The Ultimate Guide to Creating Online Video Content That Works, Part 2

It’s also important to consider when and where you’re expecting your audience to view your content,according to Zehr. "Unlike our brethren at ABC, where you have people doing catch-up TV, our style of programming tends to be a little different, as there’s not as much you have to catch up on from ESPN," he says. "So I think shorter is probably better in terms of the nonevent programming. Under 10 minutes is a good length. We’re taking advantage of users that are probably in the office environment sneaking away for 10 minutes during lunch."

Yet, at the same time, viewers are watching longer form content online, especially when it comes to events. "The month of June was very good to us," says Damon Phillips, vice president of ESPN360.com. "Between the U.S. Open with Tiger Woods’ win, the Euro Cup 2008, and other events, we saw incredible usage. The average viewer spent more than 3 hours on our site that month."

In addition, there have been reports on StreamingMedia.com of other events, such as CBS’s online March Madness coverage, in which some viewers were investing multiple hours in a single sitting. So even though short-form content is more likely to go viral, viewers are willing to watch long-form as well.

"The biggest thing on the format front is don’t lock yourself into the broadcast-cable format of 22 minutes of content with three or four ad blocks," says Louderback. "What works for regular TV doesn’t necessarily work for the internet. And on the internet you can be 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, whatever. Just do enough for what you’re trying to do and the story you’re trying to tell. People say it’s got to be short-form, but we’ve found that if it’s the right content and the right host, people will watch for half an hour and even longer."

And because of the ability to put up content of all shapes and sizes, taking clips from longer form programs and reworking them into shorter pieces (either by mixing and matching them with clips from other shows or by creating highlight reels) is another successful trend cited by Revision3 and MTV.

But here’s what this all really comes down to: "If you sit down and ask a 16-year-old if they like short- or long-form content, they’ll say, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I like the internet,’" says Clayman.

Formulating Success
When it comes to making decisions about what video to produce for online distribution, not only is there not a magic formula for success, there aren’t even any rules that are instantly transferrable from one brand to another. "What’s interesting is that we have no formula that we use across multiple properties or channels," says Clayman. "Every single thing we do online, all of it is really predicated on the specific show, the creative needs and requirements, who the people are that are producing it, who the audience is, the feedback we have from the audience, how well we see it doing on air, and advertiser interest. If it sounds complicated, it is, but you’ve got to do it that way."

Unfortunately, despite your best efforts, there’s still no guarantee of success or even a clear awareness of what impact your production decisions are ultimately having on "viewsage." "We are in a constant feedback loop with our fans and always creating new stuff. But it’s hard to draw a specific line and say, ‘Yes, when we listened to Bob on the iCarly site, views went up X," says Clayman. "Right now, we’re in a world where more and more people are watching our stuff online every day, which is a great place to be. We just need to make sure we’re constantly serving that loop. That’s true not just for us but in general."

And while having an unprecedented amount of creative freedom in this new medium can be daunting, it also presents exciting opportunities, Clayman says. "It makes things more complex because in the old days, you knew if you had your half-hour block of programming, you had 22 minutes of video," he says. "We’re now in this great age of experimentation, and it’s now not just experimentation, as we’re seeing real returns from it too."

But despite major media’s many advantages—including more data, bigger budgets, and professional crews and equipment—don’t think that’s leading them to exude an air of arrogance. "One of the things that’s interesting about the internet is that anybody can create anything and put it on YouTube," says Clayman. "We’ve discovered that we can have hits and misses, and the internet doesn’t make it any easier. In fact, having a flat distribution system makes it harder because your competition is everyone, anybody who’s created any content and put it online."