Lean Forward Video

The New Rules of Publishing Video on the Internet

www.RAMP.com

MAY 2010
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Introduction
Video has undergone transformation over the past few years as a result of the web and its
impact on video publishing, distribution and consumption. Online video continues to evolve as
a result of a virtuous cycle between technology providers, publishers, and end-users. Online
video is interactive and relevant to users in ways not possible with the traditional broadcast video
environment.

Most media companies now recognize that the web is critical to their businesses. Both for
audience development and new revenue, the web offers unique opportunities for video publishing
and distribution.

At the same time, media companies need to recognize that successful online video publishing
creates unique demands on the publisher. The single most important one is that the web is a lean
forward medium. The implications of lean forward behavior for video publishers are discussed
in this paper.

The lean-forward experience is largely driven by the publisher’s ability to extract specific facets
of video content through use of sophisticated semantic technologies, which are in turn rendered
as specific usability features through applying additional publishing and playback technologies
and solutions.

Specific features that are unique to video on the web in lean forward viewing include:

Search across a catalog of videos with precise keyword search capability;

Search within a video using keywords and keyphrases to find the precise areas of interest to
the viewer;

Navigate within a video using tags or markers that correspond to specific events in the video
or specific topics of interest to the viewer;

Navigate a video using thumbnail scenes that render the video as a storyboard of clips that
users can select and watch according to individual preferences, usually for sports or news
content;

Clip, share and embed video clips for reuse on blogs, websites, social networks such as
Facebook and social recommendation engines such as Digg and del.icio.us.

In addition to extracting value from online video with such features, publishers also need to note
that lean forward video capabilities offer an important means of driving improved web site metrics
and business results. Data collected from RAMP’s customers demonstrates that lean forward
video capabilities offered on the site have exponentially improved site metrics for publishers.

Among the three major publisher websites analyzed for data for this whitepaper, lean-forward
features generated on average 400% more time on site than users who did not use lean forward
features, or where such features were not available.

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Using this data as a reference point, the whitepaper examines the reasons why lean forward
video features are among the critical elements for online video publishers to consider. Key
among these is the essential role of lean forward features in making video relevant to:

Online search and SEO;

Web browsing behavior of users;

Social media platforms and trends, including social syndication;

Web based targeting and personalization for driving higher end user metrics and monetization,
including targeted recommendations and advertising with higher CPM; and higher advertising
revenue

Lean Forward Video

While the term “lean-forward video” has been popular for at least a decade, the implication of
it has never been more significant for video publishers than it is now. As we’ll discuss later, for
the first time, lean-forward video has gone mainstream, and may well become the predominant
mode of video consumption in the future.

In this section, we introduce lean forward video as a concept whose time has come. Lean-forward
video is a metaphor for users taking control of their video experience by actively engaging with
video – by ‘leaning forward’, similar to how users interact with other applications on a PC, for
example. This is in contrast to the metaphor of ‘lean back’, as one does when watching television
passively from a couch in the living room.

The idea that television would one day become interactive and create lean forward behavior
has not materialized in a significant way. In the meantime, the phenomenal rise of video on the
Internet has vaulted lean forward behavior to the mainstream. Every video site features the
ability to share, rate (thumbs up/down), embed, and save video. While this is a significant change
to how video has been consumed over the previous half a century, is already considered table
stakes as far as online video users are concerned (Figure 1).

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FIGURE 1: A common set of lean forward features, while inconceivable even a decade ago are table
stakes for online video publishing

Taken to the next level, however, lean-forward video is the cornerstone of video publishing as a
business going forward.

FIGURE 2: RAMP MetaPlayer represents the next level of lean forward video capabilities required for
commercial online video business applications

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These lean forward capabilities that publishers must adopt are critical to the confluence of
technological, business and end-user trends that are deciding the future of video. Major
publishers are already benefiting from such features, as is discussed later in the paper.

Lean Forward Video is Mainstream

The idea that video is more than a passive viewing experience is firmly entrenched in the habits
of new generations of users who have grown up on the Internet. Given the median age of online
video users is now hovering at 41 years in 2010i, this trend is fast pervading those among us who
grew up in a passive television culture as well.

Fast forward to where online video is the fastest growing segment of Internet traffic as well
as the fastest growing segment of the video industry. Starting with 3 to 5 minute long user
generated clips on YouTube in 2005, the popularity of online video extends to all types of content
destinations as the comScore Top 10 US video site rankings demonstrate (Figure 3).

Top U.S. Online Video Content Properties

by Videos Viewed – January 2010
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations | Source: comScore Video Metrix

Property Videos (000) Share of Videos (%)

Total Internet :
32,410,886 100.0
Total Audience
Google Sites 12,816,043 39.5
Hulu 903,078 2.8
Microsoft Sites 491,753 1.5
Yahoo! Sites 435,487 1.3
Viacom Digital 361,228 1.1
Fox Interactive Media 293,008 0.9
Turner Network 283,244 0.9
AOL LLC 241,991 0.7
Vevo 226,125 0.7
CBS Interactive 217,407 0.7

FIGURE 3: Top U.S. Online Video Content Properties by Videos Viewed, January 2010

The second largestii video streaming site, Hulu features exclusively full length prime time television
shows (Figure 4). YouTube is also joining the trend with support for high resolution publishing
of premium content with advertising supportiii. Such development combined with major industry
initiatives underway, such as TVEverywhere, online video is no longer for the alternative content
that could not find a home elsewhere or for alternative audiences for that matter.

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FIGURE 4: Full length prime-time TV shows are also lean forward on the web

What started with humble user generated videos of short 3 to 5 minute clips has given users
an appetite for snacking, searching, navigating, and sharing that up until then had not been
possible with traditional video services. Such usability is shaping major trends in the future of
video publishing.

The New Rules of Video Publishing

The changes described above lead us to a new set of rules for video publishing. The appropriate
way of looking at video publishing for the future is about how lean forward capabilities will drive
not only end-user engagement, but also how broad Internet trends, technologies, and business
models are harnessed through such features and capabilities.

Making Video Relevant to Online Search and SEO

Lean forward features are based on extracting specific attributes of videos by way of transcripts
and metadata. These attributes enable lean forward features by providing interactive capabilities
along the video timeline. The tags and cue points associated with this metadata make the video
searchable using keyword search common on the Internet and can also be used to drive search
engine optimization, or SEO.

For example, in order to jump to points in a video where President Obama is talking about
TARP or healthcare reform package, these words must be intelligently tagged in the video and
presented as cue points either using the transcript as an aid to users, or providing cue points on
the timeline. In either event, presenting this information in a way that search engines recognize
now makes the video searchable and search engine friendly.

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FIGURE 5: The use of transcripts and metadata for search, navigation and SEO

Making Video Relevant to Web Browsing Behavior

Web browsing is based on non-linear navigation popularized by hyperlinks central to web
publishing. As a result, web users navigate across pages, even across sites in the course of
a single session. They also tend to seek relevance and context; act on recommendations; and
prefer to be in snacking mode much more than when consuming offline content.

Video, while inherently a linear medium, is not immune to these proclivities of web users. If users
do not have the option of interacting with video either to navigate within videos to find what they
are looking for, or to have the ability to discover additional contextual information, the web video
experience is going to be disconnected from their overall online experience and expectations.

By providing such interactive browsing features, publishers allow deeper and more meaningful
engagement with online video, thereby delivering better performance metrics for the video as
well as the site overall, as our data indicates.

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FIGURE 6: RAMP index pages with faceted search based on transcripts and metadata applied to natural
language processing and key search terms used on major web browsers

Making Videos Relevant to Social Media

Another vital aspect of the online video business is viral syndication, sharing and personal
recommendation that drives traffic and site metrics. Social media is as much a phenomenon as
online video, and now the two are intersecting with remarkable results. One can only imagine
what the coming together of these two mega trends bodes for the future of video publishing.

Already, social media sites such as Facebook are driving more traffic to certain types of
video sites than Google and other search enginesiv. Such sharing and recommendation takes
place contextually, and users share specific video segments that are relevant to their social
interactions. The same features that enable lean forward capabilities also allow tagging, sharing
and embedding specific segments of video towards viral and social behavior. This topic is
explored in more detail in an upcoming white paper from RAMP.

FIGURE 7: Sharing videos on Facebook and other social networks is becoming the main source of
discovery and audience development for some websites

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Granular Tracking of User Interests and Behavior

By giving users the facility to navigate video viewing according to personal preferences and
interests, publishers are rewarded with precise and more granular information on users’ interests
and requirements. Lean forward events therefore become markers for publishers to improve the
user experience and provide additional recommendations, promotions, advertising and offers
specifically tailored to end users.

This virtuous cycle of deeper engagement and monetization is driven by highly targeted
recommendations and advertising. This further delivers higher advertising CPM with increased
inventory towards increased advertising revenue.

Discussion of Performance Data Resulting from Lean Forward

Features
The above factors must manifest themselves as measurable online user behavior for publishers
to derive value. A snapshot of 3 major US publishing sites provides a strong endorsement of the
thesis that lean forward video features dramatically change the user engagement.

RAMP has identified that a key metric to gauge the effectiveness of lean forward features is
the average time on site that lean forward features enable versus average time on site in the
absence of such features. In order to minimize the external variables that can affect the results,
we have been tracking the average time on site of users who use the specific feature of (Jump-
to) versus those that don’t use these features. The data has been captured in aggregate over
different time periods using Google Analytics. In order to maintain the privacy of our customers
and confidentiality of their data, we do not disclose the names of the publishers or provide actual
traffic numbers, but we will provide the magnitude of the data to give the reader a perspective
on the scale of the results.

The sample results shown here represent activity from February 8 to April 19, 2010 of all users
who watched video on the site.

‘Click Play’ represents aggregate users who clicked ‘Play’ on a video file. It aggregates all users
and all files – i.e., the number does not distinguish how many videos a user watched or how many
times any video file was played. This is inclusive of ‘Jump-to’ users.

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FIGURE 8: Click Jump-to feature allows users to jump to various points in a video based on transcript or
event based tags embedded in the video and surfaced in a custom player

‘Click Jump-to’ represents users who used the lean forward feature that allows users to ‘Jump-
to’ specific points in a video based on the video transcript, cue points or other metadata thereby
giving users lean-forward engagement.

Case I: Major Broadcaster News website

Total Video ‘Click Play’ starts – 369, 505

Total ‘Click Jump-to’ event users – 58,747

Average time on site for all users who initiated ‘Click Play’ but did not initiate ‘Click Jump-to’ –
202.7 seconds

Average time on site for users who initiated ‘Click Jump-to’ events – 680.6 seconds

Ratio of Average time on site of users who used ‘Click Jump-to’ versus those that only used
‘Click Play’ - 3.36

Number of viewers that initiated ‘Click Jump-to’ events relative to all who initiated ‘Click Play’ –
15.9%

Total time on site by viewers who initiated ‘Click Jump-to’ events relative to those that only
initiated ‘Click Play’ – 38.8%

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FIGURE 9: For the major broadcaster news website, 15.9% of click jump-to users accounted for 34.8% of
total time on site, effectively spending 336% more average time on site.

Case II: Major Broadcaster Business Information and News website

Total Video ‘Click Play’ starts – 102, 657

Total ‘Click Jump-to’ event users – 12,531

Average time on site for all users who initiated ‘Click Play’ but did not initiate ‘Click Jump-to’ –
149.2 seconds

Average time on site for users who initiated ‘Click Jump-to’ events – 640.2 seconds

Ratio of Average time on site of users who used ‘Click Jump-to’ versus those that only used
‘Click Play’ - 4.29

Number of viewers that initiated ‘Click Jump-to’ events relative to those that only initiated ‘Click
Play’ – 10.8%

Total time on site by viewers who initiated ‘Click Jump-to’ events relative to those that only
initiated ‘Click Play’ – 34.4%

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FIGURE 10: For the major broadcaster news website, 13.9% of click jump-to users accounted for 34.4%
of total time on site, effectively spending 429% more average time on site.

Case III: Major DIY Instruction Site

Total Video ‘Click Play’ starts – 518,952

Total ‘Click Jump-to’ event users – 77,444

Average time on site for all users who initiated ‘Click Play’ but did not initiate ‘Click Jump-to’ –
194.6 seconds

Average time on site for users who initiated ‘Click Jump-to’ events – 592.5 seconds

Ratio of Average time on site of users who used ‘Click Jump-to’ versus those that only used
‘Click Play’ – 3.04

Number of viewers that initiated ‘Click Jump-to’ events relative to those that only initiated ‘Click
Play’ – 13%

Total time on site by viewers who initiated ‘Click Jump-to’ events relative to those that only
initiated ‘Click Play’ – 31.24%

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FIGURE 11: For the major DIY instruction website, 13% of click jump-to users accounted for 31% of total
time on site, effectively spending 304% more average time on site.

Analysis:
The conclusions derived from the above data is that visitors who watched videos on the site
generated very different metrics depending on whether they used the lean forward features
(as measured by ‘Click Jump-to’ tracking.) Such users on average spent 3.36 – 4.29 times as
much time on the site compared to visitors that did not utilize lean forward features, or watched
videos for which such features were not available. While lean forward viewers only represented
13%- 15.9% of the total video views on the sites, they accounted for more than 30% of aggregate
time spent on each site.

What this essentially means that in terms of advertising inventory, less than 16% of site visitors
accounted for more than 30% of such revenue assuming CPM parity between the two groups.
However, if we take into account that the ‘Click Jump-to’ – i.e., lean forward users also provide
publishers with key data about their interests and desired information on a real time basis,
more targeted advertising at higher CPM can be served, thereby creating further value and
disproportionately higher revenue from a smaller segment of the audience.

From a qualitative perspective, one can assume that greater average time on site (in these
cases, exponentially greater time) translates to a higher end-user satisfaction and deeper
engagement. How this translates into viral and social syndication has not been measured yet,
but the correlation between the two is obvious.

A second degree effect of such syndication is the impact on organic SEO and discovery by other

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online users for further improved site and business metrics. (This is separate from direct SEO
that metadata enables, as discussed earlier).

Based on the results discussed in the examples in this section, publishers and business owners
need to evaluate implementing lean forward video features with an eye towards achieving
business results with online publishing.

Conclusions
Media publishers have new opportunity with online video, both as a means to build audiences for
video and to improve website metrics. Online publishing however comes with new sets of rules
for publishing video. The chief among these is the role of lean forward features that are defining
video as a medium for the Internet, and also as the future of video as a medium.

These lean forward features are achieved through specialized technologies and publishing
solutions. RAMP offers Content Optimization technologies that are proven to deliver results
with online video. A sample of results of using lean forward video features indicates that such
features organically drive up to 400% higher engagement – as measured with average time on
site as a metric – than without such features.

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About RAMP
RAMP is an advanced Content Optimization SaaS platform providing publishers’ workflow,
discovery and engagement solutions to drive monetization of online content to users’ search and
browsing behavior. RAMP offers publishers an open, flexible and modular capability to optimize
large amounts of content, including text, audio, video and images, within dynamic publishing
environments. As a result, publishers’ content becomes positioned for discovery and precise
targeting, both on search engines and within publishers’ own websites. Users rely on such
precision to discover and engage with content, thereby increasing the commercial viability of
content for publishers while curtailing publishing costs.

Leading publishers using RAMP include – FOXNews, NBC, DowJones, Meredith, and others.
For more information visit: www.RAMP.com, or contact us at info@RAMP.com.

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References
i
http://newteevee.com/2010/04/05/online-video-viewers-the-young-the-hip-and-the-
well-off/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+newtee
vee+(NewTeeVee)
ii
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/us-heather-hopkins/2010/03/facebook_users_prefer_
broadcas.html
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/4/comScore_
Releases_February_2010_U.S._Online_Video_Rankings/(language)/eng-US
iii
http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/04/watch-shows-and-movies-on-youtube.
htmls
iv
http://gigaom.com/2010/02/15/facebook-driving-more-traffic-than-google/

©2010 RAMP