?Mobile Video Usage: A Global Perspective,? a survey from 24 countries, 

found that smartphone video viewers in Turkey, Finland, China, Russia and Singapore are particularly frequent viewers of such videos. The implication is that mobile video is no longer primarily a short-form video platform, allowing more scope to do more and different kinds of advertising or marketing to mobile or video viewers. 

?As mobile phone mobile screens get bigger and mobile networks around the world get faster, increasing numbers of smartphone video users are willing and able to watch long-form video and have a good experience,? said Joe Laszlo, senior director of the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence.

?The evolution of mobile devices and networks is making long-form video a more palatable or appealing experience on smartphones. It?s probably also true that the supply of long-form video is certainly going up as well as TV networks and content aggregators start to provide their services and programming to smartphone screens. ?

Longer programming, such as movies and full-length television show episodes, is also viewed by audiences on mobile devices, according to the survey. Chinese viewers are the most inclined to watch both films and TV shows on their mobile screens.

Length notwithstanding, substantial numbers of video viewers report their video consumption on smartphones has increased year-on-year in all of the study?s participating nations, with the United States seeing the most prominent uptick at 50 percent, followed by Canada with 42 percent, New Zealand, 42 percent, South Africa, 42 percent and Britain, 40 percent. 

This trend is also affecting traditional television viewing across the board, with consumers in China and Singapore, at 37 percent and 35 percent, respectively, reporting the highest incidence of watching less TV due to streaming more on mobile.

When mobile video viewers do watch traditional television, however, 22 percent are regularly doing so while watching video simultaneously on their phone. This video dual-screening tendency is evident across all markets measured, with the exception of Japan.

That people are not only watching short snippets of programming, but committing to longer form content on their phones, opens doors for brands to be part of the growing mobile engagement. 

Across the 24 survey countries, there are several common ways that mobile video viewers discover digital video to view on their phones, including YouTube, 62 percent, social media platforms, 33 percent, search results, 20 percent, and advertising, 14 percent.

 

When looking for mobile video to watch, advertising has even more influence in the U.S. and Canada, with 22 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Apps are indisputably the main method for viewing mobile video in each of the markets studied. Forty-eight percent of respondents overall said that they only or mostly leverage mobile apps to stream video on their phones, with Britain leading the trend with 63 percent, followed by Brazil, 60 percent, and Turkey, 58 percent.

By contrast, across the survey sample only 18 percent said they only or mostly use mobile websites to view video.

The study also shows that there is potential for mobile video monetization through subscription and pay-on-demand models. In several markets viewers already demonstrate a willingness to pay for video content that is streamed to phones, led by China, with 33 percent, followed by Britain, 25 percent, Canada and the U.S. at 23 percent each and Australia, 21 percent.

Video is one of the fastest-growing sectors of mobile advertising and is attracting big brands that need to get the most out of television-heavy media buys. However, up until recently, marketers have been constrained to fitting full-length creative into mobile-friendly 15 and 30-second ads.

Big brands such as General Mills and Pepsi have bet on full-length mobile video as marketing spend shifts from banners to native ads that all of the major social media giants offer.

?The implications are really, really good,? Mr. Laszlo said. ?It means that there?s more scope to do more different kinds of advertising or marketing to mobile or video viewers than ever before. 

 

?It opens the door for more different kinds of video advertising to work well on smartphones,? he said.