erockappel:

jonahray:

this makes me feel sad.

Audience Attention Span
Video length    % of Audience who watched the entire video
10 sec.                   89.61%
20 sec.                   80.41%
30 sec.                   66.16%
60 sec.                   46.44%
2 min.                   23.71%
3 min.                   16.62%
5 min.                     9.42%
Source: Tube Mogul

This is sort of bullshit.  Isn’t clicking off of a terrible internet video like channel surfing?  Sometimes I’ll only watch ten seconds of Food Network or Discovery or History Channel before I flip around looking for a show to hold my attention.  And I have no problem watching a 22 minute “internet video” on Hulu.  The scales are sort of tipped because 99% of internet videos are terrible and unwatchable at any length.

It’s all about quality.  Don’t make shorter videos.  Make BETTER videos.  Hold my attention!  Earn those minutes!

I agree completely with Eric, but I’ve been preaching this all along, and the good folks at SuperDeluxe never got it. Quality trumps all. The channel surfing analogy is true. The internet didn’t somehow magically remove people’s attention spans, it just gave them more options to turn to on a whim. That’s the why the sites with the best quality videos (College Humor, and yes, now Funny Or Die stepping up their game in a big way) are kicking ass against the sites that have tons of garbage. Put money and talent behind content, and the audience will follow. It’s not hard.