Brands may be looking to vloggers to promote their products but, according to new research, the popularity of vlogs does not translate into product discovery.
GlobalWebIndex’s latest quarterly trends report has found that 42% of the 170,000 Internet users they surveyed has watched a video blog, or vlog, in the past month. That figure rises to 50% among those aged between 16 and 34.
However, while brands are increasingly using vlogs and vloggers to push products, just 7% of respondents said they used this channel to discover new products and among those who actively watched vlogs that number only reached 12%. Instead, content on news websites, recommendations from friends and search engines were the most popular ways in which new products were discovered. Vlogs came in bottom of a list of nineteen possible sources.
When actively searching for products, vlogs rank even lower. Just 5% of Internet users and less than 10% of vlog watchers use them for research, turning instead to search engines and review sites.
“It’s clear that vlogging is still heavily associated with entertainment, comedy and advice – rather than a space for overtly commercial activities,” said GlobalWebIndex’s head of trends, Jason Mander. “Incorporating the latter in a way that seems acceptable to the vlogging audience will be crucial.”