Video Overlays: A More Authentic Way to Spice up Your Website

Video overlays have enhanced the website experience dramatically. It allows people to visit a website and receive information about a certain company in video format. This creates a better experience for the viewer because instead of having to read through pages of information to find out certain facts about a company, they are able to sit and watch a short video that will deliver that information to them in a more entertaining fashion. If the viewer enjoys what they see and hear in the video it will most likely make them want to spend time on the website to try and find out more information about what the company has to offer. On that note, online video has been successful at generating more visitors. Statistics show that online videos on a websites increase the percentage of visitors by 56%. As well, in April of 2009, Internet users viewed a record of 16.8 million videos online. This shows that videos are becoming extremely popular and that it is an extremely powerful medium to try and grab the attention of online viewers. In addition to, 67% of people view a minimum of 1 online video advertisement a month which illustrates that someone is bound to come across and watch an online video advertisement.

By creating videos, a company has an advantage of controlling how its information is being delivered to the viewer. For instance, when someone is reading a page of information, they might not understand the information the way the company had intended for it to be understood. With video, companies can place certain emphasis in certain areas to highlight important facts that they want engraved in the viewer's mind. This allows the company to get the right points across to the viewer rather then having the viewer pick and choose what information they want to skim through. In addition, using video overlays makes visiting a website more personal for the viewer. Once again, instead of being greeted by pages of writing, people can enter a website and be greeted by a video spokesperson of some sort which will allow the viewer to feel as though they are interacting with another human being. It gives the impression like the person has just walked into the office of a certain company and they are going to sit and discuss what the company has to offer.

Another advantage that accompanies video overlays is that you can measure the effectiveness of the online video. For instance, there is technology that enables you to track how many people viewed the video; the average length the video was played for, who watched the video and from where. This allows the company using this system to get a clear understanding of how successful they are at delivering the targeted information to their viewers. In the past, people were able to track how many website visitors visit a website but that does not necessarily mean that the people who went on the website actually read the information that was being presented to them, so companies never really knew if their website was effective or not. With video and being able to measure how successful it is, companies are able to know useful statistics that will benefit their company by allowing them to know if their video and more importantly if the call to action is successful. Statistics show that after 80% of US online video users have watched an online video advertisement, 52% took action after watching the video, 28% looked for more information based on the content in the video, 19% clicked on the banner ad that accompanied the video and 16% bought something as a result. These are all useful facts for a company to know because it will give them the impression that their video advertisement is doing well and that people are reacting positively to it.

Overall, it is evident that video overlays have changed the way I which people visit and interact with websites. It creates a more personal and authentic experience for the viewer as opposed to the current "static" websites in existence today. For website visitors, it's about enhancing their experience and for companies, it's about delivering a message that will stand out. Video overlay technology manages to achieve both objectives.