and viral content (48%)

- Professionally produced content was overwhelmingly favored over user generated

- 83.5% of respondents are already using online video in their marketing efforts in one form or another

- 90.7% of respondents are likely or highly likely to use online video in their marketing efforts in the next 12 months

The survey was conducted throughout the third quarter of 2009, and included respondents from Fortune 500 companies, as well as regional brands, PR and traditional agencies. Surveyed companies had annual marketing budgets ranging from $100,000 to $5 million.TurnHere’s report is available here.

One company that specializes in creative online video ads is expecting to double its orders compared to last year. TurnHere says that strong Q1 numbers and a robust project pipeline indicate significant revenue growth for this year.

"In this economy, brands are focusing on the programs that deliver reach, cost efficiencies, engagement and ROI. At the same time, customers are looking for compelling content that speaks to them, not markets at them," says TurnHere CEO Bud Rosenthal.

"The Social Web is redefining how a company or brand can connect with customers at deeper levels than previously possible through expensive broadcast productions or traditional Web marketing," says Rosenthal.

More brands are turning to video to engage customers online. eMarketer predicted that overall online advertising spending will grow just 4.5% in 2009, while they projected online video ad spend to increase 32.7% from 2008 levels.

Recent Nielsen data indicated that in the last year unique viewers of online video grew 10 percent, the number of streams grew 41 percent, the streams per user grew 27 percent and the total minutes spent with online video increased 71 percent.

Video ad spending jumped by a whopping 74% in a years time according to comScore.

It appears that firms who cater to video advertising are looking at good times ahead. Advertisers themselves may want to look at guidelines recently released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau that were designed to cut production costs while inreasing return-on-investment.

CelebTV is exactly what its name would lead you to expect: “real-time entertainment video news.”  There’s an added “e-focus,” however, since CelebTV is “distributed exclusively on broadband and mobile channels,” and that may explain why its video quality is surprisingly good.

As for the results of the new arrangement, Blinkx intends to index CelebTV’s content.  And Dana Golden, CelebTV.com’s general manager, stated, “We’re pleased to be working with blinkx to make CelebTV.com’s content available to audiences around the world.  blinkx’s technology enables users to search video much more easily, whether it’s for breaking news, the top entertainment stories of the day, or the latest video of their favorite stars in the Hollywood scene.”

This development continues Blinkx’s roll of accomplishments; in the last month, we’ve seen it partner with both Utarget and TurnHere.  This also continues the expansion of Blinkx’s video index; the company now claims to have over 14 million hours of content “fully searchable and available on demand.”

The Blinkx-CelebTV deal may not be of groundbreaking importance – hard news should take precedent over the lives of Paris Hilton and her friends.  But once you’ve caught up with world events, it won’t hurt to have another entertainment outlet on tap.

New distribution partners include aNobii, Blinkx, blip.tv, Book Divas, Buy.com, FORA.tv, Goodreads, Lib.rario.us, LibraryThing, Revish, Veoh, Vuze and WhatsOnMyBookshelf.

Currently TurnHere’s distribution network consists of major Web portals including AOL, Google, MSN, Yahoo and YouTube. With its new video and publishing partners, TurnHere hopes to bring a global audience of book fans broader access to BookVideos.tv.

"TurnHere’s author videos are compelling content, and we think they are an excellent addition to our author profiles," said Otis Chandler, founder and CEO, Goodreads.

"We’re finding that seeing and hearing a favorite author in an on-page video is a very evocative experience, and we’re very excited to be working with TurnHere to provide it to our members."

In addition to its new distribution partners, TurnHere has launched a new customizable widget and enhanced video player for book publishers. The new video player was built using ActionScript 3.0 programming language, added commenting options, improved author bios and book descriptions, book jacket art, related video links, embed codes and link sharing functionality through RSS feeds and email.

"TurnHere’s network of distribution partners is growing at an incredible rate and we are continuing to look at strategic business initiatives that add value to book publishers through BookVideos.tv," said Bradley J. Inman, CEO and founder, TurnHere.

"As we continue to forge new relationships with a diverse range of Web partners, we are reaching a very engaged online audience never before tapped into by the publishing market."

Bookvideos.tv

 The branded channels will feature authors from each of the company’s divisions, such as Adult, Children’s and Audio. Users will be able to view two-minute videos focusing on behind-the-scenes stories of author’s lives, content of their books and inspiration for their newest release.

Some of the authors involved in the initial launch are Sandra Brown, Jennifer Chiaverini, Philippa Gregory, James Loewen, Santa Montefiore, Kathy Reichs, Blair Underwood, Jeannette Walls, Marianne Wiggins and Zane, and the Newbery Medal winning children’s author Susan Patron

Authors that will appear in upcoming videos include President Jimmy Carter, Carol Higgins Clark, Mary Higgins Clark, Vince Flynn, Ursula Hegi, Jennifer Weiner, and children’s authors Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, John Lithgow, and Scott Westerfeld.

"By incorporating online video into our marketing efforts at Bookvideos.tv and elsewhere, we are able to provide our readers with unprecedented access to their favorite authors, foster lasting emotional connections and create dedicated fans," said Sue Fleming, Vice President, Online and Consumer Marketing for the Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group.

"Working with TurnHere broadens our reach across the Web, taps into new audiences and provides an experience for readers that is just plain fun."

The Bookvideos.tv channel will feature elements of social media to encourage discussion among their users.

The social media functions include:

A user community feature powered by MyBlogLog, which brings together like-minded readers to converse about their favorite books and authors;

Video of The Week – Readers can sign up to receive a featured video through email on a regular basis;

A comments feature so users can post feedback about the latest videos;

An "email a friend" viral marketing capability;
RSS capability so readers can subscribe to the latest videos via an RSS feed.

"Online video has emerged as a very emotionally compelling medium for publishers looking to create a dedicated network of readers and extend their brand across the Web," said Bradley J. Inman, founder and CEO of TurnHere.

The companies will create videos with information on featured books and authors along with previews of new titles. The channel will be called Bookvideos.tv and is scheduled to launch in early June.

"Readers have long hungered for greater contact and more information about authors," said Sue Fleming, Vice President, Online and Consumer Marketing for the Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. "Now readers will have a way to view and share compelling content about our authors, available on a 24/7 basis."

TurnHere will post videos to a branded channel about authors from Simon & Schuster and will cover all categories including adult, children and audio. Users will be able to watch two-minute segments that focus on an author’s life, the content of the book and how they developed their story idea.

Authors who will participate in the initial launch include, Sandra Brown, Mary Higgins Clark, Vince Flynn, Philippa Gregory, Ursula Hegi, Mark Hyman, and Kathy Reichs.

Simon and Schuster have plans to create videos for 40 authors and may expand that number in the future.

Fleming added, "Bookvideos.tv will allow readers to easily use the Internet to replicate, for the digital age, the critical and time tested word of mouth excitement that comes from talking about a good read."

"Working with Turn Here to tap this huge potential audience is an exciting new way of marketing for us, and we expect to find legions of new readers while at the same time giving a new experience to dedicated fans of our authors."